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<p>Councilors Chuck Wilkins and Lonnie Clayton grilled senior city staffer George Bootes this week over $100,000 he requested for the Stolar Research Corp. project.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The money is in addition to the $440,000 incentive councilors approved in November for road, water and wastewater infrastructure for the 23,500-square-foot facility off Fulcrum Way in Enchanted Hills.</p>
<p>Bootes, the senior executive assistant to the city manager/community development officer, admitted he was uncomfortable coming back for more money but explained that contractor Mountain States’ bid of $421,577, including tax- the lowest of nine submitted for the infrastructure work-was higher than expected.</p>
<p>The request included money to make up for the higher bid, plus $17,598 for improving an access road to the site and an extra $23,576 for contingencies, in case of problems, Bootes said.</p>
<p>He said the original estimates were prepared against a tight deadline and staff later recommended fixing cracks on Picabo Street, the road to the Stolar site. By adding it to the project, Bootes said, the work could be accomplished for less than it would as a stand-alone job.</p>
<p>“I failed to include it in the budget, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend doing it at this time,” Bootes said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Bootes’ request also included $30,000 for an independent construction observer. He said this could be eliminated if city staff did the work.</p>
<p>Wilkins and Clayton were still not happy.</p>
<p>“I have intestinal distress about this whole thing,” Clayton said.</p>
<p>Clayton and Wilkins questioned the need for repairs to Picabo, saying other city streets are in worse condition. They also said the original $440,000 they approved included contingency money.</p>
<p>Bootes warned that if councilors didn’t approve at least $29,000 to cover the higher bid expense, the project could be halted. Stolar has said its facility will create at least 25 new jobs.</p>
<p>Another option would be to take some items out of the scope of work and seek new bids. That would delay the project by several weeks, which could be risky, Bootes said.</p>
<p>Councilors voted 4-2 to eliminate the independent observer cost and reduce the overall request from $100,000 to $70,000. Clayton and Wilkins were opposed.</p>
<p>Councilors then voted 5-1 to approve $70,000 in additional funds, with Clayton still opposed. — This article appeared on page 26 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Stolar Gets $70K More From City | false | https://abqjournal.com/163531/stolar-gets-70k-more-from-city.html | 2013-01-26 | 2 |
<p>The advertiser boycott of Rush Limbaugh appears to be cracking, and Rush’s move to <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/limbaugh" type="external">Twitter</a> has boycott organizers worried.</p>
<p>Behind the scenes, anecdotal evidence suggests that&#160;advertising either never really was impacted at the local level, or to the extent it was it&#160;has returned to normal.&#160; Via <a href="http://macsmind.com/wordpress/2012/03/verdict-on-limbaugh-boycott-epic-fail-advertisers-returning-after-finding-out-that-boycott-was-based-on-a-astroturf-campaign-by-media-matters/" type="external">Macsmind</a>:</p>
<p>Today listening to the Rush Limbaugh I heard seven commercials from companies that Media Matters claimed were no longer advertising on the show.&#160;&#160; I’m a friend, and a former employee of the manager of the local radio station that carries the Rush Limbaugh show.</p>
<p>I asked him just how bad was this boycott on the show was, that is how much of a big deal was it?&#160;&#160;&#160; I might ad that my friend is a liberal.</p>
<p>“Not much at all” he said.&#160; “Actually we haven’t had too many advertisers specifically ask that their ads don’t run on during the show”.&#160;&#160;&#160; But he added, “Things this week have seemed to died down.”&#160;&#160; In what way I asked.</p>
<p>“Well three of the advertisers that asked to be removed from the shows airing time have now asked that we begin placing their ads again”.&#160; One of these whom I heard for myself was a Proflowers that ran midway through the show.</p>
<p>I’m not going to get specific about the other two, but I continued to ask why would these companies return.</p>
<p>“It’s simple, our greatest ad revenue time is during the 3pm to 11pm slot when Rush, Hannity, and Levin run.”&#160;&#160; “There is simply too many listeners for advertisers not to place their ads.</p>
<p>And for all the talk of a couple of stations which dropped Rush, others are adding him, like KRWK-FM in Fargo-Moorehead which just revealed that it is going all talk, which includes Limbaugh, via <a href="http://www.talkers.com/2012/03/16/friday-march-16-2012/" type="external">Talkers</a>:</p>
<p>James Ingstad’s Radio Fargo Moorhead group in the Fargo-Moorhead market turns classic rock KRWK-FM into “101.9 Talk FM” The Talk of Fargo Moorhead on March 19.&#160; Talk radio pro Tom Becka – most recently with Clear Channel Media and Entertainment’s KFAB, Omaha as PM drive host – is named program director for the station and will host the morning drive show.&#160; Syndicated programs will include Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, Premiere Networks’ Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/boycott-wont-rush-him-out_b_1356726.html?ref=media" type="external">Michael Smerconish</a> makes the point that advertiser capitulation to the boycott would not be enough, and that forcing Rush off the air&#160;“would require a different type of acquiescence, namely on the part of program directors, not advertisers.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.talkers.com/2012/03/15/thursday-march-15-2012/" type="external">Talkers</a> makes a good point why broadcast stations are unlikely to go this route:</p>
<p>But, the talk radio industry is being invaded by political special interest groups and their hard-nosed tactics and it appears some broadcasters are playing along.&#160; Broadcasters – and radio stations more specifically – have traditionally competed with each other intensely on many levels.&#160; But going after each other’s advertisers with threats of guilt-by-association in order to hurt the other’s business is something in which they have rarely engaged.&#160; The reason is simple: It pollutes the same body of water from which all broadcasters drink.&#160; If one day your programming is poison to sponsors, who’s to say my programming won’t be tainted next week.</p>
<p>The boycott movement has relied on Twitter bombing advertisers.&#160; I’ll have more tomorrow on the tactics behind the boycott, but the people behind the boycott are worried about Rush’s move onto Twitter, and are directing supporters to these <a href="http://slobs.info/rush-limbaugh-twitter-slutgate/" type="external">posted instructions</a> for how boycott supporters should react on Twitter:</p>
<p>Two related things happened today [March 15] that reinforce how successful the Boycott Rush public pressure campaign has actually been:&#160; Rush Limbaugh hired a crisis management team, and Rush Limbaugh is now on Twitter.&#160; And its probably not a coincidence that the two things happened at the same time.&#160; As a platform for a social pressure campaign, Twitter just can’t be beat, and that’s why Rush and his minions are trying to fight back on Twitter.&#160; Now that the pro-Rush pushback is starting, there are a number of things you can do to help keep momentum going.&#160; Immediately below is a quick list of things you can do to help the boycott effort, with links to more detailed information below.</p>
<p>The Macsmind post linked above offers a good suggestion how to fight back which is applicable whenever these advertiser boycott campaigns are organized against conservatives:</p>
<p>I sent a message that basically said, “Did you know that you responded to pressure not by consumers but by democrat operatives?”</p>
<p>Sounds like a plan.&#160; You might start by sending advertisers, via Twitter or otherwise,&#160;this <a href="" type="internal">blog post</a>.</p>
<p>Update:&#160; If <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/starrfin" type="external">LukeHandCool</a> can move onto Twitter and become part of the solution, so can you.</p>
<p>Update 3-19-2012: I discuss the Limbaugh boycott on <a href="http://www.punditreview.com/2012/03/william-jacobson/" type="external">Pundit Review Radio:</a></p>
<p /> | Rush move to Twitter has boycott organizers worried | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/03/rush-move-to-twitter-has-boycott-organizers-worried/ | 2012-03-18 | 0 |
<p>TThe stock market remains unsettled, as the nation’s economic problems grow. Washington from the White House to Capitol Hill to the Federal Reserve gives us lots of bustle but no truly comforting action.</p>
<p>The Democrats pushed through an energy bill that will likely leave the nation in the desperate in the gasp of Middle East oil exporters. Wall Street banks continue to sell out their shareholders to Chinese and Middle East investors to pay for their big bonuses. The Federal Reserve cracks down on predatory lending on Main Street, when the real crooks work on Wall Street. The recession watch continues.</p>
<p>Working at a university only a subway ride from the seats of political power gives this observer a new appreciation for the apathy that accelerates the decline of empire. Nero was an amateur fiddler compared to musicians in Washington serenading the nation into complacency.</p>
<p>Energy Bill</p>
<p>The Democrats in Congress pushed through the first increase in U.S. automobile mileage standards in 32 years.</p>
<p>Don’t cheer loudly.</p>
<p>The 35 mile-per-gallon standard to be achieved by 2020 is far less than what is possible. Along with new light bulb and appliance standards, the nation’s energy use will be cut by 8 percent at some distant moment, likely, beyond my lifetime.</p>
<p>The bill also requires the production of about 2.4 billion barrels a day of ethanol, and overall the energy bill could reduce U.S. petroleum consumption by 4 million barrels a day by 2030. Over the last 23 years, petroleum consumption has increased by about 5.5 million barrels a day, despite improvements in mileage standards, automobile and appliance technology, and conservation.</p>
<p>Being optimistic, in 2030 we will be just as dependent on imported oil as before. Factor in falling production from U.S. oil fields, the situation gets worse.</p>
<p>We could do a lot better. More hybrids, electric vehicles, lighter vehicles, better furnaces, and more nuclear power are attainable, and the Chinese are likely to turn in those directions in greater force than we do. Then we can buy our cars from the Middle Kingdom just like our coffee makers.</p>
<p>Got to love Washington’s unquenchable thirst for breakneck change!</p>
<p>Subprime Mess</p>
<p>China’s sovereign investment fund will take a $5 billion stake in Morgan Stanley. Morgan joins Citigroup, UBS and others. Having sold financial alchemy to investors and shareholders in the form of engineered securities, they must now seek foreign funds to restore their capital.</p>
<p>At the most fundamental level, to justify huge compensation packages, Wall Street bankers and private equity gurus have been overvaluing mortgage-backed bonds, auto loans, and other securities that finance private equity acquisitions.</p>
<p>The culpability of bond rating agencies in these shenanigans is revealed by the fact that in just one day Standard &amp; Poor’s was forced to cut its rating of one of the major insurers of bonds, ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation, from “A” to “CCC.”</p>
<p>One is left to ponder what new data S&amp;P econometricians unearthed to warrant such a dramatic and sudden recalibration? Sadly, more downgrades are likely to follow as the bond insurance industry may fail.</p>
<p>The party line on Wall Street is that the subprime mess was a one time lapse. At S&amp;P some adjustments in the econometric models that determine the risk of default will be needed.</p>
<p>If all that is true, why can’t outfits like Cerberus and their bankers unload the bonds that are needed to finance its shrewd takeover of Chrysler? Why do bond investors no longer trust the promises of private equity wizards like John Snow and buy more of their paper?</p>
<p>That is the crisis of confidence in America’s capital markets. The meltdown threatening the bond market from a wholesale failure of bond insurers is the modern analog of a 1930s run on the bank. Just much worse.</p>
<p>Back in Washington, the Federal Reserve cracked down on predatory lending practices of mortgage writers. That is a necessary exercise, but the real game is on Wall Street. Neither Ben Bernanke nor Henry Paulson seem to grasp that or have the stomach to take on the big, powerful and corrupt that eat cake and drink champagne in the Empire State.</p>
<p>Hence, if Wall Street is to reform, it must reform itself. The man of the hour would have to be new Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, who promises a top down clean up where he works. However, have you heard him talking miscalibrated compensation and perverse incentives on Wall Street?</p>
<p>I also don’t know many alcoholics volunteering to attend their first AA meeting.</p>
<p>By the time Mr. Pandit is finished cleaning up Citigroup, you can be darn sure all the redundant mail room clerks will be gone, but so too will be another big chunk of shareholder equity, sold to Beijing, the Saudi Royal family and other guardians of western capitalism and democratic values.</p>
<p>Recession Watch</p>
<p>Despite the profound misjudgment of the nation’s bankers and financial regulators, the U.S. economy remains vibrant and has some chance of avoiding a recession. November retail sales and industrial production numbers were encouraging. Although the October and November robust gains in jobs are likely to be revised down, the nation’s payrolls and wage income keep growing.</p>
<p>A weaker dollar against the euro has yielded a modest gain in non-petroleum exports equal to about $95 billion or 0.7 percent of GDP. These figures are so small because the dollar remains overvalued against the Chinese yuan. Henry Paulson does not have to stomach to endorse U.S. actions to combat Beijing’s $400 billion subsidies on foreign purchases of yuan that prop up Chinese exports and shutter U.S. factories.</p>
<p>Hence, to avoid recession, Americans are going to have to keep on spending. This will require borrowing at much higher rates on credit cards, now that easy home mortgages are gone. On the face of things, economists would say that is not likely but most of economists don’t have much of a life and don’t go out to the malls. The parking lots are filling again, retail sales are up, and cash registers are jingling.</p>
<p>When Visa and Master Card fail under the weight of non payments, the Chinese sovereign debt fund can buy the rest of Citigroup. Given they way Mr. Pandit and his pals behave, they deserve such beneficent employers.</p>
<p>PETER MORICI is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Week Ahead: Forecasts for the Weeks of December 23 and 30</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Forecast Previous Period/Result</p>
<p>December 21 Personal Income – Nov 0.5 0.2 Personal Spending 0.4 0.2 PCE Index 0.6 0.3 Core PCE Index 0.2 0.2 Real Personal Spending -0.2 0.0</p>
<p>Mich Cons Sentiment – Dec (r) 73.5 74.5 Mich Cur Conditions 92.1 Mich Expectations __._ 63.2</p>
<p>Week of December 24</p>
<p>December 27 Durable Goods 1.0% -0.4 Initial Jobless Claims 340k 346 Consumer Confidence ­ Dec 86.8 87.3</p>
<p>December 28 New Home Sales – Nov .723m .728 .725 Chicago PMI ­ Dec 52.0 52.9 Help Wanted Index ­ Nov 23 23</p>
<p>Week of December 31</p>
<p>December 31 Existing Home Sales – Nov 5.04m 4.97</p>
<p>January 2 Construction Spending ­ Nov -0.2% -0.8</p>
<p>ISM Index ­ Dec 50.8 50.8 ISM Prices 64.8 67.5</p>
<p>January 3 Auto Sales – Dec 15.83m 16.20* Car Sales 7.80 7.97* Domestic 5.30 5.47* Foreign 2.50 2.50* Truck Sales 8.02 8.22* Domestic 6.53 6.73* 1.49 1.49* *SAAR as published by Motor Intelligence</p>
<p>Factory Orders – Nov 1.0% 0.5 Durable Goods Orders 1.0 -0.2 Nondurable Goods Orders 1.0 1.3</p>
<p>January 4 Nonfarm Payrolls – Dec 75k 94 Manufacturing Payrolls -15k -11 Unemployment Rate 4.7% 4.7 Average Work Week 33.8hrs 33.8 Hourly Earnings 0.3% 0.5</p>
<p>ISM Services ­ Dec 54.8 54.1 ISM Prices 76.5 76.5</p>
<p>PETER MORICI is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Business as Usual as Recession Looms | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/12/21/business-as-usual-as-recession-looms/ | 2007-12-21 | 4 |
<p>Hong Kong confirmed a 2-year-old boy had contracted bird flu and placed hospitals in the Chinese territory on alert on Saturday.</p>
<p>However, Hong Kong Health Secretary York Chow - <a href="http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20120602/news_20120602_56_844873.htm" type="external">cited by RTHK</a> - described the case as an isolated incident and urged the public not to panic.</p>
<p>The boy - a Hong Kong ID card holder - arrived from the southern Chinese city of Guangdong, where he lives, a week ago and was admitted to hospital with convulsions.</p>
<p>The Centre for Health Protection said he had tested positive for the AH5 strain of bird flu, <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/hong-kong-confirms-case-of-bird-flu/story-e6frf7jx-1226381333390" type="external">according to the Herald Sun newspaper</a>.</p>
<p>More tests were being conducted to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1 sub-strain of the virus, which has been responsible for 356 deaths since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://7thspace.com/headlines/411820/crested_myna_tests_positive_for_h5n1_virus.html" type="external">statement put out by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department</a>, the carcass of a dead crested Myrna - a common resident bird in Hong Kong - found on April 27 in the territory tested positive for the H5N1 virus.</p>
<p>The release quoted a department spokesman as reminding people to observe good personal hygiene.</p>
<p>"They should avoid personal contact with wild birds or live poultry and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them," he said.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://mobile.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120331/bird-flu-avian-influenza-h5n1-virus-terrorism-pandemic" type="external">Research into deadly bird flu virus should be published uncensored, US panel says</a></p>
<p>Meanwhile, the infected boy - described as being in a stable condition - is being treated in isolation.</p>
<p>Chow said the boy had been to poultry markets in Guangdong, although it could not be confirmed where he had caught the virus.</p>
<p>Hong Kong was unlikely to revive a ban on live poultry from the mainland, Chow said.</p>
<p>Six people died and 12 others were infected in the territory in 1997, during the first modern outbreak of H5N1 bird flu.</p> | Hong Kong confirms boy, 2, sick with bird flu | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-02/hong-kong-confirms-boy-2-sick-bird-flu | 2012-06-02 | 3 |
<p>Shares of health-care companies declined as traders bet big pharmaceutical companies would show struggles in upcoming earnings reports. Silicon Valley blood-testing concern Theranos misled company directors about its laboratory-testing practices, used a shell company to "secretly" buy commercial-lab equipment, and improperly created rosy financial projections for investors, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed by one of its investors.</p>
<p>-Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 21, 2017 16:34 ET (20:34 GMT)</p> | Health Care Down On Earnings Trepidation - Health Care Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/21/health-care-down-on-earnings-trepidation-health-care-roundup.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p>Captain John Smith did not actually fall in love with Pocahontas,&#160;but his real story is even more amazing than the Disney version.</p>
<p>And there's no question that&#160;his work as an explorer and mapmaker helped create "English America" and spurred colonization to the New World.</p>
<p>Smith started out has a mercenary, says Peter Firstbrook, who just published&#160;a biography of Smith&#160;titled,&#160; <a href="https://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/peter-firstbrook/a-man-most-driven#.VHdOF_nF_y0" type="external">A Man Most Driven</a>.&#160;“He was in an army fighting the Ottoman Turks out in central Europe. And he went through a whole series of escapes. He was seriously wounded. He was taken into slavery. He murdered his slave-master and escaped from that. He was shipwrecked twice. And it went on and on."</p>
<p>All that occurred, says Firstbrook, before Smith&#160;ended up in Jamestown colony in Virginia&#160;in 1607. This is where the America version of his biography picks up, albeit not always accurately.</p>
<p>Smith did have a relationship with Pocahontas, but&#160;nothing like in the Disney movie. “It was a very interesting relationship, although it wasn’t a romantic attachment," says Firstbrook.&#160;</p>
<p>Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of the paramount chief of the Powhatan Indians and was, in fact,&#160;an intermediary between the native people and the English colonists. "She also taught John Smith [her language]&#160;Algonquin&#160;and he became a great admirer of her," says the author.&#160;"He also used her. She was used as an intermediary both by her father and by John Smith. And, on at least two occasions, did save [Smith's] life.”</p>
<p>The first time,&#160;Pocahontas reportedly&#160;threw herself over him and begged&#160;that the tribe take her life instead of&#160;his. Yet as dramatic as that may sound,&#160;Firstbrook says&#160;it seems "likely this wasn’t really an execution, but an induction or initiation into the tribe."</p>
<p>The paramount chief had decided, at least&#160;at this stage, that he really wanted the English on his side, according to&#160;Firstbrook. The chief saw the English as a sort of minor tribe within his empire, and he saw John Smith as one of the leaders. He&#160;initiated Smith as a chief within his empire, "so it was probably more like a ritual killing and ritual re-birth into the tribe."</p>
<p>But a couple of years later, when relations between the English and the native people deteriorated, there was at least one occasion when Pocahontas did save Smith. She&#160;went to the long house where John Smith was staying, in the capital of the Powhatan, and warned him that he was going to be ambushed by the warriors of her father.</p>
<p>Smith’s career in Virginia was cut short when a&#160;sack of gunpowder he was carrying accidentally exploded and burnt him severely, almost certainly castrating him. He went back to Europe to recover.</p>
<p>He returned in 1614 to a different region of the New World, which he christened "New England" — and the name stuck.</p>
<p />
<p>A close up of Smith's map from modern Cape Anne to Cape Cod. New Plimouth is just above the heraldic crest</p>
<p>Wiki Commons</p>
<p>Many of Smith's names for places stuck,&#160;such as the Charles River, Charlestown, Boston and Salem. And it turns out that&#160;Smith was responsible for Plymouth getting its name several years before the Pilgrims even arrived.</p>
<p>Smith first called the place&#160;Accomack, but then during an audience with Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, he said the&#160;prince could change some names if he wished. So Accomack became New Plymouth.</p>
<p>“Smith really identified Plymouth as an excellent place [for colonization]&#160;with a good harbor, and 'only in need of industrious people' — that was how he framed it," Firstbrook says.</p>
<p>The Pilgrims toyed with the idea of hiring Smith to come with them, given Smith's vast experience in the New World, but eventually settled for purchasing his map and guidebook. He was described as a difficult and truculent man. &#160;</p>
<p>Smith’s vision for the New World was one of colonization by Englishmen&#160;and he mainly ignored any rights to the land that the indigenous people&#160;had. “The English arrived in the New World really thinking they could just take whatever they wanted,"&#160;Firstbrook&#160;says, and Smith shared that view.</p>
<p>"There was a certain amount of negotiation, and ostensibly they bought land from the native people. But, of course, this was for trinkets and maybe a little bit of copper.”</p>
<p>But Smith had another side, too, says the author. "When [Smith]&#160;was in Jamestown, Virginia, he did write quite a lot about the culture of the native people, and he did so in a very independent style, which was unusual for the period. He was not judgmental; he was intrigued; he was fascinated, and he wanted to learn about them."</p>
<p>"That’s not to say that at times he wasn’t cruel and brutal and repressive, as indeed all the English out there were in those days. But I think, compared to his contemporaries, he had a much more modern and open approach towards accepting the native people as equal.”</p>
<p>Firstbrook also argues in his book&#160;that&#160;Smith founded the&#160;idea of the "American Dream."&#160;The explorer was from&#160;humble origins, the son of a tenant farmer, and&#160;“had a chip on his shoulder, and had difficulty with authority, especially when he judged his superiors to be incompetent … He found it very difficult to rise up through the social hierarchy in England at the time.”</p>
<p>After Smith returned to England in 1614,&#160;he became&#160;an absolutely passionate advocate for the colonization of New England.&#160;"He really wanted to throw away the shackles of this repressive social system that was in England at the time, of social hierarchy and glass ceilings,"&#160;Firstbrook says.</p>
<p>"He really wanted the individual to prosper and grow through his own hard work, rather than through any family connections. So he was the first Englishman really to see meritocracy as the solution, and independence and hard work as a way to improve your lot.”</p> | Here's the story of Captain John Smith you didn't get from the Disney flick | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-11-27/heres-story-captain-john-smith-you-didnt-get-disney-flick | 2014-11-27 | 3 |
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<p>FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Fort Collins firefighters will bring one of the last remaining pieces of the World Trade Center from New York City to Colorado.</p>
<p>The Coloradoan reports ( <a href="http://noconow.co/1VWEnA8" type="external">http://noconow.co/1VWEnA8</a> ) that four Poudre Fire Authority firefighters involved in Sept. 11, 2001 rescue efforts will use their own vacation time to travel to New York and pick up the 5-foot-long, 3,000-pound beam.</p>
<p>According to a news release from Poudre Fire Authority, the firefighters will participate in a ceremony with representatives from New York City-area emergency crews.</p>
<p>Afterward, they will travel across the country with more than 100 emergency services agencies, stopping for ceremonies in dozens of towns. The Poudre Fire Authority will post trip updates on its website and social media.</p>
<p>The journey will end with an Oct. 24 ceremony in Fort Collins.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, <a href="http://www.coloradoan.com" type="external">http://www.coloradoan.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Colorado firefighters travel to receive WTC beam | false | https://abqjournal.com/660816/colorado-firefighters-travel-to-receive-wtc-beam.html | 2 |
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<p>ISight Partners VP Patrick McBride explains finding a zero-day vulnerability impacting Microsoft Windows allegedly used by Russian hackers</p>
<p>A Russia-linked cyber espionage ring exploited a flaw in Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows to spy on several high-profile targets, including NATO and the Ukrainian government, according to a report from a U.S. cyber intelligence firm.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>ISight Partners says the hacking group utilized a “zero day” flaw that is present in all versions of Windows from Vista to 8.1 to prey on its targets, which also included European companies within the energy and telecommunications sectors.</p>
<p>ISight senior director Stephen Ward tells FOX Business that the company has been monitoring the cyber espionage ring – which it calls “Sandworm Team”, due to its references to science-fiction series “Dune” – since December 2013, and discovered the flaw in September. He says this particular group has been active since 2009.</p>
<p>According to Ward, various characteristics of the cyber espionage campaign suggest that the activity is state-sponsored.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian government was hit in late August leading up to the NATO Wales summit – which was called to discuss Russia’s actions in Ukraine – according to iSight. The cyber espionage ring used a technique called “spear-phishing” to send emails containing “weaponized” Microsoft Office documents to its targets, the report says. Once opened, the malicious attachment would give the hackers access to their computers.</p>
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<p>Microsoft says it is rolling out a patch for the Windows flaw on Tuesday.</p>
<p>In an interview on Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday, iSight Vice President Patrick McBride said the company is aware of specific targets in the United States linked to a Russian researcher at a university – he did not mention which university, however.</p>
<p>“The targeting could be much larger; we just don’t have visibility into all of it,” McBride said.</p> | Russian Hackers Use Windows Flaw to Spy on NATO, Ukraine | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/10/14/russian-hackers-use-windows-flaw-to-spy-on-nato-ukraine.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>SEATTLE — Mary Anderson, a climbing enthusiast who helped start the outdoor retailer REI that has become the nation’s largest consumer-owned retail cooperative, has died at 107.</p>
<p>REI said she died March 27, the Seattle Times reported Tuesday (https://goo.gl/F8eNEa ).</p>
<p>Anderson and her husband, Lloyd, along with 21 other mountaineering friends, started the consumer cooperative in 1938 out of a desire to find high-quality, affordable climbing gear in the United States. By forming a co-op, they were able to buy outdoor gear in bulk from Europe and other places.</p>
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<p>REI, headquartered south of Seattle, has grown to about 6.3 million active members, more than 140 retail stores and about 12,000 employees.</p>
<p>Anderson’s “legacy is deeply engrained in REI and her contributions to the outdoor community extend far beyond the co-op,” the company said in a statement. “REI and our employees are grateful to the Andersons for their dedication to REI and the incredible foundation they established.”</p>
<p>In search of high-quality outdoor gear and relying on Anderson’s German skills to translate gear catalogs, the couple discovered they could order ice axes from Austria and have them delivered to Seattle at better prices, according to an REI blog post. Friends heard what they were up to and wanted to get involved.</p>
<p>The couple and 21 other outdoor enthusiasts officially formed Recreational Equipment in 1938. Each paid for a $1 lifetime membership fee. Mary Anderson held membership card No. 2, according to the Mountaineers, the Seattle-based nonprofit outdoor organization in which the Andersons were heavily involved.</p>
<p>For years, the Andersons operated the co-op out of their Seattle home. She stitched tents and packed food in boxes while he sprayed them with waterproofing — a room off their kitchen served as their office, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p>“They never started this buying cooperative to create a store,” said Thomas Vogl, CEO of the Mountaineers and a former senior vice president of marketing at REI. “All they really wanted to do was make it easier and more accessible for people to get into the outdoors.”</p>
<p>Anderson was born in central Washington’s Yakima Valley. She was a longtime teacher in Seattle public schools and was among a handful of people who helped set up the Mountaineers climbing course in 1936.</p>
<p>She retired from REI in 1968.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Seattle Times, <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com" type="external">http://www.seattletimes.com</a></p> | Woman who helped launch outdoor retailer REI dies at 107 | false | https://abqjournal.com/983185/woman-who-helped-launch-outdoor-retailer-rei-dies-at-107.html | 2017-04-05 | 2 |
<p />
<p>While there are some indications that bidding activity has started increasing ever so slightly in the offshore drilling space, it's largely a foregone conclusion that 2017 will be one of the worst years the segment has endured in decades. This reality is set to create further pains for a number of offshore drilling companies, and that could very well includeSeadrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL), which has at least eight more vessels set to come off contract by the end of July.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Seadrill must address its debt situation before it can really move forward. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>With that in mind, it may seem that the obvious answer to "what is the most important thing Seadrill must accomplish in 2017?" is getting its fleet back to work. And in the longer term, yes, that's unequivocally important. But Seadrill's biggest threat right now is $3.1 billion in debt that must be repaid, refinanced, or otherwise renegotiated, between now and the end of September.</p>
<p>Let's take a closer look at Seadrill's debt situation, what management has told us about its progress, and what investors should expect.</p>
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<p>In all, Seadrill has $3.18 billion in debt maturing in 2017, and a significant portion of that must be dealt with before the end of July, with three major secured credit facilities totalling $2.85 billion maturing before then. The good news is that the company has already had success with the bankers that hold this debt, having reached agreements in April 2016 to defer these same credit facilities to the upcoming dates.</p>
<p>So what's the holdup in pushing them further back? In short, Seadrill's overall debt picture is diverse and complex, and management's goal is, according to comments made by CFO Mark Morris on the most recent earnings call, to renegotiate essentially all of its debt expiring in the next three years. Morris put it thusly:</p>
<p>Where this gets complex is that Seadrill's debt situation goes beyond its direct consolidated debt, and includes the debt of two of its subsidiaries,North Atlantic Drilling, andSeadrill Partners LLC, both of which Seadrill Ltd. has had to sign on as guarantors for. It also includes, as Morris described, bondholders. Case in point: Seadrill has nearly $900 million in bond debt maturing in September.</p>
<p>Seadrill doesn't have the capital to deal with its upcoming debt expirations. Negotiations with its creditors are intended to fix that, but it's not clear how much shareholders will be affected. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>In addition to the $3.18 billion in debt maturing in 2017, Seadrill has $2.37 billion coming due in 2018, and $3.38 billion in 2019, and all of these amounts include a mix of both secured and unsecured term loans, revolving credit facilities, and bonds, held by multiple banks, financial organizations, and individuals.</p>
<p>CEO Per Wullf, however, said that "we expect to conclude our plans by April 2017." He also stated that so far, its banking partners have been amenable. The question is how things will work out with bondholders.</p>
<p>It's a little tough to call at this stage, but the most likely scenario will include refinancing of the company's secured and unsecured term loans and revolving credit facilities, without the banks having to take any severe haircuts and simply pushing back debt maturities several years. After all, Seadrill's drilling vessels, which secure the vast majority of the existing debt, remain high-quality assets that should remain competitive in the marketplace for many years to come. This is one area where its very new, high-specification fleet is certainly a competitive advantage as compared to operators with older, less-viable drilling vessels.</p>
<p>When it comes to the bonds, it could be another story, and I'm relatively certain that the company will be forced to issue stock to satisfy at least a portion of that part of the debt. One of the wild cards is Seadrill founder and largest shareholder John Fredricksen, who has reportedly been part of the package that has been presented to debt holders as standing ready to lend as much as $1 billion to the company. And while his $1 billion would certainly help absorb some of the upcoming debt expiries, the big question is whether existing bondholders or new investors will be willing to pony up and purchase new bonds.</p>
<p>There could be big reward investing in Seadrill now. But the risk of permanent losses can't be ignored. Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>The reality is, it's not very likely that Seadrill's banks will extend more credit to the company -- at least not in large enough amounts to erase the existing bond maturities. This is doubly true when you remember that Seadrill still has some $4 billion in newbuilds still scheduled for construction, including seven set for this year though management has made it clear it will not take delivery on any newbuilds without a drilling contract in place.</p>
<p>As much as Seadrill's stock has gotten very cheap, at least on a book-value basis, this is where the risk resides. While it seems very unlikely that the company won't be able to rework its debt situation (and continue to defer newbuilds), itislikely that a lot of new shares will get issued as part of that reworking of debt. Add in the reality that offshore activity isn't likely to pick up before near the end of 2017 at the soonest, and there's plenty of time for Seadrill's stock price to move around a lot before there's a clear path forward.</p>
<p>So if you're thinking about buying shares of this company (or almost any other offshore driller), keep those things in mind. I think there's a lot of upside in the long term, but acknowledge the risk and buckle in.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Seadrill 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=5158798e-85ed-4bf6-8e7b-385bff094849&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 Seadrill wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=5158798e-85ed-4bf6-8e7b-385bff094849&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/elihpaudio/info.aspx" type="external">Jason Hall Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Seadrill. 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> | Here's the Most Important Thing Seadrill Ltd. Must Accomplish in 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/19/here-most-important-thing-seadrill-ltd-must-accomplish-in-2017.html | 2017-01-19 | 0 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - KJ Feagin scored 22 points as Santa Clara grabbed an early lead and pulled away steadily to post a 65-49 win at Loyola Marymount in a West Coast Conference contest Thursday night.</p>
<p>Santa Clara now has won six of the last eight meetings with the Lions.</p>
<p>Henry Caruso hit two free throws five minutes into the game to put Santa Clara in front, 7-6, and the Broncos never trailed again. Matt Hauser scored on a layup with 16:12 left in the game to push the lead into double digits. The Lions cut the lead to single digits briefly down the stretch, but Santa Clara pulled away.</p>
<p>Santa Clara (5-10, 2-1) won its conference opener against Pepperdine, but lost at No. 20 Gonzaga.</p>
<p>Caruso and Josep Vrankic each scored 13 points for the Broncos.</p>
<p>Steven Haney scored 17 points and Eli Scott added 14 for LMU (5-9, 0-3).</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - KJ Feagin scored 22 points as Santa Clara grabbed an early lead and pulled away steadily to post a 65-49 win at Loyola Marymount in a West Coast Conference contest Thursday night.</p>
<p>Santa Clara now has won six of the last eight meetings with the Lions.</p>
<p>Henry Caruso hit two free throws five minutes into the game to put Santa Clara in front, 7-6, and the Broncos never trailed again. Matt Hauser scored on a layup with 16:12 left in the game to push the lead into double digits. The Lions cut the lead to single digits briefly down the stretch, but Santa Clara pulled away.</p>
<p>Santa Clara (5-10, 2-1) won its conference opener against Pepperdine, but lost at No. 20 Gonzaga.</p>
<p>Caruso and Josep Vrankic each scored 13 points for the Broncos.</p>
<p>Steven Haney scored 17 points and Eli Scott added 14 for LMU (5-9, 0-3).</p> | Feagin's 22 leads Santa Clara past Loyola Marymount, 65-49 | false | https://apnews.com/3a7b82d255a74fbb9501f2e31445cfe0 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>A 36-year-old woman whose body was dumped in a South Side alley this summer had accused a former Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputy of sexual assault and was listed as a witness in a separate sexual assault case against the same deputy, court records show.</p>
<p>Jessica Ramona Gonzales, who also went by the alias Ramona Jessica Gonzales, was fatally shot in the head and later abandoned in the 3500 block of South Flores Street, police said. Neighbors found her body partially covered by a blanket around 1 a.m. July 27.</p>
<p>Gonzales was one of three people to accuse the former detention deputy, Erick Montez, of sexual assault. An indictment claims Montez sexually assaulted Gonzales on Dec. 31, 2012, while she was in jail on a drug possession charge.</p>
<p>A neighbor first reported the unresponsive woman around 1 a.m. on July 27, 2017, in the 3500 block of South Flores Street. The woman was later pronounced dead.</p>
<p>According to mySA archives, Montez’s duties included transporting inmates to different locations. On the day of the alleged rape, Gonzales was transported from the from the Bexar County Jail to a substance abuse treatment facility, according to online records.</p>
<p>Now, due to her death, the case in which Gonzales was the accuser has been dropped by state prosecutors.</p>
<p>Police said they have no suspects in Gonzales’ slaying at this time, and authorities have not connected the killing to the accusations against Montez.</p>
<p>“At this point, we haven’t established a link between [Montez] and the murder of Jessica Gonzales,” said Ofc. Doug Greene, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department. “We’re going to look at this case from every angle, and not rule out that possibility, but he is not a suspect right now.”</p>
<p>Montez is currently in jail, awaiting sentencing on a conviction for having an improper sexual relationship with an inmate and awaiting trial on a separate sexual assault charge. But on the day Gonzales’ body was discovered, Montez was out of jail on bond. He was booked back into jail without bond on Aug. 7 after he showed up for a sentencing hearing on August 3 and then fled during a break in proceedings.</p>
<p>He is now scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12.</p>
<p>The charge which Montez has been found guilty of occurred on Dec. 27, 2015. Another Bexar County inmate said Montez sexually assaulted her in a jail van. His arrest affidavit said Montez was only transporting the victim and no one else, and video surveillance showed him alongside the victim at the van’s side door for about nine minutes.</p>
<p>“What Montez is accused of doing is a disgrace,” said former Sheriff Susan Pamerleau at the announcement of Montez’s arrest. “He didn’t just violate this woman, he violated the public’s trust and brought disgrace on hundreds of deputies in this agency who wear the badge, but also hundreds of officers who serve honorably across the nation.”</p>
<p>Commentary by Jon Masters,</p> | Woman Found Dead in South Side Alley Had Accused BCSO Deputy of Sexual Assault | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/news/woman-found-dead-in-south-side-alley-had-accused-bcso-deputy-of-sexual-assault/ | 2017-09-14 | 3 |
<p>Venue cover story</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Heartfelt music</a> Martin Sexton has come a long way from his days busking throughout the streets in Boston. The blues man is making his way around the country supporting his latest releases “Fall Like Rain” and “Live at the Fillmore.” He will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe.</p>
<p>But there’s more music and entertainment inside:</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Friday Venue | false | https://abqjournal.com/171292/friday-venue-50.html | 2013-02-22 | 2 |
<p>Restricted free agent center <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mason-Plumlee/" type="external">Mason Plumlee</a> agreed to return to the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Denver-Nuggets/" type="external">Denver Nuggets</a> with a three-year deal.</p>
<p>The deal is worth $41 million, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Monday.</p>
<p>Agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports and Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly reached agreement on the deal late Sunday night, league sources told ESPN.</p>
<p>Plumlee, 27, was acquired from the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Portland-Trail-Blazers/" type="external">Portland Trail Blazers</a> in a February trade for center Jusuf Nurkic.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-11, 255-pound Plumlee averaged 9.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.1 blocks and 23.4 minutes in 27 games (10 starts) with Denver.</p>
<p>As a restricted free agent, Plumlee could have signed a $4.6 million qualifying offer for the 2017-18 season, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.</p>
<p>Plumlee, who was the 22nd overall pick of the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brooklyn-Nets/" type="external">Brooklyn Nets</a> in the 2013 draft out of Duke, owns career averages of 9.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in four NBA seasons with Brooklyn, Portland and Denver.</p> | C Mason Plumlee returns to Denver Nuggets with three-year deal | false | https://newsline.com/c-mason-plumlee-returns-to-denver-nuggets-with-three-year-deal/ | 2017-09-18 | 1 |
<p>Sixteen prisoners have been released from Guantanamo Bay since the beginning of the year as part of President Obama's promised Gitmo cleansing. But like so many others before, there is something interesting about one of the last two released: he was an expert bomb maker for Al Qaeda.</p>
<p>The president has continually assured that these detainees won't make it back to the battleground, yet that hasn't been the case. There are <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/30/sources-former-guantanamo-detainees-suspected-joining-isis-other-groups-in.html" type="external">plenty of examples</a> of large numbers joining the Islamic State and other Syrian terror groups after release. Some became leaders of &#160;terror groups, as did Ibrahim Qosi who is now a leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen.</p>
<p>But there's probably no need to worry about this&#160;bomb maker. As is pointed at over at <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/21/obama-releases-another-al-qaeda-terrorist-gitmo-ones-bomb-expert/" type="external">RedState</a>, Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al-Sawah previously specialized in IEDs and all sorts of exploding mayhem. His file indicated that his devices helped to sink US naval vessels, as well as served as the prototype for the shoe-bomb. The federal government is confident, however, that his cooperation with demands upon his release ensures he will not associate with an extremist group.</p>
<p>And with that assurance, plus&#160;Obama's ability to keep promises, you can bet the terrorist, like a lot of the others, will be right back doing what they do best: death on a massive scale.</p> | Obama Releases Another Gitmo Prisoner -- This Time it's a Bomb Expert | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/obama-releases-another-gitmo-prisoner-time-its-bomb-expert | 2018-10-02 | 0 |
<p />
<p>As fall turns into winter, and malls become filled with holiday shoppers, retailers will make it a point to offer customers a store credit card as they check out. Typically, such offers come with some sort of a&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/03/the-best-new-credit-card-sign-up-bonuses/" type="external">sign-up bonus Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;in the form of a discount on the day’s purchase.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>At that moment, filling out an application in exchange for a big discount may be tempting, but is it smart? Here are seven things to consider before applying.</p>
<p>1. What is the grace period?</p>
<p>A credit card’s grace period is the time that cardholders have to pay their balance in full without having to pay interest. Most credit cards have a grace period, but some don’t. Without a grace period, charges start accruing interest from the day of the transaction.</p>
<p>2. What are the promotional financing terms, if any?</p>
<p>Some store credit cards offer&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2012/10/watch-out-interest-free-financing-traps-still-snag-shoppers/" type="external">interest-free financing Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;on new purchases for a limited time. Thankfully, the CARD Act of 2009 requires these financing terms to extend for at least six months. Shoppers who take advantage of store card offers should understand exactly how much time they have to pay off their balance before incurring interest charges.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>3. What is the standard interest rate?</p>
<p>The standard interest rate is what you will be charged if you do not pay your balance in full and on time, and when any promotional financing offer expires. The cards with the lowest interest rates range from about 6% to 16%, while many store credit cards charge more.</p>
<p>4. Are there other ways to get a discount?</p>
<p>The big lure of store credit cards is the immediate discount that is available. Yet stores offer other discounts that don’t require applying for a new line of credit. For example, some stores will provide shopper coupons when you register your email address, text them or like them on&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/facebook-account-wont-kill-your-credit/" type="external">Facebook Opens a New Window.</a>. And, of course, your local newspaper is still a great place to find department store coupons. To find these discounts, you can ask the salesperson or clerk if there are any discounts available. Sometimes, that results in being given a coupon as valuable as the discount for applying for a card.</p>
<p>5. Are you trying to build new credit or to keep a high credit score?</p>
<p>Applying for a new credit card will affect your&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/getting-credit-card-help-your-credit-score/" type="external">credit score Opens a New Window.</a>. Those with a limited credit history are likely to benefit from receiving a new line of credit. At the same time, those who apply for several new credit cards within a short period of time will see a small but temporary drop in their credit scores. In addition, it is always wise to avoid any new credit applications before closing on a home mortgage or any other large loans. Banks do not like for loan applicants to take out new lines of credit at that time.</p>
<p>6. Is it a store charge card or an actual credit card?</p>
<p>Store credit cards can be valid only at that store, or they can belong to a wider payment network such as&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/mastercard-and-visa-whats-the-difference/" type="external">Visa or MasterCard Opens a New Window.</a>. Both products can be worthwhile, but applicants should know which one they are getting.</p>
<p>7. How generous is the sign-up offer?</p>
<p>Sure, it is nice to save 10% on your purchases, but in most cases, the savings will not be very large. In contrast, many credit cards offer huge sign-up bonuses that can be worth hundreds of dollars in cash, or even more in&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/08/credit-card-reward-point-worth/" type="external">points or miles Opens a New Window.</a>. Given that shoppers can’t sign up for every credit card they are offered, it makes sense to apply for the cards that offer the most valuable incentives.</p>
<p>By fully understanding the nature of store credit cards, you can make the right decision when asked to apply for one this year at the checkout counter.</p>
<p>Read More from Credit.com</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/10/credit-card-sign-up-bonuses/" type="external">4 Credit Cards That Regularly Offer Big Sign-Up Bonuses Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/can-a-debt-collector-double-my-debt/" type="external">Can a Debt Collector Double My Debt? Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/mastercard-and-visa-whats-the-difference/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/mastercard-and-visa-whats-the-difference/" type="external">MasterCard vs. Visa: What's the Difference? Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 7 Questions to Ask Before Opening a Store Credit Card | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/10/11/7-questions-to-ask-before-opening-store-credit-card.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - TrustCo Bank Corp N Y:</p>
<p>* TRUSTCO ANNOUNCES FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR 2017 RESULTS; NET INCOME BEFORE TAXES UP 12.9% OVER PRIOR YEAR QUARTER</p> * Q4 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.076
<p>* QTRLY NET INTEREST INCOME (TE) $39.3 MILLION VERSUS $36.9 MLN‍​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody’s Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-stock-options/extreme-bearish-options-on-tesla-making-money-as-stock-dives-idUSKBN1H434B" type="external">Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives</a>
<a href="/article/us-tesla-crash/u-s-auto-safety-agency-to-probe-fatal-tesla-california-crash-idUSKBN1H42X1" type="external">U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash</a>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, citing “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also noted “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>It said Tesla’s weekly production target is now 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, down sharply from its year-earlier target of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017. Tesla’s weekly target for the end of June is 5,000.</p>
