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<p>The U.S. produced 156,000 new jobs in August, below the 170,000 predicted by economists polled by MarketWatch.</p>
<p>Treasury prices gave up gains and turned lower Friday, pushing up yields, after traders sold into a knee-jerk rally that followed a weaker-than-expected August jobs report.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ticked 1.2 basis point higher to 2.134%, while the 30-year bond yield rose 2.6 basis points to 2.751%.</p>
<p>But the 2-year Treasury yield , more sensitive to prospects for central bank monetary policy, fell close to 1 basis point to 1.318%, versus the 1.329% in the previous session.</p>
<p>Treasury prices initially rose after the jobs report, with bond yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices, dipping before rising again on early Friday trade. The yield for the 10-year benchmark note fell close to the 2.10%, the psychologically significant level last seen Nov. 10 before it made an about-turn.</p>
<p>The U.S. produced 156,000 new jobs in August (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gains-156000-jobs-in-august-but-unemployment-rate-edges-up-to-44-2017-09-01), coming in below the 170,000 predicted by economists polled by MarketWatch. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3%. Hourly pay increased 2.5% from August 2016 to August 2017, but was unchanged from the prior month, the government said on Friday.</p>
<p>Analysts suggested traders took advantage of the rally in Treasurys to get rid of their holdings of government paper. An investors' survey conducted by BMO Capital Markets reporting that 47% of those polled would sell after any bond-buying seen in the immediate wake of the jobs report. The survey was the most bearish since mid-2011, with 69% of the poll's participants forecasting yields to head higher.</p>
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<p>But Friday's data comes amid Hurricane Harvey, which has dealt a blow to the U.S.'s refining capabilities and could influence next month's numbers in part because Texas is the second-largest regional economy in the country. Joel Myers, founder of AccuWeather, estimated the final bill for the damages to come to $190 billion (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hurricane-harvey-could-cost-190-billion-be-worst-ever-us-natural-disaster-says-accuweather-2017-08-31). This month's jobs numbers were collected before the hurricane made landfall.</p>
<p>"The employment report would not have the same impact [on the market] as we had before with Harvey going on," said Bryce Doty, senior fixed-income manager for SIT Investment Associates. "It won't make one iota of difference for the [Fed's] Sept. 20 meeting."</p>
<p>He said the Fed is still intent on winding down the balance sheet, and expects it to begin the process at the September meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. But some traders said the hurricane could exert pressure on the central bank to delay normalizing interest rates.</p>
<p>"Harvey will have [a] huge dovish effect on FOMC policy decisions going forward," said Tom di Galoma, managing director of Treasurys trading, at Seaport Global Securities.</p>
<p>Investors will also brace for a batch of economic data after the nonfarm-payrolls report. The ISM manufacturing index, construction-spending data and consumer sentiment numbers will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern. Vehicle sales reports will be released throughout the session.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, European bonds faced selling pressure after European Central Bank official Ewald Nowotny, a member of its policy-setting committee, played down the strength in the euro, and suggested it would not hinder the ECB's decision making when it decides to gradually pull out of its asset-purchasing program, according to Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/eurozone-bonds/update-1-euro-zone-yields-rise-as-ecbs-nowotny-plays-down-euro-effect-idUSL8N1LI22U).</p>
<p>The 10-year German government bond yield rose 3.4 basis points to 0.395%.</p>
<p>The eurotemporarily topped $1.20 on Tuesday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-whats-driving-a-resurgent-euro-rally-2017-08-28), its highest level since early 2015, drawing concerns that the deflationary impact of a strengthening currency could slow the ECB's plans to scale down its monetary stimulus.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 01, 2017 09:28 ET (13:28 GMT)</p> | BOND REPORT: Treasury Yields Tick Higher Despite Lackluster Job Report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/01/bond-report-treasury-yields-tick-higher-despite-lackluster-job-report.html | 2017-09-01 | 0 |
<p>Our campus correspondent Frankie Mclister was live with all the fun. Check out his video from the fiesta!</p>
<p>The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off its nine-day event early Saturday morning. This is considered the premier international ballooning event, featuring more than 500 balloons and welcoming over 700,000 guests during the course of nine days.</p>
<p>The event started in 1972 with just 13 balloons and has been growing ever since.</p>
<p>Check out the <a href="http://www.balloonfiesta.com/event-info/event-schedule" type="external">full list of events here</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Here's a look at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/10/08/nation/heres-a-look-at-the-albuquerque-international-balloon-fiesta | 2017-10-08 | 1 |
<p>During an interview last Wednesday with <a href="https://www.axios.com/" type="external">Axios</a>’ Mike Allen, Kellyanne Conway said that President Trump “has confidence in the people who work for him,” despite claims by the mainstream media that there are tensions among the Trump team and the president.</p>
<p>The newest claims coming from the mainstream media are that Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered his resignation to President Trump due to rising tensions between the two.</p>
<p>Conway continued “One of the greatest misperceptions about… [Trump’s] White House is that he has a bunch of yes men around him because nobody will tell him no.” &#160;She said this is untrue and that “I’ve seen them in his company and basically I’m like– can I hold you back?” She praised President Trump, saying, “leaders like Donald Trump are unafraid to have people around him who offer very distinct point of views”</p>
<p>When asked how various investigations have affected daily life in the West Wing Conway responded by saying “I would say very little in this way,”&#160; that, no matter the “news cycle,” President Trump moves at a “break-neck pace” to try and get many things done.</p>
<p>Commenting on the allegations of collusion between President Trump and Russia, Conway said “[President Trump] sees that there’s nothing there” and “if you look at everything that’s been said and done we’re back to where we were at the beginning.” She elaborated that “When you turn on the TV and hear Russia, Russia, Russia constantly” and actually listen to the reports “It’s ‘if this’ and ‘if that.”</p>
<p>“That doesn’t seem to be very responsible to me,” Conway averred.&#160; “You can do almost any storyline with ‘if, if, if, if, if.’”</p>
<p>Conway then slammed the mainstream media when asked about recent polls from the Washington Post claiming that 61% of U.S. adults think that President Trump fired Comey to protect himself. &#160;Conway, who had worked as a pollster for a quarter century before joining the Trump White House said that the media misleads people when polling because &#160;“Basically that’s almost like a quiz, not a poll.”</p>
<p>“If you turn on the TV or look at any screen with a headline that’s exactly what you’ve been reading and hearing, you’re basically repeating what you’ve been told all along that he has done that or is doing this,” she said, adding “That doesn’t change any facts. Investigations are about facts.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Kellyanne Conway Speaks Out on If-fy News | true | http://aim.org/on-target-blog/kellyanne-conway-speaks-out-on-if-fy-news/ | 2017-06-16 | 0 |
<p>The Bank of England has modestly upgraded it growth forecast for the U.K. this year but cautioned over the failure of wages to keep pace with the projected expansion.</p>
<p>In its quarterly economic projections Wednesday, the bank raised its 2014 growth forecast to 3.5 percent from 3.4 percent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>And Governor Mark Carney says the economic momentum is looking more assured, with unemployment expected to drop below 6 percent by the end of the year. Figures earlier showed the unemployment down at 6.4 percent, its lowest in nearly 6 years.</p>
<p>However, the bank halved its forecast for wage growth in 2014 to a below-inflation 1.25 percent.</p>
<p>With wages lagging inflation, Chris Williamson, an economist at Markit, says policymakers will be reluctant to raise interest rates for fear of stalling the recovery.</p> | Despite modest UK growth upgrade, Bank of England cautions over subdued wage growth | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/08/13/despite-modest-uk-growth-upgrade-bank-england-cautions-over-subdued-wage-growth.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A first-degree murder charge has been dropped against a motorcycle club member after an interview with the suspect's co-defendant gave police new information.</p>
<p>The Grand Junction Sentinel <a href="http://bit.ly/2n5V7YJ" type="external">reports</a> that 42-year-old Rufus Billups pleaded guilty on Monday to felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and possession of a weapon by a previous offender, but is no longer facing a murder charge for the March 2017 killing of 38-year-old Dion Nixon.</p>
<p>Billups was one of three members of the Sin City Deciples motorcycle club arrested in the wake of the shooting. The others are 49-year-old Richard A. Byrd and 39-year-old Gregory Clark.</p>
<p>Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said an interview with Clark prompted him to drop the homicide-related charges against Billups.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Daily Sentinel, <a href="http://www.gjsentinel.com" type="external">http://www.gjsentinel.com</a></p>
<p>GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A first-degree murder charge has been dropped against a motorcycle club member after an interview with the suspect's co-defendant gave police new information.</p>
<p>The Grand Junction Sentinel <a href="http://bit.ly/2n5V7YJ" type="external">reports</a> that 42-year-old Rufus Billups pleaded guilty on Monday to felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and possession of a weapon by a previous offender, but is no longer facing a murder charge for the March 2017 killing of 38-year-old Dion Nixon.</p>
<p>Billups was one of three members of the Sin City Deciples motorcycle club arrested in the wake of the shooting. The others are 49-year-old Richard A. Byrd and 39-year-old Gregory Clark.</p>
<p>Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said an interview with Clark prompted him to drop the homicide-related charges against Billups.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Daily Sentinel, <a href="http://www.gjsentinel.com" type="external">http://www.gjsentinel.com</a></p> | Murder charge dropped for 1 of 3 Colorado bike club members | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f5ab9b4281a049eaa1f32f0fe036e8dc | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>Ray Kurzweil appeared as a hologram in Tucson delivering a lecture from Boston about The Future. It was a fine performance, and when it was over we in the audience clapped delightedly, smiling and thrilled at our prospects. I liked him and liked the human spirit and felt relieved that something I considered unstoppable anyway (Technology) might turn out so well. Little did I know.</p>
<p>He said there was accelerating progress in many technologies and that, while hard to detect in early stages, where the difference between exponential and linear processes appeared slight, such progress inevitably snowballed to the point of changing the world. Recent examples included the Genome Project, which pessimists had said would take a hundred years (and still thought they were right several years into it before researchers ‘hit the knee of the curve’); The Internet, which looked insignificant in the 1980s; the cell phone, which at first seemed destined only for the rich; and computing power itself.</p>
<p>In the question period, I wanted to ask what he thought of moral and political developments: were we at that early part of the curve where it was difficult to see that two times almost nothing was really something, soon to be great, or was it rather that two times nothing is nothing? To ask my question, though, I would have had to scramble over about twenty laps and there were soon more people lined up at the mikes than there was time for.</p>
<p>Thinking that in 652 pages Kurzweil would answer that question and others, I read his book, <a href="" type="internal">The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology</a>. On page 423 he proves his political stripe: “A contentious contemporary political issue is the need for preemptive action to combat threats, such as terrorists with access to weapons of mass destruction or rogue nations that support such terrorists. Such measures will always be controversial, but the need for them is clear. A nuclear explosion can destroy a city in seconds. A self-replicating pathogen, whether biological or nanotechnology based, could destroy our civilization in a matter of days or weeks. We cannot always afford to wait for the massing of armies or other overt indications of ill intent before taking protective action.” In other words, kill first.</p>
<p>Describing military technology, he seems to take a restrained but decided pleasure in advances: a new uniform that is stab-resistant; the Abrams tank with only three casualties in twenty years of use; and predator drones:</p>
<p>“The trend toward unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) … will accelerate. Army research includes the development of micro-UAVs the size of birds that will be fast, accurate and capable of performing both reconnaissance and combat missions. Even smaller UAVs, the size of bumblebees are envisioned…</p>
<p>“[This] is not a one-shot program; it represents a pervasive focus of military systems toward remotely guided, autonomous, miniaturized, and robotic systems…</p>
<p>“One of the programs … envisions a drone army of unmanned, autonomous robots in the water, on the ground and in the air. The swarms will have human commanders with decentralized command and control and what project head Allen Moshfegh calls an ‘impregnable Internet in the sky.”. p. 332-3</p>
<p>After these furies will come ‘Smart Dust;’ and beyond that, ‘Nanoweapons,’ which an enemy will be unable to resist, except with some of its own.</p>
<p>In sum, Kurzweil’s answer to the old problem of human enmity would seem to be the Old Testament one: Smite ’em. But not to prejudice a reader against this big tome with little moral concerns, it is worth considering the book in general.In truth, I was educated and entertained by it, and can recommend it, both for mind-stretching and for laughs. There are many wonderful quotations throughout: Yogi Berra’s, ‘The future ain’t what it used to be,’ and Marvin Minsky’s, ‘Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children.’; and Giulio Giorelli’s ‘Yes we have a soul. But it’s made up of lots of tiny robots.’</p>
<p>Is technology unstoppable? Kurzweil quotes Nick Bostrom: p.259&#160; “…there is no end to the list of consumer-benefits. There is also a strong military motive to develop artificial intelligence. And nowhere on the path is there any natural stopping point where technophobics could plausibly argue ‘hither but not further.’”</p>
<p>I think this position correct and obvious. Whatever one wants, whether to battle poverty and disease, to capture energy, or to destroy others, knowledge is key, and the pursuit of it now pivots on physical means. Information may not be wisdom, but wisdom uses information. Kurzweil predicts so many Earth-shaking developments it is doubtful he is right about all of them. On the other hand, he is almost certainly right in his central thesis that technological developments are, and will continue to be, Earth-shaking. Hence his term, singularity, borrowed from mathematics and physics to describe a situation in which the outcome of an operation is undefined, or where conditions develop such that the usual rules no longer pertain.</p>
<p>He envisages six epochs in the history of the cosmos and fits them to a logarithmic plot of time. First, the era of physics and chemistry, where matter came out of the big bang and substances mixed in regular ways; second, the era of biology, where RNA and DNA got established to create even more organization; third, brains, when animal intelligence got rolling; fourth, technology, where brains and opposable thumbs produced machines that were (or will be) themselves intelligent; fifth, a merger of technology and biology, during which time many things happen but, most importantly, machines surpass humans in the design and invention of themselves, thereby creating the singularity; and finally, epoch six, where ‘the universe wakes up’ and becomes saturated with intelligence that mechanically spreads out from Earth.</p>
<p>One question that comes up with such speculation is what machines might do with us once they had the upper hand. They would have read all our books and seen and known us inside out. Kurzweil proposes that “Our primary strategy in this area should be to optimize the likelihood that future nonbiological intelligence will reflect our values of liberty, tolerance, and respect for knowledge and diversity. The best way to accomplish this is to foster those values in our society today and going forward.” p. 424.</p>
<p>It goes without saying that the machines would be aware of our professed values, but I think we can assume they would also be able to read between the lines. We might hope they had insight as to where our ‘values’ lead; otherwise, they too would get into a dust-up.</p>
<p>Machines, in this imaginary future, would have attained the upper hand by intelligence. The idea is that nothing trumps intelligence: it implies ability, mobility, strength, etc. We could not unplug the computer but it could unplug us.</p>
<p>Kurzweil quotes Seth Shostak: “We come from goldfish, essentially, but that [doesn’t] mean we turned around and killed all the goldfish…. If you had a machine with a 10 to the 18th IQ over humans, wouldn’t you want it to govern, or at least control your economy?”</p>
<p>I think, yes, we would want it to govern (there’s no choice if you’re playing this speculative game honestly), but I don’t see how we could expect it to love us, or to believe Kurzweil’s saccharine words about values. That being said, I don’t think we’d have to fear it either, except as another force of Nature, neither malevolent nor benevolent.</p>
<p>If Kurzweil’s main claim is only that technology develops at an accelerating rate, why does one so often feel suspicious of his predicting? We can all see that accelerating growth has been characteristic of technology in the past, but it seems unimaginable that any specific exponential progress should continue. This might be because: A) we can’t imagine it; B) we know that ‘no exponential is forever,’ but also, I think, C) there is a tendency in all of us to color and influence the future as we might like.</p>
<p>The following sample of Kurzweil’s assertions is presented as a list, a list of: astonishing facts or possibilities or claims i have learned of(followed in parentheses by a remark or two of my own). The list is incomplete for the sake of brevity but given largely in Kurzweil’s words.</p>
<p>1) p. 105 “By the end of this decade, computers will disappear as distinct physical objects, with displays built in our eyeglasses, and electronics woven in our clothing, providing full-immersion visual virtual reality.” (This cannot be. I just bought a computer and plan to keep it for at least two years. It seems probable that Kurzweil intended something more conservative than my literal reading here, but if he did, he is showing disregard for precision. If he meant what he said he needs reminding that: ‘Nothing ruins the truth like stretching it.’)</p>
<p>2) P. 130 Computation need consume no energy. “[The] act of erasing data generates heat and therefore requires energy… if you keep all the intermediate results and then run the algorithm backward when you’ve finished your calculations, you end up where you started, have used no energy and generated no heat. Along the way, however, you’ve calculated the result of your algorithm.” (I am not competent to evaluate this.)</p>
<p>3) p. 136 The date for the singularity is set at 2045. The possibilities for life after this period, or even after medical advances prior to this time, amount to virtual immortality. (This doesn’t interest me; I don’t want to be a trapped ghost, which is how I would feel if uploaded into a machine.)</p>
<p>4) P. 230 One of the major achievements of nanotechnology will be molecular assembly. “…the typical assembler has been described as a tabletop unit that can manufacture almost any physical product for which we have a software description, ranging from computers, clothes, and works of art to cooked meals. Larger products, such as furniture, cars, or even houses, can be built in a modular fashion or using larger assemblers… Drexler estimates a total manufacturing cost for a molecular-manufacturing process in the range of ten cents to fifty cents per kilogram, regardless of whether the manufactured product were clothing, massively parallel supercomputers, or additional manufacturing systems.”&#160; (I am pleased to know about this, but it is so far beyond my ken as to resist imagining; therefore, I also resist pooh-poohing it.)</p>
<p>5) p. 28 Respirocytes, little mechanical gizmos in the blood, will deliver oxygen far more efficiently than our own red blood cells. (I bet there are problems with unnaturally efficient oxygen delivery. We would still need fuel for oxygen to combine with. What if all your glycogen were gone in one minute instead of ten? Would that be progress? It isn’t always better to be faster in one way.)</p>
<p>6) p. 416 Nanotechnology will come with a risk of malevolently replicating machines, but do not be dismayed. “The reality is that … our defensive knowledge and technologies will grow along with the dangers. A phenomenon like gray goo (unrestrained nanobot replication) will be countered with ‘blue goo’ (‘police’ nanobots that combat the ‘bad’ nanobots).”</p>
<p>It may have been at this point that I wondered if Kurzweil had a cloven hoof, and it was only by reminding myself that his company built the first reading machines for the blind that I dissuaded myself of the idea. There is probably more imagination than truth in this book, but Kurzweil is broadly informed and always offers that germ of factuality that fascinates.</p>
<p>PETER HARLEY lives in Newfoundland. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Technology to the Rescue? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/06/07/technology-to-the-rescue/ | 2008-06-07 | 4 |
<p>Greece averted the immediate risk of an uncontrolled default on Friday, winning strong acceptance from its private creditors for a bond swap deal which will eat into its mountainous public debt and clear the way for a new international bailout.</p>
<p>The finance ministry said creditors had tendered 85.8 percent of the 177 billion euros in bonds regulated by Greek law. This would reach 95.7 percent of all privately-held Greek debt with the use of "collective action clauses" to enforce the deal on creditors who refused to take part voluntarily.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Greece's international lenders, the <a href="" type="internal">European Union</a> and <a href="" type="internal">International Monetary Fund</a>, have demanded the bond swap as a condition for the 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout package, the country's second since 2010.</p>
<p>Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the result was a "vote of confidence" in Athens' ability to carry out deep structural reforms to its stricken economy. "I think it's a historic moment," he told private television station Antenna.</p>
<p>But Greece remains a long way from solving its daunting economic, political and social problems. Reforms demanded by the EU and IMF along with deep budget cuts have provoked serious violence in Athens and helped propel unemployment well over 20 percent as the nation suffers its fifth year of recession.</p>
<p>The country also faces elections in April or May when the pro-bailout conservatives and socialists face an array of smaller parties to the left and right that reject the rescue, and may struggle to form an effective government.</p>
<p>Traders priced in the profound doubts surrounding an overall programme which aims to cut Greece's debt from a towering 160 percent of its annual economic output now to a slightly more manageable 120 percent by 2020.</p>
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<p>On the grey market, they indicated prices far below the face value of new bonds which will be issued to creditors on Monday.</p>
<p>RELIEF ACROSS THE EURO ZONE</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the bond swap went down well in EU capitals as the bloc tries to protect far bigger economies with debt problems such as Italy and Spain.</p>
<p>"It's good news, its a good success," French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told RTL radio.</p>
<p>Germany's finance ministry said the take-up was "a big step on the path to stabilisation and consolidation of a sustainable level of debt, which gives Greece an historic opportunity".</p>
<p>Spanish and Italian bond yields fell following the Greek announcement. However, those on debt issued by Portugal, which has also been bailed out by the EU and IMF, rose as investors looked for the euro zone's next weakest link.</p>
<p>Under the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, Greece's private creditors will swap their old bonds for new ones with a much lower face value, lower interest rates and longer maturities. This means they will lose about 74 percent on the value of their investments, slicing more than 100 billion euros off Greece's crippling public debt.</p>
<p>The Institute of International Finance, the bank lobby that negotiated on behalf of Greece's private creditors, said the deal would help not only Greece but the wider euro zone.</p>
<p>"The very strong and positive result provides a major opportunity now for Greece to move ahead with its economic reform program, while strengthening the Euro Area's ability to create an economic environment of stability and growth," said IIF Chairman <a href="" type="internal">Josef Ackermann</a>, who is also Deutsche Bank's chief.</p>
<p>The deadline for acceptance of the offer for bonds governed by international law and for state-guaranteed bonds issued by public companies has been extended to March 23.</p>
<p>Athens confirmed it would enforce the deal, activating the collective action clauses (CACs) on the bonds regulated under Greek law. It will not be so easy to force holders of bonds governed by foreign laws to come to the table.</p>
<p>Using the CACs is likely to trigger payouts on the credit default swap (CDS) insurance that some investors held on the bonds, an event which would have unknown consequences for the market.</p>
<p>The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said it will meet on Friday at 1300 GMT to decide whether Greek credit default swaps will pay out.</p>
<p>"It almost now certainly going to trigger CDS. If this doesn't trigger it, nothing will," said Nick Stamenkovic, a bond strategist at RIA Capital markets in Edinburgh.</p>
<p>OPTIMISM</p>
<p>Despite the success, the deal will not solve Greece's deep-seated problems and at best it may buy time for a country facing its biggest economic crisis since World War Two and crushed under debt equal to 160 percent of its gross domestic product.</p>
<p>Financial markets rose strongly in the run-up to the deadline, with global stocks enjoying their best day in more than two months on Thursday as the threat of an immediate and uncontrolled default receded. Given that rally, reaction was muted after Friday's official announcement.</p>
<p>Athens must have the funds in place by March 20 when some 14.5 billion euros of bond repayments are due, which it cannot hope to repay alone.</p>
<p>Markets showed investors have no faith that the bond swap will draw a line under the country's troubles. Under Greece's austerity and reform programme, its debt burden in 2020 should be proportionately similar to that at the moment of Portugal, which has also received an EU/IMF bailout.</p>
<p>This means yields on Greek and Portuguese bonds should be similar, provided investors believe Athens will meet its debt target. This was not the case on the grey market, with yields at 17-21 percent, far above Portuguese levels around 11-14 percent.</p>
<p>"The market is pricing a high risk premium which reflects uncertainty over upcoming elections in Greece and reform implementation risk," said on Athens dealer.</p>
<p>Greece has staggered from deadline to deadline since its crisis broke two years ago and several of its international partners have expressed open doubts about whether its second major bailout in two years will be the last.</p>
<p>"Even when a messy default is prevented, the upcoming election in Greece next month will be the next risk factor," said Yuji Saito, director of the foreign exchange division at <a href="" type="internal">Credit Agricole</a> Bank in Tokyo.</p>
<p>Support for the two parties that back the bailout - those in the current coalition of technocrat Prime Minister <a href="" type="internal">Lucas Papademos</a> - remains low. A poll last Saturday showed support for the conservative New Democracy party fell to 28 percent from 31 percent in a previous poll earlier in the month, while the Socialist PASOK party recovered part of its previous losses, with its ratings at 11 percent from 8 percent.</p>
<p>"After the elections, no matter when these will take place, we have a government of authority, determined to walk the difficult path of reforms. Otherwise, all sacrifices that were made will be wasted," said the Athens financial daily Imerisia.</p>
<p>Resentment has grown among ordinary Greeks over the austerity medicine ordered by international creditors which has compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.</p>
<p>Underlining the severe problems facing Greece after five years of deep recession, data on Thursday showed unemployment running at a record 21 percent in December, twice the euro zone average, with 51 percent of young people without a job.</p> | Greece Seals Debt Exchange, Averts Imminent Default | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/03/09/greece-seals-debt-exchange-averts-imminent-default.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>No Bush Endorsement for Trump. The bush family has decided to take their ball and go home. Cartoon by A.F.Branco ©2016.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Foul Ball | true | http://comicallyincorrect.com/2016/05/09/no-bush-endorsement/ | 2016-05-09 | 0 |
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<p>SANTA FE – Pre-event ticket sales for tonight’s burning of Zozobra are at about 10,000 – far more than at any time in the event’s 90-year history.</p>
<p>“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Ray Sandoval, who organizes the event put on annually by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe.</p>
<p>Sandoval said last year’s pre-sale was only about 1,000, and more than 30,000 people attended the event at Fort Marcy Park.</p>
<p>He declined to speculate how many would attend this year, but said they’re ready for just about anything.</p>
<p>“We’ve been planning this for 18 months,” he said.</p>
<p>This is the first time since 1997 that Zozobra will burn on a Friday night.</p>
<p>The event was moved to Thursday after that because of a shooting on Santa Fe’s Plaza that left one young man dead and two others injured.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Zozobra ticket sales hit 10,000 | false | https://abqjournal.com/453734/zozobra-ticket-sales-hit-10000.html | 2 |
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<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>A Southern Baptist pastor said in a televised sermon Dec. 6 that today’s controversy over transgender rights has its roots in “feminist rebellion” against the Bible’s teaching on hierarchy within marriage.</p>
<p>“The mayor of Houston says that her crowning achievement as mayor will be their city ordinance of equal rights and the abolishment of men’s and women’s restrooms,” Ashley Ray, senior pastor of <a href="http://www.ridgewaybaptist.org/" type="external">Ridgeway Baptist Church</a> in Memphis, Tenn., said in the sermon broadcast on WHBQ-TV, also known as Fox 13.</p>
<p>“There is a group of people that know better than God,” Ray said in excerpts of the broadcast <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/baptist-pastor-commands-wives-to-submit-the-feminist-rebellion-is-destroying-america/" type="external">captured</a> by Raw Story. “You say, well that’s terrible. I would never —&#160;but you know where all that started?”</p>
<p>“All that started in people saying, ‘I know what the Bible says, but that’s just for that culture, that patriarchal society back in that day, and we’ve come so far,’” he said. “Yes, we have come so far. God help us. God have mercy upon us.”</p>
<p>Ray said he doesn’t believe the Bible teaches “patriarchalism, per se,” in that Scripture doesn’t support things like men mistreating women or women receiving unequal pay.</p>
<p>But he said he also doesn’t believe it teaches “egalitarianism,” which he defined, “in the name of decrying the inequality of men and women and their treatment, people have erased all distinction and have said there is no difference in function between a man and a woman.”</p>
<p>Quoting Bible passages from Ephesians and First Timothy, Ray described a “divine hierarchy in marriage,” in which the wife is to submit to her husband “in everything.”</p>
<p>“Some people say, ‘Oh, now that we’re Christians we’re all elevated to the same level,’” Ray commented. “Well, that’s true. We’re all to be submissive to Christ and we’re all to be submissive to one another, but you see Adam’s headship was not a result of the fall. It was before the fall, and then Paul said that the woman was deceived. That’s not putting the woman down, that’s saying that the man was to lead.”</p>
<p>“When the lady led, the human race fell,” Ray said. “When Adam allowed his wife to lead him —&#160;and it’s his fault, not hers —&#160;but when he allowed that the human race fell.”</p>
<p>Ray said he disagrees with people who interpret Ephesians 5:21 as calling for mutual submission that works both ways between husband and wife.</p>
<p>“There is, whether you like it or not, a divine hierarchy in marriage,” he said.</p>
<p>“There should be a divine harmony in marriage,” he added. “Wives must submit to their husbands. That will bring harmony.”</p>
<p>Ordained at age 19 under the ministry of Adrian Rogers, a two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention and longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Ray holds degrees from Union University, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp" type="external">Baptist Faith and Message</a>, the official SBC confession of faith as revised in 2000, says that according to the Bible, the husband “has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family.”</p>
<p>“A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ,” the article on the family continues. “She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.”</p>
<p>An SBC <a href="http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/1088/resolution-on-ordination-and-the-role-of-women-in-ministry" type="external">resolution</a> passed in 1984 opposing women’s ordination said God requires wifely submission “because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall.”</p>
<p>Previous story:</p>
<p><a href="faith/theology/item/30539-egalitarian-advocate-preaches-at-campbellsville" type="external">Egalitarian advocate preaches at Campbellsville</a></p> | Pastor cites ‘feminist rebellion’ in moral decline | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/pastor-cites-feminist-rebellion-in-moral-decline/ | 3 |
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<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been given much deserved credit for protesting racism by sitting out the Star Spangled Banner, which not only glorifies war (which everyone, including Kaepernick is totally cool with) but also includes racism in an unsung verse and was written by a racist slave owner whose earlier version had included anti-Muslim bigotry. As long as we’re opening our eyes to unpleasant history hiding in plain sight, it’s worth asking why the 49ers is not a team name that everyone associates with genocide. Why isn’t Kaepernick protesting his uniform?</p>
<p>Of course, protesting one injustice is worthy of infinite thanks, and I don’t actually expect anyone who speaks out on one thing to also protest everything else. But I’ve just read a terrific new book that I suspect unearths a history that most Californians are largely unaware of. The book is An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873, by Benjamin Madley, from Yale University Press. I doubt I’ve seen a better researched and documented book on anything ever. While the book maintains an engaging chronological account, and while there is plenty of uncertainty in the records used, the 198 pages of appendices listing particular killings, and the 73 pages of notes back up an overwhelming case of genocide by the UN’s legal definition.</p>
<p>When the United States stole half of Mexico, including California, had humane enlightenment taken over, I suspect we would all be more aware of how it went and of what had gone before. Californians would probably commemorate with horror the atrocities inflicted on the native people of California by Russians, Spaniards, and Mexicans, had those atrocities not been dramatically escalated by the 49ers. In such an alternative history, California’s current population of people with native ancestry would be much larger, and their records and histories more intact as well.</p>
<p>Even given what actually happened, if we were in the habit today of thinking of Native Americans as real people and/or if we outgrew the habit of distinguishing what the U.S. military does in a place like Iraq (“war”) from what a less-heavily armed African despot does (“genocide”) then U.S. history books in schools wouldn’t leap from the war on Mexico to the Civil War, with the implication of (oh so boring) peace in between. Among the wars fought in between was a war on the people of California. Yes, it was a one-sided slaughter of a relatively unarmed population. Yes, the victims were also put to work in camps and beaten and tortured and starved, driven from their homes, and ravaged by disease. But if you think any current U.S. wars lack any of those tactics, you’ve been consuming too much U.S. media.</p>
<p>“The direct and deliberate killing of Indians in California between 1846 and 1873 was more lethal and sustained [than] anywhere else in the United States or its colonial antecedents,” writes Madley. “State and federal policies,” he writes, “in combination with vigilante violence, played major roles in the near-annihilation of California Indians during the first twenty-seven years of U.S. rule. . . . [reducing] California Indian numbers by at least 80 percent, from perhaps 150,000 to some 30,000. In less than three decades newcomers — with the support of both the state and federal governments — nearly exterminated California’s Indians.”</p>
<p>This is not secret history. It is just unwanted history. Newspapers, state legislators, and Congress members are on record favoring extermination of people whom they characterized as less than people. Yet they were people who had created a sustainable and admirable and largely peaceful way of life. California was not full of wars until the people whose descendants would declare war to be part of “human nature” arrived.</p>
<p>They arrived first in numbers too small to fight all the inhabitants. More common than mass killings until 1849 was slavery. But the dehumanizing effects of slavery, with white people watching native people fed at troughs like pigs, with Indians worked to death and replaced by others, contributed to the thinking that imagined Indians as wild beasts, akin to wolves, in need of being exterminated. At the same time, the line of propaganda was developed that held that murdering Indians would “teach the others a lesson.” And eventually the dominant rationalization would be the pretense that the elimination of the Indians was simply inevitable, lying outside of any human control, even that of the humans doing it.</p>
<p>But that wouldn’t become a prevalent view until the arrival of the 49ers, of those who’d left everything behind to hunt for yellow rocks — and first among them were those who came from Oregon. What happened then resembled what had happened further east and what happens today in Palestine. Lawless bands hunted Indians for sport or to seize their gold. If Indians responded with (much lesser) violence, the cycle escalated dramatically into large-scale killings of entire villages.</p>
<p>The 49ers flooded in from the east as well. While only 4% of the deaths on the trip west were due to fighting with Indians, the emigrants arrived very heavily armed for fear of that much-hyped danger. Those who came by sea came very heavily armed as well. Immigrants soon discovered that if you killed a white person you’d be arrested, while if you killed an Indian you would not be. “Free Labor” believers killed Indians as unfair competition for work, since the Indians were being worked essentially as slaves. The deluge of new arrivals cut into Indians’ food supplies, forcing them to pursue sustenance in the new economy. But they were unwanted, despised as non-Christians, and feared as monsters.</p>
<p>California’s Founding Fathers in 1849 created an Apartheid state in which Indians could not vote or exercise other basic rights. Slavery, however, was pursued without the explicit name for it. Systems were created legally and tolerated extra-legally wherein Indians could be indentured, kept in debt, punished for crimes, and leased out, making them slaves in all but name. While Madley doesn’t mention it, I would be surprised if this form of slavery did not serve as a model for that developed for African Americans in the Southeast post-Reconstruction — and, of course, by extension, for mass incarceration and prison labor in the United States today. Slavery by other names in California continued without a pause right through the Emancipation Proclamation and beyond, with the leasing of Indian prisoners remaining legal and murderous enslaving raids on free Indians rolling right along with no televised athletes to condemn them.</p>
<p>Militias that engaged in mass-murder against Indians were not punished, but rather compensated by the state and federal government. The latter tore up all 18 existing treaties, stripping California Indians of any legal protections. California’s 1850 Militia Acts, following in the tradition of the U.S. Second Amendment (Hallowed By Its Name) created compulsory and voluntary militias of “all free, white, able-bodied male citizens” aged 18-45, and voluntary militias — 303 of them in which 35,000 Californians participated between 1851 and 1866. Local authorities offered $5 for every Indian head brought to them. And federal authorities back east in Congress funded genocide by California militias repeatedly and knowingly, including on December 20th, 1860, the day after South Carolina seceded (and the eve of one of oh so many wars for “freedom”).</p>
<p>Do Californians know this history? Do they know that Carson Pass and Fremont and Kelseyville and other place names honor mass murderers? Do they know the precedents for the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, and for the Nazis’ camps of the same era? Do we know that this history is still alive? That the people of Diego Garcia, a whole population evicted from its land, is demanding to return after 50 years? Do we know where most of the world’s current and unprecedented number of refugees come from? That they flee U.S. wars? Do we think about what U.S. troops are doing permanently based in 175 nations, most if not all of which they have sometimes referred to as “Indian Country”?</p>
<p>In the Philippines, the United States built bases on land belonging to the indigenous Aetas people, who “ended up combing military trash to <a href="" type="internal">survive</a>.”</p>
<p>During World War II the U.S. Navy seized the small Hawaiian island of Koho’alawe for a weapons testing range and ordered its inhabitants to leave. The island has been <a href="" type="internal">devastated</a>.</p>
<p>In 1942, the Navy displaced Aleutian Islanders.</p>
<p>President Harry Truman made up his mind that the 170 native inhabitants of Bikini Atoll had no right to their island. He had them evicted in February and March of 1946, and dumped as refugees on other islands without means of support or a social structure in place. In the coming years, the United States would remove 147 people from Enewetak Atoll and all the people on Lib Island. U.S. atomic and hydrogen bomb testing rendered various depopulated and still-populated islands uninhabitable, leading to further displacements. Up through the 1960s, the U.S. military displaced hundreds of people from Kwajalein Atoll. A super-densely populated ghetto was created on Ebeye.</p>
<p>On <a href="" type="internal">Vieques</a>, off Puerto Rico, the Navy displaced thousands of inhabitants between 1941 and 1947, announced plans to evict the remaining 8,000 in 1961, but was forced to back off and — in 2003 — to stop bombing the island.</p>
<p>On nearby Culebra, the Navy displaced thousands between 1948 and 1950 and attempted to remove those remaining up through the 1970s.</p>
<p>The Navy is right now looking at the island of <a href="" type="internal">Pagan</a> as a possible replacement for Vieques, the population already having been removed by a volcanic eruption. Of course, any possibility of return would be greatly diminished.</p>
<p>Beginning during World War II and continuing through the 1950s, the U.S. military displaced a quarter million Okinawans, or half the population, from their land, forcing people into refugee camps and shipping thousands of them off to Bolivia — where land and money were promised but not delivered.</p>
<p>In 1953, the United States made a deal with Denmark to remove 150 Inughuit people from Thule, Greenland, giving them four days to get out or face bulldozers. They are being denied the right to return.</p>
<p>There are periods during which such behavior is justified as anti-Communism and periods during which it is supposedly counter-Terrorism. But what explains its steady, continuous existence since long before gold was discovered in California up through this day?</p>
<p>On August 1st of 2014 the Deputy Speaker of Israel’s Parliament posted on his FaceBook page <a href="" type="internal">a plan</a> for the complete destruction of the people of Gaza using concentration camps. He had laid out a somewhat similar plan in a July 15th, 2014, <a href="" type="internal">column</a>.</p>
<p>Another member of the Israeli Parliament, Ayelet Shaked, <a href="" type="internal">called for</a> genocide in Gaza at the start of the current war, writing: “Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”</p>
<p>Taking a slightly different approach, Middle East scholar Dr. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University has been widely <a href="" type="internal">quoted</a> in Israeli media saying, “The only thing that can deter [Gazans] is the knowledge that their sister or their mother will be raped.”</p>
<p>The Times of Israel published <a href="" type="internal">a column</a> on August 1st, 2014, and later unpublished it, with the headline “When Genocide Is Permissible.” The answer turned out to be: now.</p>
<p>On August 5th, 2014, Giora Eiland, former head of Israel’s National Security Council, published a <a href="" type="internal">column</a> with the headline “In Gaza, There Is No Such Thing as ‘Innocent Civilians’.” Eiland wrote: “We should have declared war against the state of Gaza (rather than against the Hamas organization). . . . [T]he right thing to do is to shut down the crossings, prevent the entry of any goods, including food, and definitely prevent the supply of gas and electricity.”</p>
<p>It’s all part of putting Gaza “on a diet,” in the grotesque <a href="" type="internal">wording</a> of an advisor to a former Israeli Prime Minister, echoing language and action from the genocide of the people of California.</p>
<p>I urge anyone who cares to take a close look at what was done to California and at what is being done to Palestine, and tell me what the difference is. Those pursuing genocide now hope that past genocides will be forgotten, and that in the future present genocides will be forgotten. Who’s to say they’re wrong? We are!</p> | Who Killed the People of California? Should Kaepernick Protest His Uniform? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/16/who-killed-the-people-of-california-should-kaepernick-protest-his-uniform/ | 2016-09-16 | 4 |
<p><a href="https://www.mylookout.com/" type="external">Lookout, Opens a New Window.</a> a company that <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/18/lookout-lands-11-million-from-accel-khosla-and-others-for-smartphone-security-platform/" type="external">offers security services Opens a New Window.</a> for a number of smartphone platforms, is releasing its 2012 Mobile Malware Predictions, based on data collected from its Mobile Threat Network, a cloud-based network which constantly analyzes global threat data to identify and quickly block new threats with over-the-air app updates. The network includes more than one million apps and 15 million user devices worldwide.</p>
<p>For background, Lookout’s web-based, cloud-connected applications for Android, <a href="" type="internal">Windows Mobile</a>, <a href="" type="internal">BlackBerry</a> and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/18/lookout-finally-brings-intelligent-smartphone-security-and-tracking-application-to-ios/" type="external">most recently iOS devices Opens a New Window.</a> help users from losing their phones and identifies and block threats on a consumer’s phone. Users simply download the software to a device, and it will act as a tracking application, data backup and a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Lookout says that mobile threats are on the rise (which we’ve <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/20/mcafee-nearly-all-new-mobile-malware-in-q3-targeted-at-android-phones-up-37-percent/" type="external">heard from McAfee Opens a New Window.</a> as well), especially for Android device owners. The company estimates that mobile threats successfully stole more than one million dollars from Android users in 2011. And in 2012, Lookout says that the criminal business of malware will be more profitable than ever before as the possibility of monetizing mobile devices grows and the cost of infecting devices lessens.</p>
<p>Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder and chief technology officer at Lookout, warns, “In 2012, we expect to see the mobile malware business turn profitable. What took 15 years on the PC platform has only taken the mobile ecosystem two years.”</p>
<p>The report shows that the annual likelihood of an Android user encountering malware today has increased to 4 percent up from a 1 percent likelihood measured at the beginning of 2011. In fact, Android users worldwide have a 36 percent chance of clicking on an unsafe link in 2011 (up 6 percent from July 2011). In the United States, the likelihood of encountering an unsafe link is higher than the global average at 40 percent.</p>
<p>As for 2012, Lookout has identified a number of security threats that mobile users will encounter more frequently in the new year. First, mobile pickpocketing (SMS/call fraud) will be on the rise as malware writers continue to steal money directly from consumers by accessing their mobile devices’ ability to charge phone bills via SMS billing and phone calls. For example, earlier this year Lookout identified GGTracker, the first mobile malware that steals money from users in the U.S and earlier this week Lookout identified another Android Trojan, RuFraud, targeting Eastern European users.</p>
<p>While botnet networks have yet to be used at scale, this issues will be a serious threat in 2012. Lookout anticipates malware writers could secretly integrate thousands of mobile devices into extensive botnet-like networks like DroidDream and Geimini to distribute spam, steal private info, and install other malware.</p>
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<p>Because many users fail to update device software and the difficulty of patching vulnerabilities on mobile phones, malware writers will also continue to exploit iOS and Android OS at a pace greater than vulnerabilities can be resolved.</p>
<p>In terms of mobile malware, Lookout says that malware writers will develop tools that enable the automatic repackaging of malicious applications. Lookout has seen instances where several infected apps were packaged by the same developer within a matter of seconds.</p>
<p>Both iOS and Android users will be susceptible to browser attacks as malware writers attempt to profit via Web-based mobile phishing distribution like email, text messages and fraudulent websites. Lookout also says that malvertising (genuine-looking advertisements that link back to fraudulent sites) will continue to increase in 2012, especially as mobile advertising grows.</p>
<p>Lookout, which just raised <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/21/andreessen-horowitz-leads-40m-round-in-smartphone-security-company-lookout/" type="external">$40 million Opens a New Window.</a> in new funding, is preparing for an action-packed 2012. The company will continue to <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/09/lookout-brings-smartphone-security-and-tracking-app-to-australia-canada-and-the-uk/" type="external">expand internationally, Opens a New Window.</a> and launched in Germany this week. And the company will be looking to continue to develop its mobile security technology, focusing on optimizing the time it takes to detect a threat and protect users.</p> | Lookout’s 2012 Mobile Security Threat Predictions: SMS Fraud, Botnets And Malvertising | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/12/13/lookouts-2012-mobile-security-threat-predictions-sms-fraud-botnets-and.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>Much to the likely chagrin of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann–who once <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/michele-bachmann-gay-marriage_n_1123784.html" type="external">claimed</a> that gay couples could wed, but only to members of the opposite sex–her home state of Minnesota appears poised to become the latest to legalize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Paul Thissen, speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, says his chamber has enough votes to approve the bill when it takes it up Thursday. If it passes, it will head to the Democratic-controlled state Senate, which could vote on it as early as Saturday. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, has already promised to sign the legislation.</p>
<p>If it approves the bill, the North Star State would become the 12th to legalize same-sex marriage and the third to do so this month after Rhode Island and Delaware.</p>
<p>The measure in Minnesota represents a stunning turnaround for the state, where just six months ago voters were debating whether to pass an amendment that would have defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. That initiative was, of course, backed by Bachmann, who has long expressed <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/michele-bachmanns-top-ten-anti-gay-quotes/politics/2011/06/02/21233" type="external">anti-gay views</a> and also <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/us/politics/17bachmann.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">once proposed her own same-sex marriage ban</a> while serving in the state Senate nearly a decade ago.</p>
<p />
<p>Voters in Minnesota ultimately <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/minnesota-amendment-1-results-2012_n_2050310.html" type="external">rejected</a> the amendment in November.</p>
<p>But here’s what <a href="http://minnesotaforequality.com/tag/michele-bachmann/" type="external">Bachmann said</a> about it in May 2012: “I was proud to introduce the first Constitutional amendment proposal in Minnesota when I served as a Minnesota state senator. I’m pleased that this November, Minnesotans will have an opportunity to vote to defend traditional marriage. I will continue to protect traditional marriage.”</p>
<p>In an amazing twist, it now appears that position will soon put her at odds with the values of her own state.</p>
<p>CBS Minnesota:</p>
<p>Last year’s general election results reflected an apparent shift in the public’s attitude toward gay marriage. In addition to Minnesota’s defeat of the proposed gay marriage ban, voters legalized gay marriage in three other states — Maine, Maryland and Washington.</p>
<p>…Richard Carlbom, who heads Minnesotans United, a group that campaigned against last fall’s amendment and has subsequently pushed the gay marriage bill through the legislative process, said the group has been conservative in its vote counting, and that commitments from legislators have been double- and triple-checked.</p>
<p>Carlbom said he hoped those inclined to vote ‘no’ would consider the long view.</p>
<p>“The vote that will be taken in the House on Thursday will be remembered for the next 100 years,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/05/07/minn-senate-committee-to-review-gay-marriage-bill/" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Tracy Bloom</a>.</p> | In Your Face, Michele Bachmann | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/in-your-face-michele-bachmann/ | 2013-05-09 | 4 |
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<p>This and more is what the College Football Playoff selection committee sorts through to pick the four best teams in the country.</p>
<p>If consistency, certainty and clear-cut criteria are what you crave, this may not be the sport for you. Yes, the goal posts move from season to season. That may be the way it is for awhile — at least until the playoff grows up.</p>
<p>“Every year is going to be different,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said. “Football seasons are like snowflakes, they’re all different. Next year we’ll be standing here talking about some other way it fell out. And that’s great.”</p>
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<p>It worked out great Sunday for Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington. Not so great if you root for Penn State.</p>
