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<p>Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said on Monday that the carrier plans to expand its fleet, buying four Boeing Co 777-300 aircraft for its passenger fleet and accepting four Airbus A350 aircraft that it had rejected in July.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Speaking at an event in which he formally accepted delivery of Qatar Airways' first Boeing 747-8 freighter, Al Baker said the plan to take the four Airbus planes "is definite." He added he will be "concluding an agreement shortly, for which I will be flying to Toulouse from here," referring to the Airbus site. Reuters reported earlier on Monday that Qatar would take the Airbus jets.</p>
<p>Al Baker separately told CNBC that he is still looking for investments in the United States, despite being rebuffed when Qatar made a proposal to buy a stake of up to 4.75 percent in American Airlines Group.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Rachel Nielsen; Editing by Joe White and Matthew Lewis)</p> | Qatar Airways chief wants to expand fleet, look for US investments | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/25/qatar-airways-chief-wants-to-expand-fleet-look-for-us-investments.html | 2017-09-25 | 0 |
<p>Deborah Lynch-Walsh won an overwhelming majority of high school teachers and more than half of elementary school teachers in her victory last month over Tom Reece, president of the Chicago Teachers Union.</p>
<p>A Catalyst analysis of school-by-school vote totals shows that Lynch-Walsh won a whopping 72 percent of the high school vote and 53 percent of the elementary school vote. Overall, she got 57 percent of all votes cast in the election.</p>
<p>Traditionally, high school teachers have shown more militance, which grew as the School Board swept into a number of low-performing schools with its reconstitution and intervention programs. Elementary teachers were believed to have been more comfortable with the status quo. This election is the first in which school-by-school tallies were made public, a change Reece supported under pressure from Lynch-Walsh and her ProActive Chicago Teachers &amp; School Employees Caucus (PACT).</p>
<p>Lynch-Walsh completely shut Reece out at 14 schools, Addams, Ames, Ariel, Holden, Kilmer, Morrill, Mt. Greenwood, Otis, Pickard, Rodriguez, Salazar, Stevenson, Stewart and Wacker.</p>
<p>This was the third run against Reece for Lynch-Walsh, a teacher at Marquette Elementary. Her slate of candidates also took 39 of the 48 seats in the union’s legislative body.</p>
<p>“We were simply getting out there and telling teachers that the election was about respect, recognition and resources,” Lynch-Walsh says. She credits PACT’s success to running a visible campaign—circulating literature and visiting schools to talk to teachers about issues she’s most passionate about, including reducing class size, raising teacher salaries and the need for the board to recognize teachers as professionals and partners.</p>
<p>At Otis Math &amp; Science Specialty School, one of the schools that Lynch-Walsh swept, Yolanda Smith, a first-year union delegate and Lynch-Walsh backer, says she had to do very little campaigning for her. Teachers were more receptive to her than Reece because she’s recently been a teacher, she says.</p>
<p>“She’s in the trenches with us,” says Smith. “She’s involved with the parents, the community, the administration. She relates to us directly.”</p>
<p>Meg Conroy, a second-year teacher at Morrill, agrees. “She’ll be more effective because she knows what’s going on in the classroom today. It makes sense to support her.”</p>
<p>“This was more of a vote against Tom Reece than for Deborah Walsh,” says Jeraldyne Saines, a teacher at Nia Community School. “He was not in touch with his constituents.”</p>
<p>Other teachers interviewed by Catalyst expressed a desire for greater union activism in school reform and for higher pay.</p>
<p>Carol Gaul, a teacher from Cameron Elementary, supported Tom Reece in the last election, but changed her vote this year. She says she felt that concerns with teacher shortages, teacher quality and classroom size should be addressed by the union leadership. “It’s time for us to be more pro-active about education and not just keeping jobs,” she says. “We have to think of what’s best for our students.”</p>
<p>In the weeks leading up to the election at Morrill Elementary, some teachers wore buttons that read “Dump Reece.” One teacher cites concerns about salary and benefits as the main reason. “We’re not getting our due,” she says. Under the current four-year teacher contract, teachers received a 3 percent increase the first year, and get 2 percent each year thereafter.</p>
<p>But Stacie A. Wilson, a teacher at Black Magnet, says Reece is getting an unfair shake from teachers. “Everyone wants to compare Tom Reece to [the late] Jackie Vaughn, and he’s not,” she says. “He just goes about doing things another way. He still worked for the best interest of the teachers. With him, we always got something.” Wilson’s father, Melvin Wilson, is the current CTU treasurer and lost re-election to PACT candidate Maureen Callaghan, a school clerk at Stevenson Elementary.</p>
<p>A Lynch-Walsh supporter agrees that Reece suffered from the comparison to Vaughn, whom he succeeded when she died in 1994. “I think teachers thought that if he was part of the Jackie Vaughn regime, that his thoughts and his way of doing things would be in line with hers.”</p>
<p>Lynch-Walsh says the union plans to make a case for reducing class size to boost student achievement. She also plans to suggest that the board lift the city residency requirement in an effort to remedy the teacher shortage. Another primary goal is to establish an effective working relationship with the school administration.</p>
<p>“They started reform with the premise that it’s the teacher that’s the problem in low-performing schools, and we question that premise,” she says. “Involving us in improving our schools will be much more successful than just imposing reforms on us.”</p>
<p>“We as professionals need to have a say as partners,” she says.</p> | High-school vote heavy for Lynch-Walsh | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/high-school-vote-heavy-lynch-walsh/ | 2005-07-28 | 3 |
<p>If there ever was the sound of a doomsday clock chiming midnight, the signal moment probably occurred last&#160;fall, though the alarm went almost unnoticed by the press. In October, major observatories across the world simultaneously recorded that atmospheric carbon levels globally breached what has long been considered the “redline” of 400 parts per million and are likely to keep rising inexorably for the foreseeable future. The 400 parts per million mark has long been considered, even by climate optimists, a fatal tipping point, beyond which there is little hope of return.</p>
<p>One person who probably did take note, however, was Exxon’s CEO Rex Tillerson. I don’t know if Tillerson cracked an evil grin at the time, but I’m sure he must have felt that this grim milestone validated his strategic thinking for the past ten years as mastermind of the world’s largest oil conglomerate.</p>
<p>Despite what you may have heard from the Sierra Club, Rex Tillerson is not a climate change denier. He is something far more dangerous. Tillerson knows climate change is taking place. He was in position to possibly do something about it, evaluated his options and coolly chose not to change course.</p>
<p>Rex Tillerson took over Exxon in 2006, at a fraught time for the oil giant. Its longtime CEO, Lee Raymond, had just stepped down, handing the keys to the kingdom to his protégé, a star player on what the company called the “upstream” team, scouting and securing new oil fields to plunder. During his 12-year term as head of Exxon, Raymond ran the company with a dictatorial and dogmatic hand. He was hostile towards environmentalists and unflinching in his dismissal of climate science. Raymond sluiced tens of millions in company money into anti-environmental front groups, pro-oil politicians and industry-friendly scientists. But by 2005, there was a mini-rebellion brewing inside Exxon’s corporate headquarters in Irving, Texas. Like the French Revolution, this revolt was led by lawyers. (See Steve Coll’s definitive&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power</a>.)</p>
<p>The company’s attorneys feared that through Raymond’s belligerence Exxon was making itself vulnerable to a legal attack for covering up and distorting the threats posed by climate change. The concern here wasn’t from lawsuits by outside groups, such as Greenpeace, but from the company’s own shareholders and investors who might claim that Exxon had concealed a looming financial risk to the company’s bottom line.</p>
<p>One of the big problems confronting Tillerson the day he took over the reins was the fact that the very scientists at MIT and Stanford who had been cashing Exxon’s checks for decades to churn out white papers questioning whether fossil fuel emissions were a driving force beyond climate change, had begun to change their tune. In fact, in 2003 <a href="https://store.counterpunch.org/product/bernie-the-sandernistas/" type="external" />MIT’s Global System Model, largely underwritten by Exxon, forecast a 2.4-degree-centigrade rise in global temperatures over the next hundred years. By 2006, those same scientists had more than doubled that estimate. Exxon faced the prospect of being betrayed by their own bought science.</p>
<p>Organizationally, Exxon changes course about as quickly and adroitly as its Valdez tanker did while trying to navigate Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound.&#160; But Tillerson is a pragmatist. A Texas boy, Tillerson idealized the Boy Scouts and when he became head of the Exxon behemoth he began handing out merit badges to company executives who met their production quotas. He set to work with an Eagle Scout’s pious determination to quietly recalibrate the company’s position on climate change. It was, in Tillerson’s mind, a concession to reality.</p>
<p>During the early days of the Iraq War, Exxon set up a special team to run war games on how the invasion would affect the oil industry in terms of pricing, supply and distribution networks. It sent the results of these scenarios to Dick Cheney through Cheney’s factotum Douglas Feith, and so war planning and oil development proceeded in harmony. Tillerson was familiar with the Iraq war gaming and decided to use a similar technique to help chart the company’s new climate change strategy.</p>
<p>Tillerson wanted his secret squad of climate change gamers to answer four questions: 1. Is climate change real? 2. Is the threat serious? 3. Are there any effective actions that can be taken to halt or reverse climate change or mitigate the damage? 4. Are the world’s leading carbon emitters likely to impose binding limits on emissions in time to prevent runaway climate change? The answer to the first two questions was “yes”. The answer to the third question was “maybe” and the fourth “no”.</p>
<p>The lesson Tillerson took from this assessment was that climate change is a serious threat and no government has the will or perhaps even the means to confront it. Thus, the only responsible thing to do for the shareholders of Exxon was to push forward aggressively with exploration and development of new oil fields and ventures, from Amazonia to Russia, before some other company captured the reserves. Internally, this became known as the “end game” scenario.</p>
<p>As CEO of Trump’s foreign policy enterprise, Tillerson seems likely to impose this cynical template on the world at large by forging new alliances with old rivals in kind of a Pax petroliana, where the body count of hot wars will be replaced by the hidden, slow deaths caused by an atmosphere gone lethal.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Roaming Charges</p>
<p>+ Rarely has a political drag queen come off as such a whiney bore as Milo Yiannopoulos. But Milo’s fleeting moments of fame melted faster than a Hollywood snowflake, losing his book deal, speaking slot at CPAC and editorial gig at Breitbart all in a few short hours. Then he suffered the added humiliation of having the equally boorish Bill Maher seize credit for his downfall, when it was, in fact, a case of manufactured suicide, as Milo hung himself on his own quest for the outrageous.</p>
<p>Give Milo a little credit, though, he finally showed us where Republicans draw a red line: Koran-burning, pussy-grabbing, school shootings, rallies by Swastika-wearing goose steppers, all just good old American fun. But they won’t tolerate jokes about the sexual molestation of 13-year olds.&#160;Finally, some clarity. Thus we say farewell&#160;to one of the most rancid media curiosities of our torpid times.</p>
<p>As a final salute to Milo, President Trump signed an Executive Order overturning Obama’s rule on transgendered bathrooms. No word on whether Trump adorned himself in a single strand of Melania’s pearls for the occasion.</p>
<p>+&#160;Trump: “We’re getting really bad dudes out of this country … it’s a military operation.” Military Operation, eh? So much for Posse Comitatus Act, which Bill Clinton incinerated&#160;at Waco.</p>
<p>+&#160;This just in from CPAC, during a speech by the American Conservative Union’s Dan Schneider who denounced “the alt-right is a hateful left-wing fascist group.” Chew on that, Muchachos.</p>
<p>+ For years, the Washington Post toiled in the service of John Podesta. Now the Post is returning the favor. Jeff Bezos’s rag&#160;has just hired Podesta as a <a href="" type="internal">columnist</a>. Let’s hope he focuses on his two favorite topics: food and (space) <a href="" type="internal">aliens</a>. I’m up for some new <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/john-podesta-risotto-tips-article" type="external">risotto recipes</a> and perhaps Podesta will be able to link aliens to the abduction of those Pizzagate kids.</p>
<p>+ Nathaniel St. Clair and I spent a fascinating hour with Oliver Stone at his offices in Los Angeles this week. Our talk ranged from the deflating&#160;spectacle of the Left’s incessant Russia-bashing to the deplorable state of the mainstream media, particularly the daily treacle streaming from the&#160;New York Times.&#160;Stone reprimanded me for my “questionable taste in movies.” I took his punch like a big boy, staggered but not floored. Then I counterpunched by saying how much I admired a couple of his lesser known films, especially Heaven and Earth, a movie which tells the story of the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese point of view. Stone concurred, still somewhat aggrieved that American film-going audiences had little interest in hearing about the experience of the Vietnamese people themselves. Deténte was established between us.</p>
<p>Stone is a true American auteur. Most of his projects are his from conception through execution. Some films are more successful than others, but none fail to be intriguing on some level, largely because they are projections of a coherent sensibility. Stone comes at film primarily as a writer, but he rarely lets the words overwhelm the movie. Film is, after all, a visual medium. I watched Platoon again a couple of weeks ago and it remains the best American film on that merciless exercise in imperial brutality. If you watched Platoon and Kubrick’s Full-Metal Jacket, you’ll learn more about the real experience of Vietnam than you’ll get the 18 platitudinous hours that the insipid Ken Burns is about to inflict upon the unsuspecting viewers of PBS. (One can only hope that Trump cuts off funding for CPB by September to spare us from having to endure Burns’s banal boilerplate.)&#160;More and more, I’ve come to think that Nixon&#160;stands as Stone’s greatest achievement. Shorn of the high-octane conspiracies of JFK, Nixon moves at a deliberate pace over the course of three hours, a deep character study of an enigmatic and malevolent mind, as it sinks into&#160;darkness and dread.</p>
<p>Stone’s recent film, Snowden, is equally vital. Snowden&#160;is not only one of the year’s best films, it is also perhaps the most important, a film that should be mandatory viewing in every American high school, especially those under the supervision of Betsy DeVos. Stone said Snowden took three years to research, digging that was all the more demanding because of the computer science and math. Stone doesn’t do math. I sympathize fully.</p>
<p>It’s no surprise that Snowden&#160;was largely ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But Stone’s fellow writers appreciated how well he told that complex story of surveillance, government criminality and courageous resistance and tapped him for the Laurel Award for best screenplay. His acceptance speech is an unsparing critique of the savageness of American foreign policy.</p>
<p />
<p>+&#160;Net immigration from Mexico ended years ago, now more people are returning to Mexico than entering the US.&#160;Is Trump’s&#160;wall really designed to keep people in?</p>
<p>+ To the tune of the “ <a href="" type="internal">Gorka Waltz</a>“…</p>
<p>If&#160;you’re unable to tell if they’re unstable as they’re blabbing away on cable just look for that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-nazi-hungary-medal-vitezi-rend-fascists-a7581941.html" type="external">Nazi label</a>… They praise it loudly They wear it proudly So look for their fascist tell– Right there on their lapel…..</p>
<p>+ Speaking of Hitler, Trump’s new science advisor, William Happer, the&#160;Cyrus Fogg Brackett&#160;Professor of Physics at&#160;Princeton University, is a 77-year old climate change denier with a predilection&#160;for Teutonic metaphors. Happer claims that carbon has been “demonized” by Nazi-like greens, as if the harmless little molecules were “ <a href="" type="internal">poor Jews under Hitler.</a>” He sees himself as the Oskar Schindler of fossil fuels…</p>
<p>+ Three Texans go on a hunt near the Mexican border: a guide and his two clients. Paranoia sets in. The guide suspects that someone has hijacked his truck and is hightailing it to the Hill Country. He fires his gun. The people in the truck return fire. Two are wounded. Turns out they are his clients, who had, for some reason probably involving alcohol consumption, commandeered his ride.</p>
<p>A cover story is concocted.</p>
<p>When the sheriff arrives, the men claim they&#160;encountered a trio of Mexican interlopers, of the undocumented variety, who tried to hotwire their truck. These were some very bad hombres and a gun battle ensued resulting in minor casualties on both sides. In the end, the heroic Texans prevailed and the invaders scattered back toward the border having learned a harsh lesson about messing with our boys.</p>
<p>Lamentably, this tall tale soon unraveled and the truth emerged, followed by charges of the legal kind. But no doubt these three gallant&#160;specimens of Texas manhood will be deputized by ICE upon their release <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-hunters-blamed-immigrants-after-accidentally-shooting-each-other-a7591471.html" type="external">from prison</a>….</p>
<p>+&#160;Perhaps this was the “ <a href="" type="internal">Swedish Incident</a>” that got Trump so fired up?</p>
<p>+&#160;Time spent on the golf course ( <a href="" type="internal">25 hours and counting</a>) is time not spent ordering ICE raids on grandmothers and toddlers…</p>
<p>+&#160;Trump just appointed Lt. Gen. HR McMaster–a Russia-hating, Cold War-loving, neocon hawk–as his National Security advisor. Will the Prez get the endorsement of the&#160;MSDNC&#160;crowd now?</p>
<p>+ Thank Gaia for fake news, so we don’t have to fret about the fact that the crippled and not yet-perhaps never to be-fixed Fukushima nuclear plant is now <a href="" type="internal">more radioactive</a> than at any point since the triple-core meltdown in 2011. Over to you, George Monbiot.</p>
<p>+ Bono the Banal met with Mike Pence, hailed&#160;him &#160;as the “2nd busiest man on the planet.”&#160;Achtung Baby!&#160;</p>
<p>+ Betsy DeVos’s brother Eric Prince, the mercenary entrepreneur, &#160;is setting up two private army bases <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/betsy-devoss-brother-is-setting-up-a-private-army-for-china?utm_term=.fpX7Ev7DLV" type="external">in China</a>. Unarmed. Or so he claims. His track record in the veracity department is a little shaky.</p>
<p>+ <a href="" type="internal">No charges</a> in Anaheim. I was down in Long Beach, Cal., sitting in a Mexican bar last night watching this unfold on Univision. Even though my Spanish is limited, I knew exactly what the police union rep and police chief were saying, the same thing they always say when they are covering up for an act of violent madness by one of their own.</p>
<p>And this from my old stomping grounds in Baltimore, a 16-year-old student,&#160;who was being threatened by a knife-wielding girl, was “rescued” by the cops in the following manner….</p>
<p />
<p>So, yeah, Fuck da Police, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8Wc26XowM" type="external">RAtM-style.</a>..</p>
<p>+ “You play with my world like it was your little toy….”</p>
<p />
<p>Sound Grammar</p>
<p>What I’m listening to this week…</p>
<p>Charles Lloyd and the Marvels: <a href="" type="internal">I Long to See You</a> Delbert McClinton: <a href="" type="internal">Prick of the Litter</a> Tift Merritt: <a href="" type="internal">Stitch of the World</a> Nicholas Payton: <a href="" type="internal">Afro-Caribbean&#160;Mixtape</a> Courtney Pine: <a href="" type="internal">House of Legends</a></p>
<p>Booked Up</p>
<p>What I’m reading this week…</p>
<p>Timothy B. Tyson: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1476714843/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Blood of Emmett Till</a> Michael Hudson: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3981484258/counterpunchmaga" type="external">J is for Junk Economics</a> Ian Rankin: <a href="" type="internal">Rather be the Devil</a></p>
<p>Academy Awards</p>
<p>Sticking only to&#160;the narrow choices offered by the official nominations, here are my picks:</p>
<p>Best Film: Moonlight Best Actor:&#160;Denzel Washington (Fences) Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert (Elle) Best Supporting Actor: Mahersala Ali (Moonlight) Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Fences) Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings Best Cinematography: James Laxton (Moonlight) Best Costume Design: Consolata Boyle (Florence Foster Jenkins) Best Director: Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) Best Documentary Feature: I am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Best Documentary Short: 4.1 Miles&#160;(Daphne Matziaraki) Best Editing: Nat Sanders and Jai McMillan (Moonlight) Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Best Screenplay (Adapted): August Wilson (Fences) Best Screenplay (Original): Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water)</p>
<p>Consciousness of Guilt</p>
<p>Assata Shakur: “If you are deaf, dumb, and blind to what’s happening in the world, you’re under no obligation to do anything. But if you know what’s happening and you don’t do anything but sit on your ass, then you’re nothing but a punk.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Roaming Charges: Exxon’s End Game Theory | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/roaming-charges-exxons-end-game-theory/ | 2017-02-24 | 4 |
<p>Jerred Kiloh's eyes narrowed as he checked his mirror again. The black Chevy SUV with tinted windows was still behind him.</p>
<p>It had been hanging off Kiloh's bumper ever since he nosed out of the parking lot behind his medical-marijuana dispensary with $40,131.88 in cash in the trunk of his hatchback.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kiloh was unarmed, on his way to City Hall to make a monthly tax payment, and managing only stop-and-start progress in the midday traffic. He was afraid of one thing above all else: getting robbed.</p>
<p>That fear is a constant part of doing business in California's flourishing medical cannabis industry, in which transactions are conducted mostly in cash, sometimes in stunningly large amounts.</p>
<p>"The thing I need the least right now is to have to go through any sort of money disappearing," Kiloh said.</p>
<p>On Jan. 1, recreational pot will become legal in California, creating what could be the world's largest legitimate marijuana economy. It comes more than two decades after the state gave its blessing to medical cannabis.</p>
<p>But the emerging marketplace with a projected $7 billion value has a potentially crippling flaw: Many people who work in it can't use a bank. Banks don't want the risks of doing business with companies whose product remains illegal under federal law.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>So while the sneaker shop next door to Kiloh's storefront on Ventura Boulevard can send a check to City Hall to cover its taxes, or wire the money from a laptop, Kiloh has to make a stress-filled, 15-mile (24-kilometer) freeway drive each month to downtown Los Angeles.</p>
<p>California is to marijuana what Iowa is to corn, and what Kentucky is to bourbon — the nation's bud basket, its heartland for production. The transformation of such a vast illegal economy into a legal one hasn't been witnessed since the end of Prohibition in 1933.</p>
<p>The state expects to collect $1 billion in new tax revenue annually from pot within a few years. In L.A. — which is already estimated to have anywhere from 1,000 to 1,700 medical marijuana dispensaries, only about 200 of which paid city taxes in 2016 — the take is projected at $50 million next year alone.</p>
<p>However, governments will almost certainly miss out on money without an easy, secure way for businesses to pay. With no bank records, it will be harder to regulators to track funds and identify shady operators. And those who operate by the book will be undercut by those who don't.</p>
<p>Without banks, "everyone loses," said Nicole Howell Neubert, a marijuana industry lawyer.</p>
<p>Kiloh, a 40-year-old with a graying mohawk and a degree in economics, counts 15 years in the pot industry as a seller and cultivator and is a partner and business manager at a San Francisco dispensary and the owner of the one in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>In the absence of a bank, Kiloh has become his own.</p>
<p>Twist and turn through a warren of rooms inside his shop, go through a door with a keypad lock, and you will come to a closet-like space that contains twin steel vaults, standing head-high. The walls around them are reinforced with steel.</p>
<p>Overhead, more than 50 cameras scan his offices and hallways and keep watch outside the building as well. An armed guard stands at the door to the sales floor.</p>
<p>On a typical day, $15,000 can change hands in his dispensary, where a steady stream of customers pick from shelves stocked with 700 products, from fragrant buds and perfectly rolled joints to cannabis-infused lip balm and potent concentrates known as "shatter" that look like thin sheets of amber glass.</p>
<p>For Kiloh, the cash is a daily hassle. It needs to be counted repeatedly to safeguard against loss. State and local taxes must be set aside and stored, sometimes for a month or more. When vendors show up, they get paid in cash, too.</p>
<p>"When now everyone makes payments through their cellphone, it's tough to see that I'm left to the archaic version of counting money," he said.</p>
<p>With all the cash on hand — he grossed $4 million last year — crime is a gnawing fear. His dispensary on a bustling commercial strip has been robbed twice — once by thieves breaking in through the roof.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for statistics on crimes against marijuana dispensaries, and many cases are believed to go unreported anyway, since many businesses are loath to go to the police.</p>
<p>Last year, though, a dispensary owner shot and wounded two armed men during a holdup in the Los Angeles suburbs. And a security guard at a dispensary was killed in an attempted robbery in Aurora, Colorado, another one of the nine states to legalize recreational pot.</p>
<p>To keep criminals guessing, Kiloh avoids arriving at the same time each day and staggers the times he leaves. He goes in and out different doors. He keeps an eye on cars parked around his shop.</p>
<p>Once a month, Kiloh telephones to make arrangements to drop off his tax payment at the city Finance Department, which gets 6 percent of his gross revenue. They want to know he's coming — it's dangerous for them, too. The agency has seen bags of cash from pot businesses as large as $300,000 come through the door.</p>
<p>His journey to the tax office starts at a windowless back room at his shop, where stacks of $20 bills flip through the counting machine at his desk with the whir-slap-whir-slap of a weed-whacker.</p>
<p>He and his staff then wrap the bills into neat $2,000 bundles and wedge them into a long cardboard box, which is then covered in plain paper and stuffed into a shoulder bag that goes into the trunk.</p>
<p>From the moment he pulls out of his parking lot, he is watching, assessing.</p>
<p>"I find myself looking in my rear-view mirror hundreds of more times than I usually would in just normal traffic, making sure that I'm not being followed," Kiloh said.</p>
<p>"That's what a lot of this industry has been about: Just stay under the radar, and that's your best defense. That's your best kind of safety."</p>
<p>It was on Kiloh's drive to City Hall in late June that he noticed the ominous-looking Chevy. He watched it intently, taking note of the man behind the wheel — glasses, mid-40s to 50s — as he leaned into the accelerator.</p>
<p>Eventually, the Chevy disappeared, but Kiloh wasn't home free yet.</p>
<p>Exiting the freeway, he tried to enter a parking lot near City Hall but was turned away, forcing him farther down the block.</p>
<p>Once inside a garage, he looped around until he found a spot near a stairwell. Lifting his satchel from his trunk, he scurried toward the door.</p>
<p>"I try to not stay in confined places like an elevator, so I'd rather take the standard stairs, plus the standard stairs have video cameras," he said.</p>
<p>The steps opened to a sun-soaked plaza teeming with people. With the cash over his shoulder, he made his way briskly toward City Hall, his head swiveling.</p>
<p>"It's tough when people make eye contact with you," he said. "There is always the fear of what do they know?"</p>
<p>Kiloh spotted a police officer walking across the plaza — an instant source of comfort.</p>
<p>Finally at the granite-faced tower, Kiloh darted up the steps and slipped behind a pair of glass-and-wood doors. He emerged about 20 minutes later, his tax bill paid, and drew in a slow, deep breath.</p>
<p>"You just feel the relief," he said, "to know that I don't have to look over my shoulder."</p> | AP Exclusive: Inside the scary cash dash of paying pot taxes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/03/cash-dash-inside-nerve-rattling-trip-to-pay-pot-taxes.html | 2017-08-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Lockheed Martin said on Tuesday it reached a deal to combine its information systems and government services business with Leidos Holdings, and reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Lockheed would receive a one-time payment of $1.8 billion from Leidos and own a 50.5 percent equity stake in the company valued at $3.2 billion.</p>
<p>The $5 billion deal would create the largest government services provider in the United States, giving Leidos the critical mass to cope with lower government spending, increased competition and delays in new contracts, the companies said.</p>
<p>Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier, also reported net profit rose to $933 million, or $3.01 per share, in the quarter, from $904 million, or $2.82, in the year-earlier period. It also had a record backlog of $99.6 billion, including $15.6 billion contributed by Sikorsky Aircraft, the helicopter maker acquired from United Technologies Corp last year.</p>
<p>Revenues edged higher to $12.9 billion from $12.5 billion a year earlier.</p>
<p>Analysts estimated quarterly earnings per share of $2.94 on $12.36 billion in revenues, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Lockheed reported nearly flat net profit of $3.6 billion for full-year 2015, or $11.46 per share, on revenue of $46.1 billion.</p>
<p>It forecast 2016 revenues rising to a range of $49.5 billion to $51 billion, and earnings per share at $11.45 to $11.75.</p>
<p>Lockheed Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson said the Leidos deal would allow Lockheed to focus on its core businesses of aerospace and defense. The company builds the F-35 fighter jet, satellites, missile defense equipment and smaller warships.</p>
<p>The deal is subject to regulatory and Leidos shareholders approvals, but analysts and industry executives do not expect any significant hurdles.</p>
<p>Lockheed said the deal was planned as a tax-efficient split-off transaction, which would result in a decrease in Lockheed's share count. It expects to close the deal in the third or fourth quarter of 2016.</p>
<p>Leidos said its chief executive and chairman, Roger Krone, would remain in those jobs as would Chief Financial Officer Jim Reagan. Lockheed would designate three directors to serve on the Leidos board, it said.</p>
<p>(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Lockheed Martin to Separate and Combine Businesses with Leidos | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/01/26/lockheed-martin-to-separate-and-combine-businesses-with-leidos.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>CHICAGO (Reuters) - <a href="" type="internal">JetBlue Airways</a> reported a 19 percent drop in second-quarter profit despite rising revenue as fuel prices battered the low-cost carrier and its rivals in the United States.</p>
<p>The airline said on Tuesday its fuel costs jumped 57.6 percent from a year ago. This trend has dominated U.S. airline earnings.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>JetBlue shares dipped 3.41 percent to $5.10 on <a href="" type="internal">Nasdaq</a> and hit their lowest prices since March 2010.</p>
<p>"The sharp increase in the price of fuel has clearly had a negative impact on the entire industry," JetBlue Chief Executive Dave Barger said on a conference call with analysts and reporters.</p>
<p>Other top airlines like United Continental Holdings &lt; <a href="" type="internal">UAL</a>.N&gt; and <a href="" type="internal">US Airways</a> Group in the last week have reported narrowed profits in the second quarter due to rising fuel burdens.</p>
<p>The airline industry is struggling to recover from a years-long downturn that has been exacerbated in recent years by economic woes that drained travel demand. Some experts fear that weaker demand could hamper airline bookings in the fall.</p>
<p>JetBlue said its second-quarter earnings fell to $25 million, or 8 cents per share, from $31 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier. The latest results just missed <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> forecasts of 9 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Revenue rose 22.4 percent to $1.2 billion, although JetBlue's fuel bill increased 57.6 percent to $439 million.</p>
<p>JetBlue said that for the third quarter, it expects its unit costs including fuel to increase between 13 percent and 15 percent from a year earlier. Excluding fuel, its unit costs are expected to decrease between 2 percent and 4 percent.</p>
<p>JetBlue ended the second quarter with $1.2 billion in unrestricted cash and short term investments.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Dave Zimmerman)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | JetBlue profit falls as fuel costs rise | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/07/26/jetblue-profit-falls-as-fuel-costs-rise.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>Debt-laden independent power producer <a href="" type="internal">Dynegy</a> Inc is close to making a bankruptcy filing for one of its units, sources familiar with the situation said Monday.</p>
<p>The filing for the unit, Dynegy Holdings, would not affect the parent company, whose shareholders include billionaire investor <a href="" type="internal">Carl Icahn</a> and investment firm Seneca Capital, the sources said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Dynegy Inc ended up having to cancel a $1.25 billion debt exchange for Dynegy Holdings after investors failed to show up. Dynegy Holdings last week also skipped a $43.8 million interest payment to noteholders.</p>
<p>The bankruptcy filing could come within the next day, according to one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the situation.</p>
<p>The unit, whose assets include two unprofitable leased power plants, has a $60 million lease payment due on Nov. 8, according to CreditSights analyst Andy DeVries. The sources said they do not expect the company to make that payment.</p>
<p>Dynegy Holdings has issued $3.5 billion in unsecured bonds and faces more than $700 million in lease payments over the next five years.</p>
<p>Dynegy Inc has been struggling with its debt load as its power business has been squeezed by rock-bottom natural gas prices.</p>
<p>Dynegy Inc did not return a call requesting comment.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Dynegy Close to Bankruptcy for Unit: Report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/11/07/dynegy-close-to-bankruptcy-for-unit-report.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>Astronomers recently spotted the two biggest black holes ever seen in the universe.</p>
<p>"For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, whose event horizon is one-fifth the orbit of Mercury," study co-author Nicholas McConnell, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, told <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45554517/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.Tt1IRK7-SNo" type="external">Space.com</a>. His team's findings will be published in the journal Nature on Dec. 8.</p>
<p>One black hole is located in the galaxy NGC 3842, around 320 million light years from Earth; it has a mass about 9.7 billion times the mass of our Sun, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/05/supermassive-black-holes-discovered-space?newsfeed=true" type="external">the Guardian reported</a>. The second black hole is about 336 million light years from Earth, located at the center of the galaxy NGC 4889; it has a mass of about 21 billion Suns.</p>
<p>According to Space.com:</p>
<p>The scientists used the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and the McDonald Observatory in Texas to monitor the velocities of stars orbiting around the centers of a pair of galaxies. These velocities reveal the strength of the gravitational pull on those stars, which in turn is linked with the masses of the black holes lurking there.</p>
<p>"Measurements of these massive black holes will help us understand how their host galaxies were assembled, and how the holes achieved such monstrous mass," McConnell told the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/space/astronomers-find-biggest-black-holes-yet.html" type="external">New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/diamond-planet-pulsar-j1719-1438" type="external">Astronomers find "diamond planet"</a></p> | Astronomers discover two biggest black holes yet | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-05/astronomers-discover-two-biggest-black-holes-yet | 2011-12-05 | 3 |
<p>Athletes may be more likely to suffer leg injuries when they’ve had injuries in the past – even those involving other parts of the body, a recent study suggests.</p>
<p>It’s well known that athletes often re-injure the same part of their body more than once, researchers note in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. But their new study shows that physical therapy and injury prevention efforts need to take into account the risk other injuries pose for subsequent leg injuries.</p>
<p>The researchers examined data from 12 previously published studies and found many types of previous injuries, including concussions, were associated with higher odds of a lower limb injury.</p>
<p>“When we are injured we generally only focus on the body part that is being rehabilitated, yet it is just as important to keep the non-injured parts of your body healthy and injury free,” said lead study author Liam Toohey of La Trobe University in Bundoora, Australia, and the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.</p>
<p>When athletes miss components of their normal training regimens due to injury, they may have a reduced fitness level and be in less than top condition when they resume participation in practices or competitions, Toohey said by email.</p>
<p>“During rehabilitation, it is common for the injured body site to be strengthened and conditioned, but often other body sites are not trained as much as they were before the injury,” Toohey added. “So when an athlete is ready to return to full training and competition, the other areas of their body may not be as conditioned as they need (to be) to withstand the demands of the sport – where they may then go on to sustain an injury at a different site.”</p>
<p>For example, one of the most common knee injuries, an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprain or tear, was associated with a more than doubled risk of a subsequent hamstring injury, Toohey and colleagues found.</p>
<p>A previous muscle injury in the hamstrings, quadriceps, adductors and calves was tied to higher odds of a muscle injury in a different part of the lower limb, the study also found.</p>
<p>Back injuries were also connected to an increased risk of leg injuries in the future, as was a history of concussion and a variety of joint injuries.</p>
<p>One limitation of the analysis is that it examined data from only a small number of previously published studies, the authors note. It’s also possible that other things such as the intensity or duration of play, nutrition, or psychological factors might influence the odds of lower limb injuries, the authors note.</p>
<p>Even so, the findings add to evidence suggesting that injured athletes need to consider the potential for future injuries, said Lauren Fortington of the Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention in Ballarat.</p>
<p>“Many research studies to date have focused on recurrent injuries of exactly the same type, for example a right ankle sprain followed by another right ankle sprain,” Fortington, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “The problem is greater than that – previous injury of any type may increase the risk for lower limb injuries.”</p>
<p>To minimize the risk of leg injuries in the future, rehabilitation of other injuries must account for what parts of the body carry most of the load in an athlete’s particular sport, said Isabel Moore, a sports and health sciences researcher at Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK.</p>
<p>Psychological factors also need to be addressed, Moore, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.</p>
<p>“Stress, anxiety and fear of re-injury are all known to influence the chances of sustaining an injury,” Moore said.</p> | Leg Injury Risk Goes Up in Previously Injured Athletes | false | https://newsline.com/leg-injury-risk-goes-up-in-previously-injured-athletes/ | 2017-09-05 | 1 |
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismrichards/395742119/" type="external" /> Climate change is already affecting US agriculture, water resources, land resources, and biodiversity, and will continue to do so. This based on a new <a href="http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&amp;contentid=2008/05/0136.xml" type="external">report</a>—the synthesis of 13 federal research agencies and 38 authors from a variety of universities, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, and federal services. That fact that so many government agencies are involved in this study—released by the US Department of Agriculture—is as much the news as the study itself. <a href="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13998-us-struggling-to-respond-to-climate-shift.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&amp;nsref=news9_head_dn13998" type="external">New Scientist</a> quotes ecologist and author Anthony Janetos of the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Maryland: “The fact is, we’re seeing lots of effects and impacts right now. These effects appear to be happening faster than expected, and the magnitude is bigger than expected. That’s a surprise.”</p>
<p />
<p>For example, climate change has already brought forward the start of spring growing seasons by as much as two weeks, and similar changes have occurred in the timing of bird migrations. Warmer conditions have also resulted in many plants and animals extending their geographic range further northward and higher up mountains. As climate change alters precipitation patterns, much of the eastern US has already become moister, while the west has become more arid. This means less winter snowpack in western mountains, and thus less snowmelt to keep rivers running cold and full in summertime. The higher stream temperatures are likely to put added stress on aquatic ecosystems.</p>
<p>You can access the final report in its entirety <a href="http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/default.php" type="external">here</a>. The highlights:</p>
<p>• Grain and oilseed crops will mature more rapidly, but increasing temperatures will increase the risk of <a href="http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/connectingnews/2008/05/21/crop-failures-and-food-riots/" type="external">crop failures</a>, particularly if precipitation decreases or becomes more variable.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E6DA103AF930A2575BC0A9649C8B63" type="external">Higher temperatures</a> will negatively affect livestock. Warmer winters will reduce mortality but this will be more than offset by greater mortality in hotter summers. Hotter temperatures will also result in reduced productivity of livestock and dairy animals.</p>
<p>• Forests in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska are already being affected by climate change with increases in the size and frequency of forest <a href="http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm" type="external">fires</a>, insect outbreaks and tree mortality. These changes are expected to continue.</p>
<p>• Much of the United States has experienced <a href="http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.024-00.html" type="external">higher precipitation and streamflow</a>, with decreased drought severity and duration, over the 20th century. The West and Southwest, however, are notable exceptions, and increased drought conditions have occurred in these regions.</p>
<p>• Weeds grow more rapidly under elevated atmospheric CO2. Under projections reported in the assessment, weeds migrate northward and are less sensitive to herbicide applications.</p>
<p>• There is a trend toward reduced mountain <a href="ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/water/westwide/snowpack/wy2008/snow0805.gif" type="external">snowpack</a> and earlier spring snowmelt runoff in the Western United States.</p>
<p>• Horticultural crops (such as <a href="http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalassessment/newsletter/1998.12/frame8b.html" type="external">tomatos</a>, onions, and fruit) are more sensitive to climate change than grains and oilseed crops.</p>
<p>• Young forests on fertile soils will achieve higher productivity from elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations. <a href="http://www.apis.ac.uk/overview/pollutants/overview_N_deposition.htm" type="external">Nitrogen deposition</a> and warmer temperatures will increase productivity in other types of forests where water is available.</p>
<p>• Invasion by <a href="http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/FRS_Webs/Gulf_Coast/lanwr.htm" type="external">exotic grass species</a> into arid lands will result from climate change, causing an increased fire frequency. Rivers and riparian systems in arid lands will be negatively impacted.</p>
<p>• A continuation of the trend toward increased <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3094E/w3094e04.htm" type="external">water use efficiency</a> could help mitigate the impacts of climate change on water resources.</p>
<p>• The <a href="http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu/courses/atmos100/userdocs/Growing.html" type="external">growing season</a> has increased by 10 to 14 days over the last 19 years across the temperate latitudes. Species’ distributions have also shifted.</p>
<p>• The rapid rates of warming in the Arctic observed in recent decades, and projected for at least the next century, are dramatically reducing the snow and ice covers that provide denning and foraging habitat for <a href="/blue_marble_blog/archives/2008/05/8241_polar-bears-endangered-global-warming.html" type="external">polar bears</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/home" type="external">Julia Whitty</a> is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent, <a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/juliawhittylectures" type="external">lecturer</a>, and 2008 winner of the <a href="http://www.kiriyamaprize.org/pressroom/2008/pr_040108.html" type="external">Kiriyama Prize</a> and the <a href="http://www.research.amnh.org/burroughs/medal_award_list.html" type="external">John Burroughs Medal Award</a>.</p>
<p /> | Climate Change Hammering Land, Water, Farms, Biodiversity | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/climate-change-hammering-land-water-farms-biodiversity/ | 2008-05-28 | 4 |
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Drew DeSilver</a></p>
<p>As Malaysians head to the polls this Sunday in what the BBC&#160;calls&#160;the nation’s “ <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22365485" type="external">most hotly contested general election</a>,” most report feeling satisfied with the direction of their country.</p>
<p>The Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition, along with its predecessor the Alliance Party, has been Malaysia’s dominant political force since independence in 1957. But BN’s hold slipped in the 2008 election — the 140 seats out of 222 it won marked the coalition’s worst performance in decades. And the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance), led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim , is pressing hard to finally gain power at the national level.</p>
<p>Malaysia’s&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22280948" type="external">estimated 13 million voters</a>&#160;will elect members of the federal Parliament and 12 of Malaysia’s 13 state legislative assemblies.</p>
<p>In a survey conducted in March for a forthcoming Pew Research Center report, 82% of Malaysians said they were satisfied with the way things were going in the country, up from 76% in 2007. A similar percentage, 85%, called Malaysia’s economic situation good, up from 76% in 2007.</p>