<p>Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade. The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past, as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitious plans.</p>
<p>The sell-off has left Tesla’s stock market value at $44 billion, below General Motors Co’s $49 billion. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM, the largest U.S. automaker by vehicle sales.</p> A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>Since the end of February, the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by $10 to $356, about 37 percent higher than Wednesday’s price, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target, $500, or nearly double the current price. All the targets were set before the March 23 crash.</p>
<p>In last week’s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median, it was unclear if the vehicle’s automated control system called Autopilot was driving, the NTSB and police said.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times ... and there has never been an accident that we know of.” The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Volkswagen has taken parking lots to a whole new level in the United States - and will not be emptying them soon.</p> Reacquired Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars sit in a desert graveyard near Victorville, California, U.S. March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
<p>Volkswagen AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">VOWG_p.DE</a>) has paid more than $7.4 billion to buy back about 350,000 U.S. diesel vehicles through mid-February, a recent court filing shows. The German automaker has been storing hundreds of thousands of vehicles around the United States for months.</p>
<p>Volkswagen has 37 secure storage facilities around the United States housing nearly 300,000 vehicles, the filing from the program’s independent administrator said. The lots include a shuttered suburban Detroit football stadium, a former Minnesota paper mill and a sun-bleached desert graveyard near Victorville, California.</p>
<p>VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said in a statement on Wednesday that the storage facility in Victorville, California, is one of many “to ensure the responsible storage of vehicles that are bought back under the terms of the Volkswagen” diesel settlements.</p>
<p>“These vehicles are being stored on an interim basis and routinely maintained in a manner to ensure their long-term operability and quality, so that they may be returned to commerce or exported once U.S. regulators approve appropriate emissions modifications,” she said.</p>
<p>In total, VW has agreed to spend more than $25 billion in the United States for claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles. The buy backs will continue through the end of 2019.</p>
<p>The court fling said through Dec. 31 Volkswagen had reacquired 335,000 diesel vehicles, resold 13,000 and destroyed about 28,000 vehicles. As of the end of last year, VW was storing 294,000 vehicles around the country.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">Volkswagen AG</a> 158.06 VOWG_p.DE Xetra +3.06 (+1.97%) VOWG_p.DE
<p>VW must buy back or fix 85 percent of the vehicles involved by June 2019 or face higher payments for emissions.</p>
<p>The company said in February it has repaired or fixed nearly 83 percent of covered vehicles and expects to soon hit the requirement.</p>
<p>Through mid-February VW has issued 437,273 letters offering nearly $8 billion in compensation and buybacks.</p>
<p>In April 2017 Volkswagen was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to three felony counts and paid $4.3 billion in federal penalties. The automaker in September 2015 admitted to circumventing the emissions control system in U.S. diesel vehicles for vehicles sold since 2009, prompting the resignation of the company’s chief executive.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in New York; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - To Wall Street money managers who make bets for a living, U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance against China on trade looks like a high-stakes poker hand - but they believe they can play it for all it’s worth.</p> FILE PHOTO: A labourer works on coils of steel wire at a steel wholesale market in Beijing, China, January 17, 2012. REUTERS/Soo Hoo Zheyang/File Photo
<p>Fears that Trump could set off a trade conflict have roiled Wall Street since March 1, when the president announced plans to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, risking retaliation from major trade partners like China, Europe and neighboring Canada.</p>
<p>It’s been a roller coaster ride, with markets slumping after Trump last Friday moved to impose up to $60 billion in tariffs on some Chinese imports and China declared plans to retaliate with duties of up to $3 billion of U.S. imports even as it urged the United States to “pull back from the brink.”</p>
<p>China’s willingness to negotiate spurred a rebound on Monday, though jitters in the tech sector drove markets back down on Tuesday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Investors remain concerned about a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, but some big players are sanguine about their prospects to make money even as they try and dissect Trump’s strategy on trade.</p>
<p>The former celebrity businessman on March 2 tweeted, “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” shocking economists who cite evidence that trade wars in the past have been destructive to economies involved.</p>
<p>“Other administrations have gone to trading partners like China and asked for a fairer deal, only to get a cigar put out on their forehead,” said Steve Chiavarone, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors. “I suspect Trump’s bucking of norms is absolutely part of his negotiating tactics.”</p>
<p>Chiavarone and others said they remain confident the S&amp;P 500 will rise significantly this year.</p>
<p>“So far you are talking about small amounts of tariffs in niche sectors,” said Phil Blancato, head of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York. “For anyone who is looking for an opportunity to enter the market here at better valuations, this is it.”</p> FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump, surrounded by business leaders and administration officials, prepares to sign a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst THE ART OF THE DEAL
<p>“He has shown himself to act aggressively, quickly and unilaterally, and that’s brought China to the negotiating table,” said Ben Phillips, chief investment officer of EventShares exchange traded funds. “I truly think they are worried about him taking unilateral action and harming China’s economy.”</p>
<p>Fears of a trade war, which could hurt U.S. multinationals and dull the benefits of deep corporate tax cuts enacted this year, have helped push the S&amp;P 500 down nearly 4 percent since the end of February.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has demanded that China immediately cut its $375 billion trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, a position seen by some as an opening tactic in a long negotiation.</p>
<p>China could respond to U.S. measures with a range of tariffs aimed at U.S. multinationals, or even farmers in rural regions who helped Trump win the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Trump’s bellicose stance with U.S. trade partners reflects a negotiating style outlined in his 1987 book, “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York.</p>
<p>“You propose something horrific, and then when you pull back what you want is not as painful as feared,” Pursche said. “The problem is the other side isn’t dumb. Eventually, they’re going to figure that out.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Noel Randewich, additional reporting by April Joyner and Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned the United States on Thursday not to open Pandora’s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe, even as Beijing pointed to U.S. goods that it could target in a deepening Sino-U.S. trade dispute.</p> FILE PHOTO: Container boxes are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China September 24, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
<p>China could target a broad range of U.S. businesses from agriculture to aircraft, autos, semiconductors and even services if the trade conflict escalates, the official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s move last week to slap up to $60 billion in tariffs on some Chinese imports has since provoked a warning from Beijing that it could retaliate with duties of up to $3 billion of U.S. imports.</p>
<p>China’s biggest U.S. imports are aircraft and related equipment, soybeans and autos, with the total bill about $40 billion last year.</p>
<p>“The malicious practices of the United States are like opening Pandora’s Box, and there is a danger of triggering a chain reaction that will spread the virus of trade protectionism across the globe,” a commerce ministry spokesman said.</p>
<p>The official line from China continues to be stern even as Beijing says it is all for dialogue and negotiations. The feedback from U.S. and Chinese officials on the nature and extent of trade talks remains mixed, media reports show.</p>
<p>The Financial Times reported only on Monday that China had offered to buy more U.S. micro-chips and move more quickly to finalize rules allowing foreign firms to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, citing people briefed on the negotiations.</p>
<p>Chinese customs data shows the U.S. accounted for just $2.6 billion, or 1 percent, of China’s total semiconductor imports last year by value, with suppliers in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan commanding a bigger share.</p>
<p>But a source in the U.S. semiconductor industry said U.S. companies have slightly more than 50 percent of China’s market for chips, though export data doesn’t reflect that because much of the product is sent off-shore for low value added processing.</p>
<p>The source said the U.S. semiconductor industry had not asked the Trump administration to urge China to buy more U.S. chips and had been told by senior U.S. officials that the U.S. government had not made such a request to Beijing.</p>
<p>“We don’t need China to buy more chips,” the source said, adding that U.S. industry was concerned about being targeted by Chinese non-tariff barriers.</p>
<p>“It’s more about (Chinese) subsidies, IP protection, and cyber rules,” the source said, referring to concerns over Chinese retaliation.</p>
<p>China has long said it would like to import more U.S. high-tech goods, including high-end chips, but has been stymied by U.S. export controls set on national security grounds.</p>
<p>China’s commerce ministry said on Thursday the U.S. approach to trade could trigger a domino effect and U.S. trade protectionism will only hurt U.S. consumers.</p>
<p>While China hopes the U.S. will resolve trade conflicts with China through dialogue, it will take all possible steps to protect its interests, ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a regular briefing in Beijing.</p>
<p>“Negotiations must be equal, and China will not accept any consultation under unilateral coercion,” Gao said.</p> FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the port in San Pedro, California, U.S., March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Riha, Jr. SERVICES MAY BE TARGETED
<p>On Wednesday, Trump’s top trade envoy said he would give China a 60-day window before tariffs on Chinese goods take effect, but added that it would take years to bring the two countries’ trading relationship “to a good place.”</p>
<p>The tariff list is expected in the next several days.</p>
<p>The China Daily on Thursday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as telling a U.S. Congressional delegation this week that China was open to dialogue but “fully prepared with countermeasures”.</p>
<p>It warned that if the conflict continued to escalate “China could consider taking reciprocal measures against U.S. imports of agricultural products besides soybeans, as well as aircraft, automobiles and semiconductors.”</p>
<p>“And should the Trump administration further obstruct Chinese investments in the U.S., even tougher measures such as restrictions on imports of U.S. services and similar investment reviews would likely be on the table,” it said.</p>
<p>Separately, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that U.S. and Chinese officials had been holding talks to shield American soybeans and other agricultural products from trade sanctions.</p>
<p>China is still considering import curbs on U.S. soybeans, U.S. Soybean Export Council Asia director Paul Burke said on Thursday, following a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture.</p>
<p>Reporting by Se Young Lee and Yawen Chen in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Michael Martina, John Ruwitch, Dominique Patton and Stella Qiu; Additional writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-TrustCo Q4 Earnings Per Share $0.076 Tesla shares dive again, stung by fatal crash, credit downgrade VW storing around 300,000 diesels at 37 facilities around U.S. On China trade clash, Wall Street embraces Trump's poker face China warns U.S. not to open Pandora's Box, unleash trade ills on world | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-trustco-q4-earnings-per-share-0076/brief-trustco-q4-earnings-per-share-0076-idUSASB0C1RC | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>HSBC Holdings PLC said Tuesday that its Swiss private-banking unit will pay EUR300 million ($352 million) to resolve an investigation launched by French authorities into tax-related matters involving clients of its Swiss bank.</p>
<p>"HSBC is pleased to resolve this legacy investigation which relates to conduct that took place many years ago," the bank said in a statement. "HSBC has publicly acknowledged historical control weaknesses at the Swiss Private Bank on a number of occasions and has taken firm steps to address them."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>HSBC said that under the agreement announced Tuesday, there is no finding of guilt on the part of the Swiss Private Bank.</p>
<p>Write to Brian Blackstone at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 14, 2017 10:34 ET (15:34 GMT)</p> | HSBC to Pay $352 Million to Resolve Tax Probe Into Swiss Bank | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/14/hsbc-to-pay-352-million-to-resolve-tax-probe-into-swiss-bank.html | 2017-11-14 | 0 |
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<p>However my liberal friends and I may have <a href="http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/the-new-stimulus-package-a-big-disappointment/" type="external">tsk’d</a> the Bush administration for claiming that $600 checks would save America, we broke liberals sure were excited to get our hands on that money. Congress passed the Economic Stimulus Act in February, giving the IRS a couple months to get payments to some 130 million taxpayers when it was already in the middle of filing season, and giving some 130 millions taxpayers reason to start freaking out about when—when?!—they were going to get their supplement. Thus, I wasn’t shocked when I called to do just that and a recording told me that the IRS is currently experiencing heavy call volume and led me though an automated menu that ultimately told me to keep my pants on for three more weeks, and hung up. I had to wonder: How bad must the ESA suck for the IRS?</p>
<p>Pretty bad, according to testimony of national taxpayer advocate Nina E. Olson before the House last week. The IRS hauled ass to develop new programming code, create new pages and a stimulus calculator on its website, mail notices to more than 100 million taxpayers, mail information packages to 20 million more, develop outreach initiatives for seniors, and staff 700 walk-in sites in a “Super Saturday” assistance bonanza. By the first week of June, the IRS had received 27.7 million calls concerning economic stimulus payments. For that same week, call attempts were up 279 percent versus the same period last year. The level of service on the economic stimulus hotline was 30 percent. To deal, the IRS has shifted so many employees from account management and collections that collections will be reduced by $565 million.</p>
<p>Olson worried about the effects of delays and exceptions on taxpayers in her testimony, but admitted that, overall, the IRS is doing a pretty amazing job. Only 1,500 economic stimulus checks have been transmitted in the wrong bank account. About 350,000 people didn’t get the additional funds for their dependents. About 20 million taxpayers who purchased refund anticipation loans or checks will get their checks tardily. Even those errors, the IRS says, will be rectified by mid-July. According to the IRS Web <a href="http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=180250,00.html" type="external">schedule</a>, my check would be “mailed no later than (and received a few days after)” May 16. The agency sent me a letter on June 9 saying that I could expect to receive it by June 13. I called fruitlessly a few days after that, and my check came shortly after. So where’s your check? It’s probably coming. Keep your pants on for three more weeks.</p>
<p /> | Where’s Your Economic Stimulus Check? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/06/wheres-your-economic-stimulus-check/ | 2008-06-27 | 4 |
<p>As many as 200 people were buried in another landslide resulting from heavy rainfall, this time in a shantytown near Rio de Janiero, Brazil, late Wednesday. Rescue crews were digging for survivors Thursday, but the outlook was grim, according to The Associated Press. –KA</p>
<p>AP via Google News:</p>
<p>If confirmed, the deaths would raise the toll sharply from the 153 people already known to have died this week in slides triggered by record rains.</p>
<p>“We know that about 60 houses were buried,” Rio state health secretary Sergio Cortes told The Associated Press. “It is hard to say exactly how many people were buried under the mud as well, but a worst-case scenario is 200.”</p>
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<p>The slide that hit late Wednesday was a wall of black earth and garbage about 40 feet (12 meters) high that plowed through the Morro Bumba shantytown before coming to a halt along the edge of road in Niteroi, a city of about 500,000 across the bay from Rio.</p>
<p>On Thursday, crews with heavy machinery dug through the debris and about a dozen trucks lined up to haul it off. News broadcasts showed one house on top of the hill with only two walls standing, and a bed, a night stand and a television inside. Everything else went down with the slide.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i3lzkJbjU27HrIF8LBB2DAuM3g-gD9EV14U00" type="external">Read more</a></p> | New Mudslide in Rio Area Buries Up to 200 | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/new-mudslide-in-rio-area-buries-up-to-200/ | 2010-04-08 | 4 |
<p>Nov. 30 (UPI) — A Florida resident who heard a noise coming from their back yard found an alligator had approached their patio door and was staring down the cat inside.</p>
<p>The resident captured video Sunday when they investigated the knocking sound in the back yard and found the alligator waiting just outside the sliding glass door.</p>
<p>The video shows the gator in a staring contest with the resident’s cat, who was safely on the other side of the door.</p>
<p>“I was watching TV and heard what I thought was a knock on the back door. Our ‘neighbor’ gator was sitting there looking at me and eyeballing my cat, who thought she was ‘protecting’ me. He sat there for about 5 minutes checking us out until he finally wandered back down to the pond,” the resident wrote.</p> | Alligator walks up to Florida resident's door, eyes tasty-looking cat | false | https://newsline.com/alligator-walks-up-to-florida-residents-door-eyes-tasty-looking-cat/ | 2017-11-30 | 1 |
<p>"Can you spy on me now?" Union organizers have criticized Verizon's "snitch app."&lt;a href="http://newsexaminer.net/lifestyle/paul-marcarelli-better-know-as-the-verizon-guy-kept-his-silence-that-he-was-gay-from-verizon-in-fear-that-he-would-lose-his-role-he-later-came-out-after-his-contract-with-verizon-ended/"&gt;Verizon&lt;/a&gt;</p>
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<p>Verizon, facing a potential strike by 39,000 unionized workers, has <a href="http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150723/workforce/verizon-strike-monitoring-app-tag15" type="external">rolled out a smartphone app</a> designed to help its managers document and report violations of its “code of conduct” during a work stoppage.</p>
<p>Contract negotiations between the CWA and Verizon have stalled in recent days after the union objected to reduced job security, increases in health care costs, and slashed retirement benefits for its members.</p>
<p>A Verizon spokesman says the app, which allows users to snap geo-tagged photos of striking employees and send them to company executives, was designed in response to unspecified past incidents of vandalism and harassment during strikes. “We believe strongly that this is not an invasion of privacy,” says spokesman Raymond&#160;McConville. “This is completely lawful and necessary to ensure that our employees are safe.”</p>
<p>“This particular thing is just an example of how arrogant and obnoxious they are,”&#160;counters Bob Master, the vice-president of the Communication Workers of America District 1, which is negotiating the new contract on behalf of Verizon fiber optics workers in New York and eight other East Coast states.</p>
<p>The worker concessions sought by Verizon are related, in part, to its decision to focus on its wireless business at the expense of building out its fiber optic network—a shift that hurts consumers, the union says. Indeed, a New York City <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/downloads/pdf/verizon-audit.pdf" type="external">audit</a> found that Verizon had failed to meet its promise to deliver high-speed fiber optic internet and television to everybody in New York City who wanted it.</p>
<p>The CWA contends that the app is just another way for Verizon, which earned $9.6 billion in profits last year, to gain the upper hand. “I think they definitely projected this as a way of intimidating people,” Master says. “At the bargaining table [our negotiators] call it the snitch app.”</p>
<p /> | Verizon Launches App To Conduct Surveillance On Its Own Striking Workers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/verizon-launches-app-conduct-surveillance-its-own-workers/ | 2015-08-05 | 4 |
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<p>The mainstream media has been critical of the president-elect's dismissal of the unproven allegations that some CIA officials made claiming that Russia interfered with the U.S. elections to help Trump secure victory in the just concluded election.</p>
<p>The Intelligence community has thus got a huge blow from Mr. Trump with insult-laced dismissal of the CIA reports. The community is puzzled over how it can gain trust and the ear of the president-elect.</p>
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<p>There has been reports from brainwashed corporate media reporters who claim that Trump's public condemnation of the U.S. Intelligence community might be counter-productive in that he might affect the morale in the agencies, politicize them, and affect their overall productivity.</p>
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<p>The president-elect Donald Trump is a smart individual whose proved that he cannot be swayed by the BS, this is unnerving the idiots in the corporate media who have spent most their time formulating this Russian narrative. Its unfortunate that the mainstream media is spreading the false Russian narrative without any evidence to point to apart from them citing each other in what appears to be a mainstream circle jerk.</p>
<p>This comes after the CIA made the false claims based on small sampling of the Intelligence Community.</p>
<p>The Intelligence Community has 17 agencies all which rely on the CIA analysts, this results in an incomplete intelligence analysis. The CIA presentation to the Senators on the Russia's involvement was short of the expected U.S. assessment that was produced by the 17 agencies. Moreover, the intelligence agencies lack evidence that points out to the Kremlin involvement in the Democratic emails that were released by WikiLeaks.</p>
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<p>The establishment with the mainstream media have severally condemned the Kremlin for various allegations and they never issue supportive evidence to prove their allegations.</p>
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<p>The mainstream media has formulated an association between Trump and Putin based on the regular praise that Trump has had for Vladimir Putin during the campaign trail. However, this is not enough explanation since Trump in his book The Art of The Deal indicates that he does most of his negotiating in the public. The pressititute hate this since the establishment knows that Trump will improve the co-operation between the two countries.</p>
<p>Trump knows that the CIA allegations are garbage and that the claims being made by the CIA are political. The Intelligence Community has discredited itself by making such claims.</p> | The U.S. Intelligence Community Will Have To Earn Trust From President Trump | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/744-The-U-S-Intelligence-Community-Will-Have-To-Earn-Trust-From-President-Trump | 2016-12-12 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/nielsen/" type="external">Nielsen</a>, which for years has backed a system under which advertisers paid for TV commercials based on the number of people of a particular age or gender who saw them, now wants to be able to offer Madison Avenue a different kind of yardstick.</p>
<p>The media-measurement concern, whose ratings provide the bedrock of TV-industry economics, has come up with a way to help advertisers buy based on different criteria. Under current norms, marketers ranging from Apple to Zyrtec use Nielsen to determine how many men or women between the ages of 18 and 49 saw a commercial – and pay based on those measures. With new Nielsen technology in place, advertisers like General Motors or Mondelez International might instead count the number of first-time car buyers or likely purchasers of lunchbox snacks they reach, part of <a href="http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/viacom-big-data-measurement-1201631273/" type="external">a burgeoning technique that is known in the industry as “audience buying</a>” that’s gaining favor as rival digital outlets allow for more precise targeting of consumers.</p>
<p>Advertisers want to “take some of the real-time targeting they’re doing on digital and enact that for television,” said Kelly Abcarian, senior vice president of product leadership at Nielsen, in an interview. &#160;“Audience buying has been starting to happen in dribs and drabs, if you will, in smaller pockets across the TV networks,” she added. Nielsen’s new effort “will allow clients to do this more seamlessly.”</p>
<p>Nielsen said it is forming a partnership with clypd, an advertising technology company that helps media companies manage their sales efforts. The alliance allows advertisers to share information about media plans as well as define audience segments using Nielsen data and will facilitate the purchase of advertising based on definitions beyond the traditional ones based on age and gender.</p>
<p>With more consumers gravitating to mobile tablets and on-demand streaming video, the main currency of TV – linear audiences – has eroded. To keep ad dollars flowing, the media industry needs to find ways to better monetize digital viewers, and many TV networks have begun to strike deals based on more narrowly defined audience characteristics. Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Time Warner’s Turner, has said she hopes 50% of the ad inventory of her company, which operates CNN and TNT, among other TV networks, will be sold via audience buying by 2020.</p>
<p>These pacts allow the TV companies to get paid for viewership, no matter the screen in question, and might even let them charge a premium for finding an advertiser’s most likely consumer base.</p>
<p>“We didn’t invent the concept of using other data,” said Joshua Summers, CEO of clypd, in an interview. “But historically it’s been very hard for that to scale in use due to a lot of barriers.”</p>
<p>As the industry waffles over implementing a standard measure that would count a more diffuse band of people watching programs via tablets and broadband, some individual companies have struck out on their own – threatening to make a complex marketplace even more so.</p>
<p>In March, <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/turner-fox-viacom-tv-advertising-audience-measurement-1202009267/" type="external">Viacom, 21st Century Fox and Turner unveiled a new alliance called “Open A.P.”</a> that lets advertisers buy based on audience segments like expectant mothers or likely movie-goers across all three companies. Each member of the trio does its own ad sales and none of them are selling packages across each other’s turf. They are simply guaranteeing that a particular audience segment is defined the same for each company’s advertising inventory.</p>
<p>Nielsen isn’t trying to supplant efforts like “Open A.P.,” said Abcarian. <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/turner-viacom-fox-open-ap-advertising-digital-targeting-1202026262/" type="external">Indeed, its data is used to help that system work</a>. But its partnership will let advertisers buy defined audience segments across a wider array of TV outlets. Clypd does business with more than 60 different networks, the executives said, and its clients represent 42% of TV’s annual $74 billion in U.S. ad spending. Fox Networks Group and ESPN also work with clypd.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/discovery-communications/" type="external">Discovery Communications</a> said it is working with the new partnership. Demand for buying based on narrower audience definitions “has been tremendous,” said Keith Kazerman, group senior vice president at Discovery. “This is really what the industry has been talking about for quite some time: How do we alleviate the hurdles and obstacles? This answers many if not all of those questions.” Whether advertisers and other media companies embrace the partnership remains to be seen.</p> | Nielsen Unveils New Ad Yardstick for Madison Avenue (EXCLUSIVE) | false | https://newsline.com/nielsen-unveils-new-ad-yardstick-for-madison-avenue-exclusive/ | 2017-09-21 | 1 |
<p>Ali Abunimah is co-founder of the award-winning online publication The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. His latest book is titled The Battle for Justice in Palestine. Based in Chicago, he has written hundreds of articles on the question of Palestine in major publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and for Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>Jared A. Ball is a father and husband. After that he is a multimedia host, producer, journalist and educator. Ball is also a founder of "mixtape radio" and "mixtape journalism" about which he wrote I MiX What I Like: A MiXtape Manifesto (AK Press, 2011) and is co-editor of A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X (Black Classic Press, 2012). Ball is an associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and can be found online at <a href="http://imixwhatilike.org/" type="external">IMIXWHATILIKE.ORG</a>.</p>
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<p /> JARED BALL, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome, everyone back to the Real News Network. I'm Jared Ball here in Baltimore.
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<p />On Saturday Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas along with 10 of the 18 members of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, commonly known as the PLO, said that they will be resigning from their positions. The PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat has said that the resignations can only come into force after being submitted and approved by the PLO's parliament in exile, the Palestinian National Council, which will be holding a meeting next month. PLO officials claim that the resignations are intended to open space for new leadership, while others say that Abbas is forcing elections through the resignation of more than half of the executive committee in an effort to consolidate power.
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<p />SAEB EREKAT: The PLO Executive Committee agreed to convene, to call for the convening of an extraordinary session of the PNC, the Palestine National Council, and will request from the speaker, the head of the Palestinian National Council, to convene such a session in accordance with the laws of the PLO as soon as possible.
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<p />BALL: Here to discuss this is the executive director of the Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah, who in addition to his work at EI is author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books. Welcome, Abunimah, back to the Real News.
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<p />ALI ABUNIMAH: Thank you, Jared. It's a pleasure.
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<p />BALL: So why is all this happening now, and what is the significance?
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, first to clarify one thing is that Mahmoud Abbas did not resign as leader of the Palestinian Authority. He and these ten others resigned as members of the executive committee of the PLO.
<p />
<p />Now, that distinction is important because he hasn't really given anything of substance up. And the PLO executive committee, although it is on paper the highest decision-making body of the PLO, really doesn't represent anyone. The PLO long ago became a defunct organization. But what I think is happening here is that Abbas and his group feel very embattled and want to consolidate their power. This is a maneuver to force this vote or this meeting by the Palestine National Council, which as you said is the PLO's parliament in exile, and to use that to bring in more Abbas loyalists. Of course, we have to remember that the Palestinian National Council itself is an unelected body. Its members were appointed, many of them decades ago. And the vast majority of Palestinians have no idea who they are.
<p />
<p />So this game of musical chairs is really of very little significance to the vast majority of Palestinians. But it's about Abbas trying to maintain his relevance and his control against a broader political backdrop where there are reports of Hamas engaging in immediate negotiations with Israel over a long-term truce in Gaza, and of course is no revival of any sort of peace process, all of which makes Abbas fear that he is being sidelined and made even more irrelevant.
<p />
<p />BALL: Now, there's at least some challenge to this issue or this question of Abbas trying to consolidate power, where at least one member of the executive committee told the Jerusalem Post, quote, these resignations are needed to renew the work and legitimacy of the PLO Executive Committee. They are needed to inject new blood in the PLO. The dangerous conditions in the region require that we all strengthen our internal situation to confront Israeli aggression and escalation. How do you respond to that?
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, I don't see how you can renew legitimacy or bring in new blood by reshuffling people in bodies that have no new blood and no legitimacy. As I mentioned, the Palestine National Council, its members were appointed decades ago, no one knows who they are. I challenge you to find any Palestinian who can say so-and-so represents me in the Palestine National Council.
<p />
<p />So these are bodies that, whose legitimacy was drained out of them many years ago. And of course the broader backdrop here is that the intra-Palestinian division between Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah on the one hand and Hamas on the other hand, which many people misinterpret as being, you know, it's just an internal split and why don't they get over their differences. But it's actually about very substantive issues, because Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority remain aligned with Israel. They engage in what's called security coordination with the Israeli occupation under the Oslo Accords that were signed in 1993, whereas Hamas and other Palestinian factions fought a war against Israel last summer in Gaza. So there really is no bridging that gap. You can't have a group that is on the one hand working with the Israeli occupation cooperating with another group that is engaged in warfare against the Israeli occupation.
<p />
<p />What this has meant is that Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads. Hamas now is trying to find some way to end the siege of Gaza, and over the past few years Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have wanted to only allow the siege of Gaza to end on their terms, which means they get back in charge in Gaza. If they can't get back in charge in Gaza they prefer to maintain the punishing siege on Gaza. What Abbas doesn't want to see is some kind of agreement that can be seen as a victory for Hamas which ends the Israeli siege and leaves Hamas in control in Gaza, and even makes it politically ascendant in the West Bank.
<p />
<p />So in some ways these maneuverings are about that. It's about reasserting his control. It's about trying to somehow make it look as if he has a fresh and genuine mandate. And I think it's also a kind of a warning to his Western and Israeli partners to say, you know, if you don't support me, if you don't help me to stay in power, then I might resign. I might disappear, and I'll take with me the security coordination and the other cooperation Israel relies on. Remember that many Palestinians see Abbas really as a subcontractor really for the Israeli occupation.
<p />
<p />BALL: Ali Abunimah, thank you very much for joining us here at the Real News and helping us put some context and understanding to this issue. We'll look to have you back again shortly. Thank you very much.
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: Thank you for having me.
<p />
<p />BALL: And thank you for joining us here at the Real News. Again for all involved I'm Jared Ball here in Baltimore, saying as always as Fred Hampton used to say, to you we say peace if you're willing to fight for it. So peace, everybody, and we'll catch you in the whirlwind.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<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. | The PLO's "Game of Musical Chairs" | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D14557 | 2015-08-26 | 4 |
<p />
<p>His sleepy voice and bluesy piano seemingly untouched by time, Mose Allison returns with one of the best albums of his career, which has spanned more than a half-century. On <a href="http://www.moseallison.com/" type="external">The Way of the World</a>, the Mississippi-born sage skewers the pompous and chronicles life’s absurdities with the same sly wit that influenced rockers like the Who and the Clash, who both covered Allison tunes. “I know you didn’t mean it when you blew us up,” he drawls at one point, exuding bemused resignation; “Modest Proposal” (shades of Jonathan Swift) finds him muttering, “Let’s start making some sense today.” Though Allison is in his early 80s, he still possesses the irreverence of a rookie.</p>
<p /> | Music: The Way of the World (Mose Allison) | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/mose-allison-way-of-the-world/ | 2010-04-01 | 4 |
<p>[Washington D.C. – Members of Congress became involved in the Occupy discussion Tuesday as Republican leaders of the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to discover why camping has been allowed at Occupy D.C., McPherson Square.</p>
<p>The hearing room was filled to capacity with a mix of occupiers, media, curious staff members and police officers. The two-hour hearing ranged from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) calling the whole thing “baffling” to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a self-proclaimed “old country prosecutor” saying “the battle for this republic is going to unravel if the law… is not enforced.”</p>
<p>The law he was referring to is the ban on camping in some national parks. Gowdy grilled Jonathan Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service on the definition of camping.</p>
<p>Jarvis said it was the act of sleeping or preparing to sleep. Given that definition, Gowdy pressed on by asking why the Park Service hadn’t enforced that law.</p>
<p>Jarvis, who has been NPS director since 2009 and was participating in his first Congressional hearing, said they were using discretion with the unique protest. He told the Republican that the protest was a 24-hour-vigil and that absent an emergency or threat to public health or safety “they must be able to continue their vigil.” He did say that the Park Service would begin enforcing camping regulations there “very soon,” meaning that protesters may be given citations or arrested for sleeping in the park.</p>
<p>Timothy Zick, a law professor from William and Mary, agreed with Jarvis. He told the committee that this protest is different in that it seeks to occupy as part of its First Amendment message.</p>
<p>“No permit is required for a demonstration of this size, and no time requirement,” said Zick, “The agency is in compliance with regulations.”</p>
<p>Lurking in the background of the hearing was Rep. Darrell Issa, the Oversight Committee chairman, who fired the first shots in this debate. In December, he ordered a full investigation into Occupy D.C. McPherson after a group of three hunger strikers affiliated with the movement came to his office asking that D.C. representatives be given the right to vote in the federal government.</p>
<p>He was in top form at the hearing, with his hair slicked and his arrogance on full display. At one point, Congressman Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) said “normally I would like to thank the chair for holding this investigation…” but that the tone was on the wrong track and Issa interrupted to say “you’re welcome." Later, he interrupted D.C.’s non-voting representative Eleanor Holmes-Norton as she lamented the fact that no one from Occupy D.C. was invited to speak on their behalf.</p>
<p>“This is not a country where we talk about people and don’t invite them to defend themselves…” said Norton just before Issa cut in to tell her this hearing was intended to be what would happen with the next set of protesters.</p>
<p>Sam Jewler, an Occupy D.C. protester, said the group had tried to contact every member of the Subcommittee on Health and D.C. in order to put forth a witness for the hearing, but no one responded. Instead him and other supporters had to watch silently as they were talked about at one of the highest levels of government.</p>
<p>“We were not allowed to practice our right to free speech at this hearing,” said Jewler.</p>
<p>Elijah Cummings, noticing this disrespect, admonished it.</p>
<p>“I wish we had as much concern about the people that have lost their houses,” said Cummings, “It baffles me. We’ve now had over 118 hearings, 342 witness in this committee and when we ask someone we want bankers to come in to ask about robo-signing and violating the law, the chairman doesn’t want them to come in.</p>
<p>“I guess people who are protesting and are part of Occupy, they look at a hearing like this and say this is why they’re protesting. They see that government; particularly a committee that is supposed to be representing them are not addressing the issues that go to the center of their lives… Maybe the tiny bit of energy we put into this hearing we put in to addressing the things Occupy is worried about and then we don’t have to worry about whether there will be another Occupy.”</p>
<p>Issa walked out of the room each time a dissenting voice spoke and wasn’t even there for the witnesses’ initial statements. He’s currently the second richest member of Congress, with a <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-112th.html" type="external">net worth of $220 million</a>.</p>
<p>Del. Norton used her time to draw links between the Occupy movement and the Civil Rights Movement.</p>
<p>“I came up in a generation of a new tactic too,” said Norton, “No one said during the Civil Rights movement that because of your health we’re going to get you out of this place.”</p>
<p>Then Rep. Joe Walsh spoke. He’s the guy from Illinois who <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8173663-418/rep-joe-walsh-i-had-verbal-deal-not-to-pay-child-support.html" type="external">doesn’t pay child support</a> and <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-10/news/ct-met-joe-walsh-lashes-out-1110-20111110_1_joe-walsh-constituents-congressman" type="external">yells at constituents</a>. He told Jarvis that “D.C. is at a breaking point right now.”</p>
<p>That last comment, caused the local editor of DCist.com to quip on Twitter, “To congressman who said D.C. is at a breaking point because of Occupy D.C.: it’s not. Thanks for the concern, though.”</p>
<p>A few issues regarding health and safety have dominated media coverage of Occupy D.C. since it began on October 3. In early November protesters <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/occupy-dc-protesters-koch-photos_n_1077445.html" type="external">blocked supporters</a> of Americans For Prosperity from exiting a Koch-sponsored event at the convention center, in January <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/occupy-dc-rats-washington-mayor.html" type="external">a city health official said</a> there is a rat problem at the camp and a protester <a href="http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Child-Left-Inside-Tent-at-McPherson-Square-137102708.html" type="external">left a baby unattended</a>.</p>
<p>Norton, after the hearing, said she had not received wholesale complaints from D.C. residents or businesses.</p>
<p>“I think the National Park Service has been on the right side,” said Norton, “If they don’t want to go to court.”</p>
<p>Protesters affiliated with Occupy D.C. said the possibility of camping citations will not force them to leave.</p>
<p>“I am maintaining a 24-hour vigil,” said Sara Shaw.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t leave because of a ticket,” said Nate, “I would go to court and express my first amendment right.”</p>
<p>Jeff Light, the attorney who represents Occupy D.C., said he doesn't expect the Park Service to immediately start enforcing the camping ban due to a court order that requires them to give 24-hour notice to him and the court before they do so. He said they have not notified him as of Tuesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Next Tuesday, Light will be in federal court in order to attempt to extend the injunction preventing the Park Service from enforcing the camping ban until there is a full trial, which could be several months from now.</p>
<p>Video of the full hearing is available here - <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/CMc" type="external">http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/CMc</a></p> | #OccupyDC Discussed At Congressional Hearing | true | http://crooksandliars.com/andrew-metcalf/occupy-dc-discussed-congressional-h | 2012-01-24 | 4 |
<p>Japanese women, known the world over for their apparent submissive docility, have changed their homeland’s social structure in a “silent revolution” so profound, it threatens the future of the nation. And they have done it in a uniquely female way — by declining to have children.</p>
<p>For the last 30-plus years of steadily dropping birth-rate figures, young women have confounded experts’ predictions by reducing them so much that Japan’s population is now declining for the first time in its history. With its reliance on labor intensity and a cultural reluctance to admit immigrants, the economic consequences of a dwindling society pose huge problems for the country.</p>
<p>The number of births fell last year to 1.25 per female nationwide and beneath 1.0 in Tokyo. This is drastically below the required “replacement” figure of 2.07 — in a nation whose women in the early 1950s gave birth to nearly 3.75 babies per female. The plunge also threatens the action of statistical compounding, as less women reaching fertility age give birth to even less children in each generation.</p>
<p>Significantly, the rate began to drop more sharply in the 1970s, when Japanese women began making substantial gains in higher education, job-seeking and careers, and personal freedom. However — and this is the crucial point the Japanese government now only begins to grasp — women have not been making similar gains of child-rearing equality, in which men traditionally take almost no part.</p>
<p>Women decided either not to have any children, or only one, or to abandon their jobs entirely when they gave birth. Their unwanted dilemma arose because Japan did not, and still does not, adjust for women’s new stance: their desire to combine both a career and raising children. Some critics were openly hostile, calling Japanese young women who stayed home while pursuing a career “parasite singles.” This confrontation maybe one reason for feminine silence.</p>
<p>Yet it also combined with Japan’s traditional female attitude: obedient devotion to home and family while husbands worked “outside” in jobs with exhaustingly long hours. In white-collar commuter homes this arrangement meant almost entirely separate lives. With the 1970s and more money, travel, university, interesting new jobs, and increased entertainment and leisure appealing to both genders, Japanese women changed as they increasingly rejected their expected role.</p>
<p>However, their silent revolution contains a crucial lesson for women everywhere. Although the quiet abstention from natal expectations has shocked Japan’s entrenched male establishment by its relentless and rapid increase, overall gains of women could have been even more dramatic — had they been less silent.</p>
<p>Mass action with outspoken protest is still the most effective means of progress, the examples here show.</p>
<p>Sociologists and political scientists studying birth decrease use the word “exit” to describe the drastic figures in Japan — and some other traditionally male-dominant and economically successful nations such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Italy. But as “exit” implies, it means that women just quit doing what is expected of them, without necessarily making a fuss or offering what the same academics describe as “voice.”</p>
<p>One who has studied this and written a new book about it, Race for the Exits: The Unraveling of Japan’s System of Social Protection (Cornell University Press 2006), is Leonard Schoppa, professor of politics at the University of Virginia. He differs from others by making the new point that while silent rebellion can be effective — especially in massive numbers over a very short time — the quieter, steadier method may actually be counter-productive for the protesters.</p>
<p>As Japan’s deliberately childless women mutely rejected their expected fecundity, their behavior brought little concern. For years, demographers in Tokyo either under-estimated the future decline in birth figures, or predicted falsely that it was temporary and would resume for various reasons. It did not, but decades passed before the full significance sank in.</p>
<p>One reason, ironically, was the silence. Women offered no public reasons for their new refusal to make families; there was no mass movement (feminists remained preoccupied with other issues); and no debate appeared in the media — no “voice.” The main reason for this was that the very women most likely to make their opinions known, had already decided to forego public protest.</p>
<p>Deliberately or not, they removed the reasons for their action by their own inaudible departure. Nobody in a position to comment publicly realized what was happening. Had the women held “anti-babies” mass rallies, written in the media, made speeches, created publicity, and thus thrust the question into public debate, Japan would have awoken to their dissatisfaction much sooner.</p>
<p>The slow pace of change and reform in Japan in meeting women’s new requirements was “a product of exit dynamics,” Schoppa argues, which “have allowed women who might have fought for change to escape…from the difficulty of combining work and family.”</p>
<p>Yet in one case where Japanese women did act publicly, they achieved remarkably quick success, Schoppa points out, because this time there was no exit.</p>
<p>As births fell, Japan’s proportion of the elderly correspondingly rose, putting new burdens on society’s responsibility for the frailer aging citizens. But whose job was it to look after them? Women’s, of course, in a society where jokes abound about wives’ having to care for sick mothers-in-law as well as their own parents.</p>
<p>However, whereas women could avoid having babies, they could not avoid parents’ growing older. From this there was no option to quit; only change. The result was the Long-term Care Insurance program launched in 1997, the first new social insurance Japan had created since the 1960s. This scheme for nursing, day care and home care for the elderly is now among the best in the world, and it was achieved in less than a decade.</p>
<p>But it did need mass movement. As women felt increasingly trapped in state expectations of their voluntary free care for the old, they began to protest. In the late 1980s a feminist organization, the Women’s Association for Improving an Aging Society, grew rapidly, recruiting full-time housewives as well as working women including journalists, academics, and politicians. They publicized the “care-giving hell” that many women suffered, and demanded respite.</p>
<p>In 1989 they and fellow feminine groups proposed a national scheme, and by 1995 a detailed, publicly funded plan was drawn up. When conservative politicians countered that the elderly’s female relatives should be paid cash-for-care, feminists argued vociferously that this would merely perpetuate the gender division of labor. Opinion polls showed huge national support; then came the 1997 parliamentary approval of the insurance plan as devised.</p>
<p>Now, Japan is faced with trying to improve inadequate conditions still prevailing over child-birth and raising the young. Little has been achieved for decades in changing the expectation that women will do all the work for nothing. Could it be too late before social catastrophe?</p>
<p>Schoppa points out that similar dynamics of exit and decline are hurting the economy and Japan’s famously protective employment-for-life system. More people may start to quit in more areas, precipitating a crisis. Although he does not say so specifically, the changes required clearly need many people’s voices in mass protest.</p>
