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<p>NEW YORK (AP) — AP POLL ALERT: Michigan State beats out Duke for new No. 1 in AP Top 25 after Villanova loss; Texas A&amp;M drops to 11th.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — AP POLL ALERT: Michigan State beats out Duke for new No. 1 in AP Top 25 after Villanova loss; Texas A&amp;M drops to 11th.</p> | AP POLL ALERT: Michigan State beats out Duke for new No. 1 in AP Top 25 after Villanova loss; Texas A&M drops to 11th | false | https://apnews.com/4829ccb377f34b2cb65349d0f4f6763f | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Failure to keep up your property in California could damage your credit rating, prohibit you from buying or selling property, and hurt your ability to get or hold a job, thanks to a bill recently approved by the Legislature.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/asm/ab_0651-0700/ab_683_cfa_20130905_163858_asm_floor.html" type="external">Assembly Bill 683</a> empowers cities, counties and special districts (after providing notice and a public hearing) to impose an assessment and record a lien against property owners who have ignored a previous fine or penalty for violating public health and safety ordinances. If signed by <a href="http://gov.ca.gov/home.php" type="external">Gov. Jerry Brown</a>, the authorization would be in effect for the next six years.</p>
<p>“AB683 closes the loophole on an anomaly where cities and counties can currently recover their costs for code enforcement repair by way of lien or tax assessment — but are not able to similarly enforce fines,” the bill’s author, <a href="http://asmdc.org/members/a22/" type="external">Assemblyman Kevin Mullin</a>, D-San Mateo, told the <a href="http://sgf.senate.ca.gov/" type="external">Senate Governance and Finance Committee</a> on July 3. “AB683 simply seeks to allow local governments to enforce local law against those that are in violation of local health and safety ordinances.</p>
<p>“With the elimination of redevelopment, local communities now have very few tools at their disposal to combat blight. In too many instances, owners fail to maintain their properties to such an extent that they pose a health and safety threat to the rest of the community. Despite citations and findings of violation, in far too many instances owners often ignore directions to remedy the problem and refuse to pay fines after being duly found to be in violation. Under existing law, cities are hindered in their ability to enforce local nuisance ordinances. This bill simply seeks an efficient, effective remedy to enforce the law.”</p>
<p>Naturally, California’s cities, counties and special districts are strong backers of the bill.</p>
<p>“The tax collectors don’t ask for this authority lightly,” Karen Lange, representing the <a href="http://www.cacttc.org/" type="external">California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors</a>, told the committee. “In Los Angeles County alone there’s about $30 million in uncollected code enforcement violations. Their belief is that just the authority to do this, by being able to send what we call a nastygram — ‘You better pay this or this is going to be on your tax bill’ — we think that would be a very effective authority to just be able to say it.”</p>
<p>Kyle Packham, representing the <a href="http://csda.net/" type="external">California Special Districts Association</a>, said the added enforcement authority will be particularly beneficial for fire protection districts.</p>
<p>“During this type of season it’s tremendously important for them to be able to prevent fire hazards that lead to significant damage of life and property,” he said.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cacities.org/index.jsp" type="external">League of California Cities</a> is urging its members to send letters to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to sign AB683.</p>
<p>“Distressed properties are a growing problem and nuisance complaints from neighbors generate many code enforcement actions,” states a <a href="http://blob.capitoltrack.com/13blobs/6c4370d8-ed7d-436b-95c1-175e0f6c85c5" type="external">sample letter</a>. “When property owners do not comply with local government abatement requests, AB683 will allow a city or county, after notice and public hearing, to recover fines through lien or special assessment against the property on which the nuisance is present. This authority is in addition to any powers a city or county may already derive from its charter. This is an efficient and common-sense tool for eliminating community blight and threats to public health and safety, while preserving due process for property owners.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">%%anc%%</a> The letters might be needed because Brown vetoed a similar bill, <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0101-0150/ab_129_cfa_20111019_151023_asm_floor.html" type="external">AB129</a>, two years ago.</p>
<p>“At a time when property owners are struggling to pay their mortgages, this bill would weaken the due process requirements for local building departments to obtain property liens,” Brown’s veto message states. “Local governments already have a fair process in place, and I see no reason to change it.”</p>
<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also vetoed a similar bill, <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_2601-2650/ab_2613_cfa_20100820_184934_asm_floor.html" type="external">AB2613</a>, in 2010: “It is important that the due process rights of homeowners are balanced against a local government’s right to collect an ordinance violation fine. The current system that requires a local government to seek judicial approval to impose a lien properly balances these opposing interests.”</p>
<p>Lange is optimistic that AB683 will avoid the veto pen.</p>
<p>“We added an additional due process step,” she said. “[W]hen there’s a nuisance complaint, there is a local board that reviews the situation before it were ever to come to a collections situation. We added an additional notice that the county would provide to those persons if they exhausted all of their remedies before something would go on the tax bill.”</p>
<p>But the legislative analysis for AB683 either missed that distinction or doesn’t find it compelling, advising, “The Legislature may wish to ask the author and sponsor how they plan to address concerns raised in the previous veto messages.”</p>
<p>There was no opposition to the bill at the committee hearing or when the bill was approved in the Assembly and Senate. But the analysis states that the <a href="http://caltax.org/" type="external">California Taxpayers Association</a> is opposed because “liens are a powerful tool that should only be used in the most limited circumstances. Expanding the liabilities for which a lien may be imposed to fines could incentivize local governments to increase fines and set a precedent for further expanding special assessments and liens.”</p>
<p>David Wolfe, representing the <a href="http://hjta.org/" type="external">Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association</a>, spoke in opposition to AB129 at the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on June 22, 2011.</p>
<p>“We’re opposed to the bill for the simple reason we just don’t believe, especially with the high foreclosures right now in the state of California, that it’s appropriate for local governments to increase their fine and fee authority by placing liens against properties for nuisance abatement,” he said. “Which is essentially what the bill does. We just think it’s overly broad. And local governments already have the ability to use judicial liens to collect these fines and fees. I think it’s an over-reach.”</p>
<p>If Brown signs AB683, it could have serious consequences for property owners who fail to comply with the beefed up enforcement authority. The <a href="https://www.ftb.ca.gov/index.shtml?disabled=true" type="external">Franchise Tax Board</a> warns about the potential consequences on a page titled <a href="https://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/liens/liens.shtml#affect" type="external">“How a lien can affect you”</a>:</p>
<p>So, if you’ve let your property go, you might want to get out the weed whacker or risk losing your house and job — unless Brown uses his bill whacker on AB683.</p> | Weeds could whack your house and job | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/09/23/weeds-could-whack-your-house-and-job/ | 2018-09-20 | 3 |
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<p>Republicans, four women: Jan Brewer in Arizona, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Mary Fallin in Oklahoma and Nikki Haley in South Carolina.</p>
<p>Democrats: Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.</p>
<p>For the GOP, often accused of waging a “war on women,” this advantage offers a powerful tool in the competition for female voters.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We have to show the fact there is no war on women,” said Haley, who is in her first term. “The more Republican women out there, the better our case is.”</p>
<p>Democratic leaders, backed by national women’s groups, are trying to turn it around in gubernatorial elections next fall that feature no less than six high-profile female candidates. Their goal is to give Hassan, who faces re-election in 2014, some company.</p>
<p>“My mother always used to say if you want something done, ask a busy woman,” says Rhode Island’s treasurer, Gina Raimondo, a 42-year-old mother of two young children who began her campaign last week. “People in Rhode Island want someone who’s going to do something.”</p>
<p>Raimondo is a leading contender in a crowded Democratic primary to succeed Lincoln Chafee, the Democratic incumbent who’s not running for a second term.</p>
<p>In Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas, there also are strong female candidates.</p>
<p>Gender is not a central issue in theses contests, but the Democratic women are using their backgrounds to help distinguish themselves.</p>
<p>Several candidates interviewed by The Associated Press said that the real-world stresses of raising families help them connect with voters while shaping priorities on issues such as health care, education and jobs.</p>
<p>In some cases, they’re up against male incumbents who elevated women’s issues by backing conservative social priorities on abortion, contraception and “equal pay” legislation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In Pennsylvania, Democratic U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz charges that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has “almost been dismissive of women,” particularly on issues such as “access to family planning and reproductive rights.”</p>
<p>Corbett has drawn criticism for cutting education, and like other Republican governors, he has supported legislation requiring women to get ultrasounds before having abortions. That idea never became law, but Corbett did say that women should close their eyes if they felt the procedure was too obtrusive.</p>
<p>“It is important for us in Pennsylvania to see a new and different kind of leadership that will move the state forward. It may well take a woman to do that,” Schwartz told a recent gathering of Pennsylvania politicians in New York City. She’s considered the early front-runner in the primary.</p>
<p>In state and national elections, women are a powerful voting bloc.</p>
<p>In presidential races, a Republican candidate has not won a majority of women since 1984. In the 2010 congressional elections, however, exit polls found that women voted for Republicans and Democrats almost evenly, helping to propel the GOP to the U.S. House majority.</p>
<p>Since then, Republicans have suffered from several self-inflicted wounds. For example, in 2012, Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri suggested that women’s bodies could prevent impregnation in cases of “legitimate rape.”</p>
<p>A report from the Republican National Committee this year detailed the scope of the problem. “Women are not a ‘coalition.’ They represent more than half the voting population in the country, and our inability to win their votes is losing us elections,” it said.</p>
<p>Republicans such as South Carolina’s Haley are in a unique position to balance damage done by party leaders elsewhere.</p>
<p>“Women can’t help it when men say ignorant things,” she said. “What we can do is try to make sure we continue to refocus people on what’s important and back on the issues.”</p>
<p>Haley, Martinez and Fallin are running for re-election in 2014. Brewer hasn’t decided whether she will challenge term limits set in the Arizona Constitution.</p>
<p>Democrats lost two female governors in recent years, when President Barack Obama appointed Arizona’s Janet Napolitano and Kansas’ Kathleen Sebelius to his Cabinet.</p>
<p>None of the Democrats’ 2014 female candidates are considered sure bets.</p>
<p>In Republican-friendly Texas, Democratic strategists are skeptical about the chances of state Sen. Wendy Davis, who developed a national following after her filibuster of a Republican-backed abortion bill.</p>
<p>Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is trying to become the state’s first female governor elected in a general election. Raimondo and Schwartz are trying to become their states’ first female chief executive, as is Wisconsin businesswoman Mary Burke.</p>
<p>Burke is the likely challenger for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has pursued social conservative priorities on women’s issues as he weighs a 2016 presidential bid.</p>
<p>“There are a lot of areas where women in the state aren’t getting a fair shake,” Burke said.</p>
<p>Burke cited Walker’s repeal of legislation designed to deter employers from wage discrimination based on age and gender. Walker also signed into law legislation that singled out abortion clinics in requiring their doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, which would reduce the number of abortion providers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.</p> | Democrats work to raise number of female governors | false | https://abqjournal.com/325354/democrats-work-to-raise-number-of-female-governors.html | 2 |
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<p>BERLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Finland’s Fortum said on Tuesday he was happy with the 46.93 percent stake it had received in German utility Uniper in response to its 8.05 billion euro ($9.86 billion) takeover offer.</p>
<p>“I am perfectly happy to buy the shares that have been handed to us,” Pekka Lundmark said in reply to a question during an industry conference in Berlin.</p>
<p>Lundmark also said there was no need for separate deals with activist shareholders in Uniper and that he expected Uniper to remain an independent group at least over the next two to three years. ($1 = 0.8163 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert, editing by Douglas Busvine)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BARCELONA/BERLIN (Reuters) - Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained on Sunday in Germany four months after he went into self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organizing an illegal referendum on secession last year.</p> Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont speaks during his briefing on the situation in Catalonia at Finnish Parliament in Helsinki, Finland March 22, 2018. Lehtikuva/Martti Kainulainen via REUTERS
<p>Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain. [L8N1R60CR]</p>
<p>The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis which flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-germany-conf/german-police-confirm-arrest-of-catalonias-puigdemont-idUSKBN1H10JF" type="external">German police confirm arrest of Catalonia's Puigdemont</a>
<p>German police said they had arrested Puigdemont in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.</p>
<p>In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border.</p>
<p>Police did not say exactly where Puigdemont was being held but the Spanish press said he was at a police station in the nearby town of Schuby.</p>
<p>German magazine Focus said Spanish intelligence informed the BKA federal police that Puigdemont was on his way from Finland to Germany. It gave no source for its report.</p>
<p>It is not clear if Puigdemont will be immediately extradited from Germany. Puigdemont had made clear his preference to fight the extradition process from Belgium.</p>
<p>The former Catalan regional president was at the time of his detention heading to Belgium, according to Puigdemont’s spokesman Joan Maria Pique.</p>
<p>“The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice,” Pique told Reuters.</p>
<p>Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.</p>
<p>Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena also sent five separatist leaders to pre-trial jail. Their detention sparked protests across Catalonia.</p>
<p>On Saturday the speaker of the Catalan parliament in Barcelona called for an alliance against Madrid, describing the spate of legal actions as an “attack on the heart of democracy.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Andres Gonzalez in Madrid; Writing by Julien Toyer; Editing by Mark Heinrich/Keith Weir</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to the region’s bigger rival Grab, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Sunday, in what would be the U.S. company’s second retreat from Asia.</p> Uber's logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
<p>As part of the transaction, Uber would get a stake of as much as 30 percent in the combined business, the source said. He did not want to be identified as the deal is not public yet.</p> FILE PHOTO: New hires relax at a lounge area in a Grab office in Singapore September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
<p>A multi-billion dollar investment in Uber earlier this year by Japan’s SoftBank Group, already one of Grab’s main investors, had stoked expectations that Uber would consolidate its Southeast Asian business with Grab.</p>
<p>The source said Uber and Grab are expected to announce the deal as early as Monday. Uber declined comment and Grab was not immediately available for a comment.</p>
<p>(This version of the story was refiled to add Asia in headline)</p>
<p>Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Miyoung Kim</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, illustrating the challenge facing the social media network after a scandal over its handling of personal information.</p> FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed Facebook Like symbol is displayed inverted in front of a U.S. flag in this illustration taken, March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
<p>The poll, taken Wednesday through Friday, also found that fewer Americans trust Facebook than other tech companies that gather user data, such as Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Alphabet Inc’s Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) and Yahoo.</p>
<p>Some 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared with 66 percent who said they trust Amazon, 62 percent who trust Google, 60 percent for Microsoft and 47 percent for Yahoo.</p>
<p>The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 2,237 people and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points. (Graphic: <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2pA8DoG" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2pA8DoG</a>)</p>
<p>Facebook, the world’s largest social media firm, has been offering apologies as it tries to repair its reputation among users, advertisers, lawmakers and investors for mistakes that let 50 million users’ data get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>Facebook shares tumbled 14 percent last week, while the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online and the company’s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, faced demands that he appear before U.S. lawmakers to testify in a hearing.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg and Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, said last week that shoring up trust was their priority. “We know this is an issue of trust. We know this is a critical moment for our company,” Sandberg told CNBC on Thursday.</p>
<p>It is too early to say if distrust will cause people to step back from Facebook, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.</p>
<p>“It’s psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook that’s become pretty well ingrained into people’s lives,” she said.</p>
<p>One reason that Facebook and other internet companies collect personal information from users is to deliver advertisements for products and services to people who are most likely to want them.</p>
<p>Facebook, with more than 2 billion monthly active users, made almost all its $40.6 billion in revenue last year from advertising.</p>
<p>The poll found that many people take a dim view of those “targeted” advertisements.</p>
<p>Some 63 percent said they would like to see “less targeted advertising” in the future, while 9 percent said they wanted more. When asked to compare them with traditional forms of advertising, 41 percent said targeted ads are “worse” while 21 percent said they are “better.”</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.39 FB.O Nasdaq -5.50 (-3.34%) FB.O AAPL.O GOOGL.O AMZN.O MSFT.O
<p>“I think they make a lot of assumptions that are not true,” poll respondent Maria Curran, 56, who lives near Manchester, New Hampshire, said in a follow-up interview.</p>
<p>“It’s like if I show an interest in healthy eating, all of a sudden all of the ads are about weight control and exercise and how to lose weight. I just get inundated,” she said.</p>
<p>Curran said she knows online retailer Amazon.com also collects her information for targeted marketing, but that it is less annoying because it is a shopping site, not a place for personal conversations.</p>
<p>Another poll respondent, Kamaal Greene, 26, said he likes targeted ads better than traditional ones because they provide a service, steering him to products he wants.</p>
<p>“A while ago I was looking for a special kind of glove for my job,” said Greene, a firefighter from Detroit.</p>
<p>“I put it in my Amazon cart and forgot about it. Then, later, the ad popped up on ... Facebook, and I was like ‘oh shoot.’ It reminded me and I clicked on it and bought it.”</p>
<p>A plurality of adults said they would like the government to take a bigger role in overseeing the industry’s handling of user information. According to the poll, 46 percent of adults said they want more government regulation, while 17 percent said they want less. Another 20 percent said they wanted no change, and the remaining 18 percent said they did not know.</p>
<p>Reporting by Chris Kahn in New York and David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) - German police said on Sunday they had arrested former Catalan secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.</p>
<p>In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border. Police did not say exactly where Puigdemont was being held.</p>
<p>“Schleswig-Holstein police are at this point in time unable to provide more details,” it said, other than that Puigdemont was taken into custody at 11:19 a.m. (0919 GMT).</p>
<p>Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Fortum CEO says happy with amount of shares in Uniper received so far Former Catalan leader Puigdemont detained in Germany Uber to sell Southeast Asia operations to Grab, get stake in combined business-source Americans less likely to trust Facebook than rivals on personal data: Reuters/Ipsos poll German police confirm arrest of Catalonia's Puigdemont | false | https://reuters.com/article/germany-energy-fortum/fortum-ceo-says-happy-with-amount-of-shares-in-uniper-received-so-far-idUSL8N1PI4FH | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Immigrant bashing is the order of the day, never mind that we brag that we are a nation of immigrants and never mind that except for the indigenous peoples (about 1 percent of the population) we all come from what demographers call, “foreign stock.”</p>
<p>Our ancestors, white Americans and black slaves worked hard. Early immigrants – western Europeans who came in large numbers around 1850 – worked hard, and then so did those who came in large numbers between 1880 and 1927 — such as the Irish, Italians, Poles, and Russians. So do Latinos today. The German, Irish, Italians, Poles, and Russians, like contemporary Latinos, came to the US to work. Enterprise and labor were needed in earlier times just as the enterprise and labor of Latino immigrants are needed today. All suffered discrimination, but arguably we would expect less discrimination today compared to, say, a hundred years ago. There are, after all, global standards (treaties) and increasingly widely shared global values against discrimination.</p>
<p>But how can these standards be effective in the US since the US recognizes no human rights treaty? These treaties are all specialized, of course, but every single one of them stresses nondiscrimination, equality, and human dignity. &#160;Just to recognize one single treaty — <a href="http://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/?q=human_rights" type="external">which we do not do</a> —would put Americans on record that we are opposed to discrimination and in favor of equality and human dignity.</p>
<p>There is one difference between Latinos/as and those who came before them (except Africans). That is their brown skin, which in contemporary America can trigger racism, making their accommodation more difficult than for other groups. However, resembling millions of earlier migrants, they have arrived as a result of global economic dislocation, and as a result of the loss of jobs and increasing precarious job conditions in their home countries. This may account for why Latinos/as endure social exclusion and brutal exploitation by employers (“wage theft”) in receiving communities. They receive insufferable treatment at the hands of local law enforcement officers who are deputized by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and are denied health care and basic social services. Between 12 and 20 million unauthorized immigrants live (and work) in the US, welcomed by employers with open arms (as cheap labor), but given no path to citizenship. Yet the US does not recognize the <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cmw.htm" type="external">International Convention for the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Their Families</a>, which protects all immigrants from such egregious harms as these. Many Americans fail to recognize that Latinos/as are contributing their labor – in construction, landscaping, farming, and as domestic workers – as well through their tax dollars. Besides, studies show that immigrants without documentation – especially Latinos/as – have much lower crime rates than Americans. The paradox is painful. Overall, Latino/as are excellent workers, admirable social citizens, but cast as outlaws.</p>
<p>But their organizing is nearly out of the question. Their response to questions about mobilizing for local justice goes something like this: “Yo no quiero meterme en problemas con la policía. Yo nomás quiero trabajar y ganar un poco de dinero para mí familia.(“I do not want to get into trouble with the police. I just want to work and earn some money for my family.”)</p>
<p>The Latino/a population does have a voice, mostly through <a href="http://www.ufw.org/" type="external">United Farm Workers</a>, <a href="http://www.nclr.org/" type="external">La Raza</a> and <a href="http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/" type="external">Reform Immigration FOR America</a>, but these are national organizations and cannot easily be the voices of local communities. &#160;We can be. At least in one tiny patch of America. <a href="http://www.humanrightscities.org/" type="external">The Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill &amp; Carrboro</a> is located in the largest barrio in the county. Except for the three of us and a school teacher, our comrades are about 50 undergraduates. A big plus is that the students are tremendously diverse – Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, Greeks, Africans, African Americans, white Americans, Latino/as, etc. The University of North Carolina prides itself on its diverse student body, but our class on Human Rights is especially likely to attract students from other countries. We have discovered that diversity brings with it a special chemistry.</p>
<p>A main program is an afterschool-program that the Center runs jointly with an elementary school. The formal goal is remediation, necessary in an extremely poor immigrant community, but the norms of the after-school program emphasize affirmation of the dignity and worth of every child, consistent with <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" type="external">The Convention on the Rights of the Child.</a> It is a “virtuous circle.” Such affirmation spurs high motivation to achieve.</p>
<p>The Center is also engaged in advocacy. For example, we presented a petition in Carrboro Town Hall to make wage theft a criminal offense, and both towns – Carrboro and Chapel Hill – have adopted the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/" type="external">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> that we proposed. We regularly put the towns’ police forces on notice that we are watching them watching our neighbors. No hanky-panky. We check on banks to make sure that they are treating Latinos like everybody else. We especially check on employers because we know for sure that many employers cheat our neighbors. When they do we report them to the Department of Labor, confront them, and sometimes are successful, through shame tactics, even in closing their businesses. Carrboro and Chapel Hill are progressive towns, but capitalism is pretty nasty everywhere.</p>
<p>We at the Human Rights Center justify everything we do in terms of the localization of <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/index.htm#instruments" type="external">international human rights treaties</a>, such as advocating <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Decentwork/lang--en/index.htm" type="external">decent work</a> for our neighbors, &#160;occasionally celebrating their festivals with them, and demanding that the larger community <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cerd.htm" type="external">does not discriminate against them</a>. We give workshops on “know your labor rights,” and “know your legal rights.” We also involve undergraduates as much as possible in the work of the Center, especially in our after-school program. One student group affiliated with the Center received a grant to install wireless in the entire apartment complex and refurbished computers to households. Access to information is a human right: it was thus declared so in <a href="" type="internal">Oslo, 2006</a>. We provide space for another nonprofit to distribute food. After all, food is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Covenant_on_Economic,_Social_and_Cultural_Rights" type="external">human right</a>. On Saturday and Sunday, our students play soccer with the kids in the community. <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" type="external">The Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>is clear that “children have the right to engage in play and recreational activities.”</p>