<p>Malaysia’s economy remains strong. Real GDP grew by 5.6% last year, according to the current <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2013/01/pdf/text.pdf" type="external">World Economic Outlook&#160;report</a>&#160;(pdf) from the International Monetary Fund; the IMF expects&#160;Malaysia’s economy to grow 5.1% this year and 5.2% in 2014.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />But consumer prices are growing as well. After rising 1.7% in 2012, the IMF expects inflation to average 2.2% this year and 2.4% next year.&#160;The BN government has spent billions of dollars subsidizing everything from rice and fuel to schoolbooks, according to the BBC report.</p>
<p>In the Pew Research survey, 71% called rising prices a “very big problem;” a 38% plurality said inflation should be government’s top priority, more than those citing lack of job opportunities, public debt or the gap between rich and poor.</p>
<p>Here are <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/02/malaysia-topline-questionnaire-and-survey-methods/" type="external">more detailed survey results and a discussion of the methodology</a>.</p>
<p>Topics: <a href="" type="internal">Asia and the Pacific</a>, <a href="" type="internal">National Conditions</a>, <a href="" type="internal">World Elections</a></p> | On eve of tight election, most Malaysians satisfied overall | false | http://pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/05/03/on-eve-of-tight-election-most-malaysians-satisfied-overall/ | 2013-05-03 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Dr <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bouthaina.Shaaban.Official/posts/1200600526709493" type="external">Bouthaina Shaaban</a>, Political &amp; Media Advisor to Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad</p>
<p>Despite all the pain and suffering imposed by the ongoing nihilistic wars in our region, I thank God that we are witnessing this historical era, which is one of the most complex eras mankind has passed through. The daily regional and international events reinforce an image I’ve painted in my mind for the past six years about how the world we know is moving slowly to be replaced by another world; and the transition will take few years to be completed.</p>
<p>I see two different intersecting circles today, and we can only see a sliver of each circle, but the intersecting parts remain hidden. In the BRICS summit that took place in China few days ago, I could see signs of the new world, a glimpse of the coming decades, what our children and grandchildren will definitely see in their lifetime, and I was pleased by what I saw.</p>
<p>I saw the BRICS leaders arriving at the summits and being welcomed by a body language that entails respect and parity, and everyone had a happy expression on their faces, signalling their liberation from having to deal with the supremacists who reside on the other half circle. I saw the First Lady of China standing very humbly and elegantly, wearing a silk dress made in China, representing a country with a great civilisation that is preparing to revive the Silk Road, which would change the identity and life style of the entire world.</p>
<p>I saw a dinner party, meetings, and speeches that aim truly to change a world in which the strong prey on the weak, as the Chinese president had said, I also saw tireless efforts to solidify a simple, yet essential principle, which is the unity of humanity, regardless of race, religion, creed or skin colour.</p>
<p>This is the principle that should have been made apparent by the phrase “the world is a small village” which the West tried to reinforce, but the true aim of the slogan was to turn the world into a field open for economic exploitation, the looting of natural resources, and an exclusive market for western goods.</p>
<p>The concept of “small village” promoted by the BRICS is one of unity in diversity, but the unity of humanity does not impede the diversity of the world and the freedom of the human being in moving and working around the world liberated from persecution and humiliation. The plans that have materialised in the apparent half-circle of the world of the future refer to the efforts towards liberation from the financial, economic, military and moral control of the other half of the circle.</p>
<p>The features of this liberation are starting to appear clearly, and the steps needed to complete it were sketched. This circle will be open to all those who share values, direction, and management with the countries seeking this freedom, and thus seek to embrace the new world, to correct its foundations and to serve people everywhere. And even the media coverage of the event was unprecedented, and every one of the participants felt equality and integration, to form a beautiful glimpse of the world of our grandchildren.</p>
<p>The second half of the circle, whose motivations and ultimate aims are still being debated, remains under the media disinformation campaigns that focus on covering up the main objectives behind events in the world. By talking about the suffering of human beings and human rights, children, womens rights, is a way for them to achieve what they want – to plunder the wealth and seize the livelihoods of peoples.</p>
<p>When we take a closer look at what is happening today at the hands of the West, we see that the American planes have pulled ISIS leaders out of their inevitable fate in Syria, and that Israel is concerned about its borders, after the elimination of ISIS in the Qalamoun region.</p>
<p>We see attempts to create a Kurdish state in Iraq. This is for two purposes, to seize the Iraqi and Syrian oil, and to create another entity supportive of the Zionist entity. Zionists seek to establish a state from the Nile to the Euphrates, and hence their focus on the Euphrates River line extending from the north-east of Syria to Basra – in an attempt to connect northern Iraq to Anbar province, and between Raqqa and al-Bukhmal in the north and east of Syria. If they do not succeed, it will be useful for them to engineer long battles between the Kurds and the Arabs, and the confusion over the civilian victims, victims of their schemes and greed will be capitalized upon to seize the Arab oil and wealth. Otherwise how can the Iraqi oil remain open for looting, thus denying Iraqi people from its benefits?</p>
<p>What is happening today in Myanmar and the loss of Muslim lives there is no exception to this rule because Myanmar, which is neighbouring China and possesses oil resources that sustain Chinese growth and development, is targeted by the United States to deprive China of this neighbouring source of energy.</p>
<p>Today, the humanitarian catastrophe caused by a conflict created by the CIA, between Buddhists and Muslims, as justification for Western intervention, to seize the region and deprive Burma of its oil and China of energy.</p>
<p>The same context applies to North Korea, as the target is China, so China acts wisely when it does not let this issue become a pretext for the United States. The bottom half of the circle, which will not have a share in the world of the future, is the half that considers oil, money, and material resources the goal of existence, and tries by all means to alienate countries and plunder their wealth.</p>
<p>We look, instead, to the upper half, that sees brotherhood in humanity, establishes the foundations of cooperation between countries and peoples, and strives to create a new world on the surface of the globe that places humanity above all considerations, a world free of racism, occupation and terrorism.</p>
<p>***</p>
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<p>SEE MORE SYRIA NEWS AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p> | Dr Bouthain Shaaban: ‘Catching a Glimpse of Tomorrow’s World’ | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/09/18/dr-bouthain-shaaban-catching-glimpse-tomorrows-world/ | 2017-09-18 | 4 |
<p>Former US President George W. Bush underwent a successful surgery for a blocked artery in his heart, after a routine annual checkup discovered the issue.&#160;</p>
<p>The 67-year-old former president went into surgery on Tuesday in Dallas, Texas at the&#160;Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, only a day after the blockage was discovered during his annual exam at the&#160;Cooper Clinic in the same city, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/06/us-usa-bush-idUSBRE9750LI20130806" type="external">wrote Reuters.&#160;</a></p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;ved=0CDQQFjAB&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalpost.com%2Fdispatch%2Fnews%2Fregions%2Famericas%2Funited-states%2F130612%2Fgeorge-w-bush-gets-positive-approval-rating-poll&amp;ei=JywBUt2gF4iakAX3v4D4Dw&amp;usg=AFQjCNHGfeC-Vf8EOpmGHXlcfUkuC-hsTg&amp;sig2=n0Pklkiy-E35daUr0LF-5g" type="external">George W. Bush gets positive approval ratings&#160;</a></p>
<p>According to a statement <a href="http://www.bushcenter.org/press-releases/2013/08/06/statement-office-george-w-bush" type="external">from Bush's office,</a> the former president "is in high spirits, eager to return home tomorrow and resume his normal schedule on Thursday."&#160;</p>
<p>Bush currently resides in North Dallas with his wife, Laura, though he also regularly spends time at his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas —&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001326.html" type="external">his favorite venue for brush-clearing</a> stints during vacation while he was the Commander-in-Chief.&#160;</p>
<p>Bush was always known for his adherence to a strict health schedule during his time in the White House, including regular jogging, mountain-bike riding, and an early bed time.</p>
<p>However, even fit, healthy middle-aged men can find themselves vulnerable to heart disease — thus Bush's suggestion in the official statement that everyone get regular checkups.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/08/AR2007080802268.html" type="external">During his time in office,</a> Bush also appears to have contracted Lyme disease, a tick-borne ailment that is common in the northeastern US.</p> | George W. Bush undergoes successful heart surgery | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-08-06/george-w-bush-undergoes-successful-heart-surgery | 2013-08-06 | 3 |
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<p>General Electric has a "keen interest" in acquiring a Nigeria railway concession worth around $2 billion, the U.S. company said on Monday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Nigeria has been looking for partners to upgrade its ageing rail network but GE did not specify which concession it was referring to.</p>
<p>"Given the size and scope of the proposed project, it is likely that the debt and equity commitments required from lenders, consortium partners and other co-developers will be in the range of $2 billion or more," GE said in a statement.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Susan Fenton)</p> | GE interested in Nigeria railway concession worth around $2 billion | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/10/ge-interested-in-nigeria-railway-concession-worth-around-2-billion.html | 2016-10-10 | 0 |
<p>The author opposes the participation of socialists in the electoral politics of the Democratic party, arguing that such participation cannot advance socialist objectives since the Democratic party represents capitalist interests. Although it is intended to apply pressure from working people and minorities, such electoral (or "realignment") politics actually channels the pressure through such "bureaucratic" institutions as the trade unions. Militancy is dampened; open social struggle curbed.</p>
<p /> | Electoral Politics, Socialist Policy | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/electoral-politics-socialist-policy | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
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<p>Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a <a href="http://www.markfiore.com/" type="external">website</a> featuring his work.</p>
<p /> | WATCH: The Arizona Legislature Just Issued You a Discrimination License [Fiore Cartoon] | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/watch-arizona-legislature-discrimination-licence-gay-rights-religious-freedom-mark-fiore/ | 2014-02-27 | 4 |
<p>Time to answer our Geo Quiz now. We wanted you to guess the distance between Russia and the United States at its closest mainland point.</p>
<p>From Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point (169�43' W) on Russia's Chukchi Peninsula across the Bering Strait to Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point (168�05' W) of North America on Alaska's Seward Peninsula is about 50 miles. (82 km, 50.9 miles). The Bering Strait is approximately 53 miles wide.</p>
<p>So FIFTY is the answer we were looking for. Crossing that distance isn't as easy as it appears as The World's David Leveille reports:</p>
<p>What if there were a tunnel linking Russia with the United States, an underwater tunnel running under the Bering Strait?</p>
<p>That idea may come up this weekend when President Bush visits his Russian counterpart President Putin in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi. The British newspaper the Sunday Times reports Putin plans to raise the idea of a Bering Strait tunnel during a planned meeting to talk about long term US-Russia relations. That particular conversation, if it does happen, started back in 1905 when Russia's last tsar Nicholas II approved a plan for a tunnel under the Bering Strait. That was before World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution intervened. But the idea didn't die.</p>
<p>"There's always been these dreams and there's always been people talking big about this tunnel."</p>
<p>Russian historian Ilya Vinkovetsky teaches at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.</p>
<p>It's been around for a long, long time. It resurfaces every few years. It was much more timely under Gorbachev, at that point there was euphoria in the USSR about linking with the USA, when Russia was much more open, and now it is not.</p>
<p>Vinkovetsky does not believe Putin will seriously propose the idea in Sochi. He says recent news reports are nothing but Kremlin rumors.</p>
<p>"Putin has many other concerns right now and obviously there's a great deal of tension between the countries because of what's happening and with NATO expansion that's not going to be on their agenda, so I think that story was made up by somebody, everything leads me to believe it was a joke."</p>
<p>In fact the Moscow Times weighed in on the subject with a April Fool's Day report about an enormous tunnel between Moscow and Washington on the drawing board...one that would "alleviate traffic jams as bureaucrats rush between the Kremlin and the White House."</p>
<p>But even if a real Bering Strait link does come up in talks between the two presidents, Vinkovetsky says the idea is flawed:</p>
<p>"Technically it is possible to do, the problem is there is practically nothing on either side, if this were France and England on either side that would be very different you have much larger road networks, population centers on either side but this is an extremely remoter part of Alaska and remote part of Siberia."</p>
<p>A trans-continental tunnel wouldn't come cheap. Russian engineers estimate the mega tunnel project would run 65 billion dollars. It would include a highway, high-speed rail lines, pipelines and power cables.</p>
<p>"The tunnel itself will be complicated but it's well within technological reach."</p>
<p>Jack Lemley is an American civil engineer who oversaw the design and construction of the 34 mile tunnel under the English Channel. He thinks a tunnel under the Bering Strait is an idea whose time has come...and he'd happily share that advice with the two presidents:</p>
<p>"I would say it will prove to be a mark in both of their political stewardship that will last for centuries to come and will be responsible for building closer relations between the Americas and Russia and I think that's at least as important as the space program that is costing more money that this link will cost."</p>
<p>Lemley says another plus is that the tunnel would be an important energy link to Russia's oil and natural gas:</p>
<p>"The resource rich areas on both sides of the Strait -- that will be an increasingly important reason to have such a link. I think they're will be much more resource exchange than just petroleum."</p>
<p>Lemley thinks big...he says the tunnel could be a new highway for global communication....a thoroughfare that would boost cross-border traffic. Everything from cheap cigarettes to languages, tourism and trade would flow across the border.</p>
<p>But whether the ambitious plan to tunnel under the Bering Strait goes beyond a pipe dream is anyone's guess. If it does pick up steam, engineer Jack Lemley says he'd be the first to sign on:</p>
<p>"If anyone's listening who is interested in hiring somebody I'd be more than interested in working on it (laughs)."</p>
<p>For The World, I'm David Leveille.</p> | Geo answer: fifty miles | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-04-03/geo-answer-fifty-miles | 2008-04-03 | 3 |
<p>He’s back.</p>
<p>Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was summarily removed in June and then found a spot as a CNN commentator, has been advising the campaign in recent weeks.</p>
<p>In early September, Lewandowski conferred with Mike Biundo, Donald Trump’s New Hampshire-based senior national adviser, later to be joined by the campaign’s New Hampshire state director, Matt Ciepielowski, and its state political director, Mark Sanborn.</p>
<p>One New Hampshire Republican said Lewandowski advised Biundo, “Anything you need, you go through me.” Trump’s New Hampshire co-chair Steve Stepanek said, "Corey’s a longtime close friend, and I talk to him on a regular basis as a friend.” New Hampshire co-chair for Trump Fred Doucette allowed, “Do I ask him for advice? Absolutely. But is he intimately involved in the Trump campaign? No.”</p>
<p>After Lewandowski was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump.html?_r=0" type="external">fired</a> in June, he was replaced by Paul Manafort, who later resigned on Aug. 19.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/corey-lewandowski-trump-campaign-228122" type="external">According to Politico</a>, Lewandowski has joined morning conference calls with the campaign and conversed regularly with campaign CEO Stephen Bannon and deputy campaign manager David Bossie; Bossie was the one who told Trump to hire Lewandowski initially.</p>
<p>Scuttlebutt has suggested that Lewandowski’s reemergence signals the diminishing influence of Trump’s adult children and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were instrumental in his firing and the hiring of Manafort, and the reliance on those in the orbit of megadonors Bob and Rebekah Mercer.</p>
<p>One person involved with the Trump campaign stated, “He weighs in particularly on issues that involve Trump directly. Where he should be going and not going. What he should comment on and not comment on.” That person dismissed criticism that Lewandowski’s involvement with both the Trump campaign and CNN represented a conflict of interest, claiming, “Corey is doing his job as a CNN correspondent to get insider information just like anyone in the journalism business. Corey’s a journalist now.”</p>
<p>Senior communications adviser Jason Miller chimed in, “Corey remains a supporter of the campaign, and we're glad to receive any help he may offer.” One former staffer admitted of Lewandowski, “He was an a—hole. But at least you know he wanted to win.”</p>
<p>After Lewandowski’s meeting with Biundo, a state-level campaign official said he was warned that Lewandowski was on the phone for the regular morning conference call among communications and political staffers.</p>
<p>One New Hampshire Republican said he spoke with a Trump Tower official, and reported, “They’re aware of it and they’re like, ‘What the hell are we going to do about it? Trump likes him,’”</p>
<p>Aaron Day, a libertarian running for Senate, stated, “He’s still a trusted resource and a go-to guy. When I’m trying to get access to Trump, I still go through Corey or through Corey’s guys because otherwise there’s a vacuum. How else do you get to Trump? There’s no legacy political apparatus that Trump has."</p> | Hey, Look, Corey Lewandowski Is Back In The Trump Campaign! | true | https://dailywire.com/news/9148/hey-look-corey-lewandowski-back-trump-campaign-hank-berrien | 2016-09-14 | 0 |
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<p>But on Monday, the council’s Public Works Committee moved the proposal forward without recommendation one way or the other because it had too many unanswered questions.</p>
<p>If the City Council rejects the plan, property owners would see a decrease in taxes. An owner of a $300,000 home, which has a taxable value of $100,000, for example, would see their annual property tax bill drop by about $49.</p>
<p>“Is there any way we can fund streets instead?” asked Councilor Joseph Maestas. He also wanted to know if approval of the resolution was necessary to fund a 2 percent raise for city employees that was built into the $399 million operational budget the council approved last month. But no one could confirm that or whether the property tax extension would be used for a second raise for city workers.</p>
<p>Joseph Maestas</p>
<p>According to the Fiscal Impact Report for the item, about one-half mill of property taxes, previously on the books to support a 2008 parks bond issue, would be dedicated to the city’s operational budget.</p>
<p>“By increasing the operating mill levy property tax, the city is able to fund a 2 percent increase in salaries for city of Santa Fe employees without incurring additional costs on residents of and visitors to the city,” the report says.</p>
<p>While no one from the Finance Department was present to answer questions, Assistant City Attorney Marco Martinez said that generally property taxes can be used for any purpose, not just capital improvement bonds for facilities or infrastructure. “So, yes, property taxes can be used to fund streets,” he said</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The 0.498 mill was freed up because earlier this year the City Council voted to pay off the balance of the 2008 general obligation bond.</p>
<p>The proposal, sponsored by Council Carmichael Dominguez, who was not present at Monday night’s meeting, is scheduled to come before the Finance Committee on May 22. “So we have lots of time to answer what would be a relatively easy question to answer,” Councilor Peter Ives, who chairs the Public Works Committee, said to the question of whether approving the proposal was required for employees to get their 2 percent raise.</p>
<p>The committee voted 3-1 to move the proposal forward without recommendation, with Councilors Chris Rivera, Ron Trujillo and Renee Villarreal voting in favor and Maestas casting the lone “no” vote.</p>
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<p /> | Property tax may finance raises for Santa Fe city employees | false | https://abqjournal.com/1000545/keeping-property-tax-on-books-may-finance-santa-fe-workers-raise.html | 2017-05-08 | 2 |
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble (NYSE: PG) closed the books on its fiscal 2017 year this week. And while a sluggish industry kept the consumer-product giant from hitting the high end of its guidance, P&amp;G still managed to improve on its expansion pace. The company also forecast a solid sales rebound in the year ahead.</p>
<p>More on that rising outlook in a moment, but first, here's how the headline results stacked up against the prior-year period:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Organic sales growth was 2% for both the quarter and the full fiscal year that ended in June. That result met management's original forecast, but fell just below the upgraded outlook P&amp;G issued after <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/20/procter-gamble-co-earnings-give-investors-somethin.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">starting the year on a surprisingly strong note Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The gains compare well to industry rivals. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) competes against P&amp;G's core Pampers franchise, and it announced <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/26/kimberly-clark-corps-earnings-no-growth-rebound-in.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">declining organic sales Opens a New Window.</a> earlier in the week.</p>
<p>P&amp;G's fabric and home-care segment led the way, with a solid uptick in both volume and average prices. That division is anchored by powerhouse brands including Tide detergent, and has benefited from a string of successful product innovations. On the other hand, the grooming division continued to lose business as price-based competition chipped away at the Gillette razors-and-blades franchise.</p>
<p>Core operating profit, which strips out foreign-currency swings and brand divestments, improved by nearly 2 percentage points, as cost cuts and productivity gains more than offset increasing commodity costs. P&amp;G's operating margin was 21.5% for the full year, up 1 percentage point, compared to Kimberly-Clark's 18%.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Executives focused their comments on broader operating trends that showed steady progress at returning to robust growth. "We met or exceeded each of our... objectives for fiscal year 2017 in a challenging macro and competitive environment," CEO David Taylor said in a press release.</p>
<p>In what might have been a reference to a recent <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/23/1-thing-procter-gamble-co-left-out-of-its-proxy-fi.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">shareholder challenge Opens a New Window.</a>, P&amp;G also noted that its management team is ready to defend its turnaround strategies. "Achieving our objectives will not only require continued focus as an organization," Taylor said, "but also that we prevent anything from derailing the work that is delivering improvement. We, as a management team and [board of directors], are confident we have the right plan in place."</p>
<p>P&amp;G's hand in that activist-shareholder fight should be strengthened by its improving outlook. Management's 2018 forecast calls for organic sales growth to speed up for the second straight year, to a 3% pace, compared to Kimberly-Clark's flat growth target. The gap between the two forecasts suggests P&amp;G is finally seeing traction from its portfolio-reorganization initiative that removed 100 slow-growth brands from the business. It also implies the company could soon end its two-year market-share slide.</p>
<p>That success would allow profit gains to once again be driven by sales growth to create a more sustainable operating position. After all, P&amp;G has been relying on <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/16/procter-gamble-cos-plan-to-save-10-billion.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">cost cuts Opens a New Window.</a> and the funds raised through <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/08/procter-gamble-co-is-on-track-to-give-shareholders.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">selling off brands Opens a New Window.</a> to keep earnings rising over the last few fiscal years. That strategy only bought time for the management team to make the changes needed to return to a healthy market-share position. P&amp;G's 2018 outlook marks a step in that direction.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Procter &amp; GambleWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=0947c147-f248-4a21-a149-95f46cd7bfd3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Procter &amp; Gamble wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=0947c147-f248-4a21-a149-95f46cd7bfd3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&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 July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6bc178f2-72cf-11e7-8b71-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Procter & Gamble Co.’s Rebound Gains Steam | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/29/procter-gamble-co-s-rebound-gains-steam.html | 2017-07-29 | 0 |
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<p>Prosecutor Michael Fricke summarized Andrew Miller’s criminal history.</p>
<p>In a 2006 case, he said, Miller, now 45, persuaded an ill woman to give him power of attorney before he began transferring huge sums of money out of her account. He used those funds to buy several cars and to rent a home in Placitas with an indoor pool.</p>
<p>While Miller was in custody on that case, he organized the Wild West Music Festival from the county jail, but paid for the venue using a false check, Fricke said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He was sent to prison, but the DA’s Office said last week the Supreme Court reversed Miller’s sentence because it did not comply with Miller’s understanding of the plea agreement. And the District Court then vacated the sentence because the state did not comply with the plea agreement.</p>
<p>Fricke said that while Miller was out on release after those rulings, he was indicted in two new criminal cases. In one case, Fricke said, Miller wrote a worthless check and in another he attempted to fraudulently obtain loans.</p>
<p>So prosecutors sought to send him back to prison.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Miller was sentenced under a plea deal that wrapped all four cases together and required a sentence of between 15 and 30 years.</p>
<p>Attorneys agreed that he would receive 15 years of credit for time already served in the first two cases, meaning that Miller could have been placed on probation.</p>
<p>But 2nd Judicial District Judge Stan Whitaker on Thursday imposed the full sentence, suspending five years, leaving Miller to serve a 10-year sentence.</p>
<p>Miller’s family and friends attended the hearing, and several spoke on his behalf. They talked about the positive impact he’d had on their lives and on a local church that he has been involved with. One woman told the judge about his Bible teachings, which she said were delivered in a way that people understood.</p>
<p>His attorney defended his more recent behavior, particularly his attempts to take out loans, and said that Miller was not malicious. He was “always trying to get ahead,” she said, but often extended himself in unsustainable ways.</p>
<p>And in his own statement to the court, Miller said what he had done to the elderly woman was “very stupid.” Although he said he disputed Fricke’s version of his crimes, he said he had no excuses.</p>
<p>But Whitaker, before announcing his sentence, said he didn’t believe Miller was “stupid” or that his crimes were anything but calculated.</p>
<p>“I think you’re an incredibly bright man,” Whitaker told Miller. “I think your future could be incredibly bright. But I think you choose to make these decisions, and in choosing to do so, you harm other folks.”</p>
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<p /> | Swindler of elderly woman gets 10 more years under second plea agreement | false | https://abqjournal.com/1054397/swindler-of-elderly-woman-gets-10-more-years-under-second-plea-agreement.html | 2 |
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<p>USA Today | CBS News The late GQ editor Art Cooper once said that Maxim readers "not only move their lips, but drool when they read." Maxim publisher Felix Dennis tells "60 Minutes II" correspondent Bob Simon that "the facts of the matter are that we had absolutely trashed his circulation. He just couldn't stand it.'' Dennis says of Esquire editor David Granger's claim that Maxim's success "encourages magazines to get stupider": "That's pretty rich coming from a guy who had driven his magazine virtually to the brink of extinction.'' (Read <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/17/60II/main584067.shtml" type="external">a transcript</a> of the interview.)</p> | Dennis slaps GQ's Cooper, Esquire's Granger on "60 Minutes II" | false | https://poynter.org/news/dennis-slaps-gqs-cooper-esquires-granger-60-minutes-ii | 2003-11-19 | 2 |
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<p>U.S. teen apparel retailer Abercrombie &amp; Fitch reported a 7 percent drop in quarterly sales on Thursday - the 16th straight quarterly decline - and said a competitive retail environment drove it to promote more.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sales at established stores fell 5 percent, compared with analysts' average expectation for a 4.9 percent drop, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.</p>
<p>The retailer, known for its Hollister and abercrombie kids brands, said net sales fell to $1.04 billion in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28, from $1.11 billion, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Net income attributable to the company fell to $48.8 million, or 71 cents per share, from $57.7 million, or 85 cents per share.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)</p> | Abercrombie & Fitch's Sales Fall 7% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/02/abercrombie-fitchs-sales-fall-7.html | 2017-03-02 | 0 |
<p>A federal judge ruled on Friday that it was acceptable for the Texas Department of State Health Services to reject birth certificates for children of illegal aliens.</p>
<p>Texas's DSHS doesn't accept a matricula consular, an ID card issued by the Mexican government through their consulate, as an acceptable form of identification to obtain a birth certificate.</p>
<p>"Everyone born in Texas is a U.S. citizen and has a birth record filed with the state and the local registrar. When it comes to obtaining a copy of a birth certificate, DSHS, county clerks and local registrars have a duty to verify the requestor’s identity in order to protect the sensitive personal information contained on a birth certificate," DSHS press officer Chris Van Deusen said in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire. "The requirement that a requestor show valid identification also protects against fraud and identity theft."</p>
<p>"DSHS provides certified birth certificates without regard to the requestor’s immigration status and has never accepted the matricula consular as adequate identification. This is because the documents used to obtain the matricula are not verified by the issuing consulate," Van Deusen continued. "Several other states and federal agencies also do not accept the matricula as a valid form of identification for the same reason. DSHS accepts a variety of documents to verify a requestor’s identification... any immediate family member (by blood, marriage or adoption) is qualified to obtain an individual’s birth certificate with proper identification."</p>
<p>As a result, parents of 23 children <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/17/illegal-aliens-lose-battle-birth-certificate-lawsuit-texas/" type="external">sued</a> the state, as matricula consulars are typically the types of documentation given to illegal aliens. The plaintiffs claim that Texas was violating the 14th Amendment, which they say allows a child born on U.S. soil to automatically become a citizen regardless of their parent's legal status.</p>
<p>This is clearly false, as the 14th Amendment <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv" type="external">reads</a>: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof (emphasis mine), are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."</p>
<p>As Claremont Institute senior fellow Edward Erler <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/birthright-citizenship-not-mandated-by-constitution" type="external">explains</a>:</p>
<p>Indeed, during debate over the amendment, Senator Jacob Howard, the author of the citizenship clause, attempted to assure skeptical colleagues that the language was not intended to make Indians citizens of the United States. Indians, Howard conceded, were born within the nation’s geographical limits, but he steadfastly maintained that they were not subject to its jurisdiction because they owed allegiance to their tribes and not to the U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, supported this view, arguing that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” meant “not owing allegiance to anybody else and being subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.” Jurisdiction understood as allegiance, Senator Howard explained, excludes not only Indians but “persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, [or] who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers.” Thus, “subject to the jurisdiction” does not simply mean, as is commonly thought today, subject to American laws or courts. It means owing exclusive political allegiance to the U.S.</p>
<p>Naturally, illegal aliens do not owe exclusive political allegiance to the U.S. because they aren't U.S. citizens. So for illegal alien parents to claim that Texas is violating the 14th Amendment by denying them birth certificates is simply not true.</p>
<p>"Plaintiffs have not presented any evidence which suggests Defendants have improperly focused on and excluded the matricula and foreign passport without visa as forms of secondary identification."</p>
<p>Judge Robert Pittman</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/17/449432963/judge-says-texas-can-continue-denying-birth-certificates-to-immigrants-kids" type="external">Judge Robert Pittman</a> declined to give relief to the plaintiffs, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2461981-texas-birth-certificate.html" type="external">stating</a>: "The arguments of Plaintiffs, while heartfelt, compelling and persuasive, are not enough without substantiating evidence to carry the burden necessary to grant relief to Plaintiffs at this early stage of the proceedings. This is an important and difficult case which merits full factual development and a thorough presentation of evidence, which are both lacking at this stage. The Court thus concludes the state of the record at this preliminary stage falls short of sufficiently establishing that Plaintiffs are substantially likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claims."</p>
<p>The judge explained that Texas has a "compelling interest" to protect access to a birth certificate.</p>
<p>"They [the Defendants] have provided evidence which substantiates other governmental agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Justice and United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement, have expressed concerns regarding the reliability of the matricula," the judge wrote. "Although Plaintiffs maintain that at least some of that evidence is outdated or otherwise questionable, the Court does not presently have a record which permits resolution of that challenge. Moreover, as noted above, Plaintiffs have not presented any evidence which suggests Defendants have improperly focused on and excluded the matricula and foreign passport without visa as forms of secondary identification."</p>
<p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the ruling in a <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-statement-on-dshs-birth-certificate-policy-ruling" type="external">statement</a>.</p>
<p>"Before issuing any official documents, it’s important for the state to have a way to accurately verify people are who they say they are through reliable identification mechanisms," Paxton said. "We will continue defending DSHS’s policy on safeguarding Texans’ most sensitive information and vital documents."</p>
<p>The full ruling can be read <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2461981-texas-birth-certificate.html" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Texas Rejects Birth Certificates for Children of Illegal Aliens. Here's Why. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/505/texas-rejects-birth-certificates-children-illegal-aaron-bandler | 2015-10-19 | 0 |
<p>LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — A northern New Mexico city has passed a resolution calling on all cities in the state to support refugees.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Optic <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com/content/council-approves-refugee-support-measure" type="external">reports</a> the Las Vegas City Council approved last week a symbolic measure that backs New Mexico cities who house refugees amid the partisan climate nationally around immigration.</p>
<p>Supports say Las Vegas needed to make a stand as President Donald Trump tries to impose a temporary travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries and seeks immigration restrictions.</p>
<p>But Star Chavez, a Las Vegas resident and opponent of the resolution, says it wasn’t compassionate to invite refugees to New Mexico, a state that is economically struggling.</p>
<p>The resolution will be forwarded to New Mexico’s five federal legislators, Gov. Susana Martinez, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Vegas Optic, <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com" type="external">http://www.lasvegasoptic.com</a></p>
<p>LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — A northern New Mexico city has passed a resolution calling on all cities in the state to support refugees.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Optic <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com/content/council-approves-refugee-support-measure" type="external">reports</a> the Las Vegas City Council approved last week a symbolic measure that backs New Mexico cities who house refugees amid the partisan climate nationally around immigration.</p>
<p>Supports say Las Vegas needed to make a stand as President Donald Trump tries to impose a temporary travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries and seeks immigration restrictions.</p>
<p>But Star Chavez, a Las Vegas resident and opponent of the resolution, says it wasn’t compassionate to invite refugees to New Mexico, a state that is economically struggling.</p>
<p>The resolution will be forwarded to New Mexico’s five federal legislators, Gov. Susana Martinez, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Vegas Optic, <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.lasvegasoptic.com" type="external">http://www.lasvegasoptic.com</a></p> | Las Vegas passes resolution in support of refugees | false | https://apnews.com/9ecc3108777d412f981adc8fea6b80f0 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Before the annual White House Easter Egg Roll kicked off this year, the first family stood solemnly for the national anthem. But there was just one problem.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html" type="external">U.S. Flag code</a> stipulates that during the national anthem, everyone present should be standing and putting their hand over the heart while the song plays:</p>
<p>During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.</p>
<p>While standing on the Truman balcony of the White House with First Lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, Trump stood idly while the national anthem played, and didn’t put his hand over his heart <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/329109-first-lady-appears-to-remind-trump-to-cover-his-heart-for-national-anthem" type="external">until his wife gave him a nudge</a>. Twitter user Jordan Uhl noticed the nudge and commented that the “America first” president doesn’t seem to understand proper procedure for a president hearing the national anthem:</p>
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<p>The moment caught the attention of Dan Pfeiffer, who was a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama. Pfeiffer aptly noted that his former boss wouldn’t have been able to get away with not putting his hand over his heart during the Star-Spangled Banner without right-wing media turning it into the biggest scandal of the century:</p>
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<p>Pfeiffer is correct in that Obama, as a presidential candidate, was subjected to coverage resembling that of a major political scandal when then-senator Obama <a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp" type="external">didn’t put his hand over his heart</a> before a 2007 rally in Iowa.</p>
<p>“Sometimes he does [put his hand over his heart], sometimes he doesn’t. In no way was he making any sort of statement, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous,” a campaign spokesman said at the time.</p>
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<p>Jamie Green is a contributor for the Resistance Report covering the Trump administration, and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.</p> | Trump forgot to cover his heart during the national anthem. This former Obama advisor’s response is perfect | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/trump-national-anthem/ | 2017-04-17 | 4 |
<p>President Obama has spoken a lot about the need for "comprehensive" immigration reform. That means taking on a lot: Securing the border, providing more visas, protecting worker's rights, and figuring out how to deal with an estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US. That's a lot to sort out. Some argue, too much to take on at once, especially when the parties agree on small pieces of the immigration debate.</p>
<p>One of the downsides of this all-or-nothing approach is that a lot of immigration issues that have bipartisan support don't get done.</p>
<p>Consider agriculture. Here's the worst kept secret on fruit and vegetable farms in Arizona and California: "The existing workforce is approximately 70 percent illegal, or undocumented, or falsely documented workers," said Tom Nasif, president of Western Growers, an association that represents fruit, vegetable, and nut farmers in Arizona and California.</p>
<p>Nasif arrived at that 70 percent figure from university and think tank studies, along with statistics from W-2 forms that have mismatched social security numbers.</p>
<p>Every farmer will insist they check legal documents before hiring. But it's well known that phony documents are rampant on American farms. It's a risky game: Workers with fraudulent papers can get deported. The farmer can lose his workforce – and his harvest.</p>
<p>Politicians on both sides of the aisle agree that the system needs fixing. A bill in Congress called AgJobs has enjoyed bipartisan support. It offers a path to citizenship for undocumented agricultural workers and makes it easier for growers to hire temporary immigrant workers. But the bill has died, mostly because politicians couldn't reach a bigger compromise on the entire immigration problem.</p>
<p>Nasif said American agriculture can't go on like this.</p>
<p>"When the legislature wants to act on a sticky issue, such as immigration reform, they can do it very quickly," said Nasif, pointing to the example of Major League Baseball. When baseball teams exceeded their visa allotments, Congress quickly made things right in 2006.</p>
<p>"We have an adequate supply of outstanding baseball players in the United States. And so if anyone is taking jobs Americans would love to have, it's foreign baseball players," said Nasif.</p>
<p>(Nasif makes this point for effect, not because he wants foreign baseball players out of the country.)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, plenty of other interest groups want their own issues addressed as well. So-called "Dreamers," young people brought to this country illegally by their parents as children, want a path to citizenship. And then there are high-tech companies that want more visas granted to foreign engineers and scientists.</p>
<p>On tech worker and agricultural visas, Democrats and Republicans actually agree on key points. But as political scientist Mark Jones at Houston's Rice University points out, politics over who gives up what, or who gets what, in a massive immigration debate can kill smaller bills. With the AgJobs bill, the Democrats blocked it.</p>
<p>"They don't want to give away what they know is the one immigration reform that most Republicans want without getting something in return," said Jones.</p>
<p>Of course Republicans have stopped immigration-related bills that Democrats want too.</p>
<p>Frustrating, for many, but avoiding the piecemeal approach to immigration reform makes political sense to Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.</p>
<p>"It's a very tough tactical question and it always has been. And the reason has to do with the most difficult issue of all, which is: Do you do some kind of legalization for the 10 to 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States? And every time the discussion comes of doing immigration reform piecemeal, the problem is that that's the issue that gets left to last. And if that's the issue that left to last, it probably does not happen.</p>
<p>That's why many people on the bottom of the food chain in America — undocumented immigrants — favor going after comprehensive reform during this presidential term.</p>
<p>"It's harder to do, but it's harder if we keep another four years separating families, thousands of families," said Alain Cisneros, a community organizer in Houston with the Texas Organizing Project.</p>
<p>Cisneros said working immigrants without papers are basically trapped — they can't return to their home countries to visit family and they're afraid to speak out against abusive employers. When he came here, he worked as a janitor cleaning buildings in downtown Houston.</p>
<p>"Clean up every single night for hours, go and clean up the buildings. I see many, many people just come in and for any reason get fired. And the companies pay less, like in the black market. And (the workers) don't receive protection for the time working. I say, 'This is something wrong.'"</p>
<p>Cisneros said with comprehensive immigration reform, everybody's rights and needs will be on the table.</p>
<p>Like many who follow the immigration debate, Mark Jones at Rice University said if comprehensive reform has a chance of passing, now is the time.</p>
<p>"In the end, I think a lot will depend on what type of priority President Obama and the Democratic Party give to comprehensive immigration reform. If he really does make this the healthcare reform of his second term, it's likely to be passed," said Jones.</p>
<p>There are, of course, a lot of other important issues the president would like to address in the next four years. And don't underestimate party politics. Hispanic voters have been flocking to the Democratic Party, in large part, because of the Party's support for immigration reform. Jones said this puts Democrats in a position of strength.</p>
<p>"Really it's in the best interest of the Republican Party to remove this issue. For the Democrats, it's a win-win situation. Either they get the immigration reform they want, or they keep this alive as an issue that allows them to drive a wedge between the Republican Party and Hispanic voters, which means the Democratic Party just does better and better electorally."</p>
<p>In Washington, political gamesmanship can mean stalemate. There hasn't been meaningful immigration reform since 1986 when Ronald Reagan was president.</p> | Should Immigration Reform Be Comprehensive? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-01-28/should-immigration-reform-be-comprehensive | 2013-01-28 | 3 |
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<p>Johnny Tapia and Jerry Padilla had sort of, kind of known each other for decades.</p>
<p>Tapia, the five-time world champion boxer, had at least a nodding acquaintance with several of Padilla’s sons. Members of the Padilla family had gone to Tapia’s fights and cheered him on.</p>