<p>For any significant social progress, protest politics and mass movements are as necessary these days as ever.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER REED, a British freelance journalist who lives in Japan, may be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | When Japanese Women Should Have Hollered "No! And Here’s Why" | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/10/01/when-japanese-women-should-have-hollered-quot-no-and-here-s-why-quot/ | 2006-10-01 | 4 |
<p>BERLIN (AP) — The Bundesliga resumed Friday after the winter break with Bayern Munich going 14 points clear after a 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen.</p>
<p>Goals from Javi Martinez and Franck Ribery in either half, and a brilliant free kick from James Rodriguez in injury time kept the defending champions on course for a record-extending sixth consecutive title.</p>
<p>It was Leverkusen’s first defeat at home this season, and ended a 12-game unbeaten run.</p>
<p>“We weren’t brave enough in the first half. We were better in the second, but then suddenly it was 2-0,” Leverkusen midfielder Sven Bender said.</p>
<p>Leverkusen went close early on when Dominik Kohr headed just wide, and Leon Bailey wasted a good chance on a counterattack. But Martinez pounced to open the scoring for Bayern off the rebound after Sven Bender had blocked Arturo Vidal’s header from a corner.</p>
<p>Bailey hit the crossbar early in the second half after turning Niklas Suele one way and then another, before Thomas Mueller went close at the other end.</p>
<p>Ribery let fly with a shot inside the near post to make it 2-0 just before the hour mark.</p>
<p>Bayern seemed to be in control but Kevin Volland pulled one back for Leverkusen with a deflected shot and suddenly the home side was pressing for more with just under 20 minutes remaining.</p>
<p>Volland had a good opportunity to equalize but his first touch let him down and Jerome Boateng was able to clear, while Lucas Alario also went close for Leverkusen.</p>
<p>Coach Jupp Heynckes sent on winter signing Sandro Wagner for his second Bayern debut - he made four Bundesliga appearances for the senior side in the 2007-08 season - but James stole the limelight with his perfect free kick into the top left corner.</p>
<p>“My team played very well tactically over long stretches today, especially in defense,” Heynckes said after facing one of his former sides. “Leverkusen was set up to attack and all our forwards had to work in defense.”</p>
<p>Second-place Schalke is away to Leipzig on Saturday.</p>
<p>BERLIN (AP) — The Bundesliga resumed Friday after the winter break with Bayern Munich going 14 points clear after a 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen.</p>
<p>Goals from Javi Martinez and Franck Ribery in either half, and a brilliant free kick from James Rodriguez in injury time kept the defending champions on course for a record-extending sixth consecutive title.</p>
<p>It was Leverkusen’s first defeat at home this season, and ended a 12-game unbeaten run.</p>
<p>“We weren’t brave enough in the first half. We were better in the second, but then suddenly it was 2-0,” Leverkusen midfielder Sven Bender said.</p>
<p>Leverkusen went close early on when Dominik Kohr headed just wide, and Leon Bailey wasted a good chance on a counterattack. But Martinez pounced to open the scoring for Bayern off the rebound after Sven Bender had blocked Arturo Vidal’s header from a corner.</p>
<p>Bailey hit the crossbar early in the second half after turning Niklas Suele one way and then another, before Thomas Mueller went close at the other end.</p>
<p>Ribery let fly with a shot inside the near post to make it 2-0 just before the hour mark.</p>
<p>Bayern seemed to be in control but Kevin Volland pulled one back for Leverkusen with a deflected shot and suddenly the home side was pressing for more with just under 20 minutes remaining.</p>
<p>Volland had a good opportunity to equalize but his first touch let him down and Jerome Boateng was able to clear, while Lucas Alario also went close for Leverkusen.</p>
<p>Coach Jupp Heynckes sent on winter signing Sandro Wagner for his second Bayern debut - he made four Bundesliga appearances for the senior side in the 2007-08 season - but James stole the limelight with his perfect free kick into the top left corner.</p>
<p>“My team played very well tactically over long stretches today, especially in defense,” Heynckes said after facing one of his former sides. “Leverkusen was set up to attack and all our forwards had to work in defense.”</p>
<p>Second-place Schalke is away to Leipzig on Saturday.</p> | Bayern beats Leverkusen 3-1 as winter break ends | false | https://apnews.com/8b85e11a7eb5460d9d6c82a215984216 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Consumer advocates accused companies including McDonald's Corp and Viacom Inc's Nickelodeon of unlawfully using children to market their websites through campaigns that encourage sharing video, games and other content.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Center for Digital Democracy and 16 other groups asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate, accusing the companies of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by asking children to divulge personal information and the information of friends without parental consent.</p>
<p>Angela Campbell, a Georgetown law professor and legal counsel for the Center for Digital Democracy, said the FTC should stop such "commercial exploitation of children."</p>
<p>The FTC implemented the children's privacy law in 2000 through its Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, which gives parents a say over what information websites can collect about children under age 13.</p>
<p>Lawmakers and privacy advocates have long argued that companies are not doing enough to safeguard customers' privacy.</p>
<p>The advocacy groups filed five separate complaints with the FTC against McDonald's HappyMeal.com, Viacom's Nick.com, Doctor's Associates Inc's SubwayKids.com, Turner Broadcasting System's CartoonNetwork.com and General Mills Inc's ReesesPuffs.com and TrixWorld.com. Turner Broadcasting is a unit of Time Warner.</p>
<p>"We take our compliance with children's privacy rules very seriously, and the allegations made by these groups are absolutely incorrect," Nickelodeon spokesman David Bittler said.</p>
<p>General Mills spokesman Tom Forsythe said the complaints seem to have mischaracterized their practices.</p>
<p>"COPPA permits 'send to a friend' emails, provided the sending friend's email address or full name is never collected and the recipient's email address is deleted following the sending of the message," he said.</p>
<p>But the advocacy groups argue that the refer-a-friend campaigns are unfair and deceptive to children who may not be aware that they are generating advertising messages.</p>
<p>"The companies identified in these complaints are clearly trying to circumvent privacy safeguards for children," said American University communications professor Kathryn Montgomery.</p>
<p>"They are also enlisting kids and their friends in deceptive marketing schemes disguised as play -- in some cases for junk foods and other unhealthy products -- completely under the radar of parents," said Montgomery, one of the leaders of the campaign to have COPPA enacted in 1998.</p>
<p>The FTC and White House unveiled earlier this year privacy frameworks that would give all Internet users, not just those under 13, greater control over how their personal data is collected, shared and used by advertisers and tech companies.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers have also called COPPA woefully out of touch with technology developments, leaving kids vulnerable. Bipartisan legislation has been introduced to create a "Do Not Track" system to protect kids, but it has been stalled in Congress.</p>
<p>The FTC earlier this month proposed further changes to its planned update of COPPA regulations that would ensure that websites and third-party data brokers get parental permission before they collect children's data.</p>
<p>TAKING PROTECTIONS SERIOUSLY</p>
<p>The advocacy groups' complaints included the "star in a music video" feature on the McDonald's site. A child is able to upload their photo to create a video with their image on a cartoon character, and is asked to share the video by providing the names and email addresses of friends. Those friends then receive an email asking them to check out the site and saying they were "tagged for fun by a friend." All of this occurs without having to get a parent involved.</p>
<p>"McDonald's makes every effort to be in compliance with all government regulations," McDonald's USA spokeswoman Danya Proud said.</p>
<p>A Cartoon Network spokesman said they would review any allegations closely, and stressed that the network takes complying with COPPA very seriously. A Subway Restaurants spokesperson said they also took online privacy seriously and were COPPA-compliant.</p>
<p>The advocacy groups also asked the FTC to update COPPA to bar cookies from being placed on computers that visit children's websites without parental consent, and to include photographs in its definition of personal information. Both items have already been proposed by the FTC.</p>
<p>The FTC said it has received the complaints and will be reviewing them carefully.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Complaint: McDonald's, Nickelodeon Preying on Kids | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/08/22/complaint-mcdonald-nickelodeon-preying-on-kids.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>MADRID, Spain — Paco de Lucia, who died at age 66 on Wednesday, was the greatest flamenco guitarist of recent times and a tireless innovator who broke down musical barriers throughout a career that spanned half a century. He revolutionized the sound of flamenco, opening it up to a new, mainstream audience and global success.</p>
<p>“He was the best there has ever been, he was an immense musician,” said flamenco dancer Juan Andres Maya. “I think all flamenco artists — be they guitarists, singers or dancers — were inspired by his inexhaustible ability to come up with new ideas.”</p>
<p>The guitarist died after suffering a heart attack in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, his family said. In recent years, he had divided his time between his home there and his native Spain.</p>
<p>Paco de Lucia was born Francisco Sanchez in the city of Algeciras, in the southern region of Andalusia, the heartland of flamenco music. But he was not of typical flamenco stock: Unlike most of the genre’s biggest names, he was a “payo,” or non-gypsy and his mother was Portuguese.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, his family shared many of the hardships of post-war Andalusia with their gypsy neighbors.</p>
<p>“We were starving and my father didn’t know what to do to keep us going,” de Lucia once said. “Flamenco artists, like all musicians from a roots tradition, have always had an empty refrigerator.”</p>
<p>His father’s solution was to take the young Paco out of school at the age of 11 and, having identified his unusual talent, make him practice the guitar for hours each day until he’d mastered flamenco’s technical rudiments.</p>
<p>The child prodigy became an adolescent sensation, often accompanying his singer brother, Pepe. But it was his longstanding partnership with the extravagantly talented gypsy singer Camaron de la Isla that would cement his reputation.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The duo recorded a string of albums throughout the seventies that drew from traditional flamenco sources while pushing the music in new directions, sometimes toward rock. With their long hair, hipster clothes and cigarettes constantly dangling from their lips, the two became cultural icons in Spain.</p>
<p>“The flamenco world soon bowed at the feet of the two artists,” wrote de Lucia’s biographer Paco Sevilla. “Young people worshipped them, taking every note… as gospel. Each subsequent album would jar flamenco onto a new path.”</p>
<p>The guitarist’s parallel solo career was also creating waves. A hypnotic instrumental he recorded in 1973 called “Entre dos aguas” became a massive hit and helped spread flamenco’s popularity abroad. Its unusual sound, which included an electric bass and bongos, was revolutionary and, coming at the tail end of Francisco Franco’s right-wing dictatorship, it became part of the soundtrack for a country in upheaval.</p>
<p>“At the historical and political moment that Spain was going through in 1973, two years away from the coming of democracy,” wrote musician and academic Diana Perez Custodio, “‘Entre dos aguas’ worked as a manifesto, a declaration of intent, showing that flamenco can and should change, and that it is able to connect with the young.”</p>
<p>De Lucia was also looking beyond the boundaries of his native flamenco. He recorded and toured with jazz guitarists Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin and, despite being unable to read music, he performed classical pieces.</p>
<p>The purists demurred, warning that the virtuoso from Algeciras was diluting Andalusia’s cherished musical heritage. “You can never leave flamenco,” warned his former mentor, Sabicas, himself a legendary guitarist. “If you take on another style, if you want to do something else, you will lose what you have.”</p>
<p>The younger man’s reply was terse: “Sabicas thinks that there should be no evolution, that [flamenco] should be monotonous and always sound old-fashioned.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160;Ukraine: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/140226/ukraine-aid-eu-imf-us-russia-protests" type="external">Here’s what the West should do</a></p>
<p>De Lucia, who was known for his humility, could also be fiercely defensive about the music with which he grew up. In 1989, he withdrew from a festival in Seville, in southern Spain, at the last moment because his name was far below those of opera singer Placido Domingo and pop crooner Julio Iglesias on the billing.</p>
<p>“I was filled with anger, not because it was an insult to me, but because it was an insult to flamenco,” he said.</p>
<p>One of his greatest achievements was to give flamenco respectability after decades of being dismissed by many Spaniards as a lesser musical form. He received the Prince of Asturias award for the Arts in 2004 and an honorary doctorate from Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2010.</p>
<p>Three days or mourning have been declared in Algeciras.</p>
<p>“No one has done more for flamenco than Paco,” said singer Jose Merce. There won’t be another musician like him, Merce added, “for another 200 years.”&#160;</p> | Flamenco legend Paco de Lucia dies | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-02-26/flamenco-legend-paco-de-lucia-dies | 2014-02-26 | 3 |
<p>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A powerful storm pummeled Europe with high winds and snow Thursday, killing at least seven people in three countries, grounding flights, halting trains, ripping roofs off buildings and flipping over trucks.</p>
<p>The Dutch national weather service recorded wind gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph) in the southern port of Hook of Holland as the storm passed over.</p>
<p>Amsterdam’s Schiphol briefly halted flights for an hour in the morning, and airline KLM scrapped more than 200 flights even before the storm arrived. Trains were halted across the nation and in Germany.</p>
<p>Falling trees killed two 62-year-old men in the Netherlands, a woman south of the Belgian capital of Brussels, a 59-year-old man camping in the German town of Emmerich and a firefighter in the German town of Bad Salzungen.</p>
<p>In Lippstadt, in western Germany, a driver died when he lost control of his van in strong winds and drove into oncoming traffic. In German’s eastern state of Brandenburg, police said a gust of wind flipped a truck over a highway, killing the driver.</p>
<p>Police spokeswoman Jose Albers told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that authorities also were investigating whether the powerful gusts were to blame for the death of a 66-year-old man who fell through a plexiglass roof in the central town of Vuren.</p>
<p>Social media in the Netherlands was flooded with images of people being blown from their bicycles, cargo containers falling off a ship and damage to buildings, including a roof that peeled off an apartment block in Rotterdam.</p>
<p>Water authorities in the low-lying nation closed an inflatable storm barrier east of Amsterdam to prevent flooding as the storm pushed up water levels.</p>
<p>Traffic on Dutch roads was plunged into chaos, with the wind blowing over tractor trailers, toppling trees and hampering efforts to clean up the mess. In Amsterdam, authorities temporarily halted all trams and closed the city’s zoo.</p>
<p>Before halting all trains, the Dutch rail service reported numerous incidents including a collision between a train and a trampoline.</p>
<p>In neighboring Belgium, the port of Ghent closed down because of the high winds and tram traffic was halted in parts of Brussels.</p>
<p>In Germany, police reported several injuries as well as the four deaths and the national railway company suspended long-distance trains across the country as train tracks were littered with fallen trees. Deutsche Bahn’s announcement Thursday afternoon came hours after all trains in two of Germany’s populous western areas, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, were halted.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss told n-tv television that the measure would remain all day Thursday as a precaution. He said regional and local trains were still running in Berlin, Bavaria and the far north.</p>
<p>In western Germany, some 100,000 people were left without electricity and schools closed down. The square in front of Cologne’s famous Cathedral was partially cordoned off amid fears that masonry could be blown loose. A supermarket roof peeled off in Menden.</p>
<p>The storm toppled a crane in Kirtorf, central Germany.</p>
<p>In Britain, power was knocked out to thousands of homes. Gale-force winds damaged overhead power lines that supply trains and brought trees crashing onto the tracks, causing severe delays for thousands of commuters. Even Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle were delayed in their train trip to Cardiff in Wales.</p>
<p>In Romania, snowstorms and high winds forced the closure of dozens of schools, several main roads and Black Sea ports in the east. Interior Minister Carmen Dan said 32,000 people were left without power. Authorities also had to free a bus carrying 22 people that was stranded in snowdrifts in Romania’s eastern Galati region.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Jill Lawless and Gregory Katz in London, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A powerful storm pummeled Europe with high winds and snow Thursday, killing at least seven people in three countries, grounding flights, halting trains, ripping roofs off buildings and flipping over trucks.</p>
<p>The Dutch national weather service recorded wind gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph) in the southern port of Hook of Holland as the storm passed over.</p>
<p>Amsterdam’s Schiphol briefly halted flights for an hour in the morning, and airline KLM scrapped more than 200 flights even before the storm arrived. Trains were halted across the nation and in Germany.</p>
<p>Falling trees killed two 62-year-old men in the Netherlands, a woman south of the Belgian capital of Brussels, a 59-year-old man camping in the German town of Emmerich and a firefighter in the German town of Bad Salzungen.</p>
<p>In Lippstadt, in western Germany, a driver died when he lost control of his van in strong winds and drove into oncoming traffic. In German’s eastern state of Brandenburg, police said a gust of wind flipped a truck over a highway, killing the driver.</p>
<p>Police spokeswoman Jose Albers told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that authorities also were investigating whether the powerful gusts were to blame for the death of a 66-year-old man who fell through a plexiglass roof in the central town of Vuren.</p>
<p>Social media in the Netherlands was flooded with images of people being blown from their bicycles, cargo containers falling off a ship and damage to buildings, including a roof that peeled off an apartment block in Rotterdam.</p>
<p>Water authorities in the low-lying nation closed an inflatable storm barrier east of Amsterdam to prevent flooding as the storm pushed up water levels.</p>
<p>Traffic on Dutch roads was plunged into chaos, with the wind blowing over tractor trailers, toppling trees and hampering efforts to clean up the mess. In Amsterdam, authorities temporarily halted all trams and closed the city’s zoo.</p>
<p>Before halting all trains, the Dutch rail service reported numerous incidents including a collision between a train and a trampoline.</p>
<p>In neighboring Belgium, the port of Ghent closed down because of the high winds and tram traffic was halted in parts of Brussels.</p>
<p>In Germany, police reported several injuries as well as the four deaths and the national railway company suspended long-distance trains across the country as train tracks were littered with fallen trees. Deutsche Bahn’s announcement Thursday afternoon came hours after all trains in two of Germany’s populous western areas, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, were halted.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss told n-tv television that the measure would remain all day Thursday as a precaution. He said regional and local trains were still running in Berlin, Bavaria and the far north.</p>
<p>In western Germany, some 100,000 people were left without electricity and schools closed down. The square in front of Cologne’s famous Cathedral was partially cordoned off amid fears that masonry could be blown loose. A supermarket roof peeled off in Menden.</p>
<p>The storm toppled a crane in Kirtorf, central Germany.</p>
<p>In Britain, power was knocked out to thousands of homes. Gale-force winds damaged overhead power lines that supply trains and brought trees crashing onto the tracks, causing severe delays for thousands of commuters. Even Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle were delayed in their train trip to Cardiff in Wales.</p>
<p>In Romania, snowstorms and high winds forced the closure of dozens of schools, several main roads and Black Sea ports in the east. Interior Minister Carmen Dan said 32,000 people were left without power. Authorities also had to free a bus carrying 22 people that was stranded in snowdrifts in Romania’s eastern Galati region.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Jill Lawless and Gregory Katz in London, contributed to this report.</p> | Powerful gale lashes Europe, 7 dead amid traffic chaos | false | https://apnews.com/b84328f1ebe142448836eff599f0bc47 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Facebook is adding more Snapchat-like features to its app. The company says it wants to let your camera “do the talking” as more people are posting photos and videos instead of blocks of text.</p>
<p>Facebook is rolling out an app update starting Tuesday. With it, you can tap a new camera icon on the top left corner. That opens up the phone’s camera to do a photo or video post. You could have posted photos from the app before, but it took an extra tap.</p>
<p>Once you open the camera, you’ll find Facebook’s other new Snapchat-like features, including filters that can be added to images.</p>
<p>Other effects, such as animations and other interactive filters, are a new twist to dressed-up photos.</p>
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<p>Also new is a “stories” tool that lets you post photos and videos that stay live for 24 hours. This feature is already available on Messenger and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.</p>
<p>Snapchat pioneered camera-first sharing and is wildly popular with younger users. Years ago, Facebook tried to buy the company but was rebuffed. Since then, it has been trying, with varying degrees of success, to clone Snapchat’s most popular features.</p>
<p>It might be working: Snapchat’s growth rate has slowed down since Instagram introduced its own “stories” feature.</p> | Got camera? Facebook adds more Snapchat-like features | false | https://abqjournal.com/977340/got-camera-facebook-adds-more-snapchat-like-features.html | 2017-03-28 | 2 |
<p>My sophomore year of college I had a boyfriend who cared for me more than I cared for him. Devin* was a nice guy who treated me well, but after maybe five months of dating, I <a href="" type="internal">broke up</a> with him in the kindest way I could have. It was a clean break for me, but Devin needed — insisted, in fact — to know the details of why I was breaking up with him. If I remember correctly, he said he needed to know why I didn’t love him so he could get over me. But the honest truth is he hadn’t done or said anything wrong. I wasn’t angry at him. There wasn’t another guy. It was painfully simple: I just didn’t like Devin’s personality anymore. Somehow, at his insistence, I must have explained this to him, because eventually he stopped calling.</p>
<p>A year later, Devin published his first novel and gave an interview with a major media outlet and said he wrote the <a href="" type="internal">gang rape</a> scene in his book after I had broken up with him. I remember sending him an email about that at the time, but I don’t remember what I said in it. I just know I was freaked out and disgusted.At some point, we must have talked things over and buried the hatchet, but I don’t remember that part, either. I even helped him try to get a job once! Since we have mutual friends and acquaintances, sometimes we’ve run into each other at the parties and that’s never presented a problem before. We’ve politely chitchatted with each other and he’s introduced me to his new girlfriend.</p>
<p>This week, I ran into Devin at a party and he was uncharacteristically cold. I assumed it was because he was standing with his girlfriend. Then later I passed by him in a hallway, tried to be polite by introducing him to a friend I was with, and he was uncharacteristically cold yet again. Because Devin and I aren’t friends, I thought little of it; maybe he was just having a bad day or something. But the next day I received an email from him in which he apologized for being rude. He said it was hard to be in the same room as me. He alluded to some “ultra-personal insults” that I apparently made and the “lingering negativity” that washed over him when he saw me at the party. He said after the breakup we said “really, really horrible things to each other and never took any of it back, which I’d like to do sometime.”</p>
<p>And I thought, Whaaat? You suddenly want me to apologize for things I said six years ago?</p>
<p>Now, generally, I don’t think it’s helpful to tell people whose feelings are hurt to “just get over it” — a position of wisdom that comes from a decade of usually being the one with the hurt feelings. But even I think there’s a statute of limitations on what you owe the other person after a certain period of time. I’m not opposed to re-hashing old relationship stuff after a breakup, or even giving late apologies; I just don’t think you’re required to do them. It actually meant a lot to me to get an apology from a significant ex-boyfriend when, years after we’d dated, I informed him of how his criticisms and put-downs had really eaten away at my self-esteem. His apology was sincere and appreciated because after four years apart, it was not owed to me. For this reason, this ex and I play nice in the sandbox and that makes me feel good.</p>
<p>But the thing is, I don’t think an apology to Devin would even be sincere. Even if he reminds me of whatever “ultra-personal insults” I said, reading that our breakup inspired the gang rape scene in his novel didn’t make me sorry about breaking up with him, or how I broke up with him. What’s the point of re-hashing old relationship stuff — especially vintage relationship stuff — if it’s not going to be sincere?</p>
<p>I, apparently, was a significant girlfriend to Devin, even though he wasn’t a significant boyfriend to me. Do I still owe him the courtesy of a talk or an apology? If I were the ex — even an insignificant one — I may want that courtesy extended to me. But I also think I’d be able to accept that it’s been six years — six years of a buried hatchet, mind you — and everyone has moved way, way, way on with their lives.</p>
<p>And that’s what it may come down to: there may or may not be a statute of limitations on apologies, but there absolutely is one on giving a s**t.</p>
<p>*Names have been changed.</p>
<p>Photo: iStockphoto</p> | Girl Talk: Is There A Statute Of Limitations On Apologies After A Breakup? | true | http://thefrisky.com/post/246-girl-talk-is-there-a-statute-of-limitations-on-apologies/ | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
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<p>AVONDALE, Ariz. — Authorities have released the name of a woman who died after being shot at an Avondale store where she worked and say the suspected shooter remains hospitalized in critical condition.</p>
<p>Avondale police say 26-year-old Melissa Mendez was an employee of the Best Buy store and had a history of domestic violence with 27-year-old Henry Cota Jr.</p>
<p>They say Monday’s shooting began with a confrontation outside the store where Cota allegedly fired several shots at Mendez.</p>
<p>Police say she ran inside the store and shooter followed her and fired more shots.</p>
<p>Phoenix TV station KTVK reported that a man walked into the store and shot a female cashier for an unknown reason and then turned the gun on himself outside.</p>
<p>However, police won’t say yet if Cota’s gunshot wound is self-inflicted.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police: Woman who was shot inside an Avondale store has died | false | https://abqjournal.com/959033/police-woman-shot-and-wounded-at-an-avondale-store-has-died.html | 2017-02-28 | 2 |
<p>A debate between two senators over whether Republican tax cuts are aimed at helping the rich escalated into raised voices, interruptions, a banging gavel and the use of a decidedly un-senatorial noun.</p>
<p>"I'm telling you, this bull crap that you guys throw out here really gets old after a while," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the oldest and longest-serving Senate Republican, said to a Democratic colleague.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The dispute flared Thursday night as Republicans pushed a $1.5 trillion tax cut for businesses and individuals through the Senate Finance Committee over Democrats' objections. Liberal sparkplug Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said everyone knows Republicans aim to help the wealthy because "it's in their DNA."</p>
<p>Hatch, 83, a senator since 1977 and the committee chairman, decided he'd had enough.</p>
<p>"I come from the poor people, and I've been working my whole stinking career for people who don't have a chance," said Hatch, looking down the committee's U-shaped table at Brown. "And I really resent anybody saying I'm just doing this for the rich."</p>
<p>Hatch is generally soft-spoken and has a history of working with Democrats, and his display of emotion was unusual. He has not said if he will seek re-election next fall as his latest term expires.</p>
<p>As Brown tried interjecting and the decibel level rose, Hatch told him, "I'm not through," and said he gets "sick and tired" of that argument.</p>
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<p>"I get sick and tired of the richest people in the country getting richer and richer and richer," Brown said.</p>
<p>"I come from the lower middle class originally, we didn't have anything," Hatch said. "So don't spew that stuff on me. I get a little tired of that crap."</p>
<p>Republicans have sold their tax package in part as a way to help the middle class. Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation projected Thursday that the Senate measure would eventually raise taxes on people earning $75,000 or less because the bill's tax cuts for individuals will expire and other changes.</p>
<p>Brown said the GOP plan isn't for the middle class, "no matter how many times they sing that song." He disputed the Republican argument that tax breaks for businesses will produce higher wages and compared it to a difficult shot in basketball.</p>
<p>"Spare us the bank shots," Brown said. "Spare us the sarcasm, the satire."</p>
<p>Brown faces re-election next November to what would be his third six-year Senate term.</p> | Sen. Hatch to Dems saying tax cuts are for rich: 'Bull crap' | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/17/sen-hatch-to-dems-saying-tax-cuts-are-for-rich-bull-crap.html | 2017-11-17 | 0 |
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ These Nebraska lotteries were drawn Monday:</p>
<p>2 By 2</p>
<p>Red Balls: 8-09, White Balls: 17-19</p>
<p>(Red Balls: eight, nine; White Balls: seventeen, nineteen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>Lucky For Life</p>
<p>05-13-26-30-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(five, thirteen, twenty-six, thirty, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>MyDaY</p>
<p>Month: 2, Day: 24, Year: 75</p>
<p>(Month: two; Day: twenty-four; Year: seventy-five)</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>1-4-2</p>
<p>(one, four, two)</p>
<p>Pick 5</p>
<p>05-19-22-23-29</p>
<p>(five, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $134,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ These Nebraska lotteries were drawn Monday:</p>
<p>2 By 2</p>
<p>Red Balls: 8-09, White Balls: 17-19</p>
<p>(Red Balls: eight, nine; White Balls: seventeen, nineteen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>Lucky For Life</p>
<p>05-13-26-30-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(five, thirteen, twenty-six, thirty, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>MyDaY</p>
<p>Month: 2, Day: 24, Year: 75</p>
<p>(Month: two; Day: twenty-four; Year: seventy-five)</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>1-4-2</p>
<p>(one, four, two)</p>
<p>Pick 5</p>
<p>05-19-22-23-29</p>
<p>(five, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $134,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p> | NE Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/cd9cf2c0b2ac4846992c89be7a0b4db4 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Party City Holdco Inc. (PRTY) will report its next earnings on Nov 09 BMO. The company reported the earnings of $0.13/Share in the last quarter where the estimated EPS by analysts was $0.13/share.</p>
<p>Many analysts are providing their Estimated Earnings analysis for Party City Holdco Inc. and for the current quarter 11 analysts have projected that the stock could give an Average Earnings estimate of $0.79/share. These analysts have also projected a Low Estimate of $0.76/share and a High Estimate of $0.82/share.</p>
<p>In case of Revenue Estimates, 7 analysts have provided their consensus Average Revenue Estimates for Party City Holdco Inc. as 781.65 Million. According to these analysts, the Low Revenue Estimate for Party City Holdco Inc. is 758 Million and the High Revenue Estimate is 797.17 Million. The company had Year Ago Sales of 749.29 Million.</p>
<p>Some buy side analysts are also providing their Analysis on Party City Holdco Inc., where 1 analysts have rated the stock as Strong buy, 0 analysts have given a Buy signal, 0 said it’s a HOLD, and 0 analysts rated the stock as Sell. (These Recommendations are for the Current Month Only reported by Yahoo Finance.)</p>
<p>When it comes to the Analysis of a Stock, Price Target plays a vital role. Analysts reported that the Price Target for Party City Holdco Inc. might touch $19 high while the Average Price Target and Low price Target is $15.35 and $13.5 respectively.</p>
<p>The Relative Volume of the company is 1.22 and Average Volume (3 months) is 875.77 million. The company’s P/E (price to earnings) ratio is 12.8 and Forward P/E ratio of 8.85.</p>
<p>The company shows its Return on Assets (ROA) value of 3.3%. The Return on Equity (ROE) value stands at 11.1%. While it’s Return on Investment (ROI) value is 7.6%.</p>
<p>While looking at the Stock’s Performance, Party City Holdco Inc. currently shows a Weekly Performance of -11.55%, where Monthly Performance is 4.7%, Quarterly performance is -9.59%, 6 Months performance is -23.68% and yearly performance percentage is -27.51%. Year to Date performance value (YTD perf) value is -13.73%. The Stock currently has a Weekly Volatility of 4.73% and Monthly Volatility of 4.78%.</p> | Notable Stock Analysts Ratings Party City Holdco Inc. (PRTY) | false | https://newsline.com/notable-stock-analysts-ratings-party-city-holdco-inc-prty/ | 2017-12-12 | 1 |
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<p>For the second time in a month, a high school official has warned a New Mexico athlete for speaking a language other than English during a sporting event.</p>
<p>And this time, there was a penalty involved for the athlete.</p>
<p>Twice during Thursday night’s boys Class 1A-3A state championship singles match at the Jerry Cline Complex, an on-court official working the tournament for the New Mexico Activities Association told New Mexico Military Institute’s Jose Gonzales not to speak Spanish.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&lt;a href=http://www.abqjournal.com/sports/2013/05/10/english-only-player-told.html&gt;Read more&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | High school player told ‘English only’ then penalized | false | https://abqjournal.com/197756/high-school-player-told-english-only-then-penalized.html | 2013-05-10 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) heard testimony from Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) and its foreign competitors on Thursday, as the body considers remedies for perceived damages suffered by domestic producers due to unfair trade practices.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>On Oct. 5, the ITC voted unanimously in favor of Whirlpool, which brought a complaint forward accusing Samsung and LG Electronics, its South Korean competitors, of flooding U.S. markets with cheap washing machines and pricing out domestic manufacturers. While the ITC didn't say material harm was coming from South Korea in particular, Whirlpool alleged the country's manufacturers shifted production into other countries (Thailand and Vietnam) in order to avoid U.S. anti-dumping tariffs imposed in previous years.</p>
<p>“Samsung and LG have repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to avoid paying duties,” Whirlpool executives said Thursday. “It is therefore essential that the commission recommend a remedy that takes this past behavior into account and ensures that Samsung and LG cannot do another end run around U.S. trade measures.”</p>
<p>Whirlpool, along with GE appliances, has suggested the imposition of a 50% tariff on some imported washing machines, in addition to quotas for imported washer parts, as a resolution for the damage domestic producers have suffered.</p>
<p>However, U.S. economic development and job creation took center stage during the hearing as both Samsung and LG indicated punitive financial measures could put their pending U.S. factory plans in jeopardy.</p>
<p>“If this commission imposes import restrictions now, it could really cut us off at the knees, particularly the draconian tariff that Whirlpool is requesting,” Tony Fraley, plant manager for Samsung Electronics America’s South Carolina Home Appliance Facility, said in testimony before the ITC. “A tariff that cuts off Samsung’s imports will undermine our competitive position in the marketplace, and will have a negative impact on our ramp-up and transition strategy for South Carolina.”</p>
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<p>In June, Samsung said it would open its first U.S. appliances plant in more than 30 years in South Carolina. That plant is expected to begin making parts by January and to employ 1,000 Americans by the end of 2018, Fraley said. With economic growth at risk, local lawmakers are also pushing back against Whirlpool’s complaint.</p>
<p>“This is purely a move to defeat competition,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told FOX Business in a statement. “Government intervention would mean bad news for American workers and consumers. Samsung has already committed to being a domestic producer and harsh trade remedies will limit their abilities to expand operations in the U.S. and put Americans to work.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in August, LG Electronics announced plans to build a 1 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Tennessee, scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2019.</p>
<p>Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) expressed concern in written testimony that government intervention in the washing machine industry could have damaging economic consequences in both her state and South Carolina.</p>
<p>“These facilities could, collectively, generate more than 1,600 new jobs and account for over $600 million in local economic development opportunities,” Blackburn wrote in a letter addressed to U.S. ITC chair Rhonda Schmidtlein on Oct. 3.</p>
<p>Whirlpool and GE Appliances on the other hand argue that “a robust remedy” will actually benefit investments at both companies’ U.S. plants because it encourages them to build all of their washing machines within the country.</p>
<p>The official ITC ruling will take place in November and then will be sent to President Donald Trump the following month, whereupon he will have two months to make a final decision.</p> | Whirlpool vs. Samsung, LG: US jobs dominate remedy debate | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/19/whirlpool-vs-samsung-lg-us-jobs-dominate-remedy-hearing.html | 2017-10-19 | 0 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Top intelligence officials last week told President-elect Donald Trump about an unsubstantiated report that Russia had compromising personal and financial information about him, a U.S. official said Tuesday.</p>
<p>The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not allowed to publicly discuss the matter.</p>
<p>The briefing about the document was first reported by CNN. A summary of the allegations was separate from a classified assessment of Russia’s attempts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election. Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the intelligence community’s findings last week.</p>
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<p>Shortly after news reports were published about the briefing, Trump tweeted: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!”</p>
<p>Trump was expected to hold a previously scheduled news conference Wednesday to discuss his future plans regarding his role with the Trump Organization.</p>
<p>The unsubstantiated dossier on Trump was compiled by a former Western intelligence operative as part of an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client who opposed Trump, and later funded by Democrats, according to Mother Jones, which published an article about the report in October and said the operative had turned over the report to the FBI. The New York Times reported the operative had previously worked for British intelligence. The Associated Press has not been able to substantiate the information in the dossier, which misspelled the name of Russia’s largest bank.</p>
<p>It’s unclear why the intelligence officials decided to brief the president and Trump on the uncorroborated information at this time, but lawmakers and others have repeatedly noted that Russia collects intelligence on both Democrats and Republicans.</p>
<p>“The Russians also hacked systems associated with the Republicans. They just chose not to release that material yet,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said Tuesday. “There’s nothing that prevents them from doing so at a time of their choosing in the future.”</p>
<p>Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview Tuesday on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that “nobody has sourced it. They’re all unnamed, unspoken sources in the story.” She said it may have originated with a Russian investigator or groups that wanted Hillary Clinton to win the White House.</p>
<p>The report had been circulating in Washington for months. In October, former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote the FBI asking the bureau to publicly disclose what it knew about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Reid was aware of the dossier before he wrote the letter, according to a person knowledgeable about the subject who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.</p>
<p>FBI Director James Comey refused earlier Tuesday to say whether the FBI was investigating any possible ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign, citing policy not to comment on what the FBI might or might not be doing.</p>
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<p>Comey was pressed by Democrats on the committee about whether the FBI was conducting an investigation. There was no mention during the hearing about the summary of the dossier, which was attached to the classified hacking assessment.</p>
<p>“I would never comment on investigations — whether we have one or not — in an open forum like this so I can’t answer one way or another,” Comey told the panel during his first public appearance before Congress since the election. In late October, Comey angered Democrats when he announced 11 days before the election that the FBI was looking at more emails as part of its investigation of Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said the American people had a right to know about whether there is an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.</p>
<p>An active FBI investigation of the next president for ties between his campaign and a nation accused of meddling in the presidential election could further stoke mistrust in the legitimacy of the democratic process. It could also put Trump’s own FBI in the awkward position of examining the conduct of those closest to the commander-in-chief.</p>
<p>The FBI was among three U.S. intelligence agencies that collaborated on last week’s report on Russia’s election activity. It tied Russian President Vladimir Putin to the hacking of email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats like Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. It said there was no evidence the Russians tampered with vote tallies; the agencies said they couldn’t assess if Russia succeeded in influencing Americans to vote for Trump.</p>
<p>Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who opposed Trump in the GOP primary, said Russia’s activity wasn’t guided by its support for Trump, but rather “to influence and to potentially manipulate American public opinion for the purpose of discrediting individual political figures, sowing chaos and division in our politics, sowing doubts about the legitimacy of our elections.”</p>
<p>Democrats at the committee hearing focused their toughest questions on Comey, who was widely criticized for breaking FBI policy in his decision to notify Congress about additional information that came up related to Clinton. He is in the fourth year of a 10-year term, meaning he is expected to stay on in the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said Comey set a new standard by discussing the bureau’s activity related to Clinton’s private email server. That standard, she said, is the FBI discusses ongoing investigations when there is a “unique public interest in the transparency of that issue.”</p>
<p>The intelligence agencies’ findings on Russian hacking fit that standard, she argued.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure I can think of an issue of more serious public interest than this one,” Harris said. “This committee needs to understand what the FBI does and does not know about campaign communications with Russia.”</p>
<p>Sitting beside Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, “Fair point.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.</p> | Official: Trump briefed on potentially compromising report | false | https://abqjournal.com/924451/congress-to-quiz-us-intelligence-official-on-hacking-report.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>In November 2010, the Irish government agreed to <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/a-brief-history-of-water-charges-in-ireland-1.2007574" type="external">introduce domestic water charge</a>s in return for its €85 billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Meters were to be installed throughout the country, households were expected to pay an extra €500 per year for water usage, and responsibility for water infrastructure would be transferred from local authorities to the semi-state company Irish Water.</p>
<p>These measures came alongside a raft of liberalization policies set out in the <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2010/irl/120310.pdf" type="external">IMF’s Memorandum of Understanding</a>, which instructed the government to raise taxes, cut welfare, shrink the public sector, reduce the minimum wage, hand €72 billion to the banks, and promote competition in previously “sheltered sectors” such as law and medicine.</p>
<p>Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael —&#160;Ireland’s main political parties, both of which represent the center-right —&#160;embraced the Troika program during their 2011 election campaigns. But Labour <a href="http://www.labour.ie/download/pdf/labour_election_manifesto_2011.pdf" type="external">promised to renegotiate</a> the bailout from a pro-growth perspective. Its manifesto decried the “excessive austerity” of the Memorandum and expressed its “concern about the value-for-money” of establishing new semi-state initiatives.</p>
<p>This “concern” was articulated in its rejection of the water tax —&#160;a pivotal feature of Labour’s fiscal agenda, reiterated in public speeches, manifesto pledges, press interviews, and campaign ads. For a population on whom the need for austerity was repeatedly impressed, the resonance of its rejection was enough to increase the party’s vote share by almost 10&#160;percent.</p>
<p>So when Labour jettisoned this stance to join a Fine Gael-led coalition, signing onto large-scale meter installation, the betrayal provoked fury among many of their former voters. An <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/labour-water-charges-1987847-Mar2015/" type="external">internal party memo</a> from 2010 was leaked, showing that Labour had secretly supported water charges since before the election, and a prominent Teachta Dála (the Irish equivalent of an MP) who once described water as “a basic and fundamental need [which] should not be treated like a market commodity” now told her constituents to “give Irish Water a chance,” remarking that “things change.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2013/act/50/enacted/en/html" type="external">Water Service (No.2) Bill</a> was pushed through parliament in four hours, and meter installation began in early 2014. By this time, the effects of years of austerity were showing: 30.5&#160;percent of Irish people lived in deprivation, 13.2&#160;percent suffered food poverty, male suicides had increased by 57&#160;percent, while emigration, homelessness and unemployment rates soared.</p>
<p>On top of that, Irish Water was instantly struck with scandal when it emerged that this “cost-saving” utility <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-water-consultants-spending-1263769-Jan2014/" type="external">spent €86 million</a> on consultants and <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/irish-water-defends-bonus-payment-plan-1.1969513" type="external">doled out bonuses</a> of 19&#160;percent to staff. Fine Gael’s Environment Minister sparked further controversy by awarding the meter installation contract to right-wing business mogul Dennis O’Brien, whose <a href="http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/documents/uploaded-documents/Report_on_the_Concentration_of_Media_Ownership_in_Ireland_by_DSC_and_KRW_LLP_Oct_2016.pdf" type="external">monopoly over the national press</a> has given Ireland “one of the most concentrated media markets of any democracy” (in the words of an independent report).</p>
<p>The Irish people’s <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/business/europe-amazed-at-steps-taken-in-budget-lenihan-1.754167" type="external">“capacity to take pain,”</a>&#160;famously applauded by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, had all but worn off.</p> | Criminalizing Anti-Austerity in Ireland | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2017/04/jobstown-not-guilty-ireland-water-privatization-austerity/ | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>BOSTON (AP) - Former President Barack Obama will speak at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Feb. 23 to discuss his time in office and the next chapter in his life.</p>
<p>The conference announced Friday night <a href="https://twitter.com/SloanSportsConf/status/949455023574011904" type="external">on Twitter</a> that Obama, an avid sports fan, would make an appearance.</p>
<p>MIT has held the conference annually since 2007, hosting industry professionals to discuss the role of analytics in sports. This year, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman are scheduled to speak. Also on the list of speakers - retired baseball star Alex Rodriguez, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver and Los Angeles Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.</p>
<p>Obama routinely filled out NCAA Tournament brackets on ESPN during his presidency. His White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, once said Obama would consider being part of the ownership group for an NBA franchise.</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) - Former President Barack Obama will speak at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Feb. 23 to discuss his time in office and the next chapter in his life.</p>
<p>The conference announced Friday night <a href="https://twitter.com/SloanSportsConf/status/949455023574011904" type="external">on Twitter</a> that Obama, an avid sports fan, would make an appearance.</p>
<p>MIT has held the conference annually since 2007, hosting industry professionals to discuss the role of analytics in sports. This year, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman are scheduled to speak. Also on the list of speakers - retired baseball star Alex Rodriguez, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver and Los Angeles Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.</p>
<p>Obama routinely filled out NCAA Tournament brackets on ESPN during his presidency. His White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, once said Obama would consider being part of the ownership group for an NBA franchise.</p> | Obama to speak at MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference | false | https://apnews.com/amp/36e679ff7e124c4399f46bf95d1a780a | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The battle over tax cuts may be over, but Washington is gearing up for an epic showdown on the other side of the federal ledger: spending.</p>