<p>We also have programs to promote social inclusion – LINC or Linking Immigrants to New Communities – run mostly by Latina students – and a family outreach program – Madres para Ninos – developed by a faculty member in the School of Education but mainly run by college students. Yes, the goal is to improve immigrants’ employability, as spelled out in <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm" type="external">The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights</a>, but it also advances their autonomy and dignity, which is highlighted in every Human Rights Treaty. Both programs welcome both men and women, but they also see as their mission the empowerment of women, consistent with the human rights treaty on the <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/" type="external">rights of women</a>.</p>
<p>One of the most sustaining visions we have is to celebrate our neighbors, and, to illustrate how, we ask them where they come from, and when they are at the Center to find their home town or rural community using Google. Most come from Mexico, but some from Ecuador, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. “What was it like?” “What do you miss?” “Are your relatives still there?” We believe this validates their culture, something they do not commonly experience in the United States. We do the same with the children. Everyone has the right to a cultural identity and society is better off if we uphold <a href="" type="internal">cultural pluralism</a>. This is why we celebrated one night of <a href="http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2816-las-posadas" type="external">Las Posadas</a> with our neighbors, and why we will celebrate the Burmese Festival, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thingyan" type="external">Thingyan</a>, in the spring. Our neighbors tell us that they had not celebrated Las Posadas since coming to the U.S., fearful that they might have been met with disapproval.</p>
<p>We mentioned the undergraduates. They cannot possibly know how important they are in motivating and and winning over the children (but the teacher, Nancy, knows), and we can see the social and learning growth. We can see them flourish. The children are growing intellectually and socially in ways we never anticipated, and they probably didn’t either. They are more confident and eager to get to their homework. Part of this we believe has to do with the fact that since the college students come in “all flavors,” the children feel secure and the college students who come from India or Pakistan, Iran, or an African country have a special empathy with children who come from another country.</p>
<p>This semester – our first full one – has been totally thrilling. Now we will learn to tack and jibe to keep the Center pursuing all its missions, with the balance that seems right to our neighbors and to us.</p>
<p>Judith Blau is Director of the Center and professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>M. Rafael Gallegos Lerma is the Associate Director of the Center and a graduate student in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Alfonso Hernandez is Assistant Director of the Center and a student at Durham Tech. <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | In the Face of Immigrant Bashing | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/01/in-the-face-of-immigrant-bashing/ | 2010-01-01 | 4 |
<p>In the wake of the monstrous Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal blowing up Hollywood, happy-go-lucky daytime host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted an image and a caption only she could get away with.</p>
<p>"Happy birthday, @KatyPerry," Ellen wished to pop singer and fellow Trump-hater Katy Perry. "It’s time to bring out the big balloons!" she added, clearly referring to Perry's breasts.</p>
<p>The photo accompanying the caption is one of Ellen staring straight at Ms. Perry's rack:</p>
<p>The loud feminists eager to blast straight men for their apparent innate toxicity were oddly silent. The #MeToo brigade willing to even blast 90-year-old ex-presidents? Silencio.</p>
<p>This is what you might call "lesbian privilege."</p>
<p>As pointed out by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, how exactly would the Left react if this tweet and photo were put out by a straight man, particularly with the current heavy focus on sexual harassment?</p>
<p>Yeah, it's not exactly rocket science here. They would lose their minds. (And their heads would completely explode if that person were conservative.)</p>
<p>My goodness, actor Ryan Gosling was <a href="" type="internal">accused</a> of sexism for thanking his wife Eva Mendes at the Golden Globes. Sports reporter Clay Travis was blasted as sexist for <a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/15/cnn-brooke-baldwin-clay-travis-boobs/" type="external">uttering</a> the word "boobs," an apparent tagline of his, in the presence of female CNN reporter Brooke Baldwin. Actress Ashley Judd <a href="" type="internal">accused</a> a poor airport worker of "everyday sexism" for calling her sweetheart.</p>
<p>But what Ellen did? No problem.</p>
<p>Now, do I care at all about whose knockers Ellen is looking at? No. Do you? Probably not. But, alas, let us all bask in the radiant heat of Hollywood's stunning doubled standard, yet again.</p> | Lesbian Privilege: Ellen Shares Tweet Only She Can Get Away With In Wake Of Weinstein Scandal | true | https://dailywire.com/news/22751/lesbian-privilege-ellen-shares-tweet-only-she-can-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-10-25 | 0 |
<p>Israeli forces crossed into Gaza on Saturday night, launching ground attacks and seriously ratcheting up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following a week of bombardment from intensive airstrikes. The United Nations Security Council met that evening in New York about the mounting Mideast crisis.</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The ground campaign brought new risks and the prospect of significantly higher casualties on both sides in a conflict that, even before the ground war started, had already taken the lives of more than 430 Palestinians and four Israelis.</p>
<p>While a ground campaign in densely populated Gaza is likely to increase the civilian death toll there, the Israeli Army also faces new threats. Hamas has had 18 months since Israel withdrew from the territory to smuggle in more lethal weapons against tanks and troops. Its more sophisticated arsenal has been on display over the last weeks, as it has launched scores of longer range rockets from Gaza into Israeli cities.</p>
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<p>Israeli officials said they want to strike a hard blow against Hamas, improve Israeli deterrence and significantly change the security situation in southern Israel, where residents have been plagued by rocket fire out of Gaza for years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html?em" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Israel Begins Ground War in Gaza | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/israel-begins-ground-war-in-gaza/ | 2009-01-04 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />John Seiler:</p>
<p>In an unprecedented move, Controller John Chiang just suspended Legislators’ pay for not passing a budget by June 15, as is required by <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_25,_Majority_Vote_for_Legislature_to_Pass_the_Budget_(2010)" type="external">Proposition 25</a>. In a press release, his office explained his action:</p>
<p>His analysis sought to determine whether the budget met the requirements of Proposition 25 and Proposition 58, which forfeit Legislative pay if a balanced budget is not passed by June 15.</p>
<p>“My office’s careful review of the recently-passed budget found components that were miscalculated, miscounted or unfinished,” said Chiang. “The numbers simply did not add up, and the Legislature will forfeit their pay until a balanced budget is sent to the Governor.”</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-EO/Budget_Analysis_Sheet.pdf" type="external">Budget Analysis</a>on the Controller’s Web site, the budget is $1.9 billion in the red — unbalanced.</p>
<p>Major shortfalls include $1.3 billion in additional spending needed to meet the Prop. 98 spending requirements. And the following fees were overestimated: $320 million hospital fee from SB 335; $103 million from SB1X 9 Managed Care Plan Taxes; $300 million AB1X 22 Motor Vehicle Fees; $22 million for increased premiums for Healthy Families; and $209 million for realignment.</p>
<p>On the positive side of the ledger, the SB 156 Jobs Credit was not enacted, reducing spending by $94 million.</p>
<p>Chiang’s action throws the Legislature in turmoil, forcing them to go back and do their jobs right.</p>
<p>He also vindicates Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the budget &#160;because it wasn’t balanced.</p>
<p>June 21, 2011</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Controller Chiang Docks Leg Pay | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/06/21/controller-chiang-docks-leg-pay/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a></p>
<p>With the Republican convention in Tampa, Mitt Romney has launched the most ideological presidential campaign in recent history. At issue is not merely the current state of the economy and Romney’s ability to become the CEO-in-chief and perform a turnaround. Romney is waging a battle for the opportunity to conduct a conservative social experiment that would remake fundamentals of American society. But he neglected to mention that Thursday night during his climactic—though hardly soaring—acceptance speech.</p>
<p>The previous evening, his veep pick Paul Ryan, when he wasn’t tossing out <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fact-check-making-their-case-at-the-convention-gop-speakers-play-loose-with-reality/2012/08/29/34f22704-f241-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html" type="external">profoundly false talking points</a>, married two ideas together: The first is that Romney is a successful businessman who can revive the flagging economy and return the nation to greatness. The second is that <a href="" type="internal">voters are now living in an American gulag</a>, where basic freedoms have been destroyed and sanctimonious central planners dictate citizens’ lives, smother initiative, and doom everyone to a life of entitlements and control. The first of these notions is upbeat and hopeful, addressing the immediate concerns of voters confronting economic challenges: Romney, the guy who looks like a president from central casting, is galloping in on a white horse to rescue you. The other is gloomy and of more concern to the arch-libertarians of the tea party and conservative movement: We are living in a place akin to the former East Germany and must break free of the chains.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Andy Kroll</a></p>
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<p>On Thursday night, Clint Eastwood, the Academy Award-winning actor, director, and screenwriter, delivered one of the most bizarre political convention speeches in American history.</p>
<p>Speaking without prepared remarks, Eastwood carried on an imaginary conversation with an invisible President Obama seated in a chair next to him on the convention stage. I can’t even begin to try to summarize Eastwood’s rambling address to a bewildered audience and press corps. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick, looked less than pleased with Eastwood’s speech. And the Hollywood star’s invisible Obama skit quickly spawned its own Twitter feed— <a href="https://twitter.com/InvisibleObama" type="external">@InvisibleObama</a>—and a satirical 2012 presidential bid. As well as <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/?q=%23Eastwooding&amp;src=hash" type="external">#eastwooding</a>.</p>
<p>Behold, Eastwood/Chair 2012:</p>
<p>Twitter user @zdroberts</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>David Corn and Comedy Central’s Jared Logan and Mary Phillips-Sandy joined host Chris Matthews on <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#48854561" type="external">MSNBC’s Hardball</a> to parse the <a href="" type="internal">bizareness</a> that was <a href="" type="internal">Clint Eastwood’s speech</a> at the Republican national convention.</p>
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<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Tim Murphy</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>For campaign-trail veterans, one of the most important things at every convention—along with booze—is figuring out which pop-up lounges you should hit up to charge your batteries, swill some coffee, and grab a (preferably free) bite. Huffington Post has the “Oasis,” featuring unpaid massage therapists. CNG, the natural gas giant, has sofas and cafe con leche at the press filing center. Google’s lounge, replete with wireless and a gratis coffee bar, has basically been MoJo‘s Tampa bureau for the last five days. But the award for Most Posh Convention Hotspot of 2012 has to go to the Miriam Adelson Young Guns Pavilion, named for one half of the GOP’s dark money power couple and sponsored by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Young Guns Action Fund. (It is probably not a coincidence that the Adelsons gave YGAF <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/sheldon-adelson-young-guns-5-million.html" type="external">$5 million</a> this year.)</p>
<p>As you can see, it’s really pink. When I stopped by on Tuesday, volunteers walked through the seating area offering everyone (almost everyone) free hair and makeup. The WiFi is free, the air extra-cool, and the “Woman Up-Tinis” are made special to order. Here’s a quick tour:</p>
<p>The bar.Lady Lemonade. <a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Tim Murphy</a></p>
<p>When <a href="" type="internal">Foster Friess</a> began to cry, <a href="" type="internal">Condoleezza Rice</a> was in the last throes of her speech at the <a href="" type="internal">Republican National Convention</a> on Wednesday. The trigger was a tale about her childhood in segregated Alabama. “You might not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control your response to your circumstances,” he told me a few minutes later. “I love it.”</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">GOP convention</a> has been a magnet for the conservative megadonors— <a href="" type="internal">David Koch</a> (an at-large delegate representing New York), Harold Hamm, <a href="" type="internal">Sheldon Adelson</a>—who have helped redefine the <a href="" type="internal">campaign finance landscape in the 2012 cycle</a>. But Friess, the Wyoming investor who last spring almost single-handedly kept Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign alive with $1.7 million in super-PAC donations, was ready to go home.</p>
<p>“This is a nightmare for me,” he said when I spotted him standing alone against a wall on the floor of the Tampa Bay Times Forum. “It’s too many things going on. I’ve got like four things to go to. It’s just so frustrating.” And while he loved Rice’s address, he was not sure how much more RNC&#160;speechifying he could take. “I’ve had enough speeches!”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a></p>
<p>If there is a bedrock of conventional wisdom in presidential politics, it is this: First, succeed in the primaries by winning over the base, and then move to the center in the general election to court independent and middle-of-the-road voters. So where is Mitt Romney’s pivot to the center?</p>
<p>Throughout his political career, Romney has demonstrated a high degree of flexibility. But he has yet to employ those skills as the final stage of this presidential slog begins. And with Rep. Paul Ryan’s fiery speech at the GOP convention on Wednesday night, it was clear that Romney did not pick Ryan to appeal to the undecideds in the middle. The speech was an indication that the Romney crew has gone rogue—or completely tea party.</p>
<p>Speaking with poise and brimming with cocky confidence, Ryan took the predictable shots, deriding the stimulus and Obamacare. He devoted a long riff to <a href="http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/aug/20/mitt-romney/romney-says-obama-cuts-716-medicare-pay-obamacare/" type="external">the unfounded Romney charge</a> that President Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare. He blasted Obama for not being serious about deficit reduction, going as far as to chide Obama for not fully embracing the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan that Ryan and other Republicans refused to support (because it called for modest tax hikes on the well-to-do). Before the pumped-up crowd of GOP delegates, Ryan blamed <a href="" type="internal">the closure of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin,</a> on Obama’s policies—though the factory was shuttered before Obama became president. He did not refer to the successful auto industry bailout.</p>
<p>On Medicare, Ryan repeated the familiar GOP whine that Democrats are demagogues when they assail Ryan’s budget plan for ending the Medicare guarantee. “We want this debate,” he proclaimed. “We will win this debate.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a> &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewKroll" type="external">Andy Kroll</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewKroll" type="external" /></p>
<p>Via <a href="https://twitter.com/daveweigel" type="external">Dave Weigel</a> <a href="" type="internal">David Koch</a>, one-half of the <a href="" type="internal">hugely influential Koch brothers duo</a>, was not hard to miss on the floor of the Republican National Convention. A former collegiate basketball player at M.I.T., Koch stands six-foot-five, a giant among the party faithful. He looks identical in person to the <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;sa=N&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=579&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbnid=BsV1T-mY7yN0MM:&amp;imgrefurl=http://www.politico.com/gallery/2012/05/republican-money-men/000178-002037.html&amp;imgurl=http://images.politico.com/global/2012/05/120301_david_koch_ap_3281_605.jpg&amp;w=605&amp;h=328&amp;ei=A0k-UPihJ-Wx6AGc8YCQAw&amp;zoom=1&amp;iact=hc&amp;vpx=914&amp;vpy=122&amp;dur=2&amp;hovh=165&amp;hovw=305&amp;tx=192&amp;ty=102&amp;sig=103746570570001637143&amp;page=3&amp;tbnh=131&amp;tbnw=178&amp;start=42&amp;ndsp=28&amp;ved=1t:429,r:13,s:42,i:295" type="external">hundreds</a> of <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;sa=N&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=579&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbnid=Ej96ocwLV-TycM:&amp;imgrefurl=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/09/10/billionaire-david-koch-fires-back-at-the-new-yorker.html&amp;imgurl=http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/09/10/billionaire-david-koch-fires-back-at-the-new-yorker/_jcr_content/body/image_0.img.503.jpg/1337256000000.cached.jpg&amp;w=397&amp;h=302&amp;ei=A0k-UPihJ-Wx6AGc8YCQAw&amp;zoom=1&amp;iact=rc&amp;dur=237&amp;sig=103746570570001637143&amp;page=3&amp;tbnh=124&amp;tbnw=163&amp;start=42&amp;ndsp=28&amp;ved=1t:429,r:14,s:42,i:299&amp;tx=76&amp;ty=52" type="external">photos</a> of <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;sa=N&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=579&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbnid=PynjbQ5RLJz_iM:&amp;imgrefurl=http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2012-08-22/koch-group-to-honor-koch-during-republican-convention/&amp;imgurl=http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/0822-David-Koch.jpg&amp;w=620&amp;h=413&amp;ei=A0k-UPihJ-Wx6AGc8YCQAw&amp;zoom=1&amp;iact=hc&amp;vpx=564&amp;vpy=283&amp;dur=365&amp;hovh=183&amp;hovw=275&amp;tx=189&amp;ty=107&amp;sig=103746570570001637143&amp;page=3&amp;tbnh=123&amp;tbnw=163&amp;start=42&amp;ndsp=28&amp;ved=1t:429,r:24,s:42,i:330" type="external">him</a> just a Google search away. Koch is one of New York’s 95 delegates, all Romney supporters, and his presence here at the GOP convention has caused a stir. Koch’s private dinner with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) on Monday night ended up <a href="https://twitter.com/MattLaslo/status/240248839850848256" type="external">plastered all over Twitter</a>, breeding rumors and speculation about who else dined with the man the liberal blogosphere loves to hate.</p>
<p>Koch—who with his brother, Charles, and their extensive donor network, reportedly plans to direct some $400 million toward defeating President Obama in November—doesn’t want the attention, and has tried to maintain a low profile in Tampa. I spotted him Tuesday afternoon on the convention floor looming over the rest of the crowd. He wore a navy suit, red-and-blue checkered tie, and a couple of fancy-looking convention passes sure to open doors that we reporters couldn’t dream of entering. I chatted with Koch’s three aides, and their messages were the same: No interviews, please. Mr. Koch wants to blend in, be just another delegate. One aide handed me and a few other reporters a printed-out statement with Koch Industries’ logo. Here’s what it said:</p>
<p>I’m deeply honored and humbled to be chosen as one of 95 delegates representing the great state of New York at the 2012 Republican National Convention.</p>
<p>Americans, we all have a role to play in the Democratic process. From learning about the issues to participating in campaigns and voting, this is an opportunity—and a right—to help chart the course of the nation.</p>
<p>The 2012 may be the most important of our lifetimes. Profoundly different political philosophies are competing for our hearts and minds—and our votes. I have made no secret about which philosophy I support—the one that provides the greatest economic and personal freedom possible.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to read on…</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>&#160;Tuesday, Aug. 28, 3:00 pm EDT:&#160;The floor convention is underway, and our tweeting team has spotted some trends.</p>
<p>Mitt Romney says Tuesday night’s all right for fightin’:</p>
<p>Okay! <a href="http://t.co/nrcc7Inr" type="external">twitter.com/timothypmurphy…</a></p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240521186533056514" type="external">August 28, 2012</a></p>
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<p>Some GOP top dogs seem a little behind the times:</p>
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<p>And the Republican party is trying to make lemonade out of its talking points:</p>
<p />
<p>That line of attack isn’t especially new:</p>
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<p>Nor, apparently, is it popular:</p>
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<p>Tweets from Day Two of the convention:</p>
<p>Jon Voight just now, to reporter: “Are you Jewish?”</p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240478363276427265" type="external">August 28, 2012</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/search/?q=%23BROTUS" type="external">#BROTUS</a> MT <a href="https://twitter.com/danielschulman" type="external">@danielschulman</a>: Spotted in contraband seized by conv ctr security in Tampa: sixer of Smirnoff Ice.</p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240461657179045892" type="external">August 28, 2012</a></p>
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<p>— <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/DavidCornDC" type="external">David Corn</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/DavidCornDC" type="external" /></p>
<p>Is the 2012 election about love, or is it about respect? At the first night of Mittfest in Tampa, there was some confusion on this point. After hours of predictable Obama-hates-freedom-and-business speeches, the evening culminated in back-to-back addresses by Ann Romney, Mitt Romney’s emissary to the human race, and Chris Christie, the take-no-guff Jersey guv.</p>
<p>The candidate’s wife opened this way: “I want to talk to you tonight not about politics and not about party…Tonight I want to talk to you about love.” Naturally, it was the love she had for a guy she met at a dance many years ago and the love all Americans have for their homeland. But she quickly digressed to tell the delegates—and the national television audience—that Ann Romney knows darn-tootin’ well that many Americans have it tough these days, especially women. And she played the gal card: “If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the women sighing a little bit more than the men. It’s how it is, isn’t it? It’s the moms who always have to work a little harder, to make everything right. It’s the moms of this nation—single, married, widowed—who really hold this country together…You know it’s true, don’t you? You’re the ones who always have to do a little more.”</p>
<p>Here was the play for the female vote—a response to the Democratic charge of a Republican war on women. But was she engaging in Gender Warfare? Dividing the nation into moms and dads in order to score political points?</p>
<p>If not, this was the political equivalent of sending flowers to the little lady in hope of winning her over. And it was condescending. Speaking to the moms of the country, she said, “There would not be an America without you.” As if such a platitude would have real value to them. And referring to all women, she added, “We’re too smart to know there aren’t easy answers. But we’re not dumb enough to accept that there aren’t better answers.” Wait a minute: Who says women are dumb? What was she suggesting?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to read on…</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/AndrewKroll" type="external">Andy Kroll</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/DavidCornDC" type="external">David Corn</a></p>
<p>A minor revolt broke out on the floor of the Republican Party’s presidential convention Tuesday afternoon and evening. Ron Paul delegates from several states erupted into protest over a controversial change to the party’s rules to block future insurgencies mounted by outside candidates like their hero. Paul supporters also freaked out over the convention’s refusal to recognize about two dozen Paul delegates and for refusing to treat Paul like a serious candidate for the nomination.</p>
<p>During the roll call of the states, the Paulites were irate, screaming at the podium, as convention secretary Kim Reynolds declined to read out the delegate votes for any candidate other than Romney. “The Republican Party is so afraid of Ron Paul that they won’t repeat his name,” shouted Jim Ayala, a Nevada delegate and Paul supporter wearing an <a href="" type="internal">Oath Keepers</a> T-shirt.</p>
<p>Minutes earlier, the Paulites were enraged when the convention adopted the new set of rules on a voice vote during which the Paul backers out-shouted the other delegates. One Nevada delegate and Paul supporter, Mark Carducci, thrust two middle fingers into the air toward RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), screaming “Fuck you, tyrants!”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to read on…</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Nick Baumann</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/6877701671/sizes/z/in/photostream/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a>/FlickrIt seems that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) doesn’t read much news.</p>
<p>On Tuesday afternoon at the Republican National Convention, I asked Cornyn what he thought of the controversy surrounding Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith, who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/27/tom-smith-rape_n_1834234.html" type="external">compared being an unwed mother to being raped</a>. I was wondering whether Cornyn thought Smith’s comments (which drew national headlines before his spokeswoman walked them back) might reduce the GOP’s chances of winning the seat. Cornyn is the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is charged with electing GOP senators, but he&#160;told me he “honestly hadn’t followed” the Smith controversy.</p>
<p>There are only a few possible explanations for this. Assuming Cornyn was telling the truth, and the NRSC is remotely competent, it suggests that the NRSC doesn’t think Smith has much of a chance of unseating Democratic incumbent Robert Casey Jr., who leads in the polls. If NRSC staff thought the race was competitive, they would have been monitoring it and would have alerted their boss when the GOP candidate made a deeply damaging, headline-grabbing gaffe. The fact that Cornyn seemed not to have heard of the controversy&#160;suggests his staff may think it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/30400533730/soupsoup-moms-for-romney-ryan-rnc2012-taken" type="external">Anthony DeRosa of Reuters</a>, here’s some swag from Moms for Romney/Ryan at the RNC. Contrary to <a href="" type="internal">what</a> <a href="" type="internal">you may</a> <a href="" type="internal">have read</a>, Republicans have no problem with women!&#160;As long as their uteruses are in good working condition. And know their place:</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AntDeRosa/statuses/240523623050383360" type="external" />Moms drive the economy. (Unless they’re single moms!)&#160; Anthony DeRosa/Reuters</p>
<p />
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Andy Kroll</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>At this time during the last presidential campaign, the <a href="" type="internal">Republican Party’s campaign finance law opponents</a>were in something of a pickle. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was their nominee; the tough law banning <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/intro4.htm" type="external">so-called soft money</a> <a href="" type="internal">bore his name</a>; and so, during the 2008 election, the GOP platform couldn’t take a rhetorical buzzsaw to the laws curbing the flow of campaign cash into elections.</p>
<p>There’s no such problem for Republicans at the 2012 GOP&#160;convention. <a href="" type="internal">James Bopp, Jr.</a>, an influential lawyer <a href="" type="internal">who’s made a career</a> out of demolishing campaign finance laws, said <a href="http://www.indystar.com/article/20120825/NEWS/208250340/Election-2012-Terre-Haute-lawyer-at-forefront-of-how-campaigns-are-funded?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CNEWS" type="external">in a recent interview</a> with the Indianapolis Star that the GOP’s 2012 platform will call for gutting what’s left of the <a href="" type="internal">McCain-Feingold law</a>—namely, the ban on unlimited, unregulated, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/intro4.htm" type="external">soft money</a> given to political parties.</p>
<p>The platform, Bopp suggests, will read like a wish list for haters of campaign finance restriction:</p>
<p>Four years ago, he watched with distaste as his party nominated Sen. John McCain as its presidential nominee. With McCain leading the ticket, Bopp said, “we couldn’t write in (the platform) that we opposed McCain-Feingold. And we sure as hell couldn’t endorse it, so we didn’t say anything about campaign finance.”</p>