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<p>Last week, those two ships in the Albuquerque night suddenly docked as father and son, brother and brother.</p>
<p>A paternity test, the 43-year-old fighter announced on Monday, was 99.97 positive that he was the product of a 1966 liaison between Padilla and Tapia’s mother, Virginia — and that Padilla was the dad he’d grown up without and never dreamed he’d find.</p>
<p>“I hope and pray,” Tapia said&#160; at a news conference, “that we can be one happy family and make up for (lost time).”</p>
<p>Like most things in Tapia’s life, the future is complicated by the past.</p>
<p>Padilla, 63, is semi-retired from the construction business. But he also is a three-time convicted heroin dealer. He was released from prison in 1994, the same year his eldest son, Jerry Jr., was indicted for cocaine trafficking. Another son, Jeffrey, was convicted of murder and said to be the head of the Los Padillas street gang.</p>
<p>Padilla’s criminal background wasn’t mentioned at Monday’s news conference, held at Tapia’s boxing gym in northeast Albuquerque. Later, when interviewed by phone, Tapia became angry when told the Journal intended to report it.</p>
<p>“This is about me finding my dad,” Tapia said. “… This is 43 years that I haven’t found my dad, and I want to be happy about it.</p>
<p>“My father has been clean for 17 years. The whole reason I went to the press is because I found my father and it should be a beautiful thing. It shouldn’t be about his past.”</p>
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<p>Tapia’s own past includes prison time related to a longtime cocaine habit. It also includes the murder of his mother when he was 8, an upbringing by his maternal grandparents amid a houseful of uncles and aunts, and nearly three decades in the boxing ring.</p>
<p>His mother’s death, he has said, caused him untold anger. Not having a father, he said Monday, was “torture a lot of times, like around Christmas.”</p>
<p>Tapia is featured in “Absent,” a documentary film by director Justin Hunt about the absence of a father. Tapia first revealed Padilla was his dad last weekend at the Albuquerque Film Festival. &#160;</p>
<p>At various times, Tapia said, he had been told his father was dead. “Then, they said he was a drum player. I just heard different stories, and we didn’t know which was the right one.”</p>
<p>Padilla said he had never made the connection between his brief 1966 relationship with Virginia Tapia and the famous boxer, born in February 1967.</p>
<p>Then, this year, Padilla decided to get into the boxing business — still, he said, with no inkling that Tapia was his son.</p>
<p>Teresa Tapia, her husband’s manager, said she was contacted by a third party regarding the fighter’s availability to fight next month on a card at the Hard Rock Hotel &amp; Casino Albuquerque.</p>
<p>As the project went forward, Padilla said, he was struck by the resemblance between Tapia and his sons.</p>
<p>“I told him one day, ‘You have a lot of Baca in you’; my mother was a Baca.</p>
<p>“I kept seeing that in his eyes, and I just told myself, ‘This is pretty interesting.'”</p>
<p>Such moments of discovery eventually led to a laboratory, where Tapia and Padilla submitted samples on Aug. 23. Three days later, the results were in.</p>
<p>“I’m just so happy, and so surprised,” Padilla said. “We got the test, and it was 99.97 (probable). It’s a blessing.”</p>
<p>James Padilla, 31, said he’s been a Tapia fan for years.</p>
<p>“We’ve always followed his boxing,” he said of his new-found half-brother. “We’ve been sports fans, boxing fans, especially since (Tapia has) been through the same things we’ve all been through, and we’ve always supported him.</p>
<p>“Then to find out he’s our brother, it’s different. It’s just a different feeling.”</p>
<p>Like his new-found son, Padilla is covered with tattoos. But the resemblance doesn’t stop there.</p>
<p>“Look at us,” Tapia said, as he sat between Jerry and James Padilla. “Is that (the resemblance) crazy?</p>
<p>“The future for the Tapias and the Padillas is to have some fun and to enjoy life. Whatever comes after that will be fine, but we’re gonna have some fun.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Tapia’s New Family | false | https://abqjournal.com/232591/tapias-new-family.html | 2 |
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<p>This revelation led to the inevitable compare-and-contrast discussion between the proud French farmer and efficiency-oriented American. The punchline of that conversation came back to me Wednesday for a topical reason I’ll reveal in a moment. The farmer explained to me that the way to think of his operation was that of a nonprofit that the public willingly supported in order to enjoy truly organic food and the existence of a quaint, non-corporate farm (it was open to visitors, which was how I happened to be there).</p>
<p>Consider President-elect Donald Trump’s deal with United Technologies to preserve 1,000 jobs at its Carrier air conditioner factory in Indianapolis instead of moving the jobs to Mexico. News reports suggested that the outsourcing would have saved the company $65 million a year, as the firm planned to pay Mexican workers about one-fifth of the U.S. wage ($5 vs. $25 per hour).</p>
<p>It’s not clear what carrots and/or sticks are on offer from various levels of government; the mayor, the governor — who happens to be Vice President-elect Mike Pence — and Trump himself were in on the deal. But company officials essentially said they’d eat the loss in the interest of positive PR, maintaining UTC’s lucrative deals with the Defense Department, and doing a solid for the incoming administration. Given annual revenue of $56 billion and profits of $4 billion a year, that may be a perfectly smart business decision for the firm.</p>
<p>But is it good economics?</p>
<p>It certainly doesn’t seem like a sustainable way to adapt to the pressures of globalization. Somebody has to make up that wage differential, either taxpayers (subsidies), consumers (higher prices), or shareholders. In fact, as Nelson Schwartz reported in the New York Times, “While the standoff loomed large in the lives of its employees in Indiana, for United Technologies the forgone savings is tiny – equivalent to about 2 cents per share in earnings.” (The other way to make up the difference would be productivity, but there’s little productivity differential between most new Mexican factories and U.S. ones.)</p>
<p>Members of team Trump claim they might want to do more of these types of interventions. And there’s no question that what they did here at Carrier is both smart politics and a real, unequivocal boon for the Carrier workers who get to keep their high-value-added jobs relative to what may otherwise be available to them.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But to make this type of intervention a core part of their job-growth strategy would be a mistake. I don’t think Americans want to subsidize factories the way the French subsidize farms. This sort of production cannot be sustained as some sort of non-competitive museum model, where we push back on trade-induced job losses through tax breaks and government contracts. True, governors and mayors commonly dole out such goodies as bribes to factories to settle in one state vs. another, but that’s a zero-sum game, and often ends up as a big waste of precious resources. Meanwhile, it’s also a game of corporate whack-a-mole. While Trump et al. were brokering this deal, nearby factories were packing up for Mexico.</p>
<p>As I recently wrote, we’ve generally failed to even try to implement a solution to this problem of global competition eroding our manufacturing base. A systemic approach, as opposed to what Trump is up to here, will require reducing our trade deficit in manufactured goods by pushing back against countries that manage their currencies to make our exports expensive and their exports cheap. It will require investments in advanced manufacturing so we can close the wage gap with productivity. It will require systemic state and older city economic development of the type economist Tim Bartik describes here and here. It may require direct job creation to employ displaced workers when none of the above comes through.</p>
<p>For all my American efficiency, I see nothing wrong with highly inefficient, yet lovely and healthy, French farms. But let’s not conflate that with a sustainable policy to meet the economic needs of the millions of workers, along with their families and communities, on the wrong side of the globalization equation.</p>
<p>– Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of the new book “The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity.”</p>
<p>carrier-econ-comment</p> | Trump and the Carrier plant: Smart politics, unsustainable economics | false | https://abqjournal.com/899576/trump-and-the-carrier-plant-smart-politics-unsustainable-economics.html | 2 |
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<p>The group leftists quickly <a href="" type="internal">compared</a> to brave WWII Allied soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy in the wake of the fatally violent Charlottesville protest last weekend have proved the Left should more deeply consider its "friends."</p>
<p>On Saturday, <a href="" type="internal">Antifa</a> thugs became violent while protesting a small gathering of about 100 people for a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thousands-march-boston-counter-protest-free-speech-rally-n794156" type="external">free speech rally</a>in Boston, which was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/boston-free-speech-rally-sign-photos_us_5998666ae4b0a2608a6ca765" type="external">reportedly</a> free of any neo-Nazis (though some of the attendees had ties to the alt-right).</p>
<p>The black-clad "anti-Fascists" were part of a group of nearly 40,000 who counter-protested the rally, but quickly differentiated themselves from the rest of the "peace marchers," taunting police officers, harassing and assaulting rally attendees, and ultimately clashing with law enforcement — all in the name of "stamping out fascism."</p>
<p>According to the Boston Police Department, protesters threw rocks, urine, and bottles at officers manning the rally:</p>
<p>An elderly woman holding an apparently offensive American flag was dragged by Antifa thugs:</p>
<p>According to an unconfirmed report, a teenage Trump supporter with a “F*** Nazis, F*** Antifa, Donald Trump 2020" sign was surrounded by Antifa before being "rescued" by police officers.</p>
<p>MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake reported on Antifa members assaulting pro-life advocates. "Antifa folks just mobbed some anti-abortion protestors w/ posters. Yelled &amp; tore posters til cops came."</p>
<p>In the video below, Antifa members tangle with police officers before one woman threatens to spit on a black police officer. "Stupid-a** black b*tch," screams the woman, "you're supposed to be on our side!"</p>
<p>And more chaos:</p>
<p>The Boston Police Department reported a total of 33 arrests for "disruptive behavior." You can find the names of those arrested <a href="http://bpdnews.com/news/2017/8/19/nwez3w61jv5rm1ub2siyofkbizrvki" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>According to NBC News, there were about <a href="" type="external">40,000 counter-protesters</a> attending the free speech rally, an overwhelming majority of them were peaceful and respectful to the police officers working the event.</p> | Antifa Thugs Get Violent (Again), Clash With Police During 'Peace Rally' In Boston | true | https://dailywire.com/news/19946/leftist-heroes-antifa-thugs-get-violent-again-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-08-20 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Stockmonkeys.com via Flickr.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Over $100 billion in annual sales for top-selling biologic medicines will soon be up for grabs, and that's leading to a gold rush to develop biosimilars. With the biosimilar market poised to eclipse $20 billion as early as 2020, you might be wondering if investing in this new market is wise. Read on to learn more about biosimilars and how they may reshape medicine.</p>
<p>In the past, the majority of drugs were small-molecule drugs manufactured using chemical synthesis, or the making and breaking apart of chemical bonds. Because this method of manufacturing medicine is easily repeatable, expiring patents on small-molecule drugs led to a quick flood of generic copycats.</p>
<p>Today, generic drugs account for 80% of all prescriptions written and they produce tens of billions of dollars in annual sales for drugmakers like Teva Pharmaceuticaland Mylan NV.</p>
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<p>Increasingly, however, more drugs are being developed using a far more complex process that relies onbiologic processes involving living organisms like yeast. These complex large-molecule medicines, or biologics, can't be exactly replicated like small-molecule drugs and as a result, biologics have faced limited competition when their patents have expired.</p>
<p>In 2014, the world spent$289 billion on biologic medicines. In 2019, Deloitte estimates that global spending on biologics could reach $445 billion as biotech's share of worldwide prescription drug and OTC sales increases from 23% to 26%.</p>
<p>Image source: Deloitte's Global Life Sciences Outlook 2016</p>
<p>Advancing technology and regulatory support, however, is breaking down barriers that have kept a lid on drugs that work similarly to biologics but are inexact copies of them, known as biosimilars. That could mean that over time, billions of dollars in spending shifts from biologics to biosimilars.</p>
<p>Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), one of the leaders in biosimilar development, estimates that brand-name biologics with sales in excess of $100 billion will lose patent protection in the coming years, and that approvals of biosimilars could result in the biosimilar market growing from only a few billion today to $20 billion in 2020, including $8 billion in sales in the United States alone.</p>
<p>Image source: Pfizer.</p>
<p>It's anyone's guess if Pfizer's estimate will prove accurate, but investors should begin getting more clarity into the market potential of biosimilars soon, because the FDA is already approving them.</p>
<p>In April, the FDA gave Pfizer the go-ahead to market Inflectra, a biosimilar to Remicade, Johnson &amp; Johnson's(NYSE: JNJ) top-selling drug for autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.Remicade is Johnson &amp; Johnson's best-selling drug,with U.S. sales of $4.4 billion last year and $1.2 billion in the second quarter.</p>
<p>Pfizer hasn't launched Inflectra in the U.S. yet because it's been waiting for a key patent decision from Federal courts. However, courts weighed in against Johnson &amp; Johnson last month, and that means a launch should be possible before the end of this year.</p>
<p>Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Biogen(NASDAQ: BIIB), and Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN)are also leveraging their experience with biologics to craft biosimilars that are -- or will soon -- compete for market share with the planet's best-selling biologics.</p>
<p>Novartis' Sandoz unit won FDA approval for a biosimilar to Teva Pharmaceutical's multibillion-dollar multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone last year. Sandoz has also notched FDA approval for a biosimilar to the anemia drug Neupogen and the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. Sandoz's Copaxone and Neupogen biosimilars are already available and a launch of its Enbrel biosimilar should happen soon.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Biogen is teamed up with Samsung Bioepis. In the past year, the two have already secured approval of biosimilars to Remicade and Enbrel in Europe.</p>
<p>Amgen recently won unanimous support from a FDA advisory committee for the eventual approval of a biosimilar to AbbVie's $14-billion-per-year autoimmune disease drug Humira. A launch timeline for Amgen's Humira biosimilar, however, depends on the timing of an official FDA green light and ongoing patent litigation between it and AbbVie.</p>
<p>Investors aren't wrong to think that there's a significant market opportunity ahead for biosimilar drugmakers, but there are risks that still need to be considered. Since biosimilars aren't identical to the brand name drug, pharmacists won't automatically replace prescriptions written for the brand-name with them, which is something they do with generic alternatives to small-molecule drugs. Also, because biosimilars' manufacturing process is complex, it's far more expensive for drugmakers to produce them and that means that they'll carry prices that are higher than some might've hoped. If the cost savings offered by biosimilars aren't great enough, then doctors may continue prescribing the brand-name drugs they've become accustomed to.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, biosimilars' potential is huge and most of the major players are large, diversified multinationals that are somewhat insulated against a possible biosimilar bust. Since the upside associated with biosimilars is great and there are other compelling reasons to own drugmakers, including a larger and longer-living population, I think sprinkling some biosimilar drugmakers into your portfolio could prove to be profit-friendly over the next decade.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2518&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned.Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned.Like this article? Follow him onTwitter where he goes by the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/ebcapital" type="external">@ebcapital Opens a New Window.</a>to see more articles like this.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Biogen and Johnson and Johnson. The Motley Fool recommends Mylan and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is This New Market the Biggest Investment Idea of the Decade? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/17/is-this-new-market-biggest-investment-idea-decade.html | 2016-09-17 | 0 |
<p>Two U.S. special forces operators were killed overnight Wednesday during an operation against ISIS in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday. A third soldier sustained minor injuries during the same raid.</p>
<p>“This is the third incident in which US soldiers have died while fighting in Afghanistan this year,” <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-soldiers-die-deaths-isis-afghanistan-fighting-islamic-state-moab-a7705951.html" type="external">notes</a> The Independent.</p>
<p>The raid specifically targeted ISIS-Khorasan, the Islamic State’s active branch operating along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.</p>
<p>Joined by Afghan forces, U.S. personnel were operating in the southern portion Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, the same region where the U.S. dropped the MOAB, or “mother of all bombs” on ISIS tunnel complexes on April 13.</p>
<p>The Pentagon did not release any further details about the U.S. servicemen killed or the nature of the raid.</p>
<p>The deaths come just days after Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ visit to Afghanistan. Mattis’ trip was organized to reassert America’s commitment to the Afghan army as they shed life and limb to battle ISIS as well as an increasingly aggressive Taliban insurgency.</p>
<p>Mattis’ trip coincided with an intense period of mourning in Kabul: the Afghan army had just experienced one of the deadliest attacks against its troops in years. The Washington Examiner <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/24/james-mattis-visits-afghanistan-signals-new-us-war/" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Over 200 Afghan soldiers were killed during a complex attack on a key military headquarters in the country’s north on Friday, The Taliban attack on the headquarters for the Afghan army’s 209th Shaheen corps in Balkh province was the single largest loss of life suffered by the country’s security forces since 2001. Also on Monday, a police official said at least four security guards were killed when a suicide bomber attacked their checkpoint in eastern <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/afghanistan/" type="external">Afghanistan</a>.</p>
<p>Afghan President Ashraf Ghani forced Defense Minister Abdullah Habibi and Army Chief of Staff Qadam Shah Shahim to resign by in the aftermath of Friday’s attack.</p>
<p>Afghanistan is currently America’s longest-running active war. U.S. troops have had some sort of presence in Afghanistan for 16 years.</p>
<p>And yet, the war is far from over.</p>
<p>Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, just confirmed that <a href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/694462/russia-arming-afghan-taliban-defense-secretary-james-mattis-suggests-kabul" type="external">Russia is supplying the Taliban with weaponry</a>, an ironic inversion of historical precedent given America’s covert support for the Afghan mujahedeen fighting Soviet occupying forces in the late 1980s.</p> | Two U.S. Troops Killed Fighting ISIS In Region Of Afghanistan Where MOAB Was Dropped | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15821/two-us-troops-killed-fighting-isis-region-joshua-yasmeh | 2017-04-27 | 0 |
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<p>By now, you may have heard some of the <a href="http://wonkette.com/politics/dept'-of-your-blog-sucks/john-mccains-other-daughter-has-a-lame-blog-308342.php" type="external">buzz</a> surrounding <a href="http://mccainblogette.com/index.shtml" type="external">McCain Blogette</a>, the new blog put out by John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, and her friends (including “political fashionista” La-Toria Haven, thank goodness). The second family campaign blog this cycle, McCain Blogette is more of a shameless self-promotional vehicle than, say, a shameless pander for family-values votes like the Romneys’ <a href="http://fivebrothers.mittromney.com/" type="external">Five Brothers</a>. But this new genre has real potential. Here are some other efforts we’d like to see:</p>
<p />
<p>Readers, let’s see what you can come up with! There’s a Beau Biden gag just begging to be made here.</p>
<p>—Justin Elliott</p>
<p /> | Candidates’ Kids Can Blog Better Than This | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/candidates-kids-can-blog-better/ | 2007-10-11 | 4 |
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<p>Few surprises in <a href="http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=44" type="external">this new Pew study</a> on illegal immigration to the US. The number of undocumented immigrants has reached 10.3 million and keeps on growing; Mexicans account for the largest chunk, at 57 percent, or 6 million; undocumented migrants now represent about one-third of the total foreign-born US population; the most rapid growth of illegal immigration occurred in states without a long tradition of immigration, especially North Carolina and Arizona. (One number that did surprise me: one in six illegals is a child.)</p>
<p>The <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/ap/20050321/ap_on_re_us/undocumented_immigrants" type="external">AP story</a> doing the rounds describes a “surge” in illegal immigration driven by Mexicans and making a mockery of post 9/11 border-control efforts. True enough, these are big numbers, and they’ve been getting steadily bigger — by about 485,000 a year since 2000. But I notice that more illegal immigrants came to the US in the boom years of 1995 and 1999 than did between 2000 and 2004 (3.6 and 3.1 million, respectively); this doesn’t suggest to me that we’ve got a handle on illegal immigration; but nor does it tell me the problem’s gotten totally out of hand, which you’d assume from the tenor of the coverage. Just something to bear in mind as Bush gets together with Vicente Fox and the usual suspects renew their calls for draconian anti-immigrant measures.</p>
<p /> | Immigration by the numbers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/03/immigration-numbers/ | 2005-03-21 | 4 |
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<p>You have just won the lottery for a trillion dollars, tax-free! (Just go with it; face reality later.) That’s a 1 with twelve zeroes: $1,000,000,000,000. What will you do with your newfound gains?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>First, let’s put a trillion dollars in perspective. A stack of a trillion one-dollar bills would go almost one quarter of the way to the moon and weigh approximately ten tons. Assuming you live fifty more years (and cannot purchase immortality for a trillion dollars and/or your soul), you could spend over $54 million every day of your life and still leave a few grand in the bank for the kids.</p>
<p>So how are you going to spend all that money? You are certainly welcome to share it with us, but here are some other ideas.</p>
<p>Buy All the Sports Leagues&#160;– Every billionaire seems to desire a sports team. However, as a trillionaire, you can buy them all. The average NFL franchise is worth $1.4 billion, thus the entire roster of teams is valued at nearly $45 billion. That is pocket change to you. Buy the whole league. Make them play wherever and whenever you want. Have twelve Super Bowls a year and appoint yourself the halftime entertainment. (But please keep Left Shark!) When you are done with that, you could buy up Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and NASCAR, and still have well over three-quarters of your fortune left.</p>
<p>Buy Apple&#160;– At current market value as of this writing, you could buy the entire&#160; <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/astonishing-apple" type="external">Apple Company Opens a New Window.</a> (NASDAQ:AAPL)&#160;and still have more than $250 billion left over – plenty enough to buy all those sports teams. Would you rather buy the products? Let’s say you buy iPhone 6 Plus handsets with 64GB at retail $849. You could buy 1.178 billion of them, enough to give three of them to every man, woman and child in the U.S. Unfortunately, if you chose to help another country instead, you could only supply 92% of India’s population with one or 84% of China’s population, so a few folks will have to settle for the 5S model. Sorry, folks.</p>
<p>Buy Cars&#160;– The most expensive car sold at auction as of this writing was a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, which sold for a little over $38 million. You could buy over 26,000 of these cars – if you could find 26,000 of them. You could also buy a nice responsible 2015 Tesla Model S electric vehicle for around $80,000 (with a volume discount, of course). Buy 12.5 million of those and supply every licensed driver in New York, with a few left over. Send those to Beijing; maybe it will clean up their air.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Put People Through College&#160;– Free community college…why think small? With $1 trillion and an average cost of a little over $30,000 annually for private colleges, you could put 8.33 million people through all four years of college. Then, as you go on a college tour to be thanked, it’s VIP status and free beer for you at all the parties. Want to pay off all existing student debt instead? Sorry, you can’t – that is&#160; <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/student-loans-the-trillion-dollar-time-bomb" type="external">more than a trillion dollars. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Help the Government&#160;– You could wipe out the 2014 trade deficit ($505 billion), or you could pay for 25% of the $4 trillion budget that was just proposed by President Obama. You could also knock off between 5% and 6% of our national debt (as of this writing, near $18.15 trillion). But why on earth would you do that when you can buy sports leagues and sports cars….</p>
<p>Okay, time to return to reality: you’re not the Earth’s first trillionaire… yet. But if you keep reading MoneyTips….</p>
<p>More from <a href="http://www.MoneyTips.com" type="external">MoneyTips.com Opens a New Window.</a>: <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/time-to-make-your-2015-budget" type="external">Time to Make Your 2015 Budget Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/streaming-tv-for-cord-cutters" type="external">New TV Streaming Services for Cord-Cutters Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/how-about-them-apples" type="external">How About Them Apples? Opens a New Window.</a></p> | How Much is a Trillion dollars? What a Trillion Can Buy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/04/30/how-much-is-trillion-dollars-what-trillion-can-buy.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Mitt Romney.&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bachmannforcongress/2864763730/sizes/z/in/photostream/"&gt;Bachmann for Congress&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>The last time a social conservative organization unveiled a marriage pledge for GOP presidential candidates, it was <a href="" type="internal">kind of a disaster</a>. (And by kind of, we mean “totally.”) Frontrunner Mitt Romney denounced the pledge as “undignified”; Tim&#160;Pawlenty took a pass as well. That’s what happens when you <a href="" type="internal">include language</a> asserting that black families were more stable during slavery.</p>
<p>But on Thursday, the National&#160;Organization for Marriage (NOM!) released its own marriage pledge, and this one is off to a noticeably smoother start. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick&#160;Santorum, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, and—notably—Romney are all on board. Here are the key points of the pledge, <a href="http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=omL2KeN0LzH&amp;b=5075187&amp;ct=11103981&amp;notoc=1" type="external">per the release</a>:</p>
<p>That presidential commission on the harrassment of traditional marriage supporters should be a blast. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim&#160;Pawlenty hasn’t weighed in yet, but he’ll be joining NOM&#160;next week for the <a href="http://www.valuesbus.com/" type="external">Values Voters Bus Tour</a> through Iowa, so it’d be a little awkward if he just left them at the altar on this one. Also tagging along on the tour?&#160;Santorum, Reps.&#160;Steve King (R-Iowa.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), and—schedule permitting—Bachmann herself.</p>
<p /> | Bachmann, Romney Sign Anti-Gay Marriage Pledge | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/bachmann-romney-sign-anti-gay-marriage-pledge/ | 2011-08-04 | 4 |
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<p>A shelter for the residents of the 19 homes evacuated was set up in Cloudcroft. Firefighters have so far kept the fire from spreading across Highway 130 and they’re now focusing on the northern flank.</p>
<p>Officials say the Curtis Fire has grown to 100 acres but that cooler temperatures is beginning to slow the fire activity.</p>
<p>About 20 homes have been evacuated.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Curtis Fire southwest of Mayhill has prompted the evacuations of residents near the fire, according to an interagency fire information center.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The fire had burned between 25 and 40 acres of mixed conifer and grasses as of about an hour ago. Two hotshot crews and three fire engines are fighting the fire, which ignited around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Otero County Emergency Management is requesting evacuations of homes in the immediate vicinity of the fire.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Keep with ABQJournal.com for updates.</p> | UPDATED: Mayhill fire consumes 200 acres, 10 percent contained | false | https://abqjournal.com/189742/breaking-forest-fire-near-mayhill-prompts-evacuations.html | 2013-04-17 | 2 |
<p>Robert Kiger, the founder of the Trump Super PAC “Citizens for Restoring USA,” popped by CNN today to discuss the whole “ <a href="" type="internal">Trump supporters beating up a Black Lives Matter activist at a rally in Birmingham this weekend</a>” kerfuffle with anchor Carol Costello. Despite not having actually seen the video, he&#160;was pretty sure the assault was justified.</p>
<p>Kiger, a weird rich white guy with glasses that are too small for his head, explained that&#160;the protestor&#160;had no right to interrupt the all-important Trump rally, and besides, if he were to show up at a Black church,&#160;&#160;he would get beat up&#160;too.</p>
<p>Transcript via Raw Story:</p>
<p>From my perspective, I’m sick and tired of the Black Lives Matter thing,” Kiger complained. “I think it’s a farce. I think they’re there to just disrupt. Look, if they really care about black lives, they need to pick up a banner and go to the South Side of Chicago, where black lives are being slaughtered on a daily basis. If they really care about the African-American community, get up there and do something about it.”</p>
<p>“So they don’t have the right to protest at a Trump rally?” Costello wondered.</p>
<p>“No, they don’t, really,” Kiger relied. “Look, I wouldn’t go into a black church and start screaming white lives matter.”</p>
<p>“Would you be afraid that they would beat you up?” Costello pressed.</p>
<p>“Yeah! I know I’d get beat up,” Kiger insisted, adding that he would be “at least roughed up” by black church members.</p>
<p>Although Kiger has what I would personally describe as an especially punchable face, I’m gonna say that seems like a pretty unlikely scenario. Carol Costello also thought so, apparently, and brought up the forgiving reaction&#160;from&#160;members of the&#160;Emanuel AME&#160;Church after nine members of their fellowship with killed in a mass shooting by white supremacist Dylann Roof. Unfortunately, Kiger’s sound cut out and so we did not get to hear the delightful response he surely would have come up with.</p>
<p>Kiger’s insistence that the protester didn’t belong at the rally or&#160;in Birmingham, period (as it has always been a place rife with racial harmony), along with&#160;Trump’s defense of his supporter’s&#160;violence,&#160;says&#160;a lot about his campaign and what it stands for, i.e. being <a href="" type="internal">racist</a> and <a href="" type="internal">terrible</a>.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/trump-supporter-tells-cnn-id-get-beat-up-at-a-black-church-so-black-activists-deserve-it-at-trump-events/" type="external">Raw Story</a>]</p> | Trump PAC Founder Defends Assault On Black Activist At Rally | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-11-23/trump-pac-founder-defends-assault-on-black-activist-at-rally/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dtrump | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Though he may not come down strongly on discrimination against the LGBT community or women, if there’s one thing this latest pope knows how to condemn it’s greed. He famously rode buses in Argentina and has worked to maintain some semblance of his humility despite being charged with being the leader of one of the most ostentatious institutions in the world. He’s even decided to set up camp in the Vatican guesthouse instead of the Apostolic Palace, all in order to live up to his chosen name of Francis after an Italian saint who decided to live in poverty.</p>
<p>In the pontiff’s first major publication, he uses his megaphonic powers to tell the 1 percent to spread the wealth, for God’s sakes. He previously denounced the “idolatry of money” and now he’s gone as far as pleading with world leaders to provide “dignified work, education and healthcare” for all their citizens. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/26/pope-francis-capitalism-tyranny" type="external">The Guardian</a> reports:</p>
<p>The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March….</p>
<p>“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.</p>
<p />
<p>“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”</p>
<p>The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off and the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy “also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion”.</p>
<p>“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security,” he wrote….</p>
<p>The 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence.</p>
<p>“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Denying this was simple populism, he called for action “beyond a simple welfare mentality” and added: “I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor.”</p>
<p>Religious or not, many of us can probably say amen to that!</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi</a></p> | Pope Francis: Unfettered Capitalism Is a 'New Tyranny' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/pope-francis-unfettered-capitalism-is-a-new-tyranny/ | 2013-11-27 | 4 |
<p>Bill Clinton will not stand in the way of his wife becoming Barack Obama's secretary of state. The former president has agreed to nine conditions. Most notably, he will release the names of the 208,000 donors to his foundation and will submit future speeches and business deals to State Department and White House ethics reviews.</p>
<p>New York Times via <a href="http://politicalwire.com" type="external">Political Wire</a>:</p>
<p>The former president's web of business and charitable activities raised questions about how he could continue to travel the world soliciting multimillion-dollar contributions for his foundation and collecting six-figure speaking fees for himself from foreign organizations and individuals while his wife conducted American foreign policy.</p>
<p>Lawyers for Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama spent days crafting the agreement in hopes of addressing any concerns about Mr. Clinton's activities. He had previously said he would do whatever the Obama transition team asked in order to make it possible for his wife to serve without questions. Mr. Obama's team said it was satisfied that the concessions Mr. Clinton made should defuse any potential controversy. Until Saturday, only some elements of the agreement had become public.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30clinton.html?_r=2&amp;hp" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Bill Clinton Jumps Through Hoops for Hillary | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bill-clinton-jumps-through-hoops-for-hillary/ | 2008-12-01 | 4 |
<p>The state branch of the Service Employees International Union is launching another bid to use direct democracy to win leverage in its negotiations with California’s hospitals to improve health care access for poor people and to make union organizing easier. It’s taken steps toward qualifying a ballot measure that would govern hospital executives’ pay and regulate other hospital issues. This is from the Sacramento Business Journal:</p>
<p>The proposed initiative, submitted to the state on Friday, would limit compensation packages for executives, administrators and managers at nonprofit hospitals, hospital groups and affiliated medical entities to no more than $450,000 per year. That’s what the U.S. president gets.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>This looks like a measure SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West dropped 18 months ago when it signed a partnership agreement with the California Hospital Association to settle differences and work on a joint campaign to fix Medi-Cal.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>That deal also halted SEIU initiatives to regulate hospital prices and the level of charity care nonprofit hospitals provide. In exchange, the union appeared to get better access to hospitals for organizing purposes. Both partners agreed to a code of conduct about labor management relations.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Union spokesman Steve Trossman said the partnership agreement and labor management agreement remain in place. He said the union had not decided whether to also revive ballot measures on charity care and pricing.</p>
<p>The filing of the initiative language with the Secretary of State’s Office isn’t necessarily a sign this is a serious proposal, but it’s certainly a serious message going into 2016 that the SEIU will continue to fight its battles through all available avenues. It triggered a sharp reaction from California Hospital Association CEO C. Duane Dauner and CTA Vice President for External Affairs Jan Emerson-Shea:</p>
<p>[The] decision by&#160;SEIU-UHW (UHW) to file a harmful ballot measure that will negatively impact the operations of hospitals throughout California is an abuse of the state’s initiative process and violates a May 5, 2014 agreement negotiated between the California Hospital Association (CHA) and UHW. Artificially imposing a cap on compensation will result in a loss of qualified executives and undermine the ability of hospitals to meet the challenges ahead.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Since signing the May 5, 2014 agreement, CHA has worked with UHW to address a myriad of issues facing California’s health care delivery system, most specifically the need to improve access to care for low-income children, seniors and the disabled. These efforts have raised the awareness among state lawmakers, stakeholders and the public about the importance of creating a stable source of funding for the Medi-Cal program, which provides coverage to more than 12 million Californians. While progress is being made, much work remains to be done.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>This is the third time UHW has attempted to use the initiative process to further its organizing agenda. As was the case in 2011-12 and 2013-14, the measure filed today does nothing to fix Medi-Cal or increase access to hospital services.</p>
<p>The SEIU’s California branch has <a href="http://www.seiuca.org/" type="external">700,000</a> members in California and has worked to raise its profile in recent years. Earlier this month, it announced plans to sponsor another 2016 ballot measure that also may be more of a leverage play to goad business interests to cooperate with the Legislature on raising the minimum wage than a serious effort. This is from the <a href="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/11/04/seiu-california-and-ununionized-workers-file-15-minimum-wage-initiative" type="external">East Bay Express</a>:</p>
<p>A coalition of low-wage workers and the Service Employees International Union of California filed a ballot proposition&#160;yesterday with the California Attorney General that would raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 by 2020, and adjust it upward each year thereafter at the rate of inflation. It would also mandate that employers provide workers with a minimum of six paid sick days per year.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Backers of the initiative said they will begin gathering signatures to put it on the ballot starting in January 2016. If they succeed in gathering the 365,880 necessary signatures, voters could decide on the proposal in the November 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>This ballot measure is more generous than a rival ballot proposal to raise the minimum wage sponsored by one of the SEIU’s largest member unions, the United Healthcare Workers West. The Sacramento Bee reported <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article42657987.html" type="external">earlier this month</a> that the state SEIU may end up working with the hospital union on one measure to avoid confusing voters and wasting union dollars by launching two separate efforts.</p> | SEIU targeting hospitals with ballot measure again | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2015/11/24/seiu-targeting-hospitals-ballot-measure/ | 2018-11-20 | 3 |
<p>While multiple Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, viewed as a goddess by much of the Hollywood acting industry, ranted against the incoming Trump Administration at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, virtually everyone present genuflected at her feet.</p>
<p>But not everyone.</p>
<p>There were two notable exceptions, and their reaction to Streep’s jeremiad was captured in a photo that is priceless:</p>
<p>Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn register their priceless reaction to Crazy Aunt Meryl's rant against Trump at the Golden Globes <a href="https://t.co/yr4U2NKBnQ" type="external">pic.twitter.com/yr4U2NKBnQ</a></p>
<p>Gibson, of course, is famous (or infamous, if you’re a member of the Hollywood set) for being a conservative, as evidenced by making deeply religious movies such as The Passion of the Christ and Hacksaw Ridge, as well as his own <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4103838/Not-impressed-Mel-Gibson-Vince-Vaughn-glare-daggers-Meryl-Streep-s-Golden-Globes-anti-Trump-speech.html" type="external">outspoken views</a>, including his opposition to abortion and gay marriage. In 1995, he called President Bill Clinton a "low-level opportunist."</p>
<p>Vaughn is a serious libertarian, having supported Ron Paul; he <a href="http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/22217/" type="external">headlined</a> a Young Americans for Liberty conference at UCLA in 2015, saying, “I think the message of individual liberty and peace is contagious,” adding:</p>
<p>There is a challenge because you are up against such a system in place that kind of indoctrinates, if you will, that this is good and that is bad. lot of that to me is really laughable. If you can sit with someone individually and just point out how crazy some of these things are, right? . . . I feel bad for the kids who are going there, their parents are just kind of sending them there. But I think a lot of kids also will kind of wake up at some point and say, "This feels a little suffocating, some of these ideas feel like it’s really being jammed down my throat," which is a good reason to kind of question it, right? Like, why is every week, you know, global warming week?</p>
<p>Ever wonder why Gibson and Streep haven’t been in a movie together?</p> | PRICELESS: See This Picture of Mel Gibson And Vince Vaughn Responding To Meryl Streep | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12308/priceless-see-picture-mel-gibson-and-vince-vaughn-hank-berrien | 2017-01-10 | 0 |
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<p>But as several prominent YouTubers discovered recently, some of the things hidden from view when the filter is turned on are a bit baffling. Things like an LGBT couple reading their wedding vows to each other, a straightforward makeup tutorial for trans women, and one of YouTube’s own “spotlight” videos celebrating Pride month.</p>
<p>Those filtered videos, along with many, many others discovered by LGBT YouTubers over the past several days, led many to accuse the platform of censoring its LGBT creators. And so far, the YouTube community at large is not satisfied with YouTube’s responses to their concerns.</p>
<p>Tyler Oakley, who has more than 8 million subscribers, noticed last weekend that a recent video of his on “8 Black LGBTQ+ Trailblazers Who Inspire Me” was unavailable with the filter turned on. He urged his fans to “actively check on all LGBTQ+ creators you’re subscribed to &amp; continue to support their content.”</p>
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<p>Hank Green was a bit more straightforward with how the filter’s choices were being read:</p>
<p>“‘YouTube Restricted’ is for a way for parents to block potentially offensive content. Apparently that includes the existence of gay people?”</p>
<p>A few hours after the likes of Green and Oakley began drawing attention to the filter, YouTube tweeted that it was “so proud to represent LGBTQ+ voices on our platform,” and that Restricted Mode was intended to “filter out mature content for the tiny subset of users who want a more limited experience.” The statement says that some LGBTQ+ content is available with the filter on, but not some “videos that discuss more sensitive issues.”</p>
<p>“We regret any confusion this has caused and are looking into your concerns,” the statement adds. Green responded to that statement by asking YouTube to suspend the filter, presumably until the problem is resolved. Other well-known creators were similarly unsatisfied. One tweeted:</p>
<p>“If they’re a tiny subset then why are you catering your platform to them. I’m sorry dad but this is not only vague but seems like a lie.”</p>
<p>For YouTubers, even incremental changes in how the site displays their videos can became major rallying points of outrage. It is, after all, their livelihoods.</p>
<p>In the fall, YouTube started to alert creators when their videos were demonetized for potentially drawing complaints from advertisers, instead of burying those notifications deep in an analytics dashboard. And although the policy itself wasn’t new, the change triggered a round of outrage among creators, once they started to get a better sense of which of their videos fell afoul of YouTube’s advertiser guidelines. YouTube’s policy of removing ads from videos that cover “controversial or sensitive subjects and events,” for instance, was alarming to creators whose channels include news coverage.</p>
<p>The demonetization outrage raised two questions that reappear in the discussion about YouTube’s filter: How does the company define and identify “controversial” or “offensive” content in the first place, and why isn’t YouTube more transparent about these processes with creators and their fans?</p>
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<p>For LGBT YouTubers, the Restricted Mode’s filter drew ire for potentially restricting their ability to reach LGBT youth with their videos – a mission that is a core message for many of the community’s most popular creators.</p>
<p>“No one’s really sure how it’s working, but we know it has some sort of targeted effect for LGBT individuals,” said YouTuber Rowan Ellis in a video that drew attention to the filter last week. Ellis’ channel focuses on feminist and queer examinations of pop culture.</p>
<p>“This attitude that queer and trans people are inappropriate, just their existence is inappropriate to be talked about around children, is insidious, and it has a history here, and it is not based in any kind of reality,” Ellis added, noting that about 40 of her videos were hidden under the filter. One of them is an essay about the lack of representation of LGBT couples in children’s programming, which is illustrated almost entirely by clips from TV shows and movies for kids.</p>
<p>One YouTuber, NeonFiona, posted side-by-side images showing her channel with and without Restricted Mode turned on. With the filter active, videos with the words “Lesbian,” “Gay” and “Bisexual” were hidden, while other non-LGBT specific videos on dating and relationships – including one that discusses sex – were not.</p>
<p>NeonFiona told Gizmodo that, as one of many YouTubers trying to reach and help LGBT youth, she feels “restricting these videos makes it harder for these kids to find information they need and the community that they’ve been missing.”</p>
<p>As outrage about the filter’s impact on LGBT content spread, fans in other YouTube communities were also surprised to learn the extent of the filter’s reach on their favorite channels.</p>