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<p>Senate leaders have reached a compromise on short-term funding that would keep the government running through March 4, Majority Leader <a href="" type="internal">Harry Reid</a> said on Sunday. A final vote will likely come on Tuesday.</p>
<p>But that merely postpones a clash between President Barack Obama's administration and Republicans emboldened by big election-day victories who will press for sharp spending cuts in the coming months.</p>
<p>An extended period of uncertainty is the likely result for bond markets and firms that do business with the U.S. government.</p>
<p>"The mantra I've been telling my clients is: gridlock, stalemate, shutdown," says Stan Collender, a budget analyst who works for Qorvis Communications.</p>
<p>The friction could impede Obama's ability to implement his signature reforms of healthcare and financial regulation, which have been approved but not funded. It also could put thousands of federal jobs at risk, cut federal grants and strain the ability of agencies to function on a nuts-and-bolts level.</p>
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<p>And the likely standoffs between Obama and Republicans could again raise the risk of a government shutdown, which would snarl everything from the U.S. leisure industry to bankruptcy courts.</p>
<p>"There will be a lot of brinksmanship here and there will be a lot of talk about shutting down the government," said Ethan Siegal, an analyst with The Washington Exchange who thinks an actual shutdown is unlikely.</p>
<p>PLAYING DEFENSE</p>
<p>Whatever the outcome, Democrats will be playing defense after pushing through aggressive spending measures, including an $814 billion two-year stimulus package in 2009 to fight the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Economists say this federal spending blunted the recession's impact, and the <a href="" type="internal">White House</a> worries that immediate cuts could crimp economic recovery.</p>
<p>But voters think the added spending has been ineffective at best, opinion polls show. In the November congressional elections, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and picked up seats in the Senate after promising to cut $100 billion from the budget to help reduce the anticipated $1.3 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year.</p>
<p>Republicans will now get a chance to put that promise into action.</p>
<p>House Republican Leader John Boehner, who will become Speaker in January, said lawmakers are still figuring out what programs to cut.</p>
<p>"The House will certainly work its will when it comes to how we're going to cut spending, but I will tell you we are going to cut spending," Boehner said last week.</p>
<p>Finding $100 billion to cut in the $3.5 trillion budget will be a challenge because Republicans have ruled out reductions to defense and benefit payments such as <a href="" type="internal">Social Security</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Medicare</a>, leaving only about $500 billion in domestic spending to consider.</p>
<p>BIG SLICES FROM A SMALL PIE</p>
<p>But the fiscal year will be nearly halfway over by the time the funding extension expires in March, meaning Republicans will actually only have $250 billion or so in domestic spending to target."That means massive layoffs," Collender said. "There's no other way to get the savings."</p>
<p>Likely targets could include aid to college students, healthcare research and the <a href="" type="internal">Justice Department</a>, Siegal said.</p>
<p>Such sharp cuts are unlikely to be acceptable to Obama, whose fellow Democrats still control the Senate and who wants to see a sharp fall in the unemployment rate ahead of his re-election campaign in 2012.</p>
<p>That could lead to a standoff in 2011 -- or perhaps several standoffs during which each side dares the other to blink before government funding expires.</p>
<p>In that sense, 2011 could look like 1995, the last year that a budget battle shut down the government. Businesses lost millions of dollars in tourist revenue as national parks were closed and passport services were suspended for 21 days.</p>
<p>Voters largely blamed Republicans for that standoff, but it's not clear who would win in a similar confrontation.</p>
<p>There was a winner and a loser in the fight, and nobody's guaranteed who would be the winner and a loser this time," Siegal said.</p> | With Tax Deal Done, Battle Turns to Spending | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/12/20/tax-deal-battle-turns-spending.html | 2016-03-18 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Several voting Federal Reserve policymakers judged a rate hike would be warranted "relatively soon" if the U.S. economy continued to strengthen, according to the minutes of the Fed's September policy meeting released on Wednesday.</p>
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<p>The minutes of the Sept. 20-21 meeting, at which the U.S. central bank held rates steady, also showed the depth of the divide at the Fed over timing.</p>
<p>"Several members judged that it would be appropriate to increase the target range for the federal funds rate relatively soon if economic developments unfolded about as...expected," the Fed said in the minutes.</p>
<p>Seventeen policymakers participated at the September policy meeting, of whom 10 had a vote. In the minutes, both voting members and the wider group were divided on how much longer they should allow the labor market and inflation to improve before raising rates.</p>
<p>The minutes also said "it was noted that a reasonable argument could be made either for an increase at this meeting or for waiting for some additional information on the labor market and inflation."</p>
<p>Three voting members of the rate-setting committee dissented in the September policy statement in favor of an immediate hike, the first time since 2011 that so many have taken such action in the same direction at a single meeting.</p>
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<p>In that policy statement, the Fed incorporated new phrasing saying it would maintain current interest rate levels for "the time being," widely seen as a hawkish signal.</p>
<p>According to the minutes, however, a few voting members were concerned the inclusion of the phrase "might be misread as indicating that the passage of time rather than the accumulation of evidence" would drive future decision making.</p>
<p>Although Fed policymakers disagree on whether the current 1.7 percent inflation rate is sufficiently close to their 2 percent objective, many voting members remarked that "there were few signs of emerging inflationary pressures."</p>
<p>Since the meeting, Chair Janet Yellen and several other Fed policymakers have said they expect a rate hike by year-end should the labor market and inflation continue to strengthen.</p>
<p>New York Fed President William Dudley said earlier on Wednesday the Fed could afford to be "gentle" in raising rates as the U.S. economy has "plenty of room to run."</p>
<p>Almost all agree that after another rate hike, the path of interest rates will be much shallower than the Fed's last tightening cycle.</p>
<p>Last Friday's monthly jobs report for September showed that while employment gains are slowing, they are still well above the level required to offset population growth.</p>
<p>There are two more meetings scheduled this year, on Nov. 1-2 and Dec. 13-14. Traders have all but ruled out a move at the meeting that takes place just a week before the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. They currently see about a 70 percent probability the Fed will raise rates in December, according to data from CME Group.</p>
<p>Yellen is scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday in Boston, which may offer insight into the Fed's latest thinking.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir and Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)</p> | Fed policymakers closer to rate hike, but inflation doubts remain -minutes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/12/fed-policymakers-closer-to-rate-hike-but-inflation-doubts-remain-minutes.html | 2016-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Courtesy of People for the American Way</p>
<p />
<p>Gay people recruit small children in public schools and S&amp;M accidents are a leading cause of death in San Francisco, according to a 1985 newsletter from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the national, corporate-funded conservative group best known for pushing <a href="" type="internal">Stand Your Ground laws</a> and <a href="" type="internal">union-busting</a> bills.</p>
<p>The report was&#160; <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/newly-uncovered-documents-expose-alec-s-anti-gay-past" type="external">dug up</a> and highlighted by the liberal watchdog group People for the American Way, which is organizing a protest of this week’s ALEC conference in Washington, DC. Titled&#160;“ <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/ALECminoritygroup.pdf" type="external">Homosexuals: Just Another Minority Group?”</a> the report reads today like the script for a bizarre nature channel program on gay people. In it, ALEC outlines six primary types of gay people: “the blatant”; “the secret lifer”; “the desperate”; “the adjusted”; “the bisexual”; and “the situational.” (The “blatant” homosexual “is the obvious ‘limp-wristed’ individual who typifies stereotype of the ‘average’ homosexual.”)</p>
<p>According to the report, 10 percent of all homicides in San Francisco at one point in the 1980s were “a result of S&amp;M accidents among homosexuals.”</p>
<p>The newsletter also serves as a cheat-sheet for gay men or women looking to meet like-minded people. “If a bar scene is preferred, the ‘Gayellow Pages,’ helps the homosexual find appropriate meeting places for socializing with other homosexuals,” the report says. If that doesn’t work, the newsletter discusses “public restrooms” and “massage parlors” as havens for “the desperate homosexual.” Gay people even had their own language: “The homosexual’s vocabulary is another part of their culture that separates them from the heterosexual mainstream.”</p>
<p>The ALEC newsletter asserted that homosexuality was not only a choice&#160;(“the homosexual makes the conscious choice to pursue members of his/her own sex”), but one that its practitioners often came to regret. “Tom Minnery, who writes for Christianity Today, has written about homosexuals forsaking their homosexuality upon becoming Christian,” the newsletter notes. “He says, ‘the fact is, many people are experiencing deliverance from homosexuality. The evidence is too great to deny it.'”</p>
<p>But those who refused to abandon their homosexual urges were a risk to public health and children, according to ALEC. “Whatever the type of homosexual, one of the more dominant practices within the homosexual world is pedophilia, the fetish for young children,” warned the newsletter. The reason for this was simple. “What is important to remember here is the fact that homosexuals cannot reproduce themselves biologically so they must recruit the young.” And gay people came at a significant cost to the taxpayers, in the form of research for infectious diseases and tax-exempt status for LGBT nonprofits. “In addition to federal funding of AIDS research, the federal government has been active in funding the homosexual movement.”</p>
<p>The report even took aim at the early stages of gay rights legislation, which the ALEC newsletter warned would force conservatives into uncomfortable and perhaps dangerous situations. Under new anti-discrimination laws for some public employees, “[p]arents will no longer be able to keep their children out from under the tutelage of homosexuals.” Bans on LGBT discrimination in housing would mean “landlords will be forced to rent their property to a homosexual couple even if the landlord’s family shares the same building.” But the most ominous piece legislation concerned a proposal to end LGBT discrimination in immigration: “This bill would permit known homosexuals from other countries to become citizens of the U.S.”</p>
<p>The horror.</p>
<p /> | Conservative Group ALEC in 1985: S&M Accidents Cause 10 Percent of San Francisco’s Homicides | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/blast-alec-past-six-kinds-homosexuals/ | 2013-12-05 | 4 |
<p>CAIRO&#160;— President Barack Obama travels to Egypt this week to fulfill a campaign promise to address the Muslim world.</p>
<p>The president will spend Wednesday in Saudi Arabia and land in Cairo on Thursday before heading to France and Germany.</p>
<p>In the several hours he’s likely to be in Cairo, observers expect to hear him extend an olive branch to Muslims, boost Egypt’s status as a regional leader, stare down extremism, and make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>
<p>All in a day’s work for the man who once jokingly referred to himself as Superman.</p>
<p>Obama has decided to fly into the region at a time of deep crisis. Gaza lies in ruins, the Pakistani government remains unstable, Hezbollah appears set to win elections in Lebanon and Iran continues to rattle the saber. Terrorist threats abound and Obama is banking on the fact that words still count.</p>
<p>Obama has chosen to speak at Cairo University in the heart of the city.</p>
<p>Unlike Al-Azhar University across town, which is a hub of Islamic scholarship in the Middle East, Cairo University is better known — or perhaps notorious — for its political legacy, having graduated Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Naguib Mahfouz.</p>
<p>Egyptians, meanwhile, are unabashedly quick to note that their country was the obvious choice for Obama to visit.</p>
<p>“I am not surprised [Obama chose Egypt] because we speak about Egypt as very important to the U.S.,” said Diaa Rashwan, a scholar at Egyptian think tank Al-Ahram Center.</p>
<p>Street-level buzz has gone through the roof as Obama’s visit approaches. And few hold back when it comes to expressing what they think Obama ought to be talking about.</p>
<p>&#160;“He must address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis because it’s the most important issue in the region,” Ahmed Ibrahim, a veteran taxi driver in Cairo.</p>
<p>Others have listed Iraq, Sudan, and terrorism as top priorities. Sudan, of course, lies just south of Egypt and political instability there has led refugees to flee to Egypt.</p>
<p>Obama will also have the opportunity to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak was scheduled to visit the U.S. last week but abruptly canceled his trip in the wake of his grandson's death.</p>
<p>Mubarak has been mostly mum about the new American president, but many suspect that the Egyptian leader, who had a cold relationship with former president George W. Bush, would like to develop warmer ties with Obama. Various deputies, speaking on Mubarak's behalf, have been quick to laud Obama's trip.</p>
<p>Not everyone in Egypt, though, is so enthusiastic about Obama’s visit.</p>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood, the leading Islamist party that, though officially banned, holds roughly a fifth of the seats in the parliament, has taken a skeptical stance on the visit.</p>
<p>In a recent interview with GlobalPost, Essam el Erian, one of the movement’s leaders, brushed aside Obama’s trip, saying it lacked substance.</p>
<p>“With regard to Obama’s slogan of change,” he said, “so far we haven’t seen any change: the American soldiers are still in Iraq, the U.S. is supporting the Pakistani government … And there is still the Palestinian case. We will not ignore the right of return issues and the removal of all the settlements.”</p>
<p>The Obama administration's decision to stick with Egypt as the stage from which to address the Arab world is not without diplomatic risk. The most populous Arab country has this year seen its fortunes as traditional regional leader fade after it supported the Israeli-led, U.S.-backed bombardment and blockade of Gaza earlier this year.</p>
<p>Egypt, which has been at peace with Israel for over 30 years, is no longer widely thought to be a credible mediator in the wake of the Gaza conflict, and some have questioned its ability to be a leader in an Obama-led Arab-Israeli peace process.</p>
<p>“After the Gaza war, Egypt’s position was very bad. But Egypt can recapture the role by working on Palestinian-Hamas-Israeli negotiations. It’s starting to come back now,” Rashwan said.</p>
<p>The Egyptian regime, too, will be hoping to bask in Obama’s reflective popularity. It could use the boost.</p>
<p>But with 80 million people, a historical legacy of regional leadership, and a position of geographic importance, Egypt will always be a player in the region.</p>
<p>“We have a nation today” Rashwan said, “that’s dealing with the region’s real problems: the Sudanese issue, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, etc.”</p>
<p>American presidents have long had a warm welcome in Egypt. However, as popular as Obama may be here, many in Egypt have long expressed a deep respect for another Democratic president: Jimmy Carter.</p>
<p>Carter visited Egypt during his presidency as part of an aggressive diplomatic push in the region. As the story goes, a camel dealer got to Carter during a tour through Cairo and gave him a camel as a gift. It was a sign of abiding respect for America’s 39th president.</p>
<p>Carter didn’t bring the camel back to the U.S. with him, instead leaving it in Egypt to live out its days as Carter’s Camel.</p>
<p>The Secret Service may not allow any camel-bearing well-wishers near the 44th president, but he’ll have to hit many correct notes and tackle an ambitious agenda if he has any hope of creating the legend of Obama’s Camel.</p>
<p>More GlobalPost dispatches on Egypt:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/egypt/090519/the-american-university-cairo-struggles-find-its-place" type="external">From the people who brought you the pyramids</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/egypt/090508/library-alexandria" type="external">A new library with great expectations</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/egypt/090501/tale-two-lovers" type="external">A tale of two lovers</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=egypt&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=57.510723,68.994141&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;ll=26.824071,30.805664&amp;spn=13.701404,25.488281&amp;z=5" type="external">View Larger Map</a></p> | Egyptians set the stage for Obama address | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-06-01/egyptians-set-stage-obama-address | 2009-06-01 | 3 |
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Irene’s Cuisine’s customers have not been silent. Alarmed over last fall’s announcement that the French Quarter restaurant would be moving to a new location, regulars have shared displeasure, anxiety and skepticism with owner Irene DiPietro and her son, chef Nicholas Scalco.</p>
<p>“You’re not going to be able to capture the ambiance,” is one of two comments Scalco said he hears most often. “The other comment is, ‘You’re taking the door, right?’”</p>
<p>The cypress wood door has been welcoming diners into Irene’s from St. Philip Street since 1993. That’s the year DiPietro, crestfallen about the end of her marriage, channeled her grief into the opening of Irene’s, which has been a fixture in the lower French Quarter ever since.</p>
<p>“Between the crying and the problems I was having outside this little door, this became like a sanctuary for me,” DiPrieto said last week, referring to the earliest days of her restaurant.</p>
<p>The 73-year-old native of Noto, Sicily, sat in the innermost of Irene’s three dining rooms. She was reminiscing before the restaurant’s upcoming move to a location seven blocks away, at 529 Bienville St., occasioned because the restaurant’s landlord, the Louisiana State Museum, declined to renew its lease. Irene’s last night at its current location is Saturday, Jan. 20.</p>
<p>DiPietro took a moment to look at the dark-wood antiques and photo-lined walls and, just above them, the circles marking the spots where wooden barrels hung for years. They had recently been relocated to the Bienville Street location.</p>
<p>“Even though it looks junky to some people, it reminds me of my grandmother’s house,” she said.</p>
<p>Irene’s was less than a third the size it is today when DiPietro first opened with a chalkboard menu of dishes she learned from her family: rosemary chicken, steamed mussels, escargots. The lower Quarter was different then, too. There was less tourist traffic, for starters, and more full-time residents, whom DiPietro quickly won over.</p>
<p>“Not only did they accept us as their little neighborhood restaurant, they’d come and borrow sugar. They’d borrow bread and parsley,” she said. She recalls one early customer telling her on the way out the door, “I feel like someone just hugged me.”</p>
<p>The warmth conveyed by the restaurant has several sources. One is the idiosyncratic space on the bottom floor of an old macaroni factory that dates to 1920. What is now the middle dining room was a space in a parking garage, as was the third room, each of which was colonized by Irene’s at a different time.</p>
<p>The last addition, completed in the early 2000s, is the lounge, which was previously the section of the parking garage where early Irene’s customers waited for tables in what was then a no-reservations restaurant.</p>
<p>“If you waited long enough, you had a chance of dying of carbon monoxide poisoning,” joked Scalco, 46, who started in Irene’s kitchen in 1998 after graduating from cooking school in San Francisco.</p>
<p>“You came on and you started doing the fish and the crab meat, which is very New Orleans, and not so Sicilian,” DiPietro said to her son.</p>
<p>The paneed oysters, crusted with Italian bread crumbs, parsley and parmesan cheese and served as an appetizer with grilled shrimp and spinach salad, is typical of a dish DiPietro considers new school. Scalco points out that his influences, notwithstanding the stint in California, are solidly traditional New Orleans.</p>
<p>“I’ve been working in the French Quarter since I was a little kid,” he said, referring to a collection of restaurants owned by DiPietro’s relatives. Scalco does not recall being pampered on the job.</p>
<p>“When I was really little, (DiPietro) got down in my face and said, ‘When we walk through this door, I’m not your mother. I’m Irene.’”</p>
<p>DiPietro explained, “I didn’t want the rest of the staff to think...”</p>
<p>“Mom,” Scalco interrupted, grinning, “You weren’t fooling anyone. I was six.”</p>
<p>Irene’s Creole-Italian menu is the result of a mother-son collaboration. Like so many restaurants whose popularity comes early and never really wanes, the food reflects the period its first customers became avid fans. That era at Irene’s is one after Sicilian chefs began incorporating local seafood and French influences (like Gulf fish amandine), but before house-cured meats and handmade pastas became the norm.</p>
<p>There are dishes that drift from that script — the cioppino started taking shape during Scalco’s student days in San Francisco — but Irene’s food is mainly true to its roots, in part due to customer demand. DiPietro recalled a time she experimented with some lighter, seasonal dishes in the summertime.</p>
<p>“Irene, if we want lighter food, we’ll go someplace else,” DiPietro said, recalling one diner’s response. “So please, no more cold soups.”</p>
<p>It was nearing dinner time, and Irene’s narrow rooms were on the verge of becoming as packed with guests as they are with knick-knacks. A piano player had begun channeling Tuts Washington in the lounge. Kitchen expediter Haley Richard walked through the entire restaurant holding aloft a hot pan of sizzling garlic and rosemary, an old trick DiPietro adopted to ensure that the kitchen’s aromas find their way to Irene’s every nook and cranny.</p>
<p>In short order, Irene’s became what it has become on every night I’ve visited: a riot of stimulation. Evelyn Wilson took a seat in the lounge around when the piano player started taking requests.</p>
<p>“I’ve been coming here three times a week since 1995,” she said. She likes the ravioli, the soups and the fact that she knows most of the staff by name. Asked what she was drinking, Wilson responded, “It’s something pink that A.J. (McAlear) makes for me.”</p>
<p>Bryan Drude stood nearby, waiting on his table of four. “It’s our favorite neighborhood spot,” he said. While partial to the Gulf fish amandine (black drum on this night), Drude said, “What I like most is Irene and the experience she gives you. It’s like coming to a family gathering.”</p>
<p>Drude expected to return at least once more before Irene’s final night on St. Philip. A second-line from the old address to the new one is planned for Thursday Jan. 25.</p>
<p>Irene’s signature dishes — the tomato bruschetta, the baked oysters, the rosemary chicken - will be much easier to reproduce in the new location than the je ne sais quoi Drude refers to.</p>
<p>Mother and son are both cognizant of the challenge. It’s why they decided to gut the Bienville property, which they had begun turning into a space for a different restaurant project, to recreate as much of the old Irene’s as possible.</p>
<p>“This whole floor plan was different,” Scalco said during a tour of the under-construction new location. “We tried to make each of these rooms like the three dining rooms on St. Philip.”</p>
<p>They are close facsimiles, narrow and wood-lined, and soon they will be populated with the photographs and other decorations from the original Irene’s. (Cuisine, in fact, will not be part of the new location’s name.) The lounge in the new location is much larger, big enough to fit an actual bar, and it leads to a brick patio that feels as big as the three St. Philip dining rooms combined.</p>
<p>The original cypress door that concerns so many customers is migrating as well, though it will no longer serve its original purpose. It’s too short to meet modern building codes, Scalco said, so he plans to mount it on the wall in the new entryway, a reminder of what can and cannot be preserved.</p>
<p>Of Irene’s next chapter, “I’m kind of excited about it,” Scalco says, and then catches himself. “Not kind of. I’m excited about it.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Times-Picayune, <a href="http://www.nola.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.nola.com" type="external">http://www.nola.com</a></p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Irene’s Cuisine’s customers have not been silent. Alarmed over last fall’s announcement that the French Quarter restaurant would be moving to a new location, regulars have shared displeasure, anxiety and skepticism with owner Irene DiPietro and her son, chef Nicholas Scalco.</p>
<p>“You’re not going to be able to capture the ambiance,” is one of two comments Scalco said he hears most often. “The other comment is, ‘You’re taking the door, right?’”</p>
<p>The cypress wood door has been welcoming diners into Irene’s from St. Philip Street since 1993. That’s the year DiPietro, crestfallen about the end of her marriage, channeled her grief into the opening of Irene’s, which has been a fixture in the lower French Quarter ever since.</p>
<p>“Between the crying and the problems I was having outside this little door, this became like a sanctuary for me,” DiPrieto said last week, referring to the earliest days of her restaurant.</p>
<p>The 73-year-old native of Noto, Sicily, sat in the innermost of Irene’s three dining rooms. She was reminiscing before the restaurant’s upcoming move to a location seven blocks away, at 529 Bienville St., occasioned because the restaurant’s landlord, the Louisiana State Museum, declined to renew its lease. Irene’s last night at its current location is Saturday, Jan. 20.</p>
<p>DiPietro took a moment to look at the dark-wood antiques and photo-lined walls and, just above them, the circles marking the spots where wooden barrels hung for years. They had recently been relocated to the Bienville Street location.</p>
<p>“Even though it looks junky to some people, it reminds me of my grandmother’s house,” she said.</p>
<p>Irene’s was less than a third the size it is today when DiPietro first opened with a chalkboard menu of dishes she learned from her family: rosemary chicken, steamed mussels, escargots. The lower Quarter was different then, too. There was less tourist traffic, for starters, and more full-time residents, whom DiPietro quickly won over.</p>
<p>“Not only did they accept us as their little neighborhood restaurant, they’d come and borrow sugar. They’d borrow bread and parsley,” she said. She recalls one early customer telling her on the way out the door, “I feel like someone just hugged me.”</p>
<p>The warmth conveyed by the restaurant has several sources. One is the idiosyncratic space on the bottom floor of an old macaroni factory that dates to 1920. What is now the middle dining room was a space in a parking garage, as was the third room, each of which was colonized by Irene’s at a different time.</p>
<p>The last addition, completed in the early 2000s, is the lounge, which was previously the section of the parking garage where early Irene’s customers waited for tables in what was then a no-reservations restaurant.</p>
<p>“If you waited long enough, you had a chance of dying of carbon monoxide poisoning,” joked Scalco, 46, who started in Irene’s kitchen in 1998 after graduating from cooking school in San Francisco.</p>
<p>“You came on and you started doing the fish and the crab meat, which is very New Orleans, and not so Sicilian,” DiPietro said to her son.</p>
<p>The paneed oysters, crusted with Italian bread crumbs, parsley and parmesan cheese and served as an appetizer with grilled shrimp and spinach salad, is typical of a dish DiPietro considers new school. Scalco points out that his influences, notwithstanding the stint in California, are solidly traditional New Orleans.</p>
<p>“I’ve been working in the French Quarter since I was a little kid,” he said, referring to a collection of restaurants owned by DiPietro’s relatives. Scalco does not recall being pampered on the job.</p>
<p>“When I was really little, (DiPietro) got down in my face and said, ‘When we walk through this door, I’m not your mother. I’m Irene.’”</p>
<p>DiPietro explained, “I didn’t want the rest of the staff to think...”</p>
<p>“Mom,” Scalco interrupted, grinning, “You weren’t fooling anyone. I was six.”</p>
<p>Irene’s Creole-Italian menu is the result of a mother-son collaboration. Like so many restaurants whose popularity comes early and never really wanes, the food reflects the period its first customers became avid fans. That era at Irene’s is one after Sicilian chefs began incorporating local seafood and French influences (like Gulf fish amandine), but before house-cured meats and handmade pastas became the norm.</p>
<p>There are dishes that drift from that script — the cioppino started taking shape during Scalco’s student days in San Francisco — but Irene’s food is mainly true to its roots, in part due to customer demand. DiPietro recalled a time she experimented with some lighter, seasonal dishes in the summertime.</p>
<p>“Irene, if we want lighter food, we’ll go someplace else,” DiPietro said, recalling one diner’s response. “So please, no more cold soups.”</p>
<p>It was nearing dinner time, and Irene’s narrow rooms were on the verge of becoming as packed with guests as they are with knick-knacks. A piano player had begun channeling Tuts Washington in the lounge. Kitchen expediter Haley Richard walked through the entire restaurant holding aloft a hot pan of sizzling garlic and rosemary, an old trick DiPietro adopted to ensure that the kitchen’s aromas find their way to Irene’s every nook and cranny.</p>
<p>In short order, Irene’s became what it has become on every night I’ve visited: a riot of stimulation. Evelyn Wilson took a seat in the lounge around when the piano player started taking requests.</p>
<p>“I’ve been coming here three times a week since 1995,” she said. She likes the ravioli, the soups and the fact that she knows most of the staff by name. Asked what she was drinking, Wilson responded, “It’s something pink that A.J. (McAlear) makes for me.”</p>
<p>Bryan Drude stood nearby, waiting on his table of four. “It’s our favorite neighborhood spot,” he said. While partial to the Gulf fish amandine (black drum on this night), Drude said, “What I like most is Irene and the experience she gives you. It’s like coming to a family gathering.”</p>
<p>Drude expected to return at least once more before Irene’s final night on St. Philip. A second-line from the old address to the new one is planned for Thursday Jan. 25.</p>
<p>Irene’s signature dishes — the tomato bruschetta, the baked oysters, the rosemary chicken - will be much easier to reproduce in the new location than the je ne sais quoi Drude refers to.</p>
<p>Mother and son are both cognizant of the challenge. It’s why they decided to gut the Bienville property, which they had begun turning into a space for a different restaurant project, to recreate as much of the old Irene’s as possible.</p>
<p>“This whole floor plan was different,” Scalco said during a tour of the under-construction new location. “We tried to make each of these rooms like the three dining rooms on St. Philip.”</p>
<p>They are close facsimiles, narrow and wood-lined, and soon they will be populated with the photographs and other decorations from the original Irene’s. (Cuisine, in fact, will not be part of the new location’s name.) The lounge in the new location is much larger, big enough to fit an actual bar, and it leads to a brick patio that feels as big as the three St. Philip dining rooms combined.</p>
<p>The original cypress door that concerns so many customers is migrating as well, though it will no longer serve its original purpose. It’s too short to meet modern building codes, Scalco said, so he plans to mount it on the wall in the new entryway, a reminder of what can and cannot be preserved.</p>
<p>Of Irene’s next chapter, “I’m kind of excited about it,” Scalco says, and then catches himself. “Not kind of. I’m excited about it.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Times-Picayune, <a href="http://www.nola.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.nola.com" type="external">http://www.nola.com</a></p> | Irene’s Cuisine says bye to familiar corner before moving | false | https://apnews.com/e792f7f9c7a34575aecf2966e416b32e | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p />
<p>United Continental Holdings Inc on Monday raised its forecast for first-quarter flight capacity, a keenly watched industry metric.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The No. 3 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said it expects capacity growth of 2.6 percent for the quarter ended March 31, compared to a prior forecast of a 1-2 percent increase.</p>
<p>(Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)</p> | United Air raises forecast for first-quarter flight capacity | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/10/united-air-raises-forecast-for-first-quarter-flight-capacity.html | 2017-04-10 | 0 |
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Several oil slicks have been found in waters around a sunken Iranian tanker ship in the East China Sea in a spill that is growing and whose potentially major impact on the marine environment is still being assessed.</p>
<p>The State Oceanic Administration said late Monday oil slicks around the site of the sunken ship were much larger than the previous day. The Sanchi sunk on Sunday after burning for more than a week following a collision with a Hong Kong-registered tanker. All 32 members of its crew — 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis — are believed dead.</p>
<p>The State Oceanic Administration said a 15-kilometer (9-mile)-long oil slick was found southwest of the site of the sinking and another slick stretched 18 kilometers (11 miles) to the east. The site is about 530 kilometers (330 miles) from Shanghai and 310 kilometers (193 miles) from Naha, Japan.</p>
<p>The administration said two ships and an aircraft were on the scene monitoring developments, but described no further action being taken at present.</p>
<p>The ship was carrying natural gas condensate, which continued to burn on the ocean surface. Condensate is highly toxic but readily evaporates or burns off in a fire. If trapped underwater, however, it could seriously harm the marine environment.</p>
<p>The cause of the Jan. 6 collision between the Sanchi and the Chinese freighter CF Crystal, which was carrying grain, remains unclear. The ship’s voice data recorder was reportedly recovered Saturday, possibly helping reveal how the collision and resulting fire occurred.</p>
<p>Authorities need to first assess the amount of condensate leaked and the size of the area contaminated, said Paul Johnston, of Greenpeace International’s Science Unit at Britain’s University of Exeter.</p>
<p>“Surveillance and assessment by authorities is critical to understand the extent of the potential environmental impact and for deciding on the appropriate next steps in terms of salvage and recovery of the potential condensate spill,” Johnston wrote in a Greenpeace news release.</p>
<p>Because most of the condensate would have burned off or evaporated, the disaster will not result in the sort of thick, black oil slick typical of crude oil spills, Greenpeace said.</p>
<p>However, it will be much more difficult to separate from water because the condensate is so light, colorless and partially soluble. “A major concern is that, now that the tanker has sunk, any condensate which did not yet burn off could continue to leak underwater, disperse and break down quite quickly, significantly complicating clean-up operations,” Greenpeace said.</p>
<p>Authorities and environmentalists have said it’s too early to know the impact on fisheries, although Greenpeace said the area is spawning ground for bluefin leatherjacket and swordtip squid and the winter habitat of blue crab, chub mackerel and yellow croaker.</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Several oil slicks have been found in waters around a sunken Iranian tanker ship in the East China Sea in a spill that is growing and whose potentially major impact on the marine environment is still being assessed.</p>
<p>The State Oceanic Administration said late Monday oil slicks around the site of the sunken ship were much larger than the previous day. The Sanchi sunk on Sunday after burning for more than a week following a collision with a Hong Kong-registered tanker. All 32 members of its crew — 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis — are believed dead.</p>
<p>The State Oceanic Administration said a 15-kilometer (9-mile)-long oil slick was found southwest of the site of the sinking and another slick stretched 18 kilometers (11 miles) to the east. The site is about 530 kilometers (330 miles) from Shanghai and 310 kilometers (193 miles) from Naha, Japan.</p>
<p>The administration said two ships and an aircraft were on the scene monitoring developments, but described no further action being taken at present.</p>
<p>The ship was carrying natural gas condensate, which continued to burn on the ocean surface. Condensate is highly toxic but readily evaporates or burns off in a fire. If trapped underwater, however, it could seriously harm the marine environment.</p>
<p>The cause of the Jan. 6 collision between the Sanchi and the Chinese freighter CF Crystal, which was carrying grain, remains unclear. The ship’s voice data recorder was reportedly recovered Saturday, possibly helping reveal how the collision and resulting fire occurred.</p>
<p>Authorities need to first assess the amount of condensate leaked and the size of the area contaminated, said Paul Johnston, of Greenpeace International’s Science Unit at Britain’s University of Exeter.</p>
<p>“Surveillance and assessment by authorities is critical to understand the extent of the potential environmental impact and for deciding on the appropriate next steps in terms of salvage and recovery of the potential condensate spill,” Johnston wrote in a Greenpeace news release.</p>
<p>Because most of the condensate would have burned off or evaporated, the disaster will not result in the sort of thick, black oil slick typical of crude oil spills, Greenpeace said.</p>
<p>However, it will be much more difficult to separate from water because the condensate is so light, colorless and partially soluble. “A major concern is that, now that the tanker has sunk, any condensate which did not yet burn off could continue to leak underwater, disperse and break down quite quickly, significantly complicating clean-up operations,” Greenpeace said.</p>
<p>Authorities and environmentalists have said it’s too early to know the impact on fisheries, although Greenpeace said the area is spawning ground for bluefin leatherjacket and swordtip squid and the winter habitat of blue crab, chub mackerel and yellow croaker.</p> | Oil spill from sunken tanker is expanding in East China Sea | false | https://apnews.com/519216424e484c7f90f351252b68a2b3 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
<p />
<p />It's been two years since the Toronto G-20, two years since more than 1,000 people were arrested, hundreds of them brutally clubbed and violently assaulted by police. There's been a series of reports looking into the police activities. First the Ontario Ombudsman issued a report. Then there was a civilian report looking into the activities of the RCMP, then the Ontario Independent Police Review Director, and now the Independent Civilian Review into matters relating to the G-20 summit—that's the report issued by the civilian oversight board responsible for the Toronto Police.
<p />
<p />Now that all the reviews and reports are in, the question remains: have people responsible been held accountable? And can it all happen again?
<p />
<p />But before we dig into all of that, let's remind ourselves what the G-20 was all about. Let's take one more look at the big picture.
<p />
<p />The 2010 G-20 in Toronto was a declaration by the global governing elite that the economic crisis, largely triggered by banks and financial institutions, would be paid for by ordinary people everywhere. It was also a declaration that force and the violation of basic civil rights would be used against those who protest and resist bearing the consequences of a crisis they didn't cause. The more than 1,000 arrests at the Toronto G-20 was a statement by the governments of Canada, Ontario, and Toronto that mass protest would be met by mass arrests.
<p />
<p />As I pointed out in a previous report, the missing words in the G-20 declaration were higher taxes on the wealthy and higher wages for workers—both obvious solutions to the stated goal of fighting deficits and dealing with a serious lack of demand in the economy.
<p />
<p />What the G-20 leaders did agree to was this: "[The] advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016"—we know that means cuts to pensions/social services and other austerity measures. We see this plan being played out across Europe and North America and other countries. The arrests at the G-20 were made in defense of this global strategy.
<p />
<p />And now reports from the Ontario Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Ombudsman have made it clear: the police services responsible during the G-20 violated citizens' right to free assembly and used excessive force in doing so.
<p />
<p />Remember what André Marin, ombudsman of Ontario, said:
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />ANDRÉ MARIN, OMBUDSMAN OF ONTARIO: And for the citizens of Toronto, the days up to and including the weekend of the G-20 will live in infamy as a time period where martial law sat in the city of Toronto, leading to the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history. And we can never let that happen again.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />JAY: Gerry McNeilly, the Ontario Independent Police Review director, wrote in his report, "... many police officers ignored basic rights citizens have under the Charter and overstepped their authority when they stopped and searched them arbitrarily and without reasonable grounds in law. . . . Numerous police officers used excessive force when arresting individuals. . . ."
<p />
<p />Does there not have to be accountability by the police and politicians who issued the orders and swung the batons? And can it happen again? I'd say yes, unless the following principles are acted upon.
<p />
<p />- Violating the right to mass protest is a crime. False arrest is a crime. Those who made decisions that led to mass arrests of peaceful protestors should be charged.
<p />
<p />- The term excessive use of force underplays the issue. Assault and battery is a crime. It's not simply a matter for an internal disciplinary process.
<p />
<p />The fact that such actions were criminal is not something I'm making up. In fact, a statement that such actions would be criminal was in the training material shown to police officers before the G-20. I quote, "The training made clear that officers may be held criminally responsible for any use of force in excess of what is required in the circumstances," end quote.
<p />
<p />Well, the Ontario Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Ombudsman both made clear statements there was excessive use of force by numerous police officers at the G-20. So, if that's true, where are the criminal charges?
<p />
<p />- Police video should be made fully available. Officers who committed assaults should be identified and charged under the criminal code. Earlier this year, Gerry McNeilly recommended charges against five police officers for the beating of G-20 protester Adam Nobody at the legislature. The same principle must be applied to every officer that committed assault.
<p />
<p />- Why did police feel they could use such force with impunity, even though they knew every blow was being captured on video? Whoever gave such license to the officers should be charged under the criminal code.
<p />
<p />Quoting from the civilian review of the Toronto Police, he says that many Toronto policemen, in violation of Toronto Police policy, took off their badges so they could not be identified. And what happened to those officers that one must assume took off their badges 'cause they thought they were going to do something wrong or illegal and something they might be held accountable for? What happened to them? Well, here's what the report says:
<p />
<p />"In terms of penalties imposed, 66 breaches of the rule requiring identifiers to be worn by Toronto Police Service officers were substantiated and led to the loss of an eight hour day of pay. Separately, 53 breaches were substantiated that lead [sic] to a penalty of two eight hour days of pay. The intentional non-wearing of a name badge by an officer carrying out his or her duties is an extremely serious offence. It is a fundamental breach of duty for police officers to remove their name badges so that they may exercise their powers with intentional anonymity."
<p />
<p />So, for something so serious, eight hours of pay. In some cases, two days of pay. And many more badges were taken off, as can clearly be seen in the many YouTube videos, than the numbers mentioned in the report.
<p />
<p />The issue of training goes to the heart of the policing problem at the Toronto G-20. Police were educated to see protesters as the enemy, as dangerous anarchists, everyone ready to rip the city to shreds. This type of training had to be decided upon at a senior level. And it's hard to imagine the RCMP, which was the operational commander of the Integrated Security Unit, didn't have at least some role to play in the training that took place. But it's still not clear who's responsible. We only get a hint of all of this in the report from the civilian review. I quote:
<p />
<p />"[M]any of the images and much of the language used in the training materials to depict protestors was unbalanced. Representations of rioting crowds, violent protestors, and anarchists left the impression that all protestors at the G20 Summit would engage in destructive protest activity and that police officers would be required to respond with aggressive crowd control measures," end quote.
<p />
<p />The police were being prepared for war.
<p />
<p />- Both Ontario inquiries said they were not able to investigate the role of the RCMP and the Federal Government. A report by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, a civilian watchdog that supposedly spent a year probing the force's actions during the summit, absolves the RCMP of all responsibility, saying the policing was managed by the Toronto Police and the OPP.
<p />
<p />But Toronto Police Chief Blair told CBC, in an interview with Carol Off, that the operational commanders answered to the Unified Command Centre in Barrie, and that was paid for by the federal government and commanded by the RCMP. Chief Blair was not even included in the command structure.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />CAROL OFF, CBC RADIO: Chief Blair, you were the public face of this security event, whether you liked it or not. How much input actually did you have over the planning leading up to this police operation?
<p />
<p />BILL BLAIR, CHIEF, TORONTO POLICE SERVICE: Quite frankly, I was not involved in much of the planning. I was aware of some of the things that were being planned, I was being briefed, but I was not the operational commander, I was not on the unified command team or on the steering committee. [...] The Integrated Security Unit and the command structure that was put in place, I was assured that it was an appropriate command structure. There was 29 different police services, and, you know, it was primarily—the bills were being paid by the federal government. And so I was led to believe that that was the most appropriate command structure for that event. [...] Operational commanders from the Toronto Police Service, answering—you know, they were responsible for operational decisions and answering through the Unified Command Centre located up in Barrie.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />The authoritative role of the RCMP in the policing operations at the Toronto G-20 was alluded to in the Toronto civilian review. Here's what the report said—and when it mentions "Board," it's referring to the civilian oversight board: "The Board was also not aware to what extent the Toronto Police Service was subject to the planning direction of the RCMP, including the ability of the RCMP to override planning decisions made by the Toronto Police Service."
<p />
<p />Somebody is lying, and it stretches all credulity that the RCMP that was officially in charge of the Integrated Security Unit was not, on the day, in the chain of command that led to such abuses of people's basic rights. This was a federal show. And it's also beyond reason that the political masters of the RCMP were not involved in making decisions that led to the debacle.
<p />
<p />Until we know the full scope of the role of the federal government and the RCMP, there will be no real accountability, and at this point, only an independent investigation with the powers of subpoena could carry this out.
<p />
<p />- The public has a right to know—which means journalists have a right to report on the scene of police actions without being threatened with arrest. In some ways, this is the most dangerous precedent that was set at the Toronto G-20. Journalists were sent to jail for reporting on police actions. At the G-20, many journalists that were not obstructing police actions were threatened with arrest for simply being on the scene.
<p />
<p />This was not a question of misunderstanding credentials as one of the reports suggested. Fully G-20 credentialed journalists, like well-known TVO host Steve Paikin and Real News's Jesse Freeston, were targeted. This should be moot anyways, because there's no need for G-20 credentials when reporting on the streets of Toronto. If legitimate press credentials are displayed, that should be it.
<p />
<p />In any case, this isn't about credential confusion. There was a clear authorization for police to arrest journalists that would not leave the scene. When police can operate in secret, beyond public view, this is the basis of a police state.
<p />
<p />- The excuse for mass arrests was the vandalism against windows and police cars. But there's strong evidence that the black bloc tactics could have been contained or prevented. The group had been infiltrated, and actions they undertook were predictable. There's evidence that the police were told to hold back while police cars burned and windows were broken, creating the rationale for arresting more than 1,000 people who were not involved in any of the violence.
<p />
<p />As much as I oppose trashing of windows and other such infantile behavior, these people are not terrorists, and such actions are far less serious than the state effectively eliminating the right to free assembly, the right not to be searched and detained without probable cause and to be subjected to systematic criminal assault by the police. It's not correct to equate the violence on the part of a small part of the protesters—and that mostly against property—with the violence of hundreds of police officers and all against persons.
<p />
<p />- There's been a lot of attention paid to the Public Works Protection Act, and rightly so. But the use of the breach of the queen's peace was as dangerous. It was the law that gave the police the "right" to arrest most of the thousand people. The fact that no real charges could follow when those people were released does not mitigate the fact that they had lost their democratic right to assemble and protest and were forcibly detained. If this is not to happen again, the police must get clear guidelines from the attorney general's office that this archaic piece of legislation, meant to stop bar fights, has no place in dealing with peaceful demonstrators.
<p />
<p />The primary mandate of the police, after ensuring the safety of visiting dignitaries, which police acknowledge was never in doubt, should have been to protect the right to free assembly. The opposite is what took place.
<p />
<p />To sum up:
<p />
<p />- Forcibly denying democratic rights is a crime. Those responsible should be charged.
<p />- The right of journalists to report on police actions must be enshrined in police policy and guidelines. It's simple: journalists should stay out of the way, and if they do, they cannot be ordered to leave the scene.
<p />- Assault is a crime. It should be treated as such.
<p />- The Public Works Protection Act and breach of the queen's peace have no place in a democracy.
<p />
<p />We need to know the role of our political leaders at the provincial and the federal levels, including the prime minister, whose show this really was. They've avoided all scrutiny (except for ours). And when the basic rights of Canadians are at stake, they cannot be allowed to shove this onto a few police officials, and at that only mildly so.