<p>This time, he said, the platform calls for the repeal of the last vestiges of the McCain-Feingold law and opposes passage of the so-called “Disclose Act” in Congress. It would require advocacy groups making more than $10,000 in campaign-related expenditures to disclose contributors who had donated more than $10,000.</p>
<p>What Democrats call basic good government, Bopp sees as an attempt to stifle advocacy groups by making them report donors for ads that run as far as 18 months before an election.</p>
<p>Josh Orton, political director at Progressives United, the nonprofit founded by former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) to fight the influence of corporations in politics, blasted the GOP’s campaign finance plank. “McCain-Feingold closed the door on a corrupting system of unlimited money,” Orton says. “By advocating its repeal, Republicans are proving that they don’t just tolerate corruption in politics, they actually embrace it.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Tim Murphy</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Herman&#160;Cain doesn’t see what the big deal is about a roundly <a href="" type="internal">debunked Republican claim</a> about President Obama and welfare.&#160;The charge, parroted in GOP talking points and a new Romney campaign ad (which a Romney strategist said Tuesday was the campaign’s <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/romney-camp-bets-welfare-attack" type="external">most effective one yet</a>), is that President Obama issued an exemption allowing states to water-down the work requirements to receive welfare benefits. (The exemption, requested by Republican governors, actually did the opposite. It allowed states to adjust their work requirements, giving them the ability to make it harder to receive welfare benefits.)</p>
<p>The racial overtones of the welfare charge are not especially subtle (Newt Gingrich was <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/01/17/145312069/newts-food-stamp-president-racial-or-just-politics" type="external">accused</a> of treading into equally racially tinged terrain by calling Obama a “food stamp president” during the primary). With that in mind,&#160;I asked one of the GOP’s most prominent African American voices, former presidential front-runner Herman Cain, if he was troubled by the welfare ad.&#160;Answer:&#160;Hell no. Cain’s aide said he was in a hurry to get inside the Tampa convention center, but when he heard my question he told his handlers to stop:</p>
<p>There are no racial implications! This is fabricated on the part of the Democrats. Man, I’m just sick of all this so-called racial implications. It is a fair ad that Gov. Romney put out about welfare. And for the Democrats to continue to talk about racial implications, they are just trying to deceive people! I’m sick of it! There is only one color that matters in the American dream and that’s green! And by the way, there are poor black people and poor white people, and poor Hispanics, so there are no racial implications. Thank you, I had to stop for that. &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Tim Murphy</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>David Lipinoga, a Republican town committeeman from Amherst, New York, isn’t a delegate at the Republic&#160;National Convention. He’s here to sell stuff—specifically, an Angry Birds-style Android game called “Angry Patriots and Pinheads” that’s designed to educate users on the radicalism of President Obama. Here, you can even <a href="http://angrypatriotsandpinheads.com/" type="external">watch a demo</a>. But, as I found out when I talked to him on Monday outside the press filing center in Tampa, he’s also got some…interesting thoughts about President Obama’s real name,&#160;Social&#160;Security number, and place of birth:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>One more example why Mitt Romney’s birther joke in&#160;Michigan last Friday was almost certainly not a gaffe; plenty of conservatives still believe this stuff and&#160;Romney wants their votes.</p>
<p>Music by Mike Smirnoff.</p>
<p />
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Andy Kroll</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Josh Mandel</a> is the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshmandelohio/7789762922/in/photostream" type="external">boyish-faced</a>, <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/07/campaign_attacks_give_mandel_p.html" type="external">factually-challenged</a> Republican candidate vying to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Until last weekend, Mandel had <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/18/josh-mandel-auto-bailout_n_1800312.html" type="external">refused to stake out</a> a clear position on what had become a key issue in this Rust Belt race: whether Congress was right to rescue auto manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler with a $15 billion federal bailout. It was a glaring omission for Mandel, a national candidate in a battleground state where the automotive industry employs upwards of 140,000 Ohioans.</p>
<p>In a joint interview with Brown on Sunday, however, Mandel broke his silence in a big way. He <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/25/mandel-brown-take-off-gloves.html" type="external">called</a> Brown “un-American” for voting in favor of the auto industry bailout, claiming that non-union retirees at Delphi, a GM parts supplier, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/243807-camp-seeks-documents-from-obama-on-delphi-pension-decision" type="external">got screwed out of</a> of their pensions because of the government bailouts. (As PolitiFact notes, that’s <a href="http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/apr/30/michael-turner/michael-turner-says-political-favoritism-and-backr/" type="external">not quite true</a>.)&#160;</p>
<p>There’s a big problem with branding a yes vote on the auto bailout “un-American”: The presumptive vice-presidential nominee for Mandel’s own party, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), voted yes for that same bailout. Is Ryan un-American, too?</p>
<p>I put that question to Mandel spokesman Travis Considine in an email early Tuesday morning. Considine has yet to reply; we’ll update this post if he does.</p>
<p>Ryan was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/paul-ryan-auto-bailout_n_1805835.html" type="external">one of 32 House Republicans</a> to vote for the auto bailout on December 10, 2008, vastly outnumbered by the 150 House GOPers who voted against it. Then-Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), in Congress’ upper chamber, also voted in support of the auto bailout; he was joined by <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&amp;session=2&amp;vote=00215#position" type="external">seven other Senate Republicans</a>. Is Voinovich also un-American, according to Mandel?</p>
<p>Mitt Romney has a more complicated record on the auto bailout. In November 2008, he <a href="http://you%20can%20kiss%20the%20American%20automotive%20industry%20goodbye" type="external">wrote an op-ed</a> titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”&#160;He argued then that rescuing the auto companies would only lead to their demise further down the road. (He was <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/359189/20120703/june-car-sales-gm-ford-f-honda.htm" type="external">wrong</a>.) Later, Romney <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/26/159987867/romneys-auto-bailout-stance-complicates-campaign-in-battleground-ohio" type="external">tried to claim credit</a> for the auto industry’s rebound, despite his insistence that the bailouts would ruin the companies.</p>
<p>Brown, who was present when Mandel called him un-American, declined to respond directly to the charge. Here’s the full exchange between Brown and Mandel, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch:</p>
<p>“I don’t toss around the word un-American very often—it’s a dangerous word to use. But stripping…Delphi employees of their pensions with that [bailout] vote—that is un-American,” Mandel said during a sit-down with Brown and editors and reporters of the Dispatch.</p>
<p>“While Josh was running for treasurer in 2009 and 2010, I guess he missed how this auto industry was going to implode,” Brown replied. “And to say that my votes closed plants or that my votes caused Delphi workers to lose their pensions or that my votes caused other tragedies and devastations in the auto industry is peculiar when all four auto companies in Ohio and almost the entire supply chain…wanted this because they knew the auto industry might implode.”</p>
<p>Brown didn’t say anything about the “un-American” label, but one of his campaign aides later said it was disrespectful.</p>
<p>Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker responded to Mandel’s “un-American” charge, saying that “Josh Mandel’s opposition to the auto rescue that helped to protect nearly 850,000 Ohio jobs is wildly out of touch with Ohio’s middle class, and that’s why he’s resorted to a despicable personal attack on Sherrod Brown that has no place in our political discourse.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Nick Baumann</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p>Ron Paul must be thrilled:&#160;After over three decades years in the wilderness, the gold standard has returned to the Republican party platform. As Bloomberg <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-24/reviving-gold-standard-studied-in-republican-platform.html" type="external">reported</a> on Friday, the draft GOP platform—the party’s road map for where it wants to lead the country—includes a call for a presidential commission to study pegging the value of the dollar to the price of gold. And even though the primary is long over, Paul is not the only top Republican still pushing for gold to have a big role in Mitt Romney’s presidency.&#160;</p>
<p>During the primary, Paul, a long proponent of what he calls “sound money,” and later Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, embraced the idea of a gold commission. During the South Carolina primary, Gingrich said that he’d appoint Lewis Lehrman, a banker, and Jim Grant, a prominent investment adviser, to co-chair the gold commission. Both Lehrman and Grant (Paul’s pick to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve) are prominent advocates of the gold standard.&#160;</p>
<p>Now that the commission he and Paul supported is part of the draft party platform, I asked Gingrich whether he still supported Lehrman and Grant’s appointments—and whether he’d push Mitt Romney to appoint them if elected president. “Yes,” he said. “I’d recommend them.” Romney himself has expressed skepticism about the gold standard, which he told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in January&#160;is not a “magic bullet substitute for economic restraint.” He’d be free to ignore the GOP platform and Gingrich’s recommendations if elected president. But the inclusion of the commission proposal in the platform, and Gingrich’s willingness to press the issue, suggest that Romney will remain under some pressure from his right to at least acknowledge the concerns of gold proponents.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a> &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Tim Murphy</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Former GOP presidential candidate and full-time Mitt Romney critic Fred Karger.If you don’t count <a href="" type="internal">Fred Karger</a>, there was only one gay Republican candidate at the happy hour for gay Republican candidates on Monday at Oystercatchers, an upscale seafood joint in Tampa overlooking the St. Petersburg causeway. Nor, for that matter, in a city that’s swimming with Republican political heavyweights, were there any Republican political heavyweights in attendance.&#160;That’s not much of a surprise for a party whose draft platform sought to deny rights to gay families and <a href="" type="internal">tacitly endorsed</a> the persecution of gays in Uganda and other African nations.</p>
<p>But Michael Carr, an Internet marketer who’s <a href="http://www.elect-carr.com/" type="external">running for a state Senate</a> seat in the Denver suburbs, isn’t particularly bothered by the GOP’s anti-gay platform. “The best thing about the platform is that nobody cares about the platform,” Carr says. A member of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s LGBT steering committee (Huntsman was the only GOP candidate with an LGBT steering committee), Carr is the guest of honor at the event, hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans. He’s convinced the best is yet to come—Republicans might even nominate a pro-gay marriage presidential candidate as early as 2016.</p>
<p>“Politicians are looking at the data,” Carr says. “We might have someone who’s on the national stage ‘evolve.'” Everyone I talk to at Oystercatchers uses that word, “evolve,” a nod to&#160;President Obama’s own shift on gay rights.</p>
<p>But Carr is being diplomatic. David Valkema (“It means ‘falcon’ in Dutch”), a Romney delegate from Indiana, is less so. His beef isn’t with the homophobic leaders of the Republican party, with whom he agrees with on almost everything else. It’s with gay liberals.</p>
<p>“I’m sick and tired of being a Jew for Hitler,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Where’s your tolerance? You accept everyone else under the sun except for us.'” Although a recent poll showed that 44 percent of Republicans in&#160;Wisconsin—a comparatively progressive state—say they’d never vote for an openly gay candidate, Valkema thinks Republicans are quietly shifting behind the scenes. Case in point: This summer he helped convince the Indiana GOP to scrap any mention of marriage from the its platform. It wasn’t an endorsement of marriage equality, but it wasn’t a chest-beating condemnation either.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a></p>
<p>One of the more infamous moments of recent presidential conventions occurred at the Republican gathering in Houston in 1992, when commentator Patrick Buchanan, who had unsuccessfully challenged President George H.W. Bush in the GOP primaries, took to the stage in prime time and delivered a <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/patrickbuchanan1992rnc.htm" type="external">thunderous address</a> declaring the United States was in the midst of a “cultural war.” He was in full firebrand:</p>
<p>Friends, this election is about more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe and what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself. For this war is for the soul of America. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton &amp; Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side. And so to the Buchanan Brigades out there, we have to come home and stand beside George Bush.</p>
<p><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patrickjbuchanan.JPG" type="external">Bbsrock</a>/Wikimedia CommonThe electrifying speech was a sensation…for the right. Many political commentators, though, considered it weighty baggage for the Bush-Quayle ticket, hurting Bush with moderate voters. Molly Ivins quipped, the speech “probably sounded better in the original German.”</p>
<p>So with the Republican Party now skewed far to the right, is the hero of its culture-war troopers present in Tampa to rally once again the true believers? No, Pat Buchanan, who was recently <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/pat-buchanan-msnbc-part-ways_n_1283483.html" type="external">dropped</a> by MSNBC, is skipping the festivities. He is, instead, at the Delaware shore, toiling away on his latest book, according to his sister, Bay Buchanan, a prominent emissary to social conservatives for Mitt Romney.</p>
<p>Buchanan’s new work is on Richard Nixon, his one-time boss. And it could be a doozy of a book, for Buchanan has a trove of insider stories about the Old Man. Buchanan, who has hailed Nixon as a brilliant fellow, witnessed Nixon at his best and his worst, and, back in the day, Buchanan was always eager to suggest or implement political war plans for the Nixon White White. If he can produce a book that honestly confronts Nixon’s dark side, Buchanan might do a service for history. And he may be helping Romney by steering clear of Tampa. &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">Andy Kroll</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/6149218050/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a>/Flickr</p>
<p>Mitt Romney just gave the Republican Party’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/09/politics/romney-conservatives/index.html" type="external">conservative base</a> another reason to face-palm over their party’s presidential candidate. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Romney <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/08/romney-absolutely-would-return-to-public-funding-in-133234.html" type="external">said</a> he “absolutely” supports returning to taxpayer-funded presidential elections if he wins in 2012 and runs for a second term in 2016. “To be competitive, we’re obviously following suit,” he said of his decision to forgo public financing, like the Obama campaign. “But I’d far rather have a setting where we had both agreed to the federal spending limits.”</p>
<p>It’s a strange statement for Romney to make, especially given his still-uneasy relationship with the Republican right. Conservatives, whom Romney needs to turn out in droves in key battleground states this fall, vehemently oppose taxpayers footing the bill for elections of any kind—local, <a href="http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2012/04/conservative-party-keep-taxpayer-dollars-out-of-campaigns/" type="external">state</a>, or <a href="http://fairelectionsri.blogspot.com/2010/12/james-bopp-public-financing-enemy.html" type="external">national</a>. Conservative attorneys have made a career out of challenging and gutting public financing programs; recently they’ve scored wins doing just that in <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=34587" type="external">North Carolina</a> and <a href="http://www.citizenvox.org/tag/scotus/" type="external">Arizona</a>. One of the first acts of the current GOP’s House majority was a&#160; <a href="http://www.myfreedomfoundation.com/index.php/site/view/u.s._house_votes_to_repeal_public_financing_for_presidential_campaigns" type="external">vote to repeal</a> the federal public financing system. (The Democrat-controlled Senate did not follow suit.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/pubfund.shtml" type="external">First</a>&#160;conceived in the wake of the scandals of the 1974 presidential election, publicly-financed elections were seen as a way to wean candidates from the big checks and undue influence of private donors. Instead, a fixed amount of taxpayer money would be set aside for presidential candidates. Everyone from Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton took public money for their presidential campaigns.</p>
<p>In 2008, Barack Obama sensed he could raise more money on his own, and so broke a previous pledge to accept public financing. He trounced McCain in the campaign money race, ultimately spending $730 million to McCain’s $333 million. This presidential campaign, it was never in doubt that Obama and Romney would reject public funds, teeing up the first general election since Watergate with neither candidate taking taxpayer money. Doing so would’ve <a href="http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/pubfund_limits_2012.shtml" type="external">capped</a>&#160;the candidates’ campaign spending at $45.6 million during the primary season and $91.2 million in the general election. In contrast, the Obama campaign <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php" type="external">has spent</a> $263 million and Romney team&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php" type="external">$163 million</a> to date.</p>
<p>The Public Campaign Action Fund, a supporter of less unlimited money in elections, called on both candidates to offer plans to revamp the country’s outdated public financing system. “Both candidates like to talk about the influence of money on their opponent’s policies,” said David Donnelly, executive director of Public Campaign Action Fund, “but neither has offered a plan on how to address it.” &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a></p>
<p>In the mostly empty Tampa Bay Times Forum this morning, media professionals, politicos of D and R designations, and pundits are milling about, as the world waits breathlessly for the GOP convention to begin tomorrow. While strolling through the arena, I ran into a top Republican who has not been so keen on Mitt Romney and his campaign tactics over the past year. He believes the Romney campaign has failed to engage voters in a fundamental fashion—regarding either Romney’s biography or policy beliefs.</p>
<p>Do you expect anything major to change on the Romney side? I asked.</p>
<p>“No,” he said, a tone of sadness in his voice. “I talk to people in the campaign and they tell me they’re comfortable where they are now.”</p>
<p>Really? I followed up. Given the lousy economy and the polls showing doom-and-gloom among the electorate, shouldn’t Romney be 10 points ahead of the guy in the White House?</p>
<p>“Yes, but they think they’re in a good spot. And when you feel comfortable, you don’t change things.”</p>
<p>He rolled his eyes and added, “At least the weather is getting better.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrandt/7767137660/" type="external">monkeyz_uncle</a>/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>— <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/AdamSerwer" type="external">Adam Serwer</a></p>
<p><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Africa_on_the_globe_%28red%29.svg" type="external">TUBS</a>/Wikimedia CommonsAn early draft of the Republican platform published by Politico <a href="http://images.politico.com/global/2012/08/preview_of_american_exceptionalism_-_gop2.html" type="external">accuses the Obama administration</a> of “attempting to impose” on the “peoples of Africa…legalized abortion and the homosexual rights agenda.” Since 2006, <a href="http://prospect.org/article/exporting-anti-gay-movement" type="external">with the urging and influence of US conservative Christian groups</a>, several African countries have considered or passed laws outlawing homosexuality. The most infamous of them, <a href="" type="internal">proposed in Uganda</a>, would impose the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” (Read Mac McClelland’s must-read, on-the-ground account from Uganda <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
<p>As for imposing the ambitious “homosexual rights agenda” of trying to prevent people from being murdered or imprisoned by the state for not being heterosexual, in December of 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/12/178368.htm" type="external">proclaiming that</a> “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.” Shortly afterward, President Obama <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/06/presidential-memorandum-international-initiatives-advance-human-rights-l" type="external">issued a memo</a> “directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, <a href="" type="internal">then seeking the Republican nomination for president</a>, said: “This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country,” and that “promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money.” In some circles, not being imprisoned or executed for your sexual orientation is apparently a “special right.”</p>
<p>The United States itself is less than a decade past the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that struck down laws that criminalized homosexuality. Make no mistake however: The language in this draft of the GOP platform protests the Obama administration’s efforts against laws that would levy criminal sanctions, including death, on people simply because of their sexual orientation.</p>
<p>A related point: The “human rights” section of the GOP platform is one small paragraph, perhaps the tiniest section other than the one devoted to “public diplomacy.” There are no harsh words for the administration in areas that have drawn international criticism, such as deaths of civilians in drone strikes. The section is focused on attacking the Obama administration for supposedly not standing up for “religious freedom,” and it refers only to the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East and “fanaticism” in “West and East Africa.” As far as the GOP is concerned, “religious freedom” doesn’t extend to people who do not subscribe to the religious conviction that homosexuality is sinful and should be punished by the state. &#160;</p>
<p>— <a href="" type="internal">David Corn</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/6468468599/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a>/FlickrWith Republicans flocking—or swimming—to hurricane-threatened Tampa for the very wet coronation of moderate-no-more Mitt Romney as the tea-partyized (and Paul Ryanized) leader of the GOP, only one question hovers over the proceedings: How far will they go? That is, in terms of nastiness, extremism, and fact-defiance.</p>
<p>Every four years, it’s routine—and usually justifiable—to bemoan the presidential campaign of the moment as a gutter-swipe endeavor, fueled more by low-minded swill than high-end discourse. But Romney’s 2012 effort has managed to crawl along and leave plenty of space beneath the low bar, as the candidate, who once claimed to be a nonpartisan, progressive fellow distant from the radicals of his party, has deployed assaults against President Barack Obama that are tinged with racism and has countenanced attack ads that push the already much-stretched envelope of political truth-bending.</p>
<p>At this moment, as Romney and his confreres command a national audience, they are poised to build on a foundation of untruthfulness and Obama-hatred years in the making. The New York Times, in polite fashion, noted that Romney and his posse have decided to use this week to cast a <a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20120826/NEWS/108269850/1052" type="external">harder edge</a>&#160;on their message. Is that a signal that Romney’s whatever-it-takes approach will now be turned up to 11?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">[Read more]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Tweets from Day One of the convention:</p>
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<p>(Also only one gay Republican candidate at happy hour for gay Republican candidates. A candidate for Colorado state Sen.)</p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240194809002852352" type="external">August 27, 2012</a></p>
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<p>Food at gay GOP thing. <a href="http://t.co/TuNI2jkA" type="external">twitter.com/timothypmurphy…</a></p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240184852538855424" type="external">August 27, 2012</a></p>
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<p>A Paul alt. delegate from Wyoming told me he thinks they canceled the first day of the convention to prevent being embarrassed by Paulites.</p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240215291869667328" type="external">August 27, 2012</a></p>
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<p>[Tweet about how ridiculously militarized Tampa is right now.] <a href="http://t.co/J2S75M7Z" type="external">twitter.com/timothypmurphy…</a></p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240176672098373632" type="external">August 27, 2012</a></p>
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<p>Vermin Supreme meets the police. <a href="http://t.co/f3ICIDWH" type="external">twitter.com/timothypmurphy…</a></p>
<p>— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/240178936951218176" type="external">August 27, 2012</a></p>
<p /> | Ryan’s Radical Vision, Eastwood’s Empty Chair, a Huge Donor’s “Nightmare”: Dispatches From #GOP2012 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/republican-national-convention-tampa-mitt-romney-paul-ryan/ | 2012-08-28 | 4 |
<p>HURON, S.D. (AP) — Federal authorities say a South Dakota man is under arrest in connection with an alleged drug conspiracy.</p>
<p>The U.S. Marshals Service says Jean Torres-Soto was arrested early Thursday in Huron as part of an FBI-coordinated nationwide takedown.</p>
<p>Authorities say Torres-Soto, of Huron, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico last month for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. The indictment alleges Torres-Soto and more than 100 others conspired to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana throughout Puerto Rico and the continental United States.</p>
<p>U.S. Marshals and FBI agents arrested Torres-Soto without incident. His first court appearance was rescheduled for Monday in Sioux Falls because jail staff said he was ill with influenza. An after-hours phone message left for his federal public defender was not immediately returned Thursday.</p>
<p>HURON, S.D. (AP) — Federal authorities say a South Dakota man is under arrest in connection with an alleged drug conspiracy.</p>
<p>The U.S. Marshals Service says Jean Torres-Soto was arrested early Thursday in Huron as part of an FBI-coordinated nationwide takedown.</p>
<p>Authorities say Torres-Soto, of Huron, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico last month for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. The indictment alleges Torres-Soto and more than 100 others conspired to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana throughout Puerto Rico and the continental United States.</p>
<p>U.S. Marshals and FBI agents arrested Torres-Soto without incident. His first court appearance was rescheduled for Monday in Sioux Falls because jail staff said he was ill with influenza. An after-hours phone message left for his federal public defender was not immediately returned Thursday.</p> | International drug conspiracy suspect arrested in Huron | false | https://apnews.com/c1ac67ca83a24c0d9816c4fc00a3b896 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>As the world lurches from crisis to crisis and from war to war, we tend to hold powerful forces — governments and multinational corporations — responsible. But for those of us in the Church, it is appropriate for us to examine our own culpability. We have all too often cooperated and colluded with these forces, and have failed our parishioners by diluting and distorting the message of Jesus we are commissioned to preach.</p>