<p>Game Grumps, a popular gaming channel with 3 million subscribers, has exactly zero videos available for viewing with the filter on. Markiplier, another gaming YouTuber with 16 million subscribers, has just two videos that made it through the filter. Both of those channels do include plenty of videos that have 1) objectionable language and/or 2) scary or potentially graphic video game footage, so it would be understandable that a family-friendly filter would hit some of the videos on their channel.</p>
<p>Lilly Singh, who goes by ||Superwoman|| and has more than 11 million subscribers, does a lot of comedy sketches and isn’t exactly considered to be one of YouTube’s more controversial personalities. With the restricted filter on, I couldn’t view a video on her channel that announces the dates for her latest tour. The video is basically a parody of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” and we’re really struggling to see what might be potentially offensive about it. The filter also restricts a video of hers promoting a “bra toss challenge” which is much, much tamer than that sounds and is for a cause.</p>
<p>YouTube says its Restricted Mode filter restricts content that is “flagged by users and other signals,” and is not “100% accurate.” We’ll have to wait and see how, if at all, YouTube addresses the continued criticism of this feature from some of its most popular personalities.</p> | YouTube is ‘looking into’ complaints that it unfairly censors LGBT videos | false | https://abqjournal.com/972658/youtube-is-looking-into-complaints-that-it-unfairly-censors-lgbt-videos.html | 2 |
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<p>Oh my how the supporters of Occupy Wall Street cheered when Lech Walesa, hero of the fight against communism in Poland, announced that he would fly to New York to support the Occupy Wall Street movement.</p>
<p>Brent Budowsky at&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-a-budget/187593-lech-walesa-and-al-gore-support-wall-street-protests-tea-party-leader-endorses-bailed-out-bank-abuses" type="external">The Hill</a> was ecstatic:</p>
<p>Great news for the real America. One of history’s great leaders for&#160; jobs, workers and freedom is now supporting the Occupy Wall Street&#160; protest. Lech Walesa has now weighed in, big time, for the good guys.</p>
<p>Just two days ago Budowsky wrote at HuffPo that&#160;Walesa’s participation was a sign that OWS was on the verge of becoming a mass movement, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/50-million-will-march_b_1021317.html" type="external">50 Million Will March</a>:</p>
<p>The Occupy Wall Street movement is the authentic heir to John Hancock and Sam Adams, and to historic movements from suffragettes championing the rights of women to Solidarity and Lech Walesa, who supports Occupy Wall Street, championing the rights of workers.</p>
<p>At the <a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/loving-obama-0811" type="external">Obama-adoring</a> Esquire, Charles Pierce had a <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/lech-walesa-occupy-wall-street-6513557" type="external">thrill run up his leg</a>:</p>
<p>The fact that Lech Walesa apparently is planning to come to New York to visit the Occupy site is&#160; just about the coolest thing that’s happened since the movement’s reach began&#160; to spread.</p>
<p>And I could go on an on.</p>
<p>Admittedly, I could not understand how Walesa would march in support of a movement which openly touted the virtues of socialism and communism, and tolerated anti-Semitic signs and rhetoric even if the movement itself was not anti-Semitic.</p>
<p>Turns out Walesa didn’t really know about Occupy Wall Street, and <a href="http://biggovernment.com/aandrzejewsk/2011/10/21/lech-walesa-not-attending-occupywallstreet-in-new-york-after-discovering-hard-left-organizers/" type="external">now that he does</a>, he’s not going to be marching with them:</p>
<p>When Walesa’s comments hit the AP wire last week, my team immediately reached out to our Polish contacts.&#160; We made the point that the political themes of Occupy Wall Street may have started out with some of the principles that we share, but OWS themes were rapidly being morphed into anti-freedom and anti-liberty messages.&#160; At the core is the want for a big, powerful central government to dominate the lives of individual citizens.</p>
<p>Using <a href="http://biggovernment.com/" type="external">biggovernment.com</a> plus other news sources, rapidly we painted an accurate picture of the groups training, leading, and organizing the “movement.” The movement is organized by anarchists, Code Pink, the American Communist movement, jihadists, anti-Israel, socialist, and anti- free enterprise interests. OWS folks are politically to the left of President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>At the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation in Warsaw, they were thankful to receive this information.</p>
<p>Based on our discussion and intervention, President Walesa is not going to get involved with the OWS.&#160; He is not comfortable with the “organizations” behind the movement.&#160; It was not a difficult discussion.</p>
<p>Heartbreak.</p> | No Lech Walesa for Occupy Wall Street | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/10/no-lech-walesa-for-occupy-wall-street/ | 2011-10-22 | 0 |
<p>Pete Marovich/ZumaPress.com</p>
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<p>On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz released “ <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/07/ted-cruz-releases-definitive-list-of-76-lawless-obama-actions/" type="external">The Legal Limit Report No. 4</a>,” a comprehensive report on the Obama administration’s “persistent power of lawlessness” and abuses of power. “In the more than two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz wrote—outlining a period in which American citizens were rounded up and put in camps, deprived of habeas corpus, and routinely denied basic rights on the basis of race—”there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking others to do the same.”</p>
<p>Given those stakes, much of what’s on Cruz’s list is pretty trivial. Not only are many of the abuses several dozen bureaucratic rungs beneath the president’s purview, but there’s no real explanation of how they might be remotely classified as lawless abuses. Here are the eight silliest items on the list:</p>
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<p /> | Ted Cruz Is Attacking Obama for Relocating a Shrubbery | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/ted-cruz-attacking-obama-relocating-shrub/ | 2014-05-09 | 4 |
<p>PROVO, Utah (AP) — Police have caught a man suspected of shooting a homeowner in Herriman and exchanging gunfire with police officers while trying to escape last weekend.</p>
<p>The Daily Herald in Provo <a href="http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/suspect-in-herriman-shooting-apprehended-in-spanish-fork/article_0490e1c9-bf1c-5406-8346-6ee54b8c1744.html" type="external">reports</a> that Justin Llewelyn was apprehended Wednesday afternoon following a chase that started on Interstate 15 near Provo and ended in Spanish Fork. The suspect and a deputy were injured in the pursuit but are expected to survive.</p>
<p>Authorities had been looking for the 33-year-old Llewelyn since a Herriman homeowner was shot Saturday. The victim was shot twice, but survived.</p>
<p>Police had previously arrested two people on suspicion of obstructing justice in the case.</p>
<p>Llewelyn is in the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of a number of charges, including aggravated robbery and burglary.</p>
<p>Records do not list an attorney for Llewelyn.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Daily Herald, <a href="http://www.heraldextra.com" type="external">http://www.heraldextra.com</a></p>
<p>PROVO, Utah (AP) — Police have caught a man suspected of shooting a homeowner in Herriman and exchanging gunfire with police officers while trying to escape last weekend.</p>
<p>The Daily Herald in Provo <a href="http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/suspect-in-herriman-shooting-apprehended-in-spanish-fork/article_0490e1c9-bf1c-5406-8346-6ee54b8c1744.html" type="external">reports</a> that Justin Llewelyn was apprehended Wednesday afternoon following a chase that started on Interstate 15 near Provo and ended in Spanish Fork. The suspect and a deputy were injured in the pursuit but are expected to survive.</p>
<p>Authorities had been looking for the 33-year-old Llewelyn since a Herriman homeowner was shot Saturday. The victim was shot twice, but survived.</p>
<p>Police had previously arrested two people on suspicion of obstructing justice in the case.</p>
<p>Llewelyn is in the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of a number of charges, including aggravated robbery and burglary.</p>
<p>Records do not list an attorney for Llewelyn.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Daily Herald, <a href="http://www.heraldextra.com" type="external">http://www.heraldextra.com</a></p> | Shooting suspect caught after 5 days following car chase | false | https://apnews.com/amp/425ec13e49ab46b2ab0bdda933ca3f9c | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>Never has an internet article of mine received as much feedback as one that spoke of America’s still continuing <a href="" type="internal">moral meltdown</a>. And, perhaps surprisingly, disagreement was expressed only in ten percent of the emails that were sent to me. The others expressed approbation; one woman even said the article literally made her cry. These facts struck me as remarkable, even heartening. For it showed once again that there are good people out there, people removed from the jerks in politics, government and the media who will say, do and write anything for the purpose of self advancement, self aggrandizement. There are still people who believe in good old fashioned honesty, integrity, competence and diligence, virtues that too often are absent in America these days.</p>
<p>So far, of course, the good folks have not managed to turn the tide of American meltdown. This is unfortunate, but one must retain hope, and must at least pretend — in the face of the evidence? — that things can get better. Otherwise things will not get better. Perhaps — at least one certainly hopes — the nascent, yet it would seem ever increasing, talk about a possible third party in 2008 will help turn the country around. This talk represents disaffection, not to say disgust, with the current scene — and that is all to the good. But the happy day of change is not upon us yet, so let me briefly discuss some of the further examples of moral meltdown that have appeared in the media in the last few days or have otherwise come to one’s attention.</p>
<p>There is, of course, that now hardy perennial, the war in Iraq. Last month it killed more than another 100 Americans, and Lord knows how many Iraqis. In the last week or so, Bill Moyers has again exposed, and George Tenet too (perhaps less wittingly) has again exposed, that this war is a horrible, incompetent mistake made by grossly incompetent, thoroughly dishonest leaders. But are we going to stop, any time soon, the American participation which opened the door to this disaster, to this creation of killing fields, and which remains so much a driver of the disaster? No, we almost certainly are not going to stop it any time soon. The incompetent fools at the top of the Administration desire to continue it — indefinitely, no less, and they desire this even though to accomplish their aims would be likely to take 10 years and at least a quarter million more American soldiers. Meanwhile the Democrats don’t have the guts to do what is necessary to stop it — which could easily be done by merely refusing all further funding of any type for the military (or, more limitedly, for Iraq) except for funds needed to finance the protection of troops during a withdrawal. Washington and the media also are filled with pundits and advisers who invent one reason after another why it would be bad to stop our participation even though to begin our participation was a terrible mistake. (In business such excuse mongering is called throwing good money after bad.) Out in the country, among Republican at least, and probably more heavily in the militaristic states of the old Confederacy than elsewhere, there are still people who think we should fight, no doubt to the last Iraqi. The lessons from Britain’s war in Iraq in the 1920’s are still a secret to most Americans. And one of the perhaps two or three greatest lessons of Viet Nam is still no less a secret to most Americans — such lesson being that as was easily discernible, to those with eyes to see and wit to understand, as early as the final four or five years of that misbegotten military adventure, America would do better (as occurred), both at home and in the world, when it ceased participating in its Indo China debacle.</p>
<p>There is also, in relation to continuing the moral meltdown of Iraq , a point made to me a few days ago by a guest on a new radio show called “What The Media Doesn’t Tell You.” The guest and I had a 45 minutes or so discussion of the incompetent performance of the press with regard to the ready foreseeability — which Rice, Rumsfeld, and Bush stupidly denied — of 9/11, of using airplanes to crash into structures. (Kamikazes, anyone? A bomber flying into the Empire State Building circa 1945, anyone? Other successful or attempted crashes into structures, anyone? Captured plans on Al Qaeda computers for using airplanes as missiles and statements from captured terrorists, anyone? Other similar precedents that made 9/11 readily foreseeable, anyone?) The guest — who has been a journalist for 50 years and so is likely to know what he is talking about — said to me that to be sent to Washington to cover the news is the supreme workplace accolade that can be bestowed upon a reporter. It shows that the reporter’s bosses think he or she is at the top of the profession. If that is true — and I frankly suspect the guest is exactly right — it is disheartening in the extreme to see the degree of gross incompetence that pervades so much of the Washington press corps, the degree of gross incompetence, not to say credulousness, that was again exposed a week ago by Bill Moyers. To paraphrase the (poet’s?) remark about winter and spring, when such incompetence is here, can moral meltdown be far behind?</p>
<p>There is also the all too usual stories of economic and sexual corruption in, and consequent moral meltdown in, Washington. Paul Wolfowitz, that paragon (right?) of Jewish American virtues which I was taught to honor and seek to emulate when growing up, that lying, stupid, power hungry sonofabitch who did so much to get us into the war, thinks it was just fine for him to participate in getting his girlfriend a new job at a much higher salary because the authorities at the World Bank allegedly knew and approved of this (which they deny). Wolfowitz says this was okay though there were plenty of others who could and, one logically surmises, in the ordinary course would have made decisions about his girlfriend’s employment, there were, one also logically surmises, plenty of other people who could and would have done the job his girlfriend received, and he himself rails and acts against corruption in third world countries. Because he is a man of such rectitude, Wolfowitz has hired the famous Washington mouthpiece, Robert Bennett, to represent him, and Bennett has proceeded to play hardball with the World Bank — another sure sign of Paul the Pr. . k’s innocence, right?</p>
<p>Moral meltdown also has been displayed at one of our great academic institutions, MIT, though here there definitely were sad aspects to it, aspects that speak poorly for America. MIT had to fire the head of its admissions staff, Merilee Jones, because, nearly thirty years ago, she lied on her resume in order to get a job at the university — a job for which she did not need a college degree. She falsely said she had degrees she most certainly did not have. At first it was reported that she had then said she had three such degrees. Later it was reported that she had only claimed two, but later added a third, apparently in connection with seeking a higher job at MIT. At first it was not reported that, but later it was reported that, in fact, when she applied for her first job at MIT, she had a degree from a small college in Albany, NY named Saint Rose. At the time, Saint Rose was little known, to put it mildly. Today it is a better known school of 5,000 which graduates a large proportion of New York state’s teachers.</p>
<p>During her decades at MIT, Jones apparently had performed very well in a number of jobs — including ones for which a college degree was required by MIT, which did not, however, check her credentials since she already was a high performing employee. Being highly regarded, she rose to the top of her professional field. For some unknown reason, though, a few weeks ago someone who knew the truth dropped a dime on her — ah, the pleasures of making enemies for one reason or another. MIT investigated and fired her despite her years of excellent service.</p>
<p>MIT did what it should have done when it fired her — we simply will continue to have a morally lousy country if people can lie their ways into jobs, get away with it, and later plead that the original lie should be ignored because of one reason or another, e.g., because of years of excellent service. Culprits must be punished — this is the only way we will ever put a stop to misconduct, and it is for that reason that war criminals like Kissinger and McNamara should be put in the dock now, even thirty and forty years after their horrid misconduct and despite their age. (It has been done to German Nazis you know, and the same principle should apply to our homegrown Nazis or, in one case, at least home schooled Nazi.) It is for the same reason that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wofowitz and a few others of our highest ranking Iraq war criminals should also be put in the dock. As I say, MIT was right to fire the woman for lying on her resume.</p>
<p>There is also a sadder side to the story, however. It is not primarily that she performed so well for so many years yet had to come to no good professional end, although that is a part of it. But the even sadder part is that the American mania for a college degree — and for a degree from a prestigious elite school, not a no name school however fine its quality — is so pronounced that Jones felt it desirable or necessary to invent false degrees when applying for her first job at MIT, and to hide the degree she did have, and felt as she did even though a degree was not a requisite for the job. This is symptomatic of the credentials mania that has infested American society, and that is now often more important than competence, even previously demonstrated competence. This mania, particularly because it substitutes credentials for competence, stifles good people lacking the credential, and makes a joke of the claim of social mobility that has always been so much a part of purported America. It is itself a form of moral meltdown.</p>
<p>One must recognize the possibility — I’ve read nothing one way or the other on this — that the woman’s initial lie about having degrees, a lie made when applying for a job that did not require a degree, was motivated in part (or whole?) by the desire to set herself up in advance for possible advancement at MIT to jobs which, however misbegottenly, did require degrees. Perhaps she realized that — as actually occurred — subsequent investigation of the veracity of her claim of degrees was unlikely if she already had been at MIT for awhile.</p>
<p>If this is what she calculated, it makes her own conduct even more calculating and reprehensible while at the same time showing even further the misbegotten character of the degree requirement — the more misbegotten here because she did, after all, perform very well in jobs ostensibly requiring a degree. The possibility that she was setting herself up for the future increases the morally reprehensible nature of her lie. Nor to be overlooked is that, one would guess, she probably had to continue with — and one gathers repeatedly put forth — the lie once it was initially set forth in her resume. Removing it from her resume might conceivably have been noticed, with consequent exposure of the lie, as she climbed the MIT ladder. One gathers she also had to provide her resume when she made speeches or appeared at conferences or authored articles or a book. She was trapped in her own lie — which regularly happens when one lies, and is one of the damn good reasons for not lying in the first place.</p>
<p>Let me also comment on the denouement of her career. For mass murdering criminals like Johnson, McNamara, Kissinger, Nixon, Bush, Cheney, and especially for those who are incompetent, formerly drunken, lying, nasty bastards, there should be no mercy. They should go to the gibbet. Yet they are never even put in the dock and, like Nixon and even McNamara, are allowed to “rehabilitate” themselves. But, after her initial lie, the woman at MIT spent nearly 20 years doing good, good for her school and, it appears, for the society as well. Then, unhappily, she lied again by inventing a third phony degree apparently to help get a better job, a big time job, at MIT, but proceeded to do social good for a decade. For the lies, she had to be fired. But one thinks that perhaps — even despite the second lie, although that certainly does detract from the point — she should be allowed to perform some lesser job at MIT or elsewhere after a one or two year period of suspension. Call this tempering justice with mercy, if you will. Call it recognition that the evil she did was in some incommensurable way offset by the good she did, if you will. Call it the only decent thing to do in a society that lets continuously-evil­producing-swine like some of our leaders go from strength to strength after murdering thousands, even millions, if you will. Whatever you call it, it would seem at least conceivably appropriate.</p>
<p>Now back to sex. The aforementioned Wolfowitz scandal isn’t the only male/female type scandal unfolding in Washington these days. There is also the possibly burgeoning prostitution scandal. One Deborah Jeane Palfrey, has been charged with operating a high end prostitution ring in Washington, doing so from her home in Vallejo, California, yet. It is said that she had 15,000 customers — 15,000!! — and ran such advertisements as ‘”Best selection and availability before 9 p.m. each evening.'” Palfrey had been convicted of opening a prostitution business in California in 1991, but says she was doing nothing illegal in Washington, was only serving people “‘from the refined walks of life here in the nation’s capital,'” offering them only “‘legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior,'” services such as massages or nude dancing. People, you see, were paying 300 bucks for 90 minutes — a rate of $200 per hour ­ for dancing or a mere massage. Right. Tell me more. To paraphrase Churchill, “Some dance! Some massage!” (Churchill said, roughly, “Hitler said he will ring England’s neck like a chicken.” Some chicken! Some neck!)</p>
<p>What has Washington all in a dither, however, is what Palfrey threatens to do if the feds continue on with their charges. She says she is going to blow the whistle (bad phrase, that) on who her customers were. Already identified one way or another have been Randall L. Tobias, said to be “the top foreign aid adviser in the State Department.” He previously was the Chairman and Chief Executive of Eli Lilly and AT&amp;T International and, get this, was Chairman of the Board of Duke University from 1997 to 2000. As a government official, to quote The Times , he “ran agencies that required foreign recipients of AIDS assistance to explicitly condemn prostitution . . . .” He is a major Republican contributor, of course. Dick Morris — Clinton’s man — was another of Palfrey’s clients. We only have another 14,998 Washington names to go. The divorce lawyers should be having a field day in Washington pretty soon. Remember the movie called, I think, The First Wives Club? Maybe there will be a club in Washington! entitled The 10,000 First Wives Club.</p>
<p>Then there have recently been some things that do not constitute moral meltdown, at least not in a culture that already is heavily debased, but instead exemplify the advertising-speak that infests our lives and culture and that inevitably leads to moral meltdown because it is so shoddy, so grandiose, so devoid of reality, so something or other, but definitely not genuine. There is a new business rag from Conde Nast called Portfolio. It is apparently designed to give you the beautiful people doing their beautiful things in the beautiful city. All very lavish, very plush, the acme of with-it. The publisher’s comment to The Times was, “We’re not giving you peas and carrots. We want to capture the glamour.” Terrific. Lives of glamour. That’s what we all lead, right? That’s what’s real in America, right? One wonders: did the publisher say glamour with a u, like all the rest of us glamo[u]rous types do?</p>
<p>There is also Steve Case, the unlamented AOL pitchman (con man?), who persuaded the fool, Gerald Levin, to sell him Time Warner and then watched the merged outfit go downhill till he, Case, had to leave one step ahead of the posse. Case has now set up a medical website called Revolution Health.com. ‘”There is a big opportunity to create the most trusted brand in health,'” says Case. Right — great PR speak, Steve. People are going to trust your website, con man Case’s website, more than, say, NIH’s, or the Mayo Clinic’s, or Johns Hopkins’, etc. Steve ought to run for President. He is so honest, sincere and sensible that he would be a worthy successor to George Bush. Steve cheapens talk, and he makes the use of words meaningless, just like George and all his buddies in Washington , and therefore would be a natural to continue the moral meltdown of the country.</p>
<p>You know, on an intimately related subject, Michiko Kakutani of The Times recently wrote a long review of a whole host of books by Presidential wannabes: Clinton, McCain, O’Bama, Giuliani, Edwards, Romney and others. To me, the most pertinent comment in the whole long review was “Bragging is a fundamental part of these books . . . .” That was one of the relatively few serious truths one reads about the cast of hacks, bums, liars, publicity seekers and nonstop self aggrandizers who lead our politics (to disaster). They all suffer from the perpendicular pronoun disease, as they all, in one way and another, lead the country off the moral cliff.</p>
<p>LAWRENCE R. VELVEL is the Dean of Massachusetts School of Law. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/05/05/the-american-moral-meltdown-accelerates/ | 2007-05-05 | 4 |
<p>(Reuters) – Mexico’s suspended anti-doping laboratory has been reinstated after correcting non-conformities, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The Laboratorio Nacional de Prevencion y Control del Dopaje had its accreditation revoked on Nov. 23 and was prohibited from carrying out any anti-doping activities after failing to comply with international standards.</p>
<p>WADA said it was satisfied the Mexico lab had addressed the issues and could resume testing immediately.</p>
<p>“We would like to commend the Laboratory for the cooperation and hard work that led to this reinstatement,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said in a statement.</p>
<p>“We are confident that the laboratory has corrected its deficiencies and our Laboratory Expert Group will now continue to monitor the laboratory’s performance to ensure that it operates to the high standards required by WADA.”</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | WADA reinstates suspended Mexico laboratory | false | https://newsline.com/wada-reinstates-suspended-mexico-laboratory/ | 2017-12-05 | 1 |
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Former Maine Senate president and Portland mayor Gerard Conley Sr. has died.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home confirms Conley died Thursday at age 88.</p>
<p>The Portland Press Herald <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2018/01/04/gerard-conley-sr-former-mayor-house-member-senator-dies-at-88/" type="external">reports</a> Conley began in the Maine House of Representatives in 1964. He would later be elected to the state Senate, where he served as assistant senate minority leader, minority leader and president. Conley served as a Portland City Councilman from 1968 to 1977, including a year as mayor.</p>
<p>Conley was appointed chairman of the Maine Turnpike Authority in 2004. He oversaw a 30-mile highway widening project and installation of the EZ Pass system.</p>
<p>A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Irish Heritage Center in Portland.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Portland Press Herald, <a href="http://www.pressherald.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.pressherald.com" type="external">http://www.pressherald.com</a></p>
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Former Maine Senate president and Portland mayor Gerard Conley Sr. has died.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home confirms Conley died Thursday at age 88.</p>
<p>The Portland Press Herald <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2018/01/04/gerard-conley-sr-former-mayor-house-member-senator-dies-at-88/" type="external">reports</a> Conley began in the Maine House of Representatives in 1964. He would later be elected to the state Senate, where he served as assistant senate minority leader, minority leader and president. Conley served as a Portland City Councilman from 1968 to 1977, including a year as mayor.</p>
<p>Conley was appointed chairman of the Maine Turnpike Authority in 2004. He oversaw a 30-mile highway widening project and installation of the EZ Pass system.</p>
<p>A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Irish Heritage Center in Portland.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Portland Press Herald, <a href="http://www.pressherald.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.pressherald.com" type="external">http://www.pressherald.com</a></p> | Former Maine Senate president Gerard Conley Sr. dead at 88 | false | https://apnews.com/fdda06491141423db211719b88f0dbd5 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mohammed Aly does not see any reason why he shouldn't try to ease the lives of Orange County's homeless. But the authorities — and many of his neighbors — disagree.</p>
<p>Aly, a 28-year-old lawyer and activist, has been arrested three times as he campaigned on behalf of street people. Recently, he was denied permission to install portable toilets on a dried-up riverbed, site of an encampment of roughly 400 homeless.</p>
<p>"Put yourself in their position: Would you want a toilet, or would you not want a toilet?" he asked. "It is a question of basic empathy."</p>
<p>But his detractors — engaged in a dispute that rages up and down America's West Coast, as the region struggles to cope with a rising tide of homelessness — say Aly and other do-gooders are doing more harm than good. However well-meaning, critics say, those who provide the homeless with tents and tarps, showers and toilets, hot meals and pet food, are enabling them to remain unsheltered.</p>
<p>And not coincidentally, they note, nuisances of homelessness like trash and unsanitary conditions fester and aberrant behavior continues.</p>
<p>In California, the San Diego County community of El Cajon passed a measure that curtails feeding the homeless, citing health concerns. In Los Angeles, city officials have closed and re-opened restrooms for those on Skid Row amid similar controversies.</p>
<p>The issue is hotly debated across Orange County, a cluster of suburbs and small cities known more for surf culture and Disneyland than its legions of poor.</p>
<p>In the tony seaside enclave of Dana Point, neighbors fear a nightly meal is drawing homeless to a popular state beach where teens play beach volleyball and families picnic and surf.</p>
<p>On the dusty riverbed 30 miles (48 kilometers) north, a van furnished with shower stalls parks alongside the homeless encampment; those living in the string of tattered tents add their names to a list of dozens waiting to bathe. While the mobile unit aims to help those living on the trash-strewn strip, neighbors worry the 2-mile-long (3-kilometer-long) encampment is becoming more entrenched in an area where they once jogged and biked.</p>
<p>"If the ultimate goal is to get them under a roof, why on Earth are you giving all the advantages you would have under a roof on the riverbed?" asked Shaun Dove, a 46-year-old soon-to-be retired policeman from Anaheim, who lives less than a mile from the riverbed in a palm-tree lined neighborhood of three-bedroom homes.</p>
<p>"There's no doubt that giving them stuff there prevents them from a desire to move."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>The number of homeless living in Orange County has climbed 8 percent over the last two years. In the United States, homelessness rose slightly in the last year to nearly 554,000, pushed up largely by increases on the West Coast, federal data shows. The increase is driven by soaring housing costs, though a drug addiction crisis and need for mental health services are also factors.</p>
<p>Advocates say the homeless population has become more visible as police have cracked down on rules barring camping, driving people from parks and bus benches to a few centralized locations, such as the flood control channel along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim.</p>
<p>Everybody knows that the only solution is more housing; there aren't enough beds available in a county where the median home price hovers near $700,000. Until there are, many well-meaning residents want to try to alleviate what they feel is a humanitarian crisis by bringing food and other assistance to the homeless.</p>
<p>In a small community like Dana Point, there is no shelter. The nightly meals began more than two decades ago at local churches but were moved to Doheny State Beach after a late night stabbing between two homeless residents.</p>
<p>The picturesque city on bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean is known for its million dollar homes and scenic harbor. But homeless have long been drawn to Dana Point and other beach communities which offer public access and wide open spaces — and the beauty and sunshine that lure so many people to California's shores.</p>
<p>In the late afternoon, volunteers arrive at the beach parking lot with folding tables and trays of chicken or beef or fish and fruit. They often also hand out a sack lunch for the next day to several dozen homeless, day laborers and poor who line up to eat after bowing their heads in a brief prayer.</p>
<p>The homeless say as much as they appreciate it, the food isn't keeping them on the streets.</p>
<p>Gholamreza Haghighi, 59, said he has been sleeping in the nearby brush for more than two decades — well before meals were served there — and has nowhere else to go. Jose Luis Gonzalez, 60, said he has been living in his motor home since splitting with his wife and sometimes stops by the suppers to see friends and have a meal. Another homeless man who refused to give his name said he heads there simply to eat.</p>
<p>"I come here because it's a Band-Aid," the 55-year-old said. "It doesn't help me tomorrow. It doesn't. But it helps me today."</p>
<p>Volunteers say the homeless are drawn to the beaches because of the open space and access to water and restrooms — not the meals. They feel that feeding people can build trust and lead the homeless to additional services, including housing.</p>
<p>"We understand that some residents and business owners in Dana Point are experiencing problems with the homeless. We are adamant, though, and disagree with the fact that we are contributing to the problem," said Chris Phillips, who helps lead the volunteer network known as Welcome INN.</p>
<p>Tell that to Brian Brandt, a 55-year-old lawyer. He jogs at the state beach and takes his six children there to surf but these days he doesn't let them go on their own. He said he's seen volatile outbursts among the homeless and frequent police calls and wishes volunteers would stop offering meals at a place meant for community recreation.</p>
<p>"I don't want to be seen as a bad guy — 'OK, look at this heartless dude,'" he said. "I don't feel safe. I don't feel like my kids are safe."</p>
<p>Resident Toni Nelson, who helped start a local neighborhood group, is critical of the meal service but is looking for solutions. She has joined with housing advocates to try to raise money to house the homeless who have ties to the tight-knit community.</p>
<p>If about a third of the city's 33,000 residents chip in $68, they figure they can house 46 homeless people identified in a recent survey for up to a year.</p>
<p>So far, dozens of people have signed up to give. But they still have a long way to go.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Robert Marbut, a consultant to communities on homelessness, believes it's misguided to provide housing or other services without heavy incentives for recipients to be in treatment programs for mental health problems, addiction or other issues.</p>
<p>"Anytime you give out services without treatment," Marbut said, "that's enabling, period. ... You've got to serve the food in a place where mental health is being provided."</p>
<p>But Marbut insists that camping bans or crackdowns don't work. And in fact, the encampment at the riverbed began when police in a host of cities refused to let the homeless sleep in parks or on bus benches. They headed to the trail along the flood channel, which is county property and cuts through several cities.</p>
<p>In recent years, the number of tents on the trail along the dried out riverbed has soared. Tents and tarps are surrounded by cardboard boxes and litter. Some of the people who live there travel up and down the trail on bikes, toting blankets or cans for recycling.</p>
<p>People say they ended up there for different reasons. For some, it was drug addiction. Others lost their jobs and couldn't make rent.</p>
<p>Aly, the homeless advocate, said for those living there basic sanitation is key. His latest plan is to station a trailer he fitted with portable toilets and shower stalls on a street near the encampment but Anaheim city officials have raised health and safety concerns.</p>
<p>Many neighbors want help moved off the trail entirely. They said nearby neighborhoods have suffered as the encampment has grown. Hypodermic needles have been found among pine needles in a park next to an elementary school. Shopping carts rattle as they're pushed down otherwise quiet streets.</p>
<p>Some homeowners said their neighbors' mail has gone missing, and potted plants from outside their homes. Some moved to Anaheim years ago when the city was smaller and more suburban to escape the bustle and traffic of Los Angeles. Now, they find themselves grappling with some of the same big city problems.</p>
<p>City officials said they want to move people off the riverbed and that any aid should be part of a broader effort to help people find a way out: "The goal shouldn't be to make it slightly more comfortable there to live that way but rather, how can we get those folks to a better place?" said city spokesman Mike Lyster.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, those better places are limited. Orange County has shelter beds but they largely fill up. And many homeless said they don't like the shelter's curfew or rules barring pets and prefer their privacy, even outdoors. From 2015 to earlier this year, the number of people staying in Orange County shelters went down slightly, but the number living on the streets jumped by 17 percent, federal data shows.</p>
<p>County authorities say they want to clear the riverbed and are trying to connect the men and women living there with the assistance they need to get back on their feet. Last summer, the county started providing showers along with case management services, hoping they can help those who want to find a way out.</p>
<p>Larry Ford, a 53-year-old U.S. army veteran, said he is grateful for any help. But like those at the beach in Dana Point, he insists food and showers don't tether him to the tents surrounded by plastic bottles and toppled furniture.</p>
<p>"Look at this," he said, pointing to heaps of garbage by his feet. "What is this enabling here?</p>
<p>"This is devastation."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow AP's complete coverage of the West Coast homeless crisis here: https://apnews.com/tag/HomelessCrisis</p>
<p>ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mohammed Aly does not see any reason why he shouldn't try to ease the lives of Orange County's homeless. But the authorities — and many of his neighbors — disagree.</p>
<p>Aly, a 28-year-old lawyer and activist, has been arrested three times as he campaigned on behalf of street people. Recently, he was denied permission to install portable toilets on a dried-up riverbed, site of an encampment of roughly 400 homeless.</p>
<p>"Put yourself in their position: Would you want a toilet, or would you not want a toilet?" he asked. "It is a question of basic empathy."</p>
<p>But his detractors — engaged in a dispute that rages up and down America's West Coast, as the region struggles to cope with a rising tide of homelessness — say Aly and other do-gooders are doing more harm than good. However well-meaning, critics say, those who provide the homeless with tents and tarps, showers and toilets, hot meals and pet food, are enabling them to remain unsheltered.</p>
<p>And not coincidentally, they note, nuisances of homelessness like trash and unsanitary conditions fester and aberrant behavior continues.</p>
<p>In California, the San Diego County community of El Cajon passed a measure that curtails feeding the homeless, citing health concerns. In Los Angeles, city officials have closed and re-opened restrooms for those on Skid Row amid similar controversies.</p>
<p>The issue is hotly debated across Orange County, a cluster of suburbs and small cities known more for surf culture and Disneyland than its legions of poor.</p>
<p>In the tony seaside enclave of Dana Point, neighbors fear a nightly meal is drawing homeless to a popular state beach where teens play beach volleyball and families picnic and surf.</p>
<p>On the dusty riverbed 30 miles (48 kilometers) north, a van furnished with shower stalls parks alongside the homeless encampment; those living in the string of tattered tents add their names to a list of dozens waiting to bathe. While the mobile unit aims to help those living on the trash-strewn strip, neighbors worry the 2-mile-long (3-kilometer-long) encampment is becoming more entrenched in an area where they once jogged and biked.</p>
<p>"If the ultimate goal is to get them under a roof, why on Earth are you giving all the advantages you would have under a roof on the riverbed?" asked Shaun Dove, a 46-year-old soon-to-be retired policeman from Anaheim, who lives less than a mile from the riverbed in a palm-tree lined neighborhood of three-bedroom homes.</p>
<p>"There's no doubt that giving them stuff there prevents them from a desire to move."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>The number of homeless living in Orange County has climbed 8 percent over the last two years. In the United States, homelessness rose slightly in the last year to nearly 554,000, pushed up largely by increases on the West Coast, federal data shows. The increase is driven by soaring housing costs, though a drug addiction crisis and need for mental health services are also factors.</p>
<p>Advocates say the homeless population has become more visible as police have cracked down on rules barring camping, driving people from parks and bus benches to a few centralized locations, such as the flood control channel along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim.</p>
<p>Everybody knows that the only solution is more housing; there aren't enough beds available in a county where the median home price hovers near $700,000. Until there are, many well-meaning residents want to try to alleviate what they feel is a humanitarian crisis by bringing food and other assistance to the homeless.</p>
<p>In a small community like Dana Point, there is no shelter. The nightly meals began more than two decades ago at local churches but were moved to Doheny State Beach after a late night stabbing between two homeless residents.</p>
<p>The picturesque city on bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean is known for its million dollar homes and scenic harbor. But homeless have long been drawn to Dana Point and other beach communities which offer public access and wide open spaces — and the beauty and sunshine that lure so many people to California's shores.</p>
<p>In the late afternoon, volunteers arrive at the beach parking lot with folding tables and trays of chicken or beef or fish and fruit. They often also hand out a sack lunch for the next day to several dozen homeless, day laborers and poor who line up to eat after bowing their heads in a brief prayer.</p>
<p>The homeless say as much as they appreciate it, the food isn't keeping them on the streets.</p>
<p>Gholamreza Haghighi, 59, said he has been sleeping in the nearby brush for more than two decades — well before meals were served there — and has nowhere else to go. Jose Luis Gonzalez, 60, said he has been living in his motor home since splitting with his wife and sometimes stops by the suppers to see friends and have a meal. Another homeless man who refused to give his name said he heads there simply to eat.</p>
<p>"I come here because it's a Band-Aid," the 55-year-old said. "It doesn't help me tomorrow. It doesn't. But it helps me today."</p>
<p>Volunteers say the homeless are drawn to the beaches because of the open space and access to water and restrooms — not the meals. They feel that feeding people can build trust and lead the homeless to additional services, including housing.</p>
<p>"We understand that some residents and business owners in Dana Point are experiencing problems with the homeless. We are adamant, though, and disagree with the fact that we are contributing to the problem," said Chris Phillips, who helps lead the volunteer network known as Welcome INN.</p>
<p>Tell that to Brian Brandt, a 55-year-old lawyer. He jogs at the state beach and takes his six children there to surf but these days he doesn't let them go on their own. He said he's seen volatile outbursts among the homeless and frequent police calls and wishes volunteers would stop offering meals at a place meant for community recreation.</p>
<p>"I don't want to be seen as a bad guy — 'OK, look at this heartless dude,'" he said. "I don't feel safe. I don't feel like my kids are safe."</p>
<p>Resident Toni Nelson, who helped start a local neighborhood group, is critical of the meal service but is looking for solutions. She has joined with housing advocates to try to raise money to house the homeless who have ties to the tight-knit community.</p>
<p>If about a third of the city's 33,000 residents chip in $68, they figure they can house 46 homeless people identified in a recent survey for up to a year.</p>
<p>So far, dozens of people have signed up to give. But they still have a long way to go.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Robert Marbut, a consultant to communities on homelessness, believes it's misguided to provide housing or other services without heavy incentives for recipients to be in treatment programs for mental health problems, addiction or other issues.</p>
<p>"Anytime you give out services without treatment," Marbut said, "that's enabling, period. ... You've got to serve the food in a place where mental health is being provided."</p>
<p>But Marbut insists that camping bans or crackdowns don't work. And in fact, the encampment at the riverbed began when police in a host of cities refused to let the homeless sleep in parks or on bus benches. They headed to the trail along the flood channel, which is county property and cuts through several cities.</p>
<p>In recent years, the number of tents on the trail along the dried out riverbed has soared. Tents and tarps are surrounded by cardboard boxes and litter. Some of the people who live there travel up and down the trail on bikes, toting blankets or cans for recycling.</p>
<p>People say they ended up there for different reasons. For some, it was drug addiction. Others lost their jobs and couldn't make rent.</p>
<p>Aly, the homeless advocate, said for those living there basic sanitation is key. His latest plan is to station a trailer he fitted with portable toilets and shower stalls on a street near the encampment but Anaheim city officials have raised health and safety concerns.</p>
<p>Many neighbors want help moved off the trail entirely. They said nearby neighborhoods have suffered as the encampment has grown. Hypodermic needles have been found among pine needles in a park next to an elementary school. Shopping carts rattle as they're pushed down otherwise quiet streets.</p>
<p>Some homeowners said their neighbors' mail has gone missing, and potted plants from outside their homes. Some moved to Anaheim years ago when the city was smaller and more suburban to escape the bustle and traffic of Los Angeles. Now, they find themselves grappling with some of the same big city problems.</p>
<p>City officials said they want to move people off the riverbed and that any aid should be part of a broader effort to help people find a way out: "The goal shouldn't be to make it slightly more comfortable there to live that way but rather, how can we get those folks to a better place?" said city spokesman Mike Lyster.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, those better places are limited. Orange County has shelter beds but they largely fill up. And many homeless said they don't like the shelter's curfew or rules barring pets and prefer their privacy, even outdoors. From 2015 to earlier this year, the number of people staying in Orange County shelters went down slightly, but the number living on the streets jumped by 17 percent, federal data shows.</p>
<p>County authorities say they want to clear the riverbed and are trying to connect the men and women living there with the assistance they need to get back on their feet. Last summer, the county started providing showers along with case management services, hoping they can help those who want to find a way out.</p>
<p>Larry Ford, a 53-year-old U.S. army veteran, said he is grateful for any help. But like those at the beach in Dana Point, he insists food and showers don't tether him to the tents surrounded by plastic bottles and toppled furniture.</p>
<p>"Look at this," he said, pointing to heaps of garbage by his feet. "What is this enabling here?</p>
<p>"This is devastation."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow AP's complete coverage of the West Coast homeless crisis here: https://apnews.com/tag/HomelessCrisis</p> | As West Coast fights homelessness, kindness is contentious | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fe7fd4aab59640aa86011043f7ff6703 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the Indiana Lottery’s “Hoosier Lotto” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-03-23-41-42</p>
<p>(one, two, three, twenty-three, forty-one, forty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.7 million</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the Indiana Lottery’s “Hoosier Lotto” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-03-23-41-42</p>