<p>No. 1 Alabama (13-0) will face No. 4 Washington (12-1) in one semifinal and second-seeded Clemson (12-1) meets third-seeded Ohio State (11-1) in the other on Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The committee stayed with the same top four it picked going into championship weekend, leaving out No. 5 Penn State (11-2) even though the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten title game and beat Ohio State earlier in the season.</p>
<p>The Buckeyes are the first team to reach the playoff in its three-year history without winning their conference.</p>
<p>Many questioned why Ohio State deserved a spot, especially over Penn State. Selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt made it clear that the 12-person committee did not.</p>
<p>Ohio State’s three victories against top-10 teams (No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 8 Wisconsin and No. 6 Michigan) and only one loss, by three at Penn State, won the day over the Nittany Lions. Penn State lost to Pitt and Michigan (by 39) before closing the season with nine straight victories.</p>
<p>Several times, Hocutt cited Penn State’s noncompetitive loss and Ohio State’s strong nonconference victory at Oklahoma.</p>
<p>So the key is to play a difficult nonconference schedule?</p>
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<p>Well, maybe not.</p>
<p>The final spot came down to Penn State (11-2) and Pac-12 champion Washington.</p>
<p>The Huskies’ only loss was to 10th-ranked Southern California and its nonconference schedule featured FCS Portland State, Rutgers and Idaho. Penn State played Pitt, Temple and Kent State out of conference.</p>
<p>“I think because of Washington’s strength of schedule, their margin for error was very slim,” Hocutt said. “I think our discussions and our decision would have been much easier if Washington would have had a stronger strength of schedule this college football season.”</p>
<p>You could say Washington benefited because it did not play a difficult nonconference opponent. But you can also say that if Penn State beat Pitt it would have benefited from playing a difficult nonconference schedule.</p>
<p>Hocutt said the committee dug deep into the Huskies and Nittany Lions.</p>
<p>“As we looked at those key statistics from an offensive standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from starting field position differential, the edge was to Washington,” Hocutt said. “You look at turnover margin, Washington ranks first in the country in turnover margin compared to Penn State, ranking 50.”</p>
<p>If there is a pattern to be found in the committee’s work over three years it may be this simple: For the most part, the teams are ranked by the number in the loss column.</p>
<p>No two-loss team has made the playoff. Even a close head-to-head win over Ohio State and a conference title was not enough for Penn State to overcome two losses.</p>
<p>Maybe next season will be different.</p>
<p>In many ways the College Football Playoff is no different than the Bowl Championship Series, a highly subjective system that relied on poll voters to pick the top two teams. The one crucial difference, though, is enormous. Four instead of two makes the CFP better than the BCS.</p>
<p>What could provide more consistency, more objectivity while removing much of the subjectivity, is bigger playoff. Eight teams, with five automatic qualifying Power Five conference champions, the best team from the Group of Five and two wild cards. Fewer debates, plus it could put some juice back into championship weekend, which has become a little anticlimactic.</p>
<p>It would also bring Cinderella into college football’s postseason, providing an opportunity for a non-Power Five team to win a meaningful postseason game and an underdog conference championship game winner to move on and play for the national title.</p>
<p>Sounds interesting, but it is not happening anytime soon.</p>
<p>Hancock said expansion of the playoff is not up for consideration by the conference commissioners. The CFP is in year three of a 12-year television deal with ESPN.</p>
<p>Clemson coach Dabo Swinney cautioned that more postseason would lessen the value of the regular season and that adding another round would require eliminating other games.</p>
<p>“I don’t think you can go past 15 games in college football,” said Swinney, whose did just that last season and lost to Alabama in the national championship game. “Something would have to give.”</p>
<p>Ohio State’s Urban Meyer said he empathizes with Penn State and would not mind seeing a system that rewards all conference champions.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure there’s an easy answer,” said Meyer, who has won two BCS championships and the first College Football Playoff. “I think we’re heading in the right direction.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Ralph D. Russo at <a href="http://www.Twittre.com/ralphDrussoAP" type="external">www.Twittre.com/ralphDrussoAP</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a></p> | Panel’s playoff picks came down to Washington vs. Penn State | false | https://abqjournal.com/901773/playoff-pairs-alabama-washington-and-ohio-state-clemson.html | 2016-12-04 | 2 |
<p>* Ex-Japan Asia MSCI edges up, Nikkei down almost 0.8 pct</p>
<p>* Mnuchin says weaker dollar good for U.S. trade</p>
<p>* Ross hints at action against China</p>
<p>By Hideyuki Sano</p>
<p>TOKYO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Asian stocks held near a record high on Thursday though concerns about the Trump administration’s protectionist stance cast a shadow on financial markets, while the dollar was under pressure after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin welcomed a weaker currency.</p>
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.15 percent while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.8 percent, hit by the dollar’s decline against the yen.</p>
<p>MSCI ACWI, the index provider’s broadest gauge of the world’s stock markets, extended its gain so far this month to 6.5 percent on Wednesday, posting rise in 14 out of 16 U.S. business days.</p>
<p>Wall Street shares were mixed, however, as a boost from solid earnings were offset by trade protectionism worries fanned by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose steep import tariffs on washing machines and solar panels earlier in the week.</p>
<p>U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is also in Davos, hinted at action against China, saying U.S. trade authorities were investigating whether there is a case for taking action over China’s infringements of intellectual property.</p>
<p>In a combative tone, Ross also said: “Trade war has been in place for quite a little while, the difference is the U.S. troops are now coming to the ramparts.”</p>
<p>Trump is scheduled to speak in Davos on Thursday.</p>
<p>Dollar bulls, already shaken by fears of a trade war, got another shock after Mnuchin’s comments, which were seen by markets as a departure from traditional U.S. currency policy.</p>
<p>“Obviously a weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade and opportunities,” the treasury secretary told a press briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies plunged 0.98 percent on Wednesday to 89.153, a low last seen in December 2014.</p>
<p>“It is significant that the Treasury Secretary of the United States talked about the benefit of a weaker dollar,” said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.</p>
<p>The euro rose to a $1.2415 peak on Wednesday, its highest level since December 2014.</p>
<p>It last stood at $1.2393, ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting later in the day against a backdrop of heightened speculation over when it will end its vast stimulus and signal a rise in interest rates from record lows.</p>
<p>Sterling jumped 1.7 percent overnight, its biggest daily gain in nine months, to $1.4250, helped by upbeat UK employment data, and last traded at $1.4225</p>
<p>The dollar slipped to 108.965 yen, its lowest levels since mid-September, before bouncing off a tad to 109.26 yen, still down over three percent so far this year.</p>
<p>The Chinese yuan also strengthened, fetching 6.3556 per dollar in offshore trade, hitting its highest level since November 2015 and having gained 2.5 percent so far this month. The gains, if sustained, would mark the biggest monthly rise since 2010.</p>
<p>Gold jumped past its September peak to 1-1/2-year high of $1,362 per ounce. A break above its July 2016 high around $1,375 would take it to a four-year high.</p>
<p>Oil prices rallied on heavy volume on Wednesday, boosted by a record 10th straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories, though reduced refining activity and rising production signalled U.S. stocks could rise in coming weeks.</p>
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures traded at $65.78 per barrel, up 0.25 percent, after having gained 1.8 percent the previous day.</p>
<p>International benchmark Brent futures gained 57 cents to $70.53 a barrel on Wednesday. Both benchmarks were at their highest since December 2014.</p>
<p>Editing by Shri Navaratnam</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&amp;P 500 ended slightly lower on Thursday after a report that U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller had issued a subpoena for documents related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s businesses offset strong jobs and manufacturing data.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P fell to a session low soon after the New York Times report was released but recovered much of its losses by the market close. It has fallen for four straight days, its longest losing streak since December.</p>
<p>The Dow pared some gains but still ended higher for the first time in four days.</p>
<p>As earnings season has drawn to a close, political developments, such as the ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this week, have significantly influenced the direction of U.S. stocks.</p>
<p>“The market is looking to bite on something to push it out of its trading range,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Earlier, the S&amp;P had opened with gains as government data showed weekly U.S. jobless claims fell last week, pointing to a strong labor market. Manufacturing surveys from the New York Fed and Philadelphia Fed also pointed to a tightening labor market.</p>
<p>It also got a boost after Peter Navarro, the White House’s top adviser on international trade, said in a CNBC interview Trump’s tough approach to global trade, including tariffs on metals imports, would not necessarily provoke retaliation.</p> Traders work on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 115.54 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 24,873.66, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 2.15 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,747.33 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 15.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,481.74.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P industrial index .SPLRCI, however, rose 0.3 percent, leading all sectors, and posted its first session of gains in four days as worries of a trade war eased. Caterpillar ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CAT.N" type="external">CAT.N</a>) was up 1.3 percent.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 24873.66 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes +115.54 (+0.47%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC CAT.N BABA.N
<p>Among stocks, Alibaba ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BABA.N" type="external">BABA.N</a>) jumped 3.4 percent on a report that the Chinese e-commerce company was planning a secondary listing in China.</p>
<p>Dollar General ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DG.N" type="external">DG.N</a>) rose 4.8 percent after the discount retailer’s quarterly same-store sales beat estimates.</p>
<p>Qorvo ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QRVO.O" type="external">QRVO.O</a>) tumbled 3.9 percent after Bank of America said the radio frequency chipmaker could lose out to Broadcom ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AVGO.O" type="external">AVGO.O</a>) for a spot in upcoming iPhones.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.71-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.31-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.65 billion shares, compared to the 7.08 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - IHeartMedia Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=IHRT.PK" type="external">IHRT.PK</a>) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday as the largest U.S. radio station owner reached an agreement with creditors to more than halve its $20 billion in debt.</p> The iHeartMedia billboard is seen atop a building in the Bronx in New York, U.S., March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
<p>The company said the agreement it ‍reached with holders of more than $10 billion of its outstanding debt would restructure its balance sheet by transferring 94 percent of the stock in the reorganized company to its lenders.</p>
<p>IHeartMedia has struggled with debt that was taken on to finance a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout, or LBO, in 2008 of what was then Clear Channel Communications Inc. That deal led by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP closed just as a financial crisis began to undermine the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>In the years that followed, the operator of 849 radio stations has faced intensifying competition for advertisers and listeners from internet platforms such as music streaming services.</p>
<p>“The LBO put this massive debt on the balance sheet that the company was supposed to grow into,” a lawyer for iHeartMedia told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur at a hearing in Houston on Thursday. “We’re here to right-size the balance sheet.”</p>
<p>The company traces its roots to the 1972 purchase of KEEZ-FM in San Antonio, Texas, where it is currently headquartered. It said it would fund the business and bankruptcy process from cash on hand and cash generated from operations.</p>
<p>It said in a statement it was seeking to maintain business as usual during the bankruptcy, and to “uphold its commitments” to its staff. It employs 12,400 people, according to court records.</p>
<p>The filing comes less than four months after Cumulus Media Inc, which operates 445 U.S. radio stations, filed for Chapter 11.</p>
<p>DEBT-CUTTING DEAL</p>
<p>IHeartMedia had $3.58 billion in revenue in 2017 and reaches 271 million radio listeners, which the company says gives it a wider reach than Alphabet Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOG.O" type="external">GOOG.O</a>) Google. The company also sells advertising on digital platforms, at live concerts and on syndicated programs featuring personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest.</p>
<p>However, the company spent $1.4 billion on interest payments last year and has more than $8 billion in debt maturing by the end of 2019.</p>
<p>The company’s lawyers told the court iHeartMedia was on the cusp of having enough support from creditors to impose its plan on hold-outs.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=IHRT.PK" type="external">iHeartMedia Inc</a> 0.52 IHRT.PK OTC Markets Group - (Current Information) +0.04 (+8.33%) IHRT.PK GOOG.O CCO.N FWONA.O SIRI.O
<p>Under the company’s debt-cutting deal, holders of secured loans and secured notes, who are owed nearly $13 billion, agreed to accept about $5.6 billion in new debt and 94 percent of the equity in a reorganized iHeartMedia, according to court documents.</p>
<p>These creditors also will receive iHeartMedia’s 89.5 percent stake in Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CCO.N" type="external">CCO.N</a>), the world’s largest billboard company, which did not file for bankruptcy.</p>
<p>IHeartMedia also proposed that junior debt holders, who are owed more than $2 billion, will receive their pro rata share of 5 percent of the equity in the reorganized company and $200 million in new secured notes.</p>
<p>Existing shareholders would receive 1 percent of the stock in the reorganized company, according to court documents.</p>
<p>IHeartMedia faces a legal challenge from a group, led by investment fund Angelo, Gordon &amp; Co, which holds $190 million of junior debt, according to the company.</p>
<p>Their lawyer said at Thursday’s hearing they plan to file a lawsuit to challenge the contention that they are low-priority unsecured creditors, and Isgur said he wanted a hearing on that dispute before April.</p>
<p>IHeartMedia has drawn interest from John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FWONA.O" type="external">FWONA.O</a>), which proposed on Feb. 26 a deal to buy a 40 percent stake in a restructured iHeartMedia for $1.16 billion. The deal would unite iHeartMedia with Liberty’s Sirius XM Holdings Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SIRI.O" type="external">SIRI.O</a>) satellite radio service.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Thomas and Matthew Lewis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Toy retailer Toys ‘R’ Us Inc on Thursday asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for approval to stop paying all of its suppliers while it tries to line up buyers for its international business ahead of a planned liquidation of its U.S. operations.</p>
<p>The iconic toy store’s plan to liquidate inventory and shutter or sell its U.S. stores has put 30,000 jobs at risk and left vendors wondering where to send merchandise stuck on ships and trucks, and whether their invoices will ever get paid, lawyers said at a court hearing on Thursday.</p>
<p>As shoppers flock to Amazon.com Inc and children choose smartphones and screens over toys, Toys ‘R’ Us has struggled to boost sales and service debt following a $6.6-billion leveraged buyout by private equity firms in 2005.</p>
<p>At a hearing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, Toys ‘R’ Us lawyer Joshua Sussberg said the company was working to avoid any contagion from the U.S. liquidation on the foreign businesses it is trying to sell.</p>
<p>Part of that effort means separating the U.S. business from foreign operations to ensure that shipments can reach stores in Canada, Europe and Asia, where the company will be reviewing bid proposals in coming weeks.</p>
<p>But lawyers for vendors said they did not know whether they would ever get paid for those goods.</p>
<p>Kenneth Eckstein, a lawyer on behalf of the official committee of unsecured creditors, called the precipitous liquidation “extremely disappointing and sad,” noting that hundreds of vendors, thousands of employees and millions of customers will suffer.</p>
<p>“This is the largest and most rapid deterioration of a retailer and maybe that any Chapter 11 has ever entertained,” he said.</p> LIQUIDATION
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us - the last major retailer focusing solely on toys - plans to liquidate inventory at 735 U.S. stores, including Babies ‘R’ Us locations, by the end of this year. The wind-down follows a bruising holiday season, when the company failed to stay competitive and sales came in well below projections. The quarter accounts for 40 percent of its annual net sales.</p>
<p>With the disappearance of Toys ‘R’ Us, everything from squishies and slime kits made by small companies, to board games and Barbie dolls by heavyweights Hasbro Inc and Mattel Inc, will lose a top customer.</p>
<p>Hasbro said the pending liquidation and closure is expected to be “disruptive” in the near term.</p> A Toys R Us store is pictured in tToronto, Ontario, Canada., March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
<p>Lutz Muller, president of consultancy Klosters Trading Corp, estimated a single-digit sales impact on companies like Mattel, Hasbro, Spin Master Corp, Jakks Pacific Inc, Funko Inc and MGA Entertainment Inc.</p>
<p>“Bad but not fatal,” Muller said. “But for the little guys that depended on Toys ‘R’ Us as a major showcase ... a large number will go to the wall.”</p>
<p>Jefferies predicted the bankruptcy would depress 2018 revenue across the industry by between 2.5 percent and 5.5 percent. It said 40 percent of the toy sales up for grabs would flow to Amazon and 30 percent to Walmart Inc.</p>
<p>Shares of Mattel fell nearly 3 percent while shares of Hasbro were trading slightly lower on Thursday; they had tumbled last week on Toys ‘R’ Us’ liquidation reports.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us’ creditors said in a court filing that Target Corp, Walmart and Amazon pricing toys at low margins, and a greater-than-expected decline in toy and gift card sales following its bankruptcy filing in September, led to the weak performance in the quarter.</p> TOYS ABROAD
<p>Wayne, New Jersey-based Toys ‘R’ Us was already in the process of closing one-fifth of its stores as part of an attempt to emerge from one of the largest ever bankruptcies by a specialty retailer.</p>
<p>In September, when the company operated more than 1,600 stores globally, with roughly 800 stores outside the United States, it got court permission to borrow more than $2 billion to start paying suppliers.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-toys-r-us-bankruptcy-payment/toys-r-us-asks-court-to-halt-vendor-payments-lawyer-idUSKCN1GR2XM" type="external">Toys 'R' Us asks court to halt vendor payments: lawyer</a>
<a href="/article/us-toys-r-us-bankruptcy-hasbro/hasbro-sees-near-term-disruption-from-toys-r-us-liquidation-idUSKCN1GR2I9" type="external">Hasbro sees near-term disruption from Toys 'R' Us liquidation</a>
<a href="/article/us-toys-r-us-bankruptcy-reit/reit-exposure-to-toys-r-us-is-minor-but-shares-slip-anew-idUSKCN1GR2NA" type="external">REIT exposure to Toys 'R' Us is minor, but shares slip anew</a>
<p>But efforts to keep the business going collapsed after lenders decided they could recover more in a liquidation by closing stores and raising money from merchandise sales.</p>
<p>Seventy-year-old Toys ‘R’ Us does not rule out a last-minute offer for all of its stores and said it will announce the winning bidder of a March 29 auction on April 12.</p>
<p>More than 8,000 U.S. retail stores closed in 2017, roughly double the average annual store closures in the previous decade, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers.</p>
<p>Despite the threat of 30,000 job losses, experts do not expect retail employment and wages to be subdued in the near term. Approximately 700,000 jobs in the industry need to be filled, say retail staffing firms and trade federations such as the NRF.</p>
<p>Aly Sanchez, a two-year employee of Toys R Us in Kansas City, said, “It’s an overwhelming feeling not knowing what’s going to happen. And if we do close, we don’t know if we’ll even get severance pay.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal and Nandita Bose; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Bankrupt Toys ‘R’ Us Inc is preparing to sell or close all 885 stores in its U.S. chain, risking up to 33,000 jobs, after failing to reach a deal to restructure billions of dollars in debt, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>With shoppers flocking to online platforms like Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and children choosing electronic gadgets over toys, Toys ‘R’ Us has struggled to service debt from a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout by private equity firms KKR &amp; Co LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KKR.N" type="external">KKR.N</a>) and Bain Capital and real estate investor Vornado Realty Trust ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VNO.N" type="external">VNO.N</a>) in 2005.</p>
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us had been closing one-fifth of its U.S. stores as part of efforts to emerge from one of the largest ever bankruptcies by a specialty retailer.</p>
<p>But creditors decided they can get more from liquidating assets of the toy seller, the largest in the United States and one of the best known in the world, rather than finding a way to keep the business alive, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.</p>
<p>A Toys ‘R’ Us spokeswoman declined to comment.</p>
<p>The company is expected to make a filing with the bankruptcy court late on Wednesday, the person said.</p>
<p>The planned closure in coming months is a blow to generations of consumers and hundreds of toy makers that sold products at the chain, including Barbie maker Mattel Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MAT.O" type="external">MAT.O</a>), board game company Hasbro Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HAS.O" type="external">HAS.O</a>) and other large vendors such as Lego.</p>
<p>In Britain, the remaining 75 Toys ‘R’ Us shops will close within six weeks, joint administrators for the retailer said earlier on Wednesday, after they were unable to find a buyer for all or part of the business, resulting in the loss of about 3,000 jobs.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal earlier on Wednesday reported that Toys ‘R’ Us Chief Executive David Brandon told U.S. staff about the likely closures on a conference call.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Efforts to restructure collapsed this month after lenders decided, absent a clear reorganization plan, they could recover more by closing stores and raising money from merchandise sales, sources with knowledge of the matter said.</p>
<p>“It’s a relentlessly difficult retail environment for mall-based retailers. There just aren’t the same feet coming through the doors,” said Brian Davidoff, a financial restructuring lawyer.</p>
<p>More than 8,000 U.S. retail stores closed in 2017, roughly double the average annual store closures in the previous decade, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1582.32 AMZN.O Nasdaq -8.68 (-0.55%) AMZN.O KKR.N VNO.N MAT.O HAS.O
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us is also likely to liquidate in France, Spain, Poland and Australia, Brandon said, according to The Wall Street Journal. It quoted Brandon as adding that the retailer also planned to sell operations in Canada, Central Europe and Asia.</p>
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us was already working with liquidators Tiger Capital Group LLC, Great American Group LLC, Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC on previously announced store closures, and the four are expected to continue with the additional closings, sources said.</p>
<p>The future of the retailer’s big-box shops, many located in strip centers, was uncertain.</p>
<p>The disappearance of Toys ‘R’ Us in the United States and the UK leaves a void for hundreds of toy makers that relied on the chain as a top customer alongside WalMart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) and Target Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TGT.N" type="external">TGT.N</a>).</p>
<p>Shares in Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker, and No. 2 U.S. toymaker Hasbro tumbled last week on liquidation reports. Both companies rely on Toys ‘R’ Us for roughly 10 percent of their revenues, according to their 2016 annual reports.</p>
<p>The liquidation will be more painful for small, independent toy makers that relied on the chain as a major showcase, said Lutz Muller, president of consultancy Klosters Trading Corp.</p>
<p>“A large number will go to the wall,” Muller said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares near record peak but trade protectionist fears cast shadow S&P falls for fourth day as Mueller subpoena weighs Largest U.S. radio company iHeartMedia files for bankruptcy Toys 'R' Us seeks to halt vendor payments ahead of liquidation Toys 'R' Us plans to close all U.S. stores; 33,000 jobs at risk: source | false | https://reuters.com/article/global-markets/global-markets-asia-shares-near-record-peak-but-trade-protectionist-fears-cast-shadow-idUSL4N1PJ63A | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>On Friday morning, my Beirut apartment shook to the sound of an explosion. My roommate and I made our way to the site of the <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Dec-29/242571-beirut-bombing-death-toll-rises-to-eight.ashx" type="external">blast</a> downtown with the help of a man on a street corner who, pointing in two different directions, remarked drily: “If you want to see the bomb go that way. If you want to go shopping go that way.”</p>
<p>To be sure, such violence has long been a part of the Lebanese landscape. So too have the self-appointed tribunals that spring up in the aftermath of political assassinations.</p>
<p>In this particular instance, former prime ministers Fouad Siniora and Saad Hariri of the March&#160;14 coalition have once again showcased their omniscience by extrajudicially indicting Hezbollah for the bombing, which killed, among seven others, ex-finance minister Mohammad Shatah, a former adviser to both men.</p>
<p>Conveniently, Shatah had criticized Hezbollah <a href="https://twitter.com/mohamad_chatah/status/416465548185444352" type="external">on Twitter</a> shortly prior to his death.</p>
<p>In their post-mortem assessments, Siniora and Hariri deployed <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Dec-27/242416-hariri-hints-hezbollah-behind-assassination-of-ex-minister.ashx#axzz2oMCqcu8W" type="external">incendiary rhetoric</a> encouraging sectarian unrest. Accusations of terrorism on the part of the alleged killers become a tad more complicated, however, when one considers the presence of al-Qaeda fans at <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Dec-30/242631-march-14-vows-to-liberate-lebanon.ashx#axzz2oMCqcu8W" type="external">Shatah’s funeral</a> — not to mention <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all" type="external">traditional Hariri-Siniora support</a> for Sunni extremists as a counterweight to Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Of course, no possibility can be discounted as to the identity of the perpetrators of Friday’s attack. But the high-speed issuance of guilty verdicts by politicians should at least be accompanied by a recollection of the ease and expediency of the practice of framing.</p>
<p>As for who stands to benefit from continued instability in Lebanon, it goes without saying that many domestic and international forces have stakes in this business. In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beware-Small-States-Lebanon-Battleground/dp/B00CVE0MUG" type="external">Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East</a>, historian David Hirst writes:</p>
<p>Several states, from inside the region and beyond, have impinged on Lebanon — wooed, bullied or sought to subvert it from within, attacked, invaded, occupied, or otherwise maltreated it .&#160;.&#160;. But none has done so more strenuously and disruptively than the state of Israel.</p>
<p>Given Hezbollah’s function as the only effective resistance to Israeli disruptions in Lebanon, one is less than encouraged by the following bit of <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/anti-hezbollah-coalition-wants-lebanon-39-freed-39-145328828.html" type="external">Sinioran logic</a> presented at the funeral ceremony for Shatah:</p>
<p>We have decided to liberate the country of the occupation of illegitimate weapons [i.e., those belonging to Hezbollah] to preserve its independence, its sovereignty and its civil peace.</p>
<p>It’s not quite clear how the preservation of nonexistent conditions will be achieved, but it’s safe to assume it will require further bloodshed.</p> | Judges and Jurors in Beirut | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2013/12/judges-and-jurors-in-beirut/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at the close of trading:</p>
<p>Apple Inc. rose .6 percent to $93.52 with 37,030,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BlackBerry Ltd. rose 2.7 percent to $10.52 with 23,386,500 shares traded.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems Inc. rose .9 percent to $25.08 with 34,115,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc. rose 1.1 percent to $68.06 with 32,600,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>GoPro Inc. rose 20.3 percent to $48.80 with 38,590,900 shares traded.</p>
<p>Intel Corp. rose .3 percent to $30.98 with 27,522,900 shares traded.</p>
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<p>MannKind Corp. fell 5.8 percent to $10.32 with 20,337,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Micron Technology Inc. rose 3.1 percent to $33.98 with 35,654,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp. rose .4 percent to $41.87 with 26,230,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell .7 percent to $3.44 with 53,926,800 shares traded.</p> | Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at the close of trading | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/09/02/nasdaq-10-most-active-stocks-at-close-trading.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>Biogen(NASDAQ: BIIB) andGilead Sciences(NASDAQ: GILD)have both entered the phase of their life cycle where it becomes popular to essentially buy revenue by cutting deals for so-called bolt-on acquisitions. Oddly enough, though, these top biotechs have largely shied away from this growth by acquisition strategy, choosing instead to augment their clinical portfolios through smaller licensing deals or small to mid-sized acquisitions.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Their decision to stay true to a clinically oriented growth engine is surprising for two reasons:</p>
<p>1) The last couple of years have seen record numbers of mergers and acquisitions in the pharma industry -- fueled by low interest rates, high levels of innovation among smaller biopharmas, and of course, the need to boost revenue growth.</p>
<p>2) Biogen and Gilead are both experiencing a heavy drop off in their respective top lines because of maturing markets for their lead drug franchises and increasing competition.</p>
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.</p>
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<p>Perhaps as a result of their hesitation to engage in the ongoing M&amp;A bonanza within the pharma space, Biogen and Gilead have gone from high-powered growth stocks to laggards within the industry.</p>
<p>Turning to specifics, these two biotech heavyweights are on track to fall well behind most of their peers in terms of revenue growth next year:</p>
<p>Data Source: Yahoo! Finance. Each company's 2017 estimated revenue growth was first adjusted by a constant to facilitate log-transformation.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, Biogen's top line is anemic relative to both the entire field of revenue generating biopharmas, as well as within its immediate peer group in terms of market cap. Gilead, on the other hand, is forecast to become, quite literally, the worst performing company of this group next year -- even after accounting for the fact that top line growth traditionally slows with increasing market cap (top line growth and market cap are negatively correlated).</p>
<p>The struggles of Biogen's flagship multiple sclerosis product lineand Gilead's hepatitis C franchise aren't exactly news. Wall Street, after all, has been calling for both companies to break with the past to pursue a revenue-generating peer soon.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the management teams of both companies appear to be in denial regarding their near-term growth prospects.</p>
<p>During its third-quarter conference call, for instance, Biogen's management didn't lay out any specific plans to broaden its product portfolio via a large acquisition -- beyond saying that the company remains interested in doing deals while its ongoing search for CEO George Scangos' successor progresses.</p>
<p>On a similar note, Gilead's brass downplayed the need for a quick fix via an acquisition during its Q3 conference call as well, citing the need to remain disciplined in its approach to mergers and acquisitions in general.</p>
<p>Biogen's and Gilead's respective decisions to kick the can down the road on a bolt-on acquisition may be financially prudent in light of the sky-high premiums being sought by takeover targets these days. But the stark reality is that these top biotechs haven't exactly been tearing it up on the clinical side of the equation either.</p>
<p>Biogen, for example, recently ditched its licensing deal for its next-generation MS medication <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/29/biogen-quietly-abandons-a-key-next-gen-multiple-sc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">MT-1303 Opens a New Window.</a>, which was expected to act as a firewall against the host of experimental therapies now in development. And Gilead is reeling from a number of clinical failures, such asGS-5745 for ulcerative colitis and simtuzumab for multiple indications.</p>
<p>To be fair, Biogen and Gilead have had some important <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/08/biogens-growth-is-far-weaker-than-you-may-think.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">wins Opens a New Window.</a> on the clinical and regulatory fronts in the past year. But the fact of the matter is that neither company has done enough to change its near-term growth prospects in a big way.</p>
<p>Who Biogen chooses as its next CEO is ultimately going to determine the company's M&amp;A plans moving forward. So investors probably shouldn't expect much in the way of progress on a big deal until this change in leadership takes place.</p>
<p>Gilead, though, appears content to let its clinical pipeline do the heavy lifting, so to speak. That could be a wise decision if all goes as planned. The biotech, after all, does have some intriguing clinical assets in thenonalcoholic steatohepatitis space, which have megablockbuster potential.</p>
<p>Yet this is perhaps the riskiest approach of all. Gilead's clinical pipeline has mainly been churning out failures of late, not viable products. Moreover, the biotechsports a massive war chest for potential deals, exiting Q3 with $31.6 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. The company's attempt at waiting until biotech valuations move even lower is certainly mystifying and could prove to be a major misstep if the industry rebounds next year.</p>
<p>All in all, Biogen's and Gilead's hesitation to engage in the pharma M&amp;A party is particularly disheartening when viewed in the context of their comparatively weak growth prospects in 2017 and beyond. That's why investors may want to stick with other names in this space for the time being.</p>
<p>Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Gilead Sciences Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:</p>
<p>Investing geniuses Tom and David Gardner have spent a long time beating the market no matter who's in the White House. In fact, 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%2Fecap-foolcom-bbn-election%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000468%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6454%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=c91f3a69-3925-4bde-965c-7c555df190bb&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now and Gilead Sciences 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 November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/gbudwell/info.aspx" type="external">George Budwell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Biogen and Gilead Sciences. 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> | Are Biogen and Gilead Sciences in Denial? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/22/are-biogen-and-gilead-sciences-in-denial.html | 2016-11-22 | 0 |
<p>European Union leaders agreed Thursday to slap sanctions on a dozen more Russian officials tied to Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, bringing the number of people facing an EU blacklist to 33.</p>
<p>The bloc said it had resolved the expand the list of people subjected to sanctions by 12 names — and cautioned that it would subject Russia to additional economic measures if the crisis in Ukraine escalates.</p>
<p>The agreement followed President Barack Obama's announcement Thursday that he had ordered sanctions against nearly two dozen members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and signed an executive order giving the U.S. authority to impose sanctions on "key sectors of the Russian economy."</p>
<p>The 28-nation group did not immediately disclose the names of those facing travel bans and asset freezes — but they are widely expected to target those close to Putin as punishment for his takeover of the Crimean peninsula.</p>
<p>Earlier on Thursday, EU leaders also announced plans to cancel a scheduled EU-Russia summit in June amid escalating tensions over Ukraine.</p>
<p>The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.</p> | European Union Leaders Expand Russian Sanctions List | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/european-union-leaders-expand-russian-sanctions-list-n58286 | 2014-03-21 | 3 |
<p>Flickr/Beverly &amp; Pack</p>
<p>A pair of Democratic strategists have challenged <a href="" type="internal">right-wing lawyer James Bopp</a> and his new scheme to use members of Congress to drum up unlimited cash for what you might call the GOP’s new <a href="" type="internal">“super-duper” PAC</a>.</p>
<p>In a letter to the <a href="" type="internal">Federal Election Commission (FEC)</a> sent today, Monica Dixon and Ali Lapp, the directors of <a href="" type="internal">two new super PACs intended to bolster congressional Democrats in 2012</a>, have questioned the legality of Bopp’s new venture, simply called “Republican Super PAC.” While federal law caps campaign donations directly to candidates at $2,500 a year, Bopp’s plan would harness the fundraising prowess of politicians to funnel donations to Bopp’s outfit—the donors could even tell Republican Super PAC to earmark their money for particular race. The key, Bopp <a href="" type="internal">told my colleague Stephanie Mencimer</a>, is that “coordination only applies to spending, not to the fundraising.” What Bopp’s saying is that while PACs like his cannot directly coordinate with candidates or elected officials on TV ads, mailers, or other types of campaigning, it’s perfectly legal to ask candidates to raise money for his PAC.</p>
<p>Dixon and Lapp, however, want the FEC to take a look at Bopp’s strategy and declare if it’s legal or not. Pointing to federal statute, their attorneys say that Bopp’s plan “would appear to prohibit [federal elected officials, candidates for federal office, and national party committee members] from soliciting unlimited individual, corporate, and union contributions on behalf of” PACs like Bopp’s. In an accompanying statement Dixon and Lapp said: “We are seeking immediate clarification from the FEC in order to ensure that our organizations operate fully within the law and in order to assure operational equivalency between Republicans and Democrats.”</p>
<p>Which is to say, if the FEC approves of what the other guys are doing with their super-duper PAC, we should be able to do it as well.</p>
<p>Here’s the full letter:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/55824383/Advisory-Opinion-Request-IE-PAC-Solicitations" type="external">Advisory Opinion Request – IE PAC Solicitations</a></p> | Democrats Challenge GOP’s “Super-Duper PAC” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/democrats-challenge-right-wing-lawyers-super-duper-pac/ | 2011-05-19 | 4 |
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<p>Former University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs acknowledged in a draft retirement letter he wrote in early May that he initially withheld information about UNM paying for donors’ expenses for a controversial Scotland golf fundraiser to protect the donors.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Krebs forwarded a reporter’s questions in April regarding the school’s search for a basketball coach to Gov. Susana Martinez’s top political adviser at the same time Krebs said Santa Fe did not have any involvement in the search.</p>
<p>Those are some of the details that emerged from emails recently obtained by the Journal from the final few months Krebs was athletic director.</p>
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<p>According to the emails the Journal obtained as part of an inspection of public records request, Krebs also:</p>
<p>■ Told those who worked in the athletic department he wanted WisePies Pizza “protected” from the media and instructed his department to say as little as possible to reporters about the former naming rights holder of the Pit,</p>
<p>■ Began drafting his retirement letter to UNM Interim President Chaouki Abdallah in March, the same week now-former men’s basketball coach Craig Neal was fired,</p>
<p>■&#160;Used the word “mistake” seven times in the draft of a retirement letter, originally dated March 28 and written through on May 7. In the letter he said he needed to be held accountable for the Scotland golf trip and misled people asking about the trip “in order to protect our Athletic Department donors.”</p>
<p>The draft was vastly different from his final, official retirement letter dated June 1 (he stepped down then, but used vacation and remained on payroll through June 30), which did not mention Scotland, any mistakes he should be held accountable for or men’s basketball.</p>
<p>Portions of emails by former UNM AD Paul Krebs. In the top, he forwards a Journal reporter’s questions to Gov. Susana Martinez’s top adviser. The bottom two are portion of a draft retirement letter he wrote in early May and discussed mistakes he made in relation to a 2015 Scotland golfing trip. (Email images via records request from UNM)</p>
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<p>Nor did it mention the ongoing special audit by the state auditor’s office or the investigation by the state attorney general’s office, both of which were launched as news reports of the Scotland trip were published.</p>
<p>Krebs told the Journal via email last week he won’t discuss the draft version of his retirement letter about the Scotland trip until after those investigations are complete.</p>
<p>“I have received your e-mail,” Krebs wrote. “Until the audit is released, I will have no comment.”</p>
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<p>Abdallah said Monday he was not aware of Krebs’ previous drafts of the retirement letter that spoke of being held accountable for mistakes or about protecting donors, and further comment would be reserved for after the audit’s findings are released.</p>
<p>“We’ve wrapped up the field work and are now analyzing the data to develop the findings and recommendations,” State Auditor Tim Keller told the Journal on Monday about the audit into athletics. “When the investigation is complete, we will release the report publicly.”</p>
<p>His deputy chief of staff, Justine Freeman, said the audit is expected to be done in October.</p>
<p>James Hallinan, communications director for Attorney General Hector Balderas, said that office’s investigation into whether there was a violation of law in the handling of public money for the Scotland trip is ongoing.</p>
<p>UNM fired coach Craig Neal on March 31. Soon rumors circulated that the governor’s office was involved in the search for Neal’s replacement, a rumor the governor’s office denied.</p>
<p>Days after the Journal reported there were concerns around the Lobo basketball coaching search having political influence from Santa Fe, the Journal asked Krebs again in an email April 10 if that was the case.</p>
<p>Among the questions in the Journal’s email: “The infighting about who is calling the shots on this search is something I want to flush out for a story. Are you making this hire? If not you, who all is in on the decision?”</p>
<p>Krebs forwarded that email about an hour later to Jay McCleskey, Martinez’s political adviser, and asked: “Thoughts on a response. I am tempting to say I will address at a press conference. (sic)”</p>
<p>The following day, Paul Weir was hired as Lobo basketball coach and Krebs told the Journal at the introductory press conference Santa Fe did not influence the search in any way.</p>
<p>Last week, regarding the email he sent to McCleskey, Krebs told the Journal he “sought Jay’s opinion about how to respond as a friend and a media strategist, and that was the extent of the conversation. I stand by my comments at the April 11 press conference that Santa Fe had zero influence in the coaching search and the ultimate decision to hire Coach Weir.”</p>
<p>McCleskey did not return an email or voicemail left by the Journal seeking comment.</p>
<p>In an email dated May 7, the week news reports of the 2015 Scotland trip surfaced, with an attachment titled “5-8-2017 Krebs retirement Letter,” Krebs said he thought the news was worthy of his stepping down.</p>
<p>The retirement letter was actually dated March 28, the week Krebs was recommending that Neal be fired, but the May 7 draft had the earlier content written over and updated to cover the Scotland trip. Those emails were sent to his own email account and to another individual not affiliated with UNM.</p>
<p>A week earlier, Krebs admitted using public money for UNM employees to travel to Scotland in June 2015 with boosters on a fundraising trip but he did not reveal that the total bill of about $65,000 included money to pay for three boosters to attend the trip — which apparently violates the state’s anti-donation clause.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until May 23 that an official statement released on Krebs’ behalf by UNM’s main campus communications director stated, “In reviewing notes from the trip, we discovered internally that the outings for three donors were paid for via UNM athletics. … The original plan was to have this reimbursed back, but in reviewing documents, it was noticed that this didn’t happen.”</p>
<p>In his May 7 retirement draft letter, Krebs wrote: “As a leader of young people I am held to a higher standard. … I’ve made some mistakes and for that I have to be held accountable.”</p>
<p>He also wrote that his mistakes were always “done to make things better for UNM athletics and UNM student-athletes.”</p>
<p>But he also said his aim was to protect donors even over disclosure of how public money was used.</p>
<p>“In order to protect our Athletic Department donors, I did not reveal (to media) the additional $____ spent to pay donor expenses. … I stand by my actions to protect our donors. … Did I handle the reporting out about this trip inappropriately? Yes.”</p>
<p>He later wrote, in an apparent reference to the media scrutiny surrounding WisePies Pizza, which had purchased naming rights to the Pit,&#160; “I have seen what happens to people who have stepped up and donated money to UNM Athletics, and that has never been more clear than in the last 24 months with the negative criticism and scrutiny that donors have endured. I wanted to protect our donors from that.”</p>
<p>Since that time, revelations that some luxury sky boxes in the Pit had gone uncollected for years and totalled as much as about $400,000 owed to UNM from high dollar boosters and donors.</p>
<p>The Journal emailed Krebs April 6 asking if WisePies was up to date on payments and if “UNM received the entire $800,000 WisePies had agreed to pay up to this point in the agreement?”</p>
<p>Krebs forwarded the email to multiple people in the department instructing them not to say too much. In one email, he instructed Sports Information Director Frank Mercogliano, “Get with brad (Hutchins) and season (Elliott)&#160; on this. Less said the better but want to protect wisepies.”</p>
<p>Since then, Dreamstyle Remodeling has stepped up and pledged $10 million to UNM for naming rights at the Pit, now officially Dreamstyle Arena, and UNM’s football stadium, now Dreamstyle Stadium.</p>
<p>Both UNM and WisePies said it was current on its payments.</p> | Krebs’ emails show his desire to protect donors, acknowledges mistakes made | false | https://abqjournal.com/1065745/krebs-emails-show-his-desire-to-protect-donors-acknowledges-mistakes-made.html | 2017-09-18 | 2 |
<p>CBS Entertainment has officially found their Supergirl in former Glee star Melissa Benoist, but the network is already warning viewers not to expect the highly-anticipated drama to be like the other superhero shows on television. Even though the series will center on the cousin of the near-perfect Superman, its producers insist that Supergirl will be more about Kara Zor-El’s flawed humanity.</p>
<p>With the CW pulling in record numbers with The Flash and Arrow, Fox’s Gotham gaining steam, and Agents of SHIELD capturing the massive audience of Marvel’s cinematic universe for ABC, it is no surprise that CBS wanted to capitalize on the success that superhero shows have been seeing over the past year. While the network hasn’t really jumped on the genre before, CBS Entertainment Chairman Nina Tassler told TV writers last week that it’s a “real passion” of the network’s and that they hope Supergirl will provide female viewers with a positive role model.</p>
<p>“We heard the pitch for ‘Supergirl’ and realized that she embodied so many of the qualities and the characteristics of classic female heroines on this network,” said Tassler. “We think it’s a story and a coming-of-age opportunity for us.”</p>
<p>Fans of DC Comics know that Supergirl has most of her iconic cousin Superman’s amazing powers, Tassler revealed that the series will be more about the human aspect of Kara Zor-El’s life.</p>
<p>“There’s a human drama there. We know there are so many superhero characters portrayed in films, but I think we’re watching an evolution with regard to the way they’re portrayed,” said Tassler. “There’s a humanity. They are flawed. There’s a relatability, and I think for our network right now, what we did respond to was the character’s humanity.”</p>
<p>Benoist will take over the role Helen Slater first made famous in the poorly-received 1984 Supergirl. In addition to Glee, the 26-year-old actress has appeared on Homeland and starred in the 2014 independent film Whiplash. Viewers hoping to see her again before she dons the cape and spandex in the upcoming CBS drama can find her alongside Jennifer Garner and Al Pacino in the theatrical film Danny Collins, which will be released later this year.</p>
<p /> | CBS’ ‘Supergirl’ drama will focus on ‘flawed humanity’ of Superman’s cousin | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/23/cbs-supergirl-drama-will-focus-on-flawed-humanity-of-supermans-cousin/ | 2015-01-23 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Desert.jpg" type="external" />"A lot" of pregnant juveniles have crossed the border into the Rio Grande Valley as part of the influx of Central American illegal immigrants, says Albert Spratte, the sergeant-at-arms of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the valley. "It's not uncommon to see 16-, 17-year-old girls who ["]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/382813/are-pregnant-teenagers-next-group-will-surge-across-border-ryan-lovelace" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.nationalreview.com</a></p>
<p /> | Are Pregnant Teenagers the Next Group that Will Surge Across the Border? | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/are-pregnant-teenagers-the-next-group-that-will-surge-across-the-border/ | 0 |
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<p>The stock market continued to perform well on Wednesday, sending the S&amp;P 500 to within a point of a new all-time record closing high. The Dow remained stubbornly below 20,000, but major market benchmarks posted gains of around half a percent as the latest release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting didn't raise any alarms or reveal any big surprises from monetary policymakers. Investors continued to look forward to potential gains in economic growth ahead, and Encana (NYSE: ECA), Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACAD), and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) were among the best performers on the day. Let's look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Encana.</p>
<p>Encana climbed 8% after the Canadian energy company said that it expects better results in 2017 than it had previously predicted at its investor day presentation in October. Citing strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2016, Encana now believes that its corporate margin level will exceed $10 per barrel of oil equivalent in 2017, with price assumptions of $55 per barrel of oil and $3 per million BTUs for natural gas. That's 25% better than the $8 margin figure that Encana had previously predicted, and the company also sees production growth at the high end or higher than its previous range of 15% to 20%. In 2018, conditions could improve further, with Encana predicting margins of $13 per barrel equivalent. With so much efficiency-based progress, Encana is well-suited for whatever environment the energy markets throw at it.</p>
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<p>Acadia jumped 11% after rumors surfaced that drug-maker Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) might be interested in buying the biopharmaceutical company. Acadia had a tough time in 2016, with investors having grown nervous about the expense and risk involved in marketing its Nuplazid treatment for Parkinson's disease psychosis. With its share price having fallen last year, the prospect of Acadia gaining the attention of a drug giant like Pfizer was highly attractive, especially since it would potentially open up Pfizer's more experienced sales force and marketing team to make the most of Nuplazid's opportunity. Of course, rumor-driven gains can evaporate as quickly as they appear, but for now, investors are riding the wave of interest higher.</p>
<p>Finally, Tenet Healthcare gained 9%. Analysts at Piper Jaffray late yesterday initiated coverage on the hospital company with a neutral rating, setting a price target of $16 per share on the stock. Yet today's statement by Vice President-elect Mike Pence detailing the Trump administration's plans to repeal Obamacare seemed to suggest an orderly move away from the program, with free-market based alternatives that could ensure that Tenet will not once again have to deal with an influx of uninsured emergency room patients without any ability to pay. Tenet and other hospital stocks gained a lot of ground after the passage of the Affordable Care Act based on the notion that it would no longer have to absorb such losses. As long as any replacement deals with that issue, Obamacare repeal might not be as bad for Tenet as some investors had feared.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Encana When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b40833f4-7bd9-4ed9-9673-9d87f27c00a1&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 Encana wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Encana, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and Tenet Healthcare Jumped Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/04/why-encana-acadia-pharmaceuticals-and-tenet-healthcare-jumped-today.html | 2017-01-04 | 0 |
<p>The worst thing about disclosure of the name of the new Supreme Court nominee was not that the weeks of speculation had come to an end. It was that the public would no longer be treated to the fascinating biographies of every man, woman and child who might have been nominated by President Obama. These were biographies that, but for the vacancy on the Court, would never have seen the light of day, and the news consuming public would forever have been deprived of all the fascinating details about what in many cases were unfascinating lives that the vacancy permitted us to share. Those biographical sketches have now been replaced by bits of trivia about the actual nominee that are at least as fascinating as the biographies of the might-have-beens.</p>