<p>The big thing among Christians these days is WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). They wear WWJD bracelets, necklaces, you name it. The problem is that many of them don’t have a clue what Jesus would really do, because their churches don’t teach them about Jesus. Jesus is almost completely missing from much of Christianity. The churches worship an ethereal risen Christ, but ignore the flesh-and-blood Jesus. Jesus was a first-century Jew in Roman-occupied Palestine. With his parables, he challenged the domination system of imperial Rome and its client kings and temple lackeys. He exposed the injustices of the empire/temple system, and made enemies of both the Romans and the Pharisees. In parables he warned of the futility of violent revolution. In the sermon on the mount he gave the people practical ways to employ nonviolent resistance. He taught them to stand upright and defiantly “turn the other cheek” instead of groveling in the dust. He advised them to “go the second mile,” knowing that it was illegal for Roman soldiers to conscript someone to carry their pack for more than a mile. And he turned the old ways upside down with his counsel to “love your enemies” and “do good to those who persecute you.”</p>
<p>But Jesus didn’t just preach nonviolence. He lived it, all the way to the cross. He showed us a nonviolent, all-loving, infinitely-merciful God — a God not at all like the jealous, scorekeeping, vengeful God too often portrayed in the Jewish scriptures. Yes, Jesus was a revolutionary — but his revolution wasn’t against Roman rule, but against the distorted image of God held by the people. He also drastically altered our understanding of how God wants us to act. God, it turns out, wants us to act like Jesus. He wants us to speak out against and nonviolently resist the exploitative, imperial powers of our day. (That means the oil companies and other global robber barons, as well as their hirelings in the U.S. government.) He wants us to promote the cause of widows and orphans, the poor and the outcast, the alienated and the victims of discrimination. He wants us on the side of single mothers, gays, Arabs — all the tax collectors, lepers, and Samaritans of today. Above all, He wants us to forego violence even in self-defense.</p>
<p>The early Church understood that. Christians were forbidden to be in the Army, to participate in capital punishment, even to testify against one accused of a capital offense. Their active nonviolent non-cooperation with Caesar resulted in their being persecuted and outlawed. The roots of the early Church were watered with the blood of its martyrs.</p>
<p>Then came Constantine. Christians came out of the catacombs and into the palaces. By so doing, they gave up their nonviolence, their independence, and their way. Instead of following Jesus, they began following Caesar. Oh, they came up with elaborate rationalizations for their actions. They invented the “Just War Theory” to justify taking up the sword for the emperor. And for the last 1600 years or so, most Christian churches and their hierarchies have advised young Christians to go to war for whatever is the latest adventure of Caesar, whether he is called Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Bill Clinton, or George Bush (with whatever middle initials). Tens of millions of Christians have died in these wars. What’s worse, tens of millions have killed. Christian chaplains blessed Christian crews as they left to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is this what Jesus would have done? Of course not!</p>
<p>As a confused but obedient Roman Catholic, I flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. Knowing what I know now, I would not do it again. Why was there no chaplain to ask me what Jesus would do? Why was there no bishops’ conference to speak out against the war? Why was there no pope to declare participation in all warfare to be sinful? Why even today are the only Catholics truly following Jesus the handful in Pax Christi and the Catholic Worker houses around the country? Why does the Church not speak out against the phony War on Terrorism and the coming wars against Colombia and Iraq?</p>
<p>In the United States, only the traditional peace churches are opposing Caesar, and they’re small enough to be ignored. But what would happen if a really big and influential church became a peace church? What if the Roman Catholic Church did so? Would the Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists be far behind? (The Baptists might take a little longer.) What if Christians throughout the armed services demanded non-combat service? What if no Christians volunteered or registered for the draft?</p>
<p>What might happen is that wars would stop. After all, how many wars can be fought without Christians? Oh, we might lose our tax exemptions and our favored treatment. We might even be persecuted again. If so, so be it. It’s better for us to follow Jesus in the catacombs than to betray him in the halls of power.</p>
<p>What might also happen is that our government would be unable to protect our property and maintain the affluence gap between us and the developing world. They might not be able to protect our right as Americans to consume eight times our share of the world’s resources. Giving up violence means giving up the fruits of violence. We must be prepared for that. (What would Jesus do?)</p>
<p>In the early 80s a Roman Catholic bishop said, “Just war? What just war? No such thing exists. But we must not tell this to the people.” The late John L. McKenzie said, “The statement of the renunciation of violence is clear enough. Christians have never questioned either that Jesus said it or that it admits no qualification. Christians have simply decided they cannot live according to these sayings of Jesus. … If the Roman Catholic Church were to decide to join the Mennonites in refusing violence, I doubt whether our harmonious relations with the government would endure the day after the decision.”</p>
<p>In one of his many essays against the Church’s support for warfare, Emmanuel Charles McCarthy said, “There are just some activities that there are no Christ-like ways of doing. A house of prostitution can be filled with statues, icons, incense, bells, piped in Gregorian chant, a theological library and a chapel but that does not make prostitution an act in conformity with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Nor would the presence of a chaplain. … The ultimate norm of Christian life has to be Jesus, His words and deeds — and if He is not the standard … who or what is? Plato? Aristotle? Hugh Hefner? NBC? FOX?” He went on to conclude, “All attempts today to justify violence from the life of Jesus or His teachings are devoid of spiritual and intellectual merit. … If a person does not wish to truthfully tell the story of Jesus, then why be ordained? Are the allurements of a secure income, status, power, and social acceptance so magnetic that they can seduce a Christian leader into falsifying a teaching of Jesus in order to obtain them or retain them?”</p>
<p>The conclusion we must reach is that when we emerged from the catacombs and embraced Constantine’s offer of secular power, prestige, and protection, we Christians prostituted ourselves. Fortunately, we can still go back! We can rescue the nonviolent Jesus from obscurity and restore the heritage of the early Church — the pre-Roman Catholic Church, if you will. We can spread the true message of the real Jesus through today’s equivalent of the catacombs — the internet and NCR. I call on pastors of all denominations to declare their parishes to be “peace churches” and to sign up at &lt;www.rmbowman.com/catholic&gt; . Just click on “catacombs.” I call on bishops to start preaching the nonviolent Jesus and do the same for their dioceses. I plead with conferences of bishops to have the backbone to oppose Caesar. And I pray that the Pope, who has spoken so courageously about peace, takes that one final step to sever the Church’s dependence on secular powers. Back to the catacombs!</p>
<p>Robert M. Bowman is presiding archbishop and primate of the United Catholic Church, an outgrowth of the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht, Netherlands. He lives in Melbourne, Florida. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | What Would Jesus Do? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/09/23/what-would-jesus-do/ | 2002-09-23 | 4 |
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<p>Four hours a day, four days a week, the villager, whose surname is Shen, comes to a spot near her home where a never-ending procession of coal trucks runs into uneven pavement. A thousand little bumps in the road keep Shen and her husband from freezing in winter.</p>
<p>“If I don’t come out here, I stay cold,” Shen says as she drops a few more recovered chunks into a sooty burlap sack. In one winter, Shen says, she could burn more than 2 tons of coal, worth more than 1,800 yuan ($260).</p>
<p>Across vast swaths of northern China’s countryside, residents go to great lengths to burn untreated coal in home stoves despite government efforts to ban the practice and introduce cleaner — but costlier — types of coal or electrical heating.</p>
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<p>That dependence represents one of many challenges facing Beijing as it tries to curb the choking smog that’s become a flashpoint for public discontent with the ruling Communist Party.</p>
<p>Experts say coal-fired power plants and steel and cement mills are the main contributors to year-round smog, but household coal-burning in rural areas is a major cause of the spike in pollution during winter, when thick, gray soup-like clouds of dust smother Chinese cities, often forcing highways and airports to close.</p>
<p>Middle-class Chinese have complained vociferously as smog blanketed Beijing over the New Year period. A picture of a high-speed train stained a deep brown after passing through smoggy regions went viral on social media, as did a blog post by a Beijing banker who railed against government corruption and propaganda and pleaded with officials to take action for the sake of their children.</p>
<p>In June, a team of researchers from Princeton, the University of California, Berkeley, and Peking and Tsinghua universities in Beijing published a study that found that household coal use in winter contributed more small and deadly air particles than industrial sources, some of which are outfitted with carbon-capture technologies.</p>
<p>Authorities in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, announced in September that they would ban household coal-burning in nearly 4,000 villages near the capital by late 2017, according to state media. Last week, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted a Beijing official saying coal-burning furnaces for heating have now been completely removed from the city’s urban districts.</p>
<p>But in rural Qian’an, 220 kilometers (140 miles) from Beijing, in Hebei, China’s largest steelmaking region, the riverside road where Shen scavenges for coal is a reminder of the challenges. Up the road is a sprawling factory owned by the Shougang Group, one of China’s largest steelmakers — and polluters.</p>
<p>The other direction opens up into the poplar-lined countryside, where elderly and poor residents burn coal in shallow underground hearths. The government is encouraging them to use cleaner coal briquettes that burn at lower temperatures, but villagers dismiss those as hard to light and lacking in heat.</p>
<p>While residents in poor parts of Beijing get subsidies for using cleaner-burning coal or switching to electricity, such incentives are unheard-of in some other parts of the country.</p>
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<p>“We ordinary people are comparatively poor,” says Yao Junhua, a 61-year old farmer who lives in a village of single-story homes separated by half-built brick walls and stacks of dried cornstalks. “We want to buy a few pieces of good coal, save some money. We don’t want to spend money on coal we can’t light.”</p>
<p>Coal-burning has been blamed for the tiny, toxic PM2.5 particles that caused an estimated 366,000 premature deaths in China in 2013, according to an August study by Wang Shuxiao, an environmental expert at Tsinghua University.</p>
<p>Wang said cleaner coal would theoretically emit 50 to 80 percent fewer particles than untreated coal, but the process of switching is slow. She said it’s taken Beijing, the prosperous capital, close to two decades to phase out more polluting heating methods.</p>
<p>“The switch is happening. It’s just not happening as fast as we want,” Wang said.</p>
<p>The government has sought to clamp down on the market. At the Guo Zhuang coal shop in Qian’an, a large yard was empty except a few small piles of coal half-covered by tarps.</p>
<p>Market supply has been meager and prices have risen since authorities cracked down on the sale of coal for private use in recent months, said a worker surnamed Lu who spoke only after making sure that visitors were not investigators from the environmental protection bureau.</p>
<p>“Look around — we don’t have much and it’s not because we are selling it all,” she said.</p>
<p>On a nearby wall was an October government notice forbidding “unauthorized” coal sales, but coal still made its way to homes. As she spoke, Lu’s brother-in-law filled a small truckload and drove off to the home of a relative Lu said was bedridden and needed heat.</p>
<p>Some villagers are unconvinced that the coal they burn contributes much to the country’s air-quality problems.</p>
<p>“Look at our chimney. That little bit of smoke is called pollution?” says Yao, the villager. “Look at the steel mill. How much coal does it burn a day? The 400 households in our little village, how much coal do we burn?”</p>
<p>The Associated Press was unable to reach Shougang Group using phone numbers listed on its website and email.</p>
<p>On the country road outside the steel mill, its smokestacks rising out of the haze, Shen the coal scavenger says her 65-year-old husband did construction work but is now too old. Her daughter recently married and moved to a city but can’t help them because she is saving for a house and a car.</p>
<p>Scavenging coal keeps them warm, and sometimes they have enough left over to sell, Shen says as another truck hits a bump and drops pieces of coal.</p>
<p>“These things are precious,” she says. Then she scurries back into traffic.</p> | China’s poorest, trying to stay warm, add greatly to smog | false | https://abqjournal.com/923689/chinas-poorest-trying-to-stay-warm-add-greatly-to-smog.html | 2017-01-09 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://www.cleanairgardening.com/npk-explained.html" type="external">NPK</a>. These letters are quite familiar to anyone with a little experience gardening: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the three main fertilizer nutrients we focus on almost exclusively today. Phosphorus and potassium are basically rocks and have some of their own issues due to over-mining and a few other problems. But today the concentration will be on everyone’s favorite fertilizer: nitrogen.</p>
<p>Nitrogen is found in the breakdown of organic matter and as a metabolic byproduct (interesting fact: your own pee is actually a very potent fertilizer, and is sterile). Since we toss out such a huge portion of our organic waste to break down in toxic garbage dumps, we are not living sustainably in regards to this very important resource and have chosen to go the quick fix route and rely on decayed dinosaurs to provide us with a source. Thanks to the advent of fracking (hydrofracturing), natural gas is now the prime source for ammonia, which is used to supply the nitrogen portion of most fertilizers. And those who've experienced the aftereffects of fracking firsthand are in an uproar about the contamination of water supplies and the release of so much methane into the atmosphere that the burnoff plumes can be seen from space. Yet we still buy fertilizer supplied from this same supplier to green up our lawns and gardens. And it's worth noting that our country's top processed food ingredient, corn, is one of the most fertilizer intensive crops in the world.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-13/1-dot-2b-fertilizer-plant-planned-for-eastern-nd" type="external">An Associated Press article</a> explained how incredibly profitable this industry is: ”Natural gas prices are now at about $2.50 per thousand cubic feet. At those prices, it takes about $82 worth of natural gas to make a ton of anhydrous ammonia, which is selling for about $800 per ton.”</p>
<p>Once they saw the profits in the fertilizer industry, the Kochs decided it wasn’t enough, and they soon decided to get into the beef industry. Their company president, Dave Robertson,</p>
<p>Monsanto and its biotech brethren have quickly taken over the seed and pesticide industries, and we now have the fossil fuel industries snatching up the rest. If we allow these trends to continue unabated, what will be left for the farmers, the consumers, the environment? As <a href="http://www.phporder.com/AboutMe.aspx?ID=healthyeating" type="external">a recent acquaintance stated</a>, ”By making the daily choice of eating processed foods and supporting the commodity crops and factory farmed animals produced by big agriculture, we are directly contributing to the environmental destruction of America – and the staggering wealth of big players like the Koch Brothers.”</p>
<p>Where do we go from here?</p> | How the Koch Brothers are Taking Over the Food Supply, and No One is Noticing | true | http://occupy.com/article/how-koch-brothers-are-taking-over-food-supply-and-no-one-noticing | 4 |
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<p>PENNSYLVANIATribune-Democrat By SANDRA K. REABUCK, TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT EBENSBURG BUREAUA Roman Catholic priest who formerly was assigned to a South Fork area parish pleaded guilty yesterday to illegally downloading from the Internet obscene materials involving young boys and girls.The Rev. Elwood R. Figurelle, 70, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Williamsport to one count of receiving child pornography in interstate commerce via the Internet.Under federal sentencing guidelines, he would face a prison sentence of up to 33 months. His attorney, P. Alan Zulick of Norristown, said he would seek a lesser sentence.U.S. District Judge Malcolm Muir set a pre-sentence conference for Jan. 22.Figurelle had downloaded at least 10 images on two computers that had been seized by the FBI through search warrants. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not release the total number of images involved.The priest was pastor of St. Michael’s Church from 1979 to 1995 when he was reassigned to St. Catherine of Siena Church in Mount Union, Huntingdon County. Figurelle went on administrative leave from pastoral service in March. He submitted his resignation from St. Catherine’s after being charged.</p> | Kiddie porn priest guilty | false | https://poynter.org/news/kiddie-porn-priest-guilty | 2003-10-25 | 2 |
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<p>Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. FBI ARRESTS MAN WHO PLANNED TO BOMB CAPITOL</p>
<p>The 20-year-old Ohio resident allegedly plotted to “wage jihad”, expressed support for the Islamic State group, and was arrested after buying two semi-automatic rifles.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>2. NEW INTERNET THREAT IN FRANCE</p>
<p>The country’s top cyberdefense official says about 19,000 French websites have suffered cyberattacks in the days since a rampage by Islamic extremists left 20 dead.</p>
<p>3. WHAT THE POPE CONSIDERS HIS MISSION IN HIS VISIT TO ASIA</p>
<p>Francis says he will focus on the poor, the exploited and victims of injustice during his four-day trip to the Philippines.</p>
<p>4. “BIRDMAN” AND “THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” GET THE MOST OSCAR NOMINATIONS</p>
<p>They were tied with nine nods each, including best picture.</p>
<p>5. SHIFT AT TARGET</p>
<p>The retail giant says it will shut down 133-store Canadian operation after its failed expansion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>6. HOUSE VOTES TO ROLL BACK IMMIGRATION MOVES</p>
<p>Undoing Obama’s executive actions would expose hundreds of thousands of younger immigrants to expulsion from the U.S.</p>
<p>7. CLIMBERS REACH SUMMIT AT YOSEMITE</p>
<p>Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson become the first to free-climb the 3,000-foot granite pedestal of El Capitan — a feat that many had considered impossible.</p>
<p>8. SHAKEUP FOLLOWS SECRET SERVICE MISTAKES</p>
<p>Four high-ranking executives have been reassigned, the biggest leadership shift since the agency’s director was forced to quit last year.</p>
<p>9. HARUKI MURAKAMI OPENS UP ONLINE</p>
<p>The publicity-shy novelist, who is a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, will answer questions readers pose on a website until the end of the month.</p>
<p>10. WHO IS FLYING THE LATEST JET</p>
<p>Qatar Airways’ first flight of the state-of-the-art Airbus A350 is taking passengers from the gas-rich nation’s capital Doha to Frankfurt.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Took out—</p>
<p>10. WHAT’S THE LATEST SIGN HILLARY CLINTON WILL RUN IN 2016</p>
<p>She’s recruiting veterans of Obama’s two successful White House campaigns as she builds her team for an expected presidential bid.</p> | 10 Things to Know for Today | false | https://abqjournal.com/526611/10-things-to-know-for-today-2.html | 2 |
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<p>Chicago Tribune The NYT reporter's Sunday <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/fashion/10date.html?" type="external">man date</a> feature is <a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;url=%22man+date%22+jennifer+lee" type="external">the talk</a> of the Web. Can Lee -- a member of Poynter's National Advisory Board -- create buzz about petrosexuals? "This is not the person who gets a little too much pleasure from plunging the gas nozzle into the tank," writes Mary Schmich. "It's the guy who goes everywhere with his dog." SCHMICH SAYS: "It's as inevitable as snow in a Chicago spring that a gender trend identified in the New York Times will get more coverage than Britney Spears, SpongeBob and the pope combined."</p> | Jenny 8. Lee's next task: Probing the petrosexual phenom | false | https://poynter.org/news/jenny-8-lees-next-task-probing-petrosexual-phenom | 2005-04-14 | 2 |
<p>Nov. 30 (UPI) — A cat was brought to a Pennsylvania veterinarian’s office for help after it was found with a mayonnaise jar stuck on its head.</p>
<p>Linda Ruggere, of Wilkes-Barre, said she tries to take care of the stray cats in her neighborhood, and she recently discovered a feline in the area had a jar stuck on its head.</p>
<p>“I saw this cat coming to eat and it had a mayo jar and I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ and it ran away. The next day, I was literally able to get the mayo jar and try to get its head popped out and it ran away again,” Ruggere <a href="http://wnep.com/2017/11/28/cats-life-saved-after-a-week-with-head-stuck-in-mayonnaise-jar/" type="external">told WNEP-TV</a>.</p>
<p>Rescuers with Whisker’s World were able to capture the cat and bring it to Pittston Animal Hospital, where veterinarian Inayat Kathio was able to cut through the jar and free the feline.</p>
<p>Kathio posted photos of the procedure, which involved a large pair of scissors, to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/inayat.kathio/posts/10215449144324416" type="external">his Facebook</a> page.</p>
<p>Whisker’s World released the cat, now dubbed Miracle, back into the neighborhood after it recovered from its injuries.</p> | Veterinarian cuts mayonnaise jar to free stray cat's head | false | https://newsline.com/veterinarian-cuts-mayonnaise-jar-to-free-stray-cats-head/ | 2017-11-30 | 1 |
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<p>FILE - In an Oct. 27, 2014 file photo, Arturo Hernandez Garcia flips through his bible before an interview at the First Unitarian Church of Denver in Denver. Garcia, who has been living in the Denver church's basement for nine months to avoid deportation, walked away Tuesday, July 21, 2015, saying immigration officials told him he is no longer a priority for deportation. (AP Photo/P. Solomon Banda, File)</p>
<p>DENVER - A Mexican man who has been living in a Denver church's basement for nine months to avoid deportation walked away Tuesday, saying immigration officials told him he is no longer a priority for deportation.</p>
<p>Arturo Hernandez Garcia claimed sanctuary in October at the First Unitarian Society.</p>
<p>According to the Denver Post ( <a href="http://tinyurl.com/q8q389h)," type="external">http://tinyurl.com/q8q389h),</a> Hernandez says he got a letter from immigration officials informing him of their decision.</p>
<p>Hernandez and his family came to the United States on a tourist visa in 1999 and stayed after Hernandez got work as a contractor.</p>
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<p>Hernandez said he got into a scrape with another contractor while laying tile. He was arrested and acquitted when he went to trial. The deportation order came after his arrest, and he was ordered expelled from the country last fall.</p>
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<p>Information from: The Denver Post, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com" type="external">http://www.denverpost.com</a></p> | Mexican man leaves Denver church sanctuary after 9 months | false | https://abqjournal.com/615940/mexican-man-leaves-denver-church-sanctuary-after-9-months.html | 2 |
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<p>German business sentiment rose unexpectedly for the fifth month in a row in March, signalling that Europe's largest economy is proving more resilient than others to the euro zone debt crisis.</p>
<p>The Munich-based Ifo think tank said on Monday its business climate index, based on a monthly survey of some 7,000 companies, rose to 109.8 in March from a revised 109.7 in February.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The closely-watched Ifo index bucked expectations for a steady reading and rose to its highest level since July 2011, just days after data showed the first contraction in German manufacturing this year.</p>
<p>"German Ifo: is the sky the limit?" said Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING in Brussels. "The strong labour market, filled order books and low inventories still bode well for growth in the coming months, albeit at a low level."</p>
<p>The euro rose briefly against the dollar and German Bund futures pared gains on the data.</p>
<p>The German economy has gone from strength to strength since emerging from the 2009 financial crisis, interrupted only by a slight contraction in the last quarter of 2011 when the debt crisis spread further through the euro zone.</p>
<p>Economists say that was a blip, prompting some think tanks to raise their growth forecasts. IWH Halle institute expects the German economy to grow by 1.3 percent this year, almost twice the government's forecasts for a 0.7 percent expansion.</p>
<p>But the rise in business sentiment was not as broad-based as in recent Ifo surveys - the mood worsened slightly in all branches except retailing. Manufacturing, construction and wholesaling were more downbeat, though manufacturers told Ifo they expected "positive impulses from export business".</p>
<p>RISKS IN OIL, INFLATION</p>
<p>Last week, data showed that the manufacturing sector had shrunk for the first time this year, raising concerns over Germany's resilience to the debt crisis and prompting some to conclude that growth expectations may have been overstated.</p>
<p>Despite the rise in the Ifo reading, there are risks to growth. Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe told Reuters that inflation and high <a href="" type="internal">oil prices</a> may be a threat to firms.</p>
<p>"That's not visible yet in retail," said Wohlrabe. "But you can feel it in wholesale. It's not a big danger yet for companies, but it's a potential risk."</p>
<p>And economists said the pace of growth could slow.</p>
<p>"We don't expect the German economy to have contracted again in the first quarter," said Commerzbank economist Joerg Kraemer. "But recent mixed data suggest that there's a limit even to the strongly competitive German economy."</p>
<p>An Ifo sub-index on current conditions remained steady at 117.4 and a reading on expectations rose slightly to 102.7, less than in previous months, prompting Ifo to say the economy was losing some of its momentum.</p>
<p>With the euro zone due to contract this year, a downturn in export markets may hurt German growth.</p>
<p>"Even at a slower pace, the German economy should remain the euro zone growth showcase of the year," said ING's Brzeski.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | German Business Sentiment Improves in March | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/03/26/german-business-sentiment-improves.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>Missoni’s Summer 2014 show took place on Saturday in a vast Milan warehouse. But the show transported show-goers to old Japan, with designs covered in Japanese pop prints, inspired by iconic 18th century ukiyo-e woodcut art (such as Road to Tokaido and Six Views of Mount Fuji.)</p>
<p>The so-called “pop’n’ xotic” collection, designed in bright poppy colors, including turquoise, pinks and purples, continued on to India -- with sari-sarongs mixed with some of the house’s traditional woven knitwear looks. Think a sari in silk crepe paired with a logoed jacquard mesh-knit shirt.</p>
<p>Designed for women who like to travel, there were striped knit mesh sarongs in purple, orange, and lilac, with short jacquard-knit jackets.</p>
<p>Bright beautiful colors, stripes, prints and knits were repeatedly mixed up to form eye-catching patterned looks. The stripes on a skirt, paired with a busy knit-stitch on the jacket in variations on purple and orange, created an electrifying buzzed-up blend of patterns throughout the collection.</p>
<p>Glam came into play in the form of a figure-hugging lacquered rayon cloth skirt in turquoise that looked like sexy plastic. It was paired with a sweater designed like an exaggerated version of a V-neck made in an iridescent knit.</p>
<p>More traditional sarong looks were counterbalanced with several other clubby pieces, like a short purple jacket made of lacquered rayon cloth, which was worn with a logoed jacquard mesh knit pencil skirt.</p>
<p>Silhouettes were linear and surface textures were re-worked, with see-through sequins, embossed embroidery and degradè fringed bands – that looked on one design like a fragile string hammock attached to an asymmetrical panel dress.</p>
<p>These fringe bands were also strung in horizontal form across a cotton-knit silk dress, as if suspended on a weaving loom.</p>
<p>Eclectic mixes of stripes and busy patterns in rainbows of pretty colors, reminded one of the vibrant colors in play in India and Japan, from saris to kimonos, or the cheerful outfits of traditional African women, and as such were far removed from a more subdued Western aesthetic.</p>
<p>Eventually these bright colors gave way to a series of black-and-white ensembles, which also featured busy juxtapositions of stripes and patterns, like a jewel top named so because it was covered in a fringe of small cut beads, which was paired with a sarong in cotton poplin, decorated with a wave-like print.</p>
<p>Logos were worked into designs, like a pencil skirt in cotton gauze covered in a PVC logo, with a pleated silk in the slit at the back.</p>