<p />
<p />If the people of Ontario and Canada do not make such demands, if journalists do not insist on their rights, then we are living in an illusion of democracy, where basic rights can be withdrawn at any time and those responsible will receive a slap on the wrist and have no fear of doing it all again. | No Accountability Yet for Toronto G20 Police Crimes | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D8565 | 2010-07-05 | 4 |
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<p>The snarky blog McMansion Hell is where you go to ridicule the kinds of homes you’ll never be able to afford, but it’s found itself in hot water with real estate website Zillow. (Dreamstime/TNS)</p>
<p>The real estate website Zillow is the place you go to search for a home — and maybe marvel at high-end listings.</p>
<p>The snarky blog McMansion Hell is where you go to ridicule the kinds of homes you’ll never be able to afford.</p>
<p>The sites occupy opposite ends of the online real estate world — a reality that Zillow sought to end with a cease-and-desist letter last month.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>McMansion Hell, run by graduate student Kate Wagner, pokes fun at exorbitant suburban eyesores, often overlaying sarcastic text atop photos of the homes. But some of those photos come from Zillow, which the Seattle-based company claimed was a violation of its terms of use.</p>
<p>Last month, Zillow sent Wagner a letter demanding she delete any content lifted from Zillow or face legal action.</p>
<p>Wagner — who makes money from the site using Patreon, an online platform where content creators can receive cash from fans — fought back. She took to Twitter, where she received an outpouring of support and backing from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group.</p>
<p>In a letter to Zillow, EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer called the company’s legal complaints “baseless,” and detailed how Wagner’s blog falls within fair use — a legal doctrine that offers certain protections for criticism and commentary.</p>
<p>“Our client has no obligation to, and thus will not, comply with Zillow’s demands. Zillow’s legal threats are not supported and plainly seek to interfere with protected speech,” Nazer wrote.</p>
<p>Nazer also pointed out that Zillow does not own and can’t assert copyright of the photos. Most of the pictures on the site are shot by property sellers or real estate photographers.</p>
<p>Los Angeles real estate photographer Erik Grammer said he wouldn’t have a problem with Wagner using his photos on McMansion Hell. “I have no problem with parody,” he said. “That’s an important part of our culture. If she were selling the photographs, I would have an issue with it.”</p>
<p>Eventually, Zillow announced it was backing down.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We have decided not to pursue any legal action against Kate Wagner and McMansion Hell,” Zillow said in a statement. “It was never our intent for McMansion Hell to shut down, or for this to appear as an attack on Kate’s freedom of expression. We acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our partners — the agents and brokers who entrust us to display photos of their clients’ homes.”</p>
<p>Wagner, however, was still waiting for something else from Zillow — an apology.</p>
<p>“Also Zillow owes me an apology for threatening to ruin my life,” she tweeted.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2017 Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>Visit the Los Angeles Times at <a href="http://www.latimes.com" type="external">www.latimes.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Does a snarky architecture blog have the right to scrawl all over Zillow listings? | false | https://abqjournal.com/1028973/does-a-snarky-architecture-blog-have-the-right-to-scrawl-all-over-zillow-listings.html | 2 |
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<p>The first weekend of the state high school basketball tournaments belongs to the dreamers.</p>
<p>For so many of these schools, the Pit may as well be in Siberia – it’s still so far down the road. There is much basketball to be played before anyone arrives at the corner of University and Cesar Chavez sometime next week.</p>
<p>First-round action for the girls is tonight. The boys follow on Saturday.</p>
<p>If watching two teams who thrive on I-can-smell-your-breath-defense is your thing, then Valley is the place to be Saturday when the fifth-seeded Vikings play host to No. 12 Manzano.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Valley has arguably the most potent 1-2 scoring combination in 5A with guards Joe Anaya and Adonis Saltes. How will the Monarchs attack those two juniors?</p>
<p>Atrisco gets a rematch with La Cueva in the first round. You have to feel for the Jags, who won 17 games but were relegated to a No. 14 seed because they finished fourth in their district. If JoJo Brooks is healthy for AHA (high ankle sprain), the Jags certainly have a fighting chance. But they struggled to deal with La Cueva and Bryce Alford in the metro final two months ago.</p>
<p>“Best player in the Southwest,” AHA coach Adrian Ortega said of Alford.</p>
<p>Albuquerque High point guard Mahlik Sims is done for the season, and that certainly puts a dent in AHS’s chances as the Bulldogs go into Cibola for the 8-9 game.</p>
<p>Without naming names (sorry, sworn to secrecy), several metro-area coaches told me they think the ‘Dogs might actually play better team basketball without Sims. Certainly AHS post James Croasdell must play well against Cibola’s Ross Buchman, a post who is constantly in motion and is perhaps 5A’s most active rebounder.</p>
<p>Volcano Vista, at No. 10, and West Mesa, at No. 13, have tough assignments tonight as they travel to Hobbs and Clovis, respectively. The Wildcats are a really interesting team with some versatile, athletic – and big – guards. Clovis has played its best basketball in the second half of the season.</p>
<p>I actually think No. 2 Sandia has an easier path to the finals – not easy, but easier – than Eldorado does. The Matadors get Alamogordo in the first round, and would get Hobbs or Volcano Vista in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>♦ In 4A, it boils down to the metro area vs. Roswell. The Coyotes own the No. 1 seed. Seeds 2-5 are St. Pius, Los Lunas, Bernalillo and Albuquerque Academy.</p>
<p>St. Pius’ defense is stellar, and no team grinds through 32 minutes like the Sartans. Los Lunas coach Travis Julian has made the transition from 5A’s Manzano to 4A a memorable one, and it didn’t hurt that his stepson, Ben Romero, an outstanding guard, followed him. Bernalillo is enjoying its best season as a 4A program, and this is the Spartans’ first 20-win season since moving up from 3A.</p>
<p>On a personal note, it’s nice to see Academy back near the top of the list. The Chargers’ road to a title is going to be tough, however.</p>
<p>♦ In 3A, it’s shaping up as a second district tournament for 5-3A, since Hope Christian, St. Michael’s and Sandia Prep were seeded 1-2-3. Hard to imagine anyone else bursting that bubble.</p>
<p>♦ There are some fantastic stories in the 2A bracket, and this is maybe the most interesting bracket outside of 5A boys, regardless of class or gender.</p>
<p>You’ve got Laguna Acoma as a solid No. 1 seed. Pecos, with former Hobbs coach Russ Gilmore, is at No. 2. Ever-present southern powers Tularosa and Mesilla Valley are ready to strike. Bosque School, the No. 6, has a shot to make noise.</p>
<p>Hannah Fenske (23) and her Volcano Vista teammates will face Sandia in today’s first round of the Class 5A tournament. (GREG SORBER/JOURNAL)</p>
<p>There will be many eyes on Valley tonight as the Vikings host Las Cruces in the 8-9 matchup.</p>
<p>A few coaches felt the Vikings were given a gift as a No. 8 seed in Class 5A, and here is their opportunity to quiet their doubters – a list that would include yours truly, incidentally.</p>
<p>One of the dangerous floaters, if you can even call them that, is Eldorado at No. 7. It hasn’t worked out for the Eagles as a favorite, so maybe a lower seed will pan out. And their draw is not altogether unfavorable.</p>
<p>Mayfield and Cibola are also in the Eagles’ portion of the draw; the Eagles lost 47-45 to Mayfield in the regular season and 40-39 to Cibola.</p>
<p>Cibola coach Lori Mabrey has already taken the Cougars to a pair of state finals, but this is the best team she’s had at CHS. We know she can steer an underdog to the title game; can she do the same with a No. 3 seed?</p>
<p>Possibly awaiting Cibola in the quarterfinals is district rival Volcano Vista, the No. 6, if the defending state champion Hawks can navigate their way around No. 11 Sandia this afternoon.</p>
<p>Looming over the entire field is No. 1 Clovis. The Wildcats have dropped only two games all season, both to Hobbs, and Hobbs is a potential semifinal opponent next week. The Eagles could square off with La Cueva in a terrific quarterfinal matchup before that.</p>
<p>♦ In 4A, Los Lunas has a well-deserved No. 1 seed. Now it’s up to the Tigers to follow through. Their road will be a difficult one. Potentially in the semifinals, Los Lunas’ 6-2 post, Teige Zeller, could meet up with St. Pius’ 6-footer, Mary Carpenter.</p>
<p>From the north, both Santa Fe (No. 3) and Española Valley (No. 5) should not be excluded from the conversation. Roswell, the No. 2 seed, carries the banner for the south.</p>
<p>♦ The 3A girls final almost certainly shapes up as Hope-Santa Fe Indian, although look at what No. 12 Lovington did a year ago, shocking No. 1 Hope in the semis and then No. 2 SFIS in the title game. Hope is probably the second-best team in New Mexico, after Clovis.</p>
<p>♦ In 2A, Laguna Acoma’s girls, like the boys, have a No. 1 seed. As always, watch out for Texico, and also for Navajo Pine, one of my favorite programs in the state. Pine has played in the last three state championship games. — This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Curtain rises on state basketball tourney | false | https://abqjournal.com/239067/curtain-rises-on-state-basketball-tourney.html | 2 |
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<p>Jan 17 (Reuters) - ELK Corp :</p>
<p>* Says it lowered conversion price of 9th series convertible bonds to 871 won/share from 892 won/share, effective Jan. 17</p>
<p>Source text in Korean: <a href="https://goo.gl/2vu4U3" type="external">goo.gl/2vu4U3</a></p>
<p>Further company coverage: (Beijing Headline News)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>DHAKA (Reuters) - U.S. envoy Sam Brownback called on Thursday for the release of journalists jailed in Myanmar while covering the plight of ethnic Rohingya Muslims forced to flee a military crackdown.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone gestures to the media as he is escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang
<p>Brownback spoke in Bangladesh, where he was on a mission to see at first hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya crammed into refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar region bordering Myanmar.</p>
<p>"The journalists should be released who are in jail in Myanmar," Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, told a news conference in Dhaka, without naming any individuals or their employers.</p>
<p>The United States is among several governments pressing for the release of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been held in Myanmar since December.</p>
<p>A court is deliberating over whether they will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for possessing secret government papers - an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>Aside from the U.S. administration, Canada, Britain and several other European countries, as well as top United Nations and EU officials have called for the journalists' release.</p>
<p>On April 11, a Myanmar judge rejected a defense request to dismiss the case against the two reporters for lack of evidence. The judge said he wanted to hear eight remaining prosecution witnesses out of the 25 listed, according to defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.</p>
<p>Brownback praised the media's work covering events since the Rohingya crisis began in August, and said journalists should be allowed to move freely in Myanmar and the region to report on developments.</p>
<p>Brownback described the campaign against the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing against a Muslim minority".</p>
<p>Myanmar rejects that description, saying its action was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in response to a series of militant attacks on security posts and an army camp in its northwestern Rakhine state.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is escorted by police before a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang
<p>Earlier this month, however, seven Myanmar soldiers were sentenced to 10 years "with hard labor in a remote area" for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine last September, the army said.</p>
<p>According to U.N. officials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine.</p>
<p>Asked about possible U.S. measures against Myanmar over the crisis, Brownback told the news conference: "We will continue to investigate to get a clear picture."</p>
<p>He added that several members of the U.S. Congress and Vice President Mike Pence had expressed deep concern to him.</p>
<p>Myanmar reported on Saturday the first return to Rakhine state of a refugee Rohingya family from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government and the United Nations refugee agency said they had no knowledge of any such repatriation.</p>
<p>Reporting by Serajul Quadir; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Andrew Roche</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEVASTOPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - News that Russia hosted the teenage children of Bashar al-Assad at a lavishly-rebuilt Black Sea summer camp in Crimea last year has given a rare glimpse into the personal lives of the Syrian president's family and his close relationship to Moscow.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>Nestled on the Crimean coast since 1925, the Artek Seaside camp served for decades as an elite summer holiday resort for children of those favored by the Soviet Communist Party and foreign delegations invited from its satellite states.</p>
<p>Russia has given the camp a $180 million renovation since seizing the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Guests stay in newly-built dormitories by the sea.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>That Assad's sons Hafez and Karim and daughter Zein had stayed there last year with a group of other Syrian children was made public only this week, when a Russian lawmaker on a delegation to Damascus said Assad had mentioned it.</p>
<p>Alexei Kasprzhak, the resort's director, told Reuters he learned of the children's identities only after they arrived last year. The three children were given no special treatment, joining the regular programme with the other Syrian children in their group, he said.</p>
<p>If any of the other Syrian children had any issues with being at camp with the president's kids, "it passed quickly and didn't create any problems for us and therefore we didn't have to resolve them, thank God," Kasprzhak told Reuters.</p> A general view of the Morskoi camp, part of the Artek International Children's Centre, located near the city of Yalta, Crimea May 11, 2017. Picture taken May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
<p>A source close to the camp's management who spoke on condition of anonymity said the president's children "didn't stick out at all" during their three-week stay.</p>
<p>"They also attended all the events organized in the camp, they went to the evening campfire like everyone else, so it is not the case that they lived in some kind of special premises or slept on special pillows."</p>
<p>The choice of destination shows how close Assad's personal ties with Russia have become since Moscow entered the Syrian conflict in September 2015, turning the tide in his favor. Now in its eighth year, the war has killed more than 500,000 people.</p>
<p>The Seaside camp, 12 km (7.5 miles) from the Crimean city of Yalta, is the oldest of a network of 10 Artek camps run by the Education Ministry. During the Soviet era, winning a place there for a summer was a valued prize both for Soviet children and for visitors from countries in Moscow's orbit.</p>
<p>In 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the Russian government launched a five-year programme to revamp it. As of last June over 11 billion roubles ($180.71 million) had been spent on renovations, the RIA news agency reported.</p>
<p>Records published on the state procurement site show that 9.2 billion roubles worth of tenders to develop the resort were awarded to Stroygazmontazh, a construction firm on U.S. and European sanctions blacklists, owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a former judo sparring partner of president Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Peter Graff</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian government stepped up its efforts on Thursday to retake the opposition's last besieged enclaves, as rebels prepared to withdraw from one and a newspaper reported an ultimatum against another.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Syrian soldier loyal to President Bashar al Assad is seen outside eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria February 28, 2018. To match Special Report RUSSIA-FLIGHTS/ REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki/File Photo
<p>President Bashar al-Assad scored a major victory this month by retaking eastern Ghouta, the biggest rebel stronghold near Damascus, putting his forces in by far their strongest position since the early months of the seven-year-old civil war.</p>
<p>The United States, Britain and France launched a volley of air strikes on Saturday against three Syrian targets in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons strike during the Ghouta assault.</p>
<p>But the limited Western intervention, far from any contested battlefront, has shown no sign of having any impact on the ground, where Assad's forces have pressed on with his offensive.</p>
<p>The last rebels withdrew from eastern Ghouta hours after the Western bombing. Since then, the government has focused on regaining four less populous encircled enclaves.</p>
<p>Their capture would leave the opposition holding only its two main strongholds, located in the northwest and southwest along Syria's international borders.</p> Related Coverage
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<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-douma/russia-says-syrian-rebels-preventing-inspectors-from-reaching-douma-ria-idUSKBN1HQ1K2" type="external">Russia says Syrian rebels preventing inspectors from reaching Douma: RIA</a>
<p>Diplomacy this week has focussed on the accusations of poison gas use in Douma, the last town to hold out against the government advance in eastern Ghouta.</p>
<p>Western countries say scores of people were gassed to death in the April 7 chemical attack. Syria and its ally Russia deny it. Now that the rebels have surrendered, the area is under government control, and a team of international inspectors has so far been unable to reach it.</p>
<p>The inspectors have delayed their visit to Douma after their security team were shot at during a reconnaissance trip on Tuesday, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.</p>
<p>The Western countries say Moscow and Damascus are preventing the inspectors from reaching the site and may be destroying evidence. Russia and Assad's government deny this.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Western intervention has had no measurable impact on the wider war, with rebels continuing to surrender under deals that allow them to withdraw to the opposition pocket in the northwest in return for abandoning territory.</p> SURRENDER
<p>State television showed live footage of buses entering the town of Dumayr, northeast of Damascus, to bring out fighters and their families, while soldiers stood by the roadside.</p>
<p>Twenty buses would be used to transfer about 5,000 people, including 1,500 rebels, to north Syria after they surrendered their heavy weapons, Syrian state TV said.</p>
<p>Dumayr has been covered by an informal ceasefire for years, but its recovery is important for the government because it makes it possible to guarantee the safety of vehicles travelling on the Damascus-Baghdad highway.</p>
<p>Said Saif, a senior official with one of the rebel groups in the area, said his group had no choice but to go along with a Russian-backed deal to leave the town, because there were no other outside forces that could guarantee their safety.</p>
<p>"We hope the Russians keep their promises, even though we have no trust in them," he said.</p>
<p>In the nearby enclave of Eastern Qalamoun, which consists of several towns and an area of hills and has also been covered by an informal ceasefire, rebels said they were also negotiating a withdrawal deal with Russia.</p>
<p>The army has put military pressure on rebels in Eastern Qalamoun to start negotiations to withdraw, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitoring group said.</p>
<p>A military news service run by the government's Lebanese ally Hezbollah reported on Thursday that the army had moved into positions inside the enclave to entirely encircle one of its towns, al-Ruhayba.</p>
<p>The Observatory said there were also talks under way between Russia and rebels over the fate of an enclave in central Syria around the town of Rastan.</p>
<p>Separately, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday that Islamic State militants had been given 48 hours to agree to withdraw from an enclave centred around the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugee south of Damascus.</p>
<p>"If they refuse, the army and supporting forces are ready to launch a military operation to end the presence of the organisation in the area," al-Watan said.</p>
<p>Most residents have fled the camp, once Syria's largest for Palestinian refugees, but thousands of civilians are still inside. Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which looks after Palestinian refugees said it was deeply concerned for their safety.</p>
<p>A commander in the regional military alliance that backs the Syrian government said the Syrian army had begun shelling the jihadist enclave on Tuesday in preparation for an assault.</p>
<p>Islamic State lost most of its territory last year, but it still holds small areas of desert in eastern Syria on either side of the Euphrates river. On Thursday neighbouring Iraq carried out air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria in coordination with Damascus, the Iraqi military said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Tom Perry and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Raya Jalabi in Baghdad; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Peter Graff</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A long-awaited U.S. Justice Department internal watchdog report on former FBI chief James Comey's public disclosures on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state and whether FBI employees leaked information to try to hurt her 2016 presidential bid is expected to be issued next month.</p> Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton awards ceremony at Georgetown University in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>The report from Michael Horowitz, the department's inspector general, arises from an investigation he launched about a week before Republican President Donald Trump, who defeated Democrat Clinton in the election, took office in January 2017.</p>
<p>In a letter last week to Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Horowitz said his office was "working diligently" to complete the report and expected to release it in May.</p>
<p>Horowitz's letter did not offer details of what will be in the report. In a Jan. 12, 2017 letter to five congressional committees, he enumerated 2016 election-related issues his office would look into.</p>
<p>Clinton has called the FBI investigation into her emails and Comey's public disclosures about it significant factors in her loss to Trump, who fired Comey as FBI director in May 2017.</p>
<p>The investigation will examine Comey's statements in August 2016 that no charges would be brought against Clinton and in October about the re-opening of the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server rather than a government server, potentially jeopardizing classified information.</p>
<p>The report also is expected to address whether active and retired FBI agents in New York leaked information about investigations of the Clinton Foundation charitable organization and the discovery of a trove of Clinton-related emails.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officials previously told Reuters the information was leaked to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an adviser to the Trump campaign who subsequently discussed the contents on Fox News.</p>
<p>Horowitz's office also has sought to determine whether such leaks influenced Comey's decision 11 days before the election to announce the reopening of the Clinton email investigation. Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the time a fear of leaks from within his own agency helped prompt Comey to make that public disclosure.</p>
<p>Comey did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Trump and Comey have exchanged harsh criticism in the past week. Trump called Comey a "slime ball." Comey called Trump an unethical liar who is morally unfit to be president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Will Dunham</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-ELK lowers conversion price of 9th series convertible bonds to 871 won/share U.S. official calls on Myanmar to free journalists Rare glimpse of Assad family ties to Russia in kids' stay at seaside camp Assad steps up efforts to crush last besieged enclaves Justice Dept. watchdog to report on Clinton-related FBI leaks | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-elk-lowers-conversion-price-of-9th/brief-elk-lowers-conversion-price-of-9th-series-convertible-bonds-to-871-won-share-idUSL3N1PC2SI | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>The Salvation Army believes they received the largest cash donation ever put in a single red kettle in the Portland area Wednesday night, <a href="http://katu.com/news/local/salvation-army-discovers-10000-cash-donation-in-portland-fred-meyer-red-kettle" type="external">our affiliate KATU reported</a>.</p>
<p>The Salvation Army – Portland Moore Street corps were shocked when they opened a kettle for their daily deposit and saw one-hundred $100 bills – a total of $10,000 in one kettle!</p>
<p>The Salvation Army says usually, one $100 bill is worth celebrating.</p>
<p>But this is very unexpected.</p>
<p>“It’s incredible!” said Captain Marcos Marquez, Corps Officer of The Salvation Army -- Portland Moore Street Corps. "Whoever did this knows the good that will come of it; and while we do not know who put the money in the kettle, since the money was all in cash, they should know that we are very grateful to have received such a generous donation."</p>
<p>The large donation was made at the Fred Meyer at 3030 Weidler Street at the grocery door.</p>
<p>The organization said the donation came at a time when many are suffering from giving fatigue after the many natural disasters that occurred this summer.</p>
<p>Donations in the Salvation Army Red Kettles stay in the communities in which they were received. They help people in the community.</p>
<p>The Salvation Army has been collecting red kettle funds for Portland for more than 130 years. The bell-ringing donations account for nearly 40 percent of the organization’s annual funds used for services.</p> | The Salvation Army discovered a $10,000 cash donation in a Portland, Oregon, kettle | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/12/07/nation/salvation-army-finds-10-000-cash-donation-in-portland-oregon-kettle | 2017-12-07 | 1 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />For a while now I’ve been a big advocate for reclaiming Christianity back from the radical right-wing fake Christians who’ve hijacked it for far too long.</p>
<p>I’ve just grown absolutely sick and tired of people associating Christianity with whatever it is these conservatives seem to worship.</p>
<p>Because it sure as heck isn’t Christianity.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">I’ve called it Republicanity</a>, though that’s just a term I’ve coined to describe what I feel most of them actually follow.</p>
<p>But what is it that&#160;they&#160;think they actually follow? Because, honestly, what “Christian” traits do they really have?</p>
<p>Being anti-abortion? Okay, let’s just give them that. Let’s say life begins at conception and abortion is morally wrong.</p>
<p>That’s a simple fix – they don’t have to have an abortion.</p>
<p>See, for me, abortion rights aren’t about being pro-abortion but being pro-it’s none of my business what a woman does with her own body. The “morality” of it lies within each individual.</p>
<p>What else?</p>
<p>Guns? I’m not quite sure how guns would fit into the Christianity narrative. In fact, <a href="" type="internal">I’m pretty certain Jesus Christ would oppose both violence and guns</a>.</p>
<p>Opposition to homosexuality? When I see people who are homophobic, I don’t see “values” derived from faith – I see ignorance emulating from basic human nature. Because I’ve met plenty of “Christian” conservative men who oppose same-sex marriage, but would have no problem seeing two women kiss. But show them two men kissing, and that’s an entirely different story.</p>
<p>Besides, why would God really care? With all the horrors going on in the world, who cares who someone else loves? How about we focus on real problems like poverty, homelessness and child abuse rather than waste time worrying about who someone else wants to marry? Deal?</p>
<p>Maybe they base their faith on how much they give to their church. While it’s true conservatives often do donate to their church fairly generously, can we really give them credit for that? After all, isn’t that what they’re&#160;told&#160;to do by their church? Tithe? Can you really boast about generosity that you’re guilted into giving?</p>
<p>Besides, it’s hard to claim you stand for charity and generosity, when the political party you support vilifies those living in poverty as lazy moochers just wanting a handout.</p>
<p>Jesus Christ told us to help the helpless, defend the defenseless and protect the poor and needy. Which is the exact opposite of the political ideologies of the typical “conservative Christian.” They believe that greed is what should drive our economy and social safety nets meant to help the poor are unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Which is extremely hypocritical considering many of these conservative Christians rely on those very same government programs to survive.</p>
<p>But, really, what is it that makes them “Christians”? Church attendance? That can’t be right. Church is just a building.</p>
<p>What if someone isn’t able to leave their home because they’re too sick, elderly or disabled? Are they then not allowed to be a Christian?</p>
<p>It can’t be about church attendance.</p>
<p>Is it because they read the Bible? That wouldn’t make sense. Atheists read the Bible, they’re not Christians. Jewish people follow the Bible too, and they’re not Christians.</p>
<p>Besides, many different Christian denominations interpret the Bible in very different ways. Yet they all consider themselves Christians.</p>
<p>So, what Christianity seems to come down to in my opinion is who you are as a person and how closely you try to live your life according to the beliefs of Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>Because&#160;that’s&#160;what Christianity is supposed to be about.</p>
<p>And the political beliefs most of these “conservative Christians” support via the Republican party damn sure aren’t taken from the teachings of Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>Fear, paranoia, anger, the love of guns, greed, judgement, hatred, selfishness… those are the values I see most often from these conservative “Christians.”</p>
<p>So, while they might continue to call themselves Christians, I think it’s important that everyone else stops doing it. Because I’m sick and tired of these people tarnishing a faith that stands for none of the values they hold dear.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">5 Examples Showing the Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives on "Religious Freedom"</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Who's Destroying Christianity? It Sure as Hell Isn't the Liberals</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Insecurity is the Real Driving Force Behind Republican Attempts to Force their Religion on Others</a></p>
<p>69 Facebook comments</p> | Real Christianity vs. Whatever The Heck It Is Conservatives Actually Follow | true | https://forwardprogressives.com/real-christianity-vs-whatever-heck-conservatives-actually-follow/ | 2014-08-31 | 4 |
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<p>Because though the show celebrates – and has boosted modern-day interest in – classic cocktails, it is set in a decade, the ’60s, when mixed drinks were sliding into a sugary slump, says drinks historian David Wondrich.</p>
<p>“Cocktails were struggling because they were kind of for the square, old-establishment types, they weren’t for the new generation,” says Wondrich, drinks columnist for Esquire magazine. Old-school bartenders were retiring and “getting replaced by young wannabe novelists and actors and not people who were going into it for a profession.”</p>
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<p>Since those days, there’s been a revival of well-made drinks and the ingredients to create them, and bartending has become so seriously scientific it’s known as mixology.</p>
<p>Cocktail scene</p>
<p>Back then, producers were still trying to sell spirits, but with new, zippy approaches that leaned heavily on brand advertising. “Those drinks can be fun in context; they’re not primarily aimed at flavor or balance or anything like that,” says Wondrich.</p>
<p>But if the drinks weren’t particularly exciting, the “Mad Men” era was the best of times for the cocktail scene setting.</p>
<p>“The culture of the cocktail really exploded in the ’60s,” says Maureen Petrosky, author of “The Cocktail Club.” Suddenly there were cocktail dresses, new glassware, bar couture, Tiki drinks. The cocktail hour had its own wardrobe.</p>
<p>Only Stoli … or not</p>
<p>What the “Mad Men” – and women – drink says a lot. One of Petrosky’s favorite drinks scenes in “Mad Men” is when Roger returns from a business trip with a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka, not then available in the U.S. He shares it with Don, but when Pete, the colleague no one finds particularly congenial, shows up Roger tells Don to pour Pete a drink – but not the Stoli. “It was so telling of his opinion of Pete and of this new vodka,” says Petrosky.</p>
<p>Best of an era</p>
<p>The final episodes of the season kicked off Sunday on AMC, prompting the Associated Press to put together a selection of signature drinks from the series and era.</p>
<p /> | Toasting the end | false | https://abqjournal.com/566030/the-end.html | 2 |
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<p>Moscow State University (MSU) has been awarded Russia’s largest-ever science grant for the construction of a 166 square mile facility to hold DNA. If the project is successful it will hold DNA samples from every known species, living and extinct, by 2018.</p>
<p>The database will collect biomaterials from all of MSU’s scientific branches including the zoological museum, botanical garden and anthropological museum. All of the universities departments will be involved in the project including research and collecting materials.</p>
<p>“I call the project ‘Noah’s Ark.’ It will involve the creation of a depository – a databank for the storing of every living thing on Earth, including not only living, but disappearing and extinct organisms. This is the challenge we have set for ourselves. It will enable us to cryogenically freeze and store various cellular materials, which can then reproduce. It will also contain information systems. Not everything needs to be kept in a petri dish” said MSU rector Viktor Sadivnichy to <a href="http://rt.com/news/217747-noah-ark-russia-biological/" type="external">RT</a>.</p>
<p>The university hopes that the 1 billion ruble ($194 million US) project will encourage the next generation of Russia’s scientists.</p>
<p>“If it’s realized, this will be a leap in Russian history as the first nation to create an actual Noah’s Ark of sorts,” the Sadovinchy said.</p>
<p>Russia is, of course, not the first to build a genetic database.&#160;The US National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian, currently holds the largest collection. The museum’s <a href="http://www.mnh.si.edu/ggi/" type="external">Global Genome Initiative</a> holds 4.2 million samples and the capacity to expand by another 800,000.</p>
<p>The San Diego Zoo’s <a href="http://www.sandiegozooglobal.org/what_we_do_banking_genetic_resources/frozen_zoo/" type="external">Frozen Zoo</a> holds 8,400 stem cells, sperm cells and other samples from over 800 species. A consortium of British museums, zoos and other institutions runs the <a href="http://www.frozenark.org/" type="external">Frozen Ark</a> project has collected 48,000 samples from more than 5,500 species of animals. According to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2888433/Russia-s-Noah-s-Ark-Moscow-State-University-cryogenically-freeze-DNA-creature-lived.html" type="external">Daily Mail</a> this collection includes “7,000 are from species on the ‘red list’ of endangered animals”.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/millennium-seed-bank" type="external">Millennium Seed Bank Project</a> technically collects seeds rather than DNA but, of course, seeds contain DNA. The seed bank is an international effort, with 80 nations participating and currently holds nearly 2 billion seeds from 34,088 wild plant species.</p>
<p>According to the seed bank 60 to 100 thousand plant species worldwide are currently threatened with extinction. The picture is at least equally bleak for animal species with many observers claiming that the Earth is facing a sixth “great extinction”.</p>
<p>“Habitat destruction, pollution or overfishing either kills off wild creatures and plants or leaves them badly weakened. The trouble is that in coming decades, the additional threat of worsening climate change will become more and more pronounced and could then kill off these survivors,” said Derek Tittensor, a marine ecologist at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/14/earth-faces-sixth-great-extinction-with-41-of-amphibians-set-to-go-the-way-of-the-dodo" type="external">the Guardian</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>All of these genetic collections could become much more important as the controversial term “ <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/deextinction/" type="external">de-extinction</a>” begins to circulate in scientific circles. De-extinction aims to return extinct animals to life using DNA and cloning technology. One early project currently underway at the University of California Santa Cruz aims to restore the extinct passenger pigeon using DNA collected from museum samples.</p>
<p>For fans of Jurassic Park it is worth noting that dinosaurs could never be brought back successfully. The most optimistic estimates hold that fossilized DNA can remain viable for up to 6.8 million years. The last of the dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago.</p>
<p /> | Russia aims to build world’s largest DNA databank | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/12/29/russia-aims-to-build-worlds-largest-dna-databank/ | 2014-12-29 | 3 |
<p>Photo: &lt;a href="http://rexrammell.com/"&gt;RexRammell.com&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>Idaho veterinarian, elk rancher, and political hopeful <a href="http://rexrammell.com/tenprinciples.aspx" type="external">Rex Rammell</a> first attracted national attention last year when he <a href="http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/08/obama_hunting_tags_rammell_sticks_by_joke.php" type="external">joked</a> about buying “Obama tags” to hunt the president. Now the conservative activist is running to be the GOP’s candidate for governor of Idaho. His platform? Revving up right-wing militias so they are “prepared” to deal with the growing threats to freedom posed by a federal government bent on “ <a href="http://rexrammell.com/issues.aspx" type="external">socializing</a>” the country.</p>
<p>On ABC’s “Nightline” on Tuesday, Rammell <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/idaho-militia-unemployed-groups-trains-supports-bear-arms/story?id=10242140&amp;page=4" type="external">explained</a> why it’s reasonable for those unhappy with the Obama administration to threaten violence:</p>
<p>“I don’t think anyone would argue that America is getting more and more enemies all of the time—both foreign and domestic,” said Rammell. “I think the way politics is going in the United States and the <a href="http://topics.abcnews.go.com/topic/Tea-Party-movement" type="external">Tea Party movement</a>—the whole atmosphere promotes people wanting to get prepared. And I think that is what this is about…</p>
<p>“It’s because of the current administration’s politics—the more they force upon the states, the more noise there is,” Rammell said. “The more concern people have, the less freedom there is. Lots of Idahoans believe the health care bill is very intrusive on our individual rights. … We are not going to allow them to come into the state and make what we believe are unconstitutional mandates. Even if they can get them passed in D.C., we are not going to all that to happen. These guys want to show a little force behind the scene… I don’t have a problem with that.”</p>
<p>Show a little force? Was Rammell calling for right-wing militias to try to intimidate the federal government days after the feds cracked down on the Hutaree Christian militia for <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1976308,00.html?xid=rss-topstories" type="external">plotting to kill</a>police officers? Idaho has certainly spawned it own share of militia groups and sympathesizers. Groups like Northern Idaho’s <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/idaho-militia-trains-supports-bear-arms/story?id=10242140" type="external">Lightfoot Militia</a> claim to have more than a 100 members, though they insist they aren’t looking for a “showdown” with the government and consult with local officials to make sure they’re above board. But the increasingly hysterical tone of anti-government rhetoric and growing concern about extremism have drawn increasing scrutiny to such heavily armed extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Rammell himself is a fundamentalist Mormon who has long stood on the fringe of Idaho’s right-wing political scene. He began his political crusade as a property rights activis when the state refuse to license his elk ranch due to inadequate fencing. And he first got a taste of the spotlight in 2006, when over a hundred elk escaped from his ranch, prompting the governor to order a large-scale hunt.</p>
<p>Since then, he has espoused a series of extreme views. “All of the evil empires that have ever existed have dictated what their youth would learn and by whom,” Rammell <a href="http://rexrammell.com" type="external">thunders</a> on his campaign website, slamming the federal government’s role in the education system. A climate change denialist, he argues that those who advocate addressing human-generated global warming are godless fearmongers: “The catastrophic consequences predicted by the doomsayers are evidence of their lack of faith in a Supreme Being who holds the creation and the future of the world in His hands.” He has also called upon the Almighty to help save the Constitution during the Obama years: “We are in America’s second Revolutionary War to save our freedom, which we paid for with blood. We need God’s help and I’m not ashamed to ask for it,” he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/05/rex-rammell-gubernatorial_n_411819.html" type="external">proclaimed</a> in January, around the same time that he <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rex-rammell-begins-planning-how-fulfill-mormon-prophecy" type="external">held</a> a series of male-only Mormon campaign events.</p>
<p>Rammell’s extreme views haven’t always endeared him to his fellow Republicans. He ran for Senate as an independent in 2008 and only managed to get 5.4 percent of the vote. Since he launched his primary campaign for the governor’s seat, the state GOP hasn’t rushed to embrace him. And after he refused to apologize for his joke about hunting Obama last year, he came under <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/28/rex-rammell-doubles-down/" type="external">heavy criticism</a> from state and national Republican leaders, as well as the Mormon church.&#160;</p>
<p>The incumbent governor, Republican Butch Otter, is <a href="http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=governor-2010-id" type="external">projected</a> to win another term. But Rammell’s entry into the race could still have an impact. Otter has been challenged repeatedly by the right wing of the state party—in addition to Rammell, he has <a href="http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=governor-2010-id" type="external">three</a> other challengers in the GOP primary. In response, he has moved to burnish his own conservative credentials—for instance, by making Idaho the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031800146.html" type="external">first state to sue</a> the federal government over the health care bill. In a crowded primary contest, Rammell’s militia hawkery could gain traction with the Tea Party crowd—and push the Idaho Republican Party even farther to the right. “At one time, that wing represented a minority of the state’s dominant party,” a columnist from the local Lewiston Morning Tribune wrote last year. Now, he noted, “Idaho Republicanism is becoming little different from Rammellism.”</p>
<p /> | The Idaho GOP’s Pro-Militia Candidate | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/idaho-republican-rex-rammell-governor-election-miltia/ | 2010-04-02 | 4 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />SANTA FE – New Mexico’s annual tax holiday is approaching and will provide shoppers with savings on purchases of school supplies, computers and some clothing and shoes.</p>
<p>Starting Friday through the weekend, there will be no gross receipts tax on certain products purchased at participating retailers.</p>
<p>The tax rate varies across the state but exceeds 8 percent in some communities.</p>
<p>No tax will be imposed on computers up to $1,000, including tablets; and computer hardware costing no more than $500, including printers.</p>
<p>Also tax-free are certain clothing and shoes up to $100 and school supplies under $30.</p>
<p>Cellphones and video game devices remain subject to taxation.</p>
<p>The Taxation and Revenue Department’s website – <a href="http://tax.newmexico.gov" type="external">tax.newmexico.gov</a> – lists the tax treatment of various goods.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 3-day tax holiday for NM starts Friday | false | https://abqjournal.com/437515/3-day-tax-holiday-for-nm-starts-friday.html | 2 |
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<p>Shelly Sterling is willing to accept a decision by the NBA to strip the entire Sterling family of ownership of the team - but if that happens she will DEMAND control over the sale - TMZ Sports has learned. Sources connected with the Sterling family tell us - Shelly [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.tmz.com/2014/05/08/donald-sterling-shelly-sterling-clippers-forced-sale-lawsuit/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.tmz.com</a></p>
<p /> | Shelly Sterling: If We're Forced to Sell Clippers, I Want Control of Sale | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/shelly-sterling-if-were-forced-to-sell-clippers-i-want-to-control-sale-or-else/ | 0 |
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<p>Nan-Hui Jo, the undocumented survivor of domestic violence who was <a href="" type="internal">convicted of child abduction for fleeing abuse with her child</a>&#160;and was <a href="" type="internal">detained in ICE custody facing deportation</a>, has been <a href="http://standwithnanhui.org/nanhui_release/" type="external">released on bond from immigration detention</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>We celebrate Nan-Hui’s release from jail as an incredible, critical victory following nearly one year of incarceration. We know, however, that the struggle is not over. She still needs to rebuild her relationship with her daughter, who hasn’t seen her mother since July 29, 2014. Despite her release from detention, she is still fighting deportation in upcoming immigration hearings. She is still challenging her unjust criminal conviction for child abduction, which resulted from the actions she had taken to protect herself and her child.</p>
<p>Nan-Hui’s release is just one step towards justice in a context of overwhelming personal and institutional violence and trauma: lengthy and undue detainment and forced separation between mother and child; an aggressive and racist prosecution from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office; and the threat of deportation and permanent separation from her daughter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in spite of laws meant to provide survivors with immigration relief. It is critical for us to see that these multiple abuses all stemmed from domestic violence: the violence itself, the enormous ignorance surrounding it and the complete failure to recognize and support survivors in their right to self defense and to protect their children. We live in a society where survivors are blamed and judged for staying in abusive relationships, yet, as in Nan-Hui’s case, are also unduly punished when they leave.</p>
<p>Like the case of <a href="" type="internal">Marissa Alexander</a>, Nan-Hui’s case is further evidence of the ways our deeply broken criminal (in)justice system serves to further marginalize communities of color, undocumented and immigrant communities, and those who already live at the margins. And it’s a reminder that for us to work toward justice for survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence we must find options outside of those systems.</p>
<p>Header image credit: <a href="http://standwithnanhui.org/nanhui_release/" type="external">Stand with&#160;Nan-Hui</a></p> | Breaking: Nan-Hui Jo released from immigration detention | true | http://feministing.com/2015/07/23/breaking-nan-hui-jo-released-from-immigration-detention/ | 4 |
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<p>Image source: Intuitive Surgical.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>No one is going to argue that Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) is a cheap stock. Shares trade for 36 times trailing GAAP earnings, a significant premium to the overall market. But I would argue that they aren't nearly as expensive as this key metric would have you believe.</p>
<p>Before diving into avenues for growth, it's important to note that a company's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio isn't the only way to measure how expensive its shares are. Here are other metrics I think are important.</p>
<p>Data source: Yahoo! Finance, E*Trade.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the most important of these three is the price-to-free cash flow (FCF) figure of 27. In many cases, I think FCF can be a better proxy for how well a company is doing than earnings alone, which is subject to many adjustments based on accounting. Intuitive stock appears 25% cheaper based on FCF versus normal earnings.</p>
<p>If we take a look at Intuitive's FCF history, we see a company that's been able to grow quite well the amount of cash it has left at the end of each year. The one notable exception was in 2014, when hospitals were delaying purchases of daVinci systems for the release of the Xi model, and the same hospitals were keeping their purse strings tighter to get a better gauge of the effects of the Affordable Care Act on their budgets.</p>
<p><a href="http://charts.infogr.am/column-chart?utm_source=embed_bottom&amp;utm_medium=seo&amp;utm_campaign=column_chart" type="external">Create column charts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Data source: Securities and Exchange Commission filings.</p>
<p>There are two key variables you need to consider before determining how expensive Intuitive Surgical stock is. The company has been riding high for the past two years off the strength of its procedure growth. That growth has come primarily through expansion in its U.S. general surgery category. While specific numbers aren't provided, we know that a lot of this growth has come from the burgeoning use of the daVinci to perform hernia operations in the United States.</p>
<p>That's the key advantage in owning shares of Intuitive Surgical. As an ever-increasing number of doctors log more and more hours on the daVinci Xi, they will have increased opportunity to tinker with the robot in more procedures. That kind of optionality lends itself to low-risk, high-reward results for shareholders.</p>
<p>If you look to the horizon, there are several procedures that could join hernias as the newest frontier for Intuitive: colorectal procedures, thoracic surgery, and colon and lung resections.</p>
<p>The key threat that many might not be aware of is continuing research on the efficacy of using the daVinci. It's no secret that Intuitive's sales force has been somewhat pushy in the past at encouraging patients and doctors to use the system. Usually, that's fine, because the robot really does improve patient outcomes.</p>
<p>But there have been instances in the past, most notably with benign hysterectomies, where medical officials have determined that robotic surgery was being overutilized when simpler and cheaper approaches would lead to better long-term outcomes.</p>
<p>Taking both of these forces into account, I think Intuitive is fairly to slightly overvalued. If I didn't own shares, the price tag today wouldn't stop me from buying my first position. But as a current shareholder who has been with the company for over five years, I'm very comfortable sitting tight where I am.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFCheesehead/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Stoffel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Intuitive Surgical. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Expensive Is Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Stock After Reporting Earnings? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/26/how-expensive-is-intuitive-surgical-inc-stock-after-reporting-earnings.html | 2016-10-26 | 0 |
<p>There are so many&#160;clues about Hollywood’s awareness of Harvey Weinstein, we should compile a list (see&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Dear Hollywood: Your Reaction to Weinstein Proves You’re Disgusting, Amoral Hypocrites…</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Does this ’30 Rock’ Video Prove Hollywood Know About Harvey Weinstein?</a>). Disturbingly, few people actually did anything about Weinstein. Other than cover up for him.</p>
<p>Well now we have this joke Seth MacFarlane told in 2013:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.</p>
<p>Much like with 30 Rock,&#160;this is a&#160;specific joke. Only in this case, MacFarlane admits he knew what was going on. Which is why he told the joke.</p>
<p />
<p>Ok, so telling a joke once four years ago is hardly a badge of courage. Slow your roll, Seth. Granted, if the friend confided in him it probably included him promising not to say or do anything, so you can’t fault MacFarlane for honoring a friend’s wishes. Per say.</p>
<p />
<p>But telling a joke about a known sexual harasser, then four years later saying “See, see! I DID something about it, I told a joke! And it comes from anger!” rings hollow. But it certainly goes to evidence as to why so many young women, who were not A-listers at the time of their harassment, said nothing. Look at what’s done to Weinstein as retaliation: a joke. That’s how afraid everyone was of angering Weinstein.</p>
<p>People need to start naming names.&#160;Not just random writers, or background actors either. A-listers, who most likely knew first hand what Weinstein did.&#160;Stop leaving it to victims, who have to risk everything, to speak out.</p>
<p>Established stars need to start outing people. Now.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Seth MacFarlane Knew About Harvey Weinstein, Fought Back with a Joke | true | https://louderwithcrowder.com/seth-macfarlanes-2013-dig-harvey-weinstein-yeah-knew/ | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Gimme 5</p>
<p>07-11-14-16-20</p>
<p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p>
<p>Lotto America</p>
<p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p>
<p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p>
<p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>3-1-7</p>
<p>(three, one, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-8</p>
<p>(six, one, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>2-7-8-0</p>
<p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>0-6-3-5</p>
<p>(zero, six, three, five)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p>
<p>WPT</p>
<p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p>
<p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Gimme 5</p>
<p>07-11-14-16-20</p>
<p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p>
<p>Lotto America</p>
<p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p>
<p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p>
<p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>3-1-7</p>
<p>(three, one, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-8</p>
<p>(six, one, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>2-7-8-0</p>
<p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>0-6-3-5</p>
<p>(zero, six, three, five)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p>
<p>WPT</p>
<p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p>
<p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p> | ME Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/a51265a11e2547468a8ea5da6e3d4f3d | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>In separate, 30-minute question-and-answer sessions sponsored by The Politico and a Washington, D.C., television station, Obama and Clinton for the most part stuck to the facts – or, often, to statements that were matters of judgment and thus out of our bailiwick. But, our mission being to point out the diminutive distortions as well as the big, fat slabs of baloney, we bring you flubs we found in last night’s non-debate:</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/iraqis/ | 2 |
||
<p><a href="" type="internal" />This is an expanded version of Arik Bjorn’s remarks delivered at the podium to the South Carolina Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Good afternoon.&#160; My name is <a href="http://www.bjorn2run.com/" type="external">Arik Bjorn</a>.</p>
<p>When you find yourself preaching to the choir, sometimes you just have to sing your heart out.&#160; Let’s belt a bit, shall we?</p>
<p>When the dust of Campaign 2016 settles, I will be your next U.S. Congressman for South Carolina’s Second Congressional District.</p>
<p>I have been told multiple times that my campaign—which to my mind is our campaign—must be herculean to succeed.&#160; Truly, it is David versus Goliath.</p>
<p>People often forget that, with his slingshot, David was not a disadvantaged warrior.&#160; He was in fact an expert positioned to win.&#160; As such, the stones in my pouch are the true principles of the Democratic Party—the building blocks of Civilization.</p>
<p>With these stones, I am positioned to win.&#160; We all are positioned to win.&#160; For these stones have always felled giants and barbarians when thrown with precision and force.&#160; In the coming weeks, I will not hesitate to sling these stones.&#160; Philistines, take heed.</p>
<p>I am the only real Democrat running for South Carolina’s Second Congressional District.&#160; As many of you know, my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1701410290129924/" type="external">JUNE 14 PRIMARY</a> opponent ran as a Tea Party Republican in ’08, ’10, and ’12.&#160; In 2014, he defeated Mr. Ed Greenleaf, a true Democrat.</p>
<p>We the Voters of South Carolina Congressional District Two—including myself—share the blame for that egregious election outcome.&#160; We must never again let a Republican wolf in Democratic sheep’s clothing win a nomination in our state.</p>
<p>For a nomination for the Democratic Party is precious and beyond assignable value.&#160; It is worth its weight in the blood, sweat, and tears of our progressive ancestors and current leaders.</p>
<p>My time with you today is limited.&#160; In the space of a few minutes, I must begin the swift journey toward earning your trust and support.&#160; JUNE 14 is around the corner.</p>