<p>For the first piece of trivia we are indebted to Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times. Mr. Confessore discovered that Judge Sonia Sotomayor “did not cast a ballot in the 2002 election . . . . Nor did she vote in the 2006 elections, which gave Democrats control of the United States Senate.” Her disregard of her civic duty was also evident in the elections of 1999 and 2007. That news suggests (although not stated in the story nor picked up by Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich) that she is not a fan of our form of government. How else to explain her inaction? There is, however, a happy ending to this particular story. She voted in 2008. Since that is the most recent election to have occurred one can hope that this represents her determination to turn over a new leaf and participate in the democratic process. Her failure to vote in other elections should be explored in some depth at her confirmation hearings.</p>
<p>Another observation that has received much attention is that if Judge Sotomayor is confirmed, she will join 5 other Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court thus giving Pope Benedict a significant voice in how the law develops. Although the Pope’s influence is a very real threat, the reassuring news is that she is at most a Casual Catholic. The Washington Post reports that a White House spokesman said, in response to Catholic conscious bloggers’ concerns, that: “Judge Sotomayor . . . attends church for family celebrations and other important events.” That demonstrates a lack of zeal that should comfort critics.</p>
<p>Another concern is Judge Sotomayor’s involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After she got out of law school, Judge Sotomayor became a member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. During her tenure, according to the New York Times, “she played an active role as the defense fund staked out aggressive stances on issues like police brutality, the death penalty and voting rights.” Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice wonders whether as a Justice the judge will know the difference between being a judge and serving on a board. That is probably the same thing he wondered when Sam Alito was nominated.</p>
<p>Judge Alito was a member of the Federalist Society. The Society didn’t go around suing people. It just tried to put its members into Federal judgeships. In an article in the Washington Monthly in March 2000, Jerry Landay, a former correspondent for ABC and CBS news observed that “ The Society’s mission is to advance a conservative agenda by moving the country’s legal establishment to the right and they are succeeding. . . . [T]he Society is accomplishing in the courts what Republicans can’t achieve politically.”</p>
<p>The Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund could probably not get Justice Antonin Scalia to skip the swearing in of a new Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court so that he could go on a junket with its members, as Justice Scalia did when he skipped Chief Justice Roberts’ swearing-in in order to go to a Colorado resort with members of the Federalist Society.</p>
<p>Whereas Judge Sotomayor discontinued her membership on the board of the Puerto Rican Defense fund upon becoming a judge, Judge Alito continued his membership in the Federalist Society the entire 15-year period during which he sat as a federal judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He has now resigned. Prior to his appointment to the Court, Chief Justice Roberts said he had no memory of belonging to that organization although he was listed as a member in the 1997-1998-leadership directory of the organization.</p>
<p>It is too late to ask Justice Alito why he didn’t resign sooner or Chief Justice Roberts why he didn’t recall being a member or Justice Scalia why a junket with the Society displaced the common courtesy of being present for the swearing in of the Chief Justice of the court on which he serves. That should not stop the senators from in depth questioning of Judge Sotomayor on her membership in the Fund.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI is a lawyer in Boulder, Colorado. He can be emailed at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Judges and Junkets | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/06/05/judges-and-junkets/ | 2009-06-05 | 4 |
<p>Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been on defense in the wake of a leaked 2005 tape in which he was recorded making lewd comments about&#160; women during a conversation with suspended TODAY show host Billy Bush. &#160;Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, during Sunday’s second presidential debate, tried to capitalize on the leaked tape, saying his language proved he was “unfit” to serve as President of the United States.</p>
<p>But Jerry Fallwell Jr, president of Liberty University, told the FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto on Tuesday while Clinton is using the comments to her advantage, it might be the establishment Republicans who are responsible for bringing the 11-year-old tape to light. &#160;Fallwell said six or eight weeks before it was released, he received a call from people close to top Republicans.</p>
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<p>“They said, ‘Jerry these guys are working on something they say will guarantee Donald Trump is not the nominee for on Nov. 8 of the Republican Party,’” Fallwell said on Cavuto Coast-to-Coast. “I didn’t think anything of it but when I saw what happened over the weekend, it made me wonder.”</p>
<p>Ahead of Sunday’s debate, House Speaker Paul Ryan revoked his invitation for Trump to join him on the campaign trail, and other members of the party followed suit, using the tape as the latest example of why they don’t support Trump for president.</p>
<p>“They all started calling for him to step down as the nominee. It made me wonder. Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist, but I did report it to the right people because if it was a conspiracy, I know from my days practicing law, if any two people or more work together to harm a third person, that is criminal,” Fallwell said.</p>
<p>Some have speculated there are tapes of similar substance that have yet to be released. But Fallwell, who said he and his family don’t condone the remarks, said Trump should stay the course, not let the controversy distract him, and press the issues on the campaign trail.</p>
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<p>“[He needs to] say I’m not the person I used to be. All of us are sinners, all of us are redeemable, despite what Hillary says,” he explained. “Five years from now when the Supreme Court is stacked with people who will rip the Constitution to shreds, get rid of the Second Amendment, nobody will be thinking about what Donald Trump said in a video in 2005, they’re going to be thinking about what was I thinking when I voted in 2016, why wasn’t I worried about future of our country, my children, grandchildren.”</p> | Could Establishment Republicans be Responsible for Leaking Trump Tape? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/11/could-establishment-republicans-be-responsible-for-leaking-trump-tape.html | 2016-10-11 | 0 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Frasers Centrepoint Trust:</p>
<p>* ‍GROSS REVENUE FOR 1Q18 WAS UP 8.7 PCT YEAR-ON-YEAR TO S$47.9 MILLION ​</p> * QTRLY NET PROPERTY INCOME S$34.5 MILLION, UP 9.1 PCT
<p>* ‍QTRLY DISTRIBUTION PER UNIT 3.00​ SINGAPORE CENTS Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MADRID/BERLIN (Reuters) - Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was due to appear in a German court on Monday as Spain sought to extradite him over the region’s independence fight after a night of protests there in which dozens of people were hurt in clashes with police.</p>
<p>Puigdemont was detained in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, five months after going into self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces charges of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement which could lead to 25 years in prison.</p>
<p>Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after on Friday leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference.</p>
<p>A demonstration in Barcelona against his arrest by tens of thousands of Catalans tipped over into clashes on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Outside the central government offices in the Catalan capital, riot police beat flag-waving protesters back with batons, leaving several with blood streaming down their foreheads. Three protesters were arrested and 50 suffered minor injuries, police said.</p>
<p>Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont, would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state relating a referendum held in Catalonia last October which called for the wealthy northeastern region to separate from Spain.</p>
<p>The Madrid government deemed the referendum, which was widely boycotted by opponents of independence, illegal and took over direct rule of Catalonia following a symbolic declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament.</p>
<p>The court has also reactivated international arrest warrants for four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year. Puigdemont and fellow separatists have all denied any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>It ordered five separatist leaders, including the latest candidate to become regional president, Jordi Turull, to be jailed pending their trial.</p>
<p>The Madrid government’s forceful legal moves deal a potentially fatal blow to the independence movement and signal an end to one of the country’s worst political crises since the return of democracy four decades ago, although separatist sympathies are likely to simmer.</p> DAYS IF NOT WEEKS
<p>Puigdemont will appear before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster where a judge is expected to decide whether he will remain in custody.</p> People protest in front of the prison in Neumuenster, Germany, late March 25, 2018, after former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained on Sunday in Germany. REUTERS/Thomas Nyfeler
<p>Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain’s extradition request. German prosecutors have said the whole legal process, including possible appeals, could take several days if not weeks.</p>
<p>Puigdemont, who has been living in Brussels since leaving Spain, does not plan to apply for political asylum in Germany, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalan radio on Monday.</p>
<p>The 55-year-old former journalist is unlikely to find much support among German politicians who have largely backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s crackdown on Catalan separatism.</p>
<p>In comments published on Monday, Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament and close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, said that Puigdemont had “clearly violated Spanish law and the Spanish constitution”.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>“He would be well advised to end the matter peacefully,” Brok told regional newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.</p>
<p>Brok said that the quest of the Catalans for independence was hopeless and that Madrid and Barcelona should instead start negotiations about an improved autonomous status.</p>
<p>German Justice Minister Katarina Barley told ARD broadcaster on Sunday the extradition question would be handled by regional courts and she saw no need for Berlin to intervene for now.</p>
<p>European governments, some of whom face separatist movements of their own, have generally been supportive of the Spanish government.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-scotland/ex-catalan-minister-will-fight-extradition-to-spain-from-scotland-lawyer-idUSKBN1H219S" type="external">Ex-Catalan minister will fight extradition to Spain from Scotland: lawyer</a>
<a href="/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-germany-gove/germany-says-puigdemont-case-in-the-hands-of-regional-courts-idUSKBN1H2145" type="external">Germany says Puigdemont case in the hands of regional courts</a>
<p>In Edinburgh, the Scottish government, which advocates independence from the United Kingdom, said it would co-operate with Madrid over a request to extradite former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati.</p>
<p>Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that it nevertheless supported “the right of the people of Catalonia to determine their own future”.</p>
<p>The drawn-out crisis has also hit the regional economy and caused a business flight. But S&amp;P Global said its upgrade for Spain reflected a positive outlook for the economy and budgetary consolidation.</p>
<p>It was the second upgrade for Spain into single-A territory this year. Spanish bond yields were at close to 15-month lows on Monday morning.</p>
<p>Reporting by Angus Berwick and Emma Pinedo in Madrid; and Michael Nienaber in Berlin</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati will fight an international order for her extradition to Spain from Scotland, arguing that as a secessionist leader she is not guaranteed a fair trial, her lawyer said on Monday.</p>
<p>The European arrest warrant was one of a series issued to leaders of Catalonia’s independence movement on charges of rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.</p>
<p>“This is a political persecution, a systematic attempt to criminalize the desire for independence,” lawyer Aamer Anwar told BBC radio. “We believe that if she is sent back to Spain then she will suffer inhuman and degrading treatment, that the independence of the judiciary in Spain cannot be guaranteed.”</p>
<p>Ponsati, who is a professor at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, will present herself at court in Edinburgh and will apply for bail, Anwar said.</p>
<p>The case is being closely watched in Scotland, where the nationalist devolved government said on Sunday that although it supports Catalonia’s right to self-determination, it would respect the judicial process.</p>
<p>Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was due to appear in a German court on Monday at the start of an extradition process. Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday, five months after going into self-imposed exile in Belgium.</p>
<p>Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; Editing by Angus MacSwan</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 64 people were killed by a fire which engulfed a busy shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russian investigators said on Monday, and some of the dead were children.</p>
<p>The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the “Winter Cherry” shopping center on Sunday afternoon where a cinema complex and children’s play area were located.</p>
<p>Emergency services said they had extinguished the blaze, but later said it had reignited, and that rescuers were struggling to reach the building’s upper floors because the roof had collapsed. TV footage on Monday showed thick black smoke rising from the yellow building.</p>
<p>It was unclear if any people were still unaccounted for, but 11 people were being treated in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy who was in a serious condition.</p>
<p>Earlier on Monday, people had posted appeals on social media seeking news of their relatives or friends, and authorities set up a center in a school near the mall to deal with inquiries.</p>
<p>Anna Kuznetsova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, said the fire had been caused by incompetence and warned there were many similar shopping centers.</p>
<p>“Other regions, the bosses of other malls must right now, without waiting for (routine) checks, ask themselves: Have we done everything we can to ensure something like this doesn’t happen here,” Kuznetsova said in a statement.</p>
<p>The shopping mall, a former cake factory, had few windows or doors.</p> CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
<p>Witnesses were quoted by Russian media as saying that the fire alarm had failed to go off, and that many people had found themselves trapped because exit doors were locked.</p>
<p>Video footage from inside the mall after the fire broke out showed a group of people in a smoke-filled staircase trying to smash a fire exit door, which was jammed.</p> Still photo taken from video provided by Russian Emergencies Ministry shows a site of a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia March 25, 2018. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
<p>Russia’s Channel One TV station reported that some people had jumped from upper windows to escape the flames.</p>
<p>State investigators, who have opened a criminal investigation into the blaze, said four people had been detained over the fire, including the owners and lessees of outlets inside the mall. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said it was trying to bring in the mall’s owner for questioning.</p>
<p>The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed local official source as saying the main theory being looked at was that the fire had been caused by an electrical short circuit.</p> Slideshow (12 Images)
<p>However, it quoted Vladimir Chernov, the region’s deputy governor, as saying on Sunday that the blaze had started when a child had set fire to the foam on a trampoline in a play area using a lighter.</p>
<p>State TV said the mall had opened in 2013.</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin, elected to a new term last weekend, spoke by telephone with the governor of the Kemerovo region and with the head of the Emergency Situations Ministry whom he dispatched to the scene.</p>
<p>Russia’s health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, flew to Kemerovo, a coal-producing region about 3,600 km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow, and visited the injured in hospital.</p>
<p>Putin “expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died,” the Kremlin said in a statement.</p>
<p>Mourners left flowers near the scene of the blaze.</p>
<p>Other big fires in Russia have often turned out to be the result of serious violations of fire safety regulations.</p>
<p>In 2009, 156 people were killed in the city of Perm when an indoor pyrotechnics display at a nightclub went wrong. The owner of that nightclub was convicted of negligence and sentenced to almost a decade in prison.</p>
<p>Writing by Christian Lowe and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrew Heavens</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians began voting on Monday in a presidential election set to deliver an easy win for incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, with turnout the main focus after all serious opposition withdrew complaining of repression.</p> Egyptians cast their votes at a polling station during the presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
<p>Polling stations will be open for three days and Sisi, a former military commander, has urged Egyptians to vote, hinting that he sees the election as a referendum on his first four-year term, rather than a serious democratic contest.</p>
<p>Sisi, an ally of the United States, faces only one challenger who is a long-time supporter of the president.</p>
<p>Many Egyptians, as well as the country’s Arab and Western allies, see him as vital to stability as unrest since 2011 has hurt the economy. However, his critics say he has presided over Egypt’s worst crackdown on dissent and describe the vote as a charade.</p>
<p>Sisi, 63, who led the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically-elected president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, has cast his bid for a second term as a vote for stability and security. He is trying to defeat Islamist insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula and complete a series of mega-projects inaugurated with great fanfare since he came to power.</p>
<p>In early hours of the voting, witnesses said turnout was slow but on a normal business day most Egyptians are expected to vote after working hours.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-egypt-election-timeline/major-events-in-egypt-since-arab-spring-uprisings-idUSKBN1H217Y" type="external">Major events in Egypt since Arab Spring uprisings</a>
<p>A lower-than-expected turnout could suggest Sisi lacks a mandate to take more of the tough steps needed to revive the economy, which struggled after the 2011 revolution drove away tourists and foreign investors, both sources of hard currency.</p>
<p>Authorities have urged people to vote, ramping up nationalist rhetoric and painting participation as helping the fight against Islamists and other unspecified enemies.</p>
<p>“Your vote is a bullet in the heart of your enemy,” Monday’s front page of the state-owned al-Gomhouria newspaper read. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail told state TV as he voted: “People must turn out and participate with force”.</p>
<p>A 76-year-old voter, Saad Shahata, said at a polling station in Monofiya province north of Cairo: “We’re coming to support President Sisi. Anyone who doesn’t participate in the vote is a traitor.”</p>
<p>TIMELINE: Egyptian since Arab Spring uprisings</p> MEGA PROJECTS AND AUSTERITY
<p>In Cairo’s upscale Heliopolis neighborhood and Zamalek, areas with strong support for Sisi and the military, nationalist songs blared out and groups of men waved Egyptian flags as they cheered and danced. A child sang the anthem of an Egyptian special forces unit.</p> Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi writes as he arrives to cast his vote during the presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, March 26, 2018. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
<p>Dozens of people queued before polls opened, but only trickled in afterwards.</p>
<p>One of the few young voters at a Heliopolis polling station, Zeina Sherif, said she saw casting her vote as symbolic support for Sisi. “Sisi is working on projects that we should give him a chance to finish,” the 20-year-old said.</p>
<p>These projects include an expansion of the Suez Canal and a new capital being built east of Cairo. These will in time improve the economy and people’s lives, he says.</p>
<p>But critics say austerity measures have hurt his popularity, including a currency devaluation tied to an International Monetary Fund loan which left most Egyptians worse off. Many see little benefit from large projects and the harsh fiscal reforms.</p> Slideshow (14 Images)
<p>Rights groups accuse Sisi of muzzling opponents, activists and independent media. Courts have sentenced hundreds of supporters of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood to death since 2013.</p>
<p>The president’s sole challenger is Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a Sisi supporter widely seen as a dummy candidate. Moussa has said he hopes Sisi beats him but rejects charges he is being used to present a false sense of competition. The electoral commission says it will ensure voting is fair and transparent.</p>
<p>Several opposition figures called for a boycott of the vote after all major opposition campaigns withdrew, saying repression had cleared the field of credible challengers.</p> MUZZLING OF OPPOSITION
<p>Sisi’s top opponent, former military chief of staff Sami Anan, was arrested and halted his presidential bid after the army accused him of running for office without permission.</p>
<p>Even before campaigning officially began, the United Nations, rights groups and opposition figures criticized the run-up as compromised by arrests and intimidation of opponents.</p>
<p>In a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy team, the Working Group on Egypt, a bipartisan group of U.S. foreign policy specialists, said the “sham election” would take place against a backdrop of massive human rights abuses.</p>
<p>Sisi has said he will not seek a third term, but critics expect him to remove a two-presidential term limit.</p>
<p>He won nearly 97 percent of the vote in 2014, but less than half of eligible Egyptians voted, even though the election was extended to three days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba, Arwa Gaballa; Editing by William Maclean, Gareth Jones and David Stamp</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Frasers Centrepoint Trust Says Quarterly Net Property Income Up 9.1% Catalan ex-head Puigdemont to appear in German court after protests flare Ex-Catalan minister will fight extradition to Spain from Scotland: lawyer At least 64 people, some children, killed in Russian mall fire Sisi to win Egyptian election but seeks high turnout | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-frasers-centrepoint-trust-says-qua/brief-frasers-centrepoint-trust-says-quarterly-net-property-income-up-91-idUSL8N1PI31W | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp on Wednesday said they would hold a joint news conference in Tokyo at 3:30 pm (0630 GMT).</p>
<p>The two companies did not give details on the content of the news conference.</p>
<p>The business daily reported earlier on Wednesday that Toyota and Panasonic were forming a tie-up to establish standards for batteries used in electric vehicles which could help reduce manufacturing costs and establish recycling options for used batteries.</p>
<p>Panasonic manufactures batteries used in Toyota’s gasoline hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and Toyota is developing battery-electric vehicles (EVs) which it plans to market in the early 2020s.</p>
<p>A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment on the Nikkei report. Panasonic also supplies Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc with EV batteries.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Toyota, Panasonic to hold news conference at 1.30 a.m. ET | false | https://newsline.com/toyota-panasonic-to-hold-news-conference-at-1-30-a-m-et/ | 2017-12-12 | 1 |
<p>VIENNA (AP) — The Austrian minister of sports has apologized to Henrik Kristoffersen, a day after the Norwegian skier had snowballs thrown at him during a race in Schladming.</p>
<p>Heinz-Christian Strache called the incident "deeply unfair behavior, which harms the image of Austria."</p>
<p>Kristoffersen was competing with favorite Marcel Hirscher for victory in the night slalom when spectators, who had lined up alongside the course, threw snowballs during the Norwegian's final run. The projectiles didn't hit him but Kristoffersen said he was distracted.</p>
<p>Strache said in a statement: "To Henrik Kristofferson (sic) I apologize on behalf of all Austrians, who care about fairness in sports."</p>
<p>Hirscher won the race by 0.39 seconds, but Kristoffersen said the incident had not affected the result because the Austrian would have beaten him anyway.</p>
<p>VIENNA (AP) — The Austrian minister of sports has apologized to Henrik Kristoffersen, a day after the Norwegian skier had snowballs thrown at him during a race in Schladming.</p>
<p>Heinz-Christian Strache called the incident "deeply unfair behavior, which harms the image of Austria."</p>
<p>Kristoffersen was competing with favorite Marcel Hirscher for victory in the night slalom when spectators, who had lined up alongside the course, threw snowballs during the Norwegian's final run. The projectiles didn't hit him but Kristoffersen said he was distracted.</p>
<p>Strache said in a statement: "To Henrik Kristofferson (sic) I apologize on behalf of all Austrians, who care about fairness in sports."</p>
<p>Hirscher won the race by 0.39 seconds, but Kristoffersen said the incident had not affected the result because the Austrian would have beaten him anyway.</p> | Sports minister apologizes to Kristoffersen for snowballs | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1da4b6c2d21849ee94a41b5644e393c9 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>I knew buying my first home wouldn’t be easy. I was wrong. It’s been brutal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My husband and I moved to Washington, D.C., from Manhattan in 2012 and after renting for a year (and growing tired of hearing everything our neighbors were up to), we launched our house hunt. Perhaps a bit too ambitiously, we started out looking for a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom rowhouse in Capitol Hill. Now, five months and 60-plus open houses later, not only has our potential neighborhood radius expanded, but our requirements have dropped. Maybe we don’t need that half bathroom, or third bedroom, or a basement.</p>
<p>The housing market is seemingly recovering throughout most the country, but the D.C. area didn’t take the hit the other markets experienced when the bubble burst in 2008. The unemployment rate in our nation’s capital peaked at 6.5% during the downturn, and is currently 5.2%, well below the country’s average as jobs continue to be added to the area, according to Ken Fears, senior economist, at the National Association of Realtors. Because of this, the D.C. market is not just recuperating, it’s thriving.</p>
<p>This is terrific for the local economy and great for current homeowners, but not so terrific for young couples like us on the hunt for their first home.</p>
<p>Fears explained: “Inventory is pretty low and has been for awhile, so that creates a supply-and-demand issue. The area is also being very responsive to changes in interest rates because of the high prices, when the rates remain as low as they are now, you see bidding frenzies break out and strong competition for properties.”</p>
<p>You’re telling me.&#160;About a month into the process, a house hit on a Friday night and we thought it was our dream home. Giddily, we called our agent, Tom Faison, and he met us at the house at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. We weren’t the first ones there. And as I walked through the house, a man literally pushed me out of the way so he could get a better look at the tiny room being called an extra living space. Clearly he thought he had found his dream house as well, and I wasn’t part of the picture.</p>
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<p>The house wasn’t for us, but it sold for $20,000 more than asking price.</p>
<p>There was also the time we walked up to an open house only to find it canceled because the home was already under contract -- despite only being on the market for two days. Recently we went to see a house at 8:00 in the morning after it hit the market, and it was under contract by that afternoon.</p>
<p>I now stalk MRIS listings, Zillow and Redfin for new homes, and we’ve had plenty of false alarms of places that look perfect only to learn how deceptive camera lenses and angles can be. The search has become almost a full-time job because if a decent property hits the market, expect it to be under contract within 48 hours. Decent -- not great, just decent.</p>
<p>It’s hard being forced to make arguably the biggest financial decision of your life in 48-hours.</p>
<p>There are weeks when I see and talk to my real estate agent more than my family. I know how he likes his coffee, what weekends he has his kids and that he will hang back outside the house when he knows it’s not for us, but is humoring us anyway.&#160;We’ve come up with our own special ranking system on how bad a house is based on the number of showers necessary to take after walking through it. I am pretty sure he will be on my invite list for my first Thanksgiving in my new home.</p>
<p>We’ve become expert house hunters; I can spot and tally air returns as I roam a house for the first time, estimate the age of an HVAC system and how to look past paint color and bad décor to evaluate the actual house and not the current owners.</p>
<p>We’ve been close to getting a home, making an offer that included an escalation clause, waived the financing, appraisal and inspection contingencies (after paying for a pre-inspection), and included an earnest money deposit. We lost to an all-cash offer. Hard to beat that.</p>
<p>Fears says this hyper-market activity was also present in 2003 and 2004 when buyers waived inspection and financing contingencies to have a shot at getting the deal. While bidding wars have become common in this market, he isn’t worried of a looming bubble.</p>
<p>“Those are dangers signs, but this time around the financing aspect is keeping things under wraps. In spring of 2005 when prices hit the ceiling of affordability, we saw all these exotic loans come up to lower monthly payments which fueled the frenzy. We don’t have that -- lending is still pretty strict and that will choke off and curb risky behavior.”</p>
<p>He expects home prices and market activity to start to settle soon as more homeowners become above water on their mortgages and ready to sell and upgrade.</p>
<p>“When people feel they have enough equity to sell and repurchase, that will help, but they need to feel confident they will be able to pick up a new home, so we will also need to see more construction come online and that will feed the inventory shortages and make people more comfortable.”</p>
<p>I can only hope.</p> | Pushed at an Open House: My Trials and Tribulations as a First-Time Homebuyer | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/05/10/pushed-at-open-house-my-trials-and-tribulations-as-first-time-homebuyer.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>In a financial world where microseconds are now king, all conduits are not created equal and average Internet velocity is no longer enough.</p>
<p>If you read one business book this year, make it Flash Boys by <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Michael-Lewis/" type="external">Michael Lewis</a>. The journalist famous for Moneyball and The Big Short takes readers inside the parasitic world of high-frequency trading that is harming the broader economy.</p>
<p>The technical architecture of high-frequency trading is right out of a sci-fi movie—the schemes rely on algorithms that seem artificially intelligent, and the velocity of transaction signals approach light speed. As Lewis recounts, all that technological wizardry is marshaled to let insiders know information before everyone else, which consequently lets those insiders extract wealth from the market.</p>
<p>The good news is that a financial transaction tax can at once raise public resources and disincentivize the most predatory schemes. The even better news is that structural changes in the industry have made such a tax more economically viable than ever.</p>
<p>Before getting to that change, consider the basics of the tax proposal. The idea is that if a tiny fee is slapped on securities transactions—say, a cent—the tax will barely affect the average investor but will force high-frequency, high-volume traders to pay a lot. Consequently, those predators might see less of an upside from—or even abandon—their market-rigging schemes. And if they don't, then at least the government will generate new resources to enforce laws protecting average investors.</p>
<p>Of course, when this idea gained steam before, it was deflated by those arguing that the tax would prompt stock exchanges to move to jurisdictions that don't impose such a levy. In this tale, the city, state or country that creates a transaction tax won't stop high-frequency trading—it will only hurt itself by driving financial business to another locale.</p>
<p>On its face, it is a powerful argument—so powerful, in fact, that when Chicago's municipal government recently considered a financial transaction tax, the proposal was quickly dismissed. The Illinois legislature then gave the Chicago Mercantile Exchange an <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-29/business/ct-biz-1129-cme-sears-20111129_1_cme-group-tax-relief-tax-break" type="external">$85 million tax cut</a> when company executives threatened to move the company out of state.</p>
<p>No doubt, fear of such flight seems logical. Essentially, tax opponents ask us to assume that in the Internet era, stock exchanges—like many other information-sector enterprises—are no longer moored to specific geographies because they can supposedly conduct business through any digital conduit.</p>
<p>But that's where the aforementioned structural change has created a flaw in the logic. In a financial world where microseconds are now king, all conduits are not created equal and average Internet velocity is no longer enough. That reality potentially reduces some of the industry's geographic mobility. Why? Because while speculators themselves no longer need to physically be on specific trading room floors, they do need their computers to either be physically near those exchanges' computers or hooked up to them through special ultra-fast conduits. Additionally, the newly computerized exchanges need ever-more massive data centers and conduits to process the accelerating information flow.</p>
<p>All of that technology requires financial firms to make huge investments in lots of immobile digital infrastructure. That means it may now be prohibitively expensive and/or logistically difficult for those financial firms to simply pick up and move. Indeed, just like petroleum companies cannot realistically threaten to leave oil-rich locales if they don't like a tax, parts of the financial world are captive to the locales in which they've built their digital systems.</p>
<p>This is the silver lining of speed-driven finance. Simply put, the federal, state and local governments that host the financial industry have more leverage because, despite threats, they don't have to fear the industry leaving.</p>
<p>The only question, then, is political: Will those governments use this new leverage? Or will they do nothing to protect the average investor?</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>David Sirota, an In These Times senior editor and syndicated columnist, is a staff writer at PandoDaily and a bestselling author whose book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now—Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything was released in 2011. Sirota, whose previous books include The Uprising and Hostile Takeover, co-hosts "The Rundown" on AM630 KHOW in Colorado. E-mail him at [email protected], follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.</p> | How We Can Fix Wall Street | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/16579/financial_transaction_tax | 2014-04-18 | 4 |
<p>Revenue growth is one of the most important catalysts for stock performance. The top-line figure may offers the best indication of a business's direction and future prospects, as every successful company need to deliver sales growth. Profits may be considered the more important figure, but earnings per share can be obfuscated by cost-cutting, share buybacks, and adjustments. Revenue, on the other hand, is almost always a straightforward number, and the market has shown -- as with stocks like&#160;Amazon.com&#160;-- that strong revenue growth is more than enough to make up for a lack of profits.</p>
<p>With that in mind, let's take a look at three stocks whose sales could double this year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Snapchat-parent&#160;Snap Inc&#160;(NYSE: SNAP) has gotten a lot of attention this year, but much of it has been negative. The year's most anticipated IPO scored a market cap of more than $20 billion in its debut, and the stock initially jumped out of the gate. However, it's been on a steady descent since its first public earnings report in May. The stock is now down more than 20% from its IPO price of $17.</p>
<p>However, there's no questioning that Snap has posted blockbuster revenue growth in its short history, which was one of biggest reasons for its sky-high valuation to begin with. In its first-quarter earnings report, revenue surged 286% to $149.6 million as the company has begun to monetize Snapchat, its social media and messaging platform.</p>
<p>Snap's revenue growth is likely to slow over the coming quarters as it grows off of a larger base. It posted $404.5 million in revenue last year, and analysts see it reaching $970 million this year, a jump of 140%. However, with&#160;Instagram stealing much of what makes Snapchat unique, its lack of profits, and a still-lofty valuation, revenue growth alone does not make the stock a smart bet.</p>
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<p>One of the most talked-about plays on the fracking/natural gas boom, Cheniere Energy's&#160;(NYSEMKT: LNG) revenue began surging when it opened its first liquid natural gas export terminal in Louisiana last year. That caused revenue to explode from $69 million in the first quarter a year ago to $1.21 billion, growth of a whopping 1,600%.</p>
<p>Like Snap, Cheniere's revenue growth is expected to moderate over the rest of the year as comparisons get more difficult, but analysts still see the top line more than tripling this year, projecting growth of 238%. Cheniere's unique situation -- bringing a plant on line that was long under construction -- means investors shouldn't expect that kind of growth to continue into the future, but the company has several more LNG trains that are scheduled to come on line over the coming years. Management has forecast an <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/11/why-cheniere-energy-inc-could-be-a-gold-mine-for-g.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">EBITDA of $3.8-$4.1 billion Opens a New Window.</a> in the early 2020s, indicating strong growth from $1.4 billion in adjusted EBITDA it expects this year.</p>
<p>Cheniere's stock has been volatile in recent years, but its unique position as an LNG exporter and record of crushing analyst estimates in its last two quarterly reports bodes well for the company. With a current market cap of about $10 billion, the stock should at least double over the coming years if it can reach the above EBITDA goal.</p>
<p>Shopify's&#160;(NYSE: SHOP) revenue has surged since it made its public debut in 2015, hovering close to 100% each quarter. That rate is expected to dip modestly as the law of large numbers dictates, but the e-commerce management specialist still deserves an honorable mention for its consistency and future prospects.</p>
<p>Shopify's revenue jumped 90% last year, which slowed to 75% in the first quarter of this year; however, Shopify's increasingly strong position in e-commerce management software should ensure a long tail to that growth. The company has made one-time rivals like&#160;Amazon.com&#160;and&#160;EBay into partners, a sign that the company is on its way to becoming the dominant player in a fast-growing market with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/13/2-ways-to-play-e-commerce-that-are-better-than-ama.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">as much potential as e-commerce Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Catering to small and medium-sized businesses, Shopify has gained more than 400,000 merchants, and with more than 10 million merchants in the e-commerce market, Shopify has plenty of room to add more.</p>
<p>Management is calling for $615 million to $630 million in revenue this year, an increase of 60% at the midpoint of its guidance. But the company has a solid track record of beating its own revenue estimates, so there's good reason to think that's a conservative forecast.</p>
<p>As the stock has more than tripled since the IPO, Shopify is one of the best examples of how revenue growth can propel a stock higher. If revenue continues to surge, the stock should follow suit.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Cheniere EnergyWhen 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=96cc666d-91ee-4276-9745-d67c3ae18c4f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Cheniere Energy 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=96cc666d-91ee-4276-9745-d67c3ae18c4f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-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/TMFHobo/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Shopify. 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=26adfc16-7619-11e7-8bac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Companies Whose Revenue Could Double This Year | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/02/3-companies-whose-revenue-could-double-this-year.html | 2017-08-02 | 0 |
<p>Imago/Zuma</p>
<p />
<p>Over the years, there have been plenty of hard-fought environmental skirmishes in Congress, but Henry Waxman thinks the latest battle over the future of climate policy in the US could be the toughest one yet. In remarks at the Center for American Progress on Monday, the California Democrat, who helped to usher in 1990’s landmark Clean Air Act amendments, accused his Republican colleagues of taking an increasingly anti-science bent.</p>
<p>“Protection of the environment is now a partisan battleground,” Waxman said. “On climate change, we can’t even agree whether there is a problem.” That’s not to say things were peachy in the past; there were of course major battles over measures to curb acid rain, toxic power plant emissions, and other environmental protections. But, Waxman said, “I’ve never been in a Congress where there was such an overwhelming disconnect between science and public policy.”</p>
<p>His remarks come at the beginning of what is shaping up to be an interesting week on that front. On Tuesday, the House subcommittee on energy and power will hold a hearing on climate science and the Environmental Protection Agency’s new greenhouse gas regulations. And on Thursday, Republicans on that committee plan to move forward with legislation that would decimate those rules.</p>
<p>House and Senate Republicans have <a href="" type="internal">put forward a joint proposal</a> that would not only amend the Clean Air Act to say explicitly that it does not apply to greenhouse gas emissions, but would also nullify the EPA’s scientific finding that those gases pose a threat to humankind (a conclusion that <a href="" type="internal">even the Bush-era</a> EPA had reached).</p>
<p>But before House Republicans begin marking up the legislation, Waxman, the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the energy and power subcommittee, asked the majority to grant at least one hearing on the science underpinning the EPA’s greenhouse gas rules. The Republicans agreed, and even granted the Dems the larger of witnesses. Of the seven witnesses appearing Tuesday, four were selected by the Democrats. The Republican witnesses include two climate change skeptics and, oddly, some guy whose main focus is promoting DDT, the pesticide banned in the US&#160;back in 1972 because of the risks it posed to public health and the environment. (See a good <a href="http://climateprogress.org/2011/03/07/house-gop-climate-science-hearing-john-christy-and-roger-pielke-sr/" type="external">breakdown of the witnesses</a> here).</p>
<p>But it’s doubtful that anything the experts say tomorrow will dissuade the Republicans from moving ahead with the anti-EPA measure. House Republicans <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030302312.html" type="external">succeeded last week</a> in adding three Democrats as co-sponsors of the EPA-handcuffing legislation—Reps. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, and Dan Boren of Oklahoma. On the Senate side, Republicans picked up Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) as a cosponsor.</p>
<p>Waxman says the passage of the measure through the House is basically a foregone conclusion. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will become law, he said, referencing his own climate and energy bill that passed in June 2009 only to hit a brick wall in the Senate. Waxman, and most of his Democratic colleagues, are hoping this anti-EPA measure will suffer the same fate. In the meantime, Waxman’s hoping that the Democrats can at least use tomorrow’s hearing to, once again, hash out the science.</p>
<p>“The new Republican majority has a lot of leeway to rewrite laws,” he said, “but they don’t have the ability to rewrite the laws of nature.”</p>
<p /> | Waxman: House GOP More Anti-Science Than Ever | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/waxman-house-gop-more-anti-science-ever/ | 2011-03-07 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Leah Libresco is a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight,&#160;a data journalism site. She is the author of “ <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594715874/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=thewaspos09-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1594715874&amp;linkId=29664476f6c36c689a52216ab862a1c5" type="external">Arriving at Amen</a>.”</p>
<p>Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me. I wished the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.</p>
<p>Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all&#160; <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/" type="external">33,000</a>lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way. We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence. The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns.</p>
<p>I&#160; <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths-mass-shootings/" type="external">researched</a>&#160;the strictly tightened gun laws in Britain and Australia and concluded that they didn’t prove much about what America’s policy should be. Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun related-crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans. Mass shootings were too rare in Australia for their absence after the buyback program to be clear evidence of progress. And in both Australia and Britain, the gun restrictions had an ambiguous effect on other gun-related crimes or deaths.</p>
<p>When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an “assault weapon.” It’s an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban" type="external">two or more features</a>, such as a bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos.</p>
<p>Read the rest at: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html?utm_term=.f127ccb93117" type="external">Gun Control</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Gun control is the answer? Maybe not! | true | http://therealside.com/2017/10/gun-control-is-the-answer-maybe-not/ | 2017-10-06 | 0 |
<p>Republicans are waging the most concerted campaign to prevent or discourage citizens from exercising their legitimate voting rights since the Jim Crow days of poll taxes and literacy tests.</p>
<p>Four years ago, Democrats expanded American democracy by registering millions of new voters — mostly young people and minorities — and convincing them to show up at the polls. Apparently, the GOP is determined not to let any such thing happen again.</p>
<p>According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which keeps track of changes in voting laws, 22 statutes and two executive actions aimed at restricting the franchise have been approved in 17 states since the beginning of 2011. By the center’s count, an additional 74 such bills are pending.</p>
<p>The most popular means of discouraging those young and minority voters — who, coincidentally, tend to vote for Democrats — is legislation requiring citizens to show government-issued photo identification before they are allowed to cast a ballot. Photo ID bills have been approved by Republican-controlled legislatures in Alabama, Kansas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, and by referendum in Mississippi. Only one state with a Democratic-controlled legislature — Rhode Island — passed a law requiring voters to produce identification, and it does not mandate a government ID with a photo. In Virginia, Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell has not decided whether to sign a voter ID bill the legislature sent to his desk.</p>
<p />
<p>In theory, what could be wrong with demanding proof of identity? In the real world, plenty.</p>
<p>As Republican strategists are fully aware, minorities are overrepresented among the estimated 11 percent of citizens who do not have a government-issued photo ID. They are also painfully aware that in 2008, President Obama won 95 percent of the African-American vote and 67 percent of the Hispanic vote. It doesn’t take a genius to do the math: If you can reduce the number of black and Latino voters, you improve the Republican candidate’s chances.</p>
<p>If photo ID laws were going to be the solution, though, Republicans had to invent a problem. The best they could come up with was The Menace of Widespread Voter Fraud.</p>
<p>It’s a stretch. Actually, it’s a lie. There is no Widespread Voter Fraud. All available evidence indicates that fraudulent voting of the kind that photo ID laws would presumably prevent — someone shows up at the polls and votes in someone else’s name — just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>For a while, the GOP pointed to South Carolina, where Republican Gov. Nikki Haley said that “dead people” had somehow cast ballots in recent elections. But then the state’s election commission investigated claims of 953 zombie voters and, um, well, never mind.</p>
<p>The number of voters came from a crude comparison of records done by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The elections commission actually found 207 contested votes. Of that total, 106 reflected clerical errors by poll workers, 56 reflected errors by the motor vehicles department, 32 involved people who were mistakenly listed as having voted, and three involved people who had cast absentee ballots and then died before Election Day.</p>
<p>That left 10 contested votes — count ’em, 10 — that could not be immediately resolved. However, the commission found no evidence of fraud. Or of zombies.</p>
<p>Of course, there are other potential kinds of electoral fraud; crooked poll workers, for example, could record votes in the names of citizens who actually stayed home. Election officials could design ballots in a way that worked to a specific candidate’s advantage or disadvantage (see Florida, 2000). But none of this would be prevented by photo ID, which still hasn’t found a problem to solve — except, perhaps, an excess of Democratic voters.</p>
<p>Even more sinister are new laws, such as in Florida, that make it much more difficult for campaigns — or anyone else — to conduct voter-registration drives. If you thought Republicans and Democrats agreed that more Americans should register to vote, you were sadly mistaken.</p>
<p>Florida requires that groups conducting registration drives be vetted and that registration forms be submitted within 48 hours of when they are signed — an onerous and unnecessary burden that only serves to hamper anyone seeking to expand the electorate. Let’s see, who might try to do such a thing? The Democratic Party, maybe? The Obama campaign?</p>
<p>In the name of safeguarding the sanctity of the ballot, Republicans are trying to exclude citizens they consider likely to vote for Democrats — the young, the poor, the black and brown. Those who love democracy cannot allow this foul subterfuge to succeed.</p>
<p>Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2012, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Witch Hunt for the Zombie Voter | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/witch-hunt-for-the-zombie-voter/ | 2012-05-01 | 4 |
<p>President Trump reportedly joked Vice President Mike Pence wants to “wants to hang” all the gays. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>The anti-LGBT history of Vice President Mike Pence apparently isn’t lost on President Trump, who once joked his No. 2 in office “wants to hang” all the gay people, according to a recent article in the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence?mbid=social_twitter" type="external">New Yorker</a>.</p>
<p>The lengthy profile piece on Mike Pence contains significant details about his long career in politics starting as a U.S. House member, then Indiana governor and now vice president — highlighting Pence’s ties to the corporate right, including the Koch brothers, and the social conservative movement. (Recalling Pence’s time as a member of Congress, a former Republican staff member is quoted as saying Pence “was as far right as you could go without falling off the earth.”)</p>
<p>Although Pence has aided Trump is serving a liaison to Congress and administration officials, the article says Trump likes to “let Pence know who’s boss.” Citing two sources familiar with a meeting Trump and Pence had with a legal scholar, the article says Trump mocked his vice president’s views.</p>
<p>The legal scholar reportedly said if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, many states would legalize abortion on their own, prompting Trump to say to Pence, “You see? You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.”</p>
<p>When the discussion at the meeting turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy — he wants to hang them all!”</p>
<p>Pence has a long anti-LGBT history that consists of voting against LGBT rights in Congress, including support for a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage nationwide as well as opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, hate crimes legislation and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. But Pence most famously signed a religious freedom law enabling anti-LGBT discrimination before being forced to sign a “fix” under pressure from the LGBT community and business leaders.</p>
<p>In 2000, Pence’s campaign material indicated he thinks funding for HIV programs should be contingent upon directing resources to “institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” Many have interpreted that to mean Pence supports widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy, although a Pence spokesperson has said he never supports it.</p>
<p>Amid the enactment of anti-LGBT policy over the course of the administration, many have suspected Pence has facilitated that change based on history. In fact, sources have told the Los Angeles Blade the vice president is leading on those action, although Pence denied taking an active role in that.</p>
<p>The Washington Blade has placed a request in with the White House seeking comment on why Trump would make that joke and whether he thinks the death penalty for homosexual acts is a human rights violation. (The Trump administration came out strongly against foreign laws condemning gay people to death in a statement after the United States voted “no” on a controversial death penalty resolution at the United Nations.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mike Pence</a></p> | Report: Trump joked Pence ‘wants to hang’ all gay people | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/10/16/report-trump-joked-pence-wants-hang-gay-people/ | 3 |
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<p>Meaghan LaSala is an organizer with Students for #USMFuture. She is a Women and Gender Studies major at the University of Southern Maine. Meaghan also organizes with students around the state to divest more Maine schools from the fossil fuel industry.</p>
<p>Rachel Bouvier is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Southern Maine, and has been teaching there since 2005. She teaches several classes that serve the business school and the Environmental Science and Policy Program, and is actively involved in service learning and the general education curriculum. Her specialty is environmental and natural resource economics - her most recent publication is forthcoming in the journal Ecological Economics .</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />On Monday, hundreds of students, faculty, and supporters rallied at University of Southern Maine against the announced layoffs of 20 full-time faculty members. Monday's rally follows a Friday occupation of the school's provost's office, who announced the cuts. Additionally, four academic programs will also be slashed.