<p>The house called the collection a “contemporary interpretation of fashion heritage.” Emphasizing its heritage, the show took place in a cage-like structure that looked as if it could have been woven in metal by in-house artisans.</p> | Missoni Goes Exotic | true | https://thedailybeast.com/missoni-goes-exotic | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>“This Night Will Break Your Heart” is a mixed-media on canvas by Covington Jordan. (COURTESY OF GEBERT CONTEMPORARY)</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — To be a self-taught artist is a circumstance that creates its own tensions. How do you know you’re making a good thing? When do you decide to show it to others?</p>
<p>Covington Jordan, who opens his second solo show at Gebert Contemporary on Canyon Road today, is completely self-taught. His experiments, which have been going on since the 45-year-old was in his 20s, include oil paint, printer’s asphalt, enamels, burlap fabric and such exotica as roofing tar. Jordan’s mixed-media abstracts are slowly beginning to attract attention as that of an original and thoughtful artist.</p>
<p>“These fifteen paintings employ imagery that is commonplace but open to multiple meanings. They beg for measured contemplation,” gallery director Jane Egan wrote in an invitation to the show. She praised the artist she’d discovered working in her own gallery. “Depictions of wolves, bouquets of flowers, even the religious imagery of the cross, offer themselves for an emotional scrutiny that compels the viewer to question accepted notions and beliefs. Using language and stark visual elements, Jordan layers both materials and meaning in this visually beautiful and emotionally challenging group of paintings.”</p>
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<p>In a telephone interview, Jordan called his latest work “spiritual.”</p>
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<p>WHERE: Gebert Contemporary, 558 Canyon Road</p>
<p>CONTACT: (505) 992-1100</p>
<p>“I had something specific that inspired me,” he said. “I’d been reading a lot of Raymond Carver’s poetry, and wanted to work on that.</p>
<p>“There’s some religious iconography – a lot of crosses – and some mythological, like wolves. I called the show ‘Fable,’ singular, because I wanted it to be somewhat open to the viewer’s interpretation,” he added.</p>
<p>Jordan was born in Phoenix in 1968 and grew up on a ranch north of the city. He was always attracted to art and even painted a few pictures in his teen years, but never took any formal art training. At 20, he moved into Phoenix and went to work for the late gallerist Elaine Horwitch, who owned galleries in Arizona and Santa Fe. He did what he does working at Gebert: a little of everything, from installing shows to sales. Being around the art awakened his latent artistry. He began painting nearly 20 years ago but said he had only been “more serious” about his art for the last six or seven years.</p>
<p>His first show was at the Railyard gallery owned by the Geberts two years ago. “I have a pretty critical eye,” he said. “It took me a while to believe the work was strong enough to put it out there. I never get exactly where I was going, in my mind. When I get close enough to what my objective was, I know a painting’s finished. I guess that’s what keeps us (artists) going.</p>
<p>“I have been influenced by a statement made by the Belgian artist Philippe Vandenberg, who is an artist for whom I had a lot of respect. He felt that a painting wasn’t really complete until there was a viewer,” Jordan said.</p>
<p>Jordan has a studio at his home, but he said he works outside much of the time. “The size of the work often takes me outside, and then the materials I use – if you’re shut up with them for very long, the fumes can get toxic,” he said.</p>
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<p>“Besides,” the artist said, “I like what the elements play in the work. There’s generally a little Santa Fe dust in the paint, that’s true. The weather somehow reacts to the materials. The heat can certainly play a part in it as well.”</p>
<p>A favorite material to use is “just plain roofing tar, that I buy at Home Depot.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be heated, he said, “I like the way it reacts with the oil paint. It reacts to, I think, the thinner more than the actual oil paint. There’s a chemical reaction there.”</p>
<p>With these paintings, he incorporated pieces of burlap because it is a very old material, he said, and seemed to fit with what he was doing.</p>
<p>Egan said Jordan’s use of very rugged materials “presents a visual contrast with the lonely sensitivity of the subject matter.Â</p>
<p>Having had just his 2011 solo show, “Winter Insomnia,” and been included in Gebert Contemporary’s display at the 2012 Dallas Art Fair, Jordan could fairly be called an emerging artist. It just takes some artists longer to emerge than others. Viewers are catching on. His work now hangs in several private collections.</p>
<p /> | Viewers’ Eyes | false | https://abqjournal.com/202656/viewers-eyes.html | 2013-05-24 | 2 |
<p>Amazon.com Inc. added a new product to the low-end of its Kindle line on Wednesday that will retail for $79.99. The new Kindle is thinner and lighter than its previous $79.99 e-reader, and includes new features such as a way to export notes and highlights from a book to email and built-in Bluetooth. Unlike the higher-end Kindles --Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage and Kindle Oasis-- it does not have a built-in light, and is only WiFi -not 3G- capable. The announcement comes two months after Amazon reported strong hardware sales in its fiscal first quarter, led by Amazon Echo, Fire tablets and Kindles, and about nine months after the company discontinued the Fire smartphone after failing to grow sales. In April, Amazon launched a high-end Kindle called Kindle Oasis, a leather-bound e-reader that retails for $289.99. Shares of Amazon fell 0.2% to $714.56 in morning trade. They've risen 27% over the last three months and 64% over the last 12 months, vastly outperforming the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Amazon Launches New $79.99 Kindle | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/22/amazon-launches-new-7-kindle.html | 2016-06-22 | 0 |
<p>If the combined power of thousands of Buddhist monks staging a nonviolent protest isn’t enough to oust Burma’s oppressive junta, one American hero (cue movie trailer voice-over) is coming to fight for democracy in a faraway land — or at least stick his nose in another nation’s business. Yes, Rambo is ready to exact vigilante justice in Burma in the fourth installment of the Stallone series called, well, “Rambo.”</p>
<p>USA Today:</p>
<p>The movie’s story, which borrows from tales of real-life atrocities but is otherwise fictional, involves Rambo reluctantly helping missionaries traverse the wilderness of the Salween River on their way to deliver supplies to camps of war-ravaged refugees.</p>
<p>Rambo has spent the past two decades living in the region as a hermit, one who has shed patriotism, lost his faith and given up on humanity.</p>
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<p>“He realizes his entire existence has been for naught,” Stallone says. “Peace is an accident, war is natural. Old men start it, young men fight it, everybody in the middle dies, and nobody tells the truth. He says, ‘You think God’s going to make it all go away? What has he done and changed in the world? He has done nothing. We are an aggressive animal and will never be at peace.’ That’s how he feels.”</p>
<p>When he encounters the human-rights workers, they “somehow touch the last remaining nerve in Rambo’s body,” Stallone says.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-11-14-rambo_N.htm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Rambo to the Rescue in Burma | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/rambo-to-the-rescue-in-burma/ | 2007-11-16 | 4 |
<p>SOUTH CAROLINAAugusta ChronicleBy <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Stephen Gurr</a> | South Carolina Bureau</p>
<p>AIKEN - Bath evangelist J. Wesley McCoy by his own admission molested a number of young girls in several counties as he crisscrossed South Carolina spreading the gospel, according to a report filed by Pickens County, S.C., sheriff's investigators.</p>
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<p>Those who knew Mr. McCoy say his youthful energy, fiery style and studious knowledge of the Bible attracted admiring audiences. Police say he exploited the trust he gained to prey on girls as young as 7.</p>
<p>Investigators in three South Carolina jurisdictions said they suspect the molestations occurred in the homes where Mr. McCoy stayed as a guest, in the 15-foot motor home he hitched to his pickup on travels across the state, and on "youth retreats" sponsored by his McCoy Ministries.</p>
<p>On Friday, the number of suspected victims of the 31-year-old evangelist continued to rise, and Pickens County authorities prepared to secure warrants against Mr. McCoy in connection with sexual acts with at least three victims in their early teens, Pickens County sheriff's Capt. Dewey Smith said.</p> | Officers say man admits to sex abuse | false | https://poynter.org/news/officers-say-man-admits-sex-abuse | 2003-05-17 | 2 |
<p>Maz Jobrani's comedy career has been successful in part&#160;because he's been able to turn all the&#160;stereotypes and misunderstandings he's endured as an Iranian immigrant into great material. Now he's upended the stereotypes again in his new film: "Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero."</p>
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<p>Courtesy: "Jimmy Vestvood:&#160;Amerikan Hero"</p>
<p>"It's a silly comedy." Jobrani says. "I call it the Persian Pink Panther meets Borat."&#160;</p>
<p>The plot is typical pratfall comedy: An Iranian wins the Green Card Lottery to come to America. He wants to be cop&#160;because he's a big fan of Steve McQueen in "Bullitt."&#160;But once he gets to LA, the only job he can find is working as a security guard at a Persian grocery. From there he somehow finds himself embroiled in a plot to start World War III&#160;and he's got to save the world.</p>
<p>The tag line is: Heroes are not born. They're imported.&#160;</p>
<p>"It's making fun of the stereotypes," Jobrani explains,&#160;"because as an Iranian&#160;American actor I've found that a lot of the parts that are out there are terrorist parts or villain parts, so this is turning that on its head. It's having a hero rather than a villain who happens to be of Middle Eastern descent."</p>
<p>Extra: Watch Jobrani's take on what life would be like for him under a Donald Trump presidency.</p>
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<p>Earlier in Jobrani's acting career, he got a few roles where he played the&#160;generic bad guy from the Middle East. He referenced that in the title of his 2015 memoir,&#160;" <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Not-Terrorist-But-Ive-Played/dp/1476749981" type="external">I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One on TV</a>," and played it up on the book's cover.&#160;"Really I was making fun of how Hollywood mixes us up altogether," he explains.</p>
<p>Before the book came out, Jobrani posted&#160;an image&#160;of that&#160;cover on his Facebook page. Then the comments started rolling in — and they weren't from the usual suspects.</p>
<p>"Before the book even came out, an Iranian lady wrote me on Facebook and said: 'Why are you wearing Arab headgear on the cover of your book? We are not Arab. We are Persian!'" Jobrani recalls. He responded to her, saying&#160;that&#160;was the whole point: to make fun of how Hollywood treated Middle Eastern actors. The woman wrote back:&#160;"But we are not even terrorists!" Jobrani answered by pointing out the title of the book: "I said, the book clearly states, 'I am not a terrorist but I've played one on TV.' And this discussion went back and forth for a while." Finally, she relented.</p>
<p>Then Jobrani heard from an Arab man who complained about the cover:&#160;"Why are you wearing Arab headgear? You're not Arab. You're Persian!" Jobrani wrote back:&#160;"Listen, there's this Persian lady I'd like you to meet. You&#160;guys would be perfect for each other because you're both literally judging a book by its cover, you idiots!"</p>
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<p>Courtesy: "Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero"</p>
<p>In "Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero," Jobrani's character aspires&#160;to be a classic&#160;American stereotype. When he&#160;meets a blonde bombshell played by Deanna Russo, he tells her,&#160;"My name is Vestvood, Jimmy Vestvood. Like Clint Eastwood, but Vestvood."</p>
<p>Jobrani himself would love to take on the role of film archetypes like James Bond.</p>
<p>"I've always said that growing up as an&#160;Iranian in America,&#160;I've always felt deprived because a lot of my British friends had James Bond. So it was like: Bond, James Bond. As a kid, we had Ayatollah Khomeini, so it was: Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini. Not as catchy."</p>
<p>Jobrani used to spend time correcting Americans' misunderstandings&#160;about his Iranian heritage&#160;— explaining the&#160;difference between being&#160;Persian and&#160;being Arab, for example. Nowadays, not so much.</p>
<p>"I used to distinguish it a lot more," he says,&#160;"but now I'm kind of at this point that, as long as people are paying attention ...&#160;"</p>
<p>Americans seemed to know very&#160;little about Iran until recently, Jobrani says:&#160;"Now we've got the nuclear deal.&#160;Seems like things&#160;are looking up. The sanctions are being lifted. Maybe more pistachios and Persian rugs."</p>
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<p>Courtesy: "Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero"</p>
<p>Jobrani has been heartened by the response to Jimmy Vestvood&#160;in places like Washington DC and Los Angeles, especially by fellow Iranian-Americans.</p>
<p>"I really feel that the Iranian community, and I think Middle Easterners, are sick of being depicted the way they are in film and in television," he says.</p>
<p>So Jimmy Vestvood may not be Clint Eastwood, but he's a hero, and he's their hero.&#160;</p>
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<p /> | Maz Jobrani's new comedy turns Middle Eastern stereotypes on their heads | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-05-19/maz-jobranis-new-comedy-turns-middle-eastern-stereotypes-their-heads | 2016-05-19 | 3 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Some great investment returns just sneak up on you. That stock you're watching seems primed for nothing special, or maybe a downright disaster. Then the chart squiggles suddenly skyrocket, rewarding shareholders with massive returns.</p>
<p>And you missed it.</p>
<p>Here at the end of 2016, that's how I feel about longtime graphics-chip rivals Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA). Their stock charts took a drastic positive turn this year, leaving me flat-footed alongside many other investors.</p>
<p>And you know what? I kind of wish I had added to my Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) stake in early February, or perhaps the middle of the summer. But I didn't. So here I am, telling you all about those missed opportunities instead.</p>
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<p>Let's be honest -- nobody, but nobody, had any real reason to believe that NVIDIA or AMD would soar sky-high in 2016.</p>
<p>Both companies were polishing up brand-new architectures for their graphics chips, and AMD was also preparing to launch a new platform for PC and server processors. That might sound promising at first glance, but both companies have a history of fumbling important technology launches.</p>
<p>NVIDIA and AMD shares were already on a roll, as investors were hoping for the best out of those important chip announcements. As New Year's rolled around, the stocks had gained more than 60% in just five months. That could very well have been the end of this story, setting investors up for huge corrections if anything went wrong.</p>
<p>But both AMD and NVIDIA reached into their top hats to produce some good-looking bunny rabbits. They proceeded to unveil the new NVIDIA Pascal and AMD Polaris chips, selling truckloads of these products in the second half of the year. AMD delivered three earnings surprises in 2016 along with strong top-line results, and NVIDIA blew every target out of the water.</p>
<p>I did not see any of this coming, and can only glare ruefully at their year-to-date returns. NVIDIA shares have more than tripled, showing a 235% return this year, while AMD quadrupled to the tune of 304%.</p>
<p>Now, AMD pushed its PC and server chip releases into 2017, but Polaris is pulling its weight with confidence in the meantime. Both Polaris and Pascal have the potential to reach brand-new markets, as their number-crunching powers happen to be very useful for supercomputing tasks such as real-time artificial intelligence and high-speed data analysis.</p>
<p>Will these turnarounds reach even higher highs next year? You tell me. AMD and NVIDIA must continue to execute in order to reach higher, which is hardly a guaranteed outcome if you've been following these companies for a few years. In particular, AMD cannot afford to flub its next processor launch, because graphics products account for less than one-third of AMD's overall sales. This launch will make or break the bulk of AMD's revenue stream.</p>
<p>So I'm staying away from both AMD and Nvidia here because I'm not terribly convinced that the smooth sailing will continue. And even if you disagree with my assessment of the investment risks involved, it would be reckless to back up the truck at this point. Momentum plays can be great while they last but they <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/08/why-container-store-group-inc-stock-fell-10-on-tue.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">cannot last forever Opens a New Window.</a>, you know.</p>
<p>Surprise hit Stranger Things is helping Netflix gather and hold on to subscribers. Image source: Netflix.</p>
<p>Okay, so why do I feel like I stiffed myself by not buying more Netflix this year? The stock is only trading sideways year to date.</p>
<p>For starters, the ever-volatile stock took some dramatic dives in February and July. The first drop provided as much as a 30% discount, and the summer swoon stopped at roughly 28%. Share prices have recovered strongly from these troughs, mostly thanks to a rock-solid earnings report in October. If you bought Netflix shares on Feb. 8, you'd be enjoying a 52% return on that investment today.</p>
<p>That's still less impressive than AMD's or NVIDIA's soaring jumps, I know. But the thing is, it was always obvious that these Netflix discounts would be temporary. They were negative reactions to positive news, opening obvious buy-in windows. I'm feeling silly for letting these opportunities pass me by.</p>
<p>In February, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/06/instant-analysis-netflix-inc-explodes-to-cover-the.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Netflix had just achieved nearly worldwide coverage Opens a New Window.</a> with its streaming video services. That's paving the way toward massive revenue and profit growth in the long run, but at the cost of high short-term expenses. Result: lower share prices for all the wrong, downright myopic reasons.</p>
<p>Then, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/19/netflix-inc-earnings-international-growth-accelera.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">the company reported fourth-quarter results Opens a New Window.</a> where pretty much every business metric came in ahead of management's guidance targets. But traders focused on the small miss on domestic subscriber additions, complained about the high costs of rolling out a global service, and punished the stock some more. Again, for all the wrong reasons.</p>
<p>The same issues festered for months, weighing heavily on Netflix shares for no good reason. Another turn in soft subscriber additions followed in July, as consumers turned their attention to election coverage and the Rio Olympics instead of to Netflix content: obviously a short-lived issue, with a near-certain rebound coming up ahead.</p>
<p>More missed opportunities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/17/netflix-inc-third-quarter-earnings-the-growth-stor.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">The third-quarter report in October Opens a New Window.</a> swept away many of the cobwebs, and Netflix shares broke loose to new all-time highs. Yes, a $46 billion market cap can <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/18/why-netflix-inc-is-soaring-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">grow 20% larger overnight Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>No more deep-discount buying windows.</p>
<p>Yes, I wish I had dipped just a little deeper into the Netflix well at some point in 2016. There was really no reason not to, and several blindingly obvious chances to make a move.</p>
<p>Netflix already accounts for about one-third of my total nest egg, so I'll console myself with the fact that I'm spreading my eggs across several baskets instead. But Netflix remains the best investment idea on the table today, and looks likely to make a big positive move in 2017 as management is shifting its focus from expansion to turning a profit.</p>
<p>I'm not exactly missing out on that jump, but I could have taken an even bigger position at a fantastic buy-in price.</p>
<p>Oh, well. <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/10/25/my-802179-netflix-mistake.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Always forward Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Netflix 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=a974fe18-c5da-4fd5-ac32-024362c94aa0&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 Netflix 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=a974fe18-c5da-4fd5-ac32-024362c94aa0&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 Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFZahrim/info.aspx" type="external">Anders Bylund Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Nvidia. 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>.</p>
<p>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> | 3 Companies We Wish We Bought in 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/29/3-companies-wish-bought-in-2016.html | 2016-12-29 | 0 |
<p>Disabled Americans came in wheelchairs into the United States Senate to register their protest against the harsh Republican plan to slash health care. ADAPT, a disability rights group, staged a die-in right before the office of the leading Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. About 60 protesters tried to block the entrance to McConnell’s office. Their goal was to show the rest of America what would come out of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which the Republicans sought to push through as an alternative to Obamacare. The police arrested 43 protesters and wheeled out others from McConnell’s hallway. The McConnell plan would slash Medicare, a government plan that provides health-care coverage for low-income Americans and for those with disabilities. One of the elements of the plan envisages cutting funds for in-home assistance that allows disabled Americans to remain in their own homes rather than move to nursing homes. Fourteen million Americans will lose any access to health insurance.</p>
<p>One of the people who got out of her wheelchair to be arrested was Stephanie Woodward, director of advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights. She was arrested by the officers in the Senate, who carried her out. “We have a right to live,” Stephanie Woodward said. “And by live, I don’t mean just breathe. I mean be a part of the American dream, be in the community, raise a family, go to work. These Medicaid cuts will force people into institutions who don’t need to be there.”</p>
<p>Harsh budget</p>
<p>Evidence of a major assault by the Trump administration on the social safety net in the U.S. was already there in Trump’s budget proposal. He sought to cut funds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Medicaid and the Interagency Council on Homelessness. Cuts to affordable housing and to homeless assistance programmes were a centrepiece. But so too are cuts that would hurt the disabled. Sally Johnston, president of the Disabled in Action of Greater Syracuse, said: “Trump’s proposed budget will cut trillions of dollars in domestic services. How can this make America better?”</p>
<p>Harshness towards the vulnerable defines Trump’s agenda. There was a whisper of this when Trump mocked a disabled reporter for The New York Times, Serge Kovaleski, and when 12-year-old J.J. Holmes, who has cerebral palsy, was ejected from a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida. The disregard shown to people with disabilities reveals the kind of agenda that Trump was always going to drive. Generosity towards people is not his metier. His is a harsh project, to push aside the vulnerable in a social Darwinist drive to excellence. Weakness is reviled. Strength is applauded.</p>
<p>In late June, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin married the Scottish actress Louise Linton. They had a lavish wedding, attended by Trump, his Vice President and most of the Cabinet. Mnuchin and Louise Linton live in a $12.6 million home in an exclusive part of Washington, D.C. The money is Mnuchin’s, what he made as a partner in Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin is not the only fabulously wealthy person in Trump’s cabinet. He sits at Cabinet meetings near Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Deputy Commerce Secretary Todd Ricketts. Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser is Gary Cohn, another former Goldman Sachs president. All are worth hundreds of millions of dollars each.</p>
<p>At a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, just after the Mnuchin wedding, Trump mused about the wealth in his Cabinet. “Somebody said—why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy? No, it’s true. And Wilbur’s a very rich person in charge of commerce. I said—Because that’s the kind of thinking we want’.” What kind of thinking would that be? The thinking of someone who was willing to set aside any social agenda for his individual gain.</p>
<p>Trump’s base is made of a combination of people of great wealth—who are few—and the immense white-collar middle-class sector that has found itself made vulnerable by globalisation. Business process outsourcing struck the white-collar middle class, which formed the base of the Tea Party and then the Trump movement. He promised this base that he would not become wedded to Wall Street but would put Main Street in charge. That has not come to pass. “I love all people, rich or poor,” Trump said, “but in those particular positions I don’t want a poor person.” No poor or middle-class person should direct commercial or budgetary policy. That should be left to the rich. This is an honest assessment of Trump’s project—to appeal to the mass of white-collar vulnerable workers, but to deliver the reins of power to the very wealthy.</p>
<p>In a new book, Duke University professor Nancy MacLean goes into the intellectual roots of the radical Right and the vision of the current agenda, as articulated by Trump. The Right, she shows in <a href="" type="internal">Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of The Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America</a>, is interested in the destruction of “society” and the creation of pure individualism. Charles Koch, one of the major financiers of the radical Right, relied upon Baldy Harper. Harper argued, decades ago, that support for vulnerable populations would erode liberty. He suggested that liberal policies that helped the poor and the disadvantaged would be like a disease against society. “Once the disease has advanced,” he wrote, “a bitter curative medicine is required to gain already-lost liberty.” These are harsh words. The idea of a “bitter curative medicine” is something that is natural to the Trump team. The vicious knives they wield against any social policy for the poor and the vulnerable are sharp and are used with gusto. One can see the way they cut away at precious social policies in the budget and in their health care plans.</p>
<p>Nancy MacLean describes the agenda of the economist James Buchanan, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics. Buchanan is a favourite of the radical Right, for whom he acts as an important intellectual standard. A clear sentiment of Buchanan’s vision is available in a 2005 document, where he attacks people who have not been able to save enough for unforeseen circumstances or for retirement. If they fall catastrophically ill or lose their jobs, they should have prepared for this eventuality through prudent savings. If not, Buchanan wrote, they “are to be treated as subordinate members of the species, akin to animals who are dependent”. The language here is ferocious. It is mimicked by Trump and his Cabinet.</p>
<p>Let us return to Trump’s budget. He proposes to cut $2.5 trillion in programmes for the working class and the indigent. Food stamps, the essential means for the poorest Americans to access food, would go. It is important to underline that one in six Americans struggles with hunger—49 million Americans have a hard time putting food on their tables. One in five children is at risk of hunger, with the ratio higher—one in three—for African-American and Latino families. There will be no easy way for Americans who struggle with food insecurity to feed themselves. They will be left to starve, like “subordinate members of the species”.</p>
<p>‘Poverty a state of mind’</p>
<p>In a radio interview, Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said: “I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind.” Aid to the poor, says the Trump team, does not work. The poor must be made to “go to work”, said Trump’s Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. But how to go to work when jobs are simply unavailable, as Trump himself has said on many occasions? In fact, the office that helps the poor find jobs has also been slated to be cut. That means even those few programmes to assist the unemployed to find work will no longer be available. In fact, as New York University Professor Jonathan Morduch and Rachael Schneider say in their new book <a href="" type="internal">The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty</a>, even those who have jobs at low pay struggle to make ends meet. Many of them rely on government assistance to get by. If they do not get access to government programmes, they turn to credit card loans and payday loans to cover their bills. There is great fragility in the budgets of the working poor.</p>
<p>There is cruelty in Trump’s vision. It throws the poor to the lions of desperation. The remnants of liberalism are being withdrawn. This is the end of the social contract.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared in Frontline (India).</p> | The End of the Social Contract | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/07/the-end-of-the-social-contract/ | 2017-07-07 | 4 |