<p>(one, two, three, twenty-three, forty-one, forty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.7 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Hoosier Lotto’ game | false | https://apnews.com/4415ed37c4634ef2acb5a0792760f9cd | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>&lt;img class="size-full wp-image-43872 aligncenter" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Antifa-New-Manual.jpg" alt="Antifa's Manual on Guerrilla Warfare" width="1200" height="627" srcset="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Antifa-New-Manual.jpg 1200w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Antifa-New-Manual-300x157.jpg 300w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Antifa-New-Manual-768x401.jpg 768w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Antifa-New-Manual-1024x535.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /&gt;</p>
<p>You’ve likely noticed a recent pattern of progressives fleeing to their safe spaces and wearing earplugs to reality. However,&#160;when their glitter-coated theories are challenged, leftists are quick to throw the most violent of hissy fits&#160;(see <a href="" type="internal">Antifa Protestor Stabs Police Horse with Nail-Studded Flagpole</a>and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Back to Berkeley: AntiFa Leftists Brutally Attack Trump Supporters</a>).</p>
<p>Our favorite dangerously wimpy organization, Antifa, has brought their <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/31/armed-antifa-group-offers-training-manual-on-terrorism-and-guerrilla-warfare/" type="external">baddie level to a new high</a>.&#160;Social justice activists are trading in their rainbow huggies for combat boots and ski masks. They’re real warriors now. And it’s NOT&#160;a phase, mom, ugh.</p>
<p>Antifa organization Redneck Revolt&#160;is advocating&#160;for “revolution” against the rise of “fascism” in the United States, and the end of capitalism. To facilitate these goals, the group offers&#160;…&#160;a training manual for conducting guerrilla warfare with sections for “executions” and “terrorism.”</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="https://www.redneckrevolt.org/printable-resources" type="external">“Resources” page</a>&#160;of the group’s website offers a number of publications that promote violence, including a 36-page manual called the “Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla,” which advises readers on how to conduct urban warfare, with sections on “sabotage,” “kidnapping,” “executions,” and even “terrorism.”</p>
<p>Other publications include “Piece Now, Peace Later: an anarchist introduction to firearms”—a how-to guide for weapons handling—and a variety of intersectional feminist and anarchist essays.</p>
<p>“Redneck Revolt” has gone beyond simply protesting far-right extremist groups,&#160; <a href="https://www.redneckrevolt.org/single-post/2017/03/28/PHOENIX-MAGA-MARCH-REPORTBACK" type="external">organizing armed rallies</a>&#160;alongside other Antifa groups at the Arizona State Capitol to counter a Trump rally.</p>
<p>So in other words,&#160;capitalism is the systematic oppression of something something something. Now, lets use weapons&#160;to oppress the living crap out of these people we disagree with!</p>
<p>&lt;img class="wp-image-43873 aligncenter" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/AgentOfChaos-GIF.gif" alt="" width="471" height="240" /&gt;</p>
<p>Antifa is a rapidly expanding staple of the modern left. Pallid and frail&#160;though they might be, weapons enable even the wimpiest of us all to level the battlefield. Unfortunately, any conservative – hell, any non-militant leftist – is a potential target for violence when it comes to&#160;the scope of these dimwitted snotholes. While we giggle at their <a href="" type="internal">low energy gyms</a> and <a href="" type="internal">lack of physical combat skills</a>, it’s vital to keep in mind these dunderheads&#160;are eager as ever to find a way to draw blood.</p>
<p>It’s almost as if this group is following a blind, socially established, singularly dominated code. In fact it sounds kind of like, oh I don’t know… Fascism.</p>
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<p>NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST?&#160; <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/louder-with-crowder/id929121341?mt=2" type="external">FIX THAT</a>! IT’S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH&#160; <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/louder-with-crowder/id929121341?mt=2" type="external">ITUNES&#160;HERE</a>&#160;AND&#160; <a href="https://soundcloud.com/louderwithcrowder" type="external">SOUNDCLOUD&#160;HERE</a>.</p>
<p /> | Antifa Terrorists Publish Guide to Guerrilla Warfare | true | https://louderwithcrowder.com/antifa-guerrilla-warfare-guide/ | 2017-08-02 | 0 |
<p>Shawn Helton <a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-83P" type="external">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>Following the apparent ‘vanishing act’ of Malaysian Airlines flight <a href="" type="internal">MH370</a>, many investigators and researchers began to question the&#160;likelihood of such an event happening in today’s high-tech world.</p>
<p>At 21WIRE, we’ve also looked into the unprecedented <a href="" type="internal">disappearance of MH370</a> and the <a href="" type="internal">subsequent downing of MH17</a>, as certain details have come to light regarding the history of the remote autopilot function installed within Boeing commercial airliners (a subject which also opens the door to the events of 9/11).</p>
<p>The Boeing 777 along with other Boeing models, can in fact be flown remotely through the use of independent embedded software and satellite communication.&#160;Once this advanced system is engaged, it can&#160;disallow any pilot or potential hijacker from controlling a plane, as the rooted setup uses digital signals that communicate with air traffic control, satellite links, as well as other government entities for the remainder of a flight’s journey.</p>
<p>This technology is known as the Boeing Honeywell ‘Uninterruptible’ Autopilot System.</p>
<p>The mere existence of this technology would most certainly provide the final piece to a number of seemingly unsolved airline disaster puzzles in recent years…</p>
<p>IMAGE: ‘A jet for the 21st century’ – An interior view of a Boeing 777-200 ER cockpit (Photo: <a href="http://becuo.com/boeing-777-200-cockpit" type="external">becuo</a>.com) In the case of MH370,&#160;the aircraft’s Rolls Royce Trent 892 Engines sent ‘automated pings’ independent of the plane’s transponder, to a British <a href="http://www.inmarsat.com/" type="external">Inmarsat</a> satellite for several hours after subsequently losing contact with air traffic controllers. The automated information gave an up-to-date diagnosis as to the well-being of the two engines, which according to data received, were fully operational and showed no signs of electrical damage. Rolls Royce has a partnership that requires the engine to transmit live data to its global engine health monitoring center in Derby, UK, every 30 minutes. Investigators are said to have used the ACARS information uploaded to the engine maker.</p>
<p>Uninterruptible flight control</p>
<p>On December 4th of 2006, it was announced that Boeing had won a patent on an uninterruptible autopilot system for use in commercial aircraft. This was the first public acknowledgment by Boeing about the existence of such an autopilot system.</p>
<p>The new autopilot patent was reported by John Croft for Flight Global, with the news piece subsequently linked by a&#160; <a href="http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/boeing-wins-patent-uninterruptible-autopilot-system" type="external">Homeland Security News Wire</a>&#160;and other British publications around the same time. According to the DHS release, it was disclosed that “dedicated electrical circuits” within an onboard flight system could control a plane without the need of pilots, stating that the advanced avionics would fly the aircraft remotely, independently of those operating the plane:</p>
<p>“The “uninterruptible” autopilot would be activated – either by pilots, by onboard sensors, or even remotely via&#160;radio or satellite links by government agencies like the&#160; <a href="https://www.cia.gov/" type="external">Central&#160;Intelligence Agency</a>, if terrorists attempt to gain control of a flight deck.”</p>
<p>The Flight Global news wire goes on to report that the uninterruptible autopilot system was designed for increased security in the event of a manual hijacking situation, as Boeing itself describes the feature as a preventative measure, keeping unauthorized persons out of a cockpit, setting the stage for an industry wide safety protocol:</p>
<p>“There is a need in the industry for a technique that conclusively prevents unauthorised persons for gaining access to the controls of the vehicle and therefore threatening the safety of the passengers onboard the vehicle, and/or other people in the path of travel of the vehicle, thereby decreasing the amount of destruction individuals onboard the vehicle would be capable of causing.” Additionally, in the article entitled, “ <a href="http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/diagrams-boeing-patents-anti-terrorism-auto-land-system-for-hijacked-210869/" type="external">Diagrams: Boeing patents anti-terrorism auto-land system for hijacked airliners</a>,” Croft outlines the clandestine oversight that government has with respect to the uninterruptible autopilot, making note of the auto-land function of the system and stating that the technology has&#160;its own power supply self-sufficient of any electrical systems on the plane:</p>
<p>“To make it fully independent, the system has its own power supply, independent of the aircraft’s circuit breakers. The aircraft remains in automatic mode until after landing, when mechanics or government security operatives are called in to disengage the system.”</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getasset.aspx?itemid=15742" type="external" /> IMAGE: The United States patent for the Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot dated November, 28th 2006 (Photo: <a href="http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/diagrams-boeing-patents-anti-terrorism-auto-land-system-for-hijacked-210869/" type="external">flightglobal</a>.com)</p>
<p>Boeing and Honeywell have been heavily involved in UAV technology for both civilian and military applications for many decades and in the case of Honeywell, they’ve cornered the aerospace market through the consolidation of many avionics based companies along with their patents. Some researchers have suggested that both corporations could ‘recoup’ the cost of their applied science technology for military development from the commercial sector. It has also been said that Boeing and Honeywell developed existing patents for the Department of Defense for over 40 years including the BHAUP system.</p>
<p>A pilotless pursuit with precision guided munitions</p>
<p>The idea of remote controlled avionics is nothing new.</p>
<p>In actuality, ‘fly-by-wire‘&#160;electronic signal technology has its roots in the early 20th Century and if you go back even further the realization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) takes us back to&#160;1849, where Austria was said to have launched 200 pilot-less bomb filled balloons over the city of Venice, resulting in the&#160;Republic of San Marco being&#160;besieged by Austrian forces less than a week later. Additionally, in&#160;1898, the well-known&#160;inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla, had successfully demonstrated remote control technology through the creation of two small radio powered boats.</p>
<p>The advancement of radio controlled unmanned aircraft was seen during WW1 with the ‘pilot-less’ biplane and aerial torpedo known as the Kettering Bug, a primitive UAV that according to some estimates, was capable of hitting ground targets nearly 40 miles away.</p>
<p>The ‘Bug’ had a similar method to the Wright Brothers&#160;dolly track system powered flights of the early 1900’s but needed a better autopilot function, which prompted Kettering to enlist American engineer and inventor Elmer Sperry with his gyroscopic stabilizers that revolutionized the autopilot feature and with it the concept of remote control flight.</p>
<p>IMAGE: ‘Blood &amp; Bones’ – Charles Kettering’s ‘Bug’ UAV, he was also known for his discovery and production of tetra-ethyl lead or TEL apparently left over 5 million&#160;toxic tons of the substance within the United States. It has been said there were vast implications of TEL genetically speaking, particularly in terms of the amount of lead exposure in humans, leading to blood, bone and cell toxicity (Photo: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_F._Kettering.jpg" type="external">commons.wikimedia</a>.org)</p>
<p>Coincidentally, as Charles Kettering‘s ‘Bug’ biplane gained notoriety, Kettering’s research team discovered the high-octane booster called&#160;&#160;tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) which prompted the interest of several manufacturer’s from around the globe, notably, the Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, GM, Ethyl Gasoline Corporation and&#160; <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/25/the-man-who-poisoned-us-all/" type="external">the Nazi-linked chemical corporation IG Farben before the second world war</a>. A consortium of American companies were openly engaged in fueling the development of many of the Nazi party’s military pursuits, as the occupying faction latched on to the pilot-less Kettering Bug concept, creating a fleet of their own unmanned flying-projectiles known as Buzz Bombs, which&#160;tormented London during WW2.</p>
<p>Later, under Operation&#160;Paper Clip,&#160;the&#160;Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency&#160;(JIOA) employed many of the scientists and engineers affiliated with the applied military development for the Nazi party, including a division of scientists working on&#160;remote control technology. The former German operatives were scrubbed and ‘bleached’ of their dark past, as they were allowed to work for the United States government unbeknownst to the vast majority of public at the time.</p>
<p>In the mid 1940’s, there was a strong push for remote controlled flying vehicles like the GB-1 Glide Bomb, along with several other UAV drone-types that had been developed for various military operations towards the end of the World War. The GB-4 could engage targets via a television camera located underneath its warhead but could only function properly in the best weather conditions.</p>
<p>Around this same time, the disastrous&#160;Operation Aphrodite&#160;was conducted using B-17’s and B-24’s with a gutted interior. They were fully loaded with Torpex explosives. While manned crews operated the first part of the journey, later the crew would attempt to parachute out over the English Channel, giving control of the craft over to a manned mothership remotely, communicating with ground control units.</p>
<p>In 1944, apparently flying a B17 Flying Fortress (although some suggest it could have been a different aircraft),&#160;Lt&#160;Joseph Kennedy&#160;and co-pilot Lt&#160;Wilford John Willy&#160;failed the manned portion of their mission, as the pair were unable to parachute out before the aircraft’s explosives detonated supposedly due to an electrical malfunction, marking the demise of the military operation. Kennedy’s alleged target was the underground Nazi military complex, the&#160;Fortress of Mimoyecques. The operation is said to have had only one successful mission after a dozen or so failed flights operations.</p>
<p>In 1946, the Pilotless Aircraft Branch was created during the rise of the RAND corporation’s first classified projects, as it has been said that RAND research began looking into satellite controlled vehicles, noting that satellites could be applied to all types of military and civilian applications in the future.</p>
<p>The creation of combat UAV’s&#160;</p>
<p>In March of 1996, the RQ-3&#160;DarkStar&#160;drone manufactured by Lockeed Martin and Boeing,&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_RQ-3_DarkStar" type="external">could make an entirely human free flight</a>, with its operating ‘sensors’ acquiring targets and the transmission of flight path information in a ‘fully autonomous’ way.&#160;It is also important to note that the programming language used in a Boeing 777, is the same language used for Boeing’s DarkStar drone – Ada-95 programming.</p>
<p>The blend of old bomb-based UAV’s and surveillance drones took shape in the late 90’s with many advancements made to the electronic systems during the 80’s, including the addition of real-time spy capabilities.</p>
<p>The creation of the War on Terror, along with 9/11, ushered in a whole new realm of defense spending for armed drone technology, marking the age of weaponized UAV’s, with&#160;the Global Hawk, Predator and Reaper drones used in the extrajudicial killing of targeted individuals and enemy combatants with or without a ‘hot’ battlefield, which has become the most lucrative business model for defense contractors and the military industrial complex since the turn of the century.</p>
<p>IMAGE: ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ – &#160;The Royal Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The RAF operated most of the first production of the B-24’s when they were completed. During&#160;Operation Aphrodite some were converted to be used in manned/unmanned missions&#160;(Photo: <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/alaska-and-the-airplane-69899341/" type="external">airspacemag</a>.com) IMAGE: ‘Combat Dawn’ The Ryan Aeronautical&#160;Lightning Bug, along with the Ryan&#160;Firebee drone missions consisted primarily of intelligence gathering, radio monitoring and reconnaissance. Both were controlled remotely to&#160;spy on China, North Korea and&#160;Vietnam,&#160;during the 60’s and 70’s.&#160;The Vietnam War spy drones were the basis for the use of modern drones&#160;(Photo: <a href="http://understandingempire.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/drone-origins-world-war-ii-and-vietnam-era-remotely-piloted-vehicles/" type="external">understandingtheempire</a>.com) Remote control over commercial aircraft</p>
<p>The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) joined efforts for a remote controlled flight experiment called the Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID), in 1984.</p>
<p>The test conducted included the use of a remote controlled Boeing 720 aircraft to study the ‘effectiveness’ of anti-misting kerosene or (AMK), during what was considered to be a survivable impact. The AMK was added to standard jet fuel to suppress the explosion upon the purposeful impact. This is the description of what happened during the <a href="http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/CID/" type="external">flight experiment according to NASA’s own website</a>:</p>
<p>“On the morning of December 1, 1984, a remotely controlled Boeing 720 transport took off from Edwards Air Force Base&#160;(Edwards, California), made a left-hand departure and climbed to an altitude of 2300 feet. It then began a descent to-landing&#160;to a specially prepared runway on the east side of Rogers Dry Lake. Final approach was along the roughly 3.8 degree&#160;glide slope. The landing gear was left retracted. Passing the decision height of 150 feet above ground level (AGL), the aircraft&#160;was slightly to the right of the desired path. Just above that decision point at which the pilot was to execute a “go-around,” there appeared to be enough altitude to maneuver back to the centerline of the runway. Data acquisition systems had been activated, and the aircraft was committed to impact. It contacted the ground, left wing low. The fire and smoke took over an hour to extinguish.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/CID/Small/ECN-28307.jpg" type="external" /> IMAGE: ‘ Remotely Downed’ – This was an interior picture of the Boeing 720 that was used in the Controlled Impact Demonstration in 1984 via remote control telemetry systems (Photo: <a href="http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/CID/Small/ECN-28307.jpg" type="external">dfrc.nasa</a>.gov)</p>
<p>The controlled impact operation was outlined as an innocuous flight study for safety but its important to keep in mind that this was one of the first pieces of evidence that a large commercial airliner could be flown by remote <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/87940main_H-1133.pdf" type="external">uplink and ‘pulse code modulated’ downlink telemetry systems</a> – a full 17 years before 9/11, and 30 years before the apparent disappearance of MH370.</p>
<p>Uplink signals were sent from a ground cockpit control to the aircraft’s omnidirectional antenna proving a large Boeing could be flown remotely nearly two decades before the September 11th tragedy:</p>
<p>“The aircraft was remotely flown by NASA research pilot Fitzhugh (Fitz) Fulton from the NASA Dryden Remotely Controlled&#160;Vehicle Facility. Previously, the Boeing 720 had been flown on 14&#160;practice flights with safety pilots onboard. During the 14&#160;flights, there were 16 hours and 22 minutes of remotely piloted vehicle control, including 10 remotely piloted takeoffs,&#160;69 remotely piloted vehicle controlled approaches, and 13 remotely piloted vehicle landings on abort runway.”</p>
<p>IMAGE: ‘Drone Jet’ –&#160;NASA’s&#160;N833NA, was&#160;a remotely-piloted Boeing 720 airliner, here you see it making a practice approach over the impact zone on Rogers Dry Lake, California on December 1st, 1984, following 4 years of preparation. The crash test was widely regarded as a complete failure in terms of&#160;the flame-reducing fuel additive, but the real prize was remotely flying a huge airliner, which was a soaring success&#160;(Photo: <a href="http://www.thisdayinaviation.com/1-december-1984/" type="external">thisdayinaviation</a>.com)</p>
<p>The YouTube video below has the original footage of the CID crash test conducted in 1984, showing that the Boeing 720 was remote controlled with ease before its intended impact…</p>
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<p>Raytheon and JPALS conducted 6 automated landings with the JPALS feature configured on the Boeing 727:</p>
<p>“The FedEx Express 727-200 aircraft at Holloman successfully conducted a total of sixteen Category I approaches. After completing a number of pilot flown approaches for reference the aircraft conducted six full autolands using the JPALS ground station. “The consistency of the approaches allowed us to proceed to actual autolandings with very little delay,” said Steve Kuhar, Senior Technical Advisor Flight Department for FedEx Express.”</p>
<p>9/11 &amp; remote technology</p>
<p>After the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, President Bush called for the creation of remote control systems in commercial airliners in the event of an emergency, granting air traffic controllers along with other government agencies control over an aircraft – for its final intended destination.</p>
<p>Based on history, we know that the Flight Management Systems within Boeing models are capable of assisting the entire flight through its remote autopilot functions at least since 1984, well before Bush’s politically charged ‘remote control’ flight claim in the aftermath of 9/11.</p>
<p>In the mid-80’s, the coded software on the plane would send data to ground control stations, accepting any return flight information or auto-land command. In addition to civilian aircraft being flown remotely before it was acknowledged, the U.S. Air Force apparently constructed an F-106 Delta Dart fighter to be controlled remotely on a combat mission in&#160;1959 under the direction of the&#160;North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).</p>
<p>There is also a long-held theory that the company Lufthansa, Germany’s state-owned airline, had their onboard flight controls stripped from its fleet during the mid 1990’s for fear that the American government could hack into the airline’s autopilot systems. This idea has been loosely associated with the interview of former German Defense Minister&#160;Andreas von Bülow conducted by Stephan Lebert&#160;for <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/" type="external">the German Daily</a> discussing some of the major anomalies in the events surrounding 9/11:</p>
<p>“There is also the theory of one British flight engineer:&#160;According to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the&#160;pilots’ hands, from outside. The Americans had developed a method in the&#160;1970s, whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the&#160;computer piloting [automatic pilot system].”</p>
<p>Von&#160;Bülow&#160;continued by <a href="https://fr.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CongoVista/conversations/messages/18967" type="external">outlining the difficulty of pulling off such a cataclysmic plot</a>&#160;without a massive support apparatus from state-run operations:</p>
<p>&#160;“I can state: the planning of the attacks was&#160;technically&#160;and&#160;organizationally a master achievement. To hijack four huge airplanes within&#160;a few minutes and within one hour, to drive them into their targets, with&#160;complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable, without years-long&#160;support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry.”</p>
<p>It’s difficult to know if Von&#160;Bülow’s account of the alleged British flight engineer is true, but many researchers and investigators have cited a man by the name of Joe Vallis, as the apparent insider engineer, who <a href="http://www.illuminatiapocalypse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Jim%20Marrs%20-%20The%20Terror%20Conspiracy.pdf" type="external">according to other sources</a>, was said to have spilled state secrets about the alleged remote control ‘Home Run’ technology supposedly involving two American multinational corporations and DARPA, during the 1970’s.</p>
<p>Critics have charged that Vallis was nothing more than an agent provocateur with ties to British intelligence, sending internet sleuths on a fruitless journey.</p>
<p>Whether or not Vallis was a real whistleblower&#160; – or a partially mythologized creation following 9/11, its important to remember that there are autopilot patents similar to the kind that were supposedly discussed by Vallis and when you couple that with the entire history remote control technology, a compelling case begins to emerge, as advanced uninterruptible autopilot avionics could have been in full use prior to 9/11. Here’s a YouTube clip of the&#160;former German Member of Parliament and Government Defense Minister discussing the manufactured nature of 9/11 and the profitable War on Terror that followed…</p>
<p />
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<p>“The observed turn stability favors the use of autopilot operation, either functioning in a conventional course control mode or in Control Wheel Steering (CWS) mode. The probability that either of these two control systems were used is discussed. Flight deck images of United and American airlines 757s and 767s suggest that such CWS functions may have been disabled circa 2001. Constant radius turns utilizing plotted way-points during commercial aviation operations are routinely supported by augmented GPS navigation service and related commercial Flight Management Systems (FMS) available circa 2001.”</p>
<p>The information below, provides historical context to the Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot Patent…</p>
<p>In 1914, the&#160;American multinational&#160;conglomerate&#160;known as Honeywell, began acquiring and merging with various companies to create&#160;Honeywell Aerospace&#160;and was well on its way to becoming the largest manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics.</p>
<p>Historically speaking, the&#160;Sperry Corporation&#160;held the very first autopilot patent in&#160;1916 and in August of&#160;1956, Honeywell had its first autopilot patent, ushering the race for future UAV technology in its multifaceted applications with the&#160;Automatic control apparatus for aircraft patent US 2953329 A.&#160;Through Honeywell’s acquisition of many aerospace and avionics based companies a number of patents for future use were consolidated under their ownership. From the 1950’s through the 1980’s Honeywell had many technological breakthroughs, whether it was the&#160;Ring&#160;Laser Gyroscope in 1958, a device that determined acceleration information for navigation and better flight control, or the Glass Cockpit digital displays of 1980, which was driven by the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) software, both of these advances in avionics were vital to the creation of the uninterruptible autopilot, as its combined precursor.</p>
<p>Boeing filed for a patent called “ <a href="https://www.google.com/patents/US2883125" type="external">Composite Aircraft</a>” in 1954 that related to the ‘method and means’ to control an airliner. In <a href="https://www.google.com/patents/EP0186965A1?cl=en" type="external">1984</a>and <a href="https://www.google.com.au/patents/US4760530" type="external">1986</a>, Honeywell had two very important patents pertaining to the modernization of Flight Management System technology, both helping with the integration of automated flight digital data processing and in 1995, Boeing filed a patent for an “ <a href="https://www.google.com.au/patents/US5842142" type="external">alternate destination planner</a>,”&#160;to be used in conjunction with other Honeywell patents.</p>
<p>In 1995, Boeing and Honeywell participated in the&#160; <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&amp;arnumber=185863&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D185863" type="external">Category III-b flight test conducted at NASA’s Wallops Island</a>, Virginia, using a Boeing 757 completing a number of automated landings. The functionality of automated flight returns benefited greatly from the realization of global positioning systems (GPS) around that time.</p>
<p>There are many other patents between Boeing and Honeywell that also aided in the development of the BHAUP system. Airline manufacturers and avionics makers benefited greatly from the Technological Revinvestiment Project&#160;TRP) that was put in place by President Clinton in 1993, as the TRP was said to grant funds to certain companies of ‘merit’ for products that had both a civilian&#160;and military purpose. In a YouTube report by James Corbett we see a how the questions of MH370, could lead us to the answers of 9/11…</p>
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<p>The idea of an uninterruptible remote controlled commercial airliner may be shocking to some, but during 21WIRE’s examination of missing flight MH370, we came across retired pilot,&#160;Field McConnell, a 35-year flight veteran&#160;who suggested that since 1995 this kind of advanced technology has been in use, culminating with McConnell testifying before a US court as to the existence of such systems.</p>
<p>There is some evidence to suggest that these may have been operational in some Airbus planes since 1989.&#160;At the start of this article, there were several publications that discussed the controversial autopilot feature a year prior to&#160;a subsequent lawsuit by McConnell in February of 2007, and according to his documents, the&#160;modification was reported to the FAA, NTSB and ALPA ( airline pilots association).</p>
<p>Apparently, due to McConnell’s lawsuit, Boeing was is said to&#160;have stated that by end of 2009&#160;all Boeing planes would be fitted with the BHUAP&#160;–&#160;making them impossible to manually hijack within the plane but susceptible to remote control by the military, according the flight veteran.&#160;</p>
<p>In addition to the advanced avionics avoiding manual hijack through its systems, the&#160; <a href="http://www.rockwellcollins.com/sitecore/content/Data/Products/Controls/Autopilot/AFDS-770_Autopilot_Flight_Director_System.aspx" type="external">AFDS-770 Autopilot Flight Director System</a>, according McConnell, is said to be a ‘slave’ of the Flight Management System making the ‘remote hijacking’ of anything other than entities linked to the FMS and its fellow operating systems unlikely – if not impossible. Boeing’s Areo Magazine described the FMS as “designing and implementing automated flight paths.” Although the investigative site&#160;Abel Danger&#160;has had many controversial claims over the years through the collaborative work of McConnell and Forensic Economist&#160;David&#160;Hawkins, it&#160;does seem as though the lid has come off in regards to the historical record of the Boeing Honeywell uninterruptible autopilot, as numerous references have surfaced online recently, including a brand new&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Honeywell_Uninterruptible_Autopilot" type="external">Wikipedia page created in July</a>. While Wikipedia itself isn’t considered a noted reliable source, the page for BHAUP does have links to other major media outlets discussing the glass cockpit system, including Boeing’s own acknowledgement of the system. There was even an article that appeared 11 years ago in August of 2003, on the popular technology site for Wired magazine, linked to a Wall Street Journal report entitled, “ <a href="http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2003/08/59988" type="external">Flying Safety Put on Auto-Pilot</a>,” a feature that discussed the auto-pilot systems already in place:</p>
<p>“Airbus and Honeywell are close to perfecting technology that takes control of airplanes to prevent them from crashing into obstacles,&#160;The Wall Street Journal&#160;reports. When audible warnings from crash-avoidance systems are ignored, the system overrides actions by the pilot and takes evasive maneuvers, the newspaper said.”</p>
<p>“The system would link crash-warning devices, already common on airliners, with cockpit computers that could automate flying to prevent collisions, executives from Honeywell (HON) said.”</p>
<p>Another development that helped with flight navigation of airliners was the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) with Boeing and Honeywell once again at the precipice of &#160;avionics advancement, as FANS used GPS to navigate through remote areas or oceans of &#160;the world. The feature was also said to have given an airline operator the ability to upload alternate flight paths.</p>
<p>In November of 2013, there was a federal register for 777-200 ER Boeing’s, stating that there were modifications done to the electrical based systems to prevent <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/11/18/2013-27343/special-conditions-boeing-model-777-200--300-and--300er-series-airplanes-aircraft-electronic-system" type="external">unauthorized internal access in the aircraft.</a></p>
<p>Other documented evidence of communication development within a Boeing 777, comes from Philip Birtles, in his book, “ <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=CILNWqZskckC&amp;q=honeywell#v=snippet&amp;q=honeywell&amp;f=false" type="external">Boeing 777 – Jetliner for a New Century</a>:”</p>
<p>“Honeywell’s massive effort on the 777 involved over 550 software developers. The company built the&#160;AIMS computer as a custom platform based on the AMD 29050 processor. It was unique among aviation systems for integrating the other computers’ functions; in other systems, each function resides in a different box [the central maintenance had its own box with its own input/output (I/O), its own central processing unit (CPU), etc.]. AIMS combines all these functions and shares the CPU and I/O among them: it uses the same signals for flight management and for displays, so that the data comes in only once instead of twice; one input circuit provides data to all of the functions.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sovereignindependentuk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/field_mcconnell2.jpg" type="external" /> In McConnell’s message about the airline industry, he has claimed that are other examples of aircraft being downed remotely, including&#160;Air France’s flight 447, Adam Air 574,&#160;Kenya Airways 507.</p>
<p>McConnell also mentions the ‘autoland’ and ‘autobrake’ feature for Boeing 777 plane, as it was referenced in the above NASA portion of this article. Additionally, the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777’s are outfitted the ACARS communication systems as well as satellite links through SATCOM according to Honeywell. The satellite/GPS based autopilot features of today owe quite a bit the Quartz Rate Sensor used primarily in drone UAV’s.</p>
<p>Some of McConnell’s latest findings along with his partner Hawkins,&#160;have connected&#160;MH370’s disappearance to&#160;British multinational Serco,&#160;as many of the UK’s defense functions were granted to Serco throughout the years, including “ <a href="http://www.abeldanger.net/2014/04/1915-marine-links-mi-3-red-switch.html" type="external">Skynet satellite military communications necessary for a remotely-controlled hijack</a>.” Over the years, Serco has been&#160;outsourced to&#160;provide support for&#160;various enterprises by&#160;governments all over the world, heading up air traffic control services throughout many parts of the globe, maritime security, outfitting operations for modes of transportation such as buses and metro systems, running security operations for private prisons, all while overseeing Britain’s military ballistic munitions and nuclear arsenal since 1964 – as a complex project management provider.&#160;</p>
<p>Here’s a YouTube video looking at McConnell’s case information as it relates to BHUAP…</p>
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<p>There is an established relationship between Serco, “the global support services company,” and the British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat, a company who was responsible for the satellite data used to track down MH370 through its ‘handshake’ links, data which has subsequently turned up empty, prompting many to question the various business arrangements involving the support services company Serco and Inmarsat.</p>
<p>Other connections between Serco and Inmarsat bring us to Former Royal Air Force Electronics Engineer,&#160;Gordon McMillan,&#160;who 1995, was the&#160;Operations Director for Serco Aerospace as he later moved on to Inmarsat’s Director of Government services from 2006-2011 and is now the director of Inmarsat’s <a href="http://www.boeing.com/boeing/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/Inmarsat-5/Inmarsat-5.page" type="external">GX Programme which is partnered up with Boeing to finish the development of the three remaining broadband Inmarsat-5&#160;</a> <a href="http://www.boeing.com/boeing/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/702/Inmarsat-5/Inmarsat-5.page" type="external">satellites</a>.&#160;In 2013, Serco was scrutinized as they were under investigation for fraud.</p>
<p>Mass media distortion</p>
<p>On March 28th, 20 days after the apparent disappearance of MH370, the Boeing uninterruptible autopilot system was openly discussed on air during&#160;CNN’s ‘The Situation Room’ with&#160;Wolf Blizter.&#160;Here is <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1403/28/wolf.01.html" type="external">&#160;the link to the CNN transcript</a>&#160;posted below. What the show failed to disclose with those familiar with Boeing’s integrated avionics, is that the pilots themselves do not have to trigger anything manually in order to have this system engaged, as it is fully independent of an airliner’s power supply. Boeing like Rolls Royce, has been virtually silent on the issue of MH370, aside from some misleading information as to the whereabouts of MH370. See how the mainstream media tiptoes around the BHUAP:</p>
<p>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: “Wolf, it’s called the uninterruptible Autopilot System. This was reported on about seven years ago by the Homeland Security Newswire and by The Daily Mail. According to these reports, Boeing got a patent for some technology that would enable the plane to be flown by remote control from the ground in the event of an emergency. Now, in a situation of distress in this scenario, the pilot could flick a switch or maybe some kind of a sensor could trigger the autopilot. The autopilot could then be activated by radio or satellite. And our aviation analyst, Mark Weiss, explains what would happen next.”</p>
<p>MARK WEISS, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: “Everything now that the pilots would try to do would be inconsequential because the ground controller would be handling its flight path, its landing gear, its flap system, configuring the aircraft for a landing to a safe place and really taking away the hostile threat.”</p>
<p>TODD: “Now, Mark Weiss says that if that technology was in place now, if this was in all planes and this had widespread capability now, there’s a chance — a chance, Wolf, that this could have saved Malaysia Air Flight 370, but also it may not have. Again, we don’t know a lot of detail about what happened in that cockpit. But if this had been in place then, that’s why we’re raising this now, that it may have played a factor in possibly saving that plane in a certain scenario.”</p>
<p>“We have to say, Boeing is giving us absolutely no comment on this. We’ve come back to them repeatedly, tell us about this patent, tell us about this technology, are you still pursuing it. Nothing. They want nothing to say — they have nothing to say about it right now.”</p>
<p>Hacking, propaganda &amp; security contracts in the aftermath of a disaster</p>
<p>IMAGE: ‘Hack in the Box Origami’ – Hugo Teso works as a security consultant in Berlin, Germany at n.runs AG. He became a media sensation in April of 2013, when he claimed that he could hack into a plane’s Flight Management Systems via his smartphone (Photo: <a href="http://niunpeloderubia.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/hugo-teso-i-could-hijack-aircrafts-from-land-with-my-smartphone/" type="external">niunpeloderubia</a>.wordpress.com)</p>
<p>In April of 2013, Hugo Teso, an apparent former commercial pilot turned IT security-hack-guru, made waves when he told a crowd gathered at the ‘Hack in the Box’ computer security and hacker conference held in Amsterdam, that he could hack into a plane’s ACARS flight system. According to the applied science used in flight management this would be unprecedented.</p>
<p>Below is a YouTube video of Teso at the Hack in the Box conference located in Amsterdam, discussing his controversial his apparent plane hack…</p>
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<p>It was recently announced in late July that the <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/faa_agrees_with_inspector_generals_recommendations_to_implement_nextgen.html" type="external">FAA was looking to launch its next generation GPS</a>,&#160;“satellite-based air traffic control system.” Again the timing here is incredible, as the roll-out for autonomous flight control has been an arduously slow process, taking full advantage of aviation disasters along the way:</p>
<p>“The FAA has been gradually implementing elements of the new, so-called NextGen system to replace a radar-based system used since the end of World War II. NextGen incorporates global positioning technology similar to systems on smart phones and car dashboards, allowing air traffic controllers to track aircraft more precisely. The system’s enhanced precision, say proponents, reduces the space and time between planes taking off or landing.”</p>
<p>It appears as though the FAA has opened the door for the eventual full disclosure of the BHUAP, communications with satellite GPS systems, planes and air traffic control that have already been in use. This could have been a premeditated slow roll-out to get the public to accept the reality of this technology.</p>
<p><a href="http://aerosociety.com/Assets/Images/Insight%20Blog/Protecting%20airliners%20from%20missiles/C-MUSIC%20-web.jpg" type="external" /> IMAGE: ‘Sky Shield’ – C-Music counter defense laser system will be used against MANPADS. The pod is located under the plane’s fuselage.</p>
<p>The Israeli defense electronics company&#160;Elbit Systems, has managed to have some timely new developments in the wake of MH17’s apparent downing this past July. Elbit has been able to create a wide range of avionics for dual use in military and civilian aircraft use. Below as an excerpt from <a href="http://aerosociety.com/News/Insight-Blog/2345/Defending-airliners-against-missiles" type="external">Royal Aeronautical Society</a>:</p>
<p>“Given then these lethal threats – can anything be done for civil airliners? Modern military aircraft carry a wide range of defensive aids, from electronic jamming pods, to chaff and flare dispensers to spoof incoming missiles. Larger aircraft such as tankers, transports and VIP assets also can be equipped with DIRCM (directed infra-red countermeasures) a laser in a turret able to burn an IR missile seeker out. However, against radar-guided missiles, HVA (high value assets) such as transport aircraft, would in the first instance, be kept well away from these threats.”</p>
<p>The Royal Aeronautical Society goes on to discuss other more determined and lethal options in the throes of conflict following the <a href="" type="internal">highly controversial downing of MH17</a>:</p>
<p>“There is one other related point that the loss of MH17 and military aircraft to SAMs over Ukraine highlights – that is the need for stealth aircraft, EW and SEAD to effectively counter these ground-based threats in modern conflicts.”</p>
<p>Despite mainstream media’s revisionist claims that MH17 had to fly over a known warzone, we know that the Kiev-based Ukrainian Air Traffic Control (ATC) ordered&#160;MH17 off of its original flight path&#160;along the international air route, known as&#160;L980. The media has stated&#160;that MH17 was flying its intended route, even though there is evidence of the contrary.</p>
<p>The anomalies surrounding MH370, MH17, along with the hijacked airliners on 9/11, are closer to being understood as more information continues to be pieced together from exploratory investigation. Below is an interview with flight veteran Field McConnell on 21WIRE’s <a href="" type="internal">The Sunday Wire</a>&#160;radio show uncovering more details about the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot</a>&#160;and how it works.</p>
<p>SEE MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire War on Terror Files</a></p>
<p>READ MORE MH17 NEWS AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire MH17 Files</a></p>
<p>SUPPORT OUR&#160;WORK BY SUBSCRIBING &amp; BECOMING A MEMBER&#160; <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">@21WIRE.TV</a></p> | FLIGHT CONTROL: Boeing’s ‘Uninterruptible Autopilot System’, Drones & Remote Hijacking | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/08/07/flight-control-boeings-uninterruptible-autopilot-system-drones-remote-hijacking/ | 2014-08-07 | 4 |
<p>— Flickr/&lt;a href = "http://www.flickr.com/photos/realdeal09/"&gt;The World Wants a Deal&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons)</p>
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<p>It felt, at the start, a little like Seattle at the start. The same kind of joyful spontaneity that marked the first hours of the WTO protests, before the cops and the bandana-clad anarchists started trading blows. People gathered in front of the Danish Parliament building in the first sunshine seen for days (and it doesn’t last long at this latitude in December) to march to the conference headquarters about four miles away. The crowd—as many as 100,000 strong—was incredibly diverse: young people from around the world have swarmed into Copenhagen for the week, and they were dressed as penguins and polar bears and dinosaurs, singing, dancing to stay warm against the cold breeze. There was one other odd thing—many carried photos of other protests from the year past, ones they’d helped organize in their home countries. We saw shot after shot from our Oct. 24 350 rallies; it was as if people were delegates to some kind of global convention, carrying the hopes of their friends back home.</p>
<p>And meanwhile, back home: there were some 3,000 vigils around the world, organized by 350.org, Avaaz, and other members of the TckTck coalition. Most were candlelight affairs, solemn gatherings from people filled with hope and faith that something may yet be accomplished in these fractured talks. That’s what was different from Seattle: this gathering was just the tip of the iceberg, and a very large berg it was.&#160;By the time the long line had reached the Bella Center (mostly avoiding the few clashes with police taking place in other parts of town) the sun had, of course, gone down, and the candles had come out here as well. The pictures are quite beautiful, and they merge with the images from all over the world. A global movement is a beautiful thing.</p>
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<p>Nearly two decades after writing a book that popularized the term “global warming,” MoJo contributing writer Bill McKibben founded <a href="http://www.350.org/" type="external">http://www.350.org/</a>. He is chronicling his journey into organizing with a series of columns about the global climate summit in <a href="/environment/2009/11/copenhagen-too-hot-handle" type="external">Copenhagen</a>. You can <a href="/special-reports/2009/10/copenhagen-here-we-come" type="external">find the others here</a>.&#160;</p>
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<p /> | Seattle Meets Copenhagen | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/seattle-meets-copenhagen/ | 2009-12-13 | 4 |
<p>Real estate mogul Donald Trump had some harsh words for America's allies, as he gave them his ultimatum: Pay up, or America will no longer protect you.</p>
<p>Trump's inane comments were part of a lengthy foreign policy interview with <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/03/26/fight-isis-or-we-stop-buying-oil-trump-would-consider-ending-purchases-from-saudi-arabia/" type="external">The New York Times</a> which revealed that beneath the bluster and bravado, Trump's foreign policy is muddled and weak. For instance, he threatened to remove U.S. troops from Japan and South Korea as president if they didn't pay for the housing and food costs for the U.S. troops.</p>
<p>"We’re not being reimbursed for the kind of tremendous service that we’re performing by protecting various countries," Trump said.</p>
<p>But this is far from the truth. According to <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-foreign-policy-213546?o=0" type="external">Politico</a>, "America’s allies do pay for a proportion of U.S. bases. But they do not pay the full cost. This is largely because those alliances also work to America’s benefit by providing it with prepositioned forces and regional stability. It would actually cost more to station troops in the United States and have to deploy them overseas in a crisis."</p>