<p />
<p />The cuts are part of a $14&#160;million budget shortfall and a part of broader cuts across the University of Maine system, which expects to cut more than 150 faculty and staff members this year.
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<p />Now joining us to discuss all of this are our two guests, directly involved with the rally.
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<p />We have Meaghan LaSala, who is a student at the University of Southern Maine.
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<p />And also joining us is Rachel Bouvier. She's an associate professor of economics at the University of Southern Maine, and she found out just recently, last Friday, that she was laid off.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />RACHEL BOUVIER, ASSOC. PROF. OF ECONOMICS, UNIV. SOUTHERN MAINE: Thank you.
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<p />MEAGHAN LASALA, ORGANIZER, STUDENTS FOR #USMFUTURE: Thanks for having me.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Meaghan, I want to start off with you, because these actions have been described as a student-led and -organized protest. Tell us why you're protesting.
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<p />LASALA: Sure. Well, we're definitely working in collaboration with faculty and staff also.
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<p />And we're protesting for a lot of reasons. Part of the reason we're protesting is because many of the faculty that are being laid off are tenured faculty, and the faculty have not been properly consulted in these plans about which departments are being eliminated.
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<p />But we also think, more fundamentally, that there really is no reason behind these layoffs. Susan Feiner is a professor here. She's done a lot--she's an economics professor and has done a lot of research into the actual financial situation of our university system. We have seven universities in our system. We got a bond rating of AA-, which is the fourth highest possible grade. We got a Standard &amp; Poor's rating that was stellar, saying the outlook for our system is stable over the next two years. And so we really question whether there even really is a financial crisis happening here.
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<p />And we want to look at the way money is being spent in the administration throughout the University of Maine system. I think we really see this whole supposed financial crisis as part of a nationwide trend of the corporatization of public higher education and the corporate war on public higher education. And so we're interested in talking about it in those terms.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Rachel, you were a tenured economics professor, yet you found out that you were being laid off on Friday. The university came out and they essentially said that the order of layoffs was actually a product of the system's faculty contracts. Those contracts are negotiated by the union. What's your response? And was that interpretation of why you were laid off accurate?
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<p />BOUVIER: Well, according to the union contract, yes.
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<p />What the administration is doing here is they are targeting certain programs for retrenchment. And then, once they've targeted those certain programs for retrenchment, then it goes by reverse seniority. So even though I have been at USM for nine years--I was hired in July&#160;2005--I am the least senior member in my department. And so I was given a letter that my position would be retrenched, along with the chair, by the way, of the department, Vaishali Mamgain, who has been here for 15 years.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. I want to, though, speak specifically to what the university is saying to why they have to make these cuts. They see dropping enrollment and this budget gap. So at the end of the day, how else are they supposed to deal with leaner budgets if not make cuts? What's your response, Rachel?
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<p />BOUVIER: I agree that they do need to make cuts. I think that there's quite a bit of redundancy in the university overall, specifically in the administration. But also I think that even if they do need cuts, even if they do need to make cuts, then they need to do it in a much more intelligent way than what they're doing.
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<p />Basically what I've been told is that they looked at the number of majors per faculty member, which is--it seems on the surface to make sense, but they were not looking at the number of student credit hours, the number of students that we actually teach. So, for example, in the economics department, we not only teach economics majors, but we also teach students in the business school, and I personally teach students in the environmental science and policy program. And that was not a factor in deciding where these retrenchments should take place.
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<p />So the issue for me is not whether the university should make cuts but where it should make cuts. And I think a lot of the noise, too, around--in these protests has been the idea that the administration should share a lot of the--should share some of the hurt that they're causing here. And there have been layoffs in the administration, but we don't feel that cutting the faculty and cutting the very faculty who are dynamic and involved and bring, you know, fresh ideas and innovation into the university should be where those cuts come from.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. Meaghan, I want to turn to you, because you're a student there, and I can imagine that when you decided to become a student, that you weren't expecting to also have to organize and fight this fight. So just describe for us in essence what is really motivating you, what is pushing you. Was there a direct experience that happened to you where you realized that you had to speak out about this?
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<p />LASALA: Sure. Well, you know, I consider myself to be a place-based student. I live and work here in Portland, Maine. And part of the reason I'm--I'm also a nontraditional student. And part of the reason I decided to go back to school was because I saw that the University of Southern Maine was such an incredible resource here in my home town.
<p />
<p />And what I see happening is people being told that they can no longer have a humanities education here, they can no longer have a thriving social sciences department. I think that this is what we're moving towards, and I really want to stand up for southern Maine's right to have a thriving university here in our area.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Meaghan LaSala, also joining us Rachel Bouvier, thank you both for joining us.
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<p />BOUVIER: Thank you.
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<p />LASALA: Thanks for having us.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Hundreds of Students & Faculty Occupy College Campus to Fight Cuts to Public Higher Ed | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11638 | 2014-03-24 | 4 |
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<p>“I’m in Haiti.” Thus began a series of emails and texts from my friend (and MoJo board member) Jon Pageler, who’s in Haiti as part of a big relief/supply run being mounted by his company Diageo. For the specifics of what they’re doing—45,000 pounds of food, WHO sanctioned health kits, and the participation of the Washington Redskins (true!)— I had to <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diageo-airlift-provides-humanitarian-relief-to-aid-haitian-earthquake-victims-81684617.html" type="external">dig out a press release</a>. But Jon’s notes, which I’ve cobbled together with his permission, give a flavor of what’s happening that I thought was worth passing along.</p>
<p>Made delivery with DHL of 2 truck loads of supplies 2 Salvation army’s mission on Dumas 2 (factcheck4me). Very poor neighborhood very badly damaged. Mission is housing about 80 refugee families. Still many bodies in the street although most r covered with sheets. The smell of decomposition is beginning 2 take hold. Massive fabric shanty towns have sprung up all over the city. Airport much better controlled now. Planes r getting in, even at night. Carrier (at least what it looked like flying in) off our shore. Just said hello to Diane Sawyer. Haitians seem united. Big march today in solidarity, filled with song, emotion and resolve. Food and medical relief will soon be reaching many more.</p>
<p>And a little later:</p>
<p>All is good here. We are overnighting on the tarmac, literally. We built a fort of sorts out of the remaining food supplies and are sleeping on the bags of rice. Airport is very noisy as there is a steady stream of C-130s and C-17s coming in. Wind from the jets/props actually helps with the bugs and keeps the air circulating so it has its pluses.</p>
<p>Many of the newly arriving relief workers are pitching tents in the grass lawns at the end of the airport so things are pretty secure in here. Our fort will be gone (dispersed) tomorrow so we will have to find another solution to our sleeping situation. Skies are clear so that is a good thing and Mars appears to be burning brightly.</p>
<p>We’ve had more than a few relief workers and media ask if we could spare some food and we’ve allocated a ration of corn beef hash for that purpose. We are hoping some of that goodwill will get us on a search and rescue mission with the French team that flew in today along with their dogs—after we’ve finished delivering the rest of the supplies, of course. Good news about the airport and our DHL friends is that they have power, so we can get charged up. Sat phones are worthless for incoming so use email or text. There is just a ton of activity here now. Probably 20 big planes an hour. Fuel and water are in short supply so hopefully there is a planeload or two of those. Even search and rescue have been asking us for water. And I don’t even want to know how much we’ve been paying for gas.</p>
<p>Next email came a few hours later. To understand this it helps to know that Jon used to do advance for political campaigns.</p>
<p>Getting here was planes trains and automobiles—ok, only planes but it felt like it. We flew to Miami on thursday 6am, heard that planes were not getting in to PAP and that they were being diverted to Turks and Caicos. So we flew to T&amp;C thursday morning to try to negotiate a ride on a plane. Problem was that the airport was way too congested and planes that had been circling for upwards of three hours were landing at our FBO. Including a Canadian military plane. So we began to lose faith and began calling fishing boat captains. When that didn’t work we began considering flying into Dom Rep and driving over. We had heard varying stories of success. Some trips taking 6 hours, others taking 16. We almost took a Dom Rep flight opportunity but decided against it when a collection of Haitians arrived. They were clearly doers, and rich, and you just knew that they were going to get into PAP no matter what. At about the same time a DC3 from Missionary Flights International landed and decided to overnight and yet first thing in the morning. Sounded like a good plan as it was getting close to dusk and we didn’t want to arrive here at night (although now that we have seen the situation here that would not have been a problem). We found a cheap hotel and had a truly spectacular dinner in T&amp;C and planned for a 6:30 departure to the airport. We were told it got light around 8am and that the airport didn’t open until 7.</p>
<p>While it was true that the airport opened at 7, it was not true that dawn came at 8am, as the morning glow through my window just before 6am indicated. And this was all the rich Haitians needed —we saw their plane climbing from the tarmac as we were loading our bags into the taxi. This was deflating as they had a huge plane we knew that they would let us ride with them. And we had no doubt they’d make it in. Even if they just landed without permission.The MFI flight also needed to take on a ton of extra fuel so they couldn’t take us due to weight concerns.</p>
<p>Things weren’t looking good so I began securing us a single prop plane that would try to pick its way to the closest strip it could find to PAP. As we were finalising that deal a pair of dual prop planes chartered by the Salvation Army showed up. They had two extra seats and an interest in us cause we were advancing a plane with medical supplies and food. This fact could help them get permission to land at PAP, which it is what it is all about these days. Well, it worked and we are here. As is our cargo plane – a 727-200 with 45K worth of supplies.</p>
<p>Jesus there are a ton of planes pulling in and none of them are turning off their engines.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Jon’s next letter, Day Two: Trying to Leave the Airport, <a href="" type="internal">can be read here.</a> Day Three, Looting, What Looting, <a href="" type="internal">can be read here</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | From My Friend in Haiti | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/my-friend-haiti/ | 2010-01-16 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>PHOENIX - A new proposal in the Legislature would end dog racing in Arizona at the end of 2016 but allow the state's lone remaining greyhound racing facility in Tucson to collect money from offering televised horse racing for at least two years.</p>
<p>The last-minute proposal that emerged Wednesday as a Senate amendment to House Bill 2127 was sponsored by Republican Sen. Steve Yarbrough of Chandler. The bill is backed by the owners of Tucson Greyhound Park and allows them to continue to collect about $500,000 a year from horse racing operators that operate off-track wagering at the track for two years.</p>
<p>Track lobbyist Mike Racy says it allows them to end racing while transitioning the business. That provision is opposed by backers of horse racing, including Sen. Steve Pierce of Prescott.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Legislation would end dog racing in Arizona | false | https://abqjournal.com/741539/legislation-would-end-dog-racing-in-arizona.html | 2 |
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<p>Jan 18(Reuters) - Huaren Pharmaceutical Co Ltd :</p>
<p>* Says it and unit received goods manufacture practice (GMP) certificate from Shandong Food and Drug Administration</p>
<p>* Says certificate issued to injection and hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4 manufactured by the company and the valid period is until Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 13, 2022</p>
<p>Source text in Chinese: <a href="https://goo.gl/dS5GWQ" type="external">goo.gl/dS5GWQ</a></p>
<p>Further company coverage: (Beijing Headline News)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump accused Russia and China on Monday of devaluing their currencies while the United States raises interest rates.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump makes a statement about Syria at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
<p>"Russia and China are playing the Currency Devaluation game as the U.S. keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable!" Trump said in a Twitter post.</p>
<p>The U.S. Treasury, in a semi-annual report on Friday, again refrained from naming any major trading partners as currency manipulators as it pursues potential tariffs and negotiations to try to cut a massive trade deficit with China.</p>
<p>Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales rebounded in March after three straight monthly declines as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and other big-ticket items, suggesting consumer spending was heading into the second quarter with momentum.</p> A sale sign is seen at car dealer Serramonte Subaru in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
<p>The Commerce Department said on Monday retail sales increased 0.6 percent last month after an unrevised 0.1 percent dip in February. January data was revised to show sales falling 0.2 percent instead of the previously reported 0.1 percent drop.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-global-forex-retailsales/dollar-index-holds-losses-after-u-s-march-retail-sales-data-idUSKBN1HN1PY" type="external">Dollar index holds losses after U.S. March retail sales data</a>
<p>Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales rising 0.4 percent in March. Retail sales in March increased 4.5 percent from a year ago.</p>
<p>Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month after being unchanged in February. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.</p> FILE PHOTO - Cars are seen in a parking lot in Palm Springs, California, U.S. on April 13, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
<p>They were previously reported to have risen 0.1 percent in February. Last month's pick-up in core retail sales will do little to change expectations of a sharp slowdown in consumer spending in the first quarter.</p>
<p>The dollar was trading weaker against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. Treasuries were marginally lower while U.S. stock index futures rose slightly.</p>
<p>Economists largely blame the weakness in retail sales at the start of the year on delays in processing tax refunds. Some also argue that income tax cuts which came into effect in January, only reflected on most workers' paychecks in late February.</p>
<p>Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew at a robust 4.0 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter. It is expected to have slowed to below a 1.5 percent rate of increase in the first quarter.</p> A shopper walks in the Old Town shopping area of Pasadena, California, U.S. June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
<p>Growth estimates for the January-March quarter are running below a 2 percent rate. The economy expanded at a 2.9 percent pace in the October-December quarter. The government will publish its advance estimate for first-quarter GDP growth later this month.</p>
<p>In March, auto sales jumped 2.0 percent, the largest increase since last September, after declining 1.3 percent in February. Receipts at service stations fell 0.3 percent, reflecting cheaper gasoline.</p>
<p>Sales at furniture stores climbed 0.7 percent while those at electronics and appliance stores increased 0.5 percent. But sales at building material stores fell 0.6 percent last month.</p>
<p>Receipts at clothing stores dropped 0.8 percent while sales at online retailers increased 0.8 percent. Sales at restaurants and bars gained 0.4 percent. Receipts at sporting goods and hobby stores dropped 1.8 percent.</p>
<p>Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Commerce is banning American companies from selling components to Chinese telecom equipment maker&#160;ZTE Corp for seven years for violating the terms of a sanctions violation case, U.S. officials told Reuters.</p> Visitors pass in front of the Chinese telecoms equipment group ZTE Corp booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Perez
<p>The Chinese company pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Texas for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran. It paid $890 million in fines and penalties, with an additional penalty of $300 million that could be imposed.</p>
<p>As part of the agreement, Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp promised to dismiss four senior employees and discipline 35 others by either reducing their bonuses or reprimanding them, senior Commerce Department officials told Reuters. But the Chinese company admitted in March that while it had fired the four senior employees, it had not disciplined or reduced bonuses to the 35 others.</p>
<p>Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Steve Stecklow; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has banned American companies from selling telecommunications equipment to China's ZTE Corp after the Chinese company illegally shipped telecom equipment to Iran and North Korea, the Commerce Department said on Monday.</p> Visitors pass in front of the Chinese telecoms equipment group ZTE Corp booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
<p>"ZTE made false statements to the U.S. Government when they were originally caught and put on the Entity List, made false statements during the reprieve it was given, and made false statements again during its probation," Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement</p>
<p>Reporting by David Lawder and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Huaren Pharmaceutical receives GMP certificate Trump says Russia, China playing 'currency devaluation game' Automobiles drive U.S. retail sales higher in March Exclusive: U.S. bans American companies from selling to China's ZTE Commerce Department bars U.S. companies from selling to China's ZTE | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-huaren-pharmaceutical-receives-gmp/brief-huaren-pharmaceutical-receives-gmp-certificate-idUSL3N1PD1SN | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>California’s state and local governments could be hit with an increase of tens of millions to several hundred million dollars in annual health care costs if <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_46,_Medical_Malpractice_Lawsuits_Cap_and_Drug_Testing_of_Doctors_(2014)" type="external">Proposition 46</a> passes on Nov. 4. That was the <a href="http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/health/2014/Proposition-46-092914.pdf" type="external">warning</a> from California legislative analyst Ross Brown at a&#160; <a href="http://calchannel.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&amp;clip_id=2456" type="external">joint legislative committee informational hearing</a> on the initiative on Monday.</p>
<p>The proposition also would raise costs for private health care providers, Brown said. But he did not estimate a dollar amount. Several providers warned the costs would be significant enough to force them to reduce medical services, particularly for the state’s poorest residents.</p>
<p>The main cost driver in the initiative is the raising of the $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages for medical malpractice to match inflation. The cap was implemented by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_Injury_Compensation_Reform_Act" type="external">Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act</a> in 1975. That means the cap&#160;would increase to about $1.1 million today, then rise even higher annually depending on future inflation.</p>
<p>Malpractice costs currently represent about 2&#160;percent of total annual health care spending in California. A 440 percent increase in the damages cap would force companies with health care&#160;either to pay increased premiums to insurance companies or pay more out-of-pocket if they are self-insured.</p>
<p>The two other major provisions of Prop. 46 – requiring providers to check the state’s prescription drug database and mandating drug testing of physicians – could result in offsetting costs and savings, according to Brown. For example, there would be additional costs for drug testing, but it might result in fewer instances of medical malpractice.</p>
<p>The first half of the three-hour hearing focused on emotional testimony from the proposition’s author, <a href="http://www.protectconsumerjustice.org/bob-pack-the-man-behind-californias-patient-safety-initiative.html" type="external">Bob Pack</a>, and others whose family members have been killed by medical malpractice.</p>
<p>Pack said his two children were killed and his wife injured when they were hit by a driver under the influence of prescription narcotics, mainly Vicodin. The woman’s drugs were provided by six doctors, none of whom was&#160;aware other doctors were writing prescriptions for the same woman.</p>
<p>To prevent that kind of “doctor shopping” by drug addicts, Pack lobbied the state Legislature to create the <a href="http://oag.ca.gov/cures-pdmp" type="external">Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System database</a>. But only about 30,000 doctors and pharmacists out of a total 200,000 in California are using it. Prop. 46 would require the remaining 170,000 to consult the database before prescribing or dispensing drugs for first-time users.</p>
<p>Gary Heller told the committee his wife Linda developed chronic neck pain after being rear-ended in an auto accident. A doctor prescribed a dangerous level of morphine sulfate, which led to her death after suffering for 32 days in the hospital.</p>
<p>The specialist subsequently was arrested for several DUIs, was in treatment programs and relapsed, Heller said.</p>
<p>“If Proposition 46 had been in, in my opinion, my wife’s doctor would have been caught before he negligently prescribed the drugs that caused her respiratory failure,” he said. “I believe the outcome was totally preventable. And that is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life.”</p>
<p>Tammy Smick said her 20-year-old son Alex was prescribed a lethal combination of medications in an Orange County hospital. Ironically, Alex had checked himself into the same hospital to safely detox off prescription medications he had become addicted to after a back injury.</p>
<p>“Alex was one of up to 440,000 Americans who are killed every year because of preventable medical error,” she said. “But to me Alex is not merely a statistic, he’s my son. I am not fighting for money. I am fighting for justice and accountability. And in memory of my beloved son, I am fighting for change so that no others suffer the same devastation.”</p>
<p>Michelle Monserratt-Ramos’s fiancée died after a surgical mistake resulted in infection. His doctor has been arrested for possession of crack cocaine, she said, but is still practicing medicine. She could not get a lawyer to take the case due to the low cap on non-economic damages.</p>
<p>“They told us, ‘You absolutely have a case, but because of the [cap] we are sorry, but it would not be a good business decision to take Lloyd’s case,’” she said. “Believe me, you don’t ever want to hear that [your loved one’s] life or their death is a bad business decision. All any victim or their family wants is answers and to be able to hold a negligent doctor accountable in order to save someone else’s life.”</p>
<p>The opposition to Prop. 46 was led by Farrah McDaid Ting, representing the <a href="http://www.counties.org/" type="external">California State Association of Counties</a>. California’s 58 counties operate public hospitals and clinics that serve more than 3&#160;million people annually, she said, providing a health care safety net for California’s poorest residents.</p>
<p>“Proposition 46 will increase costs for counties,” she said. “All of these services could be negatively affected if Proposition 46 became law. Especially for counties that self-insure, the increase in medical malpractice claims and costs would be devastating to them. It would come directly out of county general fund dollars.</p>
<p>“We’re also worried about the administrative nightmares that could happen under Proposition 46. We’re concerned about the potential for increased numbers of suits and the amount of staff time that those would require. We are working to continue providing critical health services, and we worry that Proposition 46 would reduce county resources at a time when they are needed the most.”</p>
<p>Ruth Haskins, a Sacramento OB-GYN, said the initiative will drive up health care costs, hurting the poor.</p>
<p>“Many of the patients that I treat come to me from the emergency room referrals and are on Medi-Cal,” she said. “They simply wouldn’t be able to afford the exorbitant increased health care costs that Proposition 46 would yield. I worry that that would mean that they wouldn’t get the necessary prenatal care to ensure safe, low-risk deliveries for healthy babies.</p>
<p>“If Prop. 46 were to pass, OB-GYNs like me, along with other high-risk specialists, would be forced to reduce our services or close their doors altogether. Proponents may say this measure is about safety. But the truth is Prop. 46 doesn’t do anything to improve safety or quality of health care in California. In fact, it would do just the opposite.”</p>
<p>Cathy Frey, CEO of the <a href="http://cvhnclinics.org/" type="external">Central Valley Health Network</a>, also warned that health centers and community clinics “may have to look at what services they can continue providing.”</p>
<p>Cesar Diaz, representing the <a href="http://www.sbctc.org/" type="external">State Building and Construction Trades Council</a>, said his union’s 400,000 members and their families are already having to pay extra for the same level of health care. He’s concerned that Prop. 46 will force them to pay even more.</p>
<p>“We see Prop. 46 as being a venue for increased legal costs and basically attorneys having more access to such financing,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/" type="external">American Civil Liberties Union</a> representative Michael Risher said the ACLU is opposed to the physician drug testing provision in the measure.</p>
<p>“It’s an unwarranted invasion of the privacy that our California Constitution specifically protects,” he said. “It’s unlikely to make us any safer.</p>
<p>“And it’s particularly galling that this provision was apparently thrown in not because people cared about drug testing – I think there’s a recognition that’s something more properly addressed by this Legislature – but because it apparently did well in focus groups and was thrown in as a sweetener, despite the fact that California’s Constitution does have a single-subject rule for initiatives.”</p>
<p>The “single-subject rule” exists to ensure initiatives stay on topic and don’t become grab bags of different changes in the law. However, <a href="http://weblaw.usc.edu/assets/docs/Matsusaka_Aggressive_Enforcement.pdf" type="external">a study</a> by the University of California found court enforcement of the rule is not rigorous.</p>
<p><a href="http://sd19.senate.ca.gov/" type="external">Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson</a>, D-Santa Barbara, said she’s a big fan of the ACLU, but strongly disagreed with its opposition to physician drug testing.</p>
<p>“As someone who’s had more than my share of surgery, I want to make sure that my physician is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol while performing that surgery,” she said. “We require school bus drivers … to undergo some level of drug testing.</p>
<p>“As a supporter of ACLU I’m a tad surprised about the extent of your indignation about the notion of wanting to make sure that our doctors, particularly in hospitals where life and death decisions are made, are actually equipped mentally to perform those procedures.”</p>
<p>Risher responded, “It’s not that any of us wants to be operated on by a physician who’s under the influence. The data on random, suspicionless drug testing tend to show very little deterrent effect and very little enforcement effect with anything aside from marijuana, because that stays in the system longer than drugs like alcohol, cocaine and heroin.”</p>
<p>Jackson also argued it makes sense to increase the malpractice damages cap as a deterrent punishment for what she called the 5&#160;percent of physicians who are guilty of 95 percent of medical malpractice.</p>
<p>But <a href="http://asmdc.org/members/a09/" type="external">Assemblyman Richard Pan</a>, D-Sacramento, who is also a pediatrician at a Sacramento clinic, disagreed.</p>
<p>“I do take issue with the statement that the only thing that will get doctors and hospitals to pay attention to quality is financial,” he said. “The research I’ve seen shows very little correlation between medical liability suits and quality improvement. In fact, most of the patient safety and quality literature talks about systems change, transforming the health care delivery.”</p>
<p>Frey agreed, saying that numerous laws and oversight regulators already provide safeguards for patients.</p>
<p>“Community clinics and health centers, particularly those that are federally funded, are under an enormous amount of scrutiny,” she said. “They report to the federal government, they report to the state of California. They report, report, report. And quality is our number one issue.”</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2485.pdf" type="external">Field poll</a> conducted in the second half of August showed support for Prop. 46 had dropped to just 34 percent (with 37 percent opposed and 29 percent undecided) from the 58 percent support (30 percent opposed, 12 percent undecided) it had received in late June/early July. The drop in support followed an increased campaign of TV ads by the anti-46 side.</p> | Hearings dissect Prop. 46 on medical malpractice | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/10/01/hearings-dissect-prop-46-on-medical-malpractice/ | 2018-10-20 | 3 |
<p>BERLIN (AP) — An American diplomat has visited Donald Trump’s ancestral home in Germany and suggested the U.S. president might someday pay a personal visit.</p>
<p>The U.S. consul general in Frankfurt, James W. Herman, said during a trip Thursday to Kallstadt, in Germany’s southwestern wine-growing region, that “I can’t think of a better place for a visit.”</p>
<p>Herman’s tour included a stop at the house where Trump’s paternal grandfather was born. Friedrich Trump, who left Germany for the U.S. as a teenager, later tried to return but was expelled for having failed to perform military service.</p>
<p>Herman said that no arrangements had been made for a visit by Donald Trump, according to German news agency dpa. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin said it had no announcement to make.</p>
<p>BERLIN (AP) — An American diplomat has visited Donald Trump’s ancestral home in Germany and suggested the U.S. president might someday pay a personal visit.</p>
<p>The U.S. consul general in Frankfurt, James W. Herman, said during a trip Thursday to Kallstadt, in Germany’s southwestern wine-growing region, that “I can’t think of a better place for a visit.”</p>
<p>Herman’s tour included a stop at the house where Trump’s paternal grandfather was born. Friedrich Trump, who left Germany for the U.S. as a teenager, later tried to return but was expelled for having failed to perform military service.</p>
<p>Herman said that no arrangements had been made for a visit by Donald Trump, according to German news agency dpa. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin said it had no announcement to make.</p> | US diplomat visits Trump’s ancestral home in Germany | false | https://apnews.com/ac77966d990b4fd8b514694f914daef8 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>This is one of the "Janet" planes, which are supposedly used to fly government workers to Groom Lake and other secret sites. | Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/19779889@N00/2750451353/sizes/l/"&gt;19779889@N00&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href="http://www.creativecommons.org"&gt;Creative Commons&lt;/a&gt;).</p>
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<p>Beth Hawkins has an article in the latest issue of Mother Jones (it’s also in the front-page slider today) about American soldiers who believe they have been <a href="/politics/2010/03/toxic-fire-pits-iraq-afghanistan-us-military" type="external">sickened by the fumes</a> from military “burn pits,” which are exactly as unpleasant as you might suspect:</p>
<p>In the past 17 months, more than 500 veterans have contacted <a href="http://www.dav.org/" type="external">Disabled American Veterans</a> (DAV), a national nonprofit serving vets, to report illnesses they blame on the burn pits. Throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors—many of the burn pits are operated by companies like former <a href="http://www.halliburton.com/" type="external">Halliburton</a> subsidiary <a href="http://www.kbr.com/" type="external">KBR</a>—have dumped hundreds of tons of refuse into giant open-air trenches, doused the piles with fuel, and left them to burn. The trash includes plastic, metal, asbestos, batteries, tires, unexploded ordnance, medical waste, even entire trucks. (The military now operates several actual incinerators and has made efforts to create recycling programs, but the majority of war-zone trash is still burned in pits.)</p>
<p>What Beth doesn’t mention in her story is that the military’s use of burn pits has a long and fascinating backstory.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of&#160;Area 51? The Groom&#160;Lake facility—real-life “Area 51″—is in a region in Nevada where the military tests futuristic aircraft. Secret bases produce a lot of secret trash. For years, the base disposed of most of it in giant burn pits. Last year, Mother Jones’ Dave Gilson <a href="/media/2009/02/books-blank-spots-map" type="external">reviewed</a> Blank&#160;Spots on the Map, a book by artist/geographer Trevor Paglen. In it, Paglen tells the story of a lawsuit brought by workers who claim they were sickened by the burn pit fumes at Groom Lake:</p>
<p>Air Force officers at Groom Lake ordered workers to dig trenches the size of football fields, throw the secret trash into the pits, douse the concoction with jet fuel, and light it on fire. Waste from other secret projects started arriving. On Mondays and Wednesdays, trucks hauling classified detritus from projects based in Southern California made their way to Groom Lake, driving past the dormitories and down a road toward the base of Papoose Mountain. In lieu of shipping manifests, when they had paperwork at all, the drivers submitted documents covered with an indecipherable haze of code names. With each arriving convoy, the workers reignited the toxic fires. The London Fog enveloped the base. Walter Kasza, his friend Robert Frost, and many others worked in the thick of it.</p>
<p>When Frost died from a kidney illness his doctors said was related to the industrial toxins found in his body, his wife, Helen, wanted to file a wrongful death suit against his employer, the Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECO). She eventually found a Washington-based watchdog group called the Project on Government Oversight to investigate. The case found its way iuto the hands of Georgtown law professor Jonathan Turley. Other workers at the site who’d developed similarly bizarre illnesses joined the class-action suit.</p>
<p>The military, of course, argued that the base “did not exist,” and asserted the so-called “ <a href="/mojo/2009/12/bush-legacy-still-lives-through-state-secrets" type="external">state secrets privilege</a>“—which works as a sort of get-out-of-court-free-card for the government—to prevent the case from moving forward. All the efforts of Turley—who you may have seen on MSNBC—and POGO, a respected good-government group, were in vain. The judge, Philip Pro, had to dismiss the case, writing that “the defendants’ assertion of the military and state secrets privilege prevented the plaintiffs from providing detailed photographic evidence, sealed affidavits, and information in other exhibits.” The Supreme Court later turned down an appeal. You can look all this up. The case is called Kasza v. Browner—most of the plaintiffs were anonymous for security reasons, but since Kasza died during the trial, his name was attached to the case.</p>
<p /> | The Other Burn Pits | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/other-burn-pits/ | 2010-03-17 | 4 |
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<p>Just eight days before, on Oct. 10, Iran test-launched a medium-range, precision-guided ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead all the way to Israel.</p>
<p>U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said last week that the U.S. had confirmed it was a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in June 2010 imposing sanctions on Iran. Those sanctions remain in place until the Iran nuclear deal with the U.S. and five world powers is implemented. Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday endorsed the deal, but it is not expected to be fully implemented until next year.</p>
<p>The U.N. Security Council should take action to rein in Iran now, but that's not likely because Russia can veto anything that would hold back its Middle Eastern ally. Both Iran and Russia dispute that the missile test is a violation.</p>
<p>The recent launch of the Emad missile was Iran's first missile test since the nuclear deal was reached July 14. It is proof that Iran cannot be trusted to honor its commitments, including the nuclear pact.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Obama administration says the test is separate from the nuclear deal. However, it seems difficult to divorce the two issues. The nuclear agreement is supposed to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and the missile test can be viewed as developing military technology capable of delivering such a weapon.</p>
<p>If Iran can't be trusted to abide by five-year-old U.N. sanctions that have yet to be lifted, then who really thinks it won't continue to secretly and feverishly work on building the nuclear bomb it says it isn't building?</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: Missile launch shows Iran can't be trusted in nuke deal | false | https://abqjournal.com/664167/missile-launch-shows-iran-cant-be-trusted-in-nuke-deal.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>It’s not entirely surprising, but Human Rights Watch points out in a <a href="http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/05/02/usdom13290.htm" type="external">new report</a> that current immigration law discriminates rather seriously against gays and lesbians. There are at least 40,000 same-sex couples in the United States in which one partner is a citizen or permanent resident and the other a foreign national. But in those relationships, the U.S. citizen isn’t allowed to sponsor his or her partner for entry into the country in the way that virtually all heterosexual couples can:</p>
<p>For more than 50 years, family reunification has been a stated and central goal of U.S. immigration policy. Immigration law places a priority on allowing citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their spouses and close relatives for entry into the U.S. Although the system remains imperfect, riddled with delays that rising anti-immigrant sentiment only intensifies, U.S. citizens and their foreign heterosexual partners can easily claim spousal status and the immigration rights that it brings.</p>
<p>U.S. citizens with foreign lesbian or gay partners, however, find that their relationship is considered non-existent under federal law. … Based on interviews and surveys with dozens of binational same-sex couples across the United States and around the world, the report documents the pressures and ordeals that lack of legal recognition imposes on lesbian and gay families. Couples described abuse and harassment by immigration officials. Some partners told stories of being deported from the United States and separated from their partners. Many couples, forced to live in different countries or continents, endure financial as well as emotional strain in keeping their relationships together.</p>
<p>A number of transnational same-sex couples end up in exile in one the 19 countries that actually allow same-sex couples to immigrate. Interestingly—or depressingly; take your pick—the report notes that a good deal of immigration policy in the United States has been motivated by fears of sexuality for quite some time. Up until 1990, the U.S. barred foreign-born gays and lesbians from entering the country, a policy that started in the McCarthy era. It still imposes a ban on H.I.V.-positive individuals from entering the country—one of the only industrialized countries to do so—despite the fact that there’s not really a compelling public health reason to do so. And now this, which, sadly, isn’t likely to be corrected anytime soon.</p> | Same-Sex Couples and Immigration | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/same-sex-couples-and-immigration/ | 2006-05-02 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) fell 11% in October 2016, <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/Login.aspx" type="external">according to data from S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The hard-drive maker's sad trombone was voiced by a softer-than-expected first quarter, starting with a preliminary earnings report on October 11.</p>
<p>You might recall <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/13/how-seagate-technology-plc-jumped-14-higher-in-sep.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Seagate rising 14% in September Opens a New Window.</a>, based on positive signs for the global PC market and a $400 million direct investment in the company by activist investor firm ValueAct Capital. The September action set a high bar for Seagate's actual first-quarter results, and the company didn't exactly impress investors.</p>
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<p>Seagate likes to issue preliminary results a couple of weeks before each final earnings report, and this period was no different. This time, the early look raised management's revenue guidance from $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion. Gross margins were sketched out at 29% versus the existing expectation of "at least 27%." So things are getting better, but not quite as quickly as many investors had been hoping for.</p>
<p>The day of the update Seagate shares plunged 7.6%.</p>
<p>The complete first-quarter report was very much in line with the preliminary guidance, and did not move the stock at all.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/STX" type="external">STX Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Following up on the earnings report, analysts raised their price targets but lamented Seagate's lack of strong financial guidance. Despite ValueAct Capital's $400 million buy-in, this was not a game-changing quarter in any way. So October's solid data undermined September's rosy reading of the tea leaves, and the whole two-month period was a wash.</p>
<p>Back to the lab again. Seagate still needs to figure out how to remain relevant in a storage market that's being <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/23/why-micron-technology-incs-new-solid-state-drive-i.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">flooded by solid-state drives Opens a New Window.</a> at increasingly competitive price points. If ValueAct is taking the company in a new direction, investors haven't been told yet.</p>
<p>Stay tuned -- and in my opinion, stay on the sidelines.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFZahrim/info.aspx" type="external">Anders Bylund Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Seagate Technology PLC Fell 11% in October | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/07/why-seagate-technology-plc-fell-11-in-october.html | 2016-11-07 | 0 |
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>A pioneer among Southern Baptist women in ministry and early supporter of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is stepping down as pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga.</p>
<p>Julie Pennington-Russell, announced April 29 in an open letter to church members that May 31 will be her final Sunday at the flagship CBF congregation.</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell, 54, who was called as the first female pastor of the historic church located in the Atlanta suburb in 2007, cited “persistent tensions and divisions within our fellowship” for leading her to what she termed “a difficult decision.”</p>
<p>“After months of prayer and contemplation, Tim and I have discerned that for the sake of my own mental, physical and spiritual health, I must step away from First Baptist, Decatur,” she said.</p>
<p>The “first of several challenging seasons,” she said, was a decision in 2011-2012 to restructure the church budget, which resulted in the departures of some staff and numerous church members.</p>
<p>“During these difficult times, I have done my best to listen for God and to lead this congregation according to Holy Spirit’s guidance,” Pennington-Russell said. “However, I’m afraid that today our church has become ‘stuck.’ The sticking point for more than a few appears to be me, and my leadership.”</p>
<p>First Baptist deacons accepted Pennington Russell’s resignation “with great sadness,” said deacon chair Lou Ann Brown.</p>
<p>“Through her leadership, this body of believers has grown in faith, practiced radical hospitality, mentored many seminarians for vocational ministry, welcomed thousands of people through our doors and worked to make the kingdom of God more evident at home in Decatur and throughout the world,” Brown said.&#160; “We are praying and trusting that God will reveal new doors for us&#160;and Pastor Julie as we continue to strive to be His responsive servants.”</p>
<p>Pennington Russell said she is proud of the church “for taking courageous and difficult steps during these past eight years.”</p>
<p>“In truth, they’ve done most of the heavy lifting and are today a wonderfully diverse bunch of Christ-followers with a positive reputation in Decatur,” she said.</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell said her decision “has been more than a few months in coming,” and follows a spiritual discernment process she and her husband began during a sabbatical last summer.</p>
<p>A native of Orlando, Fla., and graduate of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Pennington-Russell first attracted national attention in 1993. After Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco called her as pastor, the California Southern Baptist Convention <a href="http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/7677,17-Nov-1993.PDF" type="external">refused</a> to seat messengers from the congregation because it was led by a woman.</p>
<p>In 1998 she became the first female senior pastor of a church affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas — Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas — prompting protestors to picket the church’s Sunday morning worship service.</p>
<p>In 2009 the Georgia Baptist Convention ended its 148-year-old relationship with First Baptist Church of Decatur, finding the decision two years earlier to call a woman as pastor outside the parameters of the Baptist Faith and Message statement adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000.</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell has been active in denominational leadership, serving on groups including the CBF Coordinating Council and the board of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. In 2008 she was a featured speaker at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, a multiracial national Baptist gathering spearheaded by former President Jimmy Carter.</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell preached at the 2002 CBF General Assembly in Fort Worth, Texas, a time when not all CBF churches were comfortable with seeing a woman in the pulpit. Most recently she preached a sermon at the 2014 General Assembly in Atlanta.</p>
<p>For several years First Baptist Church in Decatur has provided meeting space for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and in 2013 the Fellowship relocated its offices from Mercer University’s Atlanta campus to an office building across the street from the church.</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell said she made her decision to resign “with sadness but without bitterness.”</p>
<p>“In truth, my prevailing emotion is gratitude,” she said. “Despite the challenges we’ve faced, I’m enormously grateful to have answered your call to serve as your pastor. These eight years have brought a wealth of ministry experiences and blessed my family with loving relationships that we will cherish for the rest of our lives.”</p>
<p>Pennington-Russell asked friends on Facebook to “join me in praying for the remarkable First Baptist Church of Decatur as they lean into God’s good future together.” She also requested prayer for her family “as we pray for guidance about our own future.” Her husband, Tim Pennington-Russell, <a href="http://smokerisebaptist.org/visitors/staff.aspx" type="external">serves</a> on staff at Smoke Rise Baptist Church as social media and publications coordinator.</p>
<p>“The way forward is unclear at this moment, yet I feel at peace about that,” she wrote in her letter to the congregation.</p>
<p>“For 30 years, with three extraordinary congregations, Tim and I have been (in the words of an FBC friend) ‘running errands’ for God,” she said. “We trust that God will reveal our next steps in due time.”</p>
<p>Previous stories:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Pennington-Russell set to make history as pastor of large Decatur church</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Georgia Baptists cut ties with church led by woman pastor</a></p> | Julie Pennington-Russell resigns as pastor of FBC Decatur | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/julie-pennington-russell-resigns-as-pastor-of-fbc-decatur/ | 3 |
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<p>The latest chapter of resistance to Trumpism in particular, and society’s ills in general is the refreshingly feminist movement to “out” sexual harassment. This development is long overdue and parallels all other movements for social justice, whose progress often display a ratcheting quality of a couple steps forward, and then a couple in retreat. In many ways the latest round is built on the waves of social change going back to the original fights for emancipation and suffrage. The fact that feminists have reached public position and office, and are using those rostrums to speak out offers a glimpse of what is possible if we don’t slide back. Unfortunately we can find too many examples of women in public roles playing the “man’s” game, and too often the results are dismal. Jeane Kirkpatrick, Sarah Palin, Madeline “500,000 dead Iraqi&#160; children were worth it” Albright, and Hillary Clinton all demonstrated that gender itself did not ensure humanitarian/egalitarian actions. Nor did&#160; avowed liberalism guarantee its proponent, of either gender, to walk in another’s shoes.</p>