<p>Which is the most important bilateral relationship in the international arena today? Many analysts would argue that it is the relationship between the United States of America and China that has the greatest significance for the world. Some see it as the relationship between an established power and a rising power which has often led to war in the past. They quote the great 4th century BC Greek historian, Thucydides who had observed that “it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Contemporary thinkers like Graham T. Allison who coined the term ‘The Thucydides Trap’ point out that over the last 500 years there have been 16 instances in which an established power had felt threatened by a rising power and 12 of them ended in war. One of the most devastating was the war between Britain and Germany which was at the crux of the First World War from 1914 to 1918. On the other hand, the US took over the mantle of British imperial power after the Second World War in 1945 in a relatively peaceful manner.</p>
<p>I do not see the US and China going to war. Burdened by perpetual wars and massive debts running into trillions of dollars, a huge segment of the US populace has no appetite for another conflagration that will further sap the nation’s energies. At the same time, the Chinese leadership knows that a war with a technologically superior military power will be a severe blow to the country’s economic and social development which remains its foremost goal. However this does not mean that the US and China will be able to transact a peaceful transfer of power. The US it is obvious is not prepared to accept with equanimity its overall decline as a hegemon. This is why there will be skirmishes and conflicts from time to time as we witness the end of the era of US helmed Western global dominance and the birth of a new phase in international relations.</p>
<p>At the core of this new phase is another bilateral relationship which I regard as far more critical in shaping the present and the future. This is the relationship between China and Russia which is at its zenith at this point in time. It is a relationship that covers the entire gamut from finance, energy and agriculture to military and security ties and to close coordination on regional and global political issues. The leaders of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, who have forged a strong inter-personal bond, approved in July 2017 the 2017-20 implementation outline for the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation between China and Russia.</p>
<p>This ever strengthening bond between the world’s most populous nation and its biggest geographical entity will not only hasten the demise of US hegemony but will also accelerate the emergence of a multi-polar global order. A number of other states are already linked to China and Russia through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). These bodies are further buttressed by initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project and the Eurasian Economic Union. Though the participants in all these endeavours are not always on the same page on various challenges confronting the human family today, they will help to diffuse and disperse power at the regional and global levels. A multi-polar world by definition will allow for the growth of multilateral institutions and the enhancement of international law. In short, it will be good for global peace.</p>
<p>Of course, the developing Sino-Russian bond is not without its challenges. Let us not forget that China and Russia (the Soviet Union) in spite of their common communist ideology, quarrelled with one another from the fifties to the eighties, over a variety of issues pertaining to economic approaches, political strategies and simply power and influence in other parts of the world. This time however by emphasising solid economic cooperation and forging common political positions on global conflicts that affect both nations, Presidents XI and Putin have succeeded in anchoring Sino-Russian ties in shared interests that really matter to them. Besides, the US’s pursuit of its hegemonic agenda in the vicinity of China and Russia has undoubtedly brought the two states closer together. Chinese and Russian leaders are only too aware that there are concerted moves by the intelligence apparatus in the US and elsewhere to drive a wedge between China and Russia. If anything it has increased their determination to remain united.</p> | The Bilateral Relationship that Matters | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/25/the-bilateral-relationship-that-matters/ | 2017-07-25 | 4 |
<p>Nicholas Jeffers didn't mean to throw a house party.</p>
<p>But when the 20-year-old North Carolina A&amp;T State University student had a small birthday gathering for a friend on Saturday night at his apartment in Greensboro, N.C., the get-together quickly escalated after someone posted the event on Twitter and Facebook, Jeffers told NBC News.</p>
<p>By the end of the night, Jeffers said, there had been a fight, and two innocent bystanders were shot dead.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">victims were identified</a> Sunday as Alisia Dieudonne, 19, a sophomore computer science major from Homewood, Ill., and Ahmad Campbell, 21, a junior agriculture and environmental systems major from Kittrell, N.C.</p>
<p>"We don't have anything indicating the two students were involved in the altercation," Greensboro police Cpl. M.D. Matthews <a href="http://www.greensboro.com/news/crime/police-slain-n-c-a-t-students-did-not-participate/article_c66ed4e9-a376-5b9b-8753-caf22db95515.html" type="external">told</a> the Greensboro News &amp; Record.</p>
<p>Jeffers wasn't sure who announced that he and his roommates were having a party, but by early Sunday morning, there were lines at the apartment's back and front doors, he said.</p>
<p>"At one point, it was 10 or 12" people, he said. "Thirty minutes later, there were 50."</p>
<p>About 2 a.m., a fight broke out over a woman, Jeffers said, so he and his roommates cleared out the apartment. Dieudonne and Campbell had both been invited to the gathering — she was a good friend, he said, while Campbell was close with Jeffers' cousin — so they stuck around.</p>
<p>"I was outside trying to calm everything down," Jeffers recalled. "It seemed like everything was resolved."</p>
<p>But once Jeffers stepped back inside, three shots were fired from the street, he said. Dieudonne and Campbell, who were still inside, were struck, Jeffers said. The men who Jeffers believed fired the shots weren't students, he said.</p>
<p>Harold Martin, the university's chancellor, called the incident "extremely disturbing." He said Sunday that both victims were active in campus life and were "vitally important members of the Aggie family."</p>
<p>At a vigil on Sunday, a speaker described Dieudonne as someone who felt like family, Jeffers said, adding that to him, that seemed right.</p>
<p>"Once you were friends," Jeffers said, "she was the type of person that always had your back."</p> | Cops, Student Say Two Killed at N.C. Party Were Innocent Bystanders | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cops-student-say-two-killed-n-c-party-were-innocent-n658386 | 2016-10-03 | 3 |
<p>Is it possible to earn less than minimum wage at a Fortune 500 company? It is if your paycheck is loaded onto a prepaid card that levies hefty fees each time you try to gain access to your money.</p>
<p>The McDonald's franchise in Pennsylvania that Natalie Gunshanno worked at required its employees to receive their pay via a Chase prepaid card that charged $1.50 for ATM withdrawals, $1 for balance inquiries, and $.75 for each online bill payment. So, she launched a class-action lawsuit in June to get restitution for those fees for some 750 employees and has since put together a petition asking McDonald's leadership to end the practice at McDonald's nationwide. The petition has received more than 290,000 signatures.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The franchise she fought back against caved to pressure and now offers other payment options to its employees. But the former employee says in her petition that some franchisees continue to require that workers receive their wages on prepaid cards.</p>
<p>This dustup over prepaid cards has caused the second spate of unflattering headlines this week for the Golden Arches. Earlier, McDonald's suggested budget (designed by Visa) to help its workers get by on their low wages, was widely lampooned for assuming that workers have a second job, pay only $20 a month for health care, and don't need some very minor staples like groceries, clothing, gasoline, and heat. See a line-by-line breakdown of the budget by our sister site The Consumerist.</p>
<p>For more on prepaid cards, and how to design a budget—one that includes heat and real-world healthcare costs—see our articles on creating a retirement budget and family budgeting advice, and our 2012 article on consumer prepaid cards.</p>
<p>Also see the May press release by Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, urging city governments to stop issuing prepaid cards that come with high fees and weak consumer protections.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2005-2013 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission. Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this site.</p> | Prepaid cards that take a bite out of your paycheck | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/19/prepaid-cards-that-take-bite-out-your-paycheck.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Photo by ben cope | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Late August and early September always was a peculiar time for me in the UK.&#160; Those who can afford them have been on their holidays (“vacations” in Americanese) and are showing off their often grotesque suntans, children are about to go back to school, and the weather is at its most changeable.&#160; You can be wearing a t-shirt in the morning and needing a bulky sweater in the evening.</p>
<p>A subdued mild melancholy pervades the air, which is good business for the pubs, as less time can now be spent outdoors, and Brits have to seek their cheer indoors, more often than not in the pub– that uniquely wonderful British institution purveying fermented beverages for much desired “rehydration”.</p>
<p>The health industry sends out conflicting messages on the need for such “rehydration”.&#160; Year after year the medical profession scales down the number of units of alcohol that can be consumed “safely”, while at the same time research conducted independently by university labs confirms that wine can ward off dementia, that beer has whatever enzyme able to counter depression and anxiety, and so on.</p>
<p>In the face of such endlessly conflicting advice, the best rules therefore are rules of thumb, of course entirely subjective, e.g. never drink so much that you become “paralytic” (as we used to say in my 60s student days), or can’t engage in what approximates to intelligent conversation.</p>
<p>I’m back in Ukania for a brief stay, and, my goodness, Ukanians will need the full range of liquid ministrations provided by their local hostelries if they are to cope with the Tory party’s shambolic misrule, especially where Brexit is concerned.</p>
<p>Today I watched the Sunday morning chat shows, where as in the US, politicians, coached by their spin doctors, give the impression of engaging with television interviewers and pundits.</p>
<p>Political coverage on Ukanian TV is much more adversarial than in the US– no American politician, apart from Bill Clinton or perhaps Obama, would last one-minute with the UK’s loathsome Jeremy Paxman.</p>
<p>But really skilled Brit politicians have developed a survival art for disarming the interviewer which does not rely on intelligence or verbal dexterity.</p>
<p>This is the ability to draw out proceedings, in the full knowledge that a 10- or 15-minute time-span has been allotted in advance for the interview.</p>
<p>So extended answers are best, as long as it does not look too obvious that one is winding down the studio clock– a detailed answer, followed by a caveat here and a caveat there, ending with a teaser that draws the interviewer down a side-track, is ideal.&#160; That way you only have to answer 3-4, instead of 6-7, questions, reducing in this way the possibility of being ambushed by a difficult-to-answer question.</p>
<p>Someone like Jeremy Paxman will of course interrupt, often rudely, which means the interview now becomes a test of wills.&#160; And those adept at doing interviews are also up to this challenge– “Jeremy, it is unforgiveable that you are simplifying this complex issue, so let me….” (the clock then starts to wind down again).</p>
<p>London has had to endure vehicular attacks on pedestrians, but people go about their business in relative tranquility.</p>
<p>However, socio-economic divisions are becoming even more deeply entrenched, and the number of people living on the streets is shocking to behold for a rich country.</p>
<p>In this regard London resembles Dublin in the 1970s, before Ireland became the “Celtic tiger” economically, where for the first time I saw several women and their children begging in a major city of a western European country.</p>
<p>My Irish friends said these were “professional” beggars from the gypsy community, but I wondered why this wandering community had not moved to more prosperous European cities.</p>
<p>Homelessness in the UK is rampant because housing is basically unaffordable for Brits on low incomes.&#160; A useful barometer of what is happening in a city is provided by those reality TV shows where a couple views 3-4 dwellings, usually needing to be fixed-up in some way, and are filmed discussing the pros and cons of each before they make a final decision on their purchase.</p>
<p>I watched a couple of such episodes, centred on London and its surrounding commuter towns, and in every case the person(s) buying the property in question had no intention of living in what they just bought.</p>
<p>Instead the purchase was an “investment opportunity” for people who clearly had ample cash to spare– the property would be fixed-up and sold to someone else a few months later at a handsome profit, or else rented out for an exorbitant lease.</p>
<p>“Flipping” is the American word for this intolerable practice, and it was fascinating to watch people engage in it without any compunctions or inhibitions.</p>
<p>The hosts of these shows asked all kinds of complicated questions about acreage, the monetary value of an “unobstructed view” from a balcony, finances and mortgages, nearby schools, etc., but avoided the stupidly obvious question, namely: “Aren’t you troubled by the fact that by buying this property as an “investment opportunity” you are pricing someone out of the ownership/rental market?”.</p>
<p>The Tory government of course does nothing to put a stop to this ghastly practice.</p>
<p>It would be easy to impose a draconian sales tax on houses that are flipped, but the flippers are Tories to the bone, so they’ll be a protected species as long as the Tories are in office.</p>
<p>Socialism is the only way to render this parasitic housing “investment opportunity” species extinct, and a fair number of Brits must be of this opinion, seeing that Corbyn’s Labour has a comfortable lead in all the polls (he’s promised to take firm measures to rectify the UK’s housing crisis, including a significant increase in stamp duty for certain kinds of property sales).</p>
<p>Another way to assess London is to venture into a posh area or two (I revisited Bloomsbury and the South Kensington area where I spent my breaks when I was at university in the 1960s), as well as a slightly less salubrious area (I revisited the former dockland area Poplar in the East End) to get a sense of the contrasts existing on the ground, and these were glaring, as my photos below indicate.</p>
<p>However, this narrative needs to be revised, or at least, qualified significantly.&#160; There is no way a student today can afford to live in a 3-bedroom apartment in a Georgian terrace building in South Ken, unless they have millionaires for parents.</p>
<p>Moreover, the social housing (seemingly) I visited in Poplar turned out to be anything but social housing.&#160; It may have been this before Thatcher took office, but once she sold off social housing, private landlords snapped up these properties, with the result that what was once social housing is now occupied by a much more affluent type of client than one sees in the popular TV series “Call the Midwife”, which was set in the more or less immediate post WW2 years of a Poplar long gone.</p>
<p>After taking my photos of what had been social housing, I walked around the car park, and saw, not Ford Fiestas or Fiat Puntos, but Audis, SUVs of every stripe, and a couple of Beamers.</p>
<p>While not as “up-market” as Bloomsbury or South Ken, Poplar has clearly undergone a massive gentrification.</p>
<p>Which is hardly surprising, because a 5-minute walk from Poplar High Street brings one to the shiny towers of the Canary Wharf banking district (see photo below).</p>
<p>The banksters have displaced the dockers of yore.</p>
<p>The crux of this narrative is that the dockers were a highly significant part of the powerhouse that drove the UK’s Industrial Revolution, while the banksters, as Michael Hudson has pointed out over and over again in CounterPunch, merely sustain rent-seeking enterprises that contribute little or nothing to a country’s economic well-being.</p>
<p>I never expected a mere 5-minute walk to display, in a visual geography, the underlying basis of the UK’s economic decline and its associated crises, but this one did.</p>
<p>Ukania, for now, is in considerable disarray.</p>
<p>The Tories, in power since 2010, only remain in office with the support of the troglodytic Northern Irish Unionists.</p>
<p>The Tory policy of austerity, supposed to reduce debt and boost the economy, has had the opposite effect.</p>
<p>The Tory party is riven by internal divisions over Brexit, and has no coherent agenda for its implementation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the UK news gave us endless coverage of little prince George, offspring of Wills and Kate Middleton, being taken to the first day of his super-expensive kindergarten.</p>
<p>Somehow the entire rotten show must go on.</p>
<p />
<p>Bloomsbury buildings– Lytton Strachey (according to the plaque outside), lived in one of these.&#160; Keynes lived a couple of blocks away.</p>
<p />
<p>Student accommodation in central London in the 1960s, absolutely unaffordable today.</p>
<p />
<p>Poplar, former social housing.</p>
<p />
<p>A 5-minute walk from Poplar, the towers of Canary Wharf.</p>
<p>All photos by &#160;Kenneth Surin.</p> | Ukania This Time Around | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/09/13/ukania-this-time-around/ | 2017-09-13 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — For Andrea Pichaida, the road to the Stations of the Cross began with mud.</p>
<p>The Chilean artist asked her mother to sign her up for a pottery class when she was 6 years old.</p>
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<p>“I was always building something with mud and sticks and rock,” the artist said from her Santa Fe studio.</p>
<p>“I guess I was very shy,” she continued. “I think I felt so comfortable doing it and it was my refuge. I used to hide in (the mud) from everything. That was my little world.”</p>
<p>What began as an escape from a painful childhood grew into a passion as Pichaida evolved into a sculptor and art professor at the Art School of the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago. She was commissioned to make Stations of the Cross for a cathedral, a church and a park. She also made contemporary sculpture, angels and eventually a clay vase embellished with the figures of Mary and Jesus that Pope John Paul II personally chose for the Vatican Museum in 2004.</p>
<p>Pichaida lived in Chile under the regime of President Augusto Pinochet, who seized power in a 1973 coup. According to various reports, from 1,200 to 3,200 people were killed, up to 80,000 jailed and 30,000 tortured under his rule. Pinochet died in 2006.</p>
<p>“In Santiago, everyone is afraid to speak of faith,” she added. “We had 20 years of dictatorship. There are still people that haven’t been found. He even got rid of the history books.</p>
<p>“In Chile, there’s always a wall in front of you,” she continued. “Everybody’s always criticizing you. It’s a cultural thing. It’s very isolated.”</p>
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<p>In 2008, a friend invited Pichaida to Santa Fe. She had lived in Angel Fire during the ’90s when her ex-husband headed the Chilean Olympic ski team training there. Pichaida returned to Santiago and worked in marketing, eventually becoming an art professor.</p>
<p>Two years ago, Pichaida moved to Santa Fe and married Dr. Dave Gonzales, whom she had met through friends. A chance dinner encounter led to a new commission for Stations of the Cross at the city’s Church of the Holy Faith. So far she has nearly completed 10, after beginning the project in mid-September. She also teaches at Santa Fe Clay.</p>
<p>The new stations will replace old reproductions now hanging in the church.</p>
<p>“What was existing was just a temporary solution,” Holy Faith’s Father Kenneth Semon said. “We hadn’t had them in the past and there were people who wanted to observe them.”</p>
<p>Church members were hoping to find a local artist to complement the existing original art already in place, Semon said. That art includes a reredos by Gustave Baumann, an expansion, chancel (choir space) and sanctuary by John Gaw Meem and stained glass windows, one of which is dedicated to Hattie Childs, the first wife of Gov. L. Bradford Prince. Meem dedicated the altar window to his late father.</p>
<p>Pichaida completed a single piece to show parishoners what she could do. The donations flowed. The finished project cost about $25,000, Semon said.</p>
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<p>“I thought they were just wonderful,” he explained, “–– the simpliciy and the depth of spirituality. We put one up and said, ‘Here’s what’s proposed.'”</p>
<p>The money was there within a week, he added. Semon hopes to have all 14 stations installed by Lent (Feb. 15).</p>
<p>The subtle, earth-colored reliefs stand in contrast to every stained glass and painted depiction of the final days of Jesus’ life. In relief, the artist chips and chisels away at the clay until the imagery seems raised from the background plane, the facial features and even the drape of a robe carved by shadows. The Stations show various stages of Christ carrying his cross to his crucifixion in the final hours before his death. The 14, 20-by-15-inch pieces will hang along the walls of the church at 311 E. Palace Ave. The images are designed to help the faithful make a spiritual pilgrimage or prayer through meditating on the scenes of Christ’s suffering and death.</p>
<p>They are subtly spiritual, with facial expressions conveying a depth of meaning.</p>
<p>“I don’t like the bloody scenes,” Pichaida said. “I think you can get the same message from the faces.”</p>
<p>Pichaida designs her composition with a razored focus on the principal characters. Everything from the facial features to the folds of Christ’s robe flow with intricacy and expression; the background characters recede.</p>
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<p>“You create tension by putting the characters close enough where they connect,” she explained. “You have a rhythm in it, you have a tension in it. You shouldn’t have to explain artwork. The viewer should be able to see it. You always find a climax within the composition.”</p>
<p>The clay reliefs will hang on the church walls from a one-inch board to create the shadows of a frame.</p>
<p>“I start carving and then I carve again and again and again,” Pichaida said. She often works from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. to a background of Benedictine chants, salsa or the Beatles, depending on her mood, as a pellet stove flickers. Television is banned, and Pichaida deliberately painted the walls a stark white to dilute any distractions in a gesture of Zen-like simplicity.</p>
<p>The clay comes in 25-pound blocks; Pichaida sculpts nearly half of it away using wooden and wire carving tools. The continual scraping helps to pop any bubbles that might trigger an explosion in the kiln. When the figures seem complete, Pichaida adds her personal final touch –– she presses a piece of cheese cloth to the top and bottom of the composition to add a veil of woven texture. No one is allowed to touch them.</p>
<p>“This station has become a lot more meaningful to me,” Pichaida said. “The others were with a partner; he was very bossy. They were commissions. This is a gift for me, too. I realize I’m a piece of everything and I have to give back, too.”</p> | Capturing Christ | false | https://abqjournal.com/154867/capturing-2.html | 2012-12-21 | 2 |
<p>Long a mecca for Hollywood types seeking substantial incentives, Louisiana has grown into a production powerhouse. However, over the past few years, with the breaks coming into question, the state has lost business to places like Georgia. Now, with a newly revised incentive plan offering a 25%-45% partially refundable tax credit, the state is fighting back.</p>
<p>SEE MORE: <a href="https://variety.com/access-digital/" type="external">From the September 05, 2017, issue of Variety</a></p>
<p>As a result of its long history as a production hub, Louisiana provides numerous production facilities, highly trained crews, and a plethora of production services companies, including location scouting and on-site support.</p>
<p>In fact, over the years, during California’s long runaway production phase, many below-the-line workers moved from Hollywood to the Pelican State to find work. Today they form a deep labor pool of production talent that benefits filmmakers from around the world who come to Louisiana. (Another incentive: New Orleans restaurants.)</p>
<p>Specifically, the financial incentive offers a 40% refundable tax credit for resident above-the-line and below-the-line workers, and a 25% refundable tax credit for non-resident above-the-line and below-the-line workers.</p>
<p>The minimum spend requirement is $300,000. The project cap is $20 million for film and $25 million for TV series per season. There is a $3 million compensation cap.</p>
<p>Recent Louisiana productions include “Baby Driver” (2017), “American Made” (2017), “Girls Trip” (2017), “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/logan/" type="external">Logan</a>” (2017), “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/kidnap/" type="external">Kidnap</a>” (2017), “Bad Moms” (2016), TV show “Scream” (began in 2015), and TV show “The Originals” (began in 2013).</p> | Louisiana Fights Back With Revived and Generous Production Incentives | false | https://newsline.com/louisiana-fights-back-with-revived-and-generous-production-incentives/ | 2017-09-08 | 1 |
<p>&lt;a href= "http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-560209p1.html"&gt;Howard Klaaste&lt;/a&gt;Shutterstock</p>
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<p>A subcommittee of the Alabama <a href="http://governor.alabama.gov/newsroom/2015/04/governor-bentley-unveils-alabama-health-care-improvement-task-force/" type="external">Governor’s Health Care Improvement Task Force</a> is examining proposals that aim to reform the nation’s harshest “chemical endangerment of a child” statute.&#160;The law states that “knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally” exposing a child to controlled substances or drug-making chemicals is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison if a child is unharmed, and 99 years if a child dies.</p>
<p>The enforcement of the law, originally intended to prosecute methamphetamine users who exposed children to the drug, has been unusually broad—including, as <a href="" type="internal">ProPublica’s Nina Martin previously reported in Mother Jones</a>, the prosecution of pregnant women for exposing their fetuses to even small amounts of anti-anxiety medication. Nearly 500 women have been arrested on related charges since the law passed in 2006.</p>
<p>The law has been criticized by civil rights groups and public health experts for being harmful to those who need the most help—women who are faced with poverty and addiction—and for unfairly prosecuting women who were not drug users at all, but who might have simply taken a small dose of medication that eventually appeared in the blood test of their new babies.</p>
<p>At the task force meeting on Wednesday, Dr. Darlene Traffanstedt, who heads the subcommittee, announced that three proposals were under consideration. One would require prosecutors to offer drug treatment to pregnant women instead of prosecuting them, while another would protect women using drugs that have been legally prescribed to them (which <a href="" type="internal">has not been the case</a> since 2006). The third option would hold the law to its “original intent”&#160; by preventing its use against women who are using pregnancy-related medication.</p>
<p>The subcommittee’s next meeting is in December, and a draft bill is expected by the beginning of February’s legislative session. Read more about the law and its consequences <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | Alabama May Back Off Its Policy of Treating New Moms Like Meth Cooks | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/alabama-may-be-scaling-back-law-prosecuting-pregnant-drug-users/ | 2015-11-20 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Buying your first home can be overwhelming, and all the costs and fees involved can be confusing. The down payment isn't the only expenditure you'll have whenclosing on a house; you'll also have to pay closing costs, which could add up to 2 to 5 percent of the purchase <a href="https://www.gobankingrates.com/mortgage-rates/building-house-versus-buying-preexisting-home/" type="external">price of the home Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Chief among these closing costs is the loan origination fee, which is charged as compensation for the research yourlenderhas done on you to determine whether you would be a trustworthyborrower.With an understanding of the loan orientation fee, you can become a savvier homebuyer and a more knowledgeable borrower.</p>
<p>The loan origination fee pays for the costs of originating the mortgage. Costs covered under the loan origination fee include:</p>
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<p>The loan origination fee is simply a cost meant to pay for the research your lender has done on you as a borrower.Theloan origination feeis usually about 1 percent of the totalhome loan, but that can change depending on a number of factors.</p>
<p>To find out what your loan origination fee will be and how it will affect your total cost, check your good faith estimate. A GFE will give you a total loan estimate, broken down into estimates of individual costs.Mortgage lenders are required to give you a GFE within three business days of receiving your <a href="https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/apply-personal-loan-cosigner/" type="external">application for a loan Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>A GFE is a useful tool for determining how the loan origination fee will affect your total loan cost. And your GFE will always provide an accurate estimate of the fee it's one of the costs that must remain the same price that was disclosed in the estimate.</p>