<p>Some of you know me as ‘the Candidate with the Beard.’&#160; I have been urged by some toward a clean-shaven path.&#160; Yet our campaign has assembled an advisory team that includes Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Socrates, and John Brown.&#160; We even reached across the aisle to Kirkman Finlay.&#160; The vote was unanimous:&#160; Policy trumps hair.&#160; (Just ask Bernie.)&#160; The beard stays.</p>
<p>As to policy and the path toward earning your trust and support:&#160; For all my days, I will wear my <a href="http://sc.aflcio.org/5041/" type="external">South Carolina AFL-CIO</a> endorsement like a badge of honor.</p>
<p>Perhaps you have heard the rumor that politicians sometimes fudge on endorsement questionnaires.&#160; I can look each of you in the eye and swear on the holy labor names of Eugene V. Debs and Sacco &amp; Vanzetti that the AFL-CIO Congressional Questionnaire and my personal political philosophy align to form a bright progressive light.</p>
<p>A SC AFL-CIO endorsement does not merely establish my support of Living Wage and Workers Rights. A SC AFL-CIO endorsement does not only mean that I abhor “fair trade” agreements that leave the U.S. middle class in the proverbial dust.&#160; By the way, Hillary and Bernie agree with me in opposing the TPP.&#160; Let’s make this part of our Democratic banner as well.</p>
<p>While I’m at it, let’s support <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Introducing-the-WAGE-Act-to-Strengthen-the-Rights-of-Working-People" type="external">The WAGE Act</a>, introduced by Senator Murray (WA) and Representative Scott (VA). &#160;The WAGE Act strengthens worker protections and makes it easier for workers to fight for higher wages and improved workplace conditions. &#160;Colleagues, if we don’t rebuild collective bargaining, U.S. workers and families will continue to lose out on the economic progress their hard work creates.</p>
<p>A SC&#160;AFL-CIO endorsement means that I believe in the abolishment of Right-to-Work.&#160; It also means that I support human rights and ALL causes of justice.</p>
<p>A SC AFL-CIO endorsement means I stand before you a proud Ally of the LGBTQ community who supports same-sex marriage and who calls for a permanent flushing of barbaric bathroom bills.&#160; As your Congressman, I will strongly support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.&#160; Since 1994, ENDA has remained the proverbial “lonely bill on Capitol Hill.”&#160; ENDA’s day has come.</p>
<p>A SC AFL-CIO endorsement means I say “Black Lives Matter”—and then pause. … &#160;Because the movement needs no qualification.&#160; Black.&#160; Lives.&#160; Matter.&#160; Period.</p>
<p>A SC AFL-CIO endorsement means I support immigration reform and recognize immigration as a cornerstone of our democracy.&#160; It means I will oppose legislative efforts to scapegoat immigrant groups.&#160; It means I will legislate from a position of:&#160; “Give me your tired, your poor.”</p>
<p>A SC AFL-CIO endorsement means that I will, in all ways possible, advance the cause of Dr. King’s <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-acceptance_en.html" type="external">“audacious hope”</a>:</p>
<p>I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. &#160;I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.</p>
<p>The world is filled with self-centered men and women.&#160; But we are other-centered.&#160; We are the builders of Civilization.&#160; The work before us is monumental.&#160; When we retire this evening, after our long weekend of progressive politicking, let us remember:</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a phalanx of elephants, the likes of which we have not seen since the days of Hannibal, surrounds.&#160; Haley.&#160; Scott.&#160; Graham.&#160; Sanford. &#160;Duncan.&#160; Gowdy.&#160; Mulvaney.&#160; Rice.&#160; A Republican-controlled General Assembly.&#160; And worst of all, “Status Quo” Joe Wilson—the Legislative Henchman of the One Percent—who, after 8 terms and 15 years, has brought us nothing but shame and a nickname.</p>
<p>My fellow Democrats, the barbarians aren’t at the gate.&#160; They own the gate.&#160; But I am not going to sit around in a seersucker suit sipping sweet tea while my neighborhood, my city, my county, my district, my state, my environment—my home—is destroyed.</p>
<p>What separates Democrats from Republicans is our&#160;foundational belief that Government is Good.&#160; We are Government.&#160; And when “We the People” do our job—to link and protect individuals, communities, and industry—Government is a positive, powerful force.</p>
<p>Colleagues, the job before us is indeed herculean.&#160; It is epic.</p>
<p>Let us roll up our sleeves, now, and in the days leading up to the JUNE 14 PRIMARY—and then to November 8 and beyond.</p>
<p>“There’s a Better Way!”&#160; Let us blaze a trail of progress together.</p>
<p>VOTE <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bjorn2Run/" type="external">BJORN FOR CONGRESS</a>.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bernin’ the Midnight Oil on the Congress Campaign Trail</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">There’s a Better Way: Remarks to the South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">There’s a Better Way: The Nightmare of a Trump-Cruz-Wilson Regime</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | There’s a Better Way: Remarks to the 2016 South Carolina Democratic Party Convention | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/theres-better-way-remarks-2016-south-carolina-democratic-party-convention/ | 2016-04-29 | 4 |
<p>During recent decades, the powers-that-be in the Golden State have grown accustomed to getting virtually everything on their political wish list.&#160; Declare a state of emergency, ram through unpopular and unnecessary measures that harm working class people and the environment, and brook no dissent in the process – that’s been the prescription of the US Treasury, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank when “structurally adjusting” national economies in the Global South and Eastern Europe. California’s political elites have used the same general formula to great effect in their home state.</p>
<p>Take the University of California.&#160; In November, only months after declaring a highly suspect “state of fiscal emergency,” the UC’s uber-wealthy 26-member Board of Regents approved a 32 per cent increase on student fees.&#160; With this latest hike, the cost of university enrollment has risen by 171 percent in the last eight years.&#160;&#160; As we examined &#160; <a href="" type="internal">in an earlier piece</a> on this site these fee increases do not even directly pay for students’ education, but instead are used as revenue and collateral by the Regents to boost their bond ratings with Wall Street lenders: a necessary condition for a larger debt-fueled development scheme centered on the finance capital, real estate, and high-tech sectors the Regents and their business partners preside over in their day jobs.</p>
<p>In the near-term, it appears the pain will grow much worse.&#160; Thanks to the state’s regressive tax code, designed explicitly to favor large corporations and land barons, revenues have not only failed to keep up with spending, but the state’s budget gap this year, following several years of cataclysmic shortfalls, measures somewhere between $20-60 billion — depending how you do the math.&#160; Despite Governor “We Have No Choice” Schwarzenegger’s admonitions against tax increases, taxes have in fact drastically increased in this state, especially on the poor, the young, and other populations lacking the political power and connections wielded by those who field legions of lobbyists in Sacramento and otherwise dominate the capitol’s political machinery.&#160; Students are a prime example: the Regents’ serial gouging of them and their families actually amounts to a huge tax increase on a particular segment of the population.</p>
<p>In this case, though, the group of Californians who are resisting this opportunistic exploitation of “the crisis” are actually giving the economic hit men&#160; a serious run for their money.</p>
<p>In response to the Regents’ November fee increase, a swelling student movement at University of California and California State University campuses occupied campus buildings named&#160; for former regents, presidents, and chancellors – a collection of dead white men who have loomed over these universities in years past.&#160; Occupiers of UCLA’s Campbell Hall, named after the UC’s 10th President, rechristened it “Carter-Huggins Hall,” after the pair of Black Panthers slain in an FBI COINTELPRO operation there on January 17, 1969.&#160; In the last few months, the occupation movement has spread up and down the state, stirring students at even the most traditionally subdued campuses. &#160;UC Irvine, CSU Fullerton, and CSU Fresno students have joined the historically rowdier UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz campuses in taking over buildings, dropping banners, distributing incendiary pamphlets and handbills, and standing firm against police intimidation.</p>
<p>“WE make the crisis,” goes one popular slogan of the occupiers.</p>
<p>The newly insurgent mood on campuses is spreading quickly.&#160; Through its refusal to be co-opted and managed by the same university leaders and politicians who have colluded in structurally adjusting California’s educational system, the rebellion of California’s students — joined by many university workers and faculty members — is in the process of forcing a shift in state politics.</p>
<p>A New Student Insurgency</p>
<p>The militant phase of the new student movement kicked off in September.&#160; Over the summer, the UC’s 26-member Board of Regents had bestowed unprecedented “emergency powers” on UC President Yudof, who responded by proposing the 32 per cent fee increase, laying off hundreds of employees, and imposing mandatory “furloughs” on university faculty and staff.&#160; Administrators responded by cutting numerous popular campus-level programs.&#160; It was the single most violent episode of structural adjustment imposed by the Regents thus far.</p>
<p>On the opening days of fall instruction, students and workers at multiple UC campuses responded by holding rallies and protests.&#160;&#160; A group of roughly 20 UC Santa Cruz students occupied the campus’ Graduate Student Commons, unfurling multiple banners including one bearing the slogan “Raise Hell, Not Costs,” and another calling for an end to capitalism.&#160; The UCSC contingent voluntarily withdrew the occupation a week later, but the movement was fermenting rapidly, not only in Santa Cruz but elsewhere.</p>
<p>In October, UC Santa Cruz professor Bob Meister – clearly emboldened by the rebellious mood taking hold on his and other campuses – published a scathing critique of the university’s finances.&#160; In his open letter to students across the UC’s eleven campuses,“They Pledged Your Tuition,” Meister cited the Regents’ own data and internal documents to reveal that the primary use of student fee revenue since 2004 has been as collateral for bonds to fund campus construction projecs.&#160; Students take out “subprime” loans from banks and loan sharks, at interest rates as high as six per cent, all designed by the Regents to shore up the UC’s strong bond ratings.&#160; Under the terms of their Moody’s bond rating, the Regents are encouraged to perpetually raise fees.&#160; Thus, they free themselves from the unpredictability of the State of California’s budget ax by relying on a stable, captive stream of revenue in the form of tuition.</p>
<p>In spite of the Regents’ insistence on the necessity of raising fees to astronomical levels, the university’s construction budget reached $8.1 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year, a figure Yudof bragged in a letter to the Regents in early-2009 marked “an historic high.”&#160; At the height of the UC’s supposed financial difficulties, the university even loaned $200 million to the State – the university’s ostensible patron – in a stop-gap measure to help close California’s budget deficit!</p>
<p>Critiques of the university’s power structure written by UCLA instructor Robert Samuels and UC Berkeley emeritus professor Charles Schwartz were also widely circulated among students, faculty, and workers earlier this year during the height of the campus occupations.&#160; Despite the Regents’ claims of being on the verge of running out of money, Schwartz, Samuels and others have shown that the Regents actually hold billions of dollars in reserve accounts.&#160; Samuels went so far as to call the UC a giant “hedge fund.”&#160; Such analyses among the faculty have further fueled the growing student rebellion.</p>
<p>During the two-day span of the November Regents meeting, students at UCSC, UCLA, and UC Davis all occupied campus buildings.&#160; One of two groups of UCSC occupiers took over the Kerr Hall administration building, wielding a list of demands that included repealing the 32 per cent fee increase, stopping all current construction on campuses, instituting transparency in the UC’s budget process, and even demanding that the Regents and administration “cut ties with Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos &amp; Livermore National Labs.”</p>
<p>The most significant turning point in the movement to “occupy and escalate” arguably occurred on Friday, November 20, at the UC’s flagship campus, Berkeley.&#160; That morning, more than 41 students barricaded themselves inside&#160; the centrally located Wheeler Hall, home to the largest lecture hall and many of the most heavily used classrooms on campus.</p>
<p>Word of the occupation gathered thousands of supporters throughout the day.&#160; Police moved in to evict the protest, but they were initially unable to break through the barricade inside the building, leading some of them to pound incessantly on the barricaded doors in frustration and snarl threats at the occupiers from the other side: “Get ready for your beat-down,” some of the students recall the police shouting up at them.&#160; At various points, the police beat the occupation’s outside supporters&#160; with batons, and one officer even shot a Cal undergrad in the stomach with a rubber bullet.&#160; Shortly afterward, a graduate student’s fingers were destroyed by an officer who struck her repeatedly with a baton for placing her hand on the metal guard rail. Her finger was left hanging by a thread of flesh, and she required reconstructive surgery to repair the damage.</p>
<p>Instead of being intimidated into acquiescence by the police violence, most of the protesters were emboldened.&#160; Outside Wheeler Hall, supporters continued to intervene, often physically preventing the police from evicting, arresting, and likely brutalizing the occupiers.&#160; By nightfall the occupiers remained ensconced in Wheeler Hall, a full twelve hours after the initial 6:38 a.m. Facebook posting, having sustained themselves there in the face of an all-day siege from the UC Police Department, the Berkeley Police Department, and the Alameda County Sheriffs Department.&#160; The crowd surrounding the building had swelled to upwards of 2,000.&#160; The stand-off ended when the occupiers negotiated a truce with the police and Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.&#160; They agreed to vacate the building, and the police agreed not to press charges against them.&#160; The occupiers left the building under their own power, to the raucous cheers of the gathered crowd.</p>
<p>A few days later, a group of 70 students took over UC Office of the President headquarters in Oakland.&#160; Rallies took place at almost every UC campus and many of the CSUs.&#160; A new student occupation of the administration building at UC San Diego began this past week, comprised primarily of people of color who are demanding an end to racist and exclusionary university policies, and who have connected their action with a cogent critique of global capitalism and the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.&#160; Solidarity actions have sprouted up at Evergreen State College in Washington State and even the University of Vienna.&#160; And a growing number of occupations are now being planned, at New School of New York (also the site of an occupation in 2009) and (rumor has it) in Boston, where California’s movement has catalyzed a teacher, and worker strike to take place on March 4.</p>
<p>March 4 will see major protests here in California across the UC, CSU, and Community Colleges.&#160; Students, workers, and faculty have planned for a statewide day of action, again targeting the Regents, State Assembly, and Governor.</p>
<p>Proxies of American Capitalism</p>
<p>This movement reflects a growing understanding among students, workers, and faculty members that the fee increases, lay-offs, and programmatic cuts are only the beginning stages of a permanent and more far-reaching plan pursued by the university’s power structure, whose members serve as proxies for American capitalism at large, and specifically as representatives of the financial elites who have gained unprecedented power over the state and economy.&#160; According to one incisive pamphlet, the November fee increase represented a “moment where the truth of the UC [became] undeniable, where its ostensible difference from the violence of the larger society vanishe[d].”</p>
<p>This political violence was matched by the physical terror wrought by the various police departments who have responded to the occupations, particularly on November 20th in Berkeley.&#160; “It was the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen in my life,” one young woman told a KTVU news reporter in between sobs of shock, when describing the beatings she witnessed.&#160; Yet, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau commended the police for “peacefully” handling&#160; the situation.</p>
<p>Against such blatant contradictions between official pronouncement and the experiences of most students, deep-seated liberal assumptions about the essentially benign nature of authority and the university itself have begun to vanish.&#160; The reality of the brutal political economy of global capitalism is being laid bare for a new generation of mostly middle class students to see.&#160; In this particular case, that global system has turned hundreds of thousands out of their homes, embroiled millions in mortgage, credit card, and student loan debts, and eliminated state support for everything from education to health care for children of poverty-stricken families, yet criminalized and often brutalized those who meaningfully resist what those in power have in store for them: much more of the same.</p>
<p>Of course, these protests did not spring fully formed from the void.&#160; Students at Berkeley and Santa Cruz have engaged in numerous direct action protests against the university power structure since 2005, ranging from tree sits that significantly slowed campus development projects, to protests against the university’s nuclear weapons development contracts.&#160; The UC’s major workforce union, AFSCME, has mobilized for several years now alongside student supporters to defend worker pay and benefits, which sag below the levels paid by peer institutions and even state and community colleges.</p>
<p>Black, Latino, and American Indian students have been struggling since before Proposition 209 in 1996 to overcome the state’s institutionalized racism and class bias that have shut out working class students from the UC.&#160; Part of this effort to increase access to higher education has involved educational outreach programs into Los Angeles and Bay Area urban school districts where, because of the hyper-resegregation of the educational system since the 1970s, some high schools are upwards of 95 per cent non-white.&#160; These same schools tend to be the most impoverished, lacking even the most rudimentary pedagogical resources and extracurricular opportunities that facilitate a transition to college and beyond.&#160; These programs to open up the university to traditionally excluded students have been some of the first cut by the Regents’ austerity measures.</p>
<p>The most damaging effects of these taxes and cuts have been visited upon departments like Ethnic Studies and Feminist Studies, and against educational outreach missions to students of color.&#160; This fundamentally racist assault on working class students has gotten so bad that roughly only four per cent of the UC study body is African American, as compared with roughly nine per cent of the overall state population, and a disproportionately high number of those black students who do attend the UC attend the system’s least prestigious campuses such as Merced and Riverside.&#160; Last year, only 124 black students enrolled as freshmen at UC Berkeley.&#160; Only 19 American Indian students were part of this same entering class.</p>
<p>BART police officer Johannes Mehserle’s &#160;murder of young, black Oakland resident Oscar Grant in January 2009, widely publicized over YouTube and mainstream news programs, was an especially important catalyst of the Berkeley actions.&#160;&#160; Many of those now involved in organizing the building occupations were among those who set the streets of Oakland aflame in the street battles following Grant’s murder (without which Officer Mehserle likely would not have wound up facing charges of murder).&#160; Students and young people across California have been connecting the dots: dismally low rates of admissions into the UC for black and Latino students are matched by shockingly disproportionate rates of incarceration of these same populations.&#160; More black men in California are now in prison than enrolled in a university.&#160; Analyses relating the grave injustices being visited upon the ghettos to the exploitation of students and workers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and common-sensical.</p>
<p>In January, the largest crowd in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall since at least 1970 gathered to celebrate Obama’s inauguration by watching it on a big screen rented out by the student government.&#160; With Obama-mania now waning, if not down right extinguished, many of those same students were out in force to surround Wheeler Hall a mere few hundred paces away from the Sproul Plaza steps, undaunted by the threats levied by the UC’s riot police.</p>
<p>The protests are causing trouble for California’s ruling elite. UC President Yudof has &#160;surrounded himself with a high-paid public relations staff, replete with Madison Avenue types of advertising execs, to conduct a publicity campaign on behalf of the university, which ostensibly targets Sacramento legislators with appeals to increase university funding, but which also appeals to students whose attention the Regents would much rather turn away from their radical challenges to the university’s internal finances.&#160; “Students are a legitimate voice. [They] are there as a consumer, and we are seeing if our product is fulfilling your needs,” UC Regents Chairman Russell Gould – one of California’s leading finance capitalists – has offered by way of sympathy with the student movement.</p>
<p>Governor Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, even credited the movement with inspiring the governor’s recent proposal to restore some funding to higher education by privatizing some of the state’s prisons.&#160; “Those protests on the UC campuses were the tipping point,” she said.</p>
<p>Will Parrish is a writer and organizer living in Laytonville, CA.</p>
<p>Darwin Bond-Graham is a sociologist who splits his time between New Orleans, Albuquerque, and Navarro, CA.</p>
<p>Readers can contact Will Parrish at wparrish(a)riseup.net and Darwin Bond-Graham at darwin(a)riseup.net. This piece also runs in the <a href="http://theava.com/" type="external">Anderson Valley Advertiser</a>, one of the very few real newspapers in America and probably soon the last one left standing.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | "WE Make the Crisis" | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/03/03/quot-we-make-the-crisis-quot/ | 2010-03-03 | 4 |
<p>The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 3.3 percent annualized pace in the third quarter based on the latest data on expected lower contribution from exports and inventory investments, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed.</p>
<p>The latest third-quarter gross domestic product estimate was weaker than the one for a 3.4 percent growth rate calculated on Aug. 25, <a href="https://www.frbatlanta.org/cqer/research/gdpnow.aspx" type="external">the Atlanta Fed said.</a></p> | Atlanta Fed Trims Q3 GDP Growth View to 3.3 Percent | false | https://newsline.com/atlanta-fed-trims-q3-gdp-growth-view-to-3-3-percent/ | 2017-09-01 | 1 |
<p>Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D.-Conn.), an opponent of the legislation / AP</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Bill McMorris</a> December 6, 2013 10:00 am</p>
<p>A coalition of business groups is pushing congress to pass legislation that will make it easier for the U.S. to enter into free trade agreements.</p>
<p>The coalition, led by the Business Roundtable, has been approaching lawmakers on both sides of the aisle since May urging them to pass the Trade Promotion Authority.</p>
<p>"It's a really important opportunity for Congress to act sooner, rather than later," said David Thomas, VP of Trade Policy at the Roundtable. "It strengthens our negotiators hands and empowers congress to set goals and objectives for policy."</p>
<p>The law gives the executive branch more authority to negotiate trade policy, while allowing Congress to set out mandates for what can be achieved in trade policy.</p>
<p>The U.S. is in the midst of negotiations for three major trade agreements, two of which could be adopted in the next year. Getting TPA passed, Thomas said, will help the administration to strike better deals for the economy.</p>
<p>"There's urgency for congress to pass TPA legislation because it empowers Congress to set roadmaps and then foreign negotiators, foreign partners, know that US negotiators have clear instructions on key priorities," Thomas said.</p>
<p>The legislation has met stern resistance from Democrats, as well as a small coalition of Republicans. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) and Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.) penned a <a href="http://delauro.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=1455:delauro-miller-lead-151-house-dems-telling-president-they-will-not-support-outdated-fast-track-for-trans-pacific-partnership&amp;catid=2:2012-press-releases&amp;Itemid=21" type="external">letter</a> to President Obama asking him not to sign the "outdated" legislation. More than 150 House Democrats signed it.</p>
<p>"In light of the broad scope of today's trade agreements, it is even more vital that Congress have a fulsome role in shaping these pacts' terms," the letter says. "Given our concerns, we will oppose&#160; "Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority or any other mechanism delegating Congress' constitutional authority over trade policy that continues to exclude us from having a meaningful role in the formative stages of trade agreements and throughout negotiating and approval processes."</p>
<p>Thomas shares the Democrats concerns that trade policy should adapt to the current economic environment, but said that blocking TPA would only further hinder U.S. negotiating efforts. TPA was first passed in 1974 and was renewed several times before it expired in 2002.</p>
<p>"It's important to update the negotiating objectives in the 2002 law because a lot's changed in the global marketplace. There are many new challenges for businesses, from protecting intellectual property to competing with state-owned enterprises and ensuring the flow of data across borders," Thomas said.</p>
<p>The coalition has been working to educate lawmakers on trade policy, paying special attention to lawmakers who were elected after 2002. The group has circulated a fact sheet rebutting the "myth" trumpeted by TPA opponents that the law is executive overreach into legislative power to set treaty and trade policy.</p>
<p>"TPA does not cede to the President the ability to set U.S. trade negotiating objectives and decide whether trade agreements meet Congressional priorities for international trade," the sheet <a href="http://businessroundtable.org/blog/the-myths-and-realities-of-trade-promotion-authority" type="external">says</a>. "The United States becomes a party to a trade agreement and is legally bound under the agreement only after Congress votes to approve the agreement."</p>
<p>Thomas said the group is not fighting any new battles in the latest dispute over free trade agreements. Trade unions and Democratic allies have voiced increasing opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal between the U.S. and more than a dozen countries. Those arguments have been around since Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, according to Thomas.</p>
<p>"Many of those Democrats who signed the letter have been longtime opponents of trade for various reasons," he said. "We have a good foundation of bipartisan support for free trade and trade agreements."</p>
<p>Congress is unlikely to take up the TPA before its January recess, but the bill is expected to go to committee in early 2014.</p> | Businesses Pushing for Legislation to Ease Approval of Trade Agreements | true | http://freebeacon.com/businesses-pushing-for-legislation-to-ease-approval-of-trade-agreements/ | 2013-12-06 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON (ABP) — The White House condemned Sept. 29 the conviction of a pastor sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity in Iran.</p>
<p>Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, pastor of the Church of Iran, was tried and convicted of apostasy — the act of leaving Islam — in 2010. After refusing to recant, a court sentenced him Sept. 28 to death by hanging under Islamic Sharia law.</p>
<p />
<p>Nadarkhani converted from Islam to Christianity at age 19 and became a pastor of a small evangelical church. He was arrested in 2009 while attempting to register his church in his home city of Rascht.</p>
<p>A trial court found that Nadarkhani had not been a practicing adult Muslim prior to his conversion but ruled him guilty of apostasy because he is of Muslim descent. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction, with a provision of annulment for the death penalty if Nadarkhani recanted his faith.</p>
<p>The verdict prompted protests around the world. They included author and mega-church pastor Rick Warren, who asked followers on Twitter to join the protest Sept. 28.</p>
<p>On Thursday White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement condemning the conviction and calling for the pastor’s release.</p>
<p>“Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people,” Carney said. “That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities' utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran's continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bob Allen</a>is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.</p> | White House condemns death sentence for Iranian Christian | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/whitehousecondemnsdeathsentenceforiranianchristian/ | 3 |
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<p>April 9, 2012</p>
<p>By Katy Grimes</p>
<p>More than ever, California is a state run by children. Selfish, self-absorbed state officials and lawmakers have been implementing pet policies and legislation for so many decades, they are now arguing among themselves over whose liberal policies are better.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>A recent op-ed and subsequent letter to the editor of the Sacramento Bee exemplify this.</p>
<p>Gov. Jerry&#160;Brown’s current and former Natural Resources Secretaries wrote to the Sacramento Bee, criticizing and defending Brown’s green agenda. But both missed the far more important larger picture: California is going broke, our infrastructure is in disrepair and top state employees are getting paid better than Fortune 500 CEOs.</p>
<p>Instead of arguing how green Brown is, the discussion should center around misguided policies and childish and slimy politics.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/01/4380297/governor-isnt-looking-out-for.html#disqus_thread" type="external">op ed</a> for the Sacramento Bee, Huey D. Johnson,&#160;Brown’s former Natural Resources Secretary–from Brown’s gubernatorial stints in the 1970’s–wrote that he doesn’t think the governor is green enough. Current Natural Resources Secretary John Laird <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/06/4396509/governor-browns-environmental.html#disqus_thread" type="external">responded</a>, defending Brown’s green agenda in a feeble letter to the editor.</p>
<p>Laird was appointed to the agency after he lost a run for the state Senate against Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo. &#160;As Natural Resources Secretary, Laird is receiving a much larger salary than the Senate would pay, and he is only accountable to the Governor–not a bad tradeoff for losing.</p>
<p>According to Johnson, “precious resource assets include forests, parks, air and soil”&#160;are at risk because of Brown’s failure to make proper appointments.</p>
<p>Johnson was critical of the parks department director, a Schwarzenegger appointment, who he says is about to give away some land for a golf course in Lake Tahoe.</p>
<p>But the state water policy is what really rankled Johnson. “For a state that has been so progressive, the antiquated, corrupt water matters are unbelievable,” Johnson said.</p>
<p>I agree with him about water. The state has done nothing about water storage. In our good rain years, California loses most of it to runoff. &#160;That’s just negligence in a state which has to send so much water to the San Francisco Bay area and the cities in the south.</p>
<p>Laird defended Brown’s “big green agenda”:</p>
<p>“He signed a ban on shark finning and on Bisphenol A in children’s food containers. California adopted a bold plan for electric vehicles: 1.5 million by 2025.”</p>
<p>That’s really bold.</p>
<p>Laird also said that the state’s parks are being closed because of budget cuts.</p>
<p>But the state parks closures are about as political as it gets. California’s tourism industry benefits significantly from the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the state’s parks every year. Closure of any of the parks &#160;will have virtually no impact on the state’s massive deficit, but will slam tourism.</p>
<p>The water debacle is politics at work, not leadership, and it’s killing the state.</p>
<p>Closing parks is pure politics. Signing a ban on shark finning and BPA is political drama, designed to grab headlines.</p>
<p>The other headline grabber is High-Speed Rail. While the governor appears hypnotized by the train,&#160;and continues to advance it instead of pushing to repair the highways and roads, even California’s voters have grown queasy on the subject.</p>
<p>Brown is also pushing a tax increase to help pay for the state’s growing deficit. But pushing tax increases is career suicide in this state.</p>
<p>California’s politicians keep passing legislation that only grabs headlines and deflects from the serious issues.</p>
<p>California has a water problem–the solutions aren’t sexy and won’t get anyone reelected.</p>
<p>Jerry Brown was elected because enough voters believed him when he said, “At this stage of my life, I’m prepared to focus on nothing else but fixing this state I love.” Brown is&#160;74 and has spent most of his career in politics.</p>
<p>But so far,&#160;the godfather of the state’s organized labor movement has only given back to the union powers which put him back in office.</p>
<p>It’s not just Brown’s green agenda that is failing; it’s his entire agenda. Again. California needs a grownup in the governor’s office, and some adults in the Legislature.</p>
<p>The self-absorbed, hyper-sensitive children currently masquerading as lawmakers and leaders have done staggering amounts of damage to this state from which it may not recover. They’ve ruined the environment, ruined the schools, devastated the agriculture industry, created a water crisis and can’t even properly maintain roads, bridges, levees, sewer systems and rivers.</p>
<p>That’s should be proof enough that California needs a part-time Legislature made up of people with real jobs, who understand how to live within their means instead of raising taxes whenever times get tough. Feeding out of the public trough skews a lawmakers’ perspective, and the role becomes instead about saving their own job instead of saving the state.</p>
<p>California has always been known as the most self-absorbed liberal state in the country. The gluttonous appetites for welfare and social services, and now, big public salaries and pensions, have brought the chickens home to roost.</p>
<p>The Governor appears incapable to do anything about the state of the state, and legislators look like children.</p> | California needs adult supervision | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2012/04/09/ca-needs-some-adults/ | 2018-04-20 | 3 |
<p>Along with other Democrats and some Republicans cashing in on a modern day, electoral California “gold rush,” President Barack Obama has increasingly focused his fundraising efforts on California, where this past week the president attended five fundraisers during his third visit to the Golden State in just one month, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/231107-obama-in-california-gold-rush" type="external">The Hill</a> reports.</p>
<p>President Obama’s visit this past Wednesday was the latest of sixteen total visits to <a href="" type="internal">California</a> since the president assumed office. Amie Parnes’ analysis at The Hill focuses mostly on how California voters, animated by social issues like legalizing gay marriage– which President Obama recently became the first US president to fully endorse– are providing the Obama campaign with a needed windfall as big finance donors on the East Coast cool to the president’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric as he heads into a general election against finance titan, Mitt Romney. Hollywood and Silicon Valley are where the Obama campaign is really striking gold with donors.</p>
<p>But another important aspect of this story is the irony of federal politicians making stops in California for campaign cash while California remains the nation’s biggest federal “donor state” –which is to say that more money is taken from California in federal taxes than it gets back in federal programs, projects, and subsidies. So the question for California voters to ask is: if California is so important to federal politicians for fundraising purposes, why doesn’t it get a better deal from its relationship with the federal government? If California voters continue to donate to federal candidates like President Obama, what’s going to be in it for California?</p> | Obama Campaign Increasingly Focusing Its Fundraising Efforts on California | false | https://ivn.us/2012/06/09/obama-campaign-increasingly-focusing-its-fundraising-efforts-on-california/ | 2012-06-09 | 2 |
<p />
<p>&#160;This Labor Day, which sides are you on?</p>
<p>Nope, “sides” is not a typo. This Labor Day I’m calling on organized labor to grapple with and overcome our unions’ simultaneously heroic and sordid history in regard to social justice and especially racial equality, U.S. working people’s “ <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/manypasts/" type="external">Many Pasts</a>.”</p>
<p>Liberals often don’t want to touch criticism of labor unions because this would be “washing dirty laundry in public,” weakening a frequently-attacked progressive force we badly need. But the corporate media and the Right are quick to expose union wrongdoing -- though they are silent about Wall Street’s corruption. We can’t clean up problems we don’t face so we actually weaken unions when we don’t insist on their being self-critical.</p>
<p>One reality we should discuss this Labor Day is that unions can’t be counted on to be on the right side of the struggle between wage earners and the boss. They still have the identity crisis Kim Moody described in 1998. The AFL-CIO has the “vaguely class-oriented idea that the federation must speak for all ‘working families’ and turn up the ‘street heat’ to organize the millions.” But at the same time the unions cling to the illusion they will be rewarded if they cozy up to capitalism, accepting all but its worst excesses.</p>
<p>This schizophrenia is apparent in the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which collaborates with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Through NED, AFT assists the U.S. State Department to <a href="" type="internal">undercut unions that are unfriendly to U.S. capitalism</a>. In doing so the AFT subverts resistance to the global project to destroy public education. NED sponsors the <a href="http://www.cipe.org/" type="external">Center for International Private Enterprise</a> (CIPE) which supports “development of market-oriented institutions around the world.” While it has started to campaign against privatization of education, AFT simultaneously pushes for the “free market” globally. Which side is the AFT on?</p>
<p>Let’s commend the positive change in labor, like its shift on immigrant rights, the campaign for #FightFor15, efforts to <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/fast-food-forward-black-lives-matter-police-labor" type="external">raise the issue of race in unions</a> in response to #BlackLivesMatter. But these efforts are constrained by the unions’ lack of internal democracy and unwillingness to break with business (unionism) as usual. Unions can’t fix every social problem and ought not be expected to do so, but to win the loyalty and trust of working people labor has to embrace and act on the principle that if it’s a social justice problem, it’s a labor issue.</p>
<p>When AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka acknowledges the <a href="http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/which-side-are-you-on-an-interview-on-racial-justice-organizing-in-the-labor-movement-for-black-lives-matter-hesaid/" type="external">contradiction of police unions being in AFSCME</a>, that both Michael Brown’s mother and killer are union members and “our brother killed our sister’s son,” he begins to do that. However, it’s not enough to talk. We need the courage to enforce the principle that solidarity, social justice and democracy are as “union” as salary and wages. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, but when unions make social justice (and union democracy) labor issues they become the connective tissue of a broad social movement that wins public loyalty and trust in labor battles. &#160;</p>
<p>What does this kind of unionism actually look like? The <a href="http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/virden-massacre.html" type="external">Battle of Virden</a> in Illinois, a miners strike, simultaneously inspires and cautions about the challenge unions face in confronting racism. &#160;As Carl Weinberg explains, to break the miners’ strike, which had deep, social support and an extraordinarily courageous, militant union, employers recruited blacks from Alabama, bringing them by train to Illinois. African-American union miners, mainly from Springfield, helped patrol the tracks approaching Virden in a show of solidarity with their brother miners. In a remarkable show of solidarity, “penniless Black miners and their families who arrived in Virden refused to serve as strikebreakers once they learned the truth of the situation.” Yet the operators’ “divide and conquer” tactic was partly successful in making white Illinois miners believe that blacks would always be strikebreakers. The strike was successful in winning its immediate aims but Weinberg concludes that the limit of the miners’ success in the Battle of Virden was “the powerful and ongoing scourge of racism in the region.”</p>
<p>The other part of this story is how black miners who defended union principles negotiated relations with racist miners. The <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5311/" type="external">letters of Richard L. Davis</a>, a black spokesman in the 1880s and 1890s for many black miners in Ohio and three southern states, shows he had a tough sell as an intermediary with the white majority and white national leadership of the UMWA. But what a salesman he was! In one letter he responds to a black miner who justified going to coal fields near Seattle, Washington, breaking a strike. Striking white miners and the Seattle labor movement as a whole responded with vicious, violent racism to this strike breaking, yet Davis held fast to his defense of interracial solidarity. In his letter he asserts the need to fight for racial equality in the society, union and the coal fields.</p>
<p>But he then turns the issue around and asks the strikebreaking miner “suppose that you were working in a place and the company brought in three or four hundred white men to take your places, what would be the result? I fancy you would not speak as you do now. No, sir, you would pick [up] your gun if you had one, and you would try to kill every white man that you saw, whether he was your enemy or not.”</p>
<p>Davis responds to the strikebreaker’s argument that “28 years ago he was a chattel slave; today he is a free American citizen” by pointing to workers' shared self-interest: “How utterly false! None of us who toil for our daily bread are free…Does any negro think that an operator thinks any more of him than he does of a white man? If you do, you are sadly mistaken, for I remember several instances right here in this valley: whenever the colored men asked for that which was something like right and just, the answer was, whenever you colored men want the same as the whites do then we have no further need for you…it is not a white man’s country; it is partly ours as well.” Davis urges black strikers to defend their rights to be treated as equals, a right they forfeit when they allow themselves to be used to break strikes.</p>
<p>We hear Davis’ ideas in battles that are not typically seen as “labor”&#160;struggles but in fact, are, if we take the struggle for racial equality,for social justice, to be a labor principle as dear as not crossing a picket line in a contract dispute. “You are not better than us; you are not smarter than us; and you do not love these children more than we do,” says <a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/you-are-not-better-than-us-you-are-not-smarter-than-us-and-you-do-not-love-these-children-more-than-we-do/" type="external">Jitu Brown</a>, one of the African American activists in the <a href="http://hpherald.com/2015/09/04/the-hunger-strikers-respond-to-dyett-decision-with-demands/" type="external">#FightForDyett</a> in their third week of a hunger strike demanding their rights as parents, citizens to be involved in deciding what school their children should attend. They are <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/hunger-strikers-protest-school-closing-520095299586" type="external">pushing back against “systemic disinvestment”</a> in Chicago public schools by the powerful elite that runs the city under the helm of President Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.</p>
<p>The school district has been dismantling neighborhood schools and with them, African American neighborhoods. Activist teachers in the Chicago Teachers Union have been supporting the Dyett 12, as they’re called, but the hunger strikers deserve and need far more help from other unions, especially the Illinois state teachers unions, the Illinois AFL-CIO, and the two national teachers unions. &#160; <a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/correction-iea-supports-fightfordyett/" type="external">A letter from both state teachers unions</a> to the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is not an adequate response to address <a type="external" href="">“white silence”</a>&#160;-- organized labor’s historic complicity in racial segregation in Chicago and Illinois schools. &#160;The letter is an embarrassingly token gesture.</p>
<p>I was recently asked by a union activist “How many backs do we have to watch?” My answer: As many as we want to watch ours.&#160; That’s the meaning of solidarity. Let’s live it this Labor Day by <a href="http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Rebel_Diaz:Which_Side_Are_You_On%3F" type="external">taking sides</a>. Dyett hunger strikers and Black Lives Matter are giving U.S. unions an opportunity to reinvigorate themselves. &#160;</p>
<p>Lois Weiner is a professor of education at New Jersey City University, where she directs the Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project. You can follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/drloisweiner" type="external">Twitter</a>&#160; and&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lois.weiner.5" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;and read her blog at&#160; <a href="" type="internal">New Politics</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | Labor Day 2015: Which sides are you on? | true | http://newpol.org/content/labor-day-2015-which-sides-are-you | 4 |
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<p>DENVER - Talk about higher learning. A Colorado county may create the world's first public college scholarship program funded with marijuana money.</p>
<p>Pueblo County is considering a 5 percent excise tax on marijuana growers, with half the proceeds designated to a scholarship fund that boosters say would be the first of its kind.</p>
<p>The southern Colorado county has more square footage of recreational marijuana growing than any other county in the state. Pueblo allows growing outside and in greenhouses, which is banned many other places.</p>
<p>The sponsor of the tax measure says it could produce a couple million a year. The proceeds would be divided among Pueblo County high school graduates who stay in the county for college. Currently that's about 400 students.</p>
<p>The county commission votes on the tax next week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Higher Learning: Colorado county mulls scholarship pot tax | false | https://abqjournal.com/634415/higher-learning-colorado-county-mulls-scholarship-pot-tax.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Sarah Palin on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/opinion/06kristol.html" type="external">October 5</a>, suggesting to Bill Kristol that the McCain campaign ought to go more negative:</p>
<p>“To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why [the Revered Wright] association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”</p>
<p>Sarah Palin on <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/19/palin-says-voters-irritated-by-robocalls/" type="external">Sunday</a>, telling the press that she wants to focus on the issues:</p>
<p>“If I called all the shots, and if I could wave a magic wand, I would be sitting at a kitchen table with more and more Americans, talking to them about our plan to get the economy back on track and winning the war, and not having to rely on the old conventional ways of campaigning that includes those robocalls, and includes spending so much money on the television ads that, I think, is kind of draining out there in terms of Americans’ attention span.”</p>
<p>Those <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/10372_mccain_now_using_robocalls_once_condemned.html" type="external">robocalls</a> she’s denouncing as “conventional ways of campaigning” are exactly the sort of negative, association-based campaign tactics she was urging just two weeks ago. It’s almost as if her complete lack of experience on the national stage forces her to make it up as she goes along!</p>
<p /> | Palin Confuses on Proper Direction of Campaign | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/10/palin-confuses-proper-direction-campaign/ | 2008-10-20 | 4 |
<p>President Donald Trump on Tuesday returned to one of his favorite topics to tweet about —&#160;#FakeNews.</p>
<p>Fascinating to watch people writing books and major articles about me and yet they know nothing about me &amp; have zero access. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FAKE?src=hash" type="external">#FAKE</a> NEWS!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/907588803161939968" type="external">September 12, 2017</a></p>
<p>The impetus for Trump’s tweet would appear to be the new book that came out Tuesday by NBC News reporter Katy Tur titled, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unbelievable-Front-Row-Craziest-Campaign-American/dp/0062684922/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newsmedi9a-20&amp;linkId=JWQX7Q4SOSP2L6BP" type="external">“Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in History.”</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/trump-slams-reporter-media/2016/06/06/id/732470/" type="external">Tur was a target</a> of Trump’s during the campaign, having been called out by then-candidate Trump more than once.</p>
<p>Tur on Tuesday appeared on MSNBC’s <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/katy-tur-details-her-unbelievable-experience-covering-donald-trump-in-new-book-1044673091654" type="external">“Morning Joe”</a> program to plug her book and detail what it was like to cover the Trump campaign.</p> | Katy Tur Book Released, Trump Takes Another Swing at #FakeNews | false | https://newsline.com/katy-tur-book-released-trump-takes-another-swing-at-fakenews/ | 2017-09-12 | 1 |
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<p>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The father of slain Tejano star Selena has filed a lawsuit to stop production of a television series based on what he calls an unauthorized book by the singer’s widower, Chris Perez.</p>
<p>Abraham Quintanilla filed the lawsuit Friday in Nueces County District Court against Perez, Blue Mariachi Productions, LLC, and the production company Endemol Shine North America. Endemol announced last month that it planned to adapt Perez’s 2012 memoir, “To Selena with Love,” into a television series.</p>
<p>The lawsuit, posted on the Corpus Christi Caller-Times website ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2h2cCF1" type="external">http://bit.ly/2h2cCF1</a> ), seeks to stop the production, alleging Perez signed a contract giving all rights to exploit the singer’s likeness and name to her estate in exchange for 25 percent of the profits.</p>
<p>Selena Quintanilla-Perez was fatally shot by her fan club’s president in 1995.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Father of slain Tejano icon Selena sues to stop TV series | false | https://abqjournal.com/903283/father-of-slain-tejano-icon-selena-sues-to-stop-tv-series.html | 2016-12-06 | 2 |
<p>US President Barack Obama speaking on Monday in Seoul talked about his vision of "a world without nuclear weapons," making direct appeals to North Korea and Iran, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/26/world/asia/korea-obama-visit/index.html" type="external">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-korea-20120326,0,4384084.story" type="external">According to the Los Angeles Times</a>, he urged the two nations to "have the courage" to abandon their nuclear weapons programs or face greater isolation and economic distress.</p>
<p>Obama is in South Korea attending a nuclear terrorism summit where he will meet his Russian and Chinese counterparts Monday, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17507976" type="external">BBC reported.</a></p>
<p>Speaking to students at Hankuk University, Obama said the US was committed to reducing its nuclear arms stockpile and that the US was in a unique position to seek change but that a "serious sustained global effort" was necessary.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/120325/obama-asks-china-help-rein-north-korea" type="external">Obama asks China to help rein in North Korea</a></p>
<p>The meeting is being attended by representatives from some 50 countries.</p>
<p>Obama's trip comes at a time of tense relations with Pyongyang. <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/120325/obama-asks-china-help-rein-north-korea" type="external">North Korea announced it plans to launch a long-range missile</a> in the next three weeks which it says will put a satellite in orbit.</p>
<p>North Korea says the launch is scheduled in mid-April, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the country late Great Leader Kim Il-sung.</p>
<p>Such an act would violate UN. Security Council Resolution 1874 and goes against a deal North Korea made with Washington earlier this month that it would not carry out nuclear or missile tests in return for food aid.</p> | Obama pushing for a 'world without nuclear weapons' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-26/obama-pushing-world-without-nuclear-weapons | 2012-03-26 | 3 |
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<p />
<p>But for Leah McFarland, a mother who raised her daughter alone, it wasn’t that straightforward. Because she was estranged from the father for many years and could not locate him, the mortuary she selected would not cremate her 30-year-old daughter’s body. In refusing, it cited state law that says cremation of a child requires permission of the “surviving parents.”</p>
<p>Lauren McFarland was found dead Sept. 12 with a gunshot to the face. Her death has been classified a suicide, but the mother says she suspects foul play. Leah McFarland said her daughter had told her that if she died, she wanted to be cremated. Lauren’s body has since been cremated by another funeral service firm.</p>
<p>At issue is whether a funeral home violates the law by cremating remains with only one parent’s permission. Doing so might also appear to leave the business open to a lawsuit should the other surviving parent at some time challenge the cremation.</p>
<p>New Mexico legislators should revisit the law and consider making changes to clarify it and accommodate situations such as McFarland’s – protecting the wishes of the next of kin while protecting the funeral home from a potential lawsuit. For instance, the law could be amended to allow for cremation if one parent swears out an affidavit that the other parent is not locatable, with stiff penalties if they lie. Any change should offer protection to the businesses that must deal with these sensitive situations.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Those over 18 years of age would do their relatives a kindness by putting their wishes in writing – preferably notarized documents or a will – so parents or other next of kin can honor them, should they need to.</p>
<p>But the rules should be clarified so the deceased can rest in peace and survivors can have closure.</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: Tweak cremation law to allow survivors closure | false | https://abqjournal.com/272287/tweak-cremation-law-to-allow-survivors-closure.html | 2013-10-01 | 2 |
<p>The European Union's antitrust authority says it has approved Facebook's proposed $19 billion takeover of the messaging service WhatsApp.</p>
<p>The 28-nation bloc's executive Commission said Friday the deal may go ahead because consumers will continue to have a wide choice of alternative communication apps they could use. Facebook Inc. runs its own mobile messaging service with its Messenger app but the EU found the merged entity "would continue to face sufficient competition."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says "while Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are two of the most popular apps, most people use more than one communications app."</p>
<p>The Commission says WhatsApp — launched in 2009 — has some 600 million users globally. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes it will reach 1 billion in a few years.</p> | EU antitrust authority approves Facebook's $19 billion takeover of messaging service WhatsApp | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/10/03/eu-antitrust-authority-approves-facebook-1-billion-takeover-messaging-service.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/fullscreen/" type="external">Fullscreen</a> Media is pulling the plug on its subscription-video service — which it launched less than two years ago — and is laying off about 25 employees with the shutdown.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/fullscreen-roku-streaming-video-1202462543/" type="external">Fullscreen</a> SVOD, a Netflix-style service aimed at younger audiences weaned on YouTube and social media, will be shuttering in January 2018. But from all appearances, the $6-per-month service never got any serious traction.</p>
<p>Founder and CEO <a href="http://variety.com/t/george-strompolos/" type="external">George Strompolos</a> broke the news in a memo to staff Monday, which also was posted on the <a href="https://medium.com/@gstrompolos/below-is-an-email-i-shared-with-the-fullscreen-staff-this-afternoon-regarding-the-shut-down-of-our-8d07c86dd0d1" type="external">Medium blog site</a>. “Decisions like this are tough, but I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished,” he wrote.</p>
<p>According to Strompolos, the company “came to the conclusion that funding SVOD — a longer-term investment — was limiting our ability to invest in our Creator, Brand, and Rooster Teeth divisions that have more established scale and immediate impact.”</p>