<p>In many ways the social/sexual revolution of the 60s has brought us to this place. The need to change course then was obvious to many, but our efforts were often clumsy. Long standing insensitive, or just plain bad&#160; behaviors of gender stereotypes prevailed through many a movement. Those times were as difficult as they were exhilarating. Brothers and sisters and lovers set out to change the world without a road map, and often fell into old behaviors. For all the hope for change, the new language of sexual freedom showed how hollow those efforts could be.&#160; The crude idiom of of hoping “to get some” was at its core an act of conquering, instead of sharing and realizing connection. The Al Franken case illustrates this point well. One person’s shtick is another’s offense due to lack of consent. While a basic truth of all humor is pointing out someone’s discomfort, sexual and gender based humor also implies&#160; a power relationship of dominance.</p>
<p>Race relations at home, imperialism abroad, the environment, and sexual preference all have been focuses of efforts parallel to the feminist movement. All have a great deal more to accomplish, in part because the fundamental concept of nurturing has not risen high enough on the list of acceptable actions for society to take, even in reform movements.&#160; The idea of placing one’s own needs below those of another’s, to make someone’s life better is quite different than taking, using, and dominating. In this regard gender relations parallel our financial relationships, where fiduciary responsibility is given a wink and a nod, and self interest is celebrated. Greed is good.</p>
<p>Time has smoothed over a great deal of the radicalism of the 60s, allowing retrenchment into the “establishment”.&#160; Many of the worst behaviors of “the system” are enabled by our not insisting on acting sustainably towards life. We accept too readily the collateral damage we inflict on others including the many other members of the Ecosystem we share.</p>
<p>While the immediate goal of eliminating sexual harassment and assault should take center stage, the future of the planet would be well served by employing the positive role of nurturing most associated with the feminine gender.&#160; To a large extent the mothering role has been too long reduced in importance by the forces pushing for dominance and control of the resources and actions of human society. While many men have accepted their responsibilities to become more sensitive, and assume more fatherly roles in the family context, we as a species still have not evolved to recognize how the dominating traits of our biology/psychologies are working against life itself. The enabling role&#160; (Stand by your Man) that women traditionally played has worn thin , and the new rising should be celebrated.</p>
<p>To see this in a religious context, consider the fundamentalist teachings that “man” has dominion over the world. This unfortunate translation of the original Aramaic could (should) have been “stewardship”. Stewards sustain. Shepherds manage. Husbands conserve and protect. Dominators control and destroy.</p>
<p>As the resistance seeks to slow down and stop a slide towards fascism, we need to develop a common agreement on where we are going, if we really want to make a difference. The ratcheting back will return with a vengeance if we don’t have a deeper understanding of what we want to achieve. There are resources sufficient for everyone on this earth to live comfortably. Internalizing a nurturing approach to the stewardship of our ecosystem will create a way to check if we are walking in another’s shoes.</p>
<p>If life is benefited from our actions we should proceed. When we need to balance our actions with the necessary suffering of others, we are on the wrong track. Collateral damage, side effects and external costs are excuses. We are the adults here. Let’s take a long look at our own actions and find the better angels inside each of us, and combine them into a peaceful and prosperous world for all.</p> | Sea Change or Rogue Wave? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/20/sea-change-or-rogue-wave/ | 2017-12-20 | 4 |
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<p>Whether Grimm was reaching for a handgun in his waistband is in dispute - officers say he had weapon; his girlfriend disputes that. Also still to be decided is whether Deputy Greg Grundhoffer was justified in shooting Grimm, who was intoxicated and arguing with Deputy Daryl Tidwell about getting out of a pickup truck in the South Valley.</p>
<p>What started out as a roadside safety check stemming from a 911 call about an argument near a stalled car escalated into a fatal confrontation with police.</p>
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<p>Certainly Grimm has some culpability. If he had obeyed the officer and left the truck, perhaps the event would have ended without injuries. We'll never know.</p>
<p>But this tragic case raises a question that often comes up after officer-involved shootings: Why can't police back off when there doesn't appear to be an immediate critical danger to anyone and try to de-escalate the situation?</p>
<p>At one point Deputy Tidwell tells Grimm: "Are you going to start (expletive) working with me, because I'm getting really sick of your attitude - I'm getting real sick of your (expletive). Are you going to get out of the car like a big boy, or am I going to drag you out? Two options, make up your mind."</p>
<p>There was a third option: Let's both calm down for a minute. Give Grimm a chance to think this through. Perhaps bring in an officer trained in crisis intervention.</p>
<p>Like too many other recent deadly police confrontations across the country, refusing to obey an officer became a death wish for Grimm. There must be a better way to handle these situations.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: De-escalation a better choice in some situations | false | https://abqjournal.com/581862/deescalation-a-better-choice-in-some-situations.html | 2 |
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<p>The Discount Tire and America's Tire chains are recalling nearly 80,000 light truck and SUV replacement tires because the tread can separate.</p>
<p>The recall affects certain Pathfinder tires made between August 2013 and May 2015. Affected tires weren't sold after May 19.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Discount Tire says it noticed premature separations on Pathfinder tires in February and started testing them. It found that the rubber coating between the two steel belts in the tire wasn't thick enough. If the steel belts crack, the tread could separate, increasing the risk of a crash.</p>
<p>Discount Tire says there are no reports of deaths or injuries due to the defect.</p>
<p>Stores will notify owners and will either replace the tires for free or offer refunds.</p>
<p>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted the recall Tuesday.</p> | Discount Tire, America's Tire chains recall 79,513 truck and SUV replacement tires | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/11/discount-tire-america-tire-chains-recall-7513-truck-and-suv-replacement-tires.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Donald Trump is already running for re-election, with a campaign fund set up and everything. And just as he did with his 2016 campaign, he’s using the campaign to <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/328955-nearly-500k-in-campaign-funds-has-gone-to-trump-owned-entities" type="external">funnel money into his wallet</a> via his businesses, because why patronize anybody else, and pay them all those campaign donations, when you can just pay yourself with them?</p>
<p>Thus far, that amount totals $500,000. $274,000 alone has gone to Trump Tower. $58,000-plus has gone to the Trump International Golf Club in Florida, and nearly $14,000 has gone to Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. The rest has gone to various other properties.</p>
<p>Federal election law requires any candidate who uses their own business for campaign purposes to reimburse said business for the market value of the goods or services used. Generally, this winds up being a whole one to two percent of total campaign expenditures. <a href="" type="internal">As of June 2016</a>, Trump’s expenditures at his own properties was more than $6 million, or 10 percent of his total campaign expenditures.</p>
<p>By the Nov. 8 election, that amount was over $14 million.</p>
<p>That part of election law actually forms a loophole that Trump has no problem taking advantage of to the fullest extent he can.</p>
<p>Obama stopped fundraising for awhile following his election in 2008. Trump never did. As soon as he was elected, he and the RNC began fundraising for 2020, and thus far, they’ve raised more than $42 million together. Trump’s <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/" type="external">refusal to divest himself</a> from his businesses means some of that money could very easily be literally going into his wallet as we speak.</p>
<p>Given that this is probably the least transparent administration in a long time, there’s no way to trust that this is all Trump will funnel into his pockets. He’s a master at exploiting loopholes in the law. His supporters will probably chant, “There’s nothing illegal about this, so shut up,” but legal doesn’t mean right or ethical.</p>
<p>The fact that he’s already busy funneling campaign donations to his own pockets just adds to the growing stack of items illustrating just how unethical he really is.</p>
<p>Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images</p> | WTF: Trump Is ALREADY Paying Himself For His 2020 Campaign (DETAILS) | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2017/04/15/trump-has-already-put-an-appalling-amount-of-money-from-his-2020-campaign-into-his-own-pockets/ | 2017-04-15 | 4 |
<p />
<p>You take your brand-new, shiny smartphone out of the box. It has all the latest features and it's the thinnest, sleekest phone you've ever seen.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Then, seemingly before you can even power it up, a new, even cooler phone has hit the market. In those moments, it's easy to wonder: Is upgrading to a new phone even worth it?</p>
<p>That question is even more pressing than usual with the release of Apple's latest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. But when deciding whether to upgrade, here are a few things to consider:</p>
<p>Those first two questions are mostly a matter of personal preference, but even if you do decide to splurge on a new phone, you should know the answer to the third question: how much cash you're giving up that could be used for other things or saved for a rainy day.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/funnel/savings/savings-results.aspx?pid=p:foxbz?ic_id=savings_st" type="external">Best Banks for Savings -- View Today's Rates! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>With all the various carriers, plans and contract options out there, coming up with one number for how much you'd save by skipping an upgrade isn't always easy. Let's look at four different scenarios (leaving out taxes and fees, which can vary widely depending on where you live).</p>
<p>Scenario 1: Sticking to Your Current Phone and plan</p>
<p>Louis Ramirez, senior editor at DealNews, says skipping an upgrade makes the most sense in most cases.</p>
<p>"If you currently have an iPhone 5s or even an iPhone 5, you should be OK to run Cupertino's newest operating system," Ramirez says. "Sure, you'll miss a few new bells and whistles, but in the grand scheme of things, today's smartphones are fully equipped. So in terms of performance, your current phone will easily surpass the one-year mark with no problems."</p>
<p>You're not giving up much in terms of performance by forgoing the upgrade, Ramirez says.</p>
<p>Thomas Nitzsche of ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions says that if you're upgrading solely to get the latest and greatest model, realize that it won't be the latest and greatest for long.</p>
<p>"Like computers, smartphones seem to become obsolete almost before they are out of the box, and seem to devalue as fast as driving a new car off the sales lot," Nitzsche says.</p>
<p>So when does it make practical sense to upgrade?</p>
<p>"When you are experiencing technical issues," says Andrea Woroch, a consumer savings expert. "An older phone may be operating slower, experiencing shorter battery life as well as screen blackouts. In these instances you may be tempted to upgrade. Before you do, though, consider getting it fixed for less. Repairing these issues instead of opting for an upgrade can save a person hundreds of dollars."</p>
<p>How much you'll save by skipping an upgrade depends on your carrier, whether you're eligible for a subsidized upgrade and what type of phone you want. Upgrading to the newest model would cost you $99 to $399, the usual subsidized price for the latest and greatest phone, or $650 or more for an unsubsidized phone. Either way, you'll save hundreds and avoid a depreciation hit by standing pat instead.</p>
<p>Scenario 2: Upgrading at a Major Carrier</p>
<p>If you decide to upgrade, finding the cheapest way to go about it can be tricky to figure out, thanks to all the different plan options phone companies offer.</p>
<p>"These days, most carriers give consumers the option of buying phones via a subsidized or unsubsidized plan," says Ramirez. "With the (subsidized plan), you get a hefty discount on the phone, but are obligated to stay with the carrier for two years. For most mainstream smartphones, this means you'll pay $199 for the entry-level model and are obligated to fulfill a two-year contract."</p>
<p>With an unsubsidized phone, you'll pay the phone's full price, but you don't have to sign a contract, so you're not locked into anything.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows that when it comes down to total costs, you'll probably end up paying about the same over the first two years of your new phone's life, whether you choose subsidized or unsubsidized. (Obviously, your real-world costs may vary; our analysis is based on midrange plans and usage.)</p>
<p>But Ramirez says that, over the longer term, no-contract plans are usually the way to go.</p>
<p>"The unsubsidized plans usually include a discount on your monthly payments. These discounts can shave up to $25 a month from your bill. So in the long term, you'll actually pay less with the unsubsidized phone," Ramirez says.</p>
<p>Scenario 3: Getting a New Phone With a Cheaper Carrier</p>
<p>As Nitzsche points out, many cellphone carriers are changing their business models. There's a lot of competition, and consumers are starting to realize that lesser-known services are often equally worthwhile.</p>
<p>Republic Wireless, for example, offers a $25 monthly plan that includes unlimited talk, text and data. Unfortunately, there are really only two phones you can use with the carrier, so fancy iPhone upgrades aren't an option. If you buy Republic's Moto G phone at $149, here's what your numbers will look like over time (minus taxes and fees):</p>
<p>Over two years, that's a savings of more than 50% over upgrading on a large carrier.</p>
<p>Then, there are more conventional discount providers like Straight Talk, which is operated by TracFone Wireless. It charges a flat fee of $45 a month for unlimited talk, text and data (although data is throttled after 2.5 GB).</p>
<p>While shelling out the cash to buy a brand-new shiny iPhone 5s on Straight Talk (or most late-model smartphones) can be tough, you're likely to save money over the long term compared with a major carrier.</p>
<p>Although not as cheap as Republic, your total costs are still significantly less than with mainstream carriers, especially if you bring your own phone.</p>
<p>Scenario 4: Taking Your Old Phone to a Discount Carrier</p>
<p>If you're able to unlock your current major-carrier phone and take it over for free to a discount carrier like Straight Talk, H2O Wireless or Ultra Mobile, you can save a substantial amount of money.</p>
<p>Ramirez cites another discount carrier, Virgin Mobile, as an example of how much is potentially at stake.</p>
<p>"You're looking at $35 a month on Virgin versus $80 a month on Verizon (considering a similar prepaid plan)," Ramirez says. "On a yearly basis, you're looking at savings of at least $540. Over a span of two years (which is the length of the average phone contract), you'll save $1,080 by choosing a discount carrier like Virgin Mobile."</p>
<p>Overall, it's clear the longer you can hold out for that new phone, the better. Especially once you have a totally paid-off, unlocked phone in your hands, there is a huge range of carriers and plans that can save you big bucks over the long haul.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p> | Want to Save Big? Don't Upgrade Your Phone | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/07/30/want-to-save-big-dont-upgrade-your-phone.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>The big corporations and the Obama administration are trying to push through a giant new trade treaty that gives corporations even more power, and which will send even more jobs, factories, industries and money out of the country. This is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and they are pushing something called "fast track" in Congress to help push it through.</p>
<p>We have to stop this, and we should take the momentum we have generated in our push-back on this to demand Congress and President Obama instead fix NAFTA first. Then fix all of our trade relationships to help working people on all sides of our borders.</p>
<p>TPP, Fast Track And NAFTA</p>
<p>There has been a lot of news about the upcoming TPP trade agreement. The agreement is being negotiated in extreme secrecy in a corporate-dominated process that appears to be leading to an agreement that would give corporations even more power than they already have. Now there is a push to pass a process called fast track through Congress in order to enable the large corporations to strong-arm TPP into law mobilized organizations around the country to sound the alarm.</p>
<p>Those resisting this TPP/Fast Track effort have put out a lot of good, solid information detailing the problems that previous trade agreements have caused. For example <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tradewatch" type="external">Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch</a> issued a report, " <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA-at-20.pdf" type="external">NAFTA at 20: One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Mass Displacement and Instability in Mexico, Record Income Inequality, Scores of Corporate Attacks on Environmental and Health Laws</a>". This report compared the promises with which NAFTA was sold to the results we can measure 20 years later. Some of the effects of NAFTA that are highlighted in the report include:</p>
<p>The data also show how post-NAFTA trade and investment trends have contributed to:</p>
<p>Former Michigan Congressman and Democratic Whip David Bonior made these points in a recent New York Times op-ed titled " <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/opinion/obamas-free-trade-conundrum.html" type="external">Obama’s Free-Trade Conundrum</a>":</p>
<p>Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), in " <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/naftas-impact-workers/" type="external">NAFTA’s Impact on U.S. Workers</a>," laid out the four ways NAFTA hurt US workers:</p>
<p>By establishing the principle that U.S. corporations could relocate production elsewhere and sell back into the United States, NAFTA undercut the bargaining power of American workers, which had driven the expansion of the middle class since the end of World War II. The result has been 20 years of stagnant wages and the upward redistribution of income, wealth and political power.</p>
<p>NAFTA affected U.S. workers in four principal ways. First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as production moved to Mexico. ... Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits. As soon as NAFTA became law, corporate managers began telling their workers that their companies intended to move to Mexico unless the workers lowered the cost of their labor. ...</p>
<p>Third, the destructive effect of NAFTA on the Mexican agricultural and small business sectors dislocated several million Mexican workers and their families, and was a major cause in the dramatic increase in undocumented workers flowing into the U.S. labor market. This put further downward pressure on U.S. wages...</p>
<p>Fourth, and ultimately most important, NAFTA was the template for rules of the emerging global economy, in which the benefits would flow to capital and the costs to labor.</p>
<p>NAFTA has done harm to our economy and our jobs. But it is hardly just NAFTA that is hurting us – using the NAFTA template for <a href="http://ourfuture.org/20130917/do-free-trade-agreements-create-jobs" type="external">other trade deals</a> like our trade deal with China have compounded the damage. (The 2012 Korea-U.S. trade agreement <a href="http://www.epi.org/press/korus-cost-united-states-40000-jobs-korea/" type="external">has already cost</a> 40,000 jobs and increased our trade deficit by $5.8 billion.)</p>
<p>The resulting loss of millions and millions of jobs, tens of thousands of factories, entire industries and <a href="http://ourfuture.org/20140206/enormous-humongous-december-trade-deficit" type="external">continuing, enormous, humongous trade deficits</a> now in the vicinity of $500 billion a year have done and are doing tremendous economic damage. This is wiping out our middle class and contributing to (if not being the major cause of) the terrible inequality that is tearing the country apart.</p>
<p>The public instinctively understands that these one-sided, giant-corporation-favoring trade deals have harmed the country and hurt many people’s ability to make a decent living. To the public "NAFTA" is shorthand for all of them. This is why TPP is called "NAFTA on steroids" by the opposition: It cuts to the point.</p>
<p>We Have Waited</p>
<p>President Obama understood this during in the 2008 campaign when he promised over and over again to renegotiate NAFTA.</p>
<p />
<p>But then, just after taking office, he said we would have to wait. A February 20, 2009 Washington Post report, " <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/19/ST2009021903268.html" type="external">NAFTA Renegotiation Must Wait, Obama Says</a>," tells the story:</p>
<p>President Obama warned on Thursday against a "strong impulse" toward protectionism while the world suffers a global economic recession and said his election-year promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement on behalf of unions and environmentalists will have to wait.</p>
<p>We have waited. We have waited and waited. It is February 2014 and we have been waiting for five years. And by some coincidence jobs and the economy have not really recovered – and not at all for regular, working people. But instead of renegotiating NAFTA and other agreements to fix the problems that are sending jobs, factories, entire industries and $500 billion a year out of the country, we instead see the administration pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and fast track, which we all know will just make things worse.</p>
<p>The poor economy, decline of the middle class and incredible level of inequality have raised awareness that these trade deals have hurt us. Even with <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/02/05/study-media-leave-viewers-in-the-dark-about-tra/197932" type="external">a near-complete media “blackout” of news about TPP</a> and fast track, more and more people are “getting it” that the past trade agreements have driven wages down.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://fasttrackpoll.info/press-release.html" type="external">recent poll</a> asking the public their opinion of the fast track legislative push found "strong opposition," "with a strong majority of Americans indicating their belief that trade agreements make the country worse off." Sixty-two percent say they oppose fast track versus 28 percent who say they favor it. Also from <a href="http://fasttrackpoll.info/press-release.html" type="external">the poll's press release</a>:</p>
<p>In households where a voter either owns or works for a small business, the verdict is clear: 64 percent say they expect TPP to hurt more than help small business.</p>
<p>On wages and jobs, the environment and food safety, voters clearly believe that TPP will make things worse. By a 35 point margin, voters believe that TPP would make things worse in terms of American wages (56-21). By a 30 point margin, voters believe that TPP would make things worse environmentally, not better (48-18). Among voters under age 35, 54 percent say that TPP would have an adverse environmental impact. A full 63 percent believe that TPP would make U.S food safety worse.</p>
<p>The public "gets it." People "get it" that big companies have been using "NAFTA-style" trade agreements to cross democracy’s borders to escape democracy's regulation and decent wages. People "get it" that big companies have been using these "trade" agreements to drive down wages here, pressuring people to accept concessions or lose their job and pressuring communities to give tax concessions.</p>
<p>The last thing people want is any more of this. And in our country decisions should be based on what the people want.</p>
<p>Fix NAFTA First</p>
<p>Once again we are rushing to do more of something that hurts the country, because it benefits a few people who have tremendous political influence. This time, instead of pushing through yet another job-killing treaty that enriches the billionaires at the expense of the rest of us, let’s stop. Take a breath. Take control of the process. Then continue the momentum and understanding this fight has generated to demand our leaders actually fix some problems before rushing to make things worse. This time.</p>
<p>It is not only the wrong time to bring fast track up for a vote in Congress, it is time to scrap the TPP agreement. Instead we need to fix NAFTA first.</p>
<p>Fix NAFTA first. It is time to renegotiate NAFTA and set it up as a new kind of trade template that works for the 99 percent here and in other countries. Then fix the rest of the trade regime and make it work for We, the People instead of a very few wealthy people.</p>
<p>Trade is a good thing, but not the way we have been doing it. Trade done right can lift people on all sides of all borders. It can and does increase prosperity. But the way the giant corporations have captured and rigged the current negotiating process is hurting our country – and the rest of the world. It is creating terrible inequality and terrible economic imbalances around the globe.</p>
<p>What should trade-done-right look like? That's for another post. But here is a hint: In an agreement negotiated by a democracy, wouldn't it be a trade violation to threaten to move someone's job out of the country if they ask for a raise or don't accept a wage cut?</p>
<p>-----</p>
<p>This post originally appeared at <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/" type="external">Campaign for America's Future</a> (CAF) at their <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog" type="external">Blog for OurFuture</a>. I am a Fellow with CAF. <a href="http://caf.democracyinaction.org/o/11002/t/43/content.jsp?content_KEY=1" type="external">Sign up here for the CAF daily summary</a></p> | No Fast Track To TPP: Fix NAFTA First | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/no-fast-track-tpp-fix-nafta-first | 2014-02-14 | 4 |
<a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/law-order-svu-pulls-donald-938570" type="external">Hollywood Reporter</a> Law &amp; Order: SVU&#160;is putting its Donald Trump-inspired episode on hold. The network has pulled the episode and will not air the hour until sometime after the presidential election on Nov. 8,&#160;The Hollywood Reporter&#160;has confirmed. NBC made the scheduling decision Friday. News broke Tuesday that the long-running NBC drama was planning to do an installment seemingly inspired by the Republican presidential nominee. The episode, titled "Unstoppable," sees&#160;Veep&#160;star Gary Cole in the role of a politician whose campaign goes haywire when several women go public with damaging accusations. The episode was originally set to air on Wednesday, Oct. 26 — less than two weeks before the election. TheSVU&#160;episode to air in its place has not yet been determined. | 'Law & Order' Just Sidelined This Trump-Based Episode | true | http://americanupdate.com/articles/law-order-just-sidelined-this-trump-based-episode?utm_content%3Dbufferbbaa7%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook.com%26utm_campaign%3Dbuffer | 0 |
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<p>Hollywood loud-mouth Lena Dunham is really bummed out that she's never had the opportunity to kill her own unborn child. On Thursday, the Girls creator lamented never having an abortion on the "Choice" episode of her " <a href="https://soundcloud.com/womenofthehour" type="external">Women of the Hour</a>" podcast: "I haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had," she said, concluding the hour of abortion worship.</p>
<p>You see, without having an abortion (and bragging about it), Dunham is still one sacrament shy of being a <a href="" type="internal">Good Feminist</a>. Poor Lena.</p>
<p>The Hillary Clinton sycophant first explained that there is actually no such thing as being pro-life per se, since pro-aborts are actually pro-life as well, minus the whole pro-murder of the unborn thing. Which makes perfect sense in Dunham's head and precisely nowhere else.</p>
<p>"I’m a pro-choice woman," said Dunham. "From an early age, she taught my younger sibling and me to say ‘anti-choice’ instead of ‘pro-life’ because she wanted to make sure that we knew that everyone is pro-life. Some people are anti-choice."</p>
<p>The feminist also lamented the stigma attached to the life-ending "pro-life" choice, which can include <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2013/01/02/abortion-methods-and-abortion-procedures-used-to-kill-unborn-babies/" type="external">jamming scissors into the skulls of unborn babies</a> to kill them.</p>
<p>"Something I’ve thought about a lot is the fact that there is stigma around abortion," she said. "We all know that there’s cultural stigma, it’s hard to put an abortion on network TV."</p>
<p>Except for <a href="" type="internal">shows</a> like "Scandal," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Jane the Virgin" and "You’re the Worst," of course.</p>
<p>In an odd turn of events, Dunham even admitted that she too once instinctively knew that murdering the unborn was wrong, that is before she and her Good Feminist mother and friends talked her back into praising the sacrament.</p>
<p>"I always thought that I myself didn’t stigmatize abortion. I’m a – uh abortion rights activist, it’s a huge part of who I am,” she said. "...But one day, when I was visiting a Planned Parenthood in Texas a few years ago, a young girl walked up to me and asked me if I’d like to be a part of her project in which women share their stories of abortions. I sort of jumped. ‘I haven’t had an abortion,’ I told her. I wanted to make it really clear to her that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women’s options, I myself had never had an abortion.</p>
<p>"And I realized then that even I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue," Dunham continued. "Even I, the woman who cares as much as anybody about a woman’s right to choose, felt it was important that people know I was unblemished in this department."</p>
<p>"So many people I love – my mother, my best friends – have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons," Dunham said. "I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge, and it was a really important moment for me then to realize I had internalized some of what society was throwing at us and I had to put it in the garbage."</p>
<p>You see, Dunham's innate sense that murdering the innocent unborn is wrong was merely a manifestation of societal norms perpetuated by pro-life/ "anti-choice" misogynists. It was nothing more than that.</p>
<p>“Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had," the Good Feminist in training concluded.</p> | Dunham: 'I Haven't Had an Abortion, But Wish I Had' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/11748/dunham-i-havent-had-abortion-wish-i-had-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-12-20 | 0 |
<p>Gun control-related ballot measures in four states are expected to pass on Tuesday, opinion polls showed, after gun safety advocates poured a massive amount of money into backing the initiatives.</p>
<p>In Maine and Nevada, residents are voting on whether to mandate universal background checks for firearm sales, including private handgun transactions.</p>
<p>If those two measures pass, half of all Americans would live in states that have such expanded checks. Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have already approved similar laws.</p>
<p>Voters in Washington state will consider allowing judges to bar dangerous people, such as accused domestic abusers, from possessing guns. In California, a referendum would ban large-capacity ammunition magazines and require certain people to pass a background check to buy ammunition.</p>
<p>The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and gun rights advocates fiercely contest any attempt to restrict it.</p>
<p>The votes in Maine and Nevada represent a key test of the gun control movement’s decision to turn to a state-by-state strategy after efforts to pass nationwide legislation failed in Congress.</p>
<p>Opponents have said the laws are not clear and would do nothing to stop criminals.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>“We know today that the place where criminals are getting guns, the black market, they aren’t subjecting themselves to background checks,” said Ryan Hamilton, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association-backed opposition in Nevada. “It doesn’t target criminal behavior, it targets law-abiding behavior.”</p>
<p>Proponents have said background checks would save lives.</p>
<p>Jennifer Crowe, a spokeswoman for the pro-initiative campaign in Nevada, said research had shown that nearly one in 11 people in that state who purchased guns online would have failed a background check.</p>
<p>“We have this huge online marketplace that we know criminals are using to get guns,” she said.</p>
<p>Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group founded by billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has spent tens of millions of dollars in Washington state, Nevada and Maine, while the National Rifle Association has focused much of its spending on supporting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Shares of gun makers rose on Tuesday as investors wagered that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the presidency. Smith &amp; Wesson Holding Corp closed up 2.15 percent at $28.45 and Sturm Ruger &amp; Company Inc finished up 0.86 percent at $64.40.</p>
<p>A Clinton presidency would likely lead to a surge in gun purchases out of fear she might try to enact stricter gun policies, said Chris Krueger, senior research analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets.</p> | Gun control ballot measures expected to pass in four states | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/gun-control-ballot-measures-expected-to-pass-in-four-states/ | 2016-11-08 | 1 |
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<p>John Judis over at <a href="http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/15/memo-to-obama.aspx" type="external">TNR</a> puts himself in Obama’s shoes and describes how he would respond to the financial situation. I think he’s spot on.</p>
<p>I would call a press conference tomorrow to discuss the financial crisis. Do it in New York City. Even better, on Wall Street. Begin with a fifteen minute statement outlining why the crisis has occurred and what, generally, the government should do about it. Contrast your approach sharply with that of McCain and the Republicans. Take questions for an hour from reporters. Finally, issue a challenge to McCain to debate the issue by week’s end. And offer to allow McCain to bring Sarah Palin and Phil Gramm at his side if he needs them to advise him on the issues.</p>
<p>I particularly like the “take questions for an hour” part. <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9665_mccain_hides_too.html" type="external">Contrasts nicely</a>. The only potential pitfall? If McCain heads to the Senate the same day and introduces serious legislation to address the failing financial industry. Then Obama looks like a showboat and McCain looks like a serious, pro-active leader.</p>
<p /> | Judis on the Money | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/judis-money/ | 2008-09-15 | 4 |
<p>SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A woman who owned a Shreveport tax preparation business has pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns even after her electronic filing number was revoked.</p>
<p>U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook says 47-year-old Deborah A. Turner, of Shreveport, pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Mark L. Hornsby to one count each of making and subscribing a false tax return and aiding and assisting in making and subscribing a false return.</p>
<p>The plea will become final after it is accepted by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr.</p>
<p>The IRS revoked Turner's electronic filing number, but she started using her daughter's number to continue filing returns containing false information so her clients could increase the size of their refunds.</p>
<p>Turner faces up to three years in prison for each count. Sentencing is set for April 2.</p>
<p>SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A woman who owned a Shreveport tax preparation business has pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns even after her electronic filing number was revoked.</p>
<p>U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook says 47-year-old Deborah A. Turner, of Shreveport, pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Mark L. Hornsby to one count each of making and subscribing a false tax return and aiding and assisting in making and subscribing a false return.</p>
<p>The plea will become final after it is accepted by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr.</p>
<p>The IRS revoked Turner's electronic filing number, but she started using her daughter's number to continue filing returns containing false information so her clients could increase the size of their refunds.</p>
<p>Turner faces up to three years in prison for each count. Sentencing is set for April 2.</p> | Louisiana tax preparer pleads to filing false returns | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fa178bafa7b84c7480d3506d9f968bc2 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
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<p>So it was for me until my mother died this past summer. Now, as my sisters and I sort out her final affairs, which are as “plain vanilla” as it gets, I have more questions than I ever imagined.</p>
<p>And, more urgency about making informed decisions for my family so that my children aren’t left with more questions than answers.</p>
<p>That’s typical, says Sage magazine’s Ask the Expert panelist James P. Plitz, an estate planning attorney in Albuquerque. “It’s deaf ears,” he says, until there’s a pressing need – losing a parent, having a medical scare or (the one problem we’d all like to have) a big estate.</p>
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<p>On the Sage magazine website at <a href="http://abqjournalsage.com" type="external">abqjournalsage.com</a>, you’ll find blogs offering life tips on just about any topic. Plitz joined Sage’s panel of experts in February, shortly after moving to Albuquerque in December 2012.</p>
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<p>Law is a second career for Plitz. He was working as a project manager in insurance – “back office” stuff – on the East Coast.</p>
<p>That “back office” part is important to remember to understand his life path. And, that part about living in New Jersey and Connecticut – specifically, the bone-chilling winters.</p>
<p>Plitz had a master’s in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in accounting, but he wanted to help people directly – be in the “front office,” if you will.</p>
<p>And, he wanted to be warmer. He’d always thought about law school, so when his wife wanted to relocate to a balmy climate, he said, “Let’s move someplace, but if we do, I get to go to law school.”</p>
<p>That led to the Phoenix School of Law, which led eventually to Albuquerque, where he practices with Morris, Hall and Kinghorn.</p>
<p>PLITZ: Wanted to work In the “front office”</p>
<p>So far, Plitz; his wife, Fatima; and their 3-year-old son have discovered the zoo and hope soon to do the Sandia Peak Tramway. They’ve also discovered scorpions, and not at the zoo.</p>
<p>He’s joining up with another Ask the Experts panelist – financial adviser Beverly Bailey – as a guest presenter in her “Women, Money and Power” series, which launches Oct. 5. (Bailey offers a free introductory class on Saturday. Go to the Sage website to find out more.)</p>
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<p>Plitz and Bailey are targeting women because women are often the caregivers and “they have to be the catalyst to make sure provisions are in place for themselves, parents and siblings,” Plitz says.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, I’m full of questions about estate planning now – such as when joint tenancy is a good idea, whether a trust is a good front-end investment and why it’s desirable to avoid probate court, all topics he plans to blog about in the coming months.</p>
<p>I asked him if there was ever such a thing as a “plain vanilla” estate, no complications. He took the conversation to the next level: “What’s the problem you want to solve?”</p>
<p>An estate plan often serves as a catalyst for conversations people need to have, such as who would serve as the guardian of your children or how to take care of an adult child who is disabled or has a substance abuse problem.</p>
<p>Any plan he builds, Plitz says, aims for flexibility – building in ways to handle the bumps along the way – and avoiding going to court.</p>
<p>So, here’s your chance to ask him your questions – and put them on your mind sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Carolyn Flynn is the editor of Sage magazine, published quarterly in print and daily online at <a href="http://abqjournalsage.com" type="external">abqjournalsage.com</a>. Find Sage on Facebook by typing in “ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sage-the-Albuquerque-Journals-magazine-for-todays-woman/153231761451736" type="external">Sage the Albuquerque Journal’s magazine for today’s woman</a>” and “like” the page to get it in your newsfeed. You may reach the editor at 505-823-3870, <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or through Facebook.</p> | Plan ahead for life’s bumps | false | https://abqjournal.com/263334/plan-ahead-for-lifes-bumps.html | 2013-09-15 | 2 |
<p>A one-day conference about virtual reality is the highlight among new events being added to the fourth edition of the <a href="http://variety.com/t/singapore-media-festival/" type="external">Singapore Media Festival</a>. The series of events run from Nov. 23 to Dec 3, with the VR conference on Nov. 29.</p>
<p>The VR conference will span subjects including the use of VR in entertainment and immersive technology in business. Key speakers include Allen Foo, CEO of China’s Ultimate Creators Create Virtual Reality, Jacqui Hocking, MD of Vision Strategy Storytelling, and Alexandre Regeffe from consultancy Neotopy. The conference will be complemented by a two-day convention Creators X SMF Ignite.</p>
<p>With VR, digital streaming and other challenges to the theatrical film business, the SMF will also include a Future of Cinema forum, organized with Canadian filmmaker and creative director of EyeSteelFilm, Sandra Rodriguez, and Australian filmmaker Aaron Wilson.</p>
<p>Mainstay event, the Singapore International Film Festival announced that Oscar-winning Indian film maker Shekhar Kapur will head the jury of its Asian feature film competition. Other jurors include Iranian-American screenwriter and film director, Ana Lily Amirpour; Hong Kong-Australian filmmaker Clara Law, and Locarno Festival’s head of programming, Mark Peranson This year’s Southeast Asian Short Film Jury will be headed by the Tokyo International Film Festival selector Kenji Ishizaka.</p>
<p>Other novelties include the choice of Indonesia as the SMF’s first country in focus. Top Indonesian TV executive Chairul Tanjung, founder of Indonesian broadcasting companies, Trans TV and City Corp, will be presented an outstanding contribution award on Nov. 30.</p>
<p>The Asia Television Forum section will introduce an Animation Pitch session, organized in partnership with India’s Green Gold Animation. Shortlisted participants will pitch to a panel of industry veterans, with the winner take home a $2,500 cash award, as well as guidance and mentorship worth $16,500.</p> | Singapore Media Festival to Add VR Conference, Animation Events | false | https://newsline.com/singapore-media-festival-to-add-vr-conference-animation-events/ | 2017-10-11 | 1 |
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<p>Lynn Engram was raised on a farm near a tiny town in south Alabama.</p>
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<p>Her father plowed fields with a mule to plant peanuts and cotton. He died when she was 13, leaving her mother and six siblings to live off his <a href="" type="internal">social security</a> checks.</p>
<p>At 46, Engram knows hard times. But this year she accomplished something once unthinkable in the remote hamlet of Troy, Ala. (Population, 15,189). She started a job at a giant, multinational corporation.</p>
<p>CGI Group Inc. (NYSE:CGI) has come to Troy with plans to hire more than 300.</p>
<p>With its U.S. headquarters in Fairfax, Va., and corporate headquarters in Montreal, the information technology and business-process services provider is as much to blame for shipping American jobs to India as any other company.</p>
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<p>But amid nauseating unemployment rates, and with some clients refusing to contract offshore services, CGI is also on a mission develop competitive talent in rural America.</p>
<p>Before coming to Troy late last year, CGI opened an office in Lebanon, Va., where it employs 380.</p>
<p>CGI has discovered that it can serve industries as diverse as energy, telecommunications, finance and government from centers that employ 300 to 500 in towns that corporate behemoths have forsaken.</p>
<p>"We are committed to opening more and more of these centers around the country," said Ray Harris, CGI's vice president of economic development. "Our goal is one a year. So I'm spending 100% of my time doing this."</p>
<p>One of the things that attracted CGI was Troy University (Go Trojans!), whose graduates usually go elsewhere to find work.</p>
<p>"They were actually seeking out rural locations," said Judson Edwards, who went Troy University as an undergrad, and is now dean of its business school. "They didn't want to be too close to the larger cities, which is very different than what we teach our students about site locations."</p>
<p>Troy's largest employers include a <a href="" type="internal">Wal-Mart</a> Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) distribution center, Wiley Sanders Truck Lines Inc., and manufacturing operations for <a href="" type="internal">Lockheed Martin</a> Corp. (NYSE:LMT) and Sikorsky Aircraft.</p>
<p>"This was the missing piece of the puzzle," said Marsha Gaylard, president of the Pike County Economic Development Corp. "We did not have a global technology company that could offer jobs to our college students...And CGI brought a lot of our young people home that were in similar fields in other states."</p>
<p>One of them is Joshua Burgans, 29. Today, Burgans happily manages data for a large, agricultural supply company. But when he first graduated from Troy University with a degree in computer science, he had to move to Montgomery to work for a small lobbying firm. Then, after a recent layoff, he had to look for jobs in Atlanta, Ga.</p>
<p>"A big city is just way more complicated than I want my life to be," Burgans said. "Here, I have a five-minute commute."</p>
<p>George Tarbox, director of CGI's Troy center, said 98% of the folks hired are from Alabama. That mentality extends to most things the center buys.</p>
<p>"The cleaning company we use, the vendors we use--we want to bring local folks in," he said.</p>
<p>One exception is Blair Taylor, 36, who manages the collections department. He moved to Troy from Phoenix after losing his job as a vice president for <a href="" type="internal">Washington Mutual</a> Inc., which had become history's largest savings and loan failure and was then sold off to J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. (NYSE:JPM).</p>
<p>"People don't give folks in rural communities enough credit for the work ethic that they have," Taylor said. "We've been able to hire some extremely intelligent people who are really dedicated to their jobs."</p>
<p>Engram, whose father once worked with a mule, toils with computers and telephones. She manages a team of 17 that collects overdue accounts for a large, consumer-electronics retailer.</p>
<p>She is on the phone every day with people who've stopped paying their bills because they've lost their jobs, gotten sick, suffered a death in the family, were called up for active duty, had an accident, or find themselves on the brink of bankruptcy.</p>
<p>"It can be very emotional," she said. "I've been there. I know how tough that can be."</p>
<p>It's a daily reminder of how fortune has smiled on Troy.</p>
<p>"We never thought we'd have an opportunity to work for a company like CGI," Engram said. "For them to come in and take as many as people as they did...is just a godsend."</p>
<p>(Al's Emporium, written by <a href="" type="internal">Dow Jones</a> Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. The column is published each Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. Contact Al at <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected] Opens a New Window.</a> or <a href="http://tellittoal.com" type="external">tellittoal.com Opens a New Window.</a>)</p> | Outsourcing Jobs to Rural America | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/09/24/outsourcing-jobs-rural-america.html | 2016-03-18 | 0 |
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<p>A loss by Netanyahu – or a razor-thin win and the prospect that he would be forced to enter into an unwieldy “government of national unity” with his rivals – would mark a sobering reversal for Israel’s security hawks, in a country where the electorate has been moving steadily rightward for the past 15 years.</p>
<p>The final round of opinion polls on Friday showed Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party facing a surprisingly strong challenge by Isaac Herzog, leader of the center-left Labor Party, and his running mate, former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, who hold a small but steady lead. Their campaign has emphasized economic issues and the soaring cost of living.</p>
<p>Netanyahu charged in a radio interview on Sunday that hostile Israeli journalists and shadowy “foreign powers” were behind an anti-Netanyahu campaign that could be his undoing.</p>
<p>Livni, his longtime rival and the former justice minister, countered that Netanyahu was panicking and looking for scapegoats.</p>
<p>“The citizens of Israel will replace Netanyahu, not because of what is written in the newspapers,” she said Sunday, “but because they don’t have enough money to buy a newspaper … or buy apartments for their children.”</p>
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<p>The Netanyahu campaign assumed the prime minister would get a bump in support after his speech before a joint meeting of Congress two weeks ago, when he directly challenged President Obama and warned that the United States was about to sign a disastrous pact that would not halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions.</p>
<p>His supporters boasted of his Churchillian skills as a master orator. Their high hopes were raised as a rapturous Congress gave him repeated standing ovations. Yet the speech did little to move the electorate – even as it angered the White House and congressional Democrats and undermined bipartisan relations between Israel and its closest ally.</p>
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<p /> | Netanyahu warns he may lose election | false | https://abqjournal.com/556085/netanyahu-warns-he-may-lose-election.html | 2 |
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<p>BOSTON (MA)ReutersBy Greg Frost</p>
<p>BOSTON (Reuters) - A woman now in her sixties should not have waited 40 years before suing a Catholic priest who allegedly molested her, Massachusetts' top court ruled on Wednesday as it dismissed her lawsuit.</p>
<p>In a ruling that undermines some of the hundreds of lawsuits filed by alleged clergy sex abuse victims against the Archdiocese of Boston, the Supreme Judicial Court said the woman known only as "Jane Doe" should have filed her lawsuit sooner against the Rev. Gerard Creighton.</p>
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<p>Under Massachusetts law, plaintiffs who claim sexual abuse may only file lawsuits within three years of the alleged abuse or within three years of the time they discover an emotional or physical injury caused by abuse.</p>
<p>The woman in the case accused Creighton of molesting her beginning in the spring of 1958, on the cusp of her 17th birthday. She filed a civil lawsuit against him in 1998.</p>
<p>In her suit, the woman said she had suffered from depression, grief, and shame for many years after the alleged abuse. She argued that while she understood that these emotions stemmed from her feelings of self-hatred, she failed to recognize the link between this self-hatred and her alleged abuse.</p>
<p>It was only after she spoke with another priest in 1995 about her alleged molestation by Creighton that she realized it was the root cause of her psychological problems.</p> | Massachusetts Top Court Throws Out Clergy Sex Case | false | https://poynter.org/news/massachusetts-top-court-throws-out-clergy-sex-case | 2003-05-01 | 2 |
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<p>Tiffany &amp; Co reported bigger-than-expected quarterly profit and sales on Thursday, helped in part by higher demand for its fashion and designer jewelry in Japan and lower input costs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sales at established stores open for more than a year fell 2 percent, steeper than the 1 percent fall expected by analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix.</p>