<p>In addition, it would be dangerous to withdraw troops from Japan and South Korea since they provide a strategic buffer to North Korea, a bloody dictatorial regime that <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/north-korea-calls-its-multiple-launch-rocket-system-horrible-nightmare-us-says-2344018" type="external">threatens the U.S. on a daily basis.</a></p>
<p>Trump also leveled tough talk toward the Saudis, calling for a boycott on Saudi Arabia's oil "unless they provide troops or funds to fight ISIS."</p>
<p>"If Saudi Arabia was without the cloak of American protection . . . I don’t think it would be around," Trump said.</p>
<p>Once again, Trump doesn't understand the complexity of the issue. Trump is closer to the mark on the problem of Saudi Arabia than he realizes, as their strand of <a href="http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/saudi-connection-wahhabism-and-global-jihad" type="external">Islamist Wahhabism</a> has created a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3502079/Saudi-Arabia-s-kingdom-savagery-DOES-Britain-cosy-butchers.html" type="external">heinous theocracy</a> that results in bloody executions for petty crimes and a repressive dictatorship toward dissent. The Saudi government also has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/nov/25/saudi-arabia-white-daesh-is-the-father-of-isis-says-writer" type="external">ties to ISIS,</a> including <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-funding-of-isis" type="external">funding</a> for the terror group. But simply boycotting their oil wouldn't be enough.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/03/27/donald-trump-sure-is-confused-about-trade-oil-is-fungible/#1236555f11d7" type="external">Forbes</a>, the U.S. only accounts for five percent of the Saudi's oil exports, so it will take more than losing the U.S.'s business to drive the Saudi government to business. If Trump knew what he was talking about, he would advocate for the U.S. to become energy independent and tap into its <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/american-oil-find-holds-oil-opec/story?id=17536852" type="external">deep oil and shale reserves</a> to overtake Saudi Arabia in oil exports. Trump's energy policies are clear as mud, as the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/oil-industry-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-choice-220947" type="external">oil industry is concerned</a> that his stance on ethanol and his lack of specifics on energy suggest that he may not be as friendly to oil as Republicans have been in the past.</p>
<p>Trump has also complained about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that it pays "almost nothing" and the U.S. foots most of the bill. <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/433320/trump-non-us-nato-budget-300-billion-almost-nothing" type="external">National Review</a>'s Jim Geraghty points out that while a legitimate argument can be made that the European countries in NATO need to pay more, it's not as clear cut as Trump makes it out to be:</p>
<p>The world’s third-largest defense budget is . . . the United Kingdom, at $66 billion. France is fifth at $52 billion. Germany ninth $43 billion. Italy, Canada, and Turkey rank 13th, 14th, and 15th. And these are countries with much smaller populations and economies than the United States.</p>
<p>By contrast, the U.S.'s defense budget is at $610 billion. NATO's total defense spending was $924 billion.</p>
<p>The heart of Trump's foreign policy argument is solely in terms of dollar signs–it just costs too much for America to be a leader on the world stage.</p>
<p>"We defend everybody," Trump said. "When in doubt, come to the United States. We’ll defend you. In some cases free of charge."</p>
<p>The problem is, the U.S.'s defense budget only consists of about <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2013/august-recess-legislator-meeting-fact-sheets/military-spending-fact-sheet/" type="external">a fifth of the overall budget.</a> Nearly <a href="http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/budget-entitlement-programs" type="external">two-thirds of overall spending</a> went toward entitlements, which Trump has repeatedly pledged to remain untouched. As <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/03/trumps-foreign-policy-thoughts-in-light-of-brussels" type="external">Conservative Review</a>'s Amanda Carpenter writes, "What’s more important? Making sure that millionaires such as Trump himself can still draw their Social Security checks, or standing with those who stand in the gap between Americans and suicide bombers?"</p>
<p>Based on his comments, it's clear that Trump has an isolationist bent to his foreign policy. Trump denies this charge saying that he is "America First." But little does Trump know that the term <a href="http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/" type="external">"America First"</a> hearkens back to the days of Robert Taft and Charles Lindbergh, two of history's <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-foreign-policy-213546?o=0" type="external">most prominent isolationists:</a></p>
<p>There are particular echoes of Sen. Robert Taft, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination in 1940, 1948 and 1952, and was widely seen as the leader of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Taft was a staunch isolationist and mercantilist who opposed U.S. aid for Britain before 1941. After the war, he opposed President Harry Truman’s efforts to expand trade. Despite being an anti-communist, he opposed containment of the Soviet Union, believing that the United States had few interests in Western Europe. He opposed the creation of NATO as overly provocative. Taft’s speeches are the last time a major American politician has offered a substantive and comprehensive critique of America’s alliances.</p>
<p>Trump’s populism, divisiveness and friendliness toward dictators is also reminiscent of Charles Lindbergh, once an American hero, who led the isolationist America First movement. In some areas, Trump’s views go back even further, to 19th-century high-tariff protectionism and every-country-for-itself mercantilism. He even invokes ancient Chinese history, telling Bill O’Reilly last August that his idea for a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border is feasible because “you know, the Great Wall of China, built a long time ago, is 13,000 miles. I mean, you're talking about big stuff.”</p>
<p>Trump's isolationist rhetoric, while scoring political points with the isolationist fringe of the Republican Party, is quite dangerous for the country, as Islamic terrorism is on the rise throughout the world.</p>
<p>"In a time of terror, is this really the time to scale back America’s commitments to our precious allies?" writes Carpenter. "Nations on the front lines against our shared enemies? Trump thinks now is the time for America to surrender its leadership role? Does he think if America abandons groups such as NATO the terrorists won’t continue to march across Europe towards America?"</p>
<p>Upon further examination, Trump's tough-talking persona is nothing but empty rhetoric plus poor solutions during a turbulent period in world history.</p> | Trump: If Our Allies Want Protection, They’d Better Pony Up Some Money | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4444/trump-if-our-allies-want-protection-theyd-better-aaron-bandler | 2016-03-28 | 0 |
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<p>TUCSON, Ariz. — The University of Arizona is proposing a new athletics fee to support athletics programs and facilities as part of its tuition proposal for the 2017-18 school year.</p>
<p>University officials say the new fee would cost $100 for incoming undergraduate students and $50 for incoming graduate students although the grad students could opt out.</p>
<p>The fee would support athletics facilities and operations.</p>
<p>It also would allow undergraduate students to attend all sports games for free except football and men’s basketball.</p>
<p>Graduate students who choose to pay the fee can attend all sports games other than men’s basketball.</p>
<p>The athletics fee proposal will be voted on April 6 at an Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Tucson.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | UA proposing a new athletics fee for the 2017-18 school year | false | https://abqjournal.com/972398/ua-proposing-a-new-athletics-fee-for-the-2017-18-school-year.html | 2 |
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<p>Back in February, <a href="/news/featurex/2008/03/torture-playlist.html" type="external">we posted a “Torture Playlist”</a> featuring songs that the American military had used to, um, “enhance” interrogations, including tracks by Eminem, Drowning Pool, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine. As Jesse Finfrock <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11280_torture-playlist.html" type="external">covered here on Wednesday</a>, musicians have joined forces with a human rights organization to put a stop to the use of music as torture. Now, <a href="http://stereogum.com/archives/trent-reznor-upset-his-music-used-to-torture-priso_041132.html" type="external">Stereogum points out</a> that another artist has joined the voices of protest: Trent Reznor, whose music as Nine Inch Nails was used to torture Chicago military contractor Donald Vance. Yesterday, Reznor posted an outraged message <a href="http://www.nin.com/" type="external">at his official website</a> entitled “Regarding NIN music used at Guantanamo Bay for torture”:</p>
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<p>It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture. If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities. Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.</p>
<p>Wait, “monetary gains”? You mean there could be royalties? Hmm… can anybody find out if any <a href="http://www.partyben.com" type="external">mashups</a> made it into the torture rooms?</p>
<p /> | Torture Playlist: Trent Reznor Responds | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/torture-playlist-trent-reznor-responds/ | 2008-12-12 | 4 |
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<p>From left, Harriet Barrow, who plays Viola, and Wayne Willinger, who plays the Captain, in a scene from "Twelfth Night." (Courtesy of Aquila Theatre)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - There's romance and mystery. And there's also comedy in the case of mistaken identity found in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."</p>
<p>The play follows Viola, who is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. She has lost contact with her twin brother and decides to dress as a man and call herself Cesario. She then begins to serve Duke Orsino, who is in love with Olivia, a wealthy countess. In the meantime, Olivia is falling for Cesario, which creates the mystery and romance.</p>
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<p>The New York-based Aquila Theatre is staging the classic at Popejoy Hall today.</p>
<p>Wayne Willinger plays Feste, a court jester of Olivia's household. He also plays the role of captain, Maria and priest.</p>
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<p>"In Shakespeare's plays often there is a fool that has a unique ability to speak the truth," Willinger says. "Using a jester-like tone, the fool can get away with comments and observations that others would not be allowed to say. - This is what drew me to this role."</p>
<p>Willinger says "Twelfth Night" is one of his favorite plays because it's tight and easily accessible.</p>
<p>"The play endures because of both themes and comedy," he says. "Feminism is a strong and popular theme in the play with characters that are strong female leads."</p>
<p>One of those leads is Kali Hughes, who plays Olivia. Hughes says she's tickled by Olivia's fall from grace in the play.</p>
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<p>"She begins the story as the highest-status character in the play, a countess morose with grieving and pursued by several suitors," Hughes says. "But from the point when she meets Cesario her knees turn to jelly and she stammers her words. Olivia stumbles through many awkward and embarrassing moments in her desperation to possess this young man."</p>
<p>Hughes says she enjoys playing Olivia because there is witty banter and she shares Olivia's appreciation of handsome, androgynous redheads.</p>
<p>"I adore her lofty regal sort of grace juxtaposed with her clownish plunge into humiliation and comic desperation in love," Hughes says.</p>
<p>Hughes says "Twelfth Night" has endured because the audiences can all relate to a bruised heart.</p>
<p>"We see the humor in these characters," she says. "Because they hold a mirror up to our naked selves."</p>
<p /> | Lasting themes in Shakespeare play | false | https://abqjournal.com/361517/lasting-themes-in-shakespeare-play.html | 2 |
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<p>Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Tesla Chairman and Chief Executive Elon Musk said Thursday that the Palo Alto-based company’s lithium-ion battery plant will prove a boon for both sides, including billions in investment from Tesla and billions in tax breaks from Nevada.</p>
<p>The proposed $5-billion “gigafactory,” where Tesla will produce batteries in partnership with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic, will be constructed on property known as the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center near Sparks, in northern Nevada.</p>
<p>Tesla purchased the land and broke ground there in June, halting construction before actually pouring concrete while negotiations with the state continued, said a source with knowledge of the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly.</p>
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<p>Trumpeting the news at a press conference in Carson City, Sandoval said the deal would “change Nevada forever … and stream billions of dollars into our economy.”</p>
<p>Hearkening back to the state’s pioneer beginnings, and calling Tesla’s Musk “a rare visionary who has the courage to reach beyond and to convert the unthinkable into reality,” Sandoval said: “We are determined to be a major part of moving our country and our global economy forward. Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to lead.”</p>
<p>Under the terms of the proposed deal, according to Nevada documents, Tesla would receive up to a 100% tax abatement for the next 20 years for all sales tax, and up to a 100% tax abatement for the next 10 years for all real property tax, personal property tax and modified business tax.</p>
<p>Tesla would also receive a transferable tax credit of 5% of the first $1 billion it invests in the state, and of 2.8% for the next $2.5 billion.</p>
<p>The governor’s office said the deal would include a $5-billion investment over the next three to five years, and a subsequent investment of an additional $5 billion over the following five years.</p>
<p>In addition to 6,500 factory jobs, at $25 an hour for each position, the Tesla deal would create 16,000 other jobs — including 3,000 construction jobs — while increasing state employment by 2% and regional employment by 10%.</p>
<p>The state said Tesla would also make a direct $37.5-million contribution to Nevada K-12 education, beginning in August 2018, and provide the University of Nevada Las Vegas with $1 million for advance battery research.</p>
<p>The state concluded that the Tesla deal would have a $1.9-billion “total fiscal impact” over 20 years, including an infusion of $430 million in state revenue, $950 million in local revenue and $500 million in K-12 education revenue.</p>
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<p>The deal represents a win for the state, one analyst said, but at a cost.</p>
<p>“This is taxpayer money, and it’s quite a bit of money,” said Thilo Koslowski, automotive practice leader at the technology research company Gartner. “California lost, and Nevada won, but at the point of a huge incentive.”</p>
<p>The first batteries would roll off the line in about three years — when Tesla plans to launch its new Model 3, the “mass market” sedan. The company has said the Model 3 will sell for $40,000, or about half the cost of its current Model S sedan.</p>
<p>“We have reached an agreement with the Tesla motor company, subject to legislative review and approval, that will enable Tesla to build the world’s largest and most advanced battery factory, right here in the Silver State,” Sandoval said.</p>
<p>Nevada beat out California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona for the Tesla factory. California Gov. Jerry Brown and Sacramento legislators had lobbied fiercely to keep the electric car components in the state, where Tesla already builds and assembles its popular but expensive electric cars.</p>
<p>“I’m devastated for the 6,500 families who won’t have the chance at these jobs unless they move to Nevada,” said state Sen. Ted Gaines, a Republican representing the Sacramento suburb of Rocklin. “Tesla is a California-born company that the state has invested heavily in, and we want it to succeed. It makes complete sense for it to expand right here, close to its headquarters, yet they are headed out of state.”</p>
<p>Gaines called the move to Nevada “a clear indictment of our business climate” and said Tesla’s decision was a strong signal to legislators “about how hard they have made it to operate here.”</p>
<p>Tesla representatives had stressed, as they weighed their options over the last several months, that a speedy start on the factory was essential to the company’s plans.</p>
<p>Although Tesla’s domestic sales for 2014 have been flat, the company has recently begun selling its Model S cars in England and China. The company has also begun production of a crossover SUV, the Model X, and is hoping to fast-track production of the Model 3.</p>
<p>All those vehicles, and the ability to sell them at a lower price, depend upon a steady supply of mass-produced batteries, which Tesla has said it cannot manufacture in sufficient number at its production facilities in California.</p>
<p>Tesla stock closed up $4.85 at $286.04 on Thursday, its highest closing price since its initial public offering in 2010. The shares traded as high as $290.50 in the late afternoon.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Tesla ‘gigafactory’ will ‘change Nevada forever,’ Gov. Sandoval says | false | https://abqjournal.com/457315/tesla-gigafactory-will-change-nevada-forever-gov-sandoval-says.html | 2 |
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<p>Can anyone doubt that the war in Iraq has proved to be Osama bin Laden’s sweetest dream come true? In his book on the run up to war, Richard Clarke, the counter-terrorism czar at the White House, immediately recognized this potential risk of an Iraq invasion. He recounts envisioning bin Laden sitting somewhere in a cave actually “willing George Bush to invade Iraq.” Clarke knew that such a jingoist misadventure would play right into the hands of the extremists: It would allow them portray the US as an out of control Great Satan with a personal vendetta against the Islamic world and thirst for their oil. Bush’s verbal faux paux in using the word “crusade” to describe the effort only heightened the propaganda bonanza for the extremists.</p>
<p>Mr. Clark and other knowledgeable war critics correctly foresaw our present dilemma: the US treasury spent and bleeding red ink, our credibility and respect lost to the world, our military stretched and overextended while fighting on two fronts, near civil war in Iraq, an unfinished job in Afghanistan, deep and serious divisions in our body politic, and immense international distrust of the intentions and motives of our nation. And worst of all, a great strengthening of the forces of international terrorism.</p>
<p>In his recent dialogue in The Nation, former head of the Middle Eastern Division of the CIA, Paul Pillar, reveals in substantial ways the abusive and deceptive tactics used by the Bush administration in their manipulation of intelligence to sell the war on Iraq. He also describes Mr. Bush’s complete disregard of cautionary warnings about the post war conditions in Iraq, conditions now proven so sadly true. Pillar’s confessions only confirm what many had already begun to accept: we were lied to in justifying the war in Iraq, the intelligence was indeed “cherry-picked,” and the administration was ignorant of or did not care about the potential post war civil strife inside Iraq. So obsessed was Mr. Bush to make war on Saddam Hussein that he willingly played us for fools, and went in half-cocked with insufficient troops to manage the post war environment. The myth of a cakewalk followed by rose pedals in the streets and happy-ever-after demonstrates just how disconnected were the war planners from the reality of Iraq.</p>
<p>And the larger war on international terrorism? We are losing by leaps and bounds. Who in their right mind can argue that invading Iraq has made us safer at home? Despite Mr. Bush’s vain attempt to portray Iraq as the forefront in the struggle against international terrorism — which only compounds the core dishonesty that characterized his preemptive invasion — most now concede that the war has indeed strengthened the Islamofascist movement in unprecedented ways. Sure, Iraq has become a magnet for those in the Middle East who would actively make war against us, but the opportunity we handed them was of our own making. By almost universal agreement it is now accepted that we have actually strengthened international terrorism and the aura of Osama bin Laden by creating a “breeding and training ground for terrorists” in Iraq.</p>
<p>World opinion does matter. In many ways it provides a mirror by which we may see ourselves. Right now we hold the lowest position ever, even worse than the terrible days of Vietnam. We have been disgraced and humiliated in the eyes of the world under Mr. Bush’s blundering helmsmanship.</p>
<p>All military commanders are held to the high standard of outcome and effect, it is the price they pay for the power given them. By this measure Mr. Bush has been a miserable failure bordering on incompetence. We are weaker now than at any time in recent history. We have squandered the good will afforded us after the events of 9/ll and thrown away our punch on a tin pot dictator who posed absolutely no threat to us whatsoever. We are bogged down in a foreign land half a world away that is perhaps quickly approaching a state of civil war. We have handed the terrorists a propaganda bonanza on a silver platter and multiplied the hatred and resentment toward us in the Islamic world to immense proportion. Many argue that the recent success of extremists in Palestine and Iran have been a direct result of our Iraqi invasion; sweeping the floor from underneath the moderate/progressive voices in the region.</p>
<p>If “by their fruit ye shall know them,” then the present realities for the United States speak of leadership that has utterly failed in its duty to lead with wisdom, prudence and forethought. From the missed opportunities to identify and thwart the airborne attacks of 9/11, to the missed opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora, to the lies that preceded the trumped up war in Iraq, to the unwitting strengthening of our real enemies, to the bankrupt treasury and deep divisions within the US, this administration’s legacy will be one of missed opportunities, fatal misjudgments, arrogant and short sighted priorities, reactionary jingoism, and delusional incompetence: Bitter fruits indeed.</p>
<p>Dr. JOHN BOMAR, a veteran of the Vietnam War, is a Catholic Lay Minister in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | "By Their Fruits…" | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/02/25/quot-by-their-fruits-quot/ | 2006-02-25 | 4 |
<p>Thirteen years is enough. It is time to repeal California’s Three Strikes law, passed by lawmakers and voters on the watch of former GOP Gov. Pete Wilson in 1994.</p>
<p>The Inland Empire (San Bernardino and western Riverside counties) is headquarters of Families United for Prison Reform, of which Annie Smith is the executive director. She and scores of volunteers statewide are seeking to change the political conditions of California’s prison growth. To this end, their task is to gather 434,000 verified voter signatures by Feb. 25 to put the Sentencing and Parole Reform measure on next November’s general election ballot.</p>
<p>This measure has two main parts. The first would roll back the Three Strikes law, which requires longer prison sentences (25 years-to-life) for individuals who have committed repeat, serious or violent felony offenses. The second part of the Sentencing and Parole Reform proposal would allow for the re-sentencing of prisoners convicted under Three Strikes.</p>
<p>There were 8,212 California prisoners sentenced under the Three Strikes law this September 30. That figure compares with 7,945 third strikers a year earlier, an increase of 3.3 percent.</p>
<p>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which now holds 173,000 prisoners (double the design capacity), has an $8.75 billion budget for the current fiscal year, or 8.5 percent of state spending. According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, the Sentencing and Parole Reform proposal would lower such spending “potentially a few hundred million dollars initially, increasing to the low billions of dollars annually, primarily due to reduced prison operating costs.”</p>
<p>On a related note, California is facing a $14 billion budget deficit for the coming 18 months. Accordingly, the math of the current prison overcrowding matter is simple, say the measure’s proponents. Cutting the number of prisoners would lower the number of state prisons.</p>
<p>That action would also reduce the state deficit. This would lessen the need to raise taxes for more revenues and to make cuts in human services. So reducing the CDCR budget appears to be the fiscally “conservative” thing to do. But there are many moving parts in this story as prison reformist pressure grows from the grassroots.</p>
<p>A case in point is the labor union for correctional officers who work in prisons, not happy about the prospect of early releases on parole for third strike or other sentenced prisoners. Take the California Correctional Peace Officers Association’s opposition to the proposed plan of GOP Gov. Schwarzenegger to save the state $250 million through early releases of 22,000 non-violent prisoners, The Sacramento Bee recently reported.</p>
<p>No doubt prison reformers are keeping their eyes on this development. Smith’s group will need to craft a political strategy to deal with the political “juice” of the 31,000-member CCPOA, as an unclear number of its rank and file face the prospect of possible job layoffs in response to a fall in the prison population.</p>
<p>In brief, the political contours of what is unfolding around the fiscal crisis of the state casts new light on the official narrative of Three Strikes law proponents, who have and do claim the moral high ground on the public’s legitimate right to be safe and secure. The law’s backers said then and say now that it is a necessary tool in the “tough on crime” toolbox campaign against criminals.</p>
<p>Against that backdrop the red ink is flowing for the California budget in part due to the housing market crash and resulting drop in property and sales tax revenue. Annie Smith’s group swims in these waters of social instability.</p>
<p>Families United for Prison reform does not stand alone in its dissonance with the view that sentencing reform is an idea whose time has come today. Take a new study by the JFA Institute, which says policymakers have not made the public safer by locking up criminals for longer stretches. “California’s “Three Strikes” law has had a number of evaluations; almost all found that it failed to reduce crime,” according to the JFA. The study, <a href="http://www.jfa-associates.com/publications/srs/UnlockingAmerica.pdf" type="external">Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population</a>, came out in late November].</p>
<p>If crime reduction is not the outcome of the Three Strikes law, then public policy around prevention of lawbreaking needs to be rethought. For more information, contact: <a href="http://www.ctddreams.org/" type="external">www.ctddreams.org</a>, or call (916) 308-3441; Families United for Prison Reform at <a href="http://www.californiaprisonreform.org/" type="external">www.californiaprisonreform.org</a> and (951) 210-9149.</p>
<p>SETH SANDRONSKY lives and writes in Sacramento <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Repealing California’s Three Strikes Law | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/12/22/repealing-california-s-three-strikes-law/ | 2007-12-22 | 4 |
<p>The media missed the story on this week’s “trilateral” summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and the Presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari. Admittedly, speeches made by Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following the meeting were nearly devoid of content. Reporters had little to work with. However, two significant goals were accomplished by the trilateral meeting, just by having the three men photographed together.</p>
<p>First was an emphasis on the central role of the United States in what Washington is now calling the “AfPak” conflict. China and Russia both want influence in Central Asia as well, and the still-nascient Shanghai Cooperation Organization is held out as an alternative to America’s “unilateral” approach. After this meeting, the appearance is that Afghanistan and Pakistan accept the United States as the sole foreign arbiter of their internal problems.</p>
<p>A second achievement was the public acceptance by the Pakistani President that the Afghan war has mutated into the “AfPak” war. Yes, Mr. Obama, you may now include Pakistan in your theater of operations and consider it to be one and the same war, just as you say, Sir. It is, after all, your war.</p>
<p>A weaker leader than Asif Zardari could not be imagined. He is not respected or liked by the Pakistani people, and came into power by way of the fact that he is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the most progressive President in Pakistan’s history. The Bhutto family has led the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) since the day its founder, Zulfikar Ali, was executed in 1979 following a military coup.</p>
<p>President Zardari does not share the Bhuttos’ popularity, however. Nicknamed “Mr. 10%,” Zardari is believed to have embezzled $1.5 billion dollars out of the country, and spent seven years in prison following his conviction. When General Pervez Musharraf, another military dictator, resigned from power in August of 2008, Zardari assumed the role of his recently-assassinated wife, and ran virtually unopposed. The New York Times reported that Zalmay Khalilzad, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, had been unofficially advising Asif Ali Zardari during his campaign.</p>
<p>Musharraf himself had come into power in 1999, in a US-backed military coup. Pakistan’s President at the time, Nawaz Sharif, earned America’s emnity by developing and testing nuclear weapons, and nearly using them in a confrontation with India centered in the Kargil district of Kashmir. Sharif fled the country and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until September of 2007. Upon his return, Sharif was greeted by crowds of supporters. Having instituted a state of emergency and imprisoned numerous political opponents, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, General Musharraf decided it was better to leave Sharif and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), alone. Musharraf’s new court barred Nawaz Sharif from holding public office, but permitted him to remain in Pakistan free from arrest. Needless to say, when Asif Zardari ran for President in 2008, there was no real opposition. The PML did not run any candidate and the PPP swept the election.</p>
<p>In the first six month’s of Zardari’s presidency, the relationship between the governments of America and Pakistan has been that of colonial power to colony. Zardari’s support of the American bombing campaign in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, and Pakistani military operations there, both resulting in disproportionate civilian casualties, have infuriated the Pakistani people and put the country on the brink of revolution. As another prominent Pakistani opposition figure, Imran Khan, has noted, “what country bombs its own people?”</p>
<p>To counter this growing insurgency, President Zardari has made some conciliatory moves to address the common grievances. These include reinstating Justice Chaudhry to the Supreme Court, various discussions with Nawaz Sharif on power sharing arrangements, and freeing Maulana Abdul Aziz, leader of the radical Red Mosque, who had been imprisoned since the Pakistani army’s bloody siege of the Mosque in July of 2007. Another, and more controversial gesture was an attempt to negotiate with tribal leaders in regions bordering Afghanistan, to get them to side with the government against the insurgents. These negotiations led to the announcement that Islamic courts would be set up in the troubled Swat region of the frontier, in a program called the Nizam-e-Adl. This step was apparently taken without consulting the Americans, who have now pressured the Pakistani government to retake Swat by force. A humanitarian crisis is in the making, converting hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis into refugees.</p>
<p>Had these gestures been made shortly after Mr. Zardari took office, and had he ignored Washington’s demands to use military force, Pakistan might have recovered from the disasterous rule of General Musharraf. As a reaction to a growing insurgency, however, these moves make Zardari and his government look weak and aimless. This is compounded by the impression that whatever Pakistan does can quickly be overruled by the United States, which can even order the Pakistani military to attack its own people. The image of weakness is made even worse by statements by Obama and others in his administration expressing a lack of confidence in the government it has so long manipulated and shored up.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to yesterday’s meeting. From Pakistan’s perspective, what did it achieve? Pakistan may receive billions more dollars in aid, along with an army of highly-paid consultants who cannot even speak Urdu. (Translators and babysitters are not included in the aid program.) No doubt there will be plenty of pork for Zardari to share with the Pakistani parliament, and admittedly, this will help to stabilize Mr. 10% in his tenuous role as leader of a failed and failing state. Yet Pakistan will pay a higher price in the long run.</p>
<p>The question at hand is not whether Pakistan is on the verge of a takeover by reactionary religious extremists from Afghanistan. It is not. Conflating the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan only confuses people. Pakistan is, however, experiencing an extraordinary upheaval of popular discontent. In a word, it’s the emergence of democracy. Left on its own, the Pakistani army could probably crush the resistence. But with Washington’s help, nearly anything is possible. The real question is, what form will the next series of political changes take.</p>
<p>PAUL WOLF is a lawyer in Washington DC, practicing international and human rights law. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Obama’s Axis of Obedience | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/05/08/obama-s-axis-of-obedience/ | 2009-05-08 | 4 |
<p>QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber targeting a police truck in Pakistan killed six people and wounded 17 on Tuesday, officials said.</p>
<p>Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief of the city of Quetta, where the attack took place, said four of those killed and most of the wounded were policemen.</p>
<p>The Pakistani Taliban claimed the attack, saying a suicide bomber targeted a police contingent returning from duty at the provincial assembly building.</p>
<p>The assembly met Tuesday for a no-confidence vote against the province's chief minister, Shanullah Zehri, who resigned from his post before the vote could be taken. He is likely to be replaced with another member of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party.</p>
<p>The Baluchistan province has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatists. Islamic militants also operate in the region.</p>
<p>QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber targeting a police truck in Pakistan killed six people and wounded 17 on Tuesday, officials said.</p>
<p>Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief of the city of Quetta, where the attack took place, said four of those killed and most of the wounded were policemen.</p>
<p>The Pakistani Taliban claimed the attack, saying a suicide bomber targeted a police contingent returning from duty at the provincial assembly building.</p>
<p>The assembly met Tuesday for a no-confidence vote against the province's chief minister, Shanullah Zehri, who resigned from his post before the vote could be taken. He is likely to be replaced with another member of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party.</p>
<p>The Baluchistan province has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatists. Islamic militants also operate in the region.</p> | Suicide bomber targeting police kills 6 in Pakistan | false | https://apnews.com/amp/bb73145797054802a47905ca3c26a937 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>Shares of United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) stock dropped 10.1% in July.</p>
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<p>United Continental <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/19/what-comeback-united-continental-disappoints-again.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09161f22-787a-11e7-a0c2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">reported its Q2 2017 earnings Opens a New Window.</a> after close of trading on Tuesday, July 18. By the time trading resumed the next morning, United Continental stock had already dropped 3% -- and it hasn't stopped falling since.</p>
<p>If you haven't already heard, you may be surprised to learn that United Continental actually beat on earnings. Emphasizing its own special flavor of "adjusted earnings," the company reported a pro forma profit of $2.75 per share -- $0.12 ahead of analyst estimates.</p>
<p>The company's actual <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/importance-of-accounting-principles-for-wiki.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09161f22-787a-11e7-a0c2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">GAAP Opens a New Window.</a> earnings were $2.66, which was nearly a 50% improvement over what United Continental had earned in the prior-year's second quarter -- and only on a 6% increase in revenues. So why did United Continental stock decline after earnings? Why is it still going down today?</p>
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<p>It's probably because of the guidance. In the course of reporting earnings, United Continental also gave new guidance for investors for its current third fiscal quarter -- and it was pretty disappointing. Among other items of note, United Continental said that its pre-tax profit margin will range between 12.5% and 14.5%, or roughly the same as it achieved in Q2, but in a summer-vacation quarter, that's supposed to be much stronger for United.</p>
<p>Passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) isn't expected to improve much either -- plus or minus 1% compared to last year. Conclusion: Foolish airline specialist Adam Levine-Weinberg believes that "EPS will probably decline year over year this quarter."</p>
<p>And that's why United Continental stock crashed and burned in July.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09161f22-787a-11e7-a0c2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rich Smith Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09161f22-787a-11e7-a0c2-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why United Continental Stock Crashed and Burned in July | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/03/why-united-continental-stock-crashed-and-burned-in-july.html | 2017-08-03 | 0 |
<p>HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is extending temporary housing benefits for three more days to 36 Puerto Rican families living in Connecticut after being displaced by Hurricane Maria.</p>
<p>Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office says the Democrat spoke by phone Friday with FEMA Administrator William "Brock" Long, who informed him of the reprieve.</p>
<p>Malloy and the state's U.S. senators were surprised to learn Thursday that FEMA had rescinded an earlier decision to extend transitional shelter assistance through February 14. FEMA informed Malloy's office on Thursday the money was being stopped, acknowledging the extension had been granted in error.</p>
<p>Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling FEMA's three-day extension "a weak attempt at damage control."</p>
<p>Malloy's office says the state will continue to assist the evacuees after the three days run out.</p>
<p>HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is extending temporary housing benefits for three more days to 36 Puerto Rican families living in Connecticut after being displaced by Hurricane Maria.</p>
<p>Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office says the Democrat spoke by phone Friday with FEMA Administrator William "Brock" Long, who informed him of the reprieve.</p>
<p>Malloy and the state's U.S. senators were surprised to learn Thursday that FEMA had rescinded an earlier decision to extend transitional shelter assistance through February 14. FEMA informed Malloy's office on Thursday the money was being stopped, acknowledging the extension had been granted in error.</p>
<p>Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling FEMA's three-day extension "a weak attempt at damage control."</p>
<p>Malloy's office says the state will continue to assist the evacuees after the three days run out.</p> | Housing money for Puerto Rico evacuees extended 3 more days | false | https://apnews.com/amp/777ff9a351a64c3581b4bc431e2e9a5e | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>Everything is&#160;going great in the relationship, or so it seems — until one day, that loyal bank customer closes their account and vanishes without any explanation.</p>
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<p>According to a new FICO survey, that’s exactly what’s happening with a lot of millennial banking customers. In fact, the survey found that this demographic is two to three times more likely to close all accounts with their primary bank than people in any other age group.</p>
<p>“The increased volatility in this 25-34 year-old age group can be a costly exercise for incumbent banks, due to the increased marketing and operational costs required to win new customers, especially if they are only replacing the ones that have left,” Joshua Schnoll, FICO’s senior director, said in a press release.</p>
<p>The FICO survey discovered that 45% of these millennials (ages 25–34) and 36% of younger millennials (18–24) are closing their accounts and taking their money to another bank because of fees, whether from ATMs, low balances, or any other type of fee they may get charged.</p>
<p>“Banks will need to address millennials’ sensitivities to bank fees and a desire for convenience in order to arrest churn and build loyalty,” Schnoll said.</p>
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<p>Beyond that, having a negative experience after missing a payment was the second reason millenials took their banking business elsewhere, followed by inconvenient branch locations and too few ATMs. Younger millennials also noted that having a negative fraud-related experience was another reason that caused them to switch banks.</p>
<p>To gather this information, FICO surveyed about 1,000 U.S. consumers (over the age of 17) online in October and November 2015. Data was weighted by age and region to reflect U.S. Census data.</p>
<p>If you are unhappy with your bank, whether because of fees or something else, it never hurts to shop around for a new one. Just make sure that you’re still paying your bills on time while doing so and/or switching, as not doing so can cause you to pay more in the long run via late payment fees and can even hurt your credit. (To find out <a href="https://www.credit.com/credit-reports/tips-for-improving-your-credit-payment-history/" type="external">how your payment history is affecting your credit Opens a New Window.</a>, you can <a href="https://www.credit.com/free-credit-score/" type="external">see two of your credit scores for free Opens a New Window.</a>, updated each month, on Credit.com.)</p> | Why Millennials Close Out Bank Accounts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/15/why-millennials-close-out-bank-accounts.html | 2016-08-15 | 0 |
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<p>“Early in the morning is typical of my available time to do any biz work,” McCarthy says. “My girls sleep in a little floor bed 10 feet away from me. At this point, we’re very acclimated to being on tour and in a good rhythm for sleep. Nils often leafs through comic books, but he likes to have some quiet autonomous time taking in neat things.”</p>
<p>The duo have been working together for nearly a decade, and their last album, “Light of a Vaster Dark,” was released in 2010.</p>
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<p>McCarthy says in the past two years, the duo – who also are life partners – have traveled across the world touring. Now she’s hoping to write some new music.</p>
<p>“The time I have to create anything except mothering is very limited nowadays,” she explains. “So when those windows open, the wellspring overflows. I just began opening it, getting ready for this tour. I’m a songwriter that really has to live for a while before I have something to write about again, and this stuff has been assembling for about four years of motherhood. Motherhood and time on a large forgotten ranch where we had our girls. I’m eager to return home and work on it. I brought my papers with me, but this tour hasn’t proven to be a time I can work on any writing.”</p>
<p>McCarthy says the way she writes music has changed. She explains that her flow is surer, when it kicks in.</p>
<p>“I’m still able to have melody leap out with different ‘settings,’ different inspirations. I still have music and musicians inspire me, and point me in new directions,” she says. “I guess I’m less of an imitator now, and use inspirations as things that bust down walls and expand dimensions of myself more. Things are internalized and more confidently made my own. There’s a bigger wellspring to draw from, there’s more of my self now, the older I get.”</p>
<p>McCarthy began Faun Fables as a solo artist, but met Frykdahl and the band became a duo. She says while she was a soloist, she worked sparsely and didn’t have a set sound and was in a transition musically.</p>
<p>“Really, I was just starting to decipher my visions. He felt like an exciting puzzle piece,” she explains. “He brings an unrest to the music, movement. Over time, we feel like a well-oiled machine. It is so easy to work with him. It is something we don’t get a lot of time to do nowadays to just sit and explore writing a song. As parents, it’s easy to put such activity on the backburner; the day to day is so intensive. But when we do make time for it, it feels like the kiss of life.”</p>
<p>While the duo continues to tour, McCarthy says the band will spend the winter writing and recording for a new album in 2013.</p>
<p>“I am happy to serve a force in me that gives me such pleasure, satisfaction and continues to give that to some others as well,” she explains. “The quality of the work, collaborations and the time spent at it is much more important.”</p>
<p>Rasputina With Faun Fables WHEN: 9:30 Friday, Oct. 21 WHERE: Launchpad, 618 W. Central HOW MUCH: $14 at <a href="http://www.holdmyticket.com" type="external">www.holdmyticket.com</a> or 886-1251</p>
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<p /> | Kids cut down on time for composing | false | https://abqjournal.com/139577/kids-cut-down-on-time-for-composing.html | 2012-10-18 | 2 |
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<p>Tax season is rapidly approaching, and taxpayers across the nation will soon look for any tax breaks they can find. Claiming dependent exemptions is a smart way to reduce your taxable income, because for each exemption, you get a $4,050 reduction on the 2016 tax return you'll file early in 2017. But there are sometimes complicated rules you have to follow in order to claim dependents properly. Below, we'll look at those rules and how you can make the most of the favorable tax provisions governing dependents.</p>
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>The tax laws divide dependents into two categories: qualifying children and qualifying relatives. A qualifying child must be related to you, although the permitted relationships are broader than just your children. Under the rules, siblings, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren are also among those who are potentially eligible to be your dependent. Children must be U.S. citizens or residents who are younger than 19, or younger than 24 if they're full-time students. Children with permanent and total disabilities have no age limit. In addition, the child typically must live with you for more than half the year, you must provide at least half of the child's support, and you must be the only person claiming the child as a dependent. Finally, the child must not file a joint tax return with a spouse.</p>
<p>By contrast, the qualifying relative rules are broader in some ways and narrower in others. No age limit applies, and eligible relatives include parents, grandparents, and other more extended family relationships than what's covered under the qualifying child rules. Unrelated household members can also qualify, although they must live with you year-round, which isn't required for most relatives. To be a dependent, the person must have income of less than $4,050 in 2016 for you to claim an exemption. The person must still be a U.S. citizen or resident, and you must provide more than half of the person's financial support for the year.</p>
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<p>In most cases, it makes sense for taxpayers to claim dependents if they meet the legal tests. That's because dependents typically have minimal income and therefore pay less in tax than those providing support, and so the tax break is worth more to the person providing support.</p>
<p>However, that isn't always the case. For example, take a 23-year-old married child who is in school and whose spouse has a substantial income from work. The parents of the child might be able to claim the child as a dependent if they met the relevant tests for support. However, doing so would prevent the child from filing a joint return, and that could result in much higher tax liability for the child's spouse on a separate return. It might save the whole family more if the parents gave up the dependent exemption and let the child file jointly with the child's spouse.</p>