<p>The news comes just two months after Fullscreen announced that it was <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/fullscreen-layoffs-svod-restructuring-1202550492/" type="external">cutting 3% of its staff</a>, as part of refocusing its SVOD service on original programming.&#160; <a href="http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/fullscreen-subscription-video-service-launch-1201741933/" type="external">Fullscreen launched the SVOD service in April 2016</a>, now priced at $6 per month. The company never disclosed how many subscribers signed up for the service; Strompolos claimed Fullscreen SVOD had “hundreds of thousands” of customers.</p>
<p>Fullscreen is owned by Otter Media, the joint venture of AT&amp;T and Chernin Group, which <a href="http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/att-chernin-group-take-control-of-youtubes-fullscreen-network-1201310694/" type="external">acquired majority control of Fullscreen in 2014</a>.</p>
<p>Original series on the Fullscreen SVOD service have included “Shane &amp; Friends,” hosted by Shane Dawson, “Shay Mitchell: Chapters” and “Psychobabble with Tyler Oakley &amp; Korey Kuhl.” Fullscreen also is the exclusive streaming home to series like “Magic Funhouse” and Bret Easton Ellis thriller “The Deleted,” and movies including Vertical Entertainment’s “Don’t Hang Up” and Big Block’s “Tell Me How I Die.”</p>
<p>As recently as August, the company announced a <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/fullscreen-series-nathan-kress-danielle-campbell-jay-versace-1202528169/" type="external">fall slate of originals</a>&#160;for Fullscreen SVOD service, including comedy “Alive in Denver” starring Nathan Kress (“iCarly”) and Danielle Campbell (“The Originals”) and a time-travel comedy starring teen social-media star Jay Versace.</p>
<p>It’s not clear where Fullscreen’s SVOD originals might wind up after the service shuts down. A company rep did not respond to a request for more info.</p>
<p>Here’s the memo from Strompolos announcing the decision:</p>
<p>Team:</p>
<p>When we set out to launch our own SVOD service, we knew it would be a huge challenge. We wanted to provide a new platform for the breakthrough creators, personalities and storytellers of social entertainment — and the fans who love them.</p>
<p>A lot went right. Our talented team built and launched a best-in-class OTT product experience from scratch. We created bold, first-of-its-kind original programming that resonated with young fans. Millions downloaded our app and hundreds of thousands became paying subscribers.</p>
<p>Despite our momentum, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down the Fullscreen SVOD service in January 2018. We came to the conclusion that funding SVOD — a longer-term investment — was limiting our ability to invest in our Creator, Brand, and Rooster Teeth divisions that have more established scale and immediate impact. I shared this news in person with the core SVOD team earlier today.</p>
<p>Many smart, creative people gave so much in pursuit of this ambitious project, from our staff to our talent and partners. In addition, many young fans supported us by subscribing with their own hard-earned money. We thank you all for giving us a chance.</p>
<p>Going forward, we will double-down on our mission to empower creators and bring brands closer to fans. The award-winning product experience and technology we’ve developed over the past two years will be valuable as we build new brands and content offerings in the future. We will continue to identify and invest in talented creators and make ambitious bets to push the space forward. It’s in our DNA. I will share more details about our evolving strategy at the December all-hands meeting.</p>
<p>Onward,George</p> | Fullscreen Shutting Down Subscription VOD Service, Will Lay Off 25 Employees | false | https://newsline.com/fullscreen-shutting-down-subscription-vod-service-will-lay-off-25-employees/ | 2017-11-13 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Toshiba Corp plans to withdraw from its lead role in projects to build nuclear plants in Britain and India, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, marking a retreat as it wrestles with an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Such a move would leave Toshiba's U.S.-based Westinghouse focused on the much narrower field of nuclear reactors and services, rather than civil engineering for nuclear power plants, or their construction, the sources said.</p>
<p>But it would throw into question the future of a key plank in Britain's plans to replace ageing nuclear reactors, and the future of India's biggest nuclear project to date.</p>
<p>Toshiba became one of the nuclear sector's biggest players with the purchase of Westinghouse in 2006, the height of a short-lived boom. But the industry was left battered by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and Toshiba's woes have only deepened - first with a 2015 accounting scandal and now damaging cost overruns at U.S. projects.</p>
<p>Sources familiar with the matter have said the writedown on the U.S. business - set to be detailed on Feb. 14 when Toshiba reports earnings - could be around $6 billion, wiping out the group's shareholder equity.</p>
<p>NuGen, a Toshiba-led venture with French utility Engie, was set up to build three AP1000 nuclear reactors designed by the Japanese conglomerate's Westinghouse unit at the Moorside site on the coast of Cumbria.</p>
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<p>But the $15 billion-$20 billion investment is now an impossible financial burden for Toshiba to help shoulder, one of the sources said, adding it had not yet notified the UK government.</p>
<p>Two of the sources said Engie also wants to pull out of NuGen, as new Chief Executive Isabelle Kocher does not want to invest in new nuclear projects. Engie declined to comment.</p>
<p>That could leave Britain searching for new backers.</p>
<p>"It has to be someone with a big cheque book. The real question for London is to what extent should this be a private sector venture anyway," said one veteran adviser.</p>
<p>One of the sources said Toshiba was considering a full exit from the NuGen project, in which it currently has a 60 percent stake, but would take a firm decision once it had completed the sale of a stake in its memory chips business. That sale was announced last month but started on Friday.</p>
<p>All three sources with knowledge of the matter declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.</p>
<p>A Toshiba spokesman said it was reviewing all its nuclear power business outside Japan. "Nothing has been decided at this time, including the impact on our Moorside��nuclear project."</p>
<p>NuGen declined to comment.</p>
<p>OUT OF INDIA</p>
<p>In India, Westinghouse has also been in talks with state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India about a contract to build six AP1000s, a project strongly backed by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former U.S. President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>The three sources said that was now almost impossible.</p>
<p>"The Indian government was happy to have one sole counterpart, but this cannot continue," the first source said, adding that either an Indian civil engineering group or a foreign, possibly American, group would have to step in to negotiate, oversee and eventually finance the project.</p>
<p>Westinghouse would instead just provide nuclear equipment, the source said.</p>
<p>Representatives for India's state-run nuclear body and the Ministry of External Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Westinghouse has traditionally been a builder of nuclear reactors, not entire nuclear power plants including steam turbines, generators and transformers.</p>
<p>But as tightening safety regulations following Fukushima made building nuclear plants more expensive, nuclear reactor builders and their shareholders have been increasingly forced to take on the civil engineering side too.</p>
<p>The source said Westinghouse will return to its roots as a nuclear specialist, while Toshiba will stop taking on projects to build entire nuclear plants just so that Westinghouse can sell its AP1000 reactors.</p>
<p>"Toshiba will withdraw from being a general contractor for nuclear plants," the source said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Kentaro Hamada and Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine and Sanjeev Miglani in NEW DELHI; Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques and Edwina Gibbs)</p> | Battered Toshiba seeks exit from UK, India in nuclear retreat: sources | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/03/battered-toshiba-seeks-exit-from-uk-india-in-nuclear-retreat-sources-1437544734.html | 2017-02-03 | 0 |
<p>Richard Falk, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, writes in his annual report that Israeli actions during the recent offensive in Gaza constitute war crimes. Falk, who was denied entry to the region by Israel, says Hamas’ human rights record should also be investigated.</p>
<p>Our own Chris Hedges spoke to Falk shortly after his expulsion from Israel. Before the offensive, the rapporteur called Israel’s blockade of Gaza a “crime against humanity.” <a href="" type="internal">Read the column here</a>.</p>
<p>Reuters:</p>
<p>Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the Geneva Conventions required warring forces to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians.</p>
<p />
<p>“If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law,” Falk said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLJ155314" type="external">Read more</a></p> | U.N. Human Rights Investigator Accuses Israel of War Crimes | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-n-human-rights-investigator-accuses-israel-of-war-crimes/ | 2009-03-20 | 4 |
<p>Democratic Senator Jon Tester, of Montana.Pete Marovich/Zuma</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/in-montana-dark-money-helped-democrats-hold-a-key-senate-seat/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.propublica.org/" type="external">ProPublica</a> website.</p>
<p>In the waning days of Montana’s hotly contested Senate race, a small outfit called Montana Hunters and Anglers, launched by liberal activists, tried something drastic.</p>
<p>It didn’t buy ads supporting the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester. Instead, it put up radio and TV commercials that urged voters to choose the third-party candidate, libertarian <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFzxnWJfTGw&amp;feature=plcp" type="external">Dan</a> <a href="http://mtstreetfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Cox-for-Senate-Radio-Ad.mp3" type="external">Cox</a>, describing Cox as the “real conservative” or the “true conservative.”</p>
<p>Where did the group’s money come from? Nobody knows.</p>
<p>The pro-Cox ads were part of a national pattern in which groups that did not disclose their donors, including social welfare nonprofits and trade associations, played a larger role than ever before in trying to sway U.S. elections. Throughout the 2012 election, ProPublica has focused on the <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare" type="external">growing importance</a> of this so-called <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-dark-money-helped-republicans-hold-the-house-and-hurt-voters" type="external">dark money</a> in national and local races.</p>
<p>Such spending played a greater role in the Montana Senate race than almost any other. With control of the U.S. Senate potentially at stake, candidates, parties and independent groups spent more than $51 million on this contest, all to win over fewer than 500,000 voters. That’s twice as much as was spent when Tester was elected in 2006.</p>
<p>Almost one quarter of that was dark money, donated secretly to nonprofits.</p>
<p>“It just seems so out of place here,” said Democrat Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana who leaves office at the end of this year. “About one hundred dollars spent for every person who cast a vote. Pretty spectacular, huh? And most of it, we don’t have any idea where it came from. Day after the election, they closed up shop and disappeared into the dark.”</p>
<p />
<p>Political insiders say the Montana Senate race provided a particularly telling glimpse at how campaigns are run in the no-holds-barred climate created by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, giving a real-world counterpoint to the court’s assertion that voters could learn all they needed to know about campaign funding from <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/flood-of-secret-campaign-cash-its-not-all-citizens-united" type="external">disclosure</a>.</p>
<p>In many ways, Montana was a microcosm of how outside spending worked nationally, but it also points to the future. Candidates will be forced to start raising money earlier to compete in an arms race with outside groups. Voters will be bombarded with TV ads, mailers and phone calls. And then on Election Day, they will be largely left in the dark, unable to determine who’s behind which message.</p>
<p>All told, 64 outside groups poured $21 million into the Montana Senate election, almost as much as the candidates. Party committees spent another $8.9 million on the race.</p>
<p>The groups started spending money a year before either candidate put up a TV ad, defining the issues and marginalizing the role of political parties. In a state where ads were cheap, they took to the airwaves. More TV commercials ran in the Montana race between June and the election than in any other Senate contest nationwide.</p>
<p>The Montana Senate race also shows how liberal groups have learned to play the outside money game—despite griping by Democratic officials about the influence of such organizations.</p>
<p>Liberal outside groups spent $10.2 million on the race, almost as much as conservatives. Conservatives spent almost twice as much from anonymous donors, but the $4.2 million in dark money that liberal groups pumped into Montana significantly outstripped the left’s spending in many other races nationwide.</p>
<p>As in other key states, conservative groups devoted the bulk of their money in Montana to TV and radio ads. But sometimes the ads came across as generic and missed their mark.</p>
<p>Liberal groups set up field offices, knocked on doors, featured “Montana” in their names or put horses in their TV ads. Many of them, including Montana Hunters and Anglers, were tied to a consultancy firm where a good friend of Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, is a partner.</p>
<p>The end result? Tester beat Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg by a narrow margin. And the libertarian Cox, who had so little money he didn’t even have to report to federal election authorities, picked up more votes than any other libertarian in a competitive race on the Montana ballot.</p>
<p>Montana Republicans blamed Montana Hunters and Anglers, made up of a super PAC and a sister dark money nonprofit, for tipping the race. Even though super PACs have to report their donors, the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC functioned almost like a dark money group. Records show its major donors included an environmentalist group that didn’t report its donors and two super PACs that in turn raised the bulk of their money from the environmentalist group, other dark money groups and unions.</p>
<p>“Part of what’s frustrating to me is I look at Montana Hunters and Anglers and say, ‘That is not fair,'” said Bowen Greenwood, executive director for the Montana Republican Party. “I am a hunter. I know plenty of hunters. And Montana hunters don’t have their positions. It would be fairer if it was called Montana Environmental Activists. That would change the effect of their ads.”</p>
<p>Cox and Tester deny the group’s efforts swung the race. No one from Montana Hunters and Anglers returned calls for comment.</p>
<p>Tester, who’s argued that all groups spending on elections should disclose their donors and also pushed against super PACs, said he wasn’t familiar with any of the outside groups running ads. By law, candidates are not allowed to coordinate with outside spending groups, which are supposed to be independent.</p>
<p>Despite his ambivalence, he said he was glad the outside groups jumped in.</p>
<p>“If we wouldn’t have had folks come in on our side, it would have been much tougher to keep a message out there,” Tester said. “We had no control over what they were saying. But by the same token, I think probably in the end if you look at it, they were helpful.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Montana has long prided itself on a refusal to be pigeonholed. It’s the kind of place that votes Republican for president but elects Democrats to state office. Politicians wear bolo ties, tout their Montana credentials and use words like “hell” and “crap.” People introduce themselves by saying what generation Montanan they are.</p>
<p>Consistently, the state fights against any mandate that smacks of Washington meddling, from the federal speed limit to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">Citizens United ruling</a> in early 2010, which opened the door to corporations and unions spending unlimited money on independent ads, echoing an earlier <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/08/opinion/the-flaw-in-buckley-v-valeo.html" type="external">court ruling</a> that equated money with free speech.</p>
<p>Before that, Montana had one of the country’s toughest campaign finance laws, dating back 100 years, to the time of <a href="http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers6/copperkings.html" type="external">the copper kings</a>. After one of those kings bribed state lawmakers to back him as senator, the state banned corporate political spending.</p>
<p>Even after Citizens United, the Montana Supreme Court insisted that Montana’s legacy of corruption justified keeping the ban. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court squashed that move, saying the <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-1179h9j3.pdf" type="external">Citizens United decision</a> applied to every state in the nation.</p>
<p>By then, dark money groups were already weighing in on Montana’s Senate race.</p>
<p>The TV ads started in March 2011, the month after Rehberg announced. The Environmental Defense Action Fund attacked Rehberg for his stance on mercury emissions. The Electronic Payments Coalition praised Tester for his push to delay implementing new debit-card swipe fees.</p>
<p>“The thing that surprised me a little bit was how early they got involved,” said David Parker, an associate professor of political science at Montana State University who tracked all 160 TV commercials as part of a book he is writing on the race. “And I think that was critical, because very early on, they were able to establish the contours of this race. The candidates were just busy putting their organizations together and raising money.”</p>
<p>Most of the money spent in 2011 on TV ads came from groups that didn’t have to report their donors. They also didn’t have to report their ads to the Federal Election Commission, because they didn’t specifically tell voters to vote for or against a candidate. Instead of saying “Vote for Rehberg,” they said things like “Call Jon Tester. Tell him to stop supporting President Barack Obama.” Ads like that only have to be reported to the FEC if they air during the two months before an election.</p>
<p>The only way to compile data on such ad spending is by visiting TV stations, which Parker did. ProPublica helped him collect information on the last round of ads.</p>
<p>Parker’s data shows that several heavyweight conservative groups entered the fray in mid-2011 to try to cast Tester, whom they saw as vulnerable, as a big spender.</p>
<p>Crossroads GPS, the dark money group launched by GOP strategist Karl Rove, ran two ads in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&amp;v=q3jHDElOQqI&amp;NR=1" type="external">July</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IV2WFurWV8" type="external">2011</a> similar to those attacking Democrats in other states for supporting excessive spending.</p>
<p>Also that month, a conservative group called Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee ran a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuPSKR6pYbQ" type="external">sarcastic ad</a> about a new miracle drug called “Spenditol,” Washington’s answer to America’s problems. “Call Sen. Jon Tester,” the ad said. “Tell him, stop spending it all.” Similar ads ran against Democratic senators up for election in tight races in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY6kLYH02NQ" type="external">Florida</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2FVJQBrRpA" type="external">Nebraska</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAAqBoAW1eY" type="external">Ohio</a>.</p>
<p>Several ads run by conservative groups backfired, messing up in ways that irked Montanans.</p>
<p>The National Republican Senatorial Committee—a party committee that reports its donors—ran an ad that appeared to show Tester with all five digits on his left hand. (Tester is well known for having lost <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eSkQ70wrYo&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">three fingers</a> in a childhood accident involving a meat grinder.) The <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/1111/Chamber_misspells_Testers_name_.html" type="external">U.S. Chamber of Commerce</a> misspelled Tester’s first name. A Montana cable operator yanked a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/crossroads-ad-karl-rove-false-jon-tester_n_1089182.html" type="external">Crossroads ad</a> for claims the operator deemed false.</p>
<p>“The first one that burned me really bad was from the U.S. Chamber,” said Verner Bertelsen, a former Republican state legislator and Montana secretary of state. “I thought—you buggers! We don’t need you to come in here and tell us who to vote for.”</p>
<p>Starting in July 2011, three new liberal dark money groups ran ads. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFNz4fM0TU0" type="external">Patriot Majority USA</a> criticized Republicans for allegedly planning to cut Medicare and help to seniors. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pqp0JyL8Wo" type="external">Partnership to Protect Medicare</a> praised Tester for opposing Medicare cuts.</p>
<p>And in October, weeks after forming, the dark money side of Montana Hunters and Anglers, Montana Hunters and Anglers Action!, launched its first <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUc2KKI-pI" type="external">TV ad</a>, starring <a href="http://www.norehberglandgrab.org/about.html" type="external">Land Tawney</a>, the group’s gap-toothed and camouflage-sporting president, who also served on the <a href="http://www.montanawildlife.com/news/TesterAdvCouncil.htm" type="external">Sportsmen’s Advisory Panel</a> for Tester. At the time, the super PAC side of the group was basically dormant.</p>
<p>The new Hunters ad accused Rehberg of pushing a bill— <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1505rh/pdf/BILLS-112hr1505rh.pdf" type="external">House bill 1505</a>—that supposedly would give Washington politicians control of access to public lands in Montana. Rehberg, one of 60 cosponsors, argued the legislation was necessary to help the Department of Homeland Security protect the state from illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and terrorists.</p>
<p>“Nobody in Montana was talking about that bill,” Greenwood said. “I’ve only heard it talked about in campaign ads. And it played a role throughout the election.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>The gusher of outside money into Montana’s Senate race was part of a larger pattern. Nationally, in addition to the $5.1 billion spent by <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/index.php" type="external">candidates</a> and <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/index.php" type="external">parties</a>, almost 700 outside spending groups dumped more than $1 billion into federal elections in the 2012 cycle, FEC filings show.</p>
<p>Of that, about $322 million was dark money, most of it from 153 social welfare nonprofits, groups that could spend money on politics as long as social welfare—not politics—was their primary purpose.</p>
<p>Relating those numbers to previous elections is a largely pointless exercise, akin to comparing statistics from baseball and lacrosse. The Citizens United ruling changed the game, opening the door to unlimited corporate donations to super PACs and to a new breed of more politically active nonprofits.</p>
<p>“Instead of being in a boxing match in a ring, you’re in a dark alley being hit by four or five people, and you don’t know who they are,” said Michael Sargeant, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which helps Democrats run for state offices.</p>
<p>Some of the players in the 2012 cycle were longtime activist organizations such as the liberal Sierra Club and the conservative National Right to Life Committee, with clear social welfare missions and only a limited amount of political spending. Other dark money groups were juggernauts like <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/11/07/164621525/outside-groups-spend-big-on-elections-but-dont-have-much-to-show-for-it" type="external">Crossroads GPS</a> and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer" type="external">Americans for Prosperity</a>, founded years ago by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which crank up their fundraising during election years and devote more money to election ads than other nonprofits.</p>
<p>Finding out about some of the less prominent nonprofits was no easy feat. Many were formed out of post-office boxes or law firms. On their applications to the Internal Revenue Service, they minimized or even denied any political activity.</p>
<p>Documents for pop-up nonprofits like the conservative <a href="http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&amp;inq_doc_number=N11000005211&amp;inq_came_from=NAMFWD&amp;cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&amp;names_name_ind=&amp;names_cor_number=&amp;names_name_seq=&amp;names_name_ind=&amp;names_comp_name=AMERICAISNOTSTUPID&amp;names_filing_type=" type="external">America Is Not Stupid</a> and <a href="http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&amp;inq_doc_number=N11000005210&amp;inq_came_from=NAMFWD&amp;cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&amp;names_name_ind=&amp;names_cor_number=&amp;names_name_seq=&amp;names_name_ind=&amp;names_comp_name=ABETTERAMERICANOW&amp;names_filing_type=" type="external">A Better America Now</a>, both of which formed in 2011, led back to a <a href="http://www.lawyers.com/Florida/Jacksonville/Eugene-G-Peek-III-792825-a.html" type="external">Florida law firm</a> that offered no explanations. The Citizens for Strength and Security Action Fund, a liberal pop-up group that <a href="http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/01/a-pop-up-problem/" type="external">spent millions</a> on elections in 2010, closed down in 2011. In its place came a new group: the Citizens for Strength and Security Fund, which earlier this year bought almost $900,000 in ads attacking Rehberg and the Republican Senate candidate in <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-poured-into-new-mexico-senate-contest" type="external">New Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>Groups picked names that seemed designed to confuse: Patriot Majority USA is liberal. Patriotic Veterans is conservative. Common Sense Issues backed conservatives. Common Sense Movement backed a Democrat.</p>
<p>As in the 2010 midterms, the dark money spent in 2012 had a partisan tilt. Conservative groups accounted for about 84 percent of the spending reported to the FEC—mainly through Crossroads GPS, Americans for Prosperity and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Liberal groups spent 12 percent of the dark money. Nonpartisan groups made up the rest.</p>
<p>Despite shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars, conservatives <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/little-to-show-for-cash-flood-by-big-donors.html" type="external">lost big</a>. Only about 14 percent of conservative dark money went to support winners.</p>
<p>Still, campaign-finance reformers say it’s a mistake to minimize the influence of this money.</p>
<p>“What these donors were buying was access and influence, not only to the candidates but to the party machine,” said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. “And they will get that access. On the Republican side, you have people lining up to kiss the ring of (billionaire donor) <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/jindal_seeking_financial_backi.htmlhttp:/www.propublica.org/article/new-questions-about-sheldon-adelsons-casino-operations-in-macau" type="external">Sheldon Adelson</a>. And on the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84205.html" type="external">Democratic side</a>, you have even people critical of these groups meeting with the funders of these groups. This money is not going away.”</p>
<p>Even though liberal groups spent far less than conservative ones, they had a higher success rate. About 70 percent backed winning candidates.</p>
<p>Some Democrats have shown distaste for the dark-money arts, pushing for more transparency. But liberal strategists are preparing to ramp up their efforts before the next election, unless the IRS, Congress or the courts change the rules.</p>
<p>“We probably have a lot less comfort with some of the existing rules that allow for the Koch brothers to write unlimited checks to these groups,” said Navin Nayak, the senior vice president for campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, a liberal social welfare nonprofit for more than 40 years. “But as long as these are the rules, we’re certainly going do our best to make sure we’re competitive and that our candidates have a shot at winning. We’re certainly not going to cede the playing field to the Koch brothers.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>By the time Tester and Rehberg started buying TV ads, outside groups had been defining the race for a year.</p>
<p>Rehberg, 57, a six-term congressman and rancher often pictured wearing a cowboy hat and a plaid shirt, was <a href="http://missoulian.com/elections_2012/congress/us_senate/ad-watch-ad-against-rehberg-fudges-on-voted-for-pay/article_4a246de0-7621-11e1-bd23-001871e3ce6c.html" type="external">portrayed</a> as voting five times to increase his pay and charging an SUV to taxpayers. Tester, 56, a farmer with a flat top, was <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/tester-voting-record-on-obama-policies-takes-center-stage-in/article_ce9bc047-c9c4-5559-b6b9-73b04c8a6da4.html" type="external">dinged</a> for voting with Obama 95 percent of the time.</p>
<p>Tester’s campaign went up with ads in March, mainly to counter the outside messages.</p>
<p>“The original plans were going up 60 or 90 days later than that,” Tester said. “But it was important…We had to remind people of who I am.”</p>
<p>His early ads highlighted his Montana roots, depicting him riding a combine on his farm and packing up Montana beef to carry back to Washington.</p>
<p>Rehberg had less money, so his earliest TV ads, which mainly attacked Tester, went up in May.</p>
<p>Neither Rehberg nor anyone from his media staff responded to requests for an interview on his views on campaign finance. In the past, he has said he supports the <a href="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/elections/2012/citizens-united-divide-highlights-montana-senatorial-debate/article_bd02e7b6-b810-11e1-8cc9-0019bb2963f4.html" type="external">Citizens United</a> ruling.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, conservative groups bought TV ads that hit at Tester but stopped just short of telling people how to vote. For instance, the conservative 60 Plus Association spent almost $500,000 buying TV ads featuring crooner <a href="http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/mar/19/pat-boone/pat-boone-says-health-care-advisory-board-can-rati/" type="external">Pat Boone</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y989RjOufyo" type="external">criticizing Tester</a> over the health care law. None of that was reported to the FEC.</p>
<p>Over the summer, the Concerned Women for America’s legislative committee, Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all weighed in. The TV spots were overwhelmingly negative, and many of them were cookie-cutter ads, similar to those that ran in other states against Democrats.</p>
<p>Liberal groups bought TV ads, too, but that was only part of their game plan. They spent their dark money on retail politics, hitting the streets and knocking on doors.</p>
<p>In January, the League of Conservation Voters set up two offices in Montana—one in Missoula and one in Billings. It canvassed voters and hired a full-time organizer, reaching out to 28,000 sporadic voters to urge them to vote early by mail.</p>
<p>Lindsay Love, the spokeswoman at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, another nonprofit that doesn’t report its donors for election spending, said the group targeted 41,000 female voters. More than 1,500 people ended up knocking on 28,500 doors and making 162,000 phone calls, she said. The group sent out about 470,000 pieces of mail.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to unpack this,” Parker said. “But it’s fascinating to look at groups like the League, unions and Planned Parenthood. By and large, they did phones, canvassing, mail, very little TV. One of the best ways to get out the vote is personalized contact.”</p>
<p>Many liberal groups active in Montana, including Montana Hunters and Anglers, were connected through Hilltop Public Solutions, a Beltway consulting firm.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/about/team_barrett.html" type="external">Barrett Kaiser</a>, a former aide to Montana’s other Democratic senator, Max Baucus, is a partner at Hilltop and runs its office in Billings. The Hilltop website notes that Kaiser helped with Tester’s upset Senate win in 2006. Kaiser is also a good friend of <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15811.html" type="external">Messina</a>, the manager of Obama’s 2012 campaign, who also once worked for Baucus.</p>
<p>Kaiser was on the board of the Montana Hunters and Anglers <a href="http://www.norehberglandgrab.org/about.html" type="external">dark money group</a>. Another <a href="http://www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/about/team_joe.html" type="external">Hilltop employee</a> in Billings served as the treasurer for the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC.</p>
<p>Hilltop partners in Washington also helped run two other <a href="http://www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/about/team_jeremy.htm" type="external">dark</a> <a href="http://www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/about/team_jessie.htm" type="external">money</a> groups that spent money on the Montana race: the <a href="http://strengthandsecurityfund.org/about.htm" type="external">Citizens for Strength and Security Fund</a> and the <a href="http://partnershiptoprotectmedicare.com/" type="external">Partnership to Protect Medicare</a>.</p>
<p>The League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana paid management fees to Hilltop.</p>
<p>No one from Hilltop returned calls, but Nayak and Love said they worked with Hilltop independently of other groups.</p>
<p>Outside groups are allowed to coordinate with each other or use the same consultants—they’re just not allowed to coordinate with a candidate. By working together, groups can disguise who is actually behind an ad.</p>
<p>In early July, for instance, the League of Conservation Voters gave $410,000 to the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC—almost all the money the group raised as of that date.</p>
<p>When the super PAC spent the money on TV ads against Rehberg later that month, the spots were paid for by what appeared to be an organization of Montana hunters, not some Washington-based conservationist group. Nayak said that was not a coincidence.</p>
<p>“We figured having a local brand like that and partnering with them on local issues made more sense than having a D.C. brand,” he said.</p>
<p>Nayak said the League did not donate money for the later ads pushing Cox, the libertarian.</p>
<p>It’s not clear where that money came from. The dark money side of Montana Hunters and Anglers paid for the radio ads. The super PAC bought the TV ads and had to disclose its donors, but FEC filings show its money came mainly from two other super PACs, which in turn reported getting most of their money from unions and dark money groups, including the League.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>As the Montana Senate race approached its climax, as many as five fliers landed in voters’ mailboxes daily. Robocalls, supposedly <a href="http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/5campaignfinance/RoboCallsHandout" type="external">illegal in Montana</a>, interrupted meals. Strangers knocked on doors, promising free pizza for voting. People turned off their TVs, dumped their mail without looking at it and stopped answering the phone.</p>
<p>“My ex and I moved in together, because he had cancer and I took care of him,” said Louise McMillin, 51, who lives in the university district in Missoula. “He kept getting polling calls as he was dying. After he died, I kept saying, ‘He’s dead, could you take his name off the list?’ And they said, ‘Sure, sure.’ And they kept calling.”</p>
<p>The race stayed tight. Demand for TV ad slots spiked, so the TV stations started raising their prices. The law required them to charge candidates their lowest rate. But outside groups? They could be hit up for whatever the market would bear.</p>
<p>Rehberg’s campaign paid $400 to run a 30-second ad during the show Blue Bloods on Oct. 19 on the CBS affiliate in Great Falls. A week later, Crossroads GPS paid $2,000 for a slot during the same show.</p>
<p>Anything was fair game for the ads. One, from the <a href="http://thehill.com/video/campaign/264143-gop-super-pac-pokes-fun-at-testers-buzz-cut-" type="external">super PAC Now Or Never</a>, made fun of Tester’s buzz cut, then showed his hair growing down to his shoulders, a bizarre sequence apparently designed to signal his ties to Obama. Another ad, from the dark money group <a href="http://www.americaisnotstupid.com/" type="external">America Is Not Stupid</a>, featured a baby with a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz6qcM10nUA&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">gravelly voice</a> saying he didn’t know what smelled worse, his diaper or Tester.</p>
<p>“By the middle of October, people were just so tuned out and quite frankly disgusted by all these third-party ads,” said Ted Dick, the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “We found that face-to-face conversations toward the end were most persuasive and effective. That’s the lesson we’re taking forward.”</p>
<p>There are other lessons. Tester said the Montana race made clear that candidates will have to raise money sooner, and go up with TV ads faster. Although uncomfortable with outside money, Tester also said it’s just the way things are now, even on the liberal side.</p>
<p>“I mean, look, they did it,” he said. “And with as many ads that were against me, I was glad they did. But it needs to be transparent. I mean, everybody’s needs to be transparent… It’s important to know who’s spending money on who so you know why they’re doing it. And the way the system is set up right now, there is no transparency. Very little.”</p>
<p>Campaign finance reformers agree that knowing who is behind a message helps people assess it.</p>
<p>One example: Two postcards sent to thousands of Montanans just before the election didn’t include the required notice saying who paid for them. <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/549821-dan-cox-mailer" type="external">One</a> said Rehberg had wasted “hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on pork barrel projects,” and urged people to vote for Cox, “a champion for fiscal responsibility.” The <a href="http://newstalkkgvo.com/is-harry-reid-trying-to-sway-montanas-vote/" type="external">other</a> called Rehberg “the king of pork” and told people to vote for Cox.</p>
<p>Cox said he didn’t send them. The bulk-mail permit on the postcards came back to a Las Vegas company called PDQ Printing, according to the U.S. Postal Service. In an <a href="http://www.pdqvegas.com/img/PDQ%20How%20To%20Win%20An%20Election-2012.pdf" type="external">online manual</a>, PDQ describes itself as “Nevada’s preeminent Union printer.” No one there returned phone calls.</p>
<p>Greenwood, the head of the Montana Republican Party, filed a complaint with the FEC over the mailers. The complaint blames liberal groups and says they “engaged in a duplicitous strategy of supporting the libertarian candidate, Dan Cox, in a desperate attempt” to siphon votes from Rehberg.</p>
<p>More than likely, that complaint won’t be resolved for years.</p>
<p>Greenwood said he didn’t think disclosure was a cure-all. But he also said the current system marginalized political parties.</p>
<p>“Whether it’s Montana Hunters and Anglers or (the conservative super PAC) American Crossroads, they are not responsive to the grassroots,” Greenwood said. “These are the professionals and the money men who are not responsive at all to people. The system as it is now does not reflect what people want.”</p>
<p>Besides picking between Tester and Rehberg, Montanans got a chance in this election to say how they want the system to work. On the ballot was an initiative—largely symbolic in light of recent court decisions—that declared that corporations are not human beings and banned corporate money in politics.</p>
<p>Gov. Schweitzer, a Democrat, and Bertelsen, the former Republican secretary of state, campaigned for the initiative. In a shocker for backers, <a href="http://www.standwithmontanans.org/montanans_approve_i_166" type="external">almost 75 percent</a> of voters supported it.</p>
<p>“I realized it absolutely didn’t have any legal basis to do anything dramatic,” said Bertelsen, who is 94. “But it’s a case of saying, ‘We don’t like it.’ I guess we could just sit down and not say a word. But the Supreme Court—I think they made a mistake. Money isn’t speech, anyhow. It’s just money.”</p>
<p>Correction (12/27): This story originally said that the libertarian candidate Dan Cox picked up more votes than any other libertarian on the Montana ballot. He actually picked up more votes than any other libertarian in a competitive race on the Montana ballot.</p> | How Dark Money Helped Democrats Hold a Key Senate Seat | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/montana-dark-money-jon-tester-senate-dan-cox/ | 2012-12-28 | 4 |
<p>In case you missed the Munk Debate on State Surveillance, here’s another look at the rhetorical contest between one of the NSA’s biggest critics and its former director.</p>
<p>Actually, there were four debate participants. Glenn Greenwald and Gen. Michael Hayden were joined by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.</p>
<p>Note: The actual debate starts about 27 minutes into the video below.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer</a></p>
<p /> | Watch Glenn Greenwald Debate the Former Head of the NSA | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/watch-glenn-greenwald-debate-the-former-head-of-the-nsa/ | 2014-05-08 | 4 |
<p>Gold touches almost one-year high</p>
<p>U.S. stock benchmarks on Tuesday staged a recovery from heavy selling earlier in the session, that came after a North Korean missile test over Japanese airspace rattled investors and sent Wall Street trawling for assets perceived as safe.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 23 points, or 0.1%, higher at 21,831. Blue chips had been off by as much as 135 points or 0.6% at its intraday nadir, with a rise in Boeing Co. (BA) and United Technologies Corp. (UTX) helping to power a mini rally.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index was little changed, down less than a point, at 2,444. The broad-market gauge had been down by about 16 points or 0.7% at its lows.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13 points, or 0.2%, to 6,295.</p>
<p>U.S. equity futures sold off late Monday, after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan, seen as another direct provocation that could destabilize the region (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/north-koreas-outrageous-missile-launch-over-japan-inflames-tensions-again-2017-08-29).</p>
<p>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the missile test an "unprecedented, grave and serious threat that seriously damages peace and security in the region." U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. would react with "fire and fury" if Pyongyang stepped up threats against the U.S. and its allies. On Tuesday morning, he said that "all options are on the table" (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-all-options-are-on-the-table-after-north-korea-missile-test-2017-08-29) following the North Korean missile launch.</p>
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<p>Some traders told MarketWatch that the "measured" statement by Trump and the rest of the global community so far has provided a modicum of comfort to investors. "The response around the world, it was measured as of now and I think it was probably helpful to the market," said Mark Kepner, managing director of sales and trading at Themis Trading.</p>
<p>Kepner said the market wasn't being dismissive of the latest military threat out of Pyongyang but said seasonally low volumes for the summer also make equity benchmarks more prone to swings.</p>
<p>"North Korea is drawing another line in the sand, a little further out than the last line. This has real psychological ramifications for the markets; this might not end in a pretty fashion. However, it doesn't seem like there is panic selling going on, which is a good thing," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group.</p>
<p>The volatile trading action comes at a time when major U.S. stock-market indexes are solidly higher for the year, and trading near record levels. The S&amp;P is up more than 9% in 2017, and is within 2 percentage points of all-time highs. Beyond geopolitical concerns, investors have also been worried about Wall Street valuations.</p>
<p>Read: Overseas stocks are still where the bargains are for U.S. investors (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/overseas-stocks-are-still-where-the-bargains-are-for-us-investors-2017-08-24)</p>
<p>"Valuation is rarely the only factor behind a market selloff, but it can exacerbate a market downturn when other factors are present," Ghriskey said. "We're not concerned about the market at these levels, but the Korea situation could get out of hand, which is the last thing anyone wants from a human or a market perspective."</p>
<p>Gold futures jumped $10.20, or 0.8%, to around $1,325 an ounce, trading around the highest level since September. In other haven trading, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes fell 5 basis points to 2.11%.</p>
<p>See also: Gold's 2016 peak now looks easy to reach after the metal's big breakout (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/golds-2016-peak-now-looks-easy-to-reach-after-the-metals-big-breakout-2017-08-29)</p>
<p>Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-jolted-by-north-korean-missile-test-over-japan-2017-08-28), with most benchmarks mired in red. Stocks in Europe suffered the biggest fall (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dax-suffers-as-european-stocks-slide-to-6-month-low-on-north-korea-spurred-selloff-2017-08-29), with the Stoxx Europe 600 index down 1.3%.</p>
<p>The CBOE VIX Volatility index had jumped 16%, or less than two points, hitting 13.21. But has since pared those gains and trades at 11.95.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the ICE Dollar Index slid 0.4% to 91.88, near its lowest since January 2015 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-dives-to-lowest-since-early-2015-rattled-by-north-korea-missile-launch-2017-08-29). The greenback fell to Yen108.70, compared with Yen109.26 late Monday in New York.</p>
<p>The dollar was trading flat but still holding near under uncertainty of how the devastating Hurricane Harvey that rampaged Texas over the weekend will hit the U.S. economy and impact the Federal Reserve rate decisions. The storm system is expected to make landfall again this week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/harvey-set-to-pummel-flooded-houston-once-again-2017-08-29) and to add another 20 inches of rain for an total of 50 inches.</p>
<p>Insurance companies were hurt by the storm, the full extent to the damage of which remains unknown. The SPDR S&amp;P Insurance ETF(KIE) fell 0.6% while the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK) was off 0.5%. The PowerShares KBW Property &amp; Casualty Insurance Portfolio (KBWP) was trading 0.3% lower on the day, but all three are down more than 1% thus far this week.</p>
<p>ReadCaroline Baum: No, hurricanes aren't good for the economy (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-hurricanes-are-not-good-for-the-economy-2017-08-28)</p>
<p>And see:Hurricane Harvey highlights biggest impact of shale-oil revolution (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-markets-harvey-reaction-a-product-of-shale-revolution-2017-08-28)</p>
<p>Gas prices declined on Tuesday, with the October contract down 0.8% to $1.56 a gallon. Crude oil prices fell 0.4% to $46.52 a barrel.</p>
<p>Stock movers: Shares of oil refiners were among biggest movers on Tuesday, with shares volatile following the fallout from Harvey. The storm is estimated to have reduced refining capacity along the Texas Gulf Coast by more than 2 million barrels a day, which could help to lift fuel margins and benefit refiners.</p>
<p>Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corp.(MPC) were down 2.1%, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.(APC) lost 1.4%. The overall energy sector (XLE) was 0.2% lower as one of the biggest decliners of the day.</p>
<p>Acorda Therapeutics Inc.(ACOR) plunged 26% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the company's application (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/acorda-therapeutics-shares-crater-24-premarket-after-fda-rejects-application-for-parkinsons-treatment-2017-08-29) for a drug to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.</p>
<p>J. Jill Inc. (JILL) tumbled 15.2% after it reported its second-quarter results and gave an outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jjill-shares-fall-10-premarket-2017-08-29), the midpoint of which was below analyst consensus expectations.</p>
<p>Shares of Finish Line Inc. (FINL) tumbled by 20% after the athletics-wear company late Monday issued a profit warning (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/finish-line-slashes-forecast-adopts-poison-pill-2017-08-28) and approved a plan aimed at blocking any individual stockholder from owning more than 12.5% of the shares outstanding.</p>
<p>Best Buy Co Inc.(BBY) sank 12% despite reporting earnings that beat forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/best-buy-shares-gain-5-after-companys-fiscal-q2-earnings-hit-above-wall-street-expectations-2017-08-29).</p>
<p>Economic news:The S&amp;P/Case-Shiller 20-city index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-price-gains-were-hot-in-june-as-seattle-sizzled-case-shiller-says-2017-08-29) rose a seasonally adjusted 5.7% in the three-month period ending in June, compared with a year ago, the same rate of change as in May.</p>
<p>Consumers confidence strengthened in August (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-confidence-strengthens-in-august-2017-08-29), and remains just below a 16-year high. The modest recovery in stocks followed the release of the data.</p>
<p>There were no Federal Reserve speakers on the docket for Tuesday.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 29, 2017 14:15 ET (18:15 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock Market Attempts To Shake Off Political Tension In Volatile Trade | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/29/market-snapshot-stock-market-attempts-to-shake-off-political-tension-in-volatile-trade1.html | 2017-08-29 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 20 Jul, 2017 18:26</p>
<p>A new monitoring body to counter racism and other forms of discrimination within the Football Union of Russia (FUR) has begun its mission in the domestic championship in preparation for the upcoming 2018 World Cup.</p>
<p>“The main goal of the new anti-discrimination monitoring system is to contribute to creation of a fair and friendly atmosphere in the stands during matches of the Russian Premier League,” Russian Football Union’s racism inspector Alexey Smertin said during a meeting of the RFU control and disciplinary committee Thursday.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/378285-alexey-smertin-racism-inspector/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The monitoring system has been developed by FUR in cooperation with FIFA. The anti-discrimination body was announced ahead of the recent 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. Smertin, a former Russian international and English Premier League midfielder was named the FUR anti-racism inspector in March.</p>
<p>“The system has proved to be excellent during the Confederations Cup and we’re sure that it would contribute the Russian championship greatly,” Smertin said.</p>
<p>“World Football Cup is ahead and we want the fan culture to measure up with the highest international standards not only during this massive football feast, but after its conclusion too, becoming a legacy of the tournament for the domestic football.”</p>
<p>The anti-discrimination monitoring mechanism has already yielded results on the domestic front. FC Spartak Moscow and FC Dynamo Moscow have been fined 250 thousand rubles each (some $ 4500) for the racist behavior of their fans.</p>
<p>FC Avangard, playing in the second tier, was fined 50,000 rubles (some $ 850) for some sort of “Nazi” chants by its fans. The clubs have been warned that repeated offences would result in more severe punishments.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/394933-fifa-infantino-presser-hooligans/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;‘We heard about hooligans &amp; racism, but no incidents, all ran smoothly’ – FIFA chief Infantino</a></p>
<p>“Implementation of the discriminative actions monitoring is an important step for Russian football evolvement,” FUR CEO Aleksandr Alaev said. “We’ll to contribute to development of the system and will do our best to completely eradicate racism and other forms of discrimination from domestic stadiums.”</p> | Russia introduces football discrimination watchdog | false | https://newsline.com/russia-introduces-football-discrimination-watchdog/ | 2017-07-20 | 1 |
<p>In episode 18 of FactCheck Radio, we look at claims from the Sunday political talk shows about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, health care, Afghanistan and kidnappings in Phoenix. Plus, we talk about a false ad from Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, targeting Republican Kelly Ayotte in the New Hampshire Senate race.</p>
<p>For more on the stories discussed in this episode, see: Sunday Replay June 28 Hodes Deletes Truth in NH Senate Race June 30</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/hodes/ | 2 |
||
<p>June 19, 2013</p>
<p>By Katy Grimes</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>While reports of an improving California economy abound, many in the state aren’t buying it — particularly given how many anti-business bills are working through the Legislature.</p>
<p>Of particular interest is <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_7_bill_20130219_amended_sen_v98.html" type="external">Senate Bill 7</a>, by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres. <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_7_bill_20130219_amended_sen_v98.html" type="external">SB 7</a> would deprive charter cities of state funding and financial assistance for projects simply because some city charters do not require paying the prevailing wage.</p>
<p>The bill is sponsored by the State Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.</p>
<p>“Continuing California’s economic growth depends on creating more middle class jobs, especially in the construction industry that was hit so hard during the Great Recession,” said&#160;Steinberg on his <a href="http://sd06.senate.ca.gov/news/2013-02-19-bi-partisan-bill-prevailing-wage-ca-charter-cities" type="external">website</a>. “Low wage contractors cut costs by cutting corners, but the data shows that they’re not saving public money. We can’t afford to shortchange workers and taxpayers by ignoring the economic net benefit of California’s prevailing wage law.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_7_bill_20130219_amended_sen_v98.html" type="external">SB 7</a> seeks to compel charter cities to require prevailing wages on local projects they construct with local funds by withholding all state contracting funds from non-compliant cities. The result could mean that local governments simply forgo important infrastructure projects because they cannot afford to fund them.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>SB 7, however, is arguably unconstitutional. In&#160;2012, the California Supreme court confirmed, in <a href="http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/4-s173586-app-opening-brief-merits-100109.pdf" type="external">State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO vs. City of Vista,</a>&#160;that California charter cities would be able to maintain the autonomy to decide whether to pay prevailing wages for local construction projects. It was a step in the direction of the free market for local governments, as I wrote last September in “ <a href="" type="internal">Push for charter cities enrages unions</a>.”</p>
<p>“Whether a charter city pays prevailing wage with local funds is up to each city and not the Legislature,” said Russell Johnson, <a href="http://www.abcnorcal.org" type="external">Associated Building and Contractors, Inc.</a>, California Government Affairs Director.&#160;“In this decision the court said, ‘Autonomy with regard to the expenditure of public funds lies at the heart of what it means to be an independent governmental entity.’ We can think of nothing that is of greater municipal concern than how a city’s tax dollars will be spent; nor anything which could be of less interest to taxpayers of other jurisdictions.”</p>
<p>According to Johnson, the ruling means charter cities now have a clear path to continue to operate as they see fit.</p>
<p>In California, <a href="http://www.guidetogov.org/ca/state/overview/municipal.html" type="external">charter cities</a>are under a unique protection in the State Constitution, and are allowed autonomy from the state when it comes to “municipal affairs.” This means when local dollars are used, charter cities get to make local decisions.</p>
<p>“In the <a href="http://info.abcnorcal.org/acton/ct/2214/s-0186-1304/Bct/l-0104/l-0104:0/ct1_0/1" type="external">Vista</a> case, the California Supreme Court unambiguously upheld the right of charter cities to establish their own contracting policies for public works projects paid for with local funds,” Russell explained. “Local projects built with local funds are not subject to prevailing wage.”</p>
<p>Passage of <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_7_bill_20130219_amended_sen_v98.html" type="external">SB 7</a> would establish a disturbing road map for future state intrusion on charter city laws and policies by withholding state funds as leverage to attempt to force changes to voter-approved city charters and ordinances.</p>
<p>“Cities recognize that exercising the power of a charter&#160;can free their municipal affairs&#160;from the grip of the state legislature and the special interest groups entrenched at the capitol,” Kevin Dayton, CEO of <a href="http://laborissuessolutions.com" type="external">Dayton Public Policy Institute</a>, said in a <a href="http://unionwatch.org/with-senate-bill-7-california-unions-advance-plot-to-neuter-city-charters/" type="external">recent op ed</a>&#160;on <a href="http://unionwatch.org" type="external">UnionWatch.org</a>.</p>
<p>Dayton <a href="http://laborissuessolutions.com/tag/senate-bill-7-2013/" type="external">wrote</a>:</p>
<p>“A <a href="http://www3.murrieta.org/sirepub/cache/2/c1jc3155xoveoeeh1qtjwfm5/637202282013085145542.PDF" type="external">staff report about city charters to the Murrieta City Council for its October 2, 2012 meeting</a> was blunt about the need for cities to enact charters:</p>