<p>The company, which gets about 15 percent of its revenue from Japan, saw comparable sales rise 3 percent in the region in the quarter.</p>
<p>Comparable sales in the Americas - its biggest market, fell 1 percent due to lower tourist spending and weak demand across categories other than fashion and designer jewelry.</p>
<p>Net sales rose 3 percent to $959.7 million in the second quarter ended July 31, beating the analysts' average estimate of $930.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Net income rose to $115 million, or 92 cents per share, in the reported quarter, from $105.7 million, or 84 cents per share, a year earlier.</p>
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<p>Analysts had expected the company to earn 84 cents per share.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)</p> | Tiffany's profit beats on higher sales in Japan | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/24/tiffanys-quarterly-profit-rises-8-8.html | 2017-08-24 | 0 |
<p>On Sunday, a sexually confused eight-year-old boy was disturbingly exploited, being made the focal point of a LGBTQ pride parade in Dallas, Texas.</p>
<p>Young Madden Morrison, who is said to be a transgender “girl” by his parents and now goes by the name Marilyn, joined an estimated 45,000 others at Oak Lawn's pride parade with pro-LGBT group Equality Texas.</p>
<p>"In our home and family life, she has been called Marilyn for almost a year and at school she went back as her true self and she's known as Marilyn and the she that she is," said Chelsa Morrison, Madden’s mother.</p>
<p>Although there is <a href="" type="internal">zero scientific evidence</a> supporting the notion that transgenderism is genetic or something one is “born with,” but, rather, a mental disorder call gender dysphoria, Morrison and her husband took their young child’s word for it when Madden told them “she was a girl.”</p>
<p>“We’ve known for many, many years,” said Andrew Morrison, Madden’s father.</p>
<p>“She started asking questions of when her body was going to change to be like a woman—what she was,” stated Chelsa. “You know, and started telling us she was a girl.</p>
<p>“These kids know exactly who they are because they were born that way," she added.</p>
<p>Presumably, parents will soon change their children’s name to “T. rex,” after their child tells them they identify as a dinosaur, too.</p>
<p>Madden’s father says his son has been using the girls bathroom at school with “zero” problems.</p>
<p>Of course, when dealing with young children and transgenderism, the real danger this boy will likely have in store for him takes center stage.</p>
<p>Study upon study shows that the rate of children who grow out of their sexual confusion about their identity by adulthood is upward of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-transgender-battle-line-childhood-1451952794?mod=djemMER" type="external">80 percent</a>. Scores of children who were taken as victim by the “ <a href="https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2016/08/21/real-life-victims-of-the-transgender-cult/" type="external">transgender cult</a>” have shared their heartbreaking stories with the world, warning against capitulation to the condition.</p>
<p>A de-transition woman blogger named Cari Stella is one of those now telling of her painful reality as a result of transgenderism:</p>
<p>"I am a real, live 22-year-old woman, with a scarred chest and a broken voice, and five o'clock shadow because I couldn’t face the idea of growing up to be a woman, that’s my reality," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L2jyEDwpEw" type="external">said</a> Stella. "Gender was done to me, gender was traumatizing to me, I don't want anything to do with it anymore."</p>
<p>"It can be damn hard to figure out that the treatment you're being told is to help you is actually making your mental health worse. Testosterone made me even more dissociated than I already was," she added.</p>
<p>Despite science and statistical evidence, it remains politically incorrect to voice dissent against capitulation to the dangerous transgender movement, particularly with young children. The parents of young Madden, who are likely setting up their eight-year-old for disaster, will be hailed as heroes, and those who question their choice will be castigated as bigoted and transphobic.</p> | Transgender 8-YEAR-OLD Featured in Dallas Pride Parade | true | https://dailywire.com/news/9298/transgender-8-year-old-featured-dallas-pride-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-09-20 | 0 |
<p>LOS ANGELES CHARGERS AT DENVER BRONCOS</p>
<p>KICKOFF: Monday, 10:20 p.m. ET, Sports Authority Field at Mile High. TV: ESPN, Beth Mowins, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rex_Ryan/" type="external">Rex Ryan</a>, Sergio Dipp.</p>
<p>SERIES HISTORY: 115th regular-season meeting. Broncos lead series, 63-50-1. The Chargers will play at Denver again representing Los Angeles for the first time since 1960. Few games between these teams will match the season opener in 1994, the season the Chargers went to their lone Super Bowl. That game set the tone of the year when the Chargers rallied from a 24-6 deficit, thanks in part to Stanley Richard returning an interception 99 yards for a score just before halftime. The Chargers sealed the unlikely win when <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Junior_Seau/" type="external">Junior Seau</a> recovered <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Elway/" type="external">John Elway</a>‘s fumble in the closing seconds.</p>
<p>KEYS TO THE GAME: In a game that features two new coaches, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Vance-Joseph/" type="external">Vance Joseph</a> for the Broncos and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Anthony-Lynn/" type="external">Anthony Lynn</a> for the Chargers, an old storyline could help determine the winner: Which team wins at the line of scrimmage? The Broncos feature four new starters on the offensive line, including rookie left tackle Garrett Bolles and right tackle <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Menelik-Watson/" type="external">Menelik Watson</a>, and the unit could have its hands full against Chargers dynamic pass rushers <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joey-Bosa/" type="external">Joey Bosa</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Melvin-Ingram/" type="external">Melvin Ingram</a>. Bolles earned rave reviews during the preseason, but he will have to prove he can stay composed and avoid penalties under the bright lights of Monday night.</p>
<p>When the Chargers have the ball, all eyes will be on running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Melvin-Gordon/" type="external">Melvin Gordon</a>. Last season, Gordon tallied 205 rushing yards in two games against the Broncos, and he will need to maintain that triple-digit average for the Chargers to have a chance. Denver features one of the most dominant defenses in the NFL (see <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Von-Miller/" type="external">Von Miller</a>), and if they are able to establish an early lead, they could control the rest of the game.</p>
<p>MATCHUPS TO WATCH:</p>
<p>–Chargers WR <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Keenan-Allen/" type="external">Keenan Allen</a> vs. Broncos CB Aqib Talib. Allen tore his ACL during the season opener one year ago, and Monday night will mark his return. The California alum notched 1,046 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie in 2013, but he has not broached that milestone since. Does he still have the same explosion he had before the ACL injury? Can he post 1,000 yards again? Monday should offer a hint.</p>
<p>–Broncos RBs <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/C.J._Anderson/" type="external">C.J. Anderson</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jamaal_Charles/" type="external">Jamaal Charles</a> vs. Chargers LBs Korey Toomer and Nick Dzubnar. Anderson and Charles, once rivals, now team up to form a dynamic 1-2 punch, if both players can stay healthy. But the Chargers will not concede an effective running game to the Broncos, particularly with new defensive coordinator <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Gus-Bradley/" type="external">Gus Bradley</a> scheming the defense.</p>
<p>CHARGERS NOTABLE ROOKIE: Defensive back Desmond King. Only a fifth-round pick from Iowa, most thought he would need a good camp just to make the team. He did that and more, being around the ball for most of the preseason games. A safety and cornerback, King finished preseason with two sacks, an interception and a forced fumble, all the while showing his versatility. He’ll likely start the season as the team’s nickel back.</p>
<p>BRONCOS NOTABLE ROOKIE: Left tackle <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Garett-Bolles/" type="external">Garett Bolles</a>. The first-round pick worked his way into the starting lineup by the end of training camp and will be a work in progress as he settles in on a revamped offensive line that will include at least three new starters. The Broncos are counting on his tenacity and energy being positives while Bolles learns how to avoid penalties — something that was a problem in their second preseason game when he was whistled for holding three times in the first half.</p>
<p>FAST FACTS: Chargers TE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Antonio_Gates/" type="external">Antonio Gates</a>, who is tied with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tony_Gonzalez/" type="external">Tony Gonzalez</a> with 111 touchdown receptions, needs one more catch in the end zone to break the all-time record for most touchdowns by a tight end. … Broncos offensive coordinator <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mike-McCoy/" type="external">Mike McCoy</a> will game plan against the team he used to coach, the Chargers, who replaced him with first-year coach Anthony Lynn. … San Diego QB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philip_Rivers/" type="external">Philip Rivers</a> needs 401 passing yards to move ahead of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Vinny_Testaverde/" type="external">Vinny Testaverde</a> for 11th place on the NFL all-time list. … Broncos WR <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Demaryius_Thomas/" type="external">Demaryius Thomas</a> has topped 1,000 receiving yards in each of the past five seasons.</p>
<p>PREDICTION: In a tight game, the Broncos’ defense proves to be the difference. Look for Von Miller &amp; Co. to be disruptive, as usual, and the Broncos to hold on for a narrow win against a division opponent.</p>
<p>OUR PICK: Broncos, 20-16.</p>
<p>–Tom Musick</p> | Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos: Keys to the game, matchups to watch and prediction | false | https://newsline.com/los-angeles-chargers-at-denver-broncos-keys-to-the-game-matchups-to-watch-and-prediction/ | 2017-09-08 | 1 |
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<p>SANTA CLARITA, California — The two things Colt Romberger and his father had most in common, the ones that made them best friends as well as father and son, were a deep affection for horses and an equally deep pride in having served their country in times of war.</p>
<p>So when Cliff Romberger, a Vietnam War veteran and onetime wrangler of horses on Hollywood film sets, died in 2015 of a brain disease doctors attributed to his exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, his son knew there was but one way to honor him: He would saddle up his horse and ride it from the Pacific Ocean to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.</p>
<p>On Monday the compact, muscular 32-year-old Iraq war veteran will begin that journey through big-city streets, across desert sand and over mountain ranges and prairies, aboard a handsome gray-and-black 4-year-old quarter horse named Gus.</p>
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<p>Along the way he hopes to accomplish several things: raise money for veterans causes through a nonprofit foundation he’s established, tell the public about the devastating, deadly effect the use of Agent Orange is having on thousands of aging bodies of Vietnam veterans and, with stops at town halls across the country, let those veterans know they have not been forgotten.</p>
<p>“I’ve spoken to so many Vietnam vets, and they’ve emailed me. Sometimes it breaks my heart hearing their stories,” he says in a voice momentarily choked with emotion.</p>
<p>There was the guy in Norfolk, Virginia, who heard of the ride and sent him $200. When Romberger called to thank him he learned the man was dying of a form of leukemia he believed had been caused by Agent Orange but that had not yet been classified as such because there hadn’t been enough cases for the Department of Veterans Affairs to study. He was hoping the government could make that connection in time to add his wife to his survivor’s benefits.</p>
<p>“And then he passed away, and he never got the approval,” Romberger says quietly as he sits on the patio of a friend’s ranch in a semi-rural section of the picturesque suburb of Santa Clarita, 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. Gus is in a pen nearby, playfully grabbing at a large log he’s turned into a toy. They’ve just finished a lengthy endurance ride through surrounding canyons.</p>
<p>Colt Romberger has been preparing for this ride for nearly two years, and like all good cowboys, the reserve Pasadena police officer, Air Force reserve intelligence analyst and part-time actor will bring along a sidekick. It’s his late father’s best friend.</p>
<p>“He said, ‘Kenny, I’m going to do this. You want to go?’ I said, ‘You bet,’ so I told his mom I’ll make sure he’s taken care of, and so here we are,” said Kenny Reichel, who is putting his business restoring antique cars on hold for the six months the ride is expected to take.</p>
<p>Reichel will drive a truck carrying supplies and pulling a horse trailer while scouting for places man and horse might bed down for the night.</p>
<p>It will pretty much be Gus who sets the pace, Romberger said, adding when the horse gets tired they’ll stop. He estimates they can average 25 miles (40 kilometers) a day.</p>
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<p>“The potential of getting injured on this thing is high,” he acknowledges. “When you’re riding on city streets, a horse can spook and get hit by a truck.”</p>
<p>To prepare, he’s been riding Gus through some of the busy streets of Los Angeles and Pasadena.</p>
<p>Recently he dropped by the Pasadena Police Department, which has granted him a leave of duty for the ride.</p>
<p>“I wish I had taken a picture,” Police Chief Phillip Sanchez says with a chuckle. “Picture the classic Gary Cooper ‘High Noon,’ right? He’s got this brown Stetson hat on, he’s wearing a pair of 501 button-down Levi jeans, a pair of brown boots that have probably seen more cow dung than I want to imagine, and spurs of all things.”</p>
<p>The department “couldn’t be more proud of him,” Sanchez adds, and will be following his ride on social media.</p>
<p>Veterans Affairs has recognized more than a dozen diseases it presumes to be connected with exposure to Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed on the Vietnam countryside to eliminate ground cover hiding enemy troops. After learning how toxic it was, the U.S. banned its use in 1971.</p>
<p>Romberger’s father, stationed with the Air Force in Vietnam in 1970 and ’71, knew he was exposed but had no idea of the debilitating effects it would cause.</p>
<p>After that exposure, Romberger says, it’s likely nothing would have prevented his father from contracting the brain-wasting disease that killed him. But, he adds, his father could have been diagnosed years earlier, providing time to better plan his future and make his final years more comfortable.</p>
<p>That’s what Romberger wants to accomplish for others.</p>
<p>“I’m hoping this ride raises the national awareness, becomes the squeaky wheel to get things rolling for these guys,” he says. “And I hope it becomes like an educational tool that says, ‘Hey, there is help out there, there are people who care.'”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>On the web: <a href="https://expeditionorange.org/" type="external">expeditionorange.org</a></p> | Horseman rides across U.S. to bring attention to Agent Orange | false | https://abqjournal.com/996022/horseman-rides-across-us-to-bring-attention-to-agent-orange.html | 2017-05-01 | 2 |
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<p>Marc Wethington with a denizen of the San Juan River fishery. He recently was given the lifetime achievement award from the American Fisheries Society. (Courtesy Of New Mexico Department Of Game And Fish)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Biologist Marc Wethington, a veteran of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, has landed the lifetime achievement award from the American Fisheries Society.</p>
<p>The 21-year veteran of the department received the society’s award – known as the Fish Head of the Year Award – during a recent meeting in Farmington.</p>
<p>Wethington, 53, is a New Mexico Highlands University graduate and a Kirtland native. He has been stationed at the San Juan River below Navajo Dam his entire career, according to a news release.</p>
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<p>“It is an honor to have been recognized by my peers for the work that we’ve been able to accomplish here on the San Juan on behalf of all anglers,” he said in a statement.</p>
<p>Wethington has overseen numerous habitat improvement projects along the river designed to mitigate low water flows and maintain the high-quality trout fishery.</p>
<p>The world-renowned San Juan River fishery boasts an estimated 70,000 trout, averaging 16 to 18 inches in length, occupying about four miles of river below the dam. It is widely regarded as one of the West’s top trout streams.</p>
<p>Wethington, in nomination letters, was lauded for his depth of knowledge, strong work ethic and ability to forge positive working relationships.</p>
<p>“Anyone who fishes the San Juan knows what a great job he’s done keeping it special,” said Eric Frey, sport fish program manager for the department. “He’s truly devoted his career to fulfilling that mission.”</p>
<p>We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p /> | NM biologist lands major award | false | https://abqjournal.com/975951/fisheries-biologist-reels-in-lifetime-achievement-award.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>And now: Are chronic marijuana users really more relaxed than everyone else?</p>
<p>You might be surprised to learn that the research to date on this question is mixed. One recent study found that while low doses of THC (the active chemical compound in pot) helped people cope with stressful situations, moderate to higher doses actually made people stress out even more.</p>
<p>But that particular study simply measured the effects of a single dose of THC – what about the effects of repeated heavy cannabis use?</p>
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<p>Enter new research from Washington State University, recently published in the journal Psychopharmacology. The study recruited two groups of 40 people: One group had used marijuana nearly every day for at least a year, and the other comprised people who weren’t marijuana users.</p>
<p>Half of each group, users and nonusers, was subject to a particularly anxiety-inducing laboratory test commonly used to measure stress responses: They had to dunk their hands in a container of cold water for anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds, and then count backward from 2,043 by 17, getting reprimanded by lab workers whenever they got a number wrong.</p>
<p>As if that weren’t bad enough, they were also shown a live video feed of their faces as they attempted to count.</p>
<p>The other half of each group was subject to a non-stressful “control” scenario: Dip a hand in warm water, count from 1 to 25, no reprimands, no video.</p>
<p>The meat of this study comes from comparing the stress responses of the cannabis users and the nonusers. To assess this, the researchers measured the amounts of cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, in the subjects’ saliva immediately after they took the stress tests.</p>
<p>“Despite abstaining from cannabis use on the day of testing,” the researchers found, “cannabis users exhibited no increase in salivary cortisol concentration in response to the stress manipulation compared to non-users” [emphasis added]. For a sanity check, the researchers also had the subjects self-evaluate their perceived levels of stress. Same finding: Nonusers rated themselves as more stressed out than the chronic marijuana users.</p>
<p>The heavy users, in other words, reacted to a stressful situation with equanimity and chill even though they weren’t stoned at the time of the test. There’s an outside chance that some of this effect could be due to self-selection: Perhaps naturally relaxed people are more inclined to become frequent cannabis users? But the effects were observed in a controlled laboratory experiment, making the causal link much stronger than it would have been if the researchers had just relied on, say, pre-existing survey data.</p>
<p>This is somewhat unsurprising: Surveys show that “relaxation” is the No. 1 reason cited by marijuana users for why pot is their drug of choice. This research confirms that they’re probably not just deluding themselves and that over the long term, marijuana use does perhaps lead to a somewhat more relaxed outlook on life.</p>
<p>But, as the researchers note, this can be a double-edged sword. Stress is an adaptive response to potentially dangerous or harmful situations. Dampening that response in otherwise healthy individuals may have unintended consequences: Prior research has shown links between unbalanced cortisol levels and PTSD and depression, for instance.</p>
<p>On the other hand, stress and anxiety can be debilitating conditions in and of themselves. For certain individuals, self-medicating with pot may provide an optimal level of stress relief without risk of some of the nastier side effects of prescription medications, for instance.</p>
<p>Stress aside, chronic marijuana use is linked to its own host of potential side effects. Deliberately altering your brain’s chemistry – via pot, alcohol, prescription meds or anything else – is a delicate balancing act. The liberalization of marijuana laws in Washington and other places is bringing some of that balance into sharper focus.</p> | Your stoner friend really is a lot more relaxed than you, scientists confirm | false | https://abqjournal.com/1041111/your-stoner-friend-really-is-a-lot-more-relaxed-than-you-scientists-confirm.html | 2 |
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<p>LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan officials are recommending funding for 19 community and state parks, trails and sports facilities.</p>
<p>They would share more than $2.7 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is supported by revenues from gas and oil development from the outer continental shelf. A pot of money from the fund is divided among the states each year.</p>
<p>Funded projects are intended to broaden access to quality public outdoor recreation.</p>
<p>The state Department of Natural Resources endorsed a list of Michigan projects. It will be sent to the National Park Service for approval.</p>
<p>The list is available <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/lwcfgrants" type="external">online</a> .</p>
<p>LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan officials are recommending funding for 19 community and state parks, trails and sports facilities.</p>
<p>They would share more than $2.7 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is supported by revenues from gas and oil development from the outer continental shelf. A pot of money from the fund is divided among the states each year.</p>
<p>Funded projects are intended to broaden access to quality public outdoor recreation.</p>
<p>The state Department of Natural Resources endorsed a list of Michigan projects. It will be sent to the National Park Service for approval.</p>
<p>The list is available <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/lwcfgrants" type="external">online</a> .</p> | Funding sought for 19 Michigan outdoor recreation projects | false | https://apnews.com/amp/c16c978fa62140c09dc8bd286d55af11 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p />
<p>This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/which-protest-busting-dictator-is-trump-most-like.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s website</a>.</p>
<p>Donald Trump’s incitement chickens came home to roost in Chicago on Friday, when his acolytes attacked the protesters who turned up to a Trump rally. Trump chose the better part of valor and decamped.</p>
<p>It seems obvious that Trump’s constant threatening and bullying of anyone who contradicts him and his cult have led directly to this outcome. Trump specializes in what George Orwell called in “1984” the “five minutes’ hate.” He’ll glare at journalists covering his tent revivals and call them the worst people, as though daring his followers to attack them.</p>
<p />
<p>On seeing a protester, Trump says <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-john-mcgraw_us_56e304ebe4b0860f99d8e056%20" type="external">“I’d like to punch him in the face.”</a> And he promised to pay the legal fees of any of his cult members who attacked another person.</p>
<p>So it was predictable that at some point his motley assortment of neo-Nazis, KKK, and biker gangs would get physical with protesters against Trump’s bigoted hatred of minorities.</p>
<p>Dictators have their thugs attack protesters all the time. So here are some dreary moments in the history of modern dictatorship, echoing Trump’s call to punch people in their faces.</p>
<p>There was that time in summer of 2009 when hard liners allied with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/15/iran-elections-protests-mousavi-attacks%20" type="external">attacked protesters</a> who believed he stole the presidential election.</p>
<p>Then there was that time <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=2%20" type="external">John Lewis was beaten at the behest of the Southern white establishment</a> for trying to march from Selma, Ala.</p>
<p>And there was that rally in Thailand against <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1992-05-19/news/mn-115_1_prime-minister" type="external">the military government . . .</a></p>
<p>Sometimes a mob <a href="http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/865807-cambodian-opposition-mps-beaten-as-political-truce-falters/%20" type="external">even attacks members of parliament</a>, i.e. legislators, on behalf of the opposite party as in Cambodia, even in the absence of a dictator.</p>
<p>You get the point . . .</p>
<p /> | Which Protest-Busting Dictatorship Is Donald Trump Most Like? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/which-protest-busting-dictatorship-is-donald-trump-most-like/ | 2016-03-13 | 4 |
<p>Saks Inc (NYSE:SKS) reported a narrower than expected second quarter loss on Tuesday, as sales gains defied what the luxury retailer said was a tough economy, and the retailer stuck to its sales forecast for the second half of the fiscal year.</p>
<p>Saks reported a net loss of $12.3 million, or 8 cents per share, for the quarter ended July 28, versus a year-earlier loss of $8.4 million, or 5 cents per share.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Excluding items associated with a new fulfillment center, Saks had a loss of 5 cents per share. Wall Street analysts were expecting a loss of 9 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>Saks, which operates 45 department stores and 63 discount outlet Saks Off Fifth stores, said it still expects same-store sales to rise in the mid-single-digit range in the second half of the year despite an "uncertain'' economy.</p>
<p>As previously announced, Saks' second quarter same-store sales rose 4.7%. Total sales were up 5.1% to $704.1 million.</p>
<p>Saks said sales gains at its Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, which generates about one-fifth of sales, were below those of its other department stores.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Saks Posts $12.3 Loss, Backs Forecast | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/08/14/saks-posts-123-loss-backs-forecast.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>Abandoning the slightest premise of being fair and impartial, MSNBC host&#160;Thomas Roberts launched into a defense of Obamacare, and questioned if&#160;Republicans would ask fact-based&#160;questions&#160;about Healtcare.gov's issues&#160;during&#160;today's hearings, or would they get political and "act happier than pigs in slop." After questioning&#160;Representative Charlie Rangel, Roberts concluded by&#160;blaming&#160;Obamacare's problems on the invention of the internet.</p>
<p>The host&#160;began with an opening monologue that ended with:</p>
<p>You know, but there are serious questions by oversight to be asked about Obamacare's website and the Obamacare 2.0’s website patches and fixes to streamline what American's say they want. They want affordable, accessible healthcare. But the question remains, can House Republicans who despise Obamacare drop the drama and ask fact-based questions to make it better, or will they act happier than pigs in slop over a glitchy roll out?&#160;Joining me now is Democratic New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways And Means Committee.</p>
<p>Roberts must have forgotten that Rangel resigned his chairmanship in March 2010 because of ethics violations.</p>
<p>Sir it’s good to have you here. Let's dive in on this. A lot is going in Washington, and as we know, there are serious questions to ask about what took place with the website. Contractors being in the hot seat today, next week we have Secretary Sibelius. &#160;But the contractors are saying there was no way to test the kind of deluge they received from Americans that were interested and then we get an essentially don't blame us kind of response.</p>
<p>But Colleagues are yours are calling for consequences. We have Representative Becerra’s saying somebody should be held accountable. We have Representative Nolan saying President Obama needs to man up. Senator Bill Nelson saying it’s inexcusable, someone ought to be fired, and Representative Sean Patrick Maloney saying I’d like to see somebody lose their job on this.</p>
<p>And this is what you had to say on our air that this is like a pimple on an elephant's backside. And you were quoted as saying it's screwed up. So who deserves the blame here?</p>
<p>Rangel:</p>
<p>Blame? We have ten’s of thousand that are trying to get healthcare, and we had hoped that it would be much smoother for them to apply. &#160;That didn't work. It didn't work with Social Security the first time it was rolled out. It didn't work with Medicare the first time it was rolled out. President Bush’s Section D for prescription drugs. You know, I just can't believe that Republicans have this obsession to destroy a plan that would provide healthcare. This is a glitch. I'm not belittling. I wish we didn't have it. But my God, we've got until the end of March to straighten out these things, and I never thought when I went to Congress over 40 years ago that my biggest problem with healthcare was taking care of the overwhelming number of people who are either under or uninsured.</p>
<p>Roberts</p>
<p>Or that the advent of the internet is what's standing in the way of everybody.</p> | MSNBC's Roberts: Will Republicans Act 'Happier Than Pigs in Slop' Over A Glitchy Roll Out? | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/msnbcs-roberts-will-republicans-act-happier-pigs-slop-over-glitchy-roll-out | 2018-10-06 | 0 |
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<p>Caleb Bartels, 27, was stopped on Sunday night in northern Arizona and again by Utah officials. On Monday, he was stopped by Nevada law enforcement.</p>
<p>All three incidents took place before a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest, authorities say.</p>
<p>The warrant says Bartels is wanted for the killing early Sunday morning of Ryne Zahner, a teacher a Mesa High School who was shot in his home’s backyard.</p>
<p>Police believe Bartels and Zahner were friends and former roommates who had a falling out.</p>
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<p>Before that warrant was issued, the Arizona Department of Public Safety stopped Bartels around 5:30 p.m. in northern Arizona, just 13 hours after the shooting.</p>
<p>The Utah Highway Patrol stopped him again around 10 p.m., where a trooper found an AR-15, a pistol and fully-loaded magazine in the vehicle. There was no warrant issued for Bartels’ arrest and the trooper had no indication he was prohibited from possessing a firearm. He was let go.</p>
<p>The next day, about an hour before a warrant was sent to law enforcement nationwide, the Nevada Highway Patrol stopped Bartels in West Wendover, Nevada, for a headlight violation. Records indicate no action was taken and Bartels was allowed to proceed.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officials are still searching for Bartels, who they believe may have fled to Sacramento, California; Reno, Nevada, or Beaverton, Oregon. He is considered armed and dangerous.</p> | Arizona man sought in killing stopped 3 times without arrest | false | https://abqjournal.com/931055/arizona-man-sought-in-killing-stopped-3-times-without-arrest.html | 2017-01-19 | 2 |
<p>What happened last week at the Israeli resort hotel in Taba was hideous: the random massacre of 30 or more vacationers.</p>
<p>Never, never can there be justification for the slaughter of non-combatant civilians.</p>
<p>The scale of the disaster at Taba, relative to Israel’s population of 6 million population, was huge. Those thirty dead represent, proportionally, a loss of life almost half as large as America’s benchmark 9/11.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Who attacked the Israeli hotel in Taba, and why, is presently a mystery. It is thought that the attack represented a retaliation by Al Qaeda against Israel’s current “Operation Days of Penitence.” “Operation Days of Penitence,” never mind the sensitive poetry of its title, is a punitive military action directed against faceless Palestinians in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp of Gaza It was provoked by the killing of two Israeli children, ages 2 and 4, who were the unspecified victims of a rocket fired by Hamas into the Israeli border town of Sederot.</p>
<p>The rocket attack on Sederot (a) which killed the 2 Israeli children occurred on September 29. Israel’s retaliation (b) in the form of “Operation days of Penitence” began the following day and in the next days killed over 100 Palestinians. The bombing of Taba (c), which killed some thirty people, most of them Israelis, took place just a week after that. Given the character of the present Israeli government, it seems inevitable that it will insert a fresh contribution, some unimaginable (d), into the current cycle of retaliatory violence.</p>
<p>Sederot (a) was itself, of course, an inevitable next letter in the continuing series of alphabet books written in blood on whose composition Israel and Palestine have been collaborating for decades now.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>“Operation Days of Penitience,” Israel’s answer to the 2 deaths at Siderot, had by October 8 brought death to 101 Palestinians, combatants and bystanders both. If we segregate 24 of that number, necessarily, because they were children, it will be seen that 12 times more children were killed in Gaza than were killed in Sederot. That is how a (b) follows on a given (a).</p>
<p>If the anguish of parents at the death of their children is universal as the acceptance of this principle is not and if the widely reported killings at Sederot was hideous, what can we say about the disregarded deaths of Palestinian children numbering 12 times more than the widely reported child deaths in Sederot? That some of them perhaps threw stones or taunted some of the 200 tanks and armored vehicles that broke into their slum, and they unfortunately deserved to die for that; and that the rest of them lived fated lives that brought them into a line of fire whose military justification overtook their chance of continuing their childhood?</p>
<p>Relative to Palestine’s population of 3 million, 24 deaths of any sort would represent the equivalent of three-quarters of a 9/11. That — worse by far this Palestinian experience of disaster numerically on the scale of 9/11 should have been composed entirely of children, is a fact that we can hardly look in the face.</p>
<p>Desolation and vengeance, vengeance and desolation: the two fat serpents of tragedy twine together in obscene kinship.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>I saw a characteristic American dullness of mind and moral opacity displayed by John Edwards, John Kerry’s political partner, on the night of his recent debate with Vice President Cheney.</p>
<p>When the subject of the Mideast conflict came up, Edwards fittingly expressed horror at the recent killing of the two children of Sederot.</p>
<p>But not a single word did he have to say about the blind clatter of the Israeli military machine that thereupon seized Jabalya and took the lives of twelve times more children than had perished in Siderot.</p>
<p>Did the 24 slain children of Jabalya figure so much less in Edward’s mind than did the 2 slain children of Sederot because he was purely ignorant? Because he was an average muddled racist who couldn,t be bothered to fathom the agony of the distant Other? Or because he was a sheer opportunist serving the politics of the day?</p>
<p>JULES RABIN lives in Marshfield, Vermont. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/10/16/reckoning-deaths-in-an-agitated-world/ | 2004-10-16 | 4 |
<p>Photo Credit: http://houselive.gov/</p>
<p>Moments before the House’s vote to destroy Obamacare and its protections affecting all private health insurance policies Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned Republicans that voting for the draconian bill would imperil their careers.</p>
<p>“You have walked the plank from moderate to radical,” she said. “And you’re walking the plank for what—a bill that will not be accepted by the United States Senate? Why are you doing this? … You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead. You will glow in the dark on this one.”</p>
<p>Twenty Republicans sided with every Democrat and voted no— <a href="//www.rollcall.com/news/meet-the-republicans-who-voted-no-on-the-health-care-bill/?utm_source=just-in&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletters" type="external">nine</a> were from districts where Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump. They seem to know how a yes vote would be received. The rest, 217 of them, voted yes. But with the November 2018 elections 18 months away, how much will the House vote help Democrats retake 24 additional seats for a majority?</p>
<p>“The&#160; <a href="//cookpolitical.com/story/10342" type="external">Cook political report</a>&#160;is moving 20 races toward Democrats,” <a href="//www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/5/1659232/-Cook-Political-Report-Moves-20-Races-After-Vote" type="external">wrote</a> the Daily Kos’ pollwatcher. “It doesn’t mean they are in the Democratic column, they just are a little closer now. This is a great opportunity for us if we can keep the enthusiasm up and spread that enthusiasm to the 37% of people who thought voting doesn’t matter.”</p>
<p>Kos is in the cheerleading business. Its conclusion, “this is how a wave starts,” is unsurprising. It copied Cook’s list and ended, “If we can keep up the enthusiasm, work hard, and stay focused on where the real threat is coming from, we might just survive this fascist attack on our democracy and end up changing the world.”</p>
<p>The author of the Cook Report’s new <a href="//cookpolitical.com/story/10342" type="external">assessment</a>, David Wasserman, has a more precise idea of the uphill climb Democrats face to retake the House. He’s one of the few analysts who understand how the GOP’s extreme partisan redistricting after 2010 resulted in states that might be evenly split when it comes to voting for president, but end up sending twice as many Republicans to the House. That’s because they drew political boundaries that effectively segregated voters.</p>
<p>Wasserman’s analysis post-Thursday’s vote said three Republicans face likely defeat in 2018. They are, as summarized in his report:</p>
<p>1. CA-25: Rep. Steve Knight (R),&#160;Northern LA County: Santa Clarita, PalmdaleToss-Up. Knight prevailed with 53 percent in 2016 while Trump lost this rapidly suburbanizing seat 50 percent to 43 percent.</p>
<p>2. CO-06: Rep. Mike Coffman (R),&#160;Denver southeast suburbs: Aurora, LittletonToss-Up. Coffman ended up voting against the AHCA, but his hesitation to announce his position likely won't assuage voters who want to send a message to President Trump next year.</p>
<p>3. MN-02: Rep. Jason Lewis (R),&#160;Twin Cities south suburbs: Eagan, BurnsvilleToss-Up. Lewis prevailed by one of the slimmest margins of any GOP freshman in 2016, 47 percent to 45 percent—and followed it up by casting a vote for Republicans' AHCA bill.</p>
<p>That's only three seats, not the 24 needed. He moved three Republican incumbents from “lean Republican” to “toss-ups.” He also moved 11 incumbents from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.” And he moved six from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican.”</p>
<p>“In light of the vote, we are shifting our ratings in 20 districts, all reflecting enhanced opportunities for Democrats,” Wasserman said. “The major caveat is that 18 months is an eternity in politics and that as always, we will continue to adjust our outlook as events unfold and the landscape develops.”</p>
<p>Kos and Wasserman are both correct in their tentative characterizations. What the House GOP did Thursday could be the start of a blue wave. But it would have to be a very big wave, as Wasserman notes, because the most vulnerable GOP incumbents still are on semi-solid red ground. Of the three new toss-up races, Colorado’s Coffman—elected as a Tea Partier—voted no on Obamacare repeal. He may have delayed his decision, as Wasserman noted, but he voted no. You can be sure he’ll tout that.</p>
<p>Where are the other 17 races with potentially vulnerable Republicans? Of the 11 “lean Republican” seats, three are in California, two in Texas and the rest are single seats in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and New Jersey. Of the six Wasserman moved to “likely Republican,” two are in Illinois, and the rest are single seats in Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio.</p>
<p>Statistical handicapper Nate Silver, at fivethirtyeight.com, also sounded an upbeat but cautionary note. He <a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/860215679420702721/photo/1" type="external">wrote</a>, “27 Republicans voted for AHCA [the House bill] and won their races by &lt;15 points last time around. They're in the danger zone.”</p>
<p>On closer inspection of his data, one <a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/860215679420702721/photo/1" type="external">sees</a>&#160;it does not quickly add up to 24 seats needed to retake the House. Only four GOP incumbents who voted for the ACHA won their 2016 races by less than a 4 percent margin of victory. Most of the 27 Silver cited were won by Republicans with at least 10 percent margins of victory.</p>
<p>Could the House’s Obamacare repeal be the start of a blue wave taking the House in 2018? Yes, but it’s going to have to be a very big wave where dozens of Republicans are defeated by double-digit margins. That’s no ordinary landslide.</p>
<p>Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet. He is the author of several books on elections, most recently&#160; <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/democracy-betrayed-steven-rosenfeld/1127810302;jsessionid=AC5E9DD4655097E5A38BC19EF350CCC2.prodny_store01-atgap04?ean=9781510729452#/" type="external">Democracy Betrayed: How Superdelegates, Redistricting, Party Insiders, and the Electoral College Rigged the 2016 Election</a>&#160;(March 2018, Hot Books).</p> | Why the GOP's Vote to Repeal Obamacare Could Send a Democratic Majority to Washington in 2018 | true | http://alternet.org/activism/dreadful-house-obamacare-repeal-vote-raises-democratic-hopes-big-blue-wave-retake-chamber | 2017-05-05 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Or:</p>
<p>A champion of the forgotten people scores one of the great political upsets in American history, confounding the nation’s elites. Resistance is for sore losers and hypocrites who would undermine democracy exactly as they accused the president-elect of wanting to do.</p>
<p>Or – wait, can we check “both of the above”?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For those who opposed Donald Trump’s candidacy, this transition period is confounding. What is the right response?</p>
<p>The confusion many Democrats feel is reflected in their anger toward President Barack Obama – not only for failing to respond sooner and more assertively to Russian interference in the election but also for cooperating with Trump at all.</p>
<p>In promising to help Trump’s administration and wishing for its success, Obama is behaving normally for a departing president – and that “normalization” of Trump is unacceptable in the eyes of many Democrats.</p>
<p>Are they sore losers? After all, if the electors on Monday cast their ballots in accordance with the popular vote in their states, Trump will win handily. The Russian hacking and FBI Director James Comey’s letter helped him, but so did his instinctive understanding of the national mood, Hillary Clinton’s tactical errors, voters’ desire for a “change” candidate and a dozen other factors. He won, she lost.</p>
<p>Since his election, Trump has reached out to people who opposed him, such as Mitt Romney, Al Gore and Silicon Valley tycoons. He appears to be courting and uniting the disparate factions of the Republican Party. He has nominated a number of apparently qualified people to his Cabinet, from retired Marine Gen. James Mattis at Defense to Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., at Interior.</p>
<p>And yet . . . when he reaches out to opponents, it seems at times his main goal is to gloat or extort an apology. His apparently qualified appointees have some questionable company, from a housing secretary who knows nothing about housing to a national security adviser who traded in lurid conspiracy theories during the campaign.</p>
<p>Trump continues to attack the media, tweet falsehoods (like the 3 million fraudulent votes) and conceal his tax returns. His transition team’s request for names of climate-change experts at the Energy Department raised fears of a purge of civil servants who do not toe his line. Like a Central Asian despot, he continues to mix family with business with government. His uniting of factions in fact represents Republicans’ predictable sacrifice of principle for access.</p>
<p>Most disturbing has been Trump’s response to the reports of Russian interference. From his last news conference way back in July, when he actually encouraged such hacking, to his breezy dismissal of Russian responsibility and contempt for U.S. intelligence agencies, to his Friday tweet that seemed to celebrate the hacking, his stance has been other than what one might expect of a soon-to-be commander in chief. Trump still refuses to release documents that would show the extent, if any, of Russian investment in or connection to his business interests.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And after he is sworn in on Jan. 20, Trump may seek to shut down further inquiry.</p>
<p>Isn’t all that reason enough for the electoral college to ignore the voters’ instructions? Doesn’t it justify shifting immediately into irreconcilable opposition?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>The risks are genuine, but the best way to defend democratic norms is to follow democratic norms. That means recognizing the results of the election. It means encouraging Trump to fulfill his promises to release his tax returns and to separate himself from the family business – and legislating to require such actions if he reneges.</p>
<p>It means that Congress should confirm presidential appointees who are found, after rigorous vetting and questioning, to be qualified, and should reject those who are not. The civil service and foreign service should implement presidential policy directives when they are legal, and resist any that are not. The courts, the media, state governments and, above all, the citizenry, both those who voted for him and those who did not, all have roles to play.</p>
<p>And it means urgently investigating, as Republican congressional leaders have promised they will, Russian interference in the election, no matter where the inquiry leads.</p>
<p>Trump has pledged to govern as a uniter. On Jan. 20, he will swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Like any president, he should be given a chance to fulfill those pledges and be held accountable by all the institutions of our democracy if and when he falls short.</p>
<p>democracy-comment</p> | How to defend America’s democracy | false | https://abqjournal.com/911812/how-to-defend-americas-democracy.html | 2 |
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<p>( <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/" type="external">Natural News</a>) Watch the presentation below for the full, astonishing details of how a forensic acoustic analysis proves the existence of a second shooter at roughly 250 – 270 yards from where mass shooting victims were filming the tragedy as it unfolded.</p>
<p>In essence, because of the differences in the speed of sound vs. the speed of the bullets from a known cartridge (.223 Remington, in this case), the time lag between the last bullet hitting the pavement and the last audible report of the rifle muzzle can be used to very accurately calculate the range of the shooter.</p>
<p>More importantly, when the audio from the Las Vegas shooting is analyzed, it reveals TWO shooters operating at the same time, not just one shooter. Shooter #1 is operating at 425 – 475 yards, which is consistent with the Mandalay Bay hotel, but shooter #2 is operating at approximately 250 – 270 yards.</p>
<p>This fact is encoded in the audio of numerous videos posted on YouTube. This is all explained in the video below, with detailed whiteboard calculations and diagrams:</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-09-exclusive-forensic-acoustic-analysis-confirms-existence-and-range-of-second-las-vegas-shooter.html" type="external">Natural News</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | EXCLUSIVE: Forensic acoustic analysis confirms existence (and range) of second Las Vegas shooter | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/10/exclusive-forensic-acoustic-analysis-confirms-existence-and-range-of-second-las-vegas-shooter/ | 0 |
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<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police say the state medical examiner's office is trying to determine the cause of death after finding a body believed to be that of a missing woman from Baldwin.</p>
<p>The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department says a woman's body was found Wednesday near the home of Lawrene Alexander, who was last heard from Dec. 20.</p>
<p>Officials made the announcement on Thursday but are providing few details.</p>
<p>Officials say Alexander had a mental health diagnosis and had disappeared before, but had always checked in with relatives. Her body was found in woods near her home.</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police say the state medical examiner's office is trying to determine the cause of death after finding a body believed to be that of a missing woman from Baldwin.</p>
<p>The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department says a woman's body was found Wednesday near the home of Lawrene Alexander, who was last heard from Dec. 20.</p>
<p>Officials made the announcement on Thursday but are providing few details.</p>
<p>Officials say Alexander had a mental health diagnosis and had disappeared before, but had always checked in with relatives. Her body was found in woods near her home.</p> | Police believe they've found body of missing woman | false | https://apnews.com/amp/c0492db2f019420e9e5885cbc60af75b | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p />
<p>A U.S. federal court on Friday refused to put an emergency halt to Republican President Donald Trump's revised travel ban, saying lawyers from states opposed to the measure needed to file more extensive court papers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>States led by Washington and Minnesota challenged Trump's original executive order, issued in January, which sought to restrict travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and stop refugees from entering the U.S.</p>
<p>Seattle U.S. District Court Judge James Robart issued a temporary restraining order against the first policy last month, and when Trump issued a narrower version of the ban on Monday, listing only six countries, opponents sought to halt its implementation as well. Robart on Friday declined to apply his first order to the new ban.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Sandra Maler)</p> | Federal Judge Declines to Halt Revised Trump Travel Ban | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/03/10/federal-judge-declines-to-halt-revised-trump-travel-ban.html | 2017-03-10 | 0 |
<p>The Liberals are hinting at ending the <a href="" type="internal">Office of Religious Freedom</a> in spite of the pleas of the Jewish, Sikh and Ahmadiyya Muslim communities.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Liberals</a> are considering cutting this valuable office and ending it's mandate in a time when religious <a href="" type="internal">persecution</a> is exploding across the world.</p>
<p>Pew Research Centre reports “More than three-quarters of the world’s population (77%) was living with high or very high levels of <a href="" type="internal">restrictions</a> on religion in 2013. This was an increase from 68% in 2007.”</p>