<p>The average loan origination fee can vary based upon the value of the house. Generally the loan origination fee is calculated as a percent of the total mortgage loan. So regardless of the amount of work put in by the mortgage broker, higher-value mortgage loans will typically have a higher loan origination fee than lower-value mortgage loans. That being said, the average loan origination fee should be about 1 percent of the total mortgage loan, whatever that loan might be.</p>
<p>The loan origination fee is not set in stone. It's possible to negotiate the fee to a lower amount. If you have a good credit rating, then you should be able to negotiate with the lender and get the price lowered.You also could ask for a flat-rate loan-processing fee.</p>
<p>One possible way to avoid loan origination fees entirely is to request that the seller of the house pay the fee. If he is in a hurry to move, or wants to put the selling process behind him as quickly as possible, the seller might be willing to comply and pay the fee out of his own pocket.</p>
<p>Depending on the terms of the mortgage, it is possible to use your loan origination fee as a tax deduction. If the fee is deductible, it can be deducted either the year the loan was first taken out or each year over the course of the loan.</p>
<p>Before you start to discuss loan origination fees with your mortgage lender, you need to know a fewbasicsabout these fees. The first thing you should be aware of is that, like other closing costs, loan origination <a href="https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/31-worst-fees-america/" type="external">fees must be paid Opens a New Window.</a>in full at the same time as the down payment. It's usually not a tremendous cost, but this is definitely something tokeep in mind when you talkto your lender.</p>
<p>You should also be aware that the origination fee isn't necessarily a static cost; different lenders might have different fees. If the first lender you talk to demands an origination fee that you feel istoo high, you might want to consider talking to another lender.</p>
<p>Finally, you shouldknowyour credit score and the clout itcancarry. A good credit score canhelp youget a lower origination fee, and an excellentcredit score can be an even better bargaining tool in your negotiations.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.gobankingrates.com/mortgage-rates/loan-origination-fee/" type="external">gobankingrates.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | What Is a Loan Origination Fee? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/22/what-is-loan-origination-fee.html | 2016-08-22 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />The US Supreme Court denied the stay of execution for Troy Davis. He is expected to be executed by 11:00 pm ET.</p>
<p>From Earlier This Evening:</p>
<p>Minutes before his scheduled execution, the US Supreme Court has granted a temporary reprieve to Troy Davisz, a Georgia man who has been convicted of killing a police officer, Mark MacPhail.</p>
<p>Davis was convicted in 1989 and has had four stays of execution. Seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis have since recanted their statements.</p>
<p>Davis’ scheduled execution has been widely covered and protested through social networking groups and by groups such as Amnesty International. Jimmy Carterz, the Pope and a former FBI director have added their support.</p>
<p />
<p>From The Guardian:</p>
<p>Hundreds of people gathered outside the prison, many wearing T-shirts that said: “I am Troy Davis”. The activist Al Sharptonz said: “What is facing execution tonight is not just the body of Troy Davis, but the spirit of due justice in the state of Georgia.”</p>
<p>Larry Coz, the executive director of Amnesty in the US, which has led the international campaign for clemency, said demonstrations were happening outside US embassies in France, Mali, Hong Kong, Peru, Germany and the UK.</p>
<p>“We will not stop fighting until we live in a world where no state thinks it can kill innocent people.”</p>
<p>This is not an official reprieve or a stay of execution. Five of the nine Supreme Court justices must agree that there is reason to stay the execution.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Breaking News: Stay Of Execution Denied For Troy Davis | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2011/09/21/breaking-news-stay-of-execution-denied-for-troy-davis/ | 2011-09-21 | 4 |
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<p>Despite the ongoing drug-pricing debate that may result in a tectonic shift to a value-based purchasing scheme (vs. unit-based pricing), the pharmaceutical industry as a whole remains on a solid long-term growth trajectory.</p>
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<p>Valuations across the space are poised to continue their steady march higher, after all, as a result of the ever-growing global population that's driving a surge in demand for healthcare services across the board.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Furthermore, several key emerging markets like China are rapidly bridging the gap with their Western counterparts in terms of access to healthcare in general, and cutting-edge prescription medicines in particular. So, if anything, profit margins in many ex-U.S. territories should slowly but surely improve moving forward.</p>
<p>And last but certainly not least, the industry's ongoing innovation boom is arguably still in its infancy, with researchers only starting to scratch the surface of the awe-inspiring power of genomics.</p>
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<p>The point is that investors certainly shouldn't shy away from this high-growth industry due to the increasingly harsh politics surrounding prescription drug prices. In fact, investors might want to consider snapping up shares of the big pharma stock Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) right nowand holding onto them for at least the next decade.</p>
<p>One of the most important and arguably underappreciated factors that's likely going to distinguish the winners from the losers in pharma moving forward is financial flexibility.</p>
<p>The harsh reality is that the loss of market exclusivity for numerous top-selling drugs has forced a fair number of pharma companies to grossly overpay for revenue-generating peers or intriguing experimental-stage drug candidates in the past few years.</p>
<p>The net result is that the industry's average amount of leverage has ballooned to unsightly levels. The average debt-to-equity ratio among major drug manufacturers, for instance, currently stands at 113% -- indicating that most companies have highly leveraged balance sheets that may negatively impact their ability to manage their debt or modify their capital allocation strategies in accordance with prevailing market conditions.</p>
<p>And that's where Pfizer has a distinct advantage over many of its big pharma brethren.</p>
<p>Although Pfizer's debt-to-equity ratio for the most recent quarter isn't stellar at 71% due to its recent spate of acquisitions that include Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, and Medivation, the company did wrap up2016 with a noteworthy $18 billion in cash and short-term equivalents.</p>
<p>Even more impressively, Pfizer reported a whopping $86 billion in unremitted foreign earnings that could come into play if Trump's proposed corporate tax plan becomes reality, or if lawmakers finally agree on a one-time tax holiday to incentivize U.S. companies to start repatriating the more than $2 trillion in cash that's currently parked overseas.</p>
<p>The take-home point is that Pfizer has an absolute mountain of cash and comparatively less leverage than its peers, meaning that it can take advantage of compelling M&amp;A opportunities as they arise, or ratchet up its shareholder rewards program, depending on market conditions. And that's critical in an increasingly uncertain environment where political pressure is already starting to lead to noticeable changes in standard pricing practices across the industry.</p>
<p>Despite its ongoing battle with the patent cliff, Pfizer still managed to produce an impressive 8% increase in total revenues in 2016, hauling in a monstrous $52.8 billion last year. On an operational basis, the company's top line did even better, with an 11% increase for the year, and that's including a 3% unfavorable impact from foreign exchange rates during the year.</p>
<p>Peeling back the multilayer onion of Pfizer's diverse revenue stream, the company's solid uptick in sales last year stemmed primarily from its new breast cancer drug Ibrance. Specifically, this single drug racked up $2.1 billion in sales in 2016, helping to offset the steady sales declines of former top-sellers like Lipitor and the disappointing downturn in its pneumococcal meningitis vaccine franchise.</p>
<p>While Ibrance will now face a more competitive landscape following the recent approval of Novartis' competing breast cancer drugKisqali, this key growth driver probably won't experience much, if any, of a drop off in its commercial trajectory moving forward. Ibrance, after all, has a safer profile than Kisqali, along with a two-year head start.</p>
<p>In short, Ibrance is deeply embedded in the market at this stage, and Novartis' drug doesn't appear to have the necessary ingredients to displace it. Wall Street, after all, has Ibrance's 2017 sales pegged at around $3.3 billion, despite Kisqali's approval.</p>
<p>That's key because Pfizer's megablockbuster pain medicine Lyrica -- which has helped shore up the company's top line since Lipitor's patent expiration -- is set to face generic competition in the U.S. in early 2019, and its Prevnar franchise may have already hit its high-water mark from a commercial standpoint.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Ibrance is a legitimate franchise-level cancer drug that has the ability to ease the transition from Pfizer's aging product line to its next generation of medicines.</p>
<p>After its acquisition of Medivation, Pfizer also sports the advanced prostate cancer drug Xtandi, solidifying its growing footprint in the high-value oncology drug market. So the next potential domino to fall into place is its immuno-oncology drug candidate avelumab, which Pfizer co-owns withMerck KGaA.</p>
<p>Image Source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>The two companies recently filed for avelumab's approval for bothMerkel cell carcinoma andmetastatic urothelial carcinoma in the United States. So, this key immuno-oncology drug candidate could be on the market for two different indications before year's end.</p>
<p>While these first two indications present fairly modest commercial opportunities (around $600 million at peak), avelumab does have the potential to eventually generate peak sales in excess of $4 billion based on its broader development program with the ultimate goal of establishing the drug as a backbone therapy across a diverse range of malignancies.</p>
<p>The takeaway here is that Pfizer now has a realistic shot at owning at least a part (Xtandi is also co-owned with Astellas Pharma) of three major cancer drugs (Ibrance, Xtandi, and avelumab) early in their commercial life cycles in the not-so-distant future.</p>
<p>Apart from avelumab, Pfizer is also developing a host of additional checkpoint inhibitors/modulators targeting other therapeutic receptors such as 4-1BB and OX-40, and it's even got stake in the chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, or CAR-T, race through its partnership with Cellectis andServier. So, Pfizer does have the clinical assets in place to become a major force in the next legs of the immuno-oncology race: combination therapies and genetically modified cell therapies.</p>
<p>Turning to the big picture, Pfizer's core area of expertise is shifting more and more toward oncology, and that's great news for investors. Besides being one of the fastest-growing drug markets, oncology products have proven to be largely immune to the drug-pricing controversy, and newer medicines like Ibrance will likely fare exceptionally well under avalue-based purchasing scheme because of its strong clinical benefits to breast cancer patients.</p>
<p>Pfizer's unusually strong cash position and reasonable debt levels also mean that the company can be flexible in terms of its capital allocation strategy. Some of the company's peers, by contrast, have painted themselves into a corner financially by paying sky-high premiums for new sources of revenue.</p>
<p>In all, Pfizer is starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together to boldly move into the next phase of its life cycle, and it's done so without wrecking havoc on its balance sheet. And that's why Pfizer should definitely be on your radar if you're looking for a big pharma stock to add to your portfolio this year.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than PfizerWhen 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=bdff8531-322e-4d9f-ad2c-d018a916eaf3&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 Pfizer 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=bdff8531-322e-4d9f-ad2c-d018a916eaf3&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/gbudwell/info.aspx" type="external">George Budwell Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Pfizer. 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> | 1 Top Stock in Big Pharma | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/25/1-top-stock-in-big-pharma.html | 2017-03-25 | 0 |
<p>Bayer AG (BAYN.XE) said on Friday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS, has no national security concerns related to the German company's planned takeover of Monsanto Co. (MON).</p>
<p>The companies will continue to cooperate with regulatory authorities to complete the transaction in early 2018, Bayer said.</p>
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<p>CFIUS is a committee led by the U.S. Treasury that screens proposed foreign investments for national security concerns. It also includes representatives from the defense, state, justice and commerce departments.</p>
<p>Write to Sarah Sloat at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>December 01, 2017 02:49 ET (07:49 GMT)</p> | Bayer Gets CFIUS Clearance for Monsanto Deal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/12/01/bayer-gets-cfius-clearance-for-monsanto-deal.html | 2017-12-01 | 0 |
<p>Publicis, Pernod lead advance on CAC after earnings releases</p>
<p>French stocks rose Thursday, performing better than broader European equities, as gains for Publicis Groupe SA and Pernod Ricard SA helped relieve pressure from concerns over the outcome of Sunday's presidential election vote.</p>
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<p>In Paris, the CAC 40 moved up 0.5% to 5,029.68. That was better than the Stoxx Europe 600 , which trudged up 0.1% and has been slipping between small gains and losses. The pan-European index was held back by losses in the commodity sector, but consumer goods and financial shares were rising.</p>
<p>Investors were sifting through a new batch of earnings reports Thursday. Publicis (PUB.FR) was among the top share-price performers on the back of its financial results. Shares popped up 2.4%, on track for their best session since December, after the advertising heavyweight posted a smaller-than-expected decline in first-quarter sales (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/publicis-dragged-down-by-loss-of-us-accounts-2017-04-20-14854420).</p>
<p>At the same time, shares of French spirits group Pernod Ricard (RI.FR) climbed 1.6%. The producer of Absolut vodka and Martell cognac posted a 1% rise in third-quarter underlying sales.</p>
<p>A win for the CAC 40 on Thursday would be its second in a row, coming after five straight sessions of losses.</p>
<p>French stocks have been under pressure on worries about the outcome of Sunday's first round of voting in the country's presidential election. Recent polling suggests a tight contest between the four main candidates, raising worries that the final two contenders going through to the second round of voting could be two euroskeptics: far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"[With] four candidates polling around 20%, there is every reason for caution," said Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, in a note.</p>
<p>"We're looking at contingency plans in the event of a Le Pen-Melenchon runoff as this would spark a big selloff in the euro and French government bonds, as well as bank stocks," he wrote.</p>
<p>Read: Here's how France's hotly contested election could spark market turmoil (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-frances-hotly-contested-election-could-spark-market-turmoil-2017-04-19)</p>
<p>Stock movers: ABB Ltd. (ABBN.EB) added 1.8% after the Swiss-based engineering and power grid company said net income rose on divestment of the company's high-voltage cable business. However, its first-quarter revenue fell slightly to $7.85 billion from a year ago.</p>
<p>Unilever (ULVR.LN) (ULVR.LN) shares picked up 1.1% after the consumer-product giant reported a rise in underlying sales for the first quarter (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilever-sales-rise-but-lag-in-europe-us-2017-04-20).</p>
<p>Nestlé SA] (NESN.EB) said first-quarter revenue was largely flat from a year earlier, but shares traded higher by 0.6%</p>
<p>Indexes: In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 was down fractionally at 12,011.12, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% to 7,102.43.</p>
<p>Read:Why the snap U.K. election is a 'game-changer' for the pound (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-the-pound-surged-to-10-week-high-after-may-called-snap-uk-election-2017-04-18)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 20, 2017 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)</p> | EUROPE MARKETS: French Stocks Rise Ahead Of European Peers Despite Election Worries | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/20/europe-markets-french-stocks-rise-ahead-european-peers-despite-election-worries.html | 2017-04-20 | 0 |
<p>Jan. 25 (UPI) — The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Mets/" type="external">New York Mets</a> are in agreement with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Reyes/" type="external">Jose Reyes</a> on a one-year contract, according to sources.</p>
<p>The Athletic first reported the deal. Reyes is returning to fill a utility role, <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/956641004509155328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barstoolsports.com%2Fnewyork%2Fmets-bring-back-jose-reyes-on-1-year-deal-as-a-utility-player-until-he-inevitably-becomes-the-everyday-2nd-baseman" type="external">according to the report</a>. Reyes agreed on a one-year contract worth around $3 million, <a href="https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/956642765676433408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barstoolsports.com%2Fnewyork%2Fmets-bring-back-jose-reyes-on-1-year-deal-as-a-utility-player-until-he-inevitably-becomes-the-everyday-2nd-baseman" type="external">according to the New York Post</a>.</p>
<p>Reyes’ deal is pending a physical. The 34-year-old infielder had 15 home runs and 58 RBI in 145 games last season for the Mets. Reyes is entering his 16th season in Major League Baseball.</p>
<p>The four-time All-Star and 2011 batting champion hit .246 last season. The Mets signed Reyes to a minor league contract in June after he was released by the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Colorado-Rockies/" type="external">Colorado Rockies</a>. Reyes was suspended for 51 games in 2016 for violating the league’s joint domestic violence policy.</p>
<p>In September, Reyes told the Record that he was willing to take a discount to return to the Mets.</p>
<p>“I already made my money,” <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/mlb/mets/2017/09/28/reyes-wants-finish-career-mets-but-team-could-make-changes/713202001/" type="external">Reyes told the Record</a>. “At this point, for me, I don’t think it’s about that. It’s where I’m going to be comfortable and stuff. This is home, this is where I live, this is where my family is at. I already made my money. I feel like this team has a good opportunity next year, if everybody stays healthy, to win. I want to come back.”</p>
<p>Reyes posted a workout video on Thursday with an inspirational message.</p>
<p>“It takes courage to decide to be the best you can be and even after you make this courageous decision it takes effort, on top of effort, on top of effort,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BeY1bFTlgTl/?hl=en&amp;taken-by=lamelaza_7" type="external">he wrote on his Instagram account</a>. “Are you really up for the challenge? If you are going to prove it, not to the world but to the man in the mirror. One step forward is one step closer to the goal.”</p> | New York Mets bringing back SS Jose Reyes | false | https://newsline.com/new-york-mets-bringing-back-ss-jose-reyes/ | 2018-01-26 | 1 |
<p />
<p>I have never been a big fan of <a href="http://moveon.org/" type="external">MoveOn.org</a> because I was quite opposed to the concept of moving on after the tainted 2000 election took place. It seemed to me that glossing over that incident and moving on was not what was needed. Now MoveOn has confirmed my worst suspicions by its recent decision to <a href="http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/20411" type="external">omit Rep. Barbara Lee’s Iraq war amendment from its members’ push poll</a>.</p>
<p>In opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan, Rep. Lee wanted to offer an amendment that would have funded withdrawal of troops, but she was not permitted to. But Lee has a lot of support, including: United for Peace and Justice, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. Labor Against the War, After Downing Street, Democrats.com, Peace Action, Code Pink, Democracy Rising, True Majority, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Backbone Campaign, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Voters for Peace, Veterans for Peace, the Green Party, True Majority, and many individuals.</p>
<p>MoveOn polled its members by giving them a choice of the Pelosi plan or nothing at all–no mention of Lee’s plan. Eli Pariser of MoveOn says that the would-be Lee amendment was omitted from the poll because he knew a majority of MoveOn members would vote for it, and the amendment did not stand a chance in Congress.</p>
<p>Says David Swanson (AfterDowningStreet.org) of the poll: “It served to give cover to progressive Democrats in Congress who gave their support to Pelosi after having intended to vote no on Pelosi’s bill unless it included Lee’s amendment.” Perhaps “progressive” is the wrong word.</p>
<p>Thanks to Avedon Carol at <a href="http://sideshow.me.uk/sapr07.htm#04031625" type="external">The Sideshow</a>.</p>
<p /> | Move On To A Safe Place | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/04/move-safe-place/ | 2007-04-04 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />America is a country of over three hundred million people. As of today the <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" type="external">official unemployment rate is 7.6%</a>. The real unemployment rate depending on who one reads is much higher, anywhere from <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-07/real-unemployment-rate-113" type="external">11%</a> to <a href="http://investmentwatchblog.com/real-unemployment-rate-11-3-nope-29/" type="external">29%</a>.</p>
<p>Giving the above information one must ask why is it that corporations are pushing the government to add special provisions to the immigration reform bill to allow special treatment for highly skilled workers (H1-B visas). Why not retrain and tap the thousands of engineers and other workers in the unemployment pool.</p>
<p>One should find The New York Times article “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/technology/a-bill-allowing-more-foreign-workers-stirs-a-tech-debate.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">A Bill Allowing More Foreign Workers Stirs a Tech Debate</a>” very problematic as while it gives numbers to justify a carve out in immigration reform for highly skilled workers, it does not move the debate to hold policies by the politicians accountable going forward.</p>
<p>The core of the article is stated below.</p>
<p>Silicon Valley companies, warning of an acute labor shortage, say it is too costly to retrain older workers like Mr. Doernberg, and that the country is not producing enough younger Americans with the precise skills the industry needs. Their arguments have persuaded a majority of senators to give them what they want: a provision in the immigration bill to let in many more foreign professionals.</p>
<p>But Americans like Mr. Doernberg and the powerful labor lobby say that what the tech industry really wants is to depress wages and bring in more pliant, less costly temporary workers from overseas. If there is such a talent shortage, they ask, why are wages for most engineers not rising faster? Labor groups have pushed for a requirement to offer jobs to equally qualified Americans before hiring foreigners, a provision that the industry has fiercely resisted.</p>
<p>The pitched arguments of both sides, which are likely to resurface in the House when it takes up its version of an immigration overhaul, cloud a complicated reality. There is little empirical evidence to suggest that foreign engineers displace American engineers as a whole. If anything, one recent study suggests, the growth of immigrant workers in American companies helps younger American technical workers — more of them are hired and at higher-paying jobs — but has no noticeable consequences, good or bad, on older workers. [ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/technology/a-bill-allowing-more-foreign-workers-stirs-a-tech-debate.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">source</a>]</p>
<p>Within those three paragraphs is the encapsulation of US purposeful failed policy as US corporations have used Global Capitalism to commoditize the American worker. These are statements that give the current economic condition and the request by these corporations plausibility. It is the request for Americans to forego simple mathematical facts by referring to corporate skewed ‘empirical evidence’.</p>
<p>Corporations always attempt to use dubious market arguments when bribing politicians to write certain types of policies and simply disregard realities of said policies. If one believes in the market, it should be true that a shortage of skilled workers would raise their wages/value high enough to induce people to enter those fields. The reality is that these highly skilled workers’ wages are not going through the roof or increasing that much.</p>
<p>The corporatists want their cake even after they eat it. How so? It is true that America is not producing enough highly skilled workers. It is also true that America as a whole has a failed education policy. The war industrial complex is always funded because America maintains an imagined sense of being at war. The prison industrial complex is always funded (America spends more per prisoner than per student). Yet, while it is acknowledged that there is a shortage of skilled workers, education budgets for Head Start, primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges, and Universities are cut by both the state governments and federal governments under the <a href="" type="internal">false premise that raising taxes on the corporations and wealthy would further damage the economy</a> that is in a depression for many.</p>
<p>The above mentioned article should not have been simply a statement of facts, empirical evidence, and skewed facts. That does no justice to the American reader. They deserve more. There needs to be an excoriation of the policies that are put in place by corporate purchased politicians that represent this Plutocracy. It can be summarize in one paragraph.</p>
<p>Corporations have decided that profits for their few shareholders are more important than keeping a high standard of living for Americans who are willing to work for that higher standard. They have created a false narrative that higher taxes depress an economy and bribed politicians to cut or keep taxes low at the expense of educating its citizenry and providing social services dictated by the creation of any humane society. When the foreseeable results of their actions create a shortage of skilled workers, they willfully forget their market force tenet of supply and demand that would ultimately cause higher wages to attract more American workers in those fields. Instead, they bribe politicians to use the resources of other countries to bring these foreign skilled workers into America at a discount.</p>
<p>Every American should be for easy and fair immigration to America. The history of the United States dictates that its immigration policy should be as lenient as possible lest it has not atoned for its original occupation of these lands. There should not be any special carve outs for skilled workers. America must train Americans (native born and immigrants) for the American workforce. Corporations must pay for the vast American military, stability, security, and loyal workforce that allowed their existence. Americans must disregard the rhetoric of fear from these corporations who threaten job loss based on policy. They really have nowhere more secure to go. After all, without America they do not exist.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> LIKE My <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/EgbertoWilliescom/181893712536" type="external">Facebook Page</a> – Visit My Blog: <a href="http://www.EgbertoWillies.com" type="external">EgbertoWillies.com</a></p> | Corporations Game Immigration Reform To Depress US Wages | true | http://egbertowillies.com/2013/06/28/yes-to-immigration-reform-no-to-corporatized-immigration-policy/?fb_source%3Dpubv1 | 2013-06-28 | 4 |
<p>After an officer was cleared of criminal charges for shooting unarmed motorist Terrence Sterling, investigators determined that he did not follow protocol and should be fired. The decision could affect a pending lawsuit against Washington, DC.</p>
<p>A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Internal Review Board found that Officer Brian Trainer, 27, was “unjustified” when he shot Sterling last September, Police Chief Peter Newsham told <a href="http://www.fox5dc.com/news/newsham-use-of-force-review-board-determines-terrence-sterling-shooting-unjustified" type="external">Fox News</a> Tuesday.</p>
<p>The MPD Use of Force Review Board determined that Trainer violated department rules and recommended that he should be terminated from the force. The board’s investigation does not determine if Trainer should be held criminally responsible.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/402956-vigils-terrence-sterling-police/" type="external" /></p>
<p>On September 11, 2016, Terrence Sterling, an H-VAC technician from Fort Washington, Maryland, was reported to be “driving recklessly,” when two officers attempted to pull him over, according to a <a href="https://mpdc.dc.gov/release/officer-involved-shooting-corner-3rd-street-and-m-street-northwest" type="external">police report</a>.</p>