<p>The $4,050 reduction in taxable income per dependent can reduce your tax by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. However, some taxpayers don't get to take the full exemption amount. Specifically, the dependent exemption provision phases out for taxpayers who have adjusted gross income above a certain level. The table below lists the phaseouts for various filing statuses.</p>
<p>Data source: IRS.</p>
<p>For every $2,500 you make above that amount -- or $1,250 for those who are married filing separately -- you lose 2% of your total exemption for dependents. That means that once you're $125,000 above the threshold, you won't get to take any exemption at all. High-income taxpayers therefore get essentially no benefit from claiming dependents on their taxes.</p>
<p>Last, keep in mind that if you're divorced and have children, there will be some hoops to jump through in order to make the dependent exemptions work out the way you've agreed to. Typically, the custodial parent is the one who gets to claim dependent exemptions on children. However, the IRS allows divorced parents to treat children as dependents of the noncustodial parent if the custodial parent signs a special form, IRS Form 8332. The noncustodial parent must then attach that form to the tax return for the year.</p>
<p>In general, it makes sense to claim as many dependents as you're entitled to claim. By knowing the rules, however, you can plan your taxes in a way that will produce the greatest savings -- regardless of how many dependents you decide to claim.</p>
<p>The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Many Dependents Should You Claim on Your 2017 Tax Return? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/18/how-many-dependents-should-claim-on-your-2017-tax-return.html | 2016-12-18 | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />LAS VEGAS — The co-owner of the Las Vegas shop featured in the reality show “Pawn Stars” hopes a shopping center he’s proposing will lure the long lines of tourists who visit his famous store.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1rwMTCG" type="external">http://bit.ly/1rwMTCG</a> ) that Rick Harrison is drawing up plans for a Pawn Star Plaza that could boast six restaurants and about 16 small shops.</p>
<p>The plaza would consist of several modular units fit together like a Rubik’s Cube. Harrison says he was inspired by the nearby Container Park that’s built out of shipping containers commonly found on trains and barges.</p>
<p>Harrison’s Gold &amp; Silver Pawn Shop is in a gritty area near bail-bond offices and a now-closed tattoo parlor. He says he wants to help the area without using city redevelopment funds.</p>
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<p>Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, <a href="http://www.lvrj.com" type="external">http://www.lvrj.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | ‘Pawn Stars’ TV star plans stores near famous shop | false | https://abqjournal.com/436848/pawn-stars-tv-star-plans-stores-near-famous-shop.html | 2 |
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<p>POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic</p>
<p>OCCUPATION: Member of Congress</p>
<p>RESIDENCE: Albuquerque</p>
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<p>RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: Member of Congress, 2013-present; member, Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners, 2011-2012; president, Delta Consulting Group, 2008-2012; secretary, New Mexico Department of Health, 2004-2007; secretary New Mexico Aging &amp; Long-Term Services Department, 2004; director, New Mexico State Agency on Aging, 1991-2004; director, New Mexico State Bar Lawyer Referral for the Elderly, 1988-1991.</p>
<p>EDUCATION: Bachelor’s, University of New Mexico 1981; juris doctorate, UNM, 1987.</p>
<p>CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: <a href="http://www.michellelujangrisham.com" type="external">www.michellelujangrisham.com</a></p>
<p>1. What can Congress do to help spur job creation?</p>
<p>Congress needs to create more opportunities for small businesses to access capital so they can grow and create new jobs. We also need more predictability in appropriations, which means Congress must responsibly fund the federal government in a timely manner so we invest in working families and grow the economy. That’s why I’ve supported a two-year budget cycle – which will give more stability to government funding. Congress should also pass long-term funding bills for transportation and infrastructure – every $1 billion investment creates roughly 20,000 jobs.</p>
<p>2.How should Congress address the budget deficit and national debt?</p>
<p>As a member of the House Budget Committee, I know the devastating effect the Ryan Republican Budget could have on our economy. The Tea Party obsession with across-the-board sequestration budget cuts harm the national labs and bases in New Mexico – resulting in thousands of New Mexico jobs lost. Since I arrived in Congress, I have advocated for a balanced approach to deficit reduction – that removes harmful budget cuts, removes tax breaks for billionaires and Wall Street and allows us to invest in programs that create jobs and grow the middle class.</p>
<p>3. &#160;How would you propose to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws?</p>
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<p>If the House leadership cannot bring a bill to the floor that better fits with our economic needs, we need an up or down vote on the bipartisan Senate bill. Congress should seek to strengthen the border and require businesses to verify employees’ eligibility while also including provisions that keep families together and allow DREAMERS who were brought to the U.S. as children to serve our country in the military, complete a college degree and stay and contribute to our society.</p>
<p>4. How would you propose to change the nation’s gun laws, if at all?</p>
<p>Congress&#160;can&#160;no&#160;longer&#160;afford&#160;to wait&#160;to enact sensible legislation that strengthens the background check system and also enact&#160;a&#160;ban&#160;on assault weapons, including automatic and semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazine clips. Additionally, Congress needs to close the gun-show loophole, including having mandatory waiting periods, and make it illegal to traffic guns to people who are prohibited by law from having firearms.</p>
<p>5. Do you approve of the president’s actions in Syria and Iraq?</p>
<p>The&#160;threat&#160;of ISIL&#160;to our security and that of&#160;our allies requires a sustained counterterrorism strategy that will protect America and our allies. We must build a&#160;broad coalition of international partners who are dedicated to eradicating the threat posed by ISIL.</p>
<p>6. What is your approach to foreign policy and especially armed conflicts? Do you envision more U.S. involvement in crisis spots around the globe or less?</p>
<p>We cannot afford to enter into wars of choice, and armed conflict must always be the last resort. As a world leader, we should play a role in trying to prevent foreign conflicts from escalating and threatening our national interests. However, we need to aggressively engage in diplomatic solutions before considering entering into armed conflict.</p>
<p>7. &#160;New Mexico’s economy is heavily dependent on federal spending. Is this a good economic model for the state? If not, what should be done in the alternative?</p>
<p>Everyone agrees we must diversify our economy while still protecting the important worked performed at our national laboratories and military bases. With our growing private tech industry and projects like Innovate ABQ, New Mexico is poised to become the start-up state for our nation. But in order to make this a reality we need to make sure we are providing the right investments in capital and infrastructure. We have great human resources – New Mexico has more PhDs per capita than any other state – but we need additional investments in broadband and STEM education so we may continue to grow.</p>
<p>8. The U.S. is producing more oil and gas than ever before. Do you support or oppose hydraulic fracturing for natural gas? What energy policies should be implemented with respect to domestic oil and gas production?</p>
<p>The New Mexico oil and gas industry is a vital part of our state’s economy, and it is important to continue to support the thousands of jobs that industry provides. I joined with my colleagues to make sure that New Mexico wasn’t negatively impacted by new rules that could have slowed development of federal mineral leases for the oil and gas industry. However, any additional exploration and development must be done as safely as possible, without harm to the environment and making sure there are no negative impacts to public health.</p>
<p>9. How should Congress respond to issues of global climate change?</p>
<p>Congress should&#160;pursue sensible legislation to slow climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lessening our reliance on fossil fuels and promoting energy efficiency and conservation. Legislation to address climate change must protect the environment and American jobs. Congress should also adequately fund existing programs that provide agencies the resources and tools to combat climate change by enforcing existing legislation.</p>
<p>10. Has the federal government and the Department of Education gone too far in its oversight of local schools and state education policies?</p>
<p>Congress should allow for greater flexibility, and local schools and their educators should be supported in their efforts to address the unique needs of their students. The federal government must continue to play its fundamental role of ensuring that all children have access to a quality education.</p>
<p>11. Do you think President Obama has overstepped his authority in the use of executive orders, such as creating national monuments in New Mexico, deferring immigration enforcement against children brought to the U.S. illegally and establishing new environmental rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions?</p>
<p>Congress needs to start working together to pass legislation that solves our nation’s most pressing needs. This is precisely what happened when a bipartisan and bicameral group of women came together and hammered out the two-year budget deal, worked to resolve the impasse with the farm bill and ended the government shutdown. If Congress does its job, we will not need to worry about executive orders, regardless of who is president.</p>
<p>12. Describe your position on abortion.</p>
<p>A woman has the right to make her own decisions about health care. This includes abortion, which should be legal, safe and rare.&#160;Easy access to contraception is one of the best ways to prevent the need to face this difficult decision. Thus, I also support requiring insurance coverage for all forms of contraception, including over-the-counter access to emergency contraception. As secretary of health, I worked to increase access to age-appropriate sex education and proactively address the high rate of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.</p>
<p>13. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>14. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>15. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 1st Congressional District (D) — Michelle Lujan Grisham | false | https://abqjournal.com/457582/1st-congressional-district-d-michelle-lujan-grisham.html | 2 |
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<p>Over the past year ConocoPhillips' stock has nearly been cut in half, which is exactly what's happened to the price of oil:</p>
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/COP" type="external">COP</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>That's gut-wrenching volatility for most investors, especially the company's primary investor group, which are income seekers. In fact, that investor group has been burned twice by the company, not only being hurt by the significant slide in the stock price, but more recently by the company's decision to slash its dividend by two-thirds. As such, the company's risks have become very real to investors. However, when compared to many other oil stocks, the company actually is at the lower end of the risk spectrum. Here's why.</p>
<p>Its risk is correlatedConocoPhillips' primary risk is its direct exposure to oil and gas prices. That's because when oil prices head south, it takes ConocoPhillips' cash flow with it:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/COP/cash_operations" type="external">COP Cash from Operations (Quarterly)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>This leaves the company with less cash to invest in oil and gas projects and to pay out in dividends. Further, weaker cash flow has forced the company to borrow money to bridge the gap between cash flow and spending, impacting its debt metrics, which has the potential to limit the company's financial flexibility.</p>
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<p>In other words, if oil continues to go lower, and stays there for a lot longer, it increases the company's financial risks. For example, it might need to borrow more money in order to maintain the status quo, or the company could be forced to make further cuts including eliminating its dividend.</p>
<p>Risk is really relativeHaving said that, on a relative basis ConocoPhillips isn't as risky as some of its peers. For example, at the moment ConocoPhillips has a strong investment grade credit rating. That's a big competitive advantage when a growing number of peers are seeing their credit rating cut below investment grade. Anadarko Petroleum , for example, had its credit rating recently cut to below investment grade due to its "high debt levels relative to cash flow" and the "expectation of some production declines caused by reduced capital investment." That downgrade is a big blow to Anadarko Petroleum, because its credit is now seen as junk, suggesting that it faces major uncertainties due to its exposure to very weak industry conditions. ConocoPhillips' credit rating, on the other hand, implies that it has a solid ability to meet its financial commitments despite current conditions, which suggests it has minimal bankruptcy risk.</p>
<p>Having said that, ConocoPhillips doesn't have the cash war chest of rival Occidental Petroleum , which currently has more than $3 billion in cash on its balance sheet:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/COP/cash_and_equivalents" type="external">COP Cash and Equivalents (Quarterly)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>For perspective, that's enough cash to fully fund Occidental's 2016 capex budget, which will actually grow its production 2% to 4% over last year's rate. In addition, Occidental Petroleum has another $1.2 billion in cash coming in the door from a lawsuit settlement and a non-core asset sale, which will further bolster its cash position making it a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/16/how-risky-is-occidental-petroleum-corporations-sto.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">lower-risk oil stock</a>. Now, compare this to ConocoPhillips, which needs to spend $6.4 billion in 2016 just to keep its production flat and yet only has $2.4 billion in cash on its balance sheet. So, if commodity pricesdropped significantly, taking ConocoPhillips' cash flow with it, its cash position wouldn't be able to carry the company as far as Occidental Petroleum's war chest would.</p>
<p>Investor takeawayConocoPhillips' inherent riskiness is really relative. Because of its exposure to oil and gas prices, it's riskier than a company that has no exposure. That said, compared to its peers it's less risky than a company like Anadarko Petroleum, but in some ways a bit riskier than Occidental Petroleum. Because of this, I'd probably characterize it as a medium risk stock. It's not the crme of the crop in the oil patch, but it's nowhere near the bottom either.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/08/how-risky-is-conocophillips-stock.aspx" type="external">How Risky Is ConocoPhillips' Stock?</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Matt DiLallo</a> owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | How Risky Is ConocoPhillips' Stock? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/08/how-risky-is-conocophillips-stock.html | 2016-03-28 | 0 |
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<p>Standard &amp; Poor’s downgraded European banking giants Barclays (NYSE:BCS), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB), citing increased concerns about the fallout of tougher regulation, “fragile” global markets and the continent’s slumping economy.</p>
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<p>Shares of the three big European lenders that were downgraded late Tuesday all headed south on Wednesday in the wake of the negative commentary and new turmoil in the eurozone, especially in Portugal.</p>
<p>“We see increasing risks for some large Europe-based banks operating in investment banking, as regulators and uncertain market conditions make operating in the industry more difficult,” S&amp;P said in a statement.</p>
<p>The ratings firm cut Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank to “A” from “A+” and left a “stable” outlook on all three. S&amp;P also reaffirmed its “A/A-1” rating on Swiss banking giant UBS (NYSE:UBS).</p>
<p>“These banks’ debt holders face heightened credit risk owing to the industry’s tighter regulations, fragile global markets, stagnant European economies and rising litigation risk stemming from the financial crisis.”</p>
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<p>The latest regulatory push is likely to force big banks to boost capital buffers and may create a headwind for revenue.</p>
<p>S&amp;P said it believes Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS are most exposed in Europe to a combination of regulatory initiatives, including the Federal Reserve’s proposed rules on foreign banking organizations, the U.S. Volcker rule that restricts proprietary trading and European Union regulation on bonuses and a financial transaction tax.</p>
<p>The shifting regulatory regime is likely to prompt banks to further restructure their business models, S&amp;P said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the tough economic environment is likely to “further squeeze and add volatility to the revenue base of banks’ capital market activities,” S&amp;P said.</p>
<p>The ratings firm cited the unwinding of the Fed’s quantitative-easing program that is weighing on bond prices, rising volatility levels and slower growth in China.</p>
<p>The fact that Barclays relies on investment-banking revenue makes the British lender “susceptible to the earnings constraints” seen for big European banks, S&amp;P said.</p>
<p>U.S.-listed shares of London-based Barclays declined 1.47% to $16.78 Wednesday.</p>
<p>While it remains “cautious” on Credit Suisse, S&amp;P said the stable outlook on the bank is based in part by management’s recent steps to improve its risk position, boost capital and shrink its balance sheet.</p>
<p>Zurich-based Credit Suisse slumped 3.35% to $25.97 Wednesday morning, while Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) dropped 2.87% to $39.95. UBS was recently off 2.13% to $16.56.</p> | S&P Demotes Ratings of Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/03/sp-demotes-ratings-barclays-credit-suisse-deutsche-bank.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday split 4-4 on a conservative legal challenge to a vital source of funds for organized labor, affirming a lower-court ruling that allowed California to force non-union workers to pay fees to public-employee&#160;unions.</p>
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<p>The court, shorthanded after the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and evenly divided with four liberal and four conservative members, left intact a 1977 legal precedent that allowed such fees, which add up to millions of dollars a year for&#160;unions.</p>
<p>The outcome emphasized the impact of Scalia's death, as he likely would have been a decisive vote against the&#160;unions. During the Jan. 11 oral arguments in the case, Scalia was still on the bench, giving the court a majority of five conservatives. The conservative justices during the arguments voiced support for the stance of the non-union teachers in challenging the fees.</p>
<p>The 4-4 decision leaves in place an appeals court ruling in favor of the&#160;unions&#160;but sets no new precedent.</p>
<p>The court's action came in lawsuit brought by a group of non-union public school teachers from California who objected to paying fees to the California Teachers Association union. A California law requires non-union workers to pay fees to public-sector&#160;unions&#160;representing workers such as police, firefighters and teachers to fund collective bargaining efforts.</p>
<p>U.S. conservatives for years have tried to curtail the influence of&#160;unions&#160;representing public employees like police, firefighters and teachers that frequently back the Democratic Party and liberal causes.</p>
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<p>A ruling allowing non-union workers to stop paying so-called "agency fees" equivalent to union dues, currently mandatory under laws in about half the 50 states including California, would have deprived public sector&#160;unions&#160;of millions of dollars a year, reducing their income and political power.</p>
<p>The decision means the status quo remains, with the&#160;unions&#160;able to collect fees from non-union workers.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)</p> | Split SCOTUS Rejects Non-Member Challenge to Union Fees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/29/split-scotus-rejects-non-member-challenge-to-union-fees.html | 2016-03-29 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Eastbound Interstate 40 in Albuquerque just before the Big I will have the off ramps to northbound and southbound Interstate 25 closed overnight today (March 16) and Monday (March 17), according to the state Department of Transportation.</p>
<p>The closures are needed for overhead sign installation.</p>
<p>The closures are scheduled to start at 9 p.m. each day and last through 5 a.m. the following days, according to the DOT.</p>
<p>I-40 traffic should exit at Fourth Street and use the frontage roads as a detour, the agency said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Some Big I ramps to be shut overnight today and Monday | false | https://abqjournal.com/369375/some-big-i-ramps-to-be-shut-overnight-today-and-monday.html | 2 |
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<p>Dear Chip,I was wondering if you could give me any advice on breaking in to the field of creative non-fiction. I'm a 45-year-old voracious reader who's always wanted to write, but in college I was too much the capitalist to endure the starving artist path and changed from an English major to Computer Science. I try to write 1,000 words a night in a journal and read "everything," but realize that's nothing more than doing mental push-ups and have no idea how to "get an assignment." Any tips or insight you could shed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Gary LeydonSystems AdministratorYale Univ. Sch. of MedDepartment of NeurobiologyDear Gary,First, of course, write. Fortunately, you're already doing that so it's possible you have material already that you can turn into manuscripts to submit.</p>
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<p>Survey the market. As I said in <a href="" type="internal">part one</a> of my response to your question, creative nonfiction is the latest name for fact-based journalism that includes literary journalism, personal essays, memoir and cultural criticism.Get the latest "Best American Essays," which includes prizewinners and notable essays and a list of places that publish, as does the annual collection of "Pushcart Prizes."&#160;&#160;Doing this&#160;will give you a sense of the range of work that editors deem suitable. Look for something that makes you say, "Heck, I could do that," or "I've got a story like that" or "That gives me an idea for a story I could report." The world of publishing is replete with examples of readers saying just that (which must be why Saul Bellow said, "A writer is a reader moved to emulation.") And the world of creative nonfiction accommodates many voices.</p>
<p>The key will be to read as a writer as well as a reader. Ask: How did this story come to be? How was it reported, organized, written?</p>
<p>Get a manuscript together. Double space it with your name and contact info in a top corner of the first page and your last name and page number on succeeding ones.</p>
<p>Write a cover letter. Short and sweet. Here's an annotated one that went out with a short story of mine:</p>
<p>In recent years, I've started doing what's known as simultaneous submissions, sending to more than one magazine at once. Life is too short, and it can take months to hear back. I waited for eight months for a magazine to&#160;accept a&#160;piece and then&#160;another four months for it to appear. If you get lucky, it means you have to write all the other magazines and say you're withdrawing your manuscript from consideration. Fortunately, more and more publications are willing to accept simultaneous submissions, asking only that writers let them know as soon as a piece is accepted elsewhere.</p>
<p>You will&#160;receive rejection notes. Brandish them like&#160;Purple Hearts. One came in my mail this week.&#160;Make sure you have another package ready to go out so you don't dwell on it.</p>
<p>I wasted a lot of years not sending stuff out because it wasn't good enough. Of course you have to make sure the stuff's spelled right and that it's not a total piece of crap, but don't let perfectionism get in the way of pursuing your dream.</p>
<p>Get a manuscript together and start sending it out. It will get you in the game. And it will make all the difference. I guarantee it.</p>
<p>As for getting an assignment, you do the same thing as described above, but in this case write a brief pitch letter --&#160;aka&#160;a query letter --&#160;describing the story you'd like to write. Here's a <a href="" type="internal">piece</a> I wrote about queries that I hope helps.You may, as a beginner, have to do something on spec, either reporting and writing it without an assignment or offering to do something for an alternative paper.</p>
<p>It's as simple as just asking -- to be published, for an assignment -- and as difficult as getting someone to say yes.</p>
<p>You just have to ask, which means swallowing your fear, suppressing your ego. What makes it easier is focusing on the work ... the story, the reporting, the revision. That's the part of the process that you can control. Focus on the work, and you'll be ready when your break comes. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Chip</p>
<p>[ <a href="" type="internal">How did you break in? Share the story behind your first acceptance/assignment here.</a>&#160;]</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; <a href="" type="internal">Read about Chip's first assignment</a></p> | Breaking into Creative Nonfiction, Part 2: Getting that First Acceptance, Assignment | false | https://poynter.org/news/breaking-creative-nonfiction-part-2-getting-first-acceptance-assignment | 2003-04-17 | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The latest on developments in financial markets (All times local):</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Stocks ended mixed on Wall Street, but a meager gain for the Dow Jones industrial average was enough to mark another record high.</p>
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<p>Sizable gains for Boeing and United Technologies pushed the Dow slightly higher Thursday, but other indexes ended mostly lower after a day of back-and-forth trading.</p>
<p>Outside of gains for industrial and health care stocks, retailers and technology companies ended lower. Facebook lost 1.2 percent and Apple gave up 0.9 percent.</p>
<p>Energy companies rose as the price of U.S. crude oil rose to a six-week high. Cabot Oil &amp; Gas rose 1.3 percent.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,495.</p>
<p>The Dow rose 45 points, or 0.2 percent, to 22,203. The Nasdaq composite fell 31 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,429.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Stocks are edging mostly higher in midday trading as gains for health care and energy stocks outweigh losses in technology and consumer-focused companies.</p>
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<p>Pfizer rose 2.1 percent Thursday, while Disney and Facebook each dropped 1 percent.</p>
<p>Energy companies rose as the price of U.S. crude oil rose to $50 for the first time in a month. Haliburton increased 1.2 percent.</p>
<p>Stock indexes closed at record highs the last two days.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,496.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 18 points, or 0.1 percent, to 22,177, thanks to a gain in Boeing.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq composite fell 15 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,445.</p>
<p>More stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:35 a.m.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks are slipping, with technology and health care companies taking some of the biggest losses.</p>
<p>Prescription drug distributor AmerisourceBergen dropped 3.1 percent Thursday and McKesson fell 2.8 percent.</p>
<p>Facebook gave up 1.3 percent. Chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor fell 2.7 percent after the U.S. government blocked a Chinese government-financed firm from buying it, citing national security grounds.</p>
<p>Energy companies rose as the price of U.S. crude oil rose to $50 for the first time in a month.</p>
<p>Stock indexes closed at record highs the last two days.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index sank 6 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,491.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average shed 12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 22,145. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 33 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,426.</p> | Markets Right Now: Dow ekes out another high in mixed day | false | https://abqjournal.com/1063450/markets-right-now-tech-and-health-care-stocks-stumble.html | 2017-09-14 | 2 |
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<p>Plans for a railroad between Mexico’s west coast and the New Mexico border have been bandied about for years, without result. News this week that Chihuahua state Gov. César Duarte signed an agreement in Beijing with developer China Hyway Group Ltd., the China Development Bank and other investors is the most concrete step yet in that direction — and it was met with some skepticism on this side of the border.</p>
<p>Terms of the deal were not reported, and the Chihuahua state government did not return requests for comment.</p>
<p>Numerous obstacles could thwart the rail line’s completion, not the least of which is a yet-to-be-built deepwater port in Nayarit state, where the line would originate, and a duopolistic Mexican rail industry that has not historically welcomed outside competition.</p>
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<p>Ostensibly, the railroad would link the proposed port and San Jerónimo at the western edge of Ciudad Juárez and across from Santa Teresa. San Jerónimo is home to the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn and is expected to become the sprawling border city’s next area of expansion.</p>
<p>Just north of San Jerónimo lies New Mexico’s fast-growing industrial enclave of Santa Teresa, where Union Pacific recently opened a $400 million major rail yard and terminal.</p>
<p>Jon Barela, New Mexico secretary of economic development, said he believes the project could “provide a potentially game-changing approach to how commerce will flow from Asia to the Americas, and New Mexico will be an integral part of that transportation system.”</p>
<p>If the project really were to come to fruition, “it would make the region the most competitive along the border,” said Francisco Uranga, Foxconn vice president and chief business operations officer for Latin America. “Having rail all the way through Mexico from our border crossing would be an amazing magnet for competitive purposes.”</p>
<p>New Mexico, meanwhile, is in the early stages of planning a study to judge whether a cross-border rail spur at Santa Teresa and San Jerónimo is even feasible; today is the deadline for a request for proposals.</p>
<p>“We’re excited about all the growth not only in Chihuahua and southern New Mexico, and the rail bypass project” — the spur that would connect any new railroad in Mexico to New Mexico — “could be another pillar of economic development,” said Jerry Pacheco, vice president of the Border Industrial Association and a Journal trade columnist. “But we really need to see what the feasibility study is going to say.”</p>
<p>Two private railroads in Mexico — Ferromex and Kansas City Southern de México — manage all of the country’s rail infrastructure, which was largely built by the federal government around the turn of the last century and hasn’t been expanded much in 100 years, experts say.</p>
<p>Ferromex is a joint subsidiary of Mexican miner Grupo Mexico and U.S. railroad Union Pacific, and one of Mexico’s three railway concession-holders.</p>
<p>Duarte, who announced the deal alongside Nayarit Gov. Roberto Sandoval in Beijing, said the project will spur development at the San Jerónimo-Santa Teresa port of entry, according to the El Diario newspaper.</p>
<p>Duarte has made a rail line to the west coast a priority of his administration, but it isn’t clear whether the project has the support of the Mexican federal government — critical, observers say, in a country where power is highly centralized.</p>
<p>Work is expected to begin by year end, according to the newspaper report.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Mexico, China plan railroad link to NM border | false | https://abqjournal.com/438430/mexico-china-plan-railroad-link-to-nm-border.html | 2014-07-31 | 2 |
<p>On Friday morning, Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell (R) tweeted that “liberal” Boston residents likely wished for assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, as the manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspects continued.</p>
<p>Bell, a second-term legislator and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110114221842/http://natebell4arkansas.com/about.html" type="external">National Rifle Association life member, has</a> <a href="https://m.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10151324774449262&amp;_rdr" type="external">previously supported</a> allowing guns in churches as “removing a state mandated restriction on religious freedom.”</p>
<p>His tweet said:</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/NateBell4AR/status/325238796079747072</p>
<p>Bell has also <a href="http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/119111/nate-bell/37/guns#.UXFc3LXvvzg" type="external">backed legislation</a> to make concealed carry licenses cheaper and to prevent the governor from regulating firearms even in state emergencies. In 2010 <a href="http://www.arkansascarry.com/politics/legislator-questionnaires/30-legislature-house/272-nate-bell-r.html" type="external">told</a> Arkansas Carry, a state gun rights group, that he supports Stand Your Ground laws and tax exemptions for sales of gun and ammo manufactured in state.</p>
<p>Herman Cain’s CainTV agrees:</p>
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<p>Bell has apologized for his timing (but not his sentiment), posting on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NateBell4Arkansas/posts/10151563834772859" type="external">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/NateBell4AR/status/325297227499200512" type="external">Twitter</a>: “I would like to apologize to the people of Boston &amp; Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning. As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense, I expressed my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis. In hindsight, given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding, I regret the poor choice of timing. Please know that my thoughts and prayers were with the people of Boston overnight and will continue as they recover from this tragedy.”</p> | Arkansas Lawmaker Mocks Boston ‘Liberals,’ Says They Wish They Had Assault Rifles | true | http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/19/1895381/arkansas-lawmaker-mocks-boston-liberals-assault-rifles/ | 2013-04-19 | 4 |
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<p>The American taxpayers are suckers. That’s essentially what Mark Patterson, chairman of the private equity firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisors, told his fellow finance industry bigwigs in a moment of perhaps too much candor at the <a href="http://www.iiconferences.com/Qatar.html" type="external">Qatar Global Investment Forum</a>, held this week in Doha. “The taxpayers ought to know that we are in effect receiving a subsidy,” he <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5319359/Geithner-enriches-speculators-in-sham-bank-bail-outs.html" type="external">said</a>. “They put in 40 percent of the money but get little of the equity upside.”</p>
<p>Patterson is in a good position to know just how sweet a deal Wall Street is getting courtesy of our tax dollars. In January, his New York-based firm closed a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124174403847199189.html?mod=googlenews_wsj" type="external">deal</a> to buy a controlling interest in Michigan’s Flagstar Bancorp using $250 million in its own capital and $267 million in matching bailout funds from the Treasury Department.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5319359/Geithner-enriches-speculators-in-sham-bank-bail-outs.html" type="external">Telegraph</a>:</p>
<p>Under the convoluted deal agreed earlier this year, MatlinPatterson has come to own 80pc of the shares while the US government has ended up with under 10pc.</p>
<p>Mr Patterson said the US Treasury is out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable.</p>
<p>“It’s a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public because they are down to the last $100bn (£66bn) of the $700bn TARP funds. They think they’re doing this for the greater good of society.”</p>
<p>(H/T <a href="http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/mark-patterson-its-sham-banks-are.html" type="external">Zero Hedge</a>)</p>
<p /> | Fund Manager: US Taxpayers are Suckers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/fund-manager-us-taxpayers-are-suckers/ | 2009-05-15 | 4 |
<p>On Thursday, Young America’s Foundation (YAF) <a href="http://www.yaf.org/news/yaf-exclusive-home-ben-shapiros-2018-2019-campus-lecture-tour/?utm_content=buffer44a21&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" type="external">announced</a>that it will be the the exclusive home of Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief and New York Times bestselling author Ben Shapiro’s campus tour for the 2018-2019 school year.</p>
<p>YAF acknowledged, “In fact, the Foundation has never seen such a demand to host a speaker among students! Due to this demand, Ben Shapiro is already booked for the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year.”</p>
<p>The primary benefactor of Shapiro’s series is philanthropist Fred Allen, who was responsible for Shapiro’s first lecture tour; he is underwriting the fall component of the 2018-2019 series. Allen’s support means the students on campus who could not afford to have Shapiro speak will be able to do so.</p>
<p>Shapiro stated, “I am thrilled to partner with Young America’s Foundation to visit more campuses and pierce the liberal group-think bubble. I welcome students who disagree with me to attend each and every event and ask challenging questions.” Shapiro always features an extended Q&amp;A session after his speeches, and insists that those who disagree with him go to the front of the line.</p>
<p>Ron Robinson, president of Young America’s Foundation, asserted, “We are proud to partner with Ben Shapiro to ensure more students have the opportunity to hear conservative ideas from a leading conservative mind. Too many young people become liberal by osmosis, and Ben will ensure increasing numbers of students will receive a more balanced education.”</p>
<p>Shapiro has given over 35 campus lectures organized by YAF since 2015, and the people that have watched those lectures online numbers in the millions. The first lecture that was watched by hundreds of thousands of people occurred at the <a href="" type="internal">University of Missouri</a> on November 2015. Some of Shapiro’s speeches have became notable for the enmity those on the Left have displayed, whether <a href="" type="internal">near-riots at Cal State Los Angeles</a>, people trying to <a href="" type="internal">break down the doors</a> at Penn State University, protesters <a href="" type="internal">forming a wall in front of him</a> as he spoke at the University of Wisconsin, being <a href="" type="internal">threatened with arrest</a> if he set foot on the DePaul University campus, or, most recently, the city of Berkeley, CA, having to <a href="" type="internal">shell out</a> $600,000 for security and retain 700 police officers because of threats from Antifa protesters.</p>
<p>Students who wish to host Ben Shapiro should visit Young America’s Foundation’s website at <a href="http://yaf.org/shapirotour" type="external">YAF.org/ShapiroTour</a>.</p> | Shapiro Announces New College Tour With YAF ... And Here's How You Can Get Him To Come To Your Campus | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23672/shapiro-announces-new-college-tour-yafand-heres-daily-wire | 2017-11-16 | 0 |
<p>After the <a href="http://variety.com/2017/legit/news/broadway-sales-labor-day-2017-hello-dolly-1202554664/" type="external">annual post-Labor Day slowdown</a>, the <a href="http://variety.com/t/broadway-box-office/" type="external">Broadway box office</a> climbed last week in a rise led by <a href="http://variety.com/t/bette-midler/" type="external">Bette Midler</a>, back at “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/dolly/" type="external">Hello, Dolly!</a>,” and by two shows that got surges of last-minute sales before they closed.</p>
<p>Midler’s return to “Hello, Dolly!” ($2,322,114) after a week of vacation broke the house record at the Shubert Theater — and stands as a record for the Shubert Organization as a whole, according to the production. That may seem hard to believe, given that we’re now in the era of blockbuster grosses and the Shuberts have had plenty of hits in their 17 Broadway venues (including 30-year-old “The Phantom of the Opera,” which pulled in $933,807 last week). But $2 million and $3 million weeks are a newer phenomenon, and the current shows that most often attain them — “Hamilton” ($2,932,511), “The Lion King” ($1,791,715) and “Wicked” ($1,492,477) — are in Nederlander theaters.</p>
<p>Most individual shows reported gains last week as the Street’s overall attendance bumped upward. Two closing productions also made notable contributions to the cumulative total, with “Groundhog Day” ($892,581) and “Bandstand” ($757,431) each climbing by more than $200,000 in advance of their Sept. 17 closings. “War Paint” ($615,786), meanwhile, lifted by an impressive 20%.</p>
<p>Otherwise, there were few gains or shortfalls of note for the week. The overall Broadway total climbed by $3 million to $26.6 million for 28 shows, with attendance rising 18,000 to 238,136, or 89% of the overall capacity.</p>
<p>Last week’s rise seems likely to prove brief, however. Rosh Hoshana, one of the Jewish holidays that typically slow down Broadway business in September, comes later this week, and the annual United Nations General Assembly, which can book up hotels in the area and cause security hassles in parts of the city, usually slows down sales as well.</p> | Broadway Box Office: Bette Back to Break Records as Two Shows Close | false | https://newsline.com/broadway-box-office-bette-back-to-break-records-as-two-shows-close/ | 2017-09-18 | 1 |
<p>Amid a massive scandal involving the hacking into phones of public and private figures, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/11/23/business/business-us-newscorp-murdoch.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;seid=auto" type="external">James Murdoch</a> has resigned from the boards of companies that publish its British newspapers, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-newscorp-murdoch-idUSTRE7AM18E20111123" type="external">Reuters reported</a> Wednesday.</p>
<p>One of the companies, News Group Newspapers, is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuits that have been brought against the News of the World as a result of the phone-hacking scandal, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/23/james-murdoch-sun-times-boards?newsfeed=true" type="external">Guardian reported.</a></p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/111110/phone-hacking-scandal-murdoch-son-denies-lying" type="external">James Murdoch denies lying, blames former execs</a></p>
<p>"News Group Newspapers is the company subject of a string of lawsuits for alleged breaches of privacy stemming from phone hacking, and it is the business unit that anybody wanting to sue either the Sun or News of the World would have to cite as a defendant in a legal case," it stated.</p>
<p>The reports are based on regulatory filings, which show that Murdoch resigned in September.</p>
<p>Murdoch, who is Rupert Murdoch's son, will still be chairman of the News Corp unit that houses its British newspapers, called the News International division, according to the London Evening Standard.</p>
<p>James Murdoch appeared before <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/111110/phone-hacking-scandal-murdoch-son-denies-lying" type="external">Britain's parliamentary inquiry</a> into the phone-hacking scandal earlier this month and denied lying during his previous appearance in July.</p>
<p>He insisted that he did not know the true extent of phone hacking at the now defunct News of the World paper, and accused two former employees of misleading the hearing when they testified to the contrary.</p> | James Murdoch resigns from newspaper boards | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-23/james-murdoch-resigns-newspaper-boards | 2011-11-23 | 3 |
<p>On Thursday, The Very Objective Washington Post ran an 18-page tribute to President Barack Obama's legacy. 18 pages. This would be the same Very Objective outlet <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4041910/Clinton-mega-donor-George-Soros-leads-line-liberal-billionaires-funding-Facebook-s-fake-news-fact-checker.html" type="external">tasked</a> to flag so-called "fake news."</p>
<p>Which will go swimmingly for right-leaning news media, I'm sure.</p>
<p>"Today's [Washington Post] has an 18-page 'commemorative section' on Obama's legacy," writes Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey. "Did they commemorate Bush 8 yrs ago?" (No, they did not.)</p>
<p>Today's <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost" type="external">@washingtonpost</a> has an 18-page "commemorative section" on Obama's legacy. Did they commemorate Bush 8 yrs ago? <a href="https://t.co/URov2H4HAc" type="external">pic.twitter.com/URov2H4HAc</a></p>
<p>The Very Objective Washington Post gushed over Obama's legacy in a five-section spread, divided as follows:</p>
<p>"Barack Obama rode a message of hope and change into the White House in 2009, only to immediately confront a severely depressed economy and a country tired of war," says the front page. "The exuberance and inspiration of a campaign that made Obama the first African-American president quickly gave way to the difficult realities of governing."</p>
<p>The Very Objective Washington Post hilariously denies any left-leaning bias and is actively portrayed as a just-the-facts news source--opinion pieces excluded. As mentioned above, the outlet has even been activated to help Facebook flag so-called "fake news" stories; once flagged, such stories will be suppressed on Facebook, which just so happens to be the largest disseminator of news.</p>
<p>Of course, the glaring left-leaning bias of The Very Objective Washington Post, as demonstrated in this long winded "Obama Legacy" issue, makes rational people question why this immensely powerful role at Facebook was granted to the outlet at all.</p>
<p>Perhaps the "fake news" scare was not only an excuse for Hillary Clinton's truly awful candidacy, but a move in a long game effort to get more conservative news suppressed, as if it hasn't been suppressed enough already.</p>
<p>Perhaps.</p> | The Very Objective Washington Post Runs 18-PAGE TRIBUTE to Obama’s Legacy | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12328/very-objective-washington-post-runs-18-page-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-01-11 | 0 |
<p>As the measles outbreak in California and beyond <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_27479456/california-measles-outbreak-state-cases-now-over-100" type="external">continues to add new cases</a>, new information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines against a host of preventable illnesses mounts unabated.</p>
<p>Among the many infections that can be prevented by immunization is human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes warts and is <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV" type="external">closely linked to the development of cervical cancer</a>. Two vaccines <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Prevention/HPV-vaccine" type="external">have been licensed for use in the United States</a> to prevent infection with the two HPV strains (16 and 18) that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases in America, one of which also protects against two strains that cause genital warts. In Australia, where the vaccine is publicly subsidized and there is little opposition to it, rates of both genital warts and cervical abnormalities have <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/hpv-vaccine-showing-successes-in-australia/" type="external">dropped substantially since it was introduced</a>. Sadly, <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/vaccination-coverage.html" type="external">vaccination rates in this country</a> are far below theirs.</p>
<p>A new study has just been published that should help lay some parents' concerns about the vaccine to rest. Because the strains of HPV linked to genital warts and cervical cancer are transmitted sexually, there has been fear among socially conservative groups that vaccinating against it would be perceived as giving license to sexual promiscuity among young people who receive it. It was sentiments like these that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/politics/republican-candidates-battle-over-hpv-vaccine.html" type="external">got Texas Gov. Rick Perry in hot water</a> when he made the vaccine mandatory there, and put Rep. Michele Bachmann <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/16/michele-bachmann/bachmann-hpv-vaccine-cause-mental-retardation/" type="external">on the warpath to Crazytown</a>.</p>