<p>Open Doors UK, a non-profit group that tracks religious persecution says that in 2015, 7000 Christians were killed because of their faith, 3000 more than the year before.</p>
<p>These numbers don’t include <a href="" type="internal">North Korea</a>, Syria and Iraq where records don’t exist. In terms of violence against Christians and their property, Nigeria and Central African Republic top the list.</p>
<p>Children are being burned alive, crucified and sold into sex slavery because of their faith in the Middle East and North Africa. Women are being raped and stoned for apostasy. Christian men are being beheaded until the waters of the sea run red.</p>
<p>If Canada won’t fight the monsters doing this, shouldn't we advocate for these religious minorities?</p>
<p>The Office of Religious freedom costs Canada a mere $5 million per year to combat <a href="" type="internal">religious persecution</a>. The Federal Government has committed more than <a href="" type="internal">$4 billion</a> to help developing countries <a href="" type="internal">combat</a> climate change.</p>
<p>Seems the only religious freedom Canada will defend is that of the <a href="" type="internal">cult of climate change</a>.</p> | Religious persecution death toll explodes, but Liberals only care about climate change cult | true | http://therebel.media/as_religious_persecution_death_toll | 2016-02-15 | 0 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) _ These Arizona lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>5 Card Cash</p>
<p>QH-4D-7H-2S-8S</p>
<p>(QH, 4D, 7H, 2S, 8S)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Evening</p>
<p>01-02-03-04-06-07-10-11-17-20</p>
<p>(one, two, three, four, six, seven, ten, eleven, seventeen, twenty)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Midday</p>
<p>01-02-04-06-07-11-13-15-16-19</p>
<p>(one, two, four, six, seven, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, sixteen, nineteen)</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>4-2-9</p>
<p>(four, two, nine)</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>05-14-15-31-40</p>
<p>(five, fourteen, fifteen, thirty-one, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $51,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) _ These Arizona lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>5 Card Cash</p>
<p>QH-4D-7H-2S-8S</p>
<p>(QH, 4D, 7H, 2S, 8S)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Evening</p>
<p>01-02-03-04-06-07-10-11-17-20</p>
<p>(one, two, three, four, six, seven, ten, eleven, seventeen, twenty)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Midday</p>
<p>01-02-04-06-07-11-13-15-16-19</p>
<p>(one, two, four, six, seven, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, sixteen, nineteen)</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>4-2-9</p>
<p>(four, two, nine)</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>05-14-15-31-40</p>
<p>(five, fourteen, fifteen, thirty-one, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $51,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p> | AZ Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/06dc56da62ff45db9f9c8cfd8aff354b | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said an intelligence report sent on May 13 to Arizona law enforcement agencies warning that Mexican drug cartels were sending armed assassins into the state to eliminate bandits stealing drugs from smugglers has “proved to be inaccurate,” the <a href="" type="internal">Arizona Republic</a> reported.</p>
<p>“At this time, DHS does not have any specific, credible information on intra-cartel violence taking place in Arizona,” Chandler said last Friday.</p>
<p>The story broke last Friday when the Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office disclosed the DHS memo in a news release, which included a copy of the “law enforcement sensitive” alert which credited the information that cartels were sending 15 well-armed hit men into Arizona as coming from a “proven, credible confidential source,” the Republic said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Chandler told the Republic that DHS regularly shares information with state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to keep them aware of potential threats, but he added that just because the agency shares information doesn’t mean the intelligence is credible.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13331637" type="external">KGUN9</a>, the Tucson television station that broke the story, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu decided to make the warning public after he was contacted about the DHS e-mail last week.</p>
<p>Babeu predicted in an interview with KGUN that since he is now talking about the advisory, DHS would probably repudiate the memo.</p>
<p>“These are the people who have put this out, and have said it,” Babeu told a KGUN reporter. “Now watch. They’ll probably back off from it.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>9:50am 10/18/10 — Are Mexican Hit Men Operating in Arizona?: Homeland Security memo sent to Arizona law enforcement in May comes to light.</p>
<p>Drug-smuggling gangs in Mexico have sent well-armed assassins, or “sicarios,” into Arizona to locate and kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin to buyers in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has warned Arizona law enforcement agencies, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/15/mexican-assassins-headed-arizona/" type="external">The Washington Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>The memo, first sent in May which is now coming to light, said a group of 15 “very well-equipped and armed” assassins had been sent into Arizona to identify, locate and kill drug thieves who are thought to be independent operators, The Times said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The memo said the assassins had been sent to the Vekol Valley, a widely used drug-smuggling corridor running north and south across Interstate 8 between the towns of Casa Grande and Gila Bend and a direct link both to the interstate and to Phoenix, the paper reported.</p>
<p>“We just received information from a proven, credible confidential source who reported that a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco, in which every smuggling organization who utilizes the Vekol Valley was told to attend,” said the DHS memo sent in May.</p>
<p>The Puerto Penasco meeting allegedly included rival groups within the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Joaquin Archivaldo “Chapo” Guzman Loera and which smuggles multi-ton loads of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico, The Times said.</p>
<p>The federal government recently posted signs along I-8 in the Vekol Valley warning travelers that the area is unsafe because of the drug and alien smugglers, according to The Times.</p>
<p>Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county includes the valley, told The Times earlier this month that Mexican drug cartels have posted scouts on the high points around the valley to control movement in the area and have radios, optics and “night vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.”</p>
<p>“This is going on here in Arizona … 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States,” Babeu told The Times.</p>
<p>The sheriff told the paper he has asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard troops to patrol the border, but got 15 signs along I-8 instead.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Updated at 5:50am — Feds Say Cartel Assassin Memo a False Alarm | false | https://abqjournal.com/9835/updated-at-550am-feds-say-cartel-assassin-memo-a-false-alarm.html | 2 |
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<p>Gerald R. Ford was deemed a klutz by the media. This is just one fun fact about Ford. For more information continue reading History Unspun’s President Profile Of The Day: Gerald R. Ford!</p>
<p>Astrological Sign: Cancer</p>
<p>Term of Presidency: 1974-1977</p>
<p>Party: Republican</p>
<p>Age Upon Taking Office: 61</p>
<p>Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller</p>
<p>Ran Against: N/A</p>
<p>Height: 6’</p>
<p>Nickname: “Jerry”</p>
<p>Sound Bite: “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.”</p>
<p>Fun Facts:</p>
<p>1. Gerald R. Ford was a klutz, and every klutzy thing he did ended up in the news. For example, one evening while walking his dog, Ford locked himself out of the White House.</p>
<p>2. Before becoming President of the United States Gerald R. Ford had a modeling career. He appeared in the magazine Look, and on the cover of Cosmopolitan. He remains the only President of the United States to have worked as a model.</p> | President Profile Of The Day: Gerald R. Ford | false | https://ivn.us/2012/08/05/president-profile-of-the-day-gerald-r-ford/ | 2012-08-05 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Authorities are investigating Bennington’s death as an apparent suicide, Los Angeles County coroner spokesman Brian Elias said Thursday. Bennington, who was 41, was found dead in his home near Los Angeles. He had a strong bond with Cornell and died on what would have been the Soundgarden singer’s 53rd birthday.</p>
<p>Bennington was also the godfather to Cornell’s 11-year-old son, Chris. And Bennington sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at Cornell’s memorial.</p>
<p>The Cornells called Bennington a member of their family in a statement released Thursday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The Cornell family is overwhelmed by the heartbreaking news about Chester Bennington which tragically comes so soon after their family’s own loss,” said a Cornell family spokesperson. “They open up their loving arms to Chester’s family and share in the sorrow with all those who loved him.”</p>
<p>Cornell died by hanging after a concert in Detroit. Linkin Park was set to go on tour next week.</p>
<p>Bennington helped Linkin Park, whose sound mixed rap and rock, become one of the most commercially successful acts in the 2000s. The Grammy-winning group sold more than 10 million copies of their 2000 debut, “Hybrid Theory,” which featured the megahit and anthem, “In the End.” They sold another 6 million with 2003’s multiplatinum “Meteora.” Both albums explored feelings of frustration and fury.</p>
<p>The success helped Linkin Park become Billboard’s No. 1 act of the decade for rock songs and alternative songs.</p>
<p>Band co-founder and producer Mike Shinoda said on Twitter he was “shocked and saddened.”</p>
<p>“Chester Bennington was an artist of extraordinary talent and charisma, and a human being with a huge heart and a caring soul. Our thoughts and prayers are with his beautiful family, his band-mates and his many friends,” Warner Bros. Records CEO and Chairman Cameron Stang said in a statement.</p>
<p>Bennington’s voice could soar with piercing strength or descend to a whisper. Rolling Stone once called it a “shrapnel-laced howl that sounds like it comes from someone twice his size.”</p>
<p>The band also sold millions with its remix album, “Reanimation,” and its mash-up record with Jay-Z, “Collision Course.” They won Grammys for best hard rock performance in 2001 for “Crawling” and best rap/sung collaboration for “Numb/Encore” in 2005. Linkin Park was next scheduled to perform next week in Massachusetts and New York.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Bennington struggled with drug and alcohol addictions at various times during his life. He said he had been sexually abused as a child and was homeless for months before the band found fame.</p>
<p>Linkin Park released their most recent album, “One More Light,” in May. It was an album that divided critics and fans alike for its embrace of moody pop. One song on the album, “Heavy,” opens with the words: “I don’t like my mind right now.”</p>
<p>Although the band had always experimented with different sounds, some claimed Linkin Park had sold out, which Bennington denied. “One More Light” became the band’s fifth No. 1 album debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart.</p>
<p>“If you like the music, fantastic. If you don’t like it, that’s your opinion too. Fantastic. If you’re saying we’re doing what we’re doing for a commercial or monetary reason, trying to make success out of some formula. then stab yourself in the face!” Bennington told NME magazine.</p>
<p>When he got his big break in 1999, Bennington was an assistant at a digital-services firm in Phoenix. A music executive sent him a demo from the band Xero, which needed a lead singer. (He had been recommended by his attorney.) Bennington wrote and recorded new vocals over the band’s playing and sent the results back. He soon got the gig and the band then changed its named to Hybrid Theory, then Linkin Park.</p>
<p>Bennington told The Associated Press in 2010 that because of the sound the band is known for — fusing sounds from nu-metal, punk, rock, pop and hip-hop — it was virtually impossible to satisfy their many kinds of fans.</p>
<p>“We’re making music for us, that we like. We’re not making music for other people,” he said. “We’re not thinking, ‘Let’s make a pie-graph of all our fans and find out how many people fit in whatever category and then make the perfect album for them.’ Like, that would be absolutely ridiculous.”</p>
<p>Bennington was married to his second wife, Talinda, and is survived by six children.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>AP Entertainment Writers Mark Kennedy in New York and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.</p> | Bennington’s death mirrors that of close friend Cornell | false | https://abqjournal.com/1036279/benningtons-death-mirrors-that-of-close-friend-cornell.html | 2017-07-21 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Image source: Spotify.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>2015 was a big year for music streaming services. Apple launched Apple Music. Jay-Z relaunched Tidal with a cast of musical artists. Pandora continued to stream billions of hours of music to its listeners. And YouTube, a subsidiary of Google -- an Alphabet company -- launched a paid music-streaming service of its own to compliment one of its biggest uses.</p>
<p>But the biggest music streaming service in the world -- with 89 million active listeners as of the end of last year -- just released its annual report filings with regulators in Luxembourg. There's a lot of interesting information in Spotify's report that sheds some light on the state of music streaming. Here, I've collected the most interesting takeaways from Spotify's annual report.</p>
<p>Despite the influx of competition last year from big names like Apple and Tidal, Spotify managed to accelerate its revenue growth in 2015. Revenue grew 80% to reach 1.95 billion euros for the year. That's up from 45% growth in 2014, when it recorded 1.08 billion euros in revenue.</p>
<p>We already knew streaming revenue was growing rapidly. IFPI's Global Music Report said streaming revenue grew 45% in 2015 to reach $2.63 billion. With Spotify's revenue growing notably faster than the overall market, it took significant share, and now accounts for about $0.80 for every dollar in streaming revenue.</p>
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<p>And for those that think it's all those ad-supported streamers bolstering Spotify's numbers, consider that Spotify's paid subscription revenue of 1.74 billion euros ($1.89 billion) accounts for 94.5% of IFPI's $2 billion market estimate for paid subscription revenue. With 30 million paid subscribers, it's by far the largest paid streaming service.</p>
<p>Apple recently claimed it had 13 million subscribers for Apple Music (which is paid only), but it's unclear how many of those were using their free trial. Additionally, Apple Music's launch in the middle of 2015 likely kept it from making as big of a dent in 2015 revenue numbers. Apple Music's growth may be coming from subscription declines at smaller competitors like Deezer and the shuttering of others like Rdio, of which Pandora bought the assets.</p>
<p>While revenue growth was tremendous for Spotify in 2015, it actually saw its net loss widen 6.3% to 173.1 million euros. Its biggest cost was the amount it paid in royalties. Spotify says that it pays out about 70% of revenue as music royalties, but in 2015 it had to pay 1.63 billion Euros, 83.6% of revenue. In fact, that number has been above 80% in each of the last three years. What's more, that percentage continues to increase. The additional royalty fees are the result of upfront fees and guaranteed minimums paid to record labels.</p>
<p>Pandora and YouTube have successfully lowered the cost of streaming music for free. Pandora, which only supports a radio listening experience, is able to pay a set royalty rate per song play set by the copyright royalty board. That rate was just $0.14 per thousand song plays last year, but climbed to $0.17 this year. Overall, Pandora paid just 52% of revenue as royalties.</p>
<p>YouTube, meanwhile, is able to pay "about a sixth of what Spotify and Apple pay artists," according to Motley Crueco-founder Nikki Sixx. YouTube benefits from existing performance agreements with music labels to use songs for video plays even though it often functions as a music service for many users.</p>
<p>Still, Spotify's results show how difficult it is to make a profit with music streaming. Even with 30 million paid subscribers and 70 million ad-supported listeners, Spotify still can't turn a profit. Its operating expenses are showing good leverage, but it's still moving in the wrong direction net-profit wise. Apple or Pandora investors hoping that music streaming will become a profitable venture in the near future still have a long way to go.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/27/spotifys-annual-report-shows-just-how-hard-it-is-t.aspx" type="external">Spotify's Annual Report Shows How Hard It Is to Make a Profit Streaming Music Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Adam Levy Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Apple, and Pandora Media. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Spotify's Annual Report Shows How Hard It Is to Make a Profit Streaming Music | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/05/27/spotify-annual-report-shows-how-hard-it-is-to-make-profit-streaming-music.html | 2016-05-27 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 19 Sep, 2017 20:43</p>
<p>US President Donald Trump urged nations to “embrace their sovereignty” in his first address at the UN General Assembly in New York, but promised that the US would challenge North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela for behaving in ways the US disapproves of.</p>
<p>“The United States will forever be a great friend to the world and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else.”</p>
<p>“In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather, to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch… In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people where it belongs. In foreign affairs, we are renewing this founding principle of sovereignty.”</p>
<p>“No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea… No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”</p>
<p>“The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it. Believe me.”</p>
<p>“The United States is a compassionate nation and has spent billions and billions of dollars in helping to support this effort. We seek an approach to refugee resettlement that is designed to help these horribly treated people and which enables their eventual return to their home countries to be part of the rebuilding process. For the cost of resettling one refugee in the United States, we can assist more than 10 in their home region.”</p>
<p>“The United Nations must reform if it is to be an effective partner in confronting threats to sovereignty, security and prosperity. Too often the focus of this organization has not been on results, but on bureaucracy and process. In some cases, states that seek to subvert this institution’s noble end have hijacked the very systems that are supposed to advance them. For example, it is a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations that some governments with egregious human rights records sit on the UN Human Rights Council.”</p>
<p>“The United States is one out of 193 countries in the United Nations, and yet we pay 22 percent of the entire budget and more. In fact, we pay far more than anybody realizes. The United States bears an unfair cost burden, but to be fair, if it could actually accomplish all of its stated goals, especially the goal of peace, this investment would easily be well worth it.”</p>
<p>“The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing. Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. The situation is completely unacceptable, and we cannot stand by and watch. As a responsible neighbor and friend, we and all others have a goal – that goal is to help them regain their freedom, recover their country, and restore their democracy.”</p> | ‘US doesn’t seek to impose its way of life on anyone’: 8 key quotes from Trump’s UN speech | false | https://newsline.com/us-doesnt-seek-to-impose-its-way-of-life-on-anyone-8-key-quotes-from-trumps-un-speech/ | 2017-09-19 | 1 |
<p>The damage caused by the relentless corporate drive for profits has become more clear in recent years. In the most important areas of American life, devastating changes have occurred: <a href="//www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/04/26/43-percent-of-US-working-age-adults-cant-afford-doctor/UPI-37621367028447/" type="external">Health Care</a>: Almost half of the working-age adults in America passed up doctor visits or other medical services because they couldn't afford to pay. The system hasn't supported kids, either. A&#160; <a href="//www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf" type="external">UNICEF study</a>&#160;places the U.S.&#160;26th out of 29&#160;OECD countries in the overall well-being of its children. <a href="//newsroom.transunion.com/press-releases/transunion-study-finds-more-than-half-of-student-l-979763#.UZOcEUrS81c" type="external">Education</a>: Student loan balances increased by 75% between 2007 and 2012. <a href="//www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/" type="external">Household Wealth</a>: Median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households between 2005 and 2009, mainly because of the mortgage banking collapse. Almost&#160;half&#160;of Americans have&#160; <a href="//epi.3cdn.net/2a7ccb3e9e618f0bbc_3nm6idnax.pdf" type="external">ZERO</a>wealth, with their assets surpassed by debt. <a href="" type="internal">Water and Food</a>: Life-giving seeds and drinking water have been increasingly treated as products to be bought and sold.All these areas of life have been degraded by a free-market system that has&#160; <a href="//www.nationofchange.org/corporate-betrayal-america-1365428046" type="external">thrived</a>&#160;on publicly-funded research, infrastructure, and defense. Yet in a brazen show of&#160; <a href="//truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17786-corpocrisy-the-systematic-betrayal-of-american-workers" type="external">hypocrisy</a>, major corporations have ignored all the problems they've caused, choosing instead to cut their taxes in&#160;half&#160;despite&#160;doubling&#160;their profits, to hold&#160; <a href="//blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2012/05/17/at-big-u-s-companies-60-of-cash-sits-offshore-j-p-morgan/" type="external">60%</a>&#160;of its cash offshore, to eliminate workers rather than create jobs, and to reduce the pay of their remaining employees.An Apple executive explained: "We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems."Calling Themselves 'Multinationals': No Allegiance to AnyoneBig business has found its Utopia, a world in which millions of people are willing to work for a fraction of U.S. salaries.In this dream world of global capitalism, young people are going from zero income on the farm to a few dollars a day on a 12-hour factory shift, and as a result, based on the&#160; <a href="//econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&amp;theSitePK=469372&amp;piPK=64165421&amp;menuPK=64166093&amp;entityID=000158349_20080902095754" type="external">World Bank's</a>&#160;poverty threshold of $1.25 per day, they're no longer "in poverty." So the media piles on praise for free markets.&#160; <a href="//www.economist.com/node/21548963" type="external">The Economist</a>&#160;proclaimed that "poverty is declining everywhere." The&#160; <a href="//www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-capitalism-moral/2013/03/15/a9ed66d4-868b-11e2-999e-5f8e0410cb9d_story.html" type="external">Washington Post</a>&#160;gushed that "a billion people have been lifted from poverty through free-market competition."But the reality is very different. Inequality continues to grow, both&#160; <a href="//www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Global_Inequality_REVISED_-_5_July.pdf" type="external">between</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="//siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDECINEQ/Resources/BSutcliffeGlobalization.pdf" type="external">within</a>&#160;countries.&#160; <a href="//www.stwr.org/globalization/world-bank-poverty-figures-what-do-they-mean.html" type="external">Poverty</a>&#160;levels haven't changed much in 30 years, with almost&#160; <a href="//www.stwr.org/globalization/world-bank-poverty-figures-what-do-they-mean.html" type="external">half of humanity</a>, up to three billion people, living on less than $2.50 a day. A quarter of the world's&#160; <a href="//www.savethechildren.org.uk/resources/online-library/life-free-hunger-tackling-child-malnutrition" type="external">children</a>&#160;- over 170 million kids under age five - are growing up stunted because of malnutrition.The World Bank estimates the total&#160; <a href="//www.savethechildren.org.uk/resources/online-library/life-free-hunger-tackling-child-malnutrition" type="external">cost</a>&#160;for a successful attack on malnutrition would be approximately $10.3 to $11.8 billion annually.&#160; <a href="//www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000119312512444068/d411355d10k.htm" type="external">Apple</a>&#160;alone underpaid its 2012 taxes by $11 billion, based on a 35% rate.It may be time to update the company's quote: "We don't have an obligation to solve the&#160;world's&#160;problems."Even if there were no obligation to help solve the world's problems, there&#160;IS&#160;an obligation to pay for global energy consumption and infrastructure usage and industrial pollution. Yet a review of&#160; <a href="//www.payupnow.org/GlobalTaxes2011-12.htm" type="external">25 multinational companies</a>&#160;shows clear negligence in meeting that responsibility. The 25 companies, with almost a half-trillion dollars in 2011-12 income, paid just&#160;8% in taxes&#160;to the U.S. and 9% to foreign countries. A 35% tax -- paid to ANY country or countries -- would have generated another $90 billion over two years, four times the amount needed to battle malnutrition.Even Worse Than Not Paying: Making the World Pay for ThemA recent&#160; <a href="//www.worstpolluted.org/2011-press-%20release.html" type="external">study</a>&#160;estimated that&#160; <a href="//www.ipsnews.net/2011/11/toxins-rob-more-than-a-decade-of-life-from-millions/" type="external">toxic pollution</a>&#160;affects the health of more than 100 million people, shortening their productive life spans by 12.7 years on average. A related&#160; <a href="//ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1206127/" type="external">study</a>&#160;concluded that in 2010 over 8 million individuals were at risk of exposure to industrial pollutants at 373 toxic waste sites in three low-income countries (India, Indonesia, and the Philippines).Some of our largest multinational companies hold top positions on the&#160; <a href="//www.contractormisconduct.org/" type="external">federal contractor misconduct</a>&#160;list, which recognizes corporate environmental, ethics, and labor violations. Oil spills are common. Underdeveloped countries like&#160; <a href="//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4746874.stm" type="external">Nigeria</a>&#160;have been ravaged by oil production. Big firms are buying up&#160; <a href="//m.bangkokpost.com/opinion/294788" type="external">farmland</a>&#160;in more than 60 developing countries. Most perversely, multinationals are working hard to pass trade agreements, such as the&#160; <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/upcoming-trans-pacific-pa_b_3276855.html" type="external">Trans-Pacific Partnership</a>, which would actually&#160;dismantle&#160;environmental protections.Absurd as it once seemed, a 1991 quote from the World Bank's Larry Summers now comes back to haunt us: "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?...I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted."And as big business makes its way around the world like a modern-day Attila the Hun, pillaging and despoiling, it has the U.S.&#160; <a href="//www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/14/ron-paul/ron-paul-says-us-has-military-personnel-130-nation/" type="external">military</a>&#160;covering its back with 900 overseas bases in 130 nations. If one of the countries kicks up a fuss, the corporations can just move on to the next one.</p>
<p>Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of " <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0932863566/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=commondreams-20&amp;camp=0&amp;creative=0&amp;linkCode=as1&amp;creativeASIN=0932863566&amp;adid=1MCNFWDB21VVWVVFPEW5&amp;" type="external">American Wars: Illusions and Realities</a>" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | The 4 Big Ways That Insatiable Corporate Hunger for Profits Has Devastated American Life -- and the World Along with It | true | http://alternet.org/news-amp-politics/4-big-ways-insatiable-corporate-hunger-profits-has-devastated-american-life-and | 2013-05-19 | 4 |
<p>Dear Jimmy,</p>
<p>Well, since your Uncle Orley and the vet are out in the back pasture helpin' a contrary calf come into the world, and since my suggestions on the matter seem not to be highly prized, I thought I'd write a few lines while I had the chance. I don't rightly know what we're goin' to do with all these cows. Ever since Orley started gettin' soft and namin' the calves like pets he can't seem to take them to the sale.</p>
<p>Time was when he wouldn't think twice about backin' the truck up to the ramp and hollerin' to the cows, “Come on, kids, let's go to McDonald's!” Then we had a calf born with two short legs on his left side—tailor made for walkin' along the side of these hills, if you ask me. Only trouble was, when he got ready to come home, he had to back up all the way ‘cause if he turned around he'd fall over.</p>
<p>Anyway, your Uncle felt sorry for him and took to callin' him “Leaner” ‘cause when he stood in the barnyard he listed about 30 degrees to the left. After that, he started naming all the calves. I told him, “Orley, it is not a good idea to name any animal you're plannin' to eat,” but he sometimes has trouble listenin' to opinions conflictin' with his own. As a consequence, we're raising a herd of pet cows that we can hardly afford to feed anymore.</p>
<p>Well, anyhow, that's not what I wanted to write you about. We just finished a revival down at Bluebell Baptist and I wish you coulda been here to get revived like the rest of us. Dr. Blaze, a pastor from some big First Baptist from somewhere or other, was the preacher and he got us so stirred up that I predict things aren't gonna be the same around Bluebell Baptist. Dr. Blaze said if we weren't using the gifts the Lord gave us it was like slappin' the Lord right in the face.</p>
<p>Take the ladies circle I've been a part of for more years than it would do my blood pressure good to remember. For years we've been prayin' for missions and givin' to missions and learnin' about missions. But the only thing we ever did that was called missions was make afghans for the Baptist Home and sock monkeys for the Children's Home. But since the revival our ladies are thinkin' that maybe there's more to missions than sock monkeys. Praise be to the Lord! If I have to look at another sock monkey I think I'll start swingin' from trees. I can't stand it anymore. I want to do something that will make a difference to somebody.</p>
<p>Now, some really interestin' things happened during the revival. I heard Daisy Allred say she'd never heard such things as what that preacher said. Truth is, Brother Bobby's been saying those same things right along, but I think we got so used to hearing him that we quit listenin'. Now that's a real shame, but I guess it helps to have a different voice in the pulpit from time to time.</p>
<p>I think Brother Bobby mighta felt a little bad when church people kept goin' on and on about what good sermons they were hearin', but the way I see it every preacher is bound to have four or five stem-winders he can pull out for revival. Seems to me the harder job is to preach Sunday after Sunday in the same church to people who mostly just want to be left alone.</p>
<p>One other thing Dr. Blazer did was take your Uncle Orley aside one night and ask him if he thought we were treating Brother Bobby fair with the parsonage. Dr. Blazer said he'd seen a lot of preachers come to retirement and after their last sermon the deacons thanked him and his wife for their years of service and asked them to turn in the keys to the parsonage as soon as they can get moved out. He said that since prices for houses go up every year a preacher ought to be able to buy a house as an investment. Orley said he'd think on it.</p>
<p>Well, while we were still thinkin' we ran into Belle Dozer at Wal-Mart sayin' “Howdy” to people as they came in just as big as you please. You remember her, don't you? She was the preacher's wife over in Hoopin Holler before he died. Anyway, after Brother Dozer died, the church let her stay in the parsonage as long as they could, but after a time they needed to call a new preacher and Belle had to move out.</p>
<p>She said she was havin' a real hard time makin' ends meet ‘cause Hoopin Holler Baptist never put much aside with the Annuity Board—now it's called something else, I think. She said that havin' to pick up and move in the middle of her grief was about more than she could bear. Orley and I just looked at each other. That was something we'd never even thought of. So, anyway, we're thinkin' now that maybe a parsonage might not be the fairest thing for a preacher.</p>
<p>Well, I gotta go. Orley's just come in a-grinnin'. He says we've got a new bull calf. He's gonna call him Dozer. Ain't that cute.</p>
<p>Come see us when you can and keep on keepin' on for the Lord.</p>
<p>Love, Aunt Ida</p> | Aunt Ida and the church parsonage | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/auntidaandthechurchparsonage/ | 3 |
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<p>The International Atomic Energy Agency ( <a href="http://www.iaea.org/" type="external">IAEA</a>) has proposed sending a special mission to Iran to gather information its nuclear program, Director-General Yukiya Amano said Thursday.</p>
<p>Amano has written to Iranian nuclear officials suggesting the visit and hopes a date will be set soon, he told a meeting of the IAEA board in Vienna, Austria.</p>
<p>The agency believes it has credible information that "Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," according to <a href="http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/statements/2011/amsp2011n030.html" type="external">Amano's statement</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111109/iran-wont-retreat-nuclear-program-ahmadinejad" type="external">Iran</a> insists its nuclear program is peaceful.</p>
<p>The watchdog has a duty to follow up the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/111108/un-report-iran-nuclear-program-IAEA" type="external">concerns it expressed about Iran</a> in a recent report, Amano is <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/iran-nuclear-amano-idUSV9E7J301P20111117" type="external">cited by Reuters</a> as saying:</p>
<p>"It is clear Iran has a case to answer. [...] It is my duty to alert the world."</p>
<p>His announcement came as details emerged of the IAEA's forthcoming resolution on Iran, which is said to have been softened as a concession to <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/111110/china-iran-shouldnt-be-sanctioned" type="external">China</a> and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/111107/russia-warns-west-against-military-action-iran" type="external">Russia</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111113/iran-dmitry-medvedev-hu-jintao-obama-russia-china-video" type="external">Obama urges Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao to support US pressure on Iran</a></p>
<p>According to a copy obtained by <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">the Associated Press</a>, the resolution expresses "deep and increasing concern" about the doubts over Iran's nuclear research, and Tehran's refusal to comply with IAEA requirements.</p>
<p>The AP said the final document is the result of a compromise between countries who want to sanction Iran and those that defend it:</p>
<p>Diplomats who spoke ahead of the meeting had said the US and its allies were ready to push through a tough document, before ceding to Russian and Chinese pressure and accepting a watered-down version that allows Iran to continue ignoring international demands.</p>
<p>The board is expected to vote on the resolution Friday.</p>
<p>Iran has accused the IAEA of serving US and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/israel-reacts-iran-nuclear-ambitions" type="external">Israeli</a> interests by releasing its critical report. The government therefore feels it is necessary to "review Iran's cooperation with the agency," parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani is quoted as saying by Iran's <a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007273723" type="external">Fars</a> news agency.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/111109/iran-probably-building-nuclear-bomb-so" type="external">Iran is probably building a nuclear bomb. So what now?</a></p> | UN nuclear agency wants to send mission to Iran | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-17/un-nuclear-agency-wants-send-mission-iran | 2011-11-17 | 3 |
<p>China on Friday sent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25155605" type="external">fighter jets</a> to monitor US and Japanese military aircraft flying in its new air-defense zone over the East China Sea, state media reported.</p>
<p>Beijing announced a week ago that all aircraft entering the zone, which covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, must submit flight plans and identify themselves to Chinese authorities or face unspecified “defensive emergency measures.”&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/131128/japan-south-korea-send-military-aircraft-china-air-defense-zone" type="external">The US flies B-52s into China's new air defense zone. Here's why that matters</a></p>
<p>The US, Japan and South Korea have vowed to ignore China’s demands, and accused Beijing of unnecessarily raising tensions in the region. All three countries have sent military aircraft into the area in recent days.</p>
<p>On Saturday, the US cautioned its civilian aircraft, saying in <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/11/218139.htm" type="external">a statement</a> that it expected these planes to follow China's new air defense rules.</p>
<p>The State Department said this "does not indicate US government acceptance of China's requirements for operating in the newly declared Air Defense Identification Zone."&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/30/world/asia/china-japan-us-tensions/" type="external">CNN reported</a> that United, American and Delta airlines confirmed on Saturday that its pilots were following Washington's advice.&#160;</p>
<p>On Friday, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke said Chinese warplanes had been scrambled in an “emergency response to verify two reconnaissance aircraft from the United States and indentify 10 Japanese planes,” <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/131129/foreign-planes-identified-chinas-air-defense-zone" type="external">the official Xinhua news agency reported</a>.</p>
<p>"The PLA air force has realized its effective normal monitoring of targets in the zone," Shen said.</p>
<p>That followed <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/131128/japan-south-korea-send-military-aircraft-china-air-defense-zone" type="external">state media reports on Thursday</a> that said China had sent aircraft into the contested zone following Japanese and South Korean incursions.</p>
<p>The air-defense zone is seen as an attempt by Beijing &#160;to solidify its claim to a group of Japanese-administered islands, which are known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.</p>
<p>But governments and experts worry that the zone raises the risk of the current war of words spilling over into a full-blown conflict in the event of a military or political misstep.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/131121/china-japan-senkaku-diaoyu-islands-dispute-war" type="external">War between Japan and China is an accident waiting to happen</a> &#160;</p> | China sends fighter jets to monitor US, Japanese military aircraft in new air-defense zone | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-11-29/china-sends-fighter-jets-monitor-us-japanese-military-aircraft-new-air-defense | 2013-11-29 | 3 |
<p>From Oakland Tribune:</p>
<p>If California Republicans want to win elections, they need to rally behind issues and messages that voters support, leaders said at the opening day of the state GOP’s convention.</p>
<p>It seems like a no-brainer. Yet amid the backdrop of campaign posters and red-white-and-blue-elephant-themed swag that filled the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency’s halls, California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro readily acknowledged Friday that the Golden State’s GOP has had a “communication deficit” in recent years, failing to reach out to specific voters on issues that excite them. And that has led to falling voter registration, lackluster fundraising and election losses.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_20040538?source=rss" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a></p>
<p>Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey, flickr</p> | Top California GOP official acknowledges ‘communication deficit’ | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/top-california-gop-official-acknowledges-communication-deficit/ | 2012-02-26 | 1 |
<p>President-elect Donald Trump won just 14 percent support among LGBT voters according to an exit poll. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton beat Republican Donald Trump among LGBT voters in the Nov. 8 presidential election by a margin of 78 percent to 14 percent, according to a nationwide Election Day exit poll.</p>
<p>Although the exit poll shows Clinton received strong support from LGBT voters, one of its more striking findings is President-elect Trump received the lowest percentage of support from LGBT voters than all previous Republican presidential nominees since exit polls began measuring the LGBT vote.</p>
<p>In 2012, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney received 22 percent of the LGBT vote compared to 76 percent received by President Barack Obama in his re-election bid, according to the exit poll conducted that year.</p>
<p>The Election Day exit poll conducted in 2008 showed that Republican presidential nominee John McCain received 27 percent of the LGBT vote compared to 70 percent of the LGBT vote received by then Democratic Sen. Obama.</p>
<p>Matt McDermott is a senior analyst for Whitman Insight Strategies, a public opinion polling firm that closely monitors but does not conduct the presidential election exit polls. He said Republican presidential nominees who have run in earlier years have all received LGBT vote totals in the lower to upper 20 percent range in the exit polls.</p>
<p>In April of this year, McDermott’s firm conducted a nationwide poll that measured LGBT support for Clinton and Trump in a two-way head-to-head race. The poll found that 84 percent of LGBT respondents identifying as “likely voters” said they planned to vote for Hillary Clinton in November. Sixteen percent of LGBT likely voters said they planned to vote for Trump.</p>
<p>McDermott told the Washington Blade that the 6 percent drop in support for Clinton among LGBT voters between the April poll and the Nov. 8 exit poll was most likely due to the two polls’ margin of error and a certain percentage of LGBT voters who backed Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein. He noted that his firm did not include third-party candidates in its poll in April.</p>
<p>“I think what is most interesting to me is not so much that the Clinton number went down a little bit,” McDermott said. “But what’s most interesting to me is the figure for Trump, which was down at 14 percent [in the exit poll] and which I believe is the lowest percentage for a Republican presidential candidate from LGBT voters in modern history.”</p>
<p>He noted that with Clinton receiving 78 percent of the LGBT vote in the exit poll compared to 14 percent for Trump, the remaining 8 percent were LGBT respondents who voted either for Johnson and Stein or who declined to tell the exit poll workers who they voted for.</p>
<p>The national polling company Edison Research conducted the presidential election exit poll, as it has in past years, for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, the Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News.</p>
<p>The company says its findings were based on questionnaires completed by 24,537 voters leaving 350 polling places throughout the United States on Election Day and 4,398 telephone interviews with early and absentee voters.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">ABC News</a> <a href="" type="internal">Associated Press</a> <a href="" type="internal">Barack Obama</a> <a href="" type="internal">CBS News</a> <a href="" type="internal">CNN</a> <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a> <a href="" type="internal">election 2016</a> <a href="" type="internal">Fox News</a> <a href="" type="internal">Gary Johnson</a> <a href="" type="internal">Green Party</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hillary Clinton</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jill Stein</a> <a href="" type="internal">John McCain</a> <a href="" type="internal">Libertarian Party</a> <a href="" type="internal">Matt McDermott</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mitt Romney</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Election Pool</a> <a href="" type="internal">NBC News</a> <a href="" type="internal">Whitman Insight Strategies</a></p> | LGBT voters rejected Trump by lopsided margin | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/11/14/lgbt-voters-rejected-trump-lopsided-margin/ | 3 |
|
<p>“I don’t say this because he’s black, but the guy just seems arrogant to me, the way he expects things to go his way.”</p>
<p>–Harry Brobst</p>
<p>“It was probably inevitable.&#160; The historic contest between a woman and an African-American for the presidential nomination is now all about white men.”</p>
<p>–Gail Collins</p>
<p>Discussing the presidential election in my university-level Writing Arguments class recently, a student said that of course some people would vote for their candidate based on gender and/or race.&#160; But, this was to be lamented.&#160; Rather, a candidate’s stance on the issue–and not identity politics–is what should matter.&#160; But if true, I asked, how could it be that the first 43 presidents were all white males?&#160; Coincidence?&#160; Or was not gender and race a factor, at least in part?</p>
<p>Silence.</p>
<p>This is a productive moment in class, a moment when students see that things are more complicated then they at first appear, that what they learned in history classes over the years is as important as what they did not learn.&#160; Hopefully, over time a student will come to see that being complicated is not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>This issue does not exist in the vacuum that is my class.&#160; Harry Brobst of Latrobe, PA won’t vote for Barack Obama.&#160; He takes pains in a New York Times article to explain that in the Pennsylvania primary he will vote “not so much for” a candidate but against one.&#160; And while Brobst searches, if inelegantly, to clarify his position as being based on something other than race, for much of the news media and the chattering classes the issue is strikingly clear:&#160; race and gender are at the forefront of the discussion concerning the candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>For example, when Geraldo Rivera of Fox News gleefully exhorts me to sit through the commercial to catch his interview with Charlie Rangel (D-NY), head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, it’s because he thinks he has a scoop.&#160; Before the break, Geraldo explains that Rangel is “African American.”&#160; But the kicker?&#160; Rangel “supports Hillary Clinton.”&#160; Though unstated, Geraldo’s implication is that it is odd that in this election a black man would support a white woman while another black man is running.</p>
<p>This is hardly an isolated incident, for, if we are to believe the media, women and African Americans have all the tough decisions to make this election.&#160; At CNN.com Randi Kaye writes that for African American women “a unique and most unexpected dilemma presents itself.&#160; Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?”&#160; Bill Kristol said on Fox News Sunday that Clinton supporters are only “the Democratic establishment and white women,” adding also, jokingly (it’s always jokingly from the Kristols of the world), that “[w]hite women are a problem, that’s, you know–we all live with that.”</p>
<p>These are but a few examples of what seems to be an unending string of them.&#160; The subtext of what the talking heads and typing hands are telling us is that making such decisions based on the supposedly irrational issues of “identity politics” is a bad thing.&#160; For how, the thinking goes, could voters reject the apparently rational course of looking solely at a candidate’s position on the issues?&#160; How, for instance, could voters vote for Obama without–a favorite Fox News trump card we will be hearing ad nauseam in the coming months–knowing any of his “accomplishments”?&#160; How could voters choose Clinton just because she is a woman?</p>
<p>Stanley Fish, trying to make sense of identity politics, observes that, “If there’s anything everyone is against in these election times, it’s ‘identity politics,’ a phrase that covers a multitude of sins.”&#160; His definition:</p>
<p>(It may not be yours, but it will at least allow the discussion to be framed.) You’re practicing identity politics when you vote for or against someone because of his or her skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other marker that leads you to say yes or no independently of a candidate’s ideas or policies. In essence identity politics is an affirmation of the tribe against the claims of ideology, and by ideology I do not mean something bad (a mistake frequently made), but any agenda informed by a vision of what the world should be like.</p>
<p>Fish then makes the argument that there are some perfectly acceptable times to vote according to such politics, if that vote is based on “interest-identity politics” (“based on the assumption…that because of his or her race or ethnicity or gender a candidate might pursue an agenda that would advance the interests a voter is committed to”) and not “tribal-identity politics” (“politics based on who a candidate is rather than on what he or she believes or argues for”).&#160; Fish also provides examples of non-default Americans (a Jew, an African American, a woman) who someone might support based on “interest-identity politics.”&#160; Ultimately, the non-default American is anyone who is not a white male (though this is endlessly variable when considering such factors as religion or education or socio-economic level or…).&#160; This is not inherently a bad thing or a good thing, but like so many things, it’s what you do with your position in society that counts.</p>
<p>But Fish, like just about everyone else I have heard discussing this issue, avoids the choice that I will have to make.</p>
<p>Since all politics is local, I’m starting with myself.&#160; Yes, as an American voter, I see two roads diverging in the woods and know I’ll have to cast a vote.&#160; While I avoided the path altogether in the Washington State primary–because I don’t want to be aligned with either party–I will vote in November.&#160; But this choice that I and millions of other people “like me” will have to make is not the one people are talking about.</p>
<p>No, it is the one everyone is avoiding.</p>
<p>What people are comfortable discussing, even when claiming that it is not or should not be important–from Fox News to the op/ed page of the New York Times to whatever it is that passes for a water cooler space these days, blogs maybe–is a variety of what ifs.&#160; What if a person of this gender and/or that race votes for someone outside their gender and/or race based on these very aspects of identity politics?</p>
<p>What if?</p>
<p>But what are people like me supposed to do?&#160; I am a white male, who, though not a registered Democrat, leans politically to the same side of the country in which I live.&#160; &#160;And although we don’t yet know whether Hillary or Barack will be the Democratic nominee, it appears as if, in the general election, I will be vote either for my race or against it and/or for my gender or against it.</p>
<p>But you probably need a little more information on me before you can know just what and why I might be selling out come November.&#160; I’ll generalize and say that I am a literature professor at a small, Catholic liberal arts university, an agnostic/secular American Jew.&#160; I had one set of grandparents escape Nazi Germany and another set (also Jewish) stationed in Germany post-WWII with the US Army.&#160; As such, there are a few things I think I know.&#160; And even if Jews are now white, as Karen Brodkin writes in How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America, there remains a heavy “but…” hanging over her book.&#160; I have known all my life that Jews in America, though integrated, successful, overly educated, and whatnot (I’ve heard we run Hollywood and probably at least one secret world order, though I have yet to get my access card), are still not quite the American default.</p>