<p>“‘…a knowledgeable, involved electorate should both propel and constrain the direction of its own city. Local control has always been a paramount matter of residents, businesses and the Murrieta City Council. Yet state legislators and previous gubernatorial administrations continue to impose far greater mandates, while at the same time hindering the ability of local governments to operate successfully. With little ability to protest, local governments have watched as the state government continues to balance its budget deficits on the backs of fiscally responsible local jurisdictions…The voice of cities in Sacramento has become mute due to a combination of special interest groups, influential political campaign contributions and tone-deaf lawmakers passing unfunded mandates. This process has left cities with little ability to petition the state government…’”</p>
<p>Of the 482 cities in California, 121 are charter cities; the rest are “general law cities” over which the Legislature exercises more control. But not all charter cities avail themselves of the prevailing wage exemption. There are currently 70 cities with no exemption, 10 cities with a partial exemption, and 41 charter cities with full exemption, according to the <a href="http://www.caccg.org" type="external">California Construction Compliance Group</a>.</p>
<p>“But there are aggressive opponents who regard cities’ exercise of their charter authority to be an attack on their hegemony,” Dayton said. “In 2011 and 2012, <a href="http://laborissuessolutions.com/who-defeated-the-city-of-auburns-proposed-charter-and-how-was-it-done-answer-three-union-entities-by-spending-56-40-per-no-vote/" type="external">unions spent jaw-dropping amounts per voter on campaigns</a> to convince voters to reject reasonable proposed charters.”</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time unions have been at the dance to crush charter city authority. The unions backed&#160; <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB922&amp;search_keywords=" type="external">SB 922</a>&#160;in 2011 and <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB829&amp;search_keywords=" type="external">SB 829</a>&#160;in 2012, both by former state Sen. Michael Rubio.&#160;These two laws cut off state money to charter cities that adopt policies prohibiting those cities from requiring construction contractors to sign a&#160; <a href="http://thetruthaboutplas.com/get-the-truth/" type="external">Project Labor Agreement&#160;</a>with unions as a condition of work.&#160;Both bills were signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.</p>
<p>“SB 7 just adopts the same concept of overpowering charter city authority,” Dayton said.</p>
<p>Dayton anticipates the Democratic legislative supermajority and Brown, also a Democrat, will advance even more union-backed efforts to chip away at&#160; <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_11" type="external">Article XI, Section 3</a>&#160;of the California Constitution, which allows cities to govern their own municipal affairs under a charter.</p>
<p>Dayton said, “It would be an effective way to eliminate another one of the diminishing number of checks and balances that interfere with utopian schemes planned under the benevolent and enlightened one-party state.”</p> | SB 7 subverts charter cities’ autonomy | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/06/19/sb-7-subverts-charter-cities-autonomy/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — Rex Tillerson’s bid to be secretary of state narrowly won approval Monday from the Republican-led Foreign Relations Committee, a move that all but assures the full Senate will confirm President Donald Trump’s pick for the key Cabinet post.</p>
<p>Members of the panel voted along party lines, 11-10, to back Tillerson following a contentious confirmation hearing nearly two weeks ago that stoked concerns he might not win the panel’s recommendation. But just hours before members cast their votes, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., declared his support for Tillerson, backing off from a challenge to the new president.</p>
<p>Rubio said that despite serious reservations about Tillerson, particularly over his views on Russia, he believed a president was entitled to significant deference in assembling his Cabinet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>None of the committee’s 10 Democrats voted for Tillerson. They cited concerns Tillerson would continue to view the world through the lens of a corporate executive and not the nation’s chief diplomat.</p>
<p>Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, said Tillerson “equivocated” during his confirmation hearing on questions about human rights, civil society and press and religious freedoms, and repeatedly prioritized “narrow business interests ahead of these core national security interests.”</p>
<p>Every nominee for the job going back at least four decades has been approved by overwhelming votes from both sides in the Foreign Relations Committee, as senators have traditionally wanted to deliver a bipartisan display of confidence to the nation’s top diplomat. No other nominee since 1977 has received more than two “no” votes from the committee.</p>
<p>Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee’s Republican chairman, said he has “no doubt” Tillerson is well-qualified, citing his leadership of the energy giant. Corker chided his colleagues who had demanded information about Tillerson’s personal taxes, saying the material had been used to ask “silly, silly questions.”</p>
<p>Corker also criticized unnamed lawmakers who held Tillerson responsible for comments Trump made during the presidential campaign or during his inauguration speech.</p>
<p>“To me, Mr. Tillerson is an adult who’s been around,” said Corker, adding that Tillerson can be a “very good anchor” on issues that Congress cares about.</p>
<p>Rubio announced he would vote for Tillerson in a statement posted on Facebook. “Despite my reservations, I will support Mr. Tillerson’s nomination in committee and in the full Senate,” said Rubio, who’d come under strong pressure from fellow Republicans to back the nomination and avoid dealing Trump an embarrassing setback in the early days of his presidency.</p>
<p>Rubio had clashed with Tillerson at a committee hearing earlier this month, bridling at his refusal to label Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and his failure to condemn human rights violations in Saudi Arabia and the Philippines in strong enough terms. He chided Tillerson over the need for “moral clarity.” But in the end, after unsuccessfully opposing Trump for the GOP nomination last year before coming around to support him, Rubio decided to fall in line this time, too.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>His statement came after the nomination got a boost Sunday from two influential Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who also offered tepid endorsements for Tillerson. Like Rubio, McCain and Graham had voiced concerns in light of Tillerson’s long history of personal dealings with Putin, his record of doing oil deals in Russia and his questioning of the U.S. sanctions on that country.</p>
<p>Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he was encouraged by several of Tillerson’s public stances, including “his clear-eyed understanding of the threat posed by Putin’s Russia” and his commitment to NATO. But Coons said the differences on key issues between himself and Tillerson outweighed the similarities.</p>
<p>“I believe that climate change is a pressing national security threat,” Coons said. “I believe that advocating for human rights, a free press, and democracy around the world advances our own security and economic interests here at home.”</p>
<p>Further roiling the debate is U.S. intelligence’s assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Even while announcing his support for Tillerson, Rubio laid out a series of concerns in his statement Monday.</p>
<p>“Despite his extensive experience in Russia and his personal relationship with many of its leaders, he claimed he did not have sufficient information to determine whether Putin and his cronies were responsible for ordering the murder of countless dissidents, journalists and political opponents,” Rubio said of Tillerson. “He indicated he would support sanctions on Putin for meddling in our elections only if they met the impossible condition that they not affect U.S. businesses operating in Russia.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/rplardner" type="external">http://twitter.com/rplardner</a></p> | Senate panel narrowly backs Trump’s choice for top diplomat | false | https://abqjournal.com/933729/rubio-to-back-tillerson-for-secretary-of-state.html | 2017-01-23 | 2 |
<p>By R. Scott Moxley</p>
<p>January 6, 2010</p>
<p>Ex-OC Weekly investigative reporter Anthony Pignataro has joined the staff of the new Sacramento-based <a href="../" type="external">CalWatchdog.com</a> which launched its website yesterday.</p>
<p>Controlled by ex-Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut on behalf of a libertarian-leaning California think tank, CalWatchdog carries a motto: “Your eyes on California government.”</p>
<p>Greenhut has been a vocal critic of entrench political and government forces–especially public employee unions. He is the author of a new book, “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.” Art Pedroza over at <a href="http://orangejuiceblog.com/" type="external">orangejuiceblog.com</a> welcomed Greenhut’s operation, but you can imagine that union bosses despise Greenhut.</p>
<p>As a staff writer at the Weekly for seven years until he became editor of an alternative weekly newspaper in Hawaii, Pignataro won numerous journalism awards on a variety of topics, dominated coverage of the proposal international airport at the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine and regularly entertained colleagues with his wit. I know his talents well. Advice for dirty politicians in Sacramento: beware. Pignataro is relentless.</p>
<p>Katy Grimes, a veteran journalist who has worked at such places as The Washington Examiner and The Sacramento Union, is also on Greenhut’s staff as a news reporter.</p>
<p>–R. Scott Moxley / <a href="http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/breaking-news/anthony-pignataro-calwatchdog/" type="external">OC Weekly</a></p> | Ex-Weekly Reporter Lands Sacramento Investigative Gig | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/01/08/ex-weekly-reporter-lands-sacramento-investigative-gig/ | 2018-01-20 | 3 |
<p>FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Will Wade talked repeatedly about the potential of the LSU basketball program when he was hired away from VCU after last season.</p>
<p>Even the first-year Tigers coach couldn’t have known how quickly LSU would turn that potential into wins.</p>
<p>Led by Aaron Epps’ 13 points and 11 rebounds, the surging Tigers continued their recent winning ways on Wednesday night — dominating Arkansas from the outset in a 75-54 victory.</p>
<p>The victory is the fifth in the last six games for LSU (11-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), which narrowly lost to No. 21 Kentucky and also <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/waters-lifts-lsu-over-no-11-texas-am-69-68" type="external">won at Texas A&amp;M</a> last week. More importantly, it gave the Tigers more wins than they had all of last season — when they finished 10-21 in their last season before Wade’s hiring.</p>
<p>“That was about as well as we can play,” Wade said. “... We were just hoping to come in here and hang around and keep it close and give ourselves an opportunity there at the end. Obviously, things kind of snowballed and it was our night tonight.”</p>
<p>Four players scored in double figures for LSU, with Randy Onwuasor and Skylar Mays finishing with 12 points each and Duop Reath adding 11. The Tigers led by as many as 24 points in the first half and shot 52.7 percent (29 of 55) in the win.</p>
<p>Epps was a part of LSU struggles last season, and he continued to show improvement right along with the Tigers — earning his third double-double of the season. The senior finished 5 of 7 from the field and is now shooting 24 of 39 (61.5 percent) over his last five games.</p>
<p>“(The turnaround) feels great,” Epps said. “We’ve definitely put the work in, and I’m just happy that we’ve been winning games.”</p>
<p>Jaylen Barford had 17 points to lead the Razorbacks (11-5, 1-3), who have lost three straight games after reaching No. 22 in The Associated Press poll a week ago. Barford was 6 of 15 from the field and the only Arkansas player to score in double figures.</p>
<p>Arkansas entered the game leading the SEC with an average of 88.5 points per game, but it trailed 41-21 at halftime and never threatened in the second half.</p>
<p>The Razorbacks closed to within 12 points on a jumper by C.J. Jones that cut LSU’s lead to 55-43 with 10:42 remaining, but the Tigers quickly stretched their lead back to 23 points and as many as 27 in front of the stunned crowd in Bud Walton Arena — where Arkansas lost for the first time this season.</p>
<p>“They came in, and I thought they caught us real flat,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “... It was one of those nights, and when you shoot 18 percent from the field (in the first half), you’re going to get these kind of results.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>LSU: Tremont Waters entered the game having already earned the SEC Freshman of the Week honors twice this season, including last week. The 5-foot-11, 167-pound point guard, who leads the league in assists with an average of 6 per game, lived up to his many accolades on Wednesday — finishing with eight points, eight assists and five rebounds for the Tigers.</p>
<p>Arkansas: The Razorbacks played their worst half of the season to open the game, shooting just 6 of 33 (18.2 percent) from the field and trailing by as many 24 points before settling for a 41-21 halftime deficit. The 21 points were a season-worst in a half for Arkansas, which shot a season-worst 33.3 percent (19 of 57) overall.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>LSU returns home to host Alabama on Saturday.</p>
<p>The suddenly reeling Razorbacks host Missouri on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Kurt Voigt on Twitter at @Kurt_Voigt_AP</p>
<p>FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Will Wade talked repeatedly about the potential of the LSU basketball program when he was hired away from VCU after last season.</p>
<p>Even the first-year Tigers coach couldn’t have known how quickly LSU would turn that potential into wins.</p>
<p>Led by Aaron Epps’ 13 points and 11 rebounds, the surging Tigers continued their recent winning ways on Wednesday night — dominating Arkansas from the outset in a 75-54 victory.</p>
<p>The victory is the fifth in the last six games for LSU (11-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), which narrowly lost to No. 21 Kentucky and also <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/waters-lifts-lsu-over-no-11-texas-am-69-68" type="external">won at Texas A&amp;M</a> last week. More importantly, it gave the Tigers more wins than they had all of last season — when they finished 10-21 in their last season before Wade’s hiring.</p>
<p>“That was about as well as we can play,” Wade said. “... We were just hoping to come in here and hang around and keep it close and give ourselves an opportunity there at the end. Obviously, things kind of snowballed and it was our night tonight.”</p>
<p>Four players scored in double figures for LSU, with Randy Onwuasor and Skylar Mays finishing with 12 points each and Duop Reath adding 11. The Tigers led by as many as 24 points in the first half and shot 52.7 percent (29 of 55) in the win.</p>
<p>Epps was a part of LSU struggles last season, and he continued to show improvement right along with the Tigers — earning his third double-double of the season. The senior finished 5 of 7 from the field and is now shooting 24 of 39 (61.5 percent) over his last five games.</p>
<p>“(The turnaround) feels great,” Epps said. “We’ve definitely put the work in, and I’m just happy that we’ve been winning games.”</p>
<p>Jaylen Barford had 17 points to lead the Razorbacks (11-5, 1-3), who have lost three straight games after reaching No. 22 in The Associated Press poll a week ago. Barford was 6 of 15 from the field and the only Arkansas player to score in double figures.</p>
<p>Arkansas entered the game leading the SEC with an average of 88.5 points per game, but it trailed 41-21 at halftime and never threatened in the second half.</p>
<p>The Razorbacks closed to within 12 points on a jumper by C.J. Jones that cut LSU’s lead to 55-43 with 10:42 remaining, but the Tigers quickly stretched their lead back to 23 points and as many as 27 in front of the stunned crowd in Bud Walton Arena — where Arkansas lost for the first time this season.</p>
<p>“They came in, and I thought they caught us real flat,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “... It was one of those nights, and when you shoot 18 percent from the field (in the first half), you’re going to get these kind of results.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>LSU: Tremont Waters entered the game having already earned the SEC Freshman of the Week honors twice this season, including last week. The 5-foot-11, 167-pound point guard, who leads the league in assists with an average of 6 per game, lived up to his many accolades on Wednesday — finishing with eight points, eight assists and five rebounds for the Tigers.</p>
<p>Arkansas: The Razorbacks played their worst half of the season to open the game, shooting just 6 of 33 (18.2 percent) from the field and trailing by as many 24 points before settling for a 41-21 halftime deficit. The 21 points were a season-worst in a half for Arkansas, which shot a season-worst 33.3 percent (19 of 57) overall.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>LSU returns home to host Alabama on Saturday.</p>
<p>The suddenly reeling Razorbacks host Missouri on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Kurt Voigt on Twitter at @Kurt_Voigt_AP</p> | Epps’ double-double sparks surging LSU past Arkansas, 75-54 | false | https://apnews.com/af879e87e4684d02b8e1a7ef8dd9df81 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Saturn has one wild polar jet stream.</p>
<p>Moving at an astonishing 200 mph, the wind pattern known as "the hexagon" has been <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011468/index.html" type="external">whipping around</a> the planet's north pole for decades.</p>
<p>It has six different sides, as you can see here:</p>
<p />
<p>(Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)</p>
<p>It's also <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011468/index.html" type="external">spawned</a> the insane 1,250-mile-wide rotating storm on Saturn's north pole, pictured at the top of this story.</p>
<p>First <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/saturn-hexagon-video-six-sided-jet-stream-planet_n_4393264.html" type="external">discovered</a> by NASA's Voyager 1 space probe during its voyage through the outer solar system in the 1980s, the jet stream is several thousand miles long and could encompass the Earth twice.</p>
<p>NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured the most detailed and comprehensive images of the fast-moving system yet.</p>
<p />
<p>(Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)</p>
<p>Watch video of the chaotic jet stream here:</p>
<p /> | Here's what a 1,250-mile wide storm that is raging on Saturn looks like | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-03-25/heres-what-1250-mile-wide-storm-raging-saturn-looks | 2014-03-25 | 3 |
<p>Federal investigators formally investigated top Hillary Rodham Clinton aide <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Huma Abedin</a> for the crime of embezzlement after confirming she took a “Babymoon” vacation and maternity time at the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> without expending her formal leave, resulting in thousands of dollars of pay she wasn’t entitled to receive, The Washington Times has learned.</p>
<p>The probe also gathered evidence she filed time sheets charging the government for impermissible overtime and excessive hours after she converted from a full-time federal employee to a <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> contractor.</p>
<p>Those timecards were filed during a period that remains under investigation over questions about possible conflicts of interest, documents gathered by the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> inspector general show.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>, who served as a deputy chief of staff to Mrs. Clinton from 2009 to late 2012, told investigators she hadn’t noticed she had received a $33,000 lump sum payment — about a third of which investigators determined was improper — when she left the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a>.</p>
<p>She suggested her husband, the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, failed to let her know.</p>
<p>“My husband handles all the finances in our household,” she told investigators during a recorded interview in October 2014.</p>
<p>She said she only learned of the payment after being contacted by investigators two years after her departure. “I did ask my husband to look up our bank statements, and we did have a deposit,” she said during her interview.</p>
<p>She also acknowledged it was likely she did not fill out the required form when she went on a two-week vacation to Europe in 2011 while she was pregnant — a trip she called a “Babymoon” in emails and her interview.</p>
<p>The failure to file the form resulted in her having excessive vacation time cashed out to her in the lump payment upon leaving government, investigators concluded.</p>
<p>“You are 100 percent right on the Babymoon. I don’t recall. One hundred percent right. I don’t recall filling out any paperwork saying I was taking leave,” she told the investigators. “I’m not even going to blame it on my pregnancy brain.”</p>
<p>The <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a>’s inspector general formally concluded that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> failed to correctly submit multiple required time sheet and leave forms covering her vacation and maternity leave, resulting in an overpayment of $10,674.32 that she wasn’t entitled to receive when she left her job.</p>
<p>The Abedin investigation’s existence has been known for weeks, but the contents and findings have never been publicly released.</p>
<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has repeatedly questioned <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s compensation and work arrangements under Mrs. Clinton, suggesting she was overpaid and may have engaged in conflicts of interest when she worked both for State as a contractor and a firm in New York connected to friends of the Clinton family.</p>
<p>Charges of smear job</p>
<p><a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s lawyer, Miguel Rodriguez, has accused the senator of a smear job in suggesting there was any criminality.</p>
<p>The documents provided to The Times by a source outside the Senate or the IG’s office make clear, however, the inquiry was clearly criminal in nature and ultimately referred to federal prosecutors.</p>
<p>Mr. Rodriguez did not immediately return a call seeking comment from The Times on Wednesday.</p>
<p>However, he sent a letter to the OIG disputing its conclusions, saying investigators should have credited <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> for the time she worked while off rather than demand she repay the money.</p>
<p>“I am deeply troubled by gaps in the OIG’s investigation, holes in its methodology, unsupported allegations, as well as its conclusory demand (contradicted by evidence in the report itself) that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> refund the Department’s alleged overpayment,” he wrote.</p>
<p>“Further, while it is undisputed that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> worked during her periods of leave — and indeed that she was known as a workaholic who rarely took vacation — absolutely no effort was made to calculate the amount of time <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> worked during the periods in question and whether her work hours amounted to at least eight hours a day. Any <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> employee — indeed any government employee — deserves better, and so does <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>,” Mr. Rodriguez wrote.</p>
<p>The FBI was first alerted that the IG was conducting a “criminal investigation” of <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> in a memo dated Oct. 22, 2013, the records show.</p>
<p>After 15 months of extensive document-gathering and interviews, the IG submitted the case for review by the Justice Department public integrity division, which declined to prosecute <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>. The “alleged violations” cited were improperly requesting and approving annual leave and “embezzlement,” the documents state.</p>
<p>“The case was not declined based on the merits of the investigation,” stated the final investigative report, dated Jan. 26.</p>
<p>Such a designation usually means federal prosecutors decided not to pursue a case, but only because they didn’t think it worth the resources, not because the facts and evidence couldn’t support a case.</p>
<p>The designation opened the door for the department to seek reimbursement of $10,674.32 in payments that investigators concluded <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> was not entitled to receive, the documents show.</p>
<p>Investigators concluded that while they could not prove <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> had intended to defraud the government, “the investigation substantiated that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a>, on several occasions, failed to submit a Request for Leave or Approved Absence.”</p>
<p>The failure left her with paid leave that should have been expended during her vacation and maternity, inflating her final payout when she left government.</p>
<p>Reputation as workaholic</p>
<p>In her interview, <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> offered several explanations, stressing repeatedly she always worked during her vacations and maternity leave.</p>
<p>She said she left it to a “timekeeper” in the department to fill out her forms for her when she was a full-time employee and believed she had the proper permission to take her maternity leave. She also claimed that, after the fact, she had been told the department had simply decided not to charge her for her maternity leave because she often worked during that time.</p>
<p>Investigators found some email evidence that a special arrangement was discussed to possibly let <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> avoid claiming leave time for her maternity but no evidence it was ever formalized.</p>
<p>“ <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a> was unable to say who made the determination to credit her hours. She also was unable to provide an accounting of the hours she worked while on maternity leave,” investigators wrote in their final report.</p>
<p>The investigators also interviewed a co-worker who clearly recalled telling <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> she needed to fill out formal paperwork to claim maternity leave, a document that was never located.</p>
<p>Investigators concluded the missing paperwork allowed <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>, among other things, to be paid eight hours by taxpayers on the day she actually delivered her son, the documents show.</p>
<p>(Over)time as a contractor</p>
<p>In her interview with investigators last fall, <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> acknowledged she personally filled out her time sheets when she returned to the department after maternity leave and came back as a contractor working out of New York, known in federal parlance as a “special government employee.”</p>
<p>That admission could affect an ongoing investigation into <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s simultaneous work in 2012 as both a special contractor at State and for a private firm in New York. Congress has asked the inspector general to investigate whether there were any conflicts of interest during that work.</p>
<p>In interviews with <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s colleagues, the inspector general agreed that handwritten time sheets governing her work as a contractor were in fact filled out by <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> in summer 2012.</p>
<p>Those time sheets claimed both improper overtime and excessive work hours not allowed under her SGE contract, the reports show.</p>
<p>The investigators questioned one administrative official in the department who processed timecards about two time sheets in which <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> claimed she worked “no duty hours and 18 overtime hours” and another pay period where 13 hours of overtime were claimed when she was a special government employee.One of the IG reports recounted an interview with the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> administrative employee about the overtime.</p>
<p>“When asked if she was aware SGEs did not receive overtime,” the report states, the employee told investigators she had been instructed to “keep track of <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a>’s hours in the same manner as when she was” a regular full-time employee and could receive overtime.</p>
<p>A separate investigative report indicated <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s contractor time sheets “indicated she worked 1,290 hours while employed as an SGE” over six months but that federal regulations mandated “SGEs are to work no more than 1,040 hours in a calendar year.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/xGjXcUKYsKxMeCUl1" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Huma Files: Feds investigated top Hillary Clinton aide for embezzlement | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/9/huma-abedin-formally-investigated-embezzlement/ | 2015-09-09 | 0 |
<p>The collapse of the Cypriot banking system reveals much about the complex relationship among ordinary Russians, “offshore oligarchs” and a political system that depends on both.</p>
<p>If anyone needed a reminder that Europe’s debt crisis is not over even though the European Central Bank is flooding the capital markets with cheap money, he or she would have to look only to Cyprus. The island’s banks virtually collapsed in March. The recession, the downgrading of the country’s investment rating and the Cypriot banks’ large losses on Greek bonds forced Cyprus to seek international help in order to avoid state bankruptcy.</p>
<p>The island negotiated with both the European Union and Russia. Cyprus is one of Russia’s largest foreign investors and Moscow had already granted the country a loan of 2.5 billion euro ($3.3 billion) in 2011. In spite of lucrative offers that included the rights to exploit natural gas off of Cyprus’ shores, the Russian government was not inclined to provide an additional loan. As a result, Cyprus had to accept the tough conditions of the EU troika in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout: tough cuts in state services and the factual liquidation of the two largest Cypriot banks.</p>
<p>Since Cyprus needs at least 27 billion euro ($35 billion), the government decided to raise some of the remaining money from owners of bank accounts on the island. Accounts with more than 100,000 euro ($130,000) in them will have to take a “haircut,” essentially a state seizure of assets of up to 80 percent. Aside from Cypriots, this measure mainly affects Russians. The Mediterranean island has for years served as the most important tax haven for wealthy Russians and the business community, and for that reason, foreign investment in Russia is as likely to originate in Cyprus as anywhere else. In 2011, alone, the island sent $13 billion to mother Russia, and a lot of that money was simply returning home.</p>
<p />
<p>Russians loved Cypriot bank accounts for their lax regulations and the ease of tax evasion. Mainly, though, Cyprus acted as a secure place for Russian capital because businessmen are afraid that their money is not safe in Russia itself. They understand that the fate of companies depends on their political favor. Furthermore, they do not trust Russian courts to settle legal conflicts independently of political influence, Tim Worstall <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/03/27/russians-in-cyprus-its-not-about-tax-its-about-the-rule-of-law-and-property-rights/" type="external">explains</a> in Forbes magazine. Russian businesses prefer countries with reliable legal systems, particularly the U.K. and Switzerland. As Cyprus continues to be under British legal jurisdiction, the island represented an obvious choice.</p>
<p>As it turns out, though, Cyprus was not as risk free as the Russian business community had hoped. The government’s decision to drain bank accounts is unprecedented in the European Union. The fact that it affected mostly Russian assets certainly made it easier to sell to the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the European Union strongly after the Cyprus decision, talking about “expropriation of investors” and a “loss of confidence in the banking system of the eurozone.” He nonetheless could not hide a certain amount of satisfaction when he stated in a German television <a href="http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/putin-interview-video100.html%29" type="external">interview</a> that “all of those damaged or intimidated, we hope, or at least many of them, will come to us and bring their money to our banks.”</p>
<p>The comment illustrates that Putin is somewhat torn in his assessment of the Cypriot crisis. On the one hand, Russian companies incurred significant losses. The newspaper Kommersant estimates them at 1.5 billion to 2 billion euro ($1.9 billion to $2.6 billion). In mid-April, the Russian stock market reacted negatively to news that the EU’s 10 billion euro bailout would most likely not suffice. Moreover, some commentators, among them Max Fisher in The Washington Post, think that Russia suffered a geopolitical defeat. He <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/03/25/a-bailout-for-cyprus-a-geopolitical-failure-for-russia/" type="external">argues</a> that Russia’s unwillingness to bail out Cyprus represented “a failed bid by Moscow to reassert some of its once-vast power in Europe and to stand up as an alternative to the European Union.” It’s not clear, however, that Russia would have been able to really influence decisions about the European financial crisis by bailing out Cyprus.</p>
<p>It is more likely that Russia would have endeavored on a very expensive and dangerous financial adventure by becoming more involved in Cyprus than it already is. It seems that Moscow is rather trying to minimize its losses, agreeing in early May to a renegotiation of its loan from 2011, accepting a longer duration and a lower interest rate — but nothing more.</p>
<p>One reason for this policy is that the Cyprus crisis is turning out to be less disastrous for the Russian economy than some had predicted. The Russian businesses that suffered the largest losses are small to midsize. The large investors, on the other hand, seem to have pulled most of their assets out of the country at the first sign of trouble earlier this year. For example, the Russian Commercial Bank VTB, which had assets of up to $1.8 billion in Cyprus, reports to be virtually unaffected. Wealthy Russians moved their money to other tax havens and also to the United States, buying, among other things, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/27/cyprus-wealthy-russians-new-york" type="external">expensive real estate</a> in New York City in recent months.</p>
<p>Another key to Russia’s hands-off approach is that Putin has in recent months repeatedly expressed his strong dislike of the Russian elite’s hefty foreign holdings. His reaction to the Cyprus crisis indicates that he considers it a lesson for those Russians who tried to hedge their assets. Rhetoric against “offshore oligarchs” who keep their money abroad instead of in Russia is popular in a country with great resentment toward the financially powerful. Even though some bloggers accuse Putin of having his own offshore accounts, he has tried to present himself as a fighter against widespread corruption among Russia’s leadership. A state bailout for oligarchs in Cyprus would have been a politically unwise move.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Putin could not have missed the fact that an upper echelon that can always safely leave its country without financial repercussions is not the best power base for a government that is confronted with mounting social and political tensions. In February, the Russian State Duma thus passed a law that bans officials from holding assets and bank accounts abroad. The government is hoping to repatriate as much as $1 trillion. In a “Direct Line” <a href="http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/5328" type="external">television appearance</a> in late April, Putin said officials had to make a choice: “saving money abroad or serving the citizens of the Russian Federation in the high-ranking positions they have achieved through their service.”</p>
<p>The events in Cyprus might thus play into the hands of the Russian leadership, allowing it to advance its political agenda. Whether it will succeed in returning significant sums of money to Russia is, however, more than doubtful. This will most likely happen only once the underlying problems — that property is not safe from the grasp of judicial and political arbitrariness in Russia, and the widespread notion that the financial elite appropriated its money illegally in the 1990s — are addressed.</p> | Why Putin Let Russia's Richies Take a Bath | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-putin-let-russias-richies-take-a-bath/ | 2013-05-15 | 4 |
<p>Unless it was your birthday, not many of you will recall exactly where you were on the evening of Oct. 2. It wasn't a holiday. No unusual weather pattern created a crisis. It was just an ordinary old Monday, the beginning of a work week for most. For me, however, the events of Oct. 2, 2006, changed the way I live my life.</p>
<p>My husband, Darrell, and I were on a Mediterranean cruise fulfilling a lifetime dream with over 50 wonderful friends from our Virginia Beach church. It had been in the works for almost two years and it was turning out to be everything we imagined—and more. It was day 10 of a beautiful experience in the Med with only two more days remaining. We had spent a lovely day in Florence, Italy, and then topped it off with an afternoon visit to that famous leaning tower in Pisa.</p>
<p>Following a little bite to eat, we relaxed in the showroom enjoying the talents of one of the numerous outstanding shipboard performers. Later, as we lay down to sleep, we were eagerly anticipating our next port of call—Nice, France.</p>
<p>The pain jolted me awake. Being normally a very level-headed person, I tried to pass off the severe pain in my right shoulder and descending into my arm as the result of something I had done that day. But shortly before 1 a.m. when the pain intensified and I became frightened, I awakened Darrell.</p>
<p>At first, he, too, tried to explain away my discomfort; perhaps I had simply slept wrong. Although I had not wanted to even consider it, I could no longer ignore the signs of a heart attack. I remembered our doctor son's stern admonishment: “If you ever feel severe shoulder, arm or chest pain, proceed quickly to an emergency room.” He explained that time is of the essence. After what seemed like an eternity but in reality was probably not more than 15 minutes, Darrell summoned a doctor.</p>
<p>The next five hours of my life ended my dream vacation and sent me on a road I would never choose to travel.</p>
<p>A wonderfully caring shipboard nurse and two efficient doctors from Ecuador began a frantic fight to save my life. As I reeled in unbelievable pain and looked up blindly into the overhead lights, I saw little but heard much. I was hoping it was an out of body experience—preferably someone else's and not mine—as these three caregivers talked about the major heart attack with which they were dealing. They urged Darrell, who had been standing by feeling helpless, to return to the cabin and pack since we needed to leave the ship.</p>
<p>But where were we going? We were underway to Nice. At least twice they called the captain urging him to make all possible speed. They spoke of airlifting me to a hospital by helicopter as a possibility. I won't even try to describe the pain because I'm not sure I could ever put it into words.</p>
<p>In addition to the “talking heads” conversing around me, there was an intense dialogue swirling around inside me. Detached thoughts burst unexpectedly but not surprisingly into my head—thoughts such as, “Jesus, I love you”; “Oh God, it's not my time!”; “Why me?” (Ah, but why not me, since I had abused my body by overeating my entire life); “Does it really end this way?”; “Will my six children (the three I birthed and the three amazing spouses God chose for each) know how much I've adored them?”; “Will my two grandsons ever comprehend the immeasurable love this grandmother has for them?”; “Was I truly saved and covered by the precious blood of my Christ to be able to enter that glorious beyond?”</p>
<p>I kept trying to work deals with God. I wanted to tell Darrell how much I loved him one more time. “What about my “D-Mil,” with whom I promised to grow old together?” “Who will look after Jackie (my beloved wheel-chair-bound shut-in friend from church who counted on me)?” “What about my YaYa's with whom I shared so many adventures?” “Was that all there was?” My mind raced.</p>
<p>I remember thinking, “Wait, those talking heads above me are trying something.” They called a cardiologist in Cleveland to find out how they could improve my chances. This unknown Ohio angel suggested a course of action which may well have saved my life. Again, they called the captain admonishing him to keep things moving.</p>
<p>“God, are you in this place? Are you directing the hands of these non-English speaking physicians?” For the life of me, I have no idea what they did, but whatever it was, it came in two stages. The first I knew, they indicated to me that they were beginning the first step. “Okay, I'm hanging on. Keep it coming, folks!” I remember someone saying next they would try another part of something. I was coming and going, but I realized that the pain began to subside. “Oh God, you are still in the miracle-working business. Thank you, Jesus.”</p>
<p>However temporary it might be, I began to visualize my hour glass refilling.</p>
<p>“Who are these burly characters at my feet? You want to transport me on that little red slab? Wait, I'm on my dream vacation, remember?”</p>
<p>Aware that I was being jostled uncomfortably from ocean liner to small boat, I feared they might drop me overboard. The captain appeared in the little opening in the side of the ship waved good-bye. “Where am I going?” I was violently sick to my stomach and unfortunately could not withhold its contents. Nobody cared. “God, are you in this boat with me?” “Where's Darrell?” I needed to know my husband was with me.</p>
<p>Suddenly, the lights went out. I do not know what happened over the next several hours. I can speculate I was sedated but for all I knew, it was over.</p>
<p>Tuesday, Oct. 3, began very late in the day for me. “God, do any of these people speak English?” From somewhere Darrell found me and the warmth of his hand reminded me we were in this together. “Poor Darrell, he looks rode hard and put up wet.”</p>
<p>“You're going to be okay,” said he and I knew it was wishful thinking on his part.</p>
<p>We learned that in a few days they would do a heart catheterization to get a clearer picture. Until then, however, a delay was required to allow my heart muscle time to recover. “God, I need Thee every hour.” For his own well-being, Darrell needed rest. “Don't leave me!” A kind nurse with limited English guided him to a nearby hotel. “Thank you, Lord, for working that out. No, please don't give up on me here. I'll do better from now on. My children may still need me in their lives.” Even though I'd done my best and given each one strong wings to fly, was it enough for all times? My grandbabies had become my life these days. “Will they see me again?” “I love you, Darrell. Rest well.”</p>
<p>The temperature in the room rose and I began to sweat profusely. People gathered at the foot of my bed looking concerned. “God, I sense something is about to happen and I need you to go before them and prepare for whatever.” I was told I could not wait any longer for the procedure because “it” was happening again. “Handle it, God! Please keep my heart strong enough to endure the angioplasty exam. Please! Someone call Darrell. Make sure my babies and grandbabies know how very much I love them.” “Jesus loves me, this I know ….”</p>
<p>Thankfully, God began to place people in my path who could communicate with me. The doctor who performed the heart cath shared the good news that the blockage was clearing, all thanks to the medical crew from the ship. They did exactly what needed to be done to clear the artery. It was a major infarction but the artery was open. I needed more rest for the heart muscle to recover before they go back in to make possible repairs.</p>
<p>And now, the real recovery began. All night Tuesday I was fully aware of what was about to happen and was fearful due to the constant hovering of medical people and the multiple tests I endured. But during this anxious time, I was able to draw near to the feet of Jesus as never before and he began to work a new miracle in me. I adopted a new theme song: “Take Thou my heart, cleanse every part. Holy Spirit, breathe on me.” God began a true dialogue with me once I fully surrendered control to him.</p>
<p>How many times in the past had I tried to “let go and let God”? It worked for a little while, but then I would get back on my high horse and take charge. It needed to be all or nothing this time. “I get it, God.” He assured me that I would be going back to Virginia. He reminded me that I'd be his from now on in an effort to use this experience to reach out to others. I would have work to do once I was strong enough. “Bring it on, Jesus. I'm your hands and feet and mouthpiece, if you desire.” An amazing peace and contentment flooded my soul.</p>
<p>Did I recover immediately and hop a plane to my beloved homeland? Was the pain gone forever? No, there were more lessons to be learned for this less-than-patient control-freak. There were two more “episodes” with my heart and numerous false hopes for returning home. Eventually, it took nine days in intensive care. As difficult as this was turning out to be, it was God's timetable, not mine or even Darrell's. Will my heart fully recover? Am I given another 20 years? That is not for me to know. I know I have a home in Gloryland that outshines the sun. Whether it's my present gloryland here on earth surrounded by the most fantastic family and friends or the glorious riches beyond this realm where he has already prepared a place for me, I have peace. I am totally okay with this.</p>
<p>I was given opportunities over my extended “French Riviera holiday” to see goodness in so many. The French nurses and doctors warmed up to me and made extraordinary efforts to assist me through words and gestures. We Americans don't have a lock on good guys and French people most definitely are so much more than representatives of a government that won't march off to war with us. Every morning I was awakened at 4 a.m. to worship and praise my Lord. I sang. I quoted Scripture. I fervently prayed. And I always closed with singing God Bless America in the dark stillness of my solitary room. I now can echo “God bless France” and all those other beautiful Mediterranean countries as well. People are good everywhere in his creation. I am thankful to have diverse experiences which justify making this statement.</p>
<p>God has blessed me with the most amazing family and friends. I promise to never take that for granted. My children called daily and rode the roller coaster of emotions with me as we anticipated good news and the prospect of a flight home, only to have our hopes dashed against “one step forward and two steps back” reality. “When God says it's time to be reunited, let's go,” the new me said in surrender. Finally, the doctors agreed that I was strong enough to go home. As I sat astride my hospital bed on my last night in France, I turned over all my yesterdays to my God, who loves me enough to want to allow me to begin again.</p>
<p>Now, after several weeks during which I have regained some of my strength and stamina, being surrounded by family and close friends, I believe he wants me to get it right—finally.</p>
<p>“Take thou my heart, cleanse every part. Holy Spirit, breathe on me.”</p>
<p>“To God be the glory, great things he has done!”</p>
<p>Helen Foster is a member of Kings Grant Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. Her husband, Darrell, is a former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.</p> | FIRST PERSON: Oh God, it’s not my time! | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/firstpersonohgoditsnotmytime/ | 3 |
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<p>VALLETTA, Malta — A couple ran out onto the tarmac of Malta's international airport to stop a jet from leaving for Italy without them, a court heard on Thursday.</p>
<p>Matteo Clementi, 26, and Enrica Apollonio, 23, got stuck in traffic on their way to the airport on Wednesday. By the time they arrived, the gate was closed and they were not allowed on board, <a href="http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150618/local/updated-italian-couple-dashes-onto-airport-apron-to-stop-plane-leaving.573086" type="external">Times of Malta reported</a>.</p>
<p>They went to the next gate, forced open a security door, ran to the apron and began signaling to the pilots to let them on the Ryanair plane. The engines were running and the stairs had been removed.</p>
<p>They were not allowed on board and were arrested by security staff.</p>
<p>Their defense lawyer said Wednesday was Apollonio's 23rd birthday. She had been looking forward to celebrating it with her family "but instead spent it in a cell."</p>
<p>Clementi and Apollonio were fined 2,329 euros ($2,656).</p> | Couple Fined After Trying to Stop Ryanair Jet at Malta Airport | false | http://nbcnews.com/business/travel/couple-fined-after-trying-stop-ryanair-jet-malta-airport-n377591 | 2015-06-18 | 3 |
<p>On Friday, the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-findings-investigation-chicago-police-department" type="external">released</a> its long-awaited report on the Chicago Police Department (CPD). It found that the department "found a pattern of civil rights violations." The report documented over 400 individual police use of force incidents, including over 170 police officer-involved shootings. It states the following:</p>
<p>The department found that CPD’s pattern or practice of unconstitutional force is largely attributable to deficiencies in its accountability systems and in how it investigates uses of force, responds to allegations of misconduct, trains and supervises officers, and collects and reports data on officer use of force. The department also found that the lack of effective community-oriented policing strategies and insufficient support for officer wellness and safety contributed to the pattern or practice of unconstitutional force.</p>
<p>In addition, the department also identified serious concerns about the prevalence of racially discriminatory conduct by some CPD officers and the degree to which that conduct is tolerated and in some respects caused by deficiencies in CPD’s systems of training, supervision and accountability. The department’s findings further note that the impact of CPD’s pattern or practice of unreasonable force falls heaviest on predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods, such that restoring police-community trust will require remedies addressing both discriminatory conduct and the disproportionality of illegal and unconstitutional patterns of force on minority communities.</p>
<p>This report indicates that CPD not only systematically discriminates against minority communities; it also uses an unconstitutional amount of force instead of employing community-oriented policing. This would corroborate the narrative of many Black Lives Matter activists, who accuse the police of being racist and shooting innocent black people solely for their complexion.</p>
<p>However, Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute believes that the report is misleading. She <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/html/statistical-evidence-not-required-14968.html" type="external">wrote</a> the following in City Journal:</p>
<p>The most important statement in the Justice Department’s damning report on the Chicago Police Department has nothing to do with police behavior. Released on Friday, the report found the Chicago police guilty of a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional force. But it turns out that the Justice Department has no standard for what constitutes a “pattern or practice” (the phrase comes from a 1994 federal statute) of unconstitutional police conduct. “Statistical evidence is not required” for a “pattern or practice” finding, the DOJ lawyers announce, citing unrelated court precedent. Nor is there “a specific number of incidents” required to constitute a “pattern or practice,” they proclaim.</p>
<p>Having cleared themselves of any obligation to provide “a specific number of [unconstitutional] incidents” or a statistical benchmark for evaluating them, the DOJ attorneys proceed to ignore any further obligation of transparency. The reader never learns how many incidents of allegedly unconstitutional behavior the Justice Department found, nor how those incidents compare with the universe of police-civilian contacts conducted by the Chicago Police Department. No clue is provided regarding why the DOJ lawyers concluded that the alleged abuses reached the mysterious threshold for constituting a pattern or practice. Instead, the report uses waffle words like “several,” “often,” or “many” as a substitute for actual quantification.</p>
<p>MacDonald says that the DOJ fails to provide any statistical analysis to determine that CPD has any "pattern or practice" of racially-motivated policing. In addition, the DOJ does not provide any transparency on their methodology to make its case, only relying on qualifiers to manipulate readers into believing that CPD foments racist and unconstitutional policies.</p>
<p>"It turns out that the Justice Department has no standard for what constitutes a 'pattern or practice' (the phrase comes from a 1994 federal statute) of unconstitutional police conduct."</p>
<p>Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute</p>
<p>If the DOJ wanted to promulgate a narrative that confirms what the media has attempted to convince us of during the Obama administration, then it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/chicago-police-justice-department-report.html" type="external">worked</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/01/14/the-damning-justice-department-report-about-chicago-police-also-helps-explain-the-citys-murder-rate/?utm_term=.f5740f925e17" type="external">like</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chicago-police-doj-investigation_us_5877da55e4b06df924cb7b91" type="external">a</a> <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/just-department-probe-concludes-chicago-police-engages-in-ex" type="external">charm</a>. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of transparency, quality statistical evidence, and possibly the truth.</p>
<p>Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | DOJ Says Chicago Police Department Is Racist. There’s Just One Big Problem. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12500/doj-says-chicago-police-department-racist-theres-elliott-hamilton | 2017-01-17 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Power matters to . In fact, the segment is the company's largest industrial business, contributing 25% of industrial segmental profit in 2015. Within the power segment, gas turbines -- traditionally the company's most important product -- are a key part of its future prospects. But what can investors expect in the next five to 10 years from end demand from bulk power spending, and how is General Electric Company positioned in this market?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>General Electric claims its H-Class turbine is the world's most efficient heavy-duty gas turbine. Image source: General Electric.</p>
<p>Three considerations Answering these questions requires a look at three key factors:</p>
<p>Positive spending outlook, but risks remain Ultimately, spending on bulk power solutions is determined by a combination of end demand for electricity and the capacity of the network in question to deal with demand loads. Focusing on the domestic market, the projections of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) -- an authority charged to ensure and enforce reliability standards -- is a good place to start.</p>
<p>Delving into NERC's 2015 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, the general picture is of a moderate outlook for utility spending in the next five years, but conditions could improve in the medium term. It's a broadly positive outlook, but subject to economic conditions. NERC usually uses a metric called the reserve margin -- a measure of how much additional resources a network has to meet demand -- to judge network capacity. A lower number signals more spending on capacity is needed.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Quoting from the 2015 assessment's summary: "Reserve Margins in all Assessment Areas appear sufficient but continue to trend downward. Reserve Margins are trending downward in many Assessment Areas despite an ongoing decline in the growth rates of electricity demand."</p>
<p>Moreover, despite reserve margins declining, and weak electricity demand, NERC argues that "none of the Assessment Areas' Reserve Margins fall below Reference Margin levels in the short-term horizon" in the period between 2016 and 2021.</p>
<p>All told, there is no immediate pressure on utilities to ramp up spending, but since reserve margins are falling, spending is likely to increase in the medium term. The fly in the ointment could come from an economic slowdown acting to reduce electricity demand, which, as NERC outlines above, is declining in growth.</p>
<p>Low gas prices to the rescue If gas prices remain low, then gas turbines are likely to be run more -- a boon to services demand for companies with large installed bases such as General Electric and Siemens. Moreover, retirements of plants using competing energy sources (such as coal) could accelerate due to the relatively more attractive price of gas coupled with government regulation against coal.</p>
<p>Is it safe to assume, as some well-respected observers think, that lower gas prices are a net benefit to the gas turbine demand?</p>
<p>Not so fast. The reality is that a lot of the growth in electricity spending is coming from emerging market countries, some of which are reliant on high energy prices in order to support government spending on utilities. Moreover, electric capacity expansion is often tied to oil and gas projects, which may be curtailed because of low energy prices.</p>
<p>As you can see below, a significant part of General Electric's 2015 power revenue comes from the Middle East and Africa.</p>
<p>Data source: General Electric Company presentations.</p>
<p>General Electric Company is well positioned Siemens' management <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/25/what-siemens-results-mean-for-general-electric-com.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">believes the turbine market is very competitive Opens a New Window.</a>, with overcapacity in the large turbine market. In such conditions, it's usually a good idea for large players to consolidate the industry (as in Siemens' acquisition of ) or develop game-changing technologies.</p>
<p>Here's what General Electric has been doing:</p>
<p>In short, management should be lauded for its strategic moves in an otherwise moderately growing market.</p>
<p>The bottom lineThe power spending outlook is moderately positive, but cyclical risk remains. Lower gas prices offer an opportunity, but they arealso creatinga threat to revenue generation. It all sounds inconclusive, but what isn't in doubt is management's maneuvering to generate growth in power.</p>
<p>General Electric's purchase of Alstom's energy assets increasingly looks like a good move, and the company's IIoT initiatives and focus on services growthis ensuring the company can outperform a moderately growing power market.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/14/general-electric-companys-most-important-product.aspx" type="external">The Outlook for General Electric Company's Most Important Product Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSaintGermain/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Lee Samaha Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric Company. 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> | The Outlook for General Electric Company's Most Important Product | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/14/outlook-for-general-electric-companys-most-important-product.html | 2016-04-14 | 0 |
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