<p>Published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the new study used insurance data to investigate whether being vaccinated against HPV <a href="http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2109856" type="external">led to higher rates of sexually transmitted infections</a> (STIs) among adolescent girls. Looking through information from 2005 to 2010 about rates of several STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, HIV, and syphilis, the authors found that receiving the vaccine did not make the girls any more likely to have been infected than their unvaccinated peers.</p>
<p>Leaving aside the questionable moral calculus of keeping girls susceptible to a preventable illness and increasing their risk of cancer as a means to disincentivize sexual activity, these data should be reassuring to some parents. This new information lends credence to an earlier study that showed <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/01/28/peds.2013-2822.abstract" type="external">no change in sexually risky behavior</a> related to teenagers' perceptions about the vaccine. Worries that vaccinated teens will throw caution to the wind because of it appear to be unfounded.</p>
<p>Parental fears such as these are among the many reasons for distressingly high rates of refusal for HPV vaccination, which <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/03/12/peds.2012-2384.abstract" type="external">also include concerns about its safety</a>. Even in my own practice, where we do not accept patients whose parents broadly refuse to vaccinate them, <a href="" type="internal">generally pro-vaccine parents are uniquely leery of this one</a>, for which we make an exception to our policy. Something about vaccinating kids against an STI before they're sexually active, combined with the relative newness of the vaccine itself, seems to inform their hesitancy. For reluctant parents, I talk about the benefits of using preventive measures before there is risk of actual infection, and the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Over time, I've found that many change their minds and opt in.</p>
<p>Of course, it doesn't help matters when vote-hungry politicians make <a href="" type="internal">baseless statements about vaccine safety</a> or reputable newspapers use <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/02/05/hpv-vaccine-gardasil-has-a-dark-side-star-investigation-finds.html" type="external">sloppy reporting to overstate the risk</a> of the HPV immunization. The safety of the HPV vaccine is well established, as <a href="https://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/explaining-gardasil-girls-and-hpv-vaccine-safety-to-the-toronto-star-and-heather-mallick/" type="external">anyone who understands the science can tell you</a>. The spread of misinformation keeps vaccination rates in this country well below the levels they should be, and leads to far more teenagers and young adults being at risk for preventable illnesses.</p>
<p>Thankfully, even with sub-optimal rates of vaccination, there has already been a substantial decline in the prevalence of the most dangerous strains of HPV. In the United States, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/health/study-finds-sharp-drop-in-hpv-infections-in-girls.html" type="external">rates have dropped in half</a> in teenage girls since the vaccine was first introduced. Let's hope that efforts to increase education about the benefits of immunization, alongside newer recommendations to administer the vaccine to <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/features/HPVVaccineBoys/" type="external">both girls and boys</a>, will drive those rates even lower.</p>
<p>As for the results of the new study, I'm not at all surprised by them. Whenever I administer it, I explain to my patients what it's for, and the protections it both gives and doesn't give. None of them seem to have any trouble grasping this information. Counseling about reducing the risk of sexual behavior should be part of every adolescent's medical care, and information about the safety and benefit of the HPV vaccine is just one more piece of it.</p> | The Craziest Anti-Vaxx Argument: HPV Vaccines Make You Promiscuous | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-craziest-anti-vaxx-argument-hpv-vaccines-make-you-promiscuous | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>Months before they pushed for a special election to reduce the higher education tax that benefits Rio Rancho’s UNM campus, three city councilors met with university officials to propose sharing use of the city-owned Santa Ana Star Center, hoping UNM would shoulder venue-related costs.</p>
<p>Councilors said the university officials at first appeared interested, but when the city’s acting manager later started to pursue the issue, the university said no.</p>
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<p>A UNM vice president said the proposal included using some of the higher education tax toward the Star Center, while councilors said the tax wasn’t part of the conversation.</p>
<p>Now, voters are scheduled to go to the polls on Aug. 20 to decide whether to reduce the quarter-cent higher education tax by 50 percent. If approved, it would cut funding available to UNM by about $1 million annually.</p>
<p>A majority of the council wants to establish a separate eighth-cent tax to generate a similar amount for public safety needs.</p>
<p>Councilor Chuck Wilkins said in an interview this week that his hope last fall was that UNM could take advantage of the under-used Star Center and share its debt and operating costs, thereby freeing up city money for other pressing purposes.</p>
<p>Wilkins said UNM had previously used the arena for a women’s basketball tournament and the venue was packed. The second and third round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament were held at the arena a few years ago.</p>
<p>“I thought, hey, this would be a great opportunity for them to go into partnership with us to utilize it,” he said.</p>
<p>The city owns the Star Center and spends about $3.5 million annually to cover its construction debt and operational costs.</p>
<p>Wilkins and Councilors Mark Scott and Lonnie Clayton floated the partnership idea at a meeting on Sept. 24 at UNM West with UNM President Bob Frank, executive vice president for administration David Harris, government relations director Marc Saavedra and Beth Miller, then interim executive director for UNM West.</p>
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<p>The three councilors say UNM officials seemed excited.</p>
<p>“They were very eager to continue a dialogue. They said they would be very interested in discussions,” Scott said.</p>
<p>Prior to the meeting, Scott said, they obtained legal advice from the city attorney. He said they told UNM officials that any formal agreement would have to be approved by the full City Council.</p>
<p>Next, Scott said, they held a closed meeting on Oct. 10 where the full council discussed the issue and directed then acting city manager Jim Babin to pursue further discussions with UNM.</p>
<p>“Shortly after that, they (UNM officials) said they weren’t interested,” Wilkins said.</p>
<p>UNM’s Harris recalled that at the meeting Wilkins talked about the Star Center’s financial drain on the city.</p>
<p>“(Wilkins asked) would you be interested in taking on the Star Center and funding it through the half of the gross receipts tax that you’re not using,” Harris said. “Our response was, look, we’re always willing to work with you but in this particular instance we’ll have to do additional legal research since we believe that higher education tax is very restrictive in how it can be used.”</p>
<p>Harris said UNM officials thought the venue might be useful if it had meeting space or areas that could be classrooms. However, after a legal analysis, they decided they couldn’t proceed, Harris said.</p>
<p>Wilkins denied that there was any discussion about how the gross receipts tax would be used or restrictions related to it.</p>
<p>“No, we never got that far into it. That would have been up to the city manager,” Wilkins said.</p>
<p>The tax is based on a 2007 law that allowed some municipalities to impose up to a quarter-cent tax for construction or land improvements for a “four-year post-secondary public education institution.”</p>
<p>Voters approved the 20-year tax in 2008 and the next year Rio Rancho agreed to use the tax to help cover construction costs for the UNM West campus that opened in 2010.</p>
<p>Wilkins, Scott and Clayton were elected in spring 2012 and have stressed the need to beef up funding for public safety and infrastructure.</p>
<p>Wilkins first explored ending a countywide voter-approved tax that benefits two Rio Rancho hospitals to yield revenue for public safety and infrastructure. When county legal opinions indicated that wasn’t feasible, Wilkins last summer began publicly talking about reducing the higher education tax and creating a separate tax for public safety.</p>
<p>He declined to comment on whether he would have continued pushing for the reduction if UNM had agreed to the Star Center partnership.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="" type="internal">Schools’ timing questioned</a></p>
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<p /> | UNM use of Star Center sought | false | https://abqjournal.com/223643/unm-use-of-star-center-sought.html | 2013-07-20 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three Clovis lawyers and a Portales attorney have applied to become the next state district judge for Curry and Roosevelt counties, the <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/fourapplyfordistrictjudgeposition.html" type="external">Clovis News Journal</a> reported.</p>
<p>One of the four will be chosen by Gov. Susana Martinez to succeed 9th Judicial District Judge Teddy Hartley, who is retiring in June, the News Journal said.</p>
<p>The Judicial Selection Office at the University of New Mexico School of Law issued a news release Wednesday identifying the four applicants as:</p>
<p>— Christian Paul Christiansen of Portales, a public defender who works primarily in Roosevelt County courts.</p>
<p>— Wesley O. Pool of Clovis, a finalist to replace state District Judge Robert Orlick who died suddenly in 2011.</p>
<p>— Brian Scott Stover of Clovis, a prosecutor in the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office who also was a finalist to replace Orlick in 2011.</p>
<p>— Fred Travis Van Soelen of Clovis, a former two-term Clovis city commissioner and former assistant district attorney.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Four seek eastern N.M. judgeship | false | https://abqjournal.com/202305/four-seek-eastern-n-m-judgeship.html | 2013-05-23 | 2 |
<p>The Taurid meteor showers are currently lighting up the night skies. The meteor showers are expected to offer a spectacular light display complete with slashing fireballs. The Taurid meteor showers began on Nov. 5 and are expected to continue their brilliant show until Nov. 12.</p>
<p>NASA reports that the Taurid meteor showers display is expected to be more intense than usual. The showers appear as a “swarm” of lights as Earth continues to move its way through the tail debris from the Comet Encke. NASA also reports, according to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/11/05/taurid-meteor-shower-what-need-to-know.html" type="external">Fox News</a>, that the Taurid meteor showers can be viewed during a three-month period at times when the constellation of Taurus is visible above the horizon. This can happen during the months of September, October, and November.</p>
<p>NASA astronomers note that the best time to go out and view the Taurid meteor showers is, generally, anytime after midnight. During this time, the constellation of Taurus sits quite high above the horizon. The less light around will give the best viewing opportunities. Observing from a big city could prove a bit problematic because of all the surrounding lights. The best chance to view is during a clear night with no clouds and no moonlight.</p>
<p>There is a new moon expected next week on Nov. 11 and astronomers and meteorologists say that this may be the most opportune time to get a clear view of the showers. Because of the presence of the new moon, the night skies tend to be much darker than normal and will offer the perfect backdrop as the meteor showers will take on a more intense brightness.</p>
<p>The last few months have offered astronomers as well as amateur star gazers some rare opportunities including the Draconid meteor shower that happened just a few weeks ago. Back in September and extremely rare blood supermoon eclipse happened and brought one of the most awe inspiring sights to the sky as has been seen in a very long time. It was the first time since 1982 that a full lunar eclipse was paired with a blood super moon.</p>
<p /> | Spectacular Fireball Displays Are Expected With Taurid Meteor Showers | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/11/06/spectacular-fireball-displays-are-expected-with-taurid-meteor-showers/ | 2015-11-06 | 3 |
<p>This article was originally published by <a href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/" type="external">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a>.</p>
<p>I am tired of living in a country where 16-year-old girls die because insurance company profits are more important than human life.</p>
<p>I am tired of a government that runs offshore penal colonies where the detained are tortured and denied the basic protections of the Geneva Convention.</p>
<p>I am tired of living in a state that makes war against countries that do not threaten us.</p>
<p />
<p>I am tired of watching basic constitutional rights, such as the right to privacy, taken away from citizens.</p>
<p>Most of all, I am tired of being told every four years that I must vote for candidates who do nothing to stop the brutal and callous assault by corporations on the American working class, sending their jobs overseas and stripping workers of benefits and human dignity.</p>
<p>And so — to be sure that this year my vote goes to someone who does more than pay lip service to the moral and physical deterioration of the nation — I will pull the lever for Dennis Kucinich.</p>
<p>I can hear the collective groan. He won’t win. He has no real following. It is a wasted vote.</p>
<p>But this is the groan of the comfortable, those who have health insurance and a decent job. This is the groan of those who can send their kids to expensive colleges and probably went to one. The groans of the poor in this country, including the increasingly impoverished working class, are no longer audible to most of us. Their lives have been rendered invisible, of little interest to the advertisers who sell us products on television or take out full-page color ads in the newspapers and glossy magazines. And when the corporations write you off in America, everyone else does, too.</p>
<p>Any vote is wasted that does not address the terrible injustices being done to tens of millions of people who have lost the opportunity to earn a living wage. Any vote is wasted that does not, even if it ends up being a protest vote, attempt to halt our transformation into an oligarchic state where a tiny, privileged elite controls our money and our politics.</p>
<p>The irony and tragedy of the Kucinich candidacy is that, in many ways, he is proclaiming the failure of his own party. Again and again, he says what his party should be, but no longer is. He has championed democratic freedoms and defended the interests of the working class, from which he comes, for decades. He was alone among the major candidates to vote against the Patriot Act, against authorizing the war in Iraq, and he wants to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO).</p>
<p>He has called for the impeachment of the vice president and public financing for elections. If you compare his voting record with that of any of the other major candidates, he is the only one who has steadfastly remained free from corporate control.</p>
<p>I went to see Kucinich in Washington. I asked him during a two-hour <a href="" type="internal">interview</a> why the Democratic Party has failed so badly. Why did the party, despite the midterm elections, refuse to cut funding for a war that is probably the worst foreign-policy blunder in U.S. history?</p>
<p>“Lack of commitment to democratic principles,” he said after a long pause. He then began to list the reasons: “No understanding of the period of history we are in … unwillingness to assert congressional authority in key areas which makes the people’s house paramount to protecting democracy; the institutionalized influence of corporate America through the Democratic Leadership Council.</p>
<p>“Oil runs our politics, corrupt Wall Street interests run our politics, insurance companies run our politics, arms manufacturers run our politics, and the public’s interests are being strangled,” he added.</p>
<p>He stands as a maverick within the party, denouncing the series of trade agreements, many put in place by Bill Clinton, which have devastated U.S. workers.</p>
<p>“What I see is that the Democratic Party abandoned working people and paradoxically they are the ones who hoist the flag of workers every two and four years, only to engender excitement and then turn around and abandon the same constituency. This is now on a level of a practiced ritual.”</p>
<p>Kucinich advocates a full-employment economy, calling for a new version of the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed millions of Americans. He wants to put people to work to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, from its roads and bridges to its dams, levies, sewer systems, libraries and mass transit. He has introduced, along with Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, a bill, H.R. 3400, that would provide federal funds for this jobs program. He has called for the government to invest in wind and solar technologies to be retrofitted into tens of millions of U.S. homes and businesses.</p>
<p>Kucinich is the only candidate in the race who advocates a single, not-for-profit health-care system for all citizens, in essence a national Medicare. He coauthored H.R. 676, which would provide universal health coverage. This coverage would, he said, not only assure that people will not suffer or die from lack of medical care, but would also stem the epidemic of personal bankruptcies, half of which are attributed to people who cannot pay their medical bills.</p>
<p>He rails against his party’s refusal to end the war, blaming the Democrats’ decision to continue funding the war on “an implicit understanding of the power of those interests that profit from war and the power of war as an idea.”</p>
<p>I asked him if he was ever frustrated, given his lonely status as an outsider. He was excluded from a Dec. 13 Democratic debate in Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register. His lack of corporate money has seen his campaign subsist on $2 million while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama each raised $100 million in 2007 for their presidential bids.</p>
<p>“What you do in life is you stand up and fight for those things you believe in,” he said, “and you do it without question or pause, to take a phrase in one of my favorite songs. I don’t have any complaints.”</p>
<p /> | One True Voice on the Trail | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/one-true-voice-on-the-trail/ | 2008-01-07 | 4 |
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<p>The House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee voted 7-1 to table the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park, that would have allowed marijuana retail licenses to be granted starting in July 2017.</p>
<p>Opponents of the pot legalization proposal said it could impair public safety and lead to more drug use on worksites.</p>
<p>“You are doing no one any good by making these kind of mind-altering substances more readily available,” said Dennis Kintigh, a former state representative who is now the mayor of Roswell.</p>
<p>While New Mexico currently has a medical marijuana law for licensed patients, attempts to pass pot legalization laws have stalled at the Legislature in recent years.</p>
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<p>Backers of the proposal said regulating marijuana could generate more tax dollars for the state, while also claiming the drug is less addictive than tobacco or caffeine.</p>
<p>Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have all passed laws allowing for the personal possession and consumption of marijuana by adults.</p>
<p>The bill sponsored by McCamley, <a href="http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=160&amp;year=15" type="external">House Bill 160</a>, would have necessitated a state agency hiring at least 40 additional employees to oversee the law’s provisions, according to a fiscal review of the legislation.</p> | Marijuana legalization, tax bill thwarted in House panel | false | https://abqjournal.com/537804/marijuana-legalization-tax-bill-thwarted-in-house-panel.html | 2 |
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<p>Imagine investing just $1,000 and watching it grow 100 times over -- or 10,000% -- and suddenly you have a holding worth $100,000. That's what would have happened if you'd invested in the companies below in the last few decades. The good news? There are some similarities flowing through these companies that could help us spot other potential future 100-baggers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The truth is, there are many stocks that could make this list, and many have reached it and fallen from grace later in their life. Here's whyApple(NASDAQ: AAPL),Home Depot(NYSE: HD),Nike(NYSE: NKE), and Adobe Systems(NASDAQ: ADBE)each stand out in the market.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Total return price includes dividends. P/E = Price to earnings. Data source: <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Apple has been a standout in the market for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is its ability to create incredible technology, and then also create the eco-system that goes with it to retain customers and grow its empire ever larger. Going forward, Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market in the U.S. and increasingly worldwide, and now, as <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/30/the-10-richest-companies-in-the-us.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">the wealthiestcompany in the U.S. by far Opens a New Window.</a>, it looks to have plenty of opportunity for new growth ahead.</p>
<p>Apple is a prime example of how looking for great companies at times when the overall market sells off could lead to a great returns long term, which is why Apple has been able to generate such massive returns since 2009 following the 2008 recession. Adobe is a similar example, as it gained share price quickly in the tech boom of the early 2000s but, like many of its early internet siblings, was slammed by the tech bubble burst of 2001. Still, if you were an investor then who saw the value of this company, with industry-leading software that has really evolved and modernized the graphic media space, you could have made 10,000% by buying in on that 2002 dip.</p>
<p>Home Depot is an interesting company because, unlike Apple and Adobe, it's a relatively low-tech operation that, instead of changing the world with new innovations, took an old model of selling construction and home repair equipment and just did that really well. Home Depot has certainly gone through its own rises and dips based on market conditions, but rather than having timed a buy-in to this stock after a market sell-off, Home Depot has rewarded long-term investors who have stuck with it over the last 20 years.</p>
<p>Nike has a lot of similarities to Home Depot in that it wasn't the first to introduce innovative new footwear models to the world, but founder Phil Knight and his early team certainly out-hustled many of its competitors to grow Nike into the international sporting behemoth it is today. Nike has also been a success story of international expansion -- international sales now make up around half of its total sales -- and how a smart international strategy can lead to exponential growth.</p>
<p>It's impossible to know which stocks are going to become these kinds of serious market-beating holdings in the decades to come. Still, there are a few key themes that can help in your search -- the most important of which is to buy quality companies with great competitive moats and strong management teams. The other key takeawayis the importance of having a buy-and-hold strategy over 5, 10, or even 20 years out, as seen in Home Depot's case, which is what allows these quality businesses the time they need to reward those investors who have stuck with them.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Home DepotWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ff838917-7ffa-431d-8633-a4e34545fb43&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 Home Depot 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/TMFMcNew/info.aspx" type="external">Seth McNew Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple and Nike. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Nike. 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 recommends Adobe Systems and Home Depot. 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> | 4 Stocks That Turned $1,000 into $100,000 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/17/4-stocks-that-turned-1000-into-100000.html | 2017-02-17 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>The system is running out of options it can use to stop Trump.</p>
<p>Watch a video of this report here:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>CNN is <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/04/politics/anti-donald-trump-movement-75-million-lost/" type="external">reporting</a> that the anti-Trump movement has spent&#160;an estimated $75,723,580 on 64,000 negative television advertisements. Furthermore, that figure only accounts for broadcast television, not cable or satellite.</p>
<p>About one out of every four dollars against Trump came from Conservative Solutions PAC, a group supporting Marco Rubio’s candidacy.</p>
<p>Two groups supporting Cruz wasted&#160;nearly $16 million in their effort, while his campaign spent $4.3 million.</p>
<p>One group supporting Jeb Bush spent $10 million against Trump.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton’s campaign has already spent $5.2 million specifically going after Trump.</p>
<p>Yet, despite all of these huge sums of money being spent to try and disparage Trump’s run for the presidency – they have all failed.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is the <a href="" type="internal">only candidate still standing</a> on the GOP ticket, and a new poll suggests Trump <a href="" type="internal">can indeed beat</a> establishment-darling Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Most shocking for the establishment, perhaps, is that Trump himself only spent $19 million on campaign advertising – around a quarter of what was spent against him.</p>
<p>What is the system going to try next to further its campaign to stop Trump?</p>
<p>GET THE FULL STORY ON THE 2016 ELECTION: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Election Files</a></p> | EPIC FAIL: Anti-Trump Movement Spent $75 MILLION on 64,000 Ads | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/05/06/epic-fail-anti-trump-movement-spent-75-million-on-64000-ads/ | 2016-05-06 | 4 |
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<p>Pershing Square Capital’s Bill Ackman lost a bid on Tuesday for three seats on Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP) board, after a months-long, public proxy battle.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>ADP investors voted to re-elect all 10 members of the Board of Directors, the company said in a <a href="http://mediacenter.adp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1047503" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a>, citing a preliminary vote count provided by a proxy solicitor. The human-resources software company said that Pershing’s Square’s three nominees, including Ackman himself, received less than 20% of ADP’s outstanding shares and less than 25% of the shares voted at the meeting.</p>
<p>Ackman said during a meeting on Tuesday, that despite losing the bid, Pershing Square Capital still accomplished much of what it intended to.</p>
<p>"While I and our other nominees did not get elected to the board this year, we have accomplished much of what we set out to do so far," he said. "ADP’s shareholders, management and board are now fully informed about the opportunities for improvement, and the risks of management’s failure to perform."</p>
<p>The activist investor added that if the company had allowed the use of a universal proxy card, he would likely have been elected. Ackman owns about 8% of ADP.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">As previously reported by FOX Business</a>, Ackman sought “transformational change” at ADP, believing the company was underperforming competitors due to outdated strategies and a failure to innovate. ADP defended itself by saying that under the leadership of its new chief executive, it was already improving older systems and beginning to outperform others in its field.</p>
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<p>The battle turned personal in August when ADP’s CEO Carlos Rodriguez sent an email meant for his legal team, to Ackman. Ackman, who wanted to nominate new members to ADP’s board, suggested the payroll company may need a change in management – though alleged he was willing to work with the team in place. In the misfired email, Rodriguez doubted Ackman’s expressed willingness to work with the current management team, finding it implausible.</p>
<p>Rodriguez also publicly called the activist investor a “spoiled brat.”</p>
<p>"I would like to thank our shareholders for the vote of confidence in our Board and management team, as well as our talented associates for their hard work and relentless focus over the last several months. We are more energized than ever about building on ADP's strengths to anticipate and deliver on our clients' Human Capital Management needs,” Rodriguez said in a statement issued Tuesday.</p> | Ackman loses bitter proxy battle for seats on ADP’s board | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/07/ackmans-pershing-square-loses-adp-challenge-sources.html | 2017-11-07 | 0 |
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<p>Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since launch on October 26, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit.</p>
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<p>The new operating system is outpacing sales of Windows 7 at the same stage of its life, said Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse.</p>
<p>Reller was named as one of two executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)</p> | Windows 8 Off to Hot Start: 40M Licenses Sold in First Month | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/11/27/windows-8-off-to-hot-start-40m-licenses-sold-in-first-month.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>Oct 26 (Reuters) -&#160;Celgene&#160;Corp's shares slumped as much as 20 percent on Thursday after its psoriasis treatment Otezla, one of its key new drugs, missed analyst estimates for quarterly sales and the drugmaker lowered its overall 2020 sales outlook.</p>
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<p>The U.S. biotechnology company cut Otezla's full-year sales forecast to about $1.25 billion from a range of $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion.</p>
<p>The "Otezla miss is the biggest story of the quarter," RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams said, attributing the weakness to competition, pricing pressure and a slowing U.S. dermatology market.</p>
<p>While&#160;Celgene&#160;maintained its full-year sales forecast for its flagship multiple myeloma drug Revlimid, it tempered its overall sales forecast, including for oncology, and cut its profit outlook.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 19 percent to $97.04 in morning trading.</p>
<p>Celgene&#160;had warned in July that Otezla's sales this year would likely be at the low end of its forecast. The drug started off the year with a surprisingly weak first quarter, before bouncing back in the second.</p>
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<p>The drug's sales increased 12 percent to $308 million in the third quarter, missing analyst estimates for $411 million and notching a growth rate that was a fraction of the 48.5 percent-surge in the prior quarter.</p>
<p>Revlimid's sales rose 10 percent to $2.08 billion in the latest quarter, but fell short of analyst estimates of $2.11 billion, according to brokerage Cowen and Company.</p>
<p>The weak sales growth comes a week after&#160;Celgene&#160;abandoned testing its Crohn's disease drug, a major setback in its attempts to lower its dependence on Revlimid.</p>
<p>Celgene's total revenue rose nearly 11 percent to $3.29 billion, below analyst estimates for $3.42 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Excluding items, its earnings of $1.91 per share beat forecasts for $1.87.</p>
<p>The company said it now expects 2017 sales of about $13 billion, which is at the lower end of its previous forecast of $13 billion to $13.4 billion.</p>
<p>It cut its 2017 profit forecast to $4.78-$5.19 per share from $5.36-$5.62, but raised its adjusted profit forecast to $7.30-$7.35 per share from $7.25 to $7.35.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Bernadette Baum)</p> | Celgene shares tumble on weak outlook, Otezla sales miss | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/26/celgene-shares-tumble-on-weak-outlook-otezla-sales-miss.html | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
<p>It’s time once again for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) put on by the American Conservative Union. This affair is a four day circle jerk of right-wingers wallowing in their muddy pit of country club white nationalism. And this year the <a href="http://cpac.conservative.org/cpac-speakers/" type="external">roster of speakers</a> has a particularly notable stench of political devotion that borders on religious idolatry.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2046976115317173" type="external" /></p>
<p>The largest contingent of conference guests comes from the White House. Beginning with Donald Trump himself making a return appearance, and extending down the line of command to various cabinet secretaries and political operatives. It’s a baker’s dozen of Washington apparatchiks who are committed to proselytizing the President’s agenda. And the sheer quantity of StormTrumpers shows that this convention has only one mission: Propaganda. Here are the White House attendees:</p>
<p>Joining the army of Trumpsters are their partners in propaganda, Fox News. A network that has the audacity to put the word “news” in their name is proving that they are nothing but shills for a corrupt presidency. The cadre of Foxies include two thirds of their primetime lineup. And they are supported by several paid contributors:</p>
<p>And that’s not all. There are several other people that will be familiar to Trump’s followers and Fox News viewers. People like “sheriff” David Clarke, John Bolton, , James O’Keefe, and the GOP chair of the House Intelligence Committee (and future felon), Devin Nunes. And let’s not forget Marion Le Pen, the leader of France’s neo-Nazi party.</p>
<p>Trump has been having a horrible week. He has had to deal with a top aide who was accused of wife-beating. He has exhibited his inability to respond like a human being to the tragedy in Parkland, Florida. He unleashed a torrent of tweets exposing how frightened he is about the tsunami of political and legal jeopardy he faces.</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>So he is undoubtedly looking forward to his appearance at CPAC. It’s an opportunity to get in front of an adoring crowd and pontificate incoherently for an hour and be applauded for it. The audience will cheer wildly as Trump lashes out at their favorite enemies – liberals, democrats, minorities and, of course, the media. They’ll rise to their feet whenever he utters a word about a wall or a former “crooked” opponent. And Trump will get his fix of adulation from his glassy-eyed disciples before he has to return the “dump” on Pennsylvania Avenue and lay in bed worrying about when special counsel Robert Mueller’s hammer will come down.</p> | Trump’s White House is Shutting Down For CPAC, the Annual Orgy of Wingnut Conservatism | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D31902 | 4 |
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<p>FOX Business: Capitalism Lives Here</p>
<p>U.S. stock-index futures held on to solid gains after fresh data showed the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in November.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Today's Markets</p>
<p>As of 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 70 points, or 0.46%, to 15889, S&amp;P 500 futures advanced 9.3 points, or 0.5%, to 1794 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 17 points, or 0.5%, to 3496.</p>
<p>The bears have staged a tepid comeback, sending the Dow and S&amp;P 500 falling for the past five sessions -- the longest losing streak since late September. The losses have been driven by a string of solid economic data that have ignited concerns that the Federal Reserve could begin paring back its massive bond-purchasing program sooner than expected.</p>
<p>The American economy added 203,000 jobs in November, higher than the 180,000 Wall Street anticipated. The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage point to 7%, the lowest level since November 2008, while economists expected the rate to fall less to 7.2%. The labor force participation rate, which gauges the proportion of the population employed or seeking employment, rose to 63% from 62.8% in October.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a reading on consumer sentiment from Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan is expected to have risen to 76 in December from 75.1 the month before</p>
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<p>Both of these economic reports come as retailers like Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Gap (NYSE:GPS) deal with what is expected to be a tough holiday shopping season.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, in commodities, U.S. crude oil futures were flat at $97.39 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline climbed 0.64% to $2.73 a gallon. Gold fell $3.90, or 0.32%, to $1,228 a troy ounce.</p> | Stock Futures Hold Gains After Strong Jobs Data | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/12/06/stock-futures-jump-all-eyes-on-jobs-report.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>This article was updated to reflect new information about the suspect in police custody.</p>
<p>A single mom in Ferguson, Missouri, was murdered by a man she met on Facebook, relatives say. Now cops reveal the suspect allegedly planned to pay for sex at her apartment, where police say he robbed and fatally shot her.</p>
<p>Sharae Bradford, 25, was found lying in a pool of blood on her bed Saturday night. Her family said a new Facebook friend stopped by her apartment for the first time, <a href="" type="external">Fox 2</a> in St. Louis reported.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, police arrested Stassie Greer, 20, on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Greer is being held on $1 million cash bond.</p>
<p>"This was a cold-hearted monster that did this to my daughter," the victim's mother, <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/ferguson-woman-found-dead-in-pool-of-blood/html_85055d9e-fd52-561a-a18a-f3e30ce01387.html" type="external">Yolanda Seay</a>, told Fox 2. "He had this already planned, for him to - do what he did. She didn't bother nobody. She just wanted the best life possible for her and her daughter."</p>
<p>Greer allegedly arranged to meet Bradford at her home and have sex in exchange for money, court documents reveal. The sicko was identified in a police lineup by a witness who saw him at the victim's apartment.</p>
<p>Surveillance footage showed a man, who appeared to be Greer, leaving the elevator on Bradford's floor around 4:50 p.m., according to an affidavit from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.</p>
<p>About 45 minutes later, Greer was shown getting off the elevator and "trying to conceal his appearance," according to the statement.</p>
<p>A relative discovered Bradford at 6 p.m. Police say she died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, and investigators found a used condom at the scene.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the victim's cellphone and rent money were missing. Officers acting on a search warrant found Bradford's phone at Greer's house.</p>
<p>Cops said the suspect's attire "is consistent" with clothing identified on his Facebook page. Court records, however, don't mention whether Greer met his victim on the social media platform.</p>
<p>Bradford's mother told Fox 2 that the family learned of the alleged killer after friends started posting on Facebook about him. They claim the man is mentally ill and has a history of violent crimes against women.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>"We didn't know this until everybody started posting things on Facebook about him," Seay told Fox 2. "They say they know he did this. We know he did this, my daughter is killed. My daughter is murdered because of this."</p>
<p>Bradford was an <a href="http://fox2now.com/2015/11/30/murdered-ferguson-mom-found-nude-in-pool-of-blood-after-meeting-facebook-friend/" type="external">aspiring nurse</a> and the mother of a <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-weighing-facebook-connection-in-slaying-of-ferguson-woman/article_b4aa19c6-a5b6-57a4-af39-ac76881c4fd1.html" type="external">6-year-old</a> daughter, Skilar, who wasn't home during the crime, relatives said.</p>
<p>Relatives believe her killer was caught on surveillance cameras placed at her apartment complex. They say detectives have taken video footage.</p>
<p>Ferguson police haven't yet commented on the case, and the cause of death has not been released.</p>
<p>Jeff Small, a city spokesman, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that a family member checked on Bradford after not being able to reach her. She was "bleeding heavily" but conscious when the relative arrived at the scene.</p>
<p>But as paramedics arrived, Bradford was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene, the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/major-case-squad-investigating-death-of-woman-in-ferguson/article_5fdd43a3-636f-53c2-b2f0-48df17887061.html" type="external">Post-Dispatch</a> reported.</p>
<p>On social media, friends mourned Bradford and shared pictures of the mom and her beautiful daughter. A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/zwc7fxxh" type="external">GoFundMe page</a> was set up to raise money for the little girl.</p>
<p>Bradford often posted adorable pictures of Skilar, whom she and family members called "Ski" on Facebook.</p>
<p>"Failure is not an option wen u got somebody calling u mommy!!" Bradford wrote this month.</p>
<p>Darryl Lindsey, a friend of Bradford, said she was focused on being a good mom.</p>
<p>"That's what everybody noticed about her," Lindsey told The Daily Beast. "She loved her daughter."</p>
<p>Lindsey said Ski is a model for his clothing line, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DBIMG" type="external">Drama Squad Space Camp Klothing</a>, which promotes stopping violence in St. Louis.</p>
<p>Bradford posted multiple pictures of Ski wearing Drama Squad shirts with the words "Black Lives Matter" and "Team God."</p>
<p>Lindsey said he has photo shoots every two weeks and kids model T-shirts with positive messages.</p>
<p>"We're basically trying to bring everybody together," he said. "[Bradford] liked what I was doing. She wanted her daughter to become involved."</p> | Ferguson Mom Murdered by Facebook Pal? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/ferguson-mom-murdered-by-facebook-pal | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>Six Flags' newly built Superman roller coaster stalled Sunday afternoon, stranding a dozen riders 150 feet in the air for almost two hours.</p>
<p>The Superman Ultimate Flight roller coaster stopped at about 2:30 p.m. at the top of the ride, said Six Flags Discovery Kingdom spokeswoman Nancy Chan, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57482007/superman-roller-coaster-stalls-in-calif-strands-12-riders-about-150-feet-over-ground/" type="external">according to the Associated Press</a>. Vallejo, Calif., firefighters were called and arrived at the amusement park at about 3 p.m. A Six Flags crane - complete with a large bucket to carry rescuers - was at the ready, and two firefighters and a park mechanic were lifted in the bucket to give water bottles to the stranded riders.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/nigeria/110713/africa-amusement-parks-dakar-african-middle-class" type="external">It's thrilling: the rise of Africa's amusement parks</a></p>
<p>The AP also reported that Fire Battalion Chief Ray Jackson said firefighters were prepared to take riders down using the bucket, but the mechanic was eventually able to restart the ride, which went backward and lowered the dozen people safely to the ground.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21187192/riders-rescued-from-six-flags-superman-roller-coaster" type="external">According to the Vallejo Times-Herald</a>, none of the riders were injured or required medical attention.</p>
<p>The local paper also reported that the cause of the stall was unclear. Chan said the ride would be closed for a "thorough safety inspection," adding that it will be reopened when the inspection is completed, at an undetermined time.</p>
<p>"If (a ride) stops, it usually detects something and it stops for safety reasons," Chan told the Times-Herald.</p>
<p>Chan also said the theme park staff had collected the riders' names and contact information, but she didn't know if they would receive any compensation for the incident.</p>
<p>"I don't know what compensation, if any, would be given," she said to the paper. "I can't speculate."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/29/six-flags-roller-coaster-in-california-stalls-with-riders-on-board/" type="external">Fox News reported</a> that the Superman roller coaster was checked Sunday morning, and no problems were found. The ride opened June 30 and is 15 stories tall at its highest point. It reaches speeds of 62 mph.</p> | Superman roller coaster stalls, leaves 12 stranded in the air | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-30/superman-roller-coaster-stalls-leaves-12-stranded-air | 2012-07-30 | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Penny Boston, a New Mexico Tech professor famed for her work on the mysterious microbes deep in caves, seems to be threading an unusual needle with <a href="http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/lecture-titanic-a-personal-and-scientific-journey.html" type="external">this talk next week at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science</a>:</p>
<p>Dr. Penelope Boston studies extreme microbial lifeforms who live in environments that share features with the microorganisms that are breaking down the hulls of the Titanic. But more personally, Dr. Boston’s grandfather, William John Boston, served aboard Titanic as a crew member on her maiden voyage in 1912—profoundly affecting her family and perhaps leading to Dr. Boston’s own unusual career. Hear about the time in which the Titanic sinking occurred, its aftermath, and the emerging science as we watch the Titanic break down in the extreme environment of the cold, deep, mid-Atlantic.</p>
<p>Penny’s great. I’d recommend any talk of hers. But this one sounds especially fun. Tuesday, June 25, 7:00 PM. $6 General, $5 Members, $4 Students</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | The Titanic and the science of cave microbes | false | https://abqjournal.com/211626/the-titanic-and-the-science-of-cave-microbes.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotofrivolity08/" type="external">Ellie</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>
<p>In the opinion pages of The New York Times on Thursday, sociologist Michael Eric Dyson <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/what-white-america-fails-to-see.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=1" type="external">named the hypocrisy</a> by which white Americans who demand that all Muslims account for the “evil acts of a few” fail to criticize violence perpetrated by their white counterparts in uniform.</p>
<p>“At birth, you are given a pair of binoculars that see black life from a distance, never with the texture of intimacy,” Dyson wrote, providing context. “Those binoculars are privilege; they are status, regardless of your class.”</p>
<p>You hold an entire population of Muslims accountable for the evil acts of a few. Yet you rarely muster the courage to put down your binoculars, and with them, your corrosive self-pity, and see what we see. You say religions and cultures breed violence stoked by the complicity of silence because peoples will not denounce the villains who act in their names.</p>
<p />
<p>Yet you do the same. You do not condemn these cops; to do so, you would have to condemn the culture that produced them — the same culture that produced you. Black people will continue to die at the hands of cops as long as we deny that whiteness can be more important in explaining those cops’ behavior than the dangerous circumstances they face.</p>
<p>You cannot know how we secretly curse the cowardice of whites who know what I write is true, but dare not say it. Neither will your smug insistence that you are different — not like that ocean of unenlightened whites — satisfy us any longer. It makes the killings worse to know that your disapproval of them has spared your reputations and not our lives.</p>
<p>You do not know that after we get angry with you, we get even angrier with ourselves, because we don’t know how to make you stop, or how to make you care enough to stop those who pull the triggers. What else could explain the white silence that usually greets these events? Sure, there is often an official response, sometimes even government apologies, but from the rest of the country, what? We see the wringing of white hands in frustration at just how complex the problem is and how hard it is to tell from the angles of the video just what went down.</p>
<p>If whites make no effort to understand the perspectives of black Americans, then “whiteness is blindness,” Dyson added.</p>
<p>Read his full letter <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/what-white-america-fails-to-see.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=1" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | It's Time for Whites to Condemn White Violence, Georgetown Sociologist Says | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/its-time-for-whites-to-condemn-white-violence-georgetown-sociologist-says/ | 2016-07-08 | 4 |
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