<p>For my part, though, I’m not complaining.&#160; I can do just about anything legal I want in America without interference from others.&#160; Well, almost.&#160; I can’t be president.&#160; I know, I know, I’ve been told many times that I can do anything I can imagine.&#160; &#160;“Good job,” I think, “that’s exactly what unquestioning fealty to the American Dream demands that they (i.e. parents, teachers, the media, the corporations, the movies…) tell us Americans.”</p>
<p>But consider this.&#160; Besides Ralph Nader (who got my vote in ‘00, because I knew that in my then-state of Kentucky, Gore had a snowball’s chance in hell…), I think another reason Gore didn’t win the election outright is because he had a Jew on the ticket.&#160; True, Gore ran an anemic campaign with a running mate who even Rush Limbaugh endorsed, but because the election was so close I believe this was yet another factor.&#160; Even though Lieberman tried to out-God Bush with his incessant public appeals to faith, there were plenty of Americans who, I suspect, could not vote for a Jew to be a heartbeat away from the American presidency.&#160; Of course, I don’t have the “facts” on this because we don’t discuss it.&#160; Given the mythology of the American Dream, such an admission makes us too uncomfortable.</p>
<p>But in any case, this situation doesn’t apply to me, for Lieberman is a religious Jew.&#160; I am a secular one, thus disqualifying me outright, at least according to Lewis H. Lapham’s satirical, if accurate, understanding of the presidential job description: “…to be of service, believe in God, and never forget that the customer, although sometimes weird, is always right.”&#160; Two out of three just ain’t going to cut it in early 21st-century America.&#160; Maybe later, but not now.</p>
<p>And while I don’t want to be president, I will vote for one.&#160; So what part of my American-ness, my humanity, to sell out?&#160; And how can I even be facing the decision to sell out, you might ask, when I am neither female nor African American?&#160; After all, though Jewish, I am firmly in the white-American-male camp.&#160; I have all the evidence I need from a simple trip the chalkboard on the first day of class.&#160; People see a white male up there and act accordingly; that is, I am afforded a certain level of respect which I have done nothing to earn.&#160; With my own eyes I have seen many times how this is different for people who are not white or not male or both.</p>
<p>There are two major possibilities:&#160; will I vote, in part, my white race and go with John McCain or will I abandon my race and vote for Barack Obama?&#160; Or, as seems less likely now, might I face instead the choice of voting, in part, with my male gender or abandoning it to side with Hillary Clinton?</p>
<p>Even if these choices are only part of the equation, all of my fellow American white males will face some part of this calculation.</p>
<p>The catch is that no one wants to discuss the possibilities that I face.&#160; Vote on the issue of white maleness?&#160; Nobody does that, the talking heads would have you believe.&#160; Bill O’Reilly, typical of the people who desperately want to pretend we live in a race and gender neutral country, complains: “I don’t think gender should be a factor at all!”&#160; And, yeah, well, maybe it shouldn’t, but it is.&#160; So, the question then becomes: what will we do about it?</p>
<p>O’Reilly’s repeated and vigorous efforts to deny minority status (I watch him over dinner a couple times a week; he’s good for the digestion) proves how powerful is the default, how invisible the whiteness and maleness to those who would see it continue unquestioned, not even out of malice perhaps, but out of ignorance, willful or otherwise.&#160; (Though maybe willful ignorance is malicious…)&#160; The reason the O’Reillys–that would be willfully ignorant white males in this case–want to deny the importance of whiteness and maleness?&#160; Because they know that if they ever–ever–acknowledge our country’s continuing, even if lessening, inequality, then they will need also to acknowledge a certain responsibility that comes with this knowledge, a responsibility to work for change.</p>
<p>This explains part of the need of the O’Reillys to crush Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and, in turn, Obama.&#160; Historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (my dad tells me he also used to play a little basketball) writes:&#160; “The recent uproar about Barack Obama’s pastor has pushed a very explosive issue into the presidential campaign.&#160; The issue of our country’s history with regard to race is one that Senator Obama literally embodies in his physical being as well as various political stances he has taken.”&#160; This is only partially true.&#160; Race, of course, was always present in the campaign, from the very first presidential election to today.&#160; The Wright videotapes have not forced race not into the race but rather the discussion of it.</p>
<p>To some in the chattering classes, this is the biggest sin, for they want nothing more than to avoid discussing race honestly and openly.&#160; I think their anger comes not only from the fact that some of the things Wright said may be, as Christopher Hitchens argues, “wicked and stupid and false,” but that some of the things Wright believes come from a deeply rooted past and present of racial injustice that as a society we don’t want to acknowledge.&#160; Obama’s speech on race–forced out of him after Wright’s comments were seen and heard by everyone–was the first time in my lifetime (I was born in ’69) that a major presidential candidate has been so refreshingly open on the topic of race.&#160; The problem for the O’Reillys is that they don’t like the subject even being broached and demand that we pretend this is an issue relegated to the past.</p>
<p>Obama, trying to will change on a system that garners a great deal of money and power from schism, said “If we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together.”&#160; However, we are coming out of a presidency where division has been not something to avoid but a deliberate political strategy.&#160; Nevertheless, the conversation about minority status, sidelined for so long, is upon us.&#160; Even Condoleeza Rice, looking to extend her political career beyond Rove and Bush, recently said that the “descendents of slaves” in America are born with “[t]hat particular birth defect [which] makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today.”&#160; Bad phrase?&#160; Maybe.&#160; But good point?&#160; Yes.</p>
<p>I know the charges already, of course, because I teach in class that in order to know your own argument, you must know the opposition’s.&#160; People will claim I’m playing the race card, the gender card, even the joker card.&#160; On March 25, Bill O’Reilly threatened to “get” anyone who dared to play the race card.&#160; “Everyone will know about it,” he said.&#160; I guess this means I’ll be on his show?&#160; Someone calling himself Ralph McGaughey of Boston emailed me after my essay on the anti-Harold Ford commercial (also in Counterpunch) and told me that I “have racial hang ups that the rest of society does not.”&#160; (He also said “Harold Ford is far more Caucasian than he is Negro.”)&#160; That, given the topic, I see the irony in his phrase “hang ups” maybe proves him right. &#160;Or, maybe I know the history of my country and am ever trying to understand how it affects us today.&#160; I would counter that such cards are already being played every day, whether or not I mention them, by both people who are racist and by people who are not.</p>
<p>What I am actually doing is playing the Opposite Game, pointing out that many things in our country work also in the opposite manner of the way people acknowledge publicly or even understand.</p>
<p>I have long liked to play the Opposite Game (though I have only recently starting calling it this, thanks to my good friend David Price).&#160; As a teacher of argument, this is a great strategy for getting at alternate or not as easily viewed versions of the truth.&#160; It’s pretty easy to play.&#160; The instructions: take an argument out there, look at some form of its opposite, and see where that gets you.&#160; That’s it.</p>
<p>Let’s practice; we’ll start with an easy one.&#160; Fox News’ slogan:&#160; “Fair and Balanced.”&#160; You can see immediately how this works.</p>
<p>Now, a harder one.&#160; The charge mentioned above that voters might actually vote for Hillary and Barack based on their gender and/or race.&#160; Look for an opposite.&#160; When Obama gets in trouble for “skipping” an African American event–in this case, the “State of the Black Union” in New Orleans–I immediately wonder a kind of opposite.&#160; Which events have McCain or any of the candidates gone to, or skipped, because of, in part, race?&#160; I know, I know, such questions should be kept to a whisper, but we can’t fully explore the possibilities or be true to our complicated American experiences in this presidential race if such questions are asked just of the non-default candidates.</p>
<p>Please don’t misunderstand me.&#160; I am not claiming that John McCain or the O’Reillys or anyone else is racist or sexist.&#160; We all have to decide such things for ourselves.&#160; Instead, I am attempting to address a brave student of mine (who appears to be white; I make no presumptions) who says, “I am just tired of hearing about race all the time.”&#160; I am sure that he is.&#160; And he is no racist; rather, he doesn’t understand how the history of this country is not something only in the past.&#160; He has probably been taught, after all, that he should not acknowledge gender and/or race.&#160; That in today’s society (my favorite phrase in student papers) we have moved beyond such things.</p>
<p>And now that the mere presence of a viable black candidate and a viable female candidate appear to raise the very issues this student thought were not supposed to matter is indeed confusing.&#160; Nevertheless, race and gender are factors on all levels, on all sides, and at all times and to deny them is, once you are aware of them, disingenuous.&#160; After all, when this country imported slaves and sanctioned the practice in the Constitution with the Three-Fifths Compromise (even while the Preamble, you’ll remember, begins with a distinctly non-exclusive plural pronoun, “We the people of the United States…”) it was certain that inequality would be around for a very, very long time.&#160; “America’s cult of whiteness, after all, was never just about skin color, hair texture and other physical traits,” Ellis Cose argues in Newsweek.&#160; Rather, “[i]t was about where the line was drawn between those who could be admitted into the mainstream and those who could not.”</p>
<p>Which is precisely what is at stake in this election.</p>
<p>Writing at Poltico.com, David Paul Kuhn explains that even now “[t]op Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee. . . Republicans will be told to ‘be sensitive to tone and stick to the substance of the discussion’ and that ‘the key is that you have to be sensitive to the fact that you are running against historic firsts,’ the strategist explained.”&#160; That people need to be told such things says an awful lot about where we are as a country.</p>
<p>But who can deny that John McCain is running, in part and by default, on his gender and race?&#160; Further, if the charge is that some might vote for Hillary or Barack based on issues of identity politics, who can deny that some people will vote for McCain for these reasons, even if they don’t know it or can’t see it?&#160; (That’s why it’s called a default.)&#160; Actually, I know the answer to my question, because I know the defaults in this country.&#160; The answer is that most people will deny this.</p>
<p>Discussing the Opposite Game in my African American literature class, some of my students were at first incredulous at the idea that McCain was running in part as a white man.&#160; It’s a hard opposite for many people to see, though they have all heard, and on some level understand, the questions about voting for Hillary and Barack based on gender and race.&#160; Some of my students had even been asked by their friends if they will vote on such issues of identity politics.&#160; So concerning Hillary and Barack, the questions are out there and are seen as legitimate by many people.</p>
<p>But McCain running as a white male?&#160; Voters voting for him for these reasons?&#160; Crazy.</p>
<p>I next asked my students if they thought that someone might vote against Hillary because she was a woman.&#160; Or against Barack because he is black.</p>
<p>Nodding heads all around, some reluctant, some eager.</p>
<p>If so, then must not the opposite also be true?&#160; That some people will vote for McCain, in part, because he is a white male?&#160; There are many people who think the country is “not ready” for a black or female president, even if they really mean, but won’t say, that they are not ready for one.&#160; Playing the Opposite Game, this means also that such people think the country continues to be ready only for a white male president.&#160; There’s even a term for this, Derek Shearer reminds us:&#160; the “Bradley effect” (named after losing African American gubernatorial candidate from California, Tom Bradley), which states that in polls “about 10% of likely voters will not tell the truth about their willingness to vote for a woman or a black.”&#160; This same 10% could make all the difference in November, divided as we are.</p>
<p>But that McCain is running on his whiteness and maleness is not only true by default.&#160; No, McCain is overtly championing these aspects of his candidacy, even if he is unaware he is doing so.&#160; “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?” McCain reportedly joked a decade ago.&#160; “Because her father is Janet Reno,” was the answer.&#160; But maybe this bit of ancient sexism from before McCain boarded the Straight Talk Express should be dismissed.&#160; Ok, then consider this widely reported question from last November:&#160; “How do we beat the bitch?” queried a female supporter, referring to Hillary.&#160; Though evidently uncomfortable, perhaps because he knew the video was headed straight for Youtube, McCain called it an “excellent question.”</p>
<p>And then there was the extended exchange between McCain and Huckabee as to who had the more kick-ass supporter:&#160; Huckabee’s Chuck Norris or McCain’s Sly Stallone.&#160; However, it was an odd appeal from both of the candidates, because they were saying not that they could kick ass, but a particular muscular supporter could.&#160; In a debate, McCain said that Stallone could take care of Norris.&#160; General guffaws.&#160;&#160; It’s like that guy in the home security system commercials.&#160; He can’t protect his wife and family in this scary age, but he can pay for a surrogate male to be on the other end of the phone in an emergency.</p>
<p>On Hannity and Colmes, Republican Strategist Pete Synder weighed in on Hillary’s daring to challenge the men for the presidency:&#160; “Someone’s going to have to take her back [behind] the barn…because this campaign is all about her personal ambition.”&#160; Neither epithet, the b-word and the a-word (ambition), would be lodged against a male.&#160; And the non-stop comments about Hillary’s pantsuits?&#160; The unstated charge is that that Hillary is cross-dressing and seeking male power.</p>
<p>Okay, perhaps this is all “just” fun and games.&#160; Boys will be boys, after all.&#160; But this fun comes with the time-honored traditions of female degradation and threatened violence for women who overstep their bounds.&#160; I’m not saying McCain should have corrected that supporter.&#160; If this is how he views women, fine; it is better to know about it.&#160; But clearly, he is appropriating stereotypes of masculinity and femininity (or the perceived lack thereof) to make his point.&#160; Thus, he is, in part at least, running as a male.&#160; That he might not be aware of it doesn’t make it any less true.</p>
<p>So if we can ask female voters if they will vote for a woman, then the opposite question must also be asked.&#160; What men will vote for McCain because he has a penis?</p>
<p>But even more strangely to some people, McCain is also, in part, running as a white male.&#160; On some level his Johnny-come-lately defenders understand this, which is why they are so incredulous when the topic is broached.&#160; “White value system?” Sean Hannity asked on his TV show.&#160; “I have never heard of this in my life,” he said, exasperated, both hands in the air.&#160; It is true that he may not have heard of it referred to in these words.&#160; But Hannity’s success hinges on his ability to sell the idea that we live in a post-race world where the white male value system governing this country is known merely by its default name of the “American value system.”&#160; He isn’t looking for actual equality, but for people to stop challenging the hegemony of whiteness and maleness generally, and his world-view specifically.&#160; Sharon Begley points out in Newsweek that Obama rejects the term “post-racial” as “naïve.”&#160; We are not there yet.&#160; Nevertheless, the Hannitys make their bread and butter claiming we live in a post-racial, 21st century America.</p>
<p>“Is race going to now be an issue for them?” Hannity spat, wanting us to believe race is only an issue when anyone who isn’t white raises it.&#160; This is the same Hannity who is also troubled that Michelle Obama’s Master’s thesis reveals her true nature: “black first…student second.”</p>
<p>When Barack Obama says that race has been a “national obsession of ours for a long time,” America generally believes him, but much of America wants to deal with this fact by pretending that it was “solved” during the Civil Rights movement.&#160; America understands that race remains an issue in many ways, some good (historic firsts), some bad (racism, exclusion).&#160; But it’s the vocal champions of intolerance that demand we decry anyone who might vote for a black or female candidate based on, in part, identity politics.&#160; The real fear, of course, is that people might start asking if identity politics might be a factor in a person voting for…John McCain.</p>
<p>Ultimately, McCain is just running as McCain, even if part of his identity is as a white man in America.&#160; This is not bad or good; it just is.&#160; A recent ad triumphs–in case anyone still didn’t know–his service in the military and his imprisonment in a North Vietnamese camp.&#160; But McCain is not separate from the larger fabric, indeed, the entire history, of America.&#160; We know intuitively that if his service to his country is a strength, it has also been, for much of the history of this country, the province of white males.&#160; If being a fighter pilot and a POW is to his credit, then the opposite game tells us that it is to his opponents’ detriment that they did not or could not have had such an experience.&#160; And, yes, women have now flown in combat and, yes, there were black male pilots in Viet Nam, but these were and are the exceptions and not the rule.&#160; McCain’s long family history of military service which he is rightly proud of is also only possible for the white men in his family.&#160; In the year 2008, there can be no equivalent long history of service for women or African Americans.</p>
<p>John McCain is inescapably part of that American continuum–as all Americans are–that began centuries before he was born.&#160; He need not apologize or feel guilty for any of this (a common defensive position I hear when discussing this topic, for most people can’t get past the personal, thinking this is all an attack on their individual life), but he–and all of us–must be aware of the lingering effects of this history that exist all around us.&#160; I don’t know, though, that he would understand or acknowledge this (I would like to ask him), but white males are not exempt from dealing with this complicated history just because they want to pretend we live in a post-racial America.&#160; And if it takes a presidential race to bring this out into the open, I say, bring it on.</p>
<p>One wonders if McCain would have ever tried to make amends for voting against the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday in 1983 if he wasn’t now running for president.&#160; On the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination, McCain said:</p>
<p>We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King…I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. But he knew as well that in the long term, confidence in the reasonability and good heart of America is always well placed.</p>
<p>Taking him at his word, if McCain was ignorant about King’s importance, well, now he is not.&#160; I argue in class all the time that ignorance is not a crime, but willful ignorance is indeed very dangerous.&#160; If McCain can finally acknowledge that growth is possible, surely the same is true for our country.</p>
<p>As this country’s default, white males have learned to not triumph their white heritage–the ultimate American entitlement program–in words, even as they benefit from this status in countless ways every day.&#160; As a white male, I have learned that if I remain quiet, then it is left to minorities to define themselves against my whiteness and maleness.&#160; If a genuine post-racial America is the goal (I don’t know that it is), then willful ignorance will not get us there.</p>
<p>We must engage in the conversation, even though it is difficult, because our silence allows too many Americans to not have an equal chance at the pursuit.&#160; Perhaps even O’Reilly is getting the message that this is more complicated than he pretends.&#160; On April 8th he told his viewers he would be more “precise” when discussing race so that he wouldn’t be attacked and misunderstood in the future.&#160; I look forward to the O’Reillys and the Hannitys of the country asking white males how race and gender will influence their votes, because it’s time we all played our cards honestly with each other.&#160; Maybe once we get past the spin, we can get closer to claiming that Constitutional “we” for all of us.</p>
<p>JEFF BIRKENSTEIN is a professor of English at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]?" type="external">[email protected]&#160;</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Playing the Opposite Game | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/04/22/playing-the-opposite-game/ | 2008-04-22 | 4 |
<p>An airline pilot was arrested Wednesday morning in Rapid City, S.D., and charged with attempting to fly while drunk, police said.</p>
<p>Police were called to Rapid City Regional Airport after Russell Joseph Duszak, 38, showed up smelling of alcohol — at 8 a.m. — Rapid City police said. Duszak, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was supposed to have flown SkyWest Flight 4574 to Salt Lake City, but instead, he was hauled off the plane and arrested on a charge of operating an aircraft under the influence of alcohol.</p>
<p>The flight was delayed for more than two hours, finally taking off about 10:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) after a replacement pilot was rounded up, <a href="http://www.newscenter1.tv/story/33488365/intoxicated-skywest-pilot-arrested-at-rapid-city-regional-airport" type="external">NBC station KNBN reported</a>.</p>
<p>Passengers learned more about what was happening from police than they did from the airline, which issued a short statement apologizing for what it described only as "a crewmember issue." The pilot is barred from flying pending an investigation, it said.</p>
<p>Rapid City Police Chief Karl Jegeris, however, was quite forthcoming on Twitter:</p>
<p>RCPD has arrested a Skywest Airlines Pilot for SDCL 50-13-17, operation of an aircraft while intoxicated. Press Release will be issued soon</p>
<p>Airport Management and Airline Officials have been helpful to ensure passenger safety is a top priority.</p>
<p>The system worked the way it is designed to ensure passengers safety was not compromised. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Community?src=hash" type="external">#Community</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Service?src=hash" type="external">#Service</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Integrity?src=hash" type="external">#Integrity</a></p>
<p>Duszak, who federal records show has been a licensed commercial pilot since 2001, was released from the Pennington County Jail on $300 bail. If he's convicted of the misdemeanor charge, he could spend up to a year in jail and face a $2,000 fine.</p> | SkyWest Pilot Charged With Trying to Fly While Drunk at South Dakota Airport | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/skywest-pilot-charged-trying-fly-while-drunk-south-dakota-airport-n673456 | 2016-10-27 | 3 |
<p>JUNE 3, 2010</p>
<p>By KATY GRIMES</p>
<p>The proper role of government is on the minds of many people in the state, particularly with a record budget crisis in California. But legislators continue to offer massive quantities of legislation that meddle in the personal and private lives of the state’s residents.</p>
<p>With two distinct and separate cultures in the state, the answer is obvious – to both sides.</p>
<p>As daunting as a hurricane season, another looming, drawn-out budget “season” menacingly awaits while Assembly members Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, and Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, want all children to wear a protective helmet while snowboarding.&#160; Jones said on the Assembly floor that he couldn’t get his own kids to wear their snowboard helmets, so therefore a law was needed to address the issue and reduce head injuries. SB 880 would require sports enthusiasts don bicycle, skiing and snowboarding helmets.</p>
<p>Jones also authored pet insurance legislation — we’re talking health insurance for Fuzzy and Fido here — brought about by one consumer’s complaint about the fine print in insurance contracts. Jones’ office investigated and found that pet insurance was wrought with pre-existing condition clauses and congenital illness exclusions. Initially wanting to do away with the pre-existing illness clause, Jones ended up working with pet insurance companies to craft a bill regulating this specialty insurance.</p>
<p>According to Kayte Fisher, an aide to Jones, the motive behind his pet insurance bill was consumer protection. “Billions of dollars are spent on pets,” she said. “Jones wanted to make sure that consumers understood the fine print in the insurance policies.”</p>
<p>Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, wants baseball players barred from using metal baseball bats, again spurned by one serious incident.&#160; In a recent Senate Education Committee hearing, Huffman said, “The hyper-performance of high tech metal baseball bats has gone too far… It’s increasing the risk of serious injury and yes, death, for young people and we have to do something about it.”</p>
<p>Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, wants to outlaw body branding and nipple piercing on minors. AB 517, the Safe Body Art Act of 2009, would create statewide regulations for tattooing, body piercing and the application of permanent cosmetics businesses in California. Ma has the support of the Association of Professional Piercers (APP) as well as state health officers. The apparent issue is that live viruses have been found in surgical smoke, and can be easily be transmitted.</p>
<p>Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, is sponsoring a bill to ban Gatorade from schools because kids are drinking too many sugary drinks. Soda machines have already been banned from schools in the state, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already expressed his support. Citing the increasing problem of obesity, Santa Clara County even banned the McDonald’s Happy Meal.</p>
<p>Anti-spanking laws, smoking bans, dog and cat licensing, salt and trans fats bans, cell phone and texting restrictions and violent video game legislation have all taken the state legislature by storm, while California staggers into another bar room of budget brawling. This begs the question: What is the proper role of government?</p>
<p>“The government’s role is to protect you from other people,” said Assembly member Chris Norby, R-Brea, a vocal opponent of nanny state laws. &#160;“The government provides services you may or may not want, but public safety is the government’s job – to enforce the law and contracts.”</p>
<p>During the Assembly floor Session this week, Norby said that so many nanny state laws are being proposed and passed by Democrats that “It’s a slippery slope. [The laws] infantilize adults under the guise of public safety.</p>
<p>“Do helmets really make bicycling safer, or are fewer kids riding bikes because the helmets are such a pain?” Norby asked rhetorically. He then answered his own question, saying that in the Netherlands, where there are far more bicyclists than in the U.S., bicycle helmets are not required and they report fewer bicycle injuries.</p>
<p>Norby mentioned controversial athletic trainer licensing legislation passed Wednesday, then wondered aloud where the line is drawn. “Are high school coaches and Pop Warner football coaches also going to be required to be licensed as athletic trainers?” he asked. Licensing is a big part of the nanny state mentality, he said, imposing too many “ridiculous licensing requirements” on businesses and individuals.</p>
<p>Ironically, Norby pointed out that Democrats cry foul over issues such as marijuana smoking, growing and dispensing, claiming that’s a personal liberty issue that the government shouldn’t interfere with. But a law requiring a provisional drivers licenses for kids until age 21 has been amended several times in response to opposition, eventually lowering the age to 18, is still filled with cumbersome regulations that will “create a nightmare for parents,” Norby said.</p>
<p>Drinking too much sugary Gatorade, using metal baseball bats or wearing snowboard helmets, are decisions that belong to parents and not the government, Norby said.&#160; “Parents are better equipped to make these decisions,” he added. “The role of the government is not nanny knows best. Parents do.”</p> | Nanny May I? | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/06/03/news-nanny-may-i/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p>NAPLES, Fla. — While Hillary Clinton is making an explicit push for Democratic down-ballot candidates, Donald Trump is taking a more subtle approach.</p>
<p>Sunday evening in sunny Florida, Trump repeatedly pushed his supporters to help keep Republicans in control of Congress.</p>
<p>Asking voters to cast their votes for him in 16 days, Trump said, "That includes helping me re-elect Republicans all over the place," adding that it would be "nice if they helped us, too, right? To enact my first 100 days."</p>
<p>At three other points in the speech, Trump slipped in mentions of a Republican House and Senate as essential to enacting his agenda.</p>
<p>Notably unnamed in Trump's pro-Republican push were Sen. Marco Rubio, who's actually running for re-election in Florida. Rubio has endorsed Trump, and he stood by him even as many other Republicans in tough races distanced themselves and even pulled their support.</p>
<p>"If you elect me, along with a Republican House and Senate, we will also immediately repeal the Obama-Clinton defense sequester and rebuild our badly depleted military," Trump promised.</p>
<p>He also mentioned the need for a GOP majority to repeal Obamacare and to help enact the other policies included in his recently announced "contract with the American voter."</p>
<p>This traditional aspect of party-minded campaigning is a foreign concept for Trump. The mentions on Sunday, while mundane to most, marked a departure for Trump, who has largely acted with his own self-interest in mind, even when it stands to hurt the party he carries the mantle for.</p>
<p>Trump rarely mentions down-ballot races in his usually hour-long stump speeches. Occasionally, he will add a local flourish, mentioning local Republicans who have endorsed and supported him — whether they're on the ballot in November or not. Generally, the names of Republicans down ballot are far from his mind as he outlines his plan for America should he take the White House.</p>
<p>Contrast Trump's vague approach and passing comments with Clinton's down-ballot push. Clinton is dedicating the final weeks of the campaign to her message — and to pushing for fellow Democrats who share a ballot with her on Nov. 8. She has spoken at length at rallies about down-ballot Democrats, appealing to voters to vote blue down the ticket and specifying why those candidates are best for them.</p>
<p>Trump again lauded polls Sunday that had him up while casting doubt on those that showed him trailing — taking special issue with data that show him down with women.</p>
<p>"We're doing well in the polls, but you know, I really think those polls are very inaccurate when it comes to women," Trump said.</p>
<p>He said he believed he was doing better with women than men but then reversed course to say that he understands he's setting records with men and would happily trade those numbers for higher support with women.</p>
<p>"I'd swap you out so fast," Trump told the men in the audience.</p> | Trump Makes Subtle, Unexpected Push for Down-Ballot Republicans | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-makes-subtle-unexpected-push-down-ballot-republicans-n671511 | 2016-10-24 | 3 |
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-401596p1.html?cr=00&amp;pl=edit-00" type="external">Attila JANDI</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&amp;pl=edit-00" type="external">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/04/overshadows-outreach-american.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s website</a>.</p>
<p>President Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro for an hour on Saturday, and the two made progress on plans to restore diplomatic relations. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/11/remarks-president-obama-and-president-raul-castro-cuba-after-bilateral-m%20" type="external">Before the meeting, Obama said</a>,</p>
<p />
<p>“I think that after 50 years of policy that had not changed on the part of the United States, it was my belief that it was time to try something new, that it was important for us to engage more directly with the Cuban government and the Cuban people. And as a consequence, I think we are now in a position to move on a path towards the future, and leave behind some of the circumstances of the past that have made it so difficult, I think, for our countries to communicate.</p>
<p>Already we’ve seen majorities of the American people and the Cuban people respond positively to this change. And I truly believe that as more exchanges take place, more commerce and interactions resume between the United States and Cuba, that the deep connections between the Cuban people and the American people will reflect itself in a more positive and constructive relationship between our governments.”</p>
<p>He went on to promise his neighbors that the days in which the US felt it could meddle with impunity in their affairs were over.</p>
<p>It is the first time that Cuba attended the 21-year-old Summit of the Americas, which was meeting for the seventh time. Castro gave a long speech that covered decades of grievances against the United States, but then was contrite and apologized, saying that he was speaking of actions of previous presidents, but that Obama is different and is “an honest man.”</p>
<p>US reporting on Castro’s speech tended to dismiss it as an instance of a Latin leader getting carried away with himself. But the US did in fact try to assassinate Fidel Castro and backed an invasion of the country aimed at overthrowing the government. It is often forgotten that these actions were taken not because Cuba committed an act of war against the USA but because Washington disliked the system of government that Havana adopted.</p>
<p>Obama said <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2015/04/12/historic-us-cuba-talks-between-obama-and-castro/%20" type="external">after the meeting</a>,</p>
<p>““My message here is that the Cold War is over… I think we have to be very clear. Cuba is not a threat to the United States. . . We are not in the business of regime change. We are in the business of making sure that the Cuban people have freedom and the ability to participate and shape their own destiny and their own lives, and supporting civil society.”</p>
<p>Obama had to promise not to engage in any further attempts at a coup in Cuba because the USA has been in the coup business for a very long time, as part of the way it has run its empire. Some observers count 51 US military or covert interventions in Latin America since 1890. Quite apart from the Cold War covert ops, the US intervened militarily in Cuba no less than four times in the late 19th and first third of the twentieth century.</p>
<p>Then, <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/11/obama-meets-venezuelas-president-on-sidelines-of/%20" type="external">Obama also had a sidebar meeting</a> with President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, in which he apparently tried to calm him down by promising that Washington was not trying to get up a coup against him or overthrow his government, and did not see him as a threat.</p>
<p>Maduro suspects the US conspired with right wing forces in an attempted coup against his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, in 2002. And he fears that when Obama on March 9 of this year designated Caracas a threat to American security and imposed sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials, it was a prelude to another such covert op. Hence Obama’s attempt to mollify him– though Obama <a href="http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/world/2802-obama-admits-that-venezuela-is-not-a-threat-to-us%20" type="external">insisted on maintaining</a> the sanctions, since he said those were against human rights violators. His March 9 executive order has been <a href="http://es.panampost.com/panam-staff/2015/04/11/presidentes-latinos-rechazaron-sanciones-a-venezolanos/%20" type="external">criticized by most other Latin American countries, including Brazil</a>, which is often critical of Venezuela and has tended diplomatically to be closer to the US than the left-leaning ALBA nations.</p>
<p>In short, Obama’s diplomacy at the Summit of the Americas in part consisted of going around promising not to overthrow his fellow leaders, which would be faintly ridiculous if Washington hadn’t in fact intervened so much in neighbors’ affairs.</p>
<p>The Obama moment in Latin America most resembles president <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/238718/Good-Neighbor-Policy%20" type="external">Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy”</a> during the Great Depression and WW II, when FDR similarly ceased trying to impose the US will on countries it its south. (Unfortunately in the Cold War period, the interventions were revived).</p>
<p>It is worth pointing out that one of the reasons Obama has difficulty in his negotiations with Iran is that its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, distrusts Washington because of its long history of intervention in Iran. The US along with its WWII allies invaded and occupied Iran in the 1940s; the allies overthrew the ruler, Reza Shah Pahlevi in 1941. The in 1953 the CIA conducted a coup against popular Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh because he led the nationalization of Iranian oil. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the US allied with Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who had invaded Iran in a wanton act of naked aggression in 1980. When Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranian troops, the US <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/protected-charges-chemical.html%20" type="external">ran interference for Baghdad at the UN Security Council</a>, ensuring that Baathist Iraq was not sanctioned for its war crimes against Iran.</p>
<p>So maybe Obama needs a sidebar with Khamenei to reassure him that Washington is not trying to overthrow him, either.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Related video added by Juan Cole:</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/q7obWa42pV4" type="external">Euronews: “US and Cuba make history as Obama and Castro shake hands”</a></p>
<p /> | U.S. History of Coup-Making Overshadows Obama’s Outreach to the Latin American Left and Iran | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-s-history-of-coup-making-overshadows-obamas-outreach-to-the-latin-american-left-and-iran/ | 2015-04-14 | 4 |
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<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. — Before Dylann Roof was arrested for killing nine black church members, he scribbled a note to his mother, apologizing for all the repercussions his actions would cause. Weeks later, in a jailhouse journal, he wrote that he had no regrets.</p>
<p>The evidence, along with his manifesto, hundreds of photos and a confession to the FBI, draw a portrait of a young white man consumed by racial hatred who carefully planned the killings, picking out meek, innocent black people who likely wouldn’t fight back.</p>
<p>Jurors who convicted Roof of hate crimes and other charges will decide whether he should be executed or face life in prison.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>ROOF AND RACISM</p>
<p>Roof has pointed out that there was no dramatic confrontation that led him to begin hating blacks. Instead, when the Trayvon Martin case made the news, Roof went to Wikipedia to read about the black teenager who was shot to death in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was acquitted. That led Roof to research black on white crime and to websites that offer false statistics inflating how often those crimes happen.</p>
<p>Roof was careful in his writings to say his beliefs came just from himself, not his parents. But one of Roof’s old friends suggested otherwise.</p>
<p>“I don’t think his parents liked his decisions, the choices that he made to have black friends,” said Christon Scriven, who is black.</p>
<p>Roof would go between partying with black friends and spewing racist diatribes to his white buddies, Scriven said shortly after the shootings.</p>
<p>Roof also believed the false claims that blacks were better off as slaves and are inferior at their cores to whites. He compared African-Americans to dogs, saying everyone feels bad when a man beats a dog, but no one is surprised when a dog bites a man.</p>
<p>As he sat in jail after his arrest, Roof mused about adopting a white child someday and sought to explain his thoughts on other races, according to a journal found in Roof’s cell.</p>
<p>Lauren Knapp of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office read the journal aloud in court Thursday. In it, Roof wrote that he felt he would probably eventually be pardoned if he were sentenced to life in prison and believed Adolf Hitler would eventually be canonized as a saint.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He also ranted that Jewish people made America worse by pushing desegregation, that the Hispanic population was growing too quickly and introducing more crime to the nation and Muslims were just as bad as blacks and perhaps more dangerous.</p>
<p>“The Muslim’s violent behavior is increased exponentially by their sick religion,” Roof wrote.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE SON</p>
<p>When authorities searched Roof’s car, they found birthday cards from his mom and dad, who were divorced, and what appeared to be suicide notes to each of his parents.</p>
<p>Roof’s writings to his mom show a son worried about how she would feel.</p>
<p>“At this moment I miss you very much,” he wrote. “And as childish as it sounds, I wish I was in your arms.”</p>
<p>Roof’s mom suffered a heart attack in court shortly after prosecutors called him a cold and calculated killer in their opening statement.</p>
<p>Roof worked for his contractor father for a time.</p>
<p>“I love you and I’m sorry,” Roof wrote. “You were a good dad.”</p>
<p>In Roof’s birthday card, his father promised to buy him a gun.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE FRIEND</p>
<p>Roof had a few friends he would hang out with when he got tired of his parents. One of them, Joey Meek, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about what he knew about Roof’s plans.</p>
<p>Meek is awaiting sentencing. His guilty plea included an offer to testify against his friend if asked, but he hasn’t been called to the stand.</p>
<p>Meek and Roof were good friends until Roof dropped out of high school. They reconnected in the months before the shooting, drinking and smoking marijuana. Scriven also would hang out with them at Meek’s house.</p>
<p>Both friends said he talked about a mass shooting. Scriven said Roof wanted to target the College of Charleston, which Roof denied in his jailhouse journal. Meek said Roof talked about killing blacks.</p>
<p>Meek insisted to reporters he had no idea of Roof’s exact plan and was stunned to see his friend in a surveillance photo on TV the morning after the shooting. “I didn’t THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him,” Meek said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE LONER</p>
<p>In Roof’s opening statement to jurors to start the penalty phase of his trial, he said there was nothing wrong with him psychologically except “I’m probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who’s ever existed.”</p>
<p>Agents recovered hundreds of photos from Roof’s cameras. Some were of him posing with the Confederate flag, others were at historic sites across South Carolina. They appeared to be taken with a tripod and a timer, and he is the only person in almost all of them. There are even a few of Roof with a cat in his bedroom.</p>
<p>Roof wrote in his jailhouse journal that he enjoyed being sad and having pity on himself because sadness was such a strong emotion.</p>
<p>Roof told agents when he confessed he reached out to no other white supremacy groups and spoke to no one else about his plans.</p>
<p>His journal ends with another lament: “One of my only regrets is that I was never able to fall in love.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this report from Charleston, South Carolina.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP" type="external">http://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP</a> . His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jeffrey-collins" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jeffrey-collins</a> .</p>
<p>Kinnard can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP" type="external">http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP</a> . Read more of her work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/</a> .</p> | Dylann Roof cold to victims, but apologized to his parents | false | https://abqjournal.com/922049/dylann-roof-cold-to-victims-but-apologized-to-his-parents.html | 2017-01-06 | 2 |
<p>Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway&#160;invests over $100 billion in individual stocks, and while Buffett's renowned for his patience, it appears he's pretty unhappy about the performance of IBM (NYSE: IBM) and General Electric (NYSE: GE). According to Berkshire Hathaway's quarterly 13-F report, Buffett spent last quarter reducing his ownership stake in Big Blue and unloading all his shares in GE.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>IBM may be a big-cap technology stalwart, but its attempts to transform itself by focusing on next-generation technology has been slow to overcome headwinds associated with declining demand for its legacy hardware products.</p>
<p>The company announced disappointing first-quarter financials back in April, and in July, it didn't offer much more to cheer about when it released its second-quarter numbers. Sales slipped another 4.7% year over year, bringing the company's streak of quarterly annual revenue declines to 21. The company reported that earnings per share increased 1% year over year, but as fellow Fool Timothy Green <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/19/ibm-hands-investors-another-mixed-bag.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=53e54dc8-82a4-11e7-b30e-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">points out Opens a New Window.</a>, the increase disappears if you take away the benefit of a lower tax rate.</p>
<p>IBM's pinned its hopes on a return to growth on its strategic-imperatives businesses, a collection of services focusing on higher-growth opportunities like cloud computing. Revenue from these businesses has been a bright spot for the company in the past, but the pace of growth slowed in Q2 -- sparking worries that IBM may be struggling to compete against top players including Amazon.com's AWS, Microsoft, and Alphabet. IBM's strategic-imperatives sales have grown at a strong double-digit rate, but in Q2, performance was much more mixed, with cloud and mobile posting growth of 15% and 27%, respectively, and analytics and security growing by only 4% each, including currency impacts.</p>
<p>The quarterly results probably didn't inspire much confidence in Warren Buffett, who reported in his first-quarter SEC filings that he had already begun <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/21/worst-stocks-warren-buffett-is-selling-now.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=53e54dc8-82a4-11e7-b30e-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">selling off Opens a New Window.</a> some of his massive position in IBM. In the first quarter, he sold about 17 million shares, leaving him with 64.5 million shares remaining on March 31. In the second quarter, his selling continued, leaving him with about 54.1 million shares on June 30.</p>
<p>It's anyone's guess if Buffett's going to eliminate IBM shares from his portfolio altogether, but I wouldn't bet against it. It's hard to sell as much stock as Buffett owns in IBM without causing a big drop in share prices, so in instances like this, Buffett has taken a measured approach that includes selling shares over the span of a few quarters. One <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/17/top-stocks-warren-buffett-is-selling-now.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=53e54dc8-82a4-11e7-b30e-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">recent example Opens a New Window.</a> of this was his decision to sell his Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. stock. It took him about one year to fully unwind that position.</p>
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<p>After the financial crisis, General Electric took big steps to reduce its exposure to consumer finance and boost its exposure to energy. It's too early to say for sure if those were smart moves, but lately, the report card is mixed. With longtime CEO Jeffery Immelt exiting earlier this month, there appears to be too much uncertainty associated with owning GE stock for Warren Buffett to stick around.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/GE" type="external">GE Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Buffett gave GE an important vote of confidence during the financial crisis when he invested $3 billion in GE warrants in 2008 that he later converted into stock. However, he sold 10.6 million shares in Q2, which represented the last of his remaining investment in the industrial giant.</p>
<p>It's likely that the Oracle of Omaha made a nice pile of money on GE over the years because, while GE's stock has dipped lately, it gained about 40% during Buffett's investment period. Nevertheless, Buffett's decision to sell the rest of his GE shares indicates he'd rather own cash than continue owning GE. Frankly, it's hard to blame him given that GE's second-quarter sales fell 11.7% and its net earnings fell 57% year over year.</p>
<p>New CEO John Flannery, who took the helm in August, clearly has some work to do to get GE's ship back on course. Previously, Flannery was the top person at GE Healthcare, a bright spot in the company's performance over the past decade. Navigating what's become a very tough energy market will be among his biggest challenges.</p>
<p>GE recently merged its energy business with Baker Hughes to form an energy service Goliath -- however, crude prices and natural gas prices have remained depressed and that's crimped demand and sent GE's oil and gas-related revenue 6% lower through the first six months of 2017 when compared to 2016. Profit in the oil and gas segment nosedived 52% in Q2 alone -- hardly encouraging news.</p>
<p>GE's transportation business, which includes its rail business, is also a trouble spot. Its sales fell 5% year over year in the first six months of 2017, and that drop caused an 18% decline in that segment's profit over the period. It probably shouldn't be ignored that Warren Buffett owns Burlington Northern, one of the country's biggest rail companies. From that perch, he probably has an interesting view of what locomotive demand looks like going forward. If his selling of GE is any indication, Flannery has an uphill climb ahead of him with this business.</p>
<p>Overall, General Electric's success is tightly tied to the global industrial economy, but since it's become less reliant on consumer spending, it may no longer jibe with Buffett's current thinking. After all, while he was cutting ties with GE last quarter, Buffett was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in&#160;Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF), which was formerly part of GE's consumer-lending business before being spun-off in 2014. Perhaps one investing takeaway from Buffett's sale of GE is that he has more confidence that American workers' wages will strengthen than he does that commodities and industrial-goods spending is heading higher.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than General ElectricWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=53e54dc8-82a4-11e7-b30e-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon, General Electric, and Microsoft. His clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric. The Motley Fool recommends Synchrony Financial. 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=53e54dc8-82a4-11e7-b30e-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Warren Buffett’s Had It With These Stocks! | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/17/warren-buffett-s-had-it-with-these-stocks.html | 2017-08-17 | 0 |
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