<p>After the rider got away, another officer saw a motorcycle matching his description. When the officer exited his vehicle to stop the rider, the MPD claims that Sterling “intentionally drove into the passenger door.” Trainer then fired his weapon several times, striking Sterling once in the neck and a second time in the back.</p>
<p>Controversy surrounded the case, as there was no video evidence to corroborate Trainer’s account since he did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting.</p>
<p>The bodycam footage released by police shows Trainer and his partner giving CPR to Sterling, who was bleeding out on the street.</p>
<p>“Keep breathing! Look at me!” Trainer can be heard saying repeatedly while trying to give Sterling CPR. Sterling was later transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Neither officer was charged in the incident.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>In August, federal investigators cleared Trainer of all criminal charges after the US Attorney’s Office for DC said there was not enough evidence to show he was using more force than was necessary or acting in self-defense.</p>
<p>After prosecutors announced their decision not to file criminal charges, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser <a href="https://mayor.dc.gov/release/statement-mayor-bowser-announcement-united-states-attorney%E2%80%99s-office" type="external">called</a> for the officer’s resignation.</p>
<p>Four days after Sterling’s death, Bowser implemented a department-wide procedure, requiring officers to contact dispatch and confirm that their cameras were recording whenever they responded to a call.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/407346-police-body-cameras-effect-study/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Sterling’s family filed a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and the MPD in December, arguing that Sterling did not pose a threat to the officer.</p>
<p>The Sterling family’s attorney, Jason Downs, thanked the review board for their decision, but questioned whether the decision would impact the lawsuit against the city.</p>
<p>“The Use of Force Review Board’s finding is in line with what we have said from the beginning of this case – Brian Trainer unlawfully executed Terrence Sterling and this shooting was completely unjustified,” Downs said according to <a href="http://wjla.com/news/local/dc-police-officer-who-shot-terrance-sterling-wasnt-following-protocol-should-be-fired" type="external">WJLA</a>. “The next question is whether the District of Columbia will continue to incredulously claim, in a court of law, that this shooting was justified.”</p>
<p>The District’s Attorney General, Karl Racine, did not answer whether the city would agree with the board’s decision, which could impact the civil lawsuit Sterling’s family filed.</p>
<p>“In cases that involve alleged police misconduct, we work very hard to filter-out those cases where there has been some wrong-doing from others where, you know, frankly, the facts are in dispute,” Racine said, according to <a href="http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/dc/officer-broke-policy-in-terrence-sterling-fatal-shooting/496940740" type="external">WUSA</a>. “It’s the cases where the facts are very much in dispute that eventually end up getting litigated, probably though out-of-court process… I think a result that’s fair for the family and fair for the District is out there to be had.”</p>
<p>Trainer has 55 business days to accept the board’s decision or challenge it by requesting a hearing. Sources told Fox News that Trainer intends to go through with the hearing process.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | DC officer who shot Terrence Sterling was ‘unjustified’ – internal review | false | https://newsline.com/dc-officer-who-shot-terrence-sterling-was-unjustified-internal-review/ | 2017-12-05 | 1 |
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<p>LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Chris Weidman put a sudden, dramatic halt to Anderson Silva’s theatrics and near seven-year Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight title reign Saturday, knocking out Silva in the second round.</p>
<p>Weidman (10-0) belted Silva with a hard left-handed punch that left Silva nearly unconscious on his feet, then followed it with another left that sent Silva to the canvas.</p>
<p>Silva (33-5) was prone on the MGM Grand Garden Arena mat as Weidman swarmed and finished him off with a big right hand and a final left before referee Herb Dean stopped the bout 1:18 into the second.</p>
<p>After escaping Weidman’s takedown and extended grasp and punishment in the first round, Silva started taunting and clowning with Weidman.</p>
<p>Silva smirked at Weidman’s charges. Put his hands on his arms in dodging a punch. Kicked and hit Weidman and retreated while talking trash.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But he left himself open in the defining moment of the second and surrendered the belt he’s owned since October 2006.</p>
<p>In undercard action, two Albuquerque-trained fighters from the Jackson-Winkeljohn’s MMA gym won their fights.</p>
<p>Featherweight Cub Swanson earned a third round TKO (punches) over Dennis Siver to improve to 20-5, including winning his past five fights.</p>
<p>Tim Kennedy won a unanimous decision in his middleweight fight with Roger Gracie of Brazil. Kennedy improves to 16-4.</p>
<p /> | Weidman stuns, TKOs Silva | false | https://abqjournal.com/239946/weidman-stuns-tkos-silva.html | 2 |
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<p>Nov. 16 (UPI) — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/LeBron_James/" type="external">LeBron James</a> has ‘super human powers’ and they will eventually fade, according to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Golden-State-Warriors/" type="external">Golden State Warriors</a> star <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Draymond_Green/" type="external">Draymond Green</a>.</p>
<p>“Yeah, he’s super human but eventually his super human powers go away, so that would be more of my concern if I’m a Cavs fan or somebody with the Cavs or a player, is like ‘Man, he’s been playing a lot of 40-minute [nights] and it’s only Nov. 12.’ But I wouldn’t be pressing the panic button just yet,” <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/warriors/2017/11/15/draymond-green-warriors-really-dominant-lebron-james-cavs/865882001/" type="external">Green recently told USA Today</a>.</p>
<p>“At the end of the day, they know how to win. They’ve got a guy who knows how to win, so I wouldn’t necessarily press the panic button. I would see certain things and I would panic about those certain things, just because … I don’t think nobody should be playing 40 minutes a game in November.”</p>
<p>James has logged more than 40 minutes in six of his last 14 games for the Cavaliers. The 32-year-old led the league with 37.8 minutes per game in 2016. He is leading the pack again this season, logging 38.1 minutes per bout.</p>
<p>James has played more than 50,000 minutes during his NBA career, including the post season. The 15-year NBA veteran is posting 28.3 points, 8.7 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game this season. By comparison, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dwyane_Wade/" type="external">Dwyane Wade</a> still hasn’t played 40,000 minutes in the league and he entered the NBA at the same time as James, via the 2003 NBA Draft.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/King_James/" type="external">King James</a> admitted that Green was right about his minutes, when speaking with reporters on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Draymond’s right,” <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2017/11/lebron_james_agrees_with_draym.html" type="external">James told Cleveland.com</a>. “We want to get those minutes down for sure. But as of right now, we’ve had two point guards out and we’ve had some different lineup changes, so, I’ve had to play more minutes than I would like, and more minutes than my teammates would like me to have.”</p>
<p>James and the Cavaliers face the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Los-Angeles-Clippers/" type="external">Los Angeles Clippers</a> at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.</p> | Draymond Green predicts LeBron James will lose super powers | false | https://newsline.com/draymond-green-predicts-lebron-james-will-lose-super-powers/ | 2017-11-16 | 1 |
<p>(Screenshot via Twitter.)</p>
<p>Keith Hernandez stunned some viewers when he made what sounded like a homophobic joke on FOX’s World Series pre-game show on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>“I know you want the Dodgers to win this series,” David Ortiz begins to tease Hernandez as they analyze the upcoming game.</p>
<p>How ’bout if [Yasiel] Puig shows up right now and be like, ‘Hey Keith, let me give you one of this,’” Ortiz says and begins to mimic&#160;Dodgers’ right-fielder Puig’s bat-licking.</p>
<p>Hernandez laughs before saying, “I’m not from San Francisco, bro.”</p>
<p>The comment was taken to be an insensitive&#160;jab to the LGBT community in San Francisco. However, Hernandez released a statement to the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/keith-hernandez-homophobic-joke-pregame-show-article-1.3605185" type="external">New York Daily News</a> to clarify that he said: “I’m from San Francisco.”</p>
<p>“I made a poor attempt at humor and never intended for it to be taken the wrong way,” Hernandez says. “I am from San Francisco and as baseball fans know, the Dodgers/Giants rivalry runs deep. I did not grow up a Dodger fan and when it came down to Giants vs. Dodgers, I rooted for the Giants. I apologize if any offense was taken.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">David Ortiz</a> <a href="" type="internal">Keith Hernandez</a> <a href="" type="internal">New York Daily News</a> <a href="" type="internal">World Series</a></p> | Keith Hernandez apologizes for joke taken as homophobic at World Series | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/11/02/keith-hernandez-apologizes-joke-taken-homophobic-world-series/ | 3 |
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<p><a href="//videos/37/64447" type="external" /></p>
<p>RUSH: On Fox America’s Newsroom today, Bill Hemmer interviewed the chairman of Gallup, the CEO, Jim Clifton. He wrote an op-ed a couple of days ago, and for many of you in this audience it wasn’t news. He had simply just discovered the difference in the U-3 and the U-6 unemployment designations, and he had just discovered that the 5.7% unemployment rate did not get anywhere near presenting the accurate picture of unemployment in America.</p>
<p>He discovered there was something called U-6.</p>
<p>Really!</p>
<p>The CEO of Gallup figured out that there’s a whole lot of people that are not working and have given up working who are not counted as unemployed, and he couldn’t believe that. So he wrote a piece about how we’re being lied to, that the unemployment picture in this country is far worse, and he didn’t understand why the news media isn’t digging deeper to tell the story. <a href="" type="internal">So he wrote the op-ed</a>. Well, now he’s digging even deeper. He’s doubling down on all of this with even more data and stats that he has learned.</p>
<p>Bill Hemmer said to Jim Clifton, “Tell me about the big lie,” which is what he wrote in his op-ed, how he titled it. “What is the big lie, Jim?”</p>
<p>CLIFTON: If I could do it over again, Bill, I might call it “very misleading.” But the point is that number is getting so messy, it might be the most important metric in the United States of America and the world, how many people are working. It mixes part-time and full-time. And of course, what everybody wants, the great American dream is to have a good job, not a crappy job.</p>
<p>RUSH: Right, that’s true, everybody wants… Not just jobs. People want careers. You want a job that is part of a career. People choose careers, objectives in a career. They want to become something. Some people don’t. They just want a job to do something; that’s fine. But his point here is that inclusive in the definition of the American dream is a good job. Whenever you want one, it’s there. It’s the promise of America. You want to work? There’s a golden opportunity.</p>
<p>You want to set the world on fire, you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to whatever? There’s an opportunity for this in this country. And that’s where he’s going. The opportunity isn’t there. It clearly isn’t there anymore. The number of people working full time is dwindling, the number of people working part time is rapidly increasing, and you don’t build careers working part time. Bill Hemmer then said, “Well, you write that the big lie,” and, by the way, he’s walking back that term. He’s now calling is “the big mislead.” But Hemmer said, “You write that the big lie has consequences. What are the consequences of this, Jim?”</p>
<p>CLIFTON: The number of full-time jobs — and that’s what everybody wants — as a percent of the total population is the lowest it’s ever been. That’s what that number doesn’t show. The more people that drop out, the better the number gets. We might add 250,000 jobs. What reporters — or what the administration or Wall Street — doesn’t ask next is, “Well, how many people dropped out?” Well, that number might be 500,000. It actually makes the unemployment number better when those people drop out.</p>
<p>HEMMER: Right.</p>
<p>CLIFTON: You’ll hear both Wall Street and the administration say that we’ve had more success with unemployment than we’ve had in 10 years. That’s just absolutely not true.</p>
<p>RUSH: Right. Now, I’m grateful for this — I am happy Jim Clifton has shown up — but, ladies and gentlemen, this is something you and I have been discussing on this program for practically five years, maybe even… Ah, five years. Obama’s starting his seventh year now, so five years we’ve been talking about the fraudulent reporting of unemployment. I remember into arguments with people.</p>
<p>I would say, “One of the ways to get the unemployment rate down, that percentage rate down, is to reduce the overall universe of jobs,” and that’s what’s happened. With the number of jobs that have been lost, that just simply don’t exist anymore — companies that have closed down, or companies have eliminated jobs — the opportunity to get jobs is way down. The number of jobs down is in the millions. Well, okay. If there are fewer jobs to have, then, by definition, the unemployment rate percentage is gonna drop.</p>
<p>And then if you further do not count all the people who’ve been out of work for four years or more and are now not looking for work, the unemployment rate’s gonna drop even more. That’s his point. The worse the news got in reality, the better the unemployment rate got. I remember… For those of you who have been lifers, been listening regularly here for the longest time, you know that every month when these numbers are released, we went through them.</p>
<p>We made exactly this point time and time again. I remember getting into arguments. I have friends in high finance who’d send me e-mails, “Rush, you’re not talking about this right! Just because you reduce the overall number of jobs it has nothing to do with the unemployment rate.” I would get mad and I’d write ’em back, “How can it not? The unemployment rate is an expression of how many jobs there are in the country, and how many people don’t have them.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />“Well, if the universe of jobs declines, if there are fewer jobs to have, well, then the people out of work percentage is gonna also fall, and it’s not gonna be representative of the truth.” Now, Mr. Clifton, I don’t know how or when, but he has arrived at this. He’s understood it. I’m happy as heck that he is now writing about it, going on TV and talking about it, because the more people who understand it, the better, because it’s necessary to put the lie to what Obama’s saying.</p>
<p>Obama’s out there touting this roaring economy now. He’s out there really highlighting this roaring recovery and this fast-growing economy, and saying, “We finally put it all back together!” It’s worse than ever. By the time you add Obamacare into this, and the number of people who are losing full-time jobs and being converted to part time and losing Obamacare or health care in the process or just giving up?</p>
<p>Folks, there’s no way the productivity of this country can in any way maintain what it’s been, particularly when the government comes in and takes over more and more chunks of the private sector or the free-market economy. When government grows, how can it grow? It has to gobble something. Government growing is the exact opposite of what we want when we talk about a strong American economy. The government is not part of that.</p>
<p>Government destroys wealth, government creates debt. Government doesn’t produce anything. The bigger government gets definition, the smaller the free market economy is getting. The free-market economy’s where we live. The free market economy is where our lifestyles are. The free market economy is where our standard of living is. The free market economy is where everybody’s opportunity is. The free market economy is the pie that everybody wants a piece of.</p>
<p>Now, normally in a growth economy with as little overregulation as possible and the government getting out of the way, that pie grows, and feeds off itself. The growth contributes to growth, and that’s how you create even more opportunity for an even greater number of people graduating from school every year and entering the workforce. But that cannot happen when somebody like Obama’s running the show because he’s eating up the free market economy.</p>
<p>He’s gobbling it up and swallowing it up and government’s getting bigger, and there’s no way your piece of the pie can get bigger, and there’s no way the pie itself can get bigger, and therefore there’s no way opportunity can expand. That’s another reason why we’re gonna have a wealth gap because in a shrinking pie, you know what else happens? The real cream of the crop are gonna take an even bigger piece of it.</p>
<p>The smartest among us, the hardest working among us, the most creative among us — the luckiest among us, in some cases — when the pie gets smaller, the rich don’t get dumber. When the pie gets smaller, the really creative, the entrepreneurs, don’t also get smaller and dumber. They stay the same size, and we’re creating more of those as they’re born. So the smaller the pie gets, the greater percentage of it’s gonna be gobbled up by the truly competent, the hardworking, the industrious.</p>
<p>I don’t mean this as an insult to anybody.</p>
<p>It’s just human nature.</p>
<p>The bigger the pie, the more that is gonna be left over for others who don’t want to work as hard, who don’t invest as much in themselves as others do, but that’s always been the great thing about America. That pie was always growing. That free market economy, that place where your security is, where your economic opportunity is, where your lifestyle is, where your standard of living is. That’s the US economy. As long as it’s growing, everybody’s got a shot at a bigger piece of pie.</p>
<p>If it’s shrinking, the pie is gonna be cut up in much different ways, and an increasing amount of that pie is gonna be taken by the, quote/unquote “wealthy,” and the gap is gonna get bigger. And then when the government gets bigger by printing money, and prints all that money and gives it the stock market, the wealth gap’s gonna expand even more. In the midst of all this, the Regime is coming along and talking about how great the economy is.</p>
<p>“It’s roaring and growing, and look at the unemployment! We’ve got better employment situation than we have in ten years!” It’s an out-and-out lie. We have 93 million Americans not working. That’s the labor force participation rate. It hasn’t been this high since World War II. It’s really bad out there, and this guy finally has shown up on the scene to write about it in his own way, and he will persuade others who didn’t know it, or are not aware of it.</p>
<p>One more sound bite. Bill Hemmer with a final question: “We hear this a lot from the colleagues over at Fox Business, and Stuart Varney has been talking about this for years now. It leads to the next question. That is: What are the political leaders doing that have a direct impact on this, Jim? What are they doing to correct this, if the middle class is being hollowed out?”</p>
<p>CLIFTON: New business startups is the lowest it’s been in like 20 years or ever. America’s not started businesses anymore. We need about 500,000 new businesses to start while 400,000 die. Four years ago, those lines crossed. So now we’re in very dangerous waters.</p>
<p>HEMMER: Right.</p>
<p>CLIFTON: But those full-time unemployment jobs will never come back until free enterprise and the spirit of entrepreneur kicks back in.</p>
<p>RUSH: So we used to be a net creator of businesses. We’d create 500,000 and 400,000 would fail, but still we’d have a 100,000 new ones. Now it’s the opposite. Create 500,000 and 600,000 are failing. All the new ones fail, and then the existing ones join them. That’s his point what’s happening now. The bottom line is, the Regime is lying through their teeth about this economy, and that does a disservice as well. Because it actually can lead to people not being as inspired. They think they’re gonna get swept up in it and it’s gonna take care of them by inertia or whatever.</p>
<p>It’s a mess, folks.</p> | The Gallup CEO Doubles Down | true | http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/02/05/the_gallup_ceo_doubles_down | 2015-02-05 | 0 |
<p />
<p>The success of new games is why Activision Blizzard looks like a best gaming company now. Image source: Activision Blizzard</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The gaming sector has been one of the best performing in the consumer-goods space so far in 2016, driven by new technology and an influx of new content that consumers are giving high ratings to. Content and online gaming stocks such as Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) are some of the obvious best gaming companies, though other companies benefiting from this sector -- companies such as Tencent's(NASDAQOTH: TCEHY)Riot Games, or chip companies such as NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) -- could all be set for more gains. Here are the best gaming stocks for betting on continued video-game growth.</p>
<p>Data source: Yahoo! Finance</p>
<p>Activision Blizzard has had a great year, and in the most recent quarter it handily beat expectations, witha 112% rise in sales and 315% rise in earnings per share year over year. This rise was due in part to a 13% increase in monthly active users.Activision is one of the top performers in the content-creation space of this market, largely because of its pipeline of new games that players are clearly loving, such as Overwatch, which was released in May and became an instant hit with, more than 7 million players in its first week after launch.</p>
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<p>Activision has also been incredibly successful with its switch to more in-game purchases and subscription content, which help revenue to stream in long after a title is purchased,making this one of the best online gaming stocks. On the mobile side, Activision bought King Digital, the maker of Candy Crush, in February and has been very successful in integrating this property to expand its mobile and digital presence. In the most recent quarter, digital sales rose to $1.4 billion, up 129% year over year.</p>
<p>Activision's largest competitor, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), has also produced some winning games as of late, such as its Star Wars Battlefront series, and has shown itself adept at making a play for the online gaming space as well. While EA's sales growth has been less impressive than Activision's -- up just 6% in the most recent quarter year over year -- it still looks as if it has plenty of potential to grow in this space, which is why analysts at Morgan Stanley said in September that both companies look like good bets. To make EA even more attractive, it also trades at nearly half the P/E of Activision.</p>
<p>Both Activision and EA are clamoring to make a name for themselves in China, where video-game sales are booming and there are an estimated 700 million mobile users. A good play on this market specifically could be local NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES). This Chinese internet gaming company also offers many online services, such as email and advertising, but it's a dominating force in the booming gaming space, offering online gaming packs. NetEase also partners with Activision Blizzard to distribute many of its games throughout China. Another Chinese player worth mentioning is Tencent, which acquired the popular Riot Games in 2015. Similar to King Digital, Riot Games has had some major mobile game hits, such as Blitzcrank's Poro Roundup, and is helping Tencent to build out its own niche in the Chinese (and worldwide) gaming market.</p>
<p>While much of the gaming focus has moved to mobile or computer desktop play, the original video-game system makers still have much to gain from the number of users of their equipment. However, new systems have proved to be only incrementally better in the most recent models, and it might prove wise to look at what new technology can really move the needle going forward. Virtual reality (VR) could be just that.</p>
<p>VR has gotten a lot of attention lately, as companies such as Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)invest in bringing the technology to the mass market. As VR headsets become cheaper and easier to acquire for average gamers, the companies producing this hardware could be set for big gains. Facebook is an interesting choice with its Oculus Rift, since the company also has such a large user base and a track record of online games on its platform performing very well. Of course, Facebook is such a mammoth company that even if its Oculus Rift is very successful, it may only slightly move the needle for Facebook's total sales.</p>
<p>Sony's Playstation VR could make it a best gaming stock in the future. Image source: Sony</p>
<p>Sony (NYSE: SNE), on the other hand, is much more dependent on its gaming segment, which now makes up more than 20% of its total revenue, and in the most recent quarter it was the fastest growing division, reporting sales up 14% year over year, compared with a 10% drop companywide. Sony's gaming segment growth is driven by the PlayStation gaming console and equipment, and this segment could make up much of Sony's growth in the years to come. Sony's recently launched VR system, which is used in conjunction with the popular PlayStation 4 console, is already getting great reviews ahead of the holiday season. To be fair, VR is still largely untested as to whether it will drive profits renewed for Sony, but so far the industry buzz looks positive.</p>
<p>The content being produced and the hardware it's played on creates a stunning overall experience for players -- but none of that would be possible without the incredibly powerful chips that power those graphics and the code the games run on. One of the best companies to bet on this portion of the gaming market is NVIDIA.</p>
<p>NVIDIA has been one of the pioneers in creating chips that can create the fast-moving and intricate visualizations in modern video games, powering games for nearly every major gaming company. NVIDIA also makes chips for the automotive industry's tech growth, and it will be an important voice in virtual reality and even artificial intelligence.NVIDIA stock has gained over 150% in the past 12 months, thanks to its incredible growth in sales and earnings, which were up 24% and 873%, respectively, in the most recent quarter year over year. NVIDIA is not cheap as a result, trading at a P/E of 47, but that price tag seems to be warranted, based on the company's ability to be the premium chipmaker not only for videogame growth but also for some of the most exciting tech growth of the decade.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2667&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/BSMcNew/info.aspx" type="external">Seth McNew Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Activision Blizzard, Facebook, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Electronic Arts and NetEase. 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> | 6 Best Gaming Stocks To Buy Now | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/27/6-best-gaming-stocks-to-buy-now.html | 2016-10-27 | 0 |
<p>Now that CPS board members have approved the closing of 50 elementary schools, 11 co-locations and five turnarounds, the district is about to undertake a massive effort to get displaced students to enroll in a new school before May 31.</p>
<p>CPS named “welcoming schools” for each of those that will close in the massive shakeup this fall. But in a district that offers an increasing number of school choices for parents, officials want to get a handle on just where students will end up on Aug. 26, the first day of school. In the past, only about half of displaced students attended the school CPS officials designated as welcoming.</p>
<p>About 46,000 students are affected by the actions approved at Wednesday’s raucous meeting, marking the biggest restructuring in the district’s history and the most schools ever closed at a single time in the nation. Weeks of protests by the Chicago Teachers Union, parents and community activists failed to sway the board or the district, beyond the last-minute decision to remove a handful of schools from the target list. Dozens of attendees were escorted out of board chambers for disrupting the meeting.</p>
<p>With these actions, the number of neighborhood elementary schools will fall to 344, down from nearly 400 a decade ago.</p>
<p>Getting a handle on where students will be in school this fall is of the upmost importance. School budgets are based on enrollment projections and, if fewer students show up than projected, the school will lose teachers. Conversely, if more students show up, classes can left without permanent teachers for weeks.</p>
<p>CPS officials appear to be waiting to get a handle on how enrollment will shake out under the school actions before giving schools their budgets, which are usually given to schools earlier in the spring.&#160;</p>
<p>Darlene Williams, who has two children and a niece and nephew at Paderewski, said she thinks that fewer than 15 percent of students from that school will go to the two designated welcoming schools. The receiving schools are mostly Latino, but Paderewski is mostly black and many of its students might end up at Crown, which is also predominantly African American.</p>
<p>With the votes cast, Brennemann Principal Sarah Abedelal said she and her staff will be at Stewart Elementary on Thursday afternoon handing out flyers to try to get students to enroll in her school. She is hoping that 170, or about 70 percent, of Stewart’s students enroll in Brennemann.</p>
<p>“If we don’t get the students, it will be a budget nightmare,” she said.</p>
<p>Abedelal said she didn’t want to do any overt selling of her school until after the votes were cast.</p>
<p>Some last-minute maneuvering did occur. &#160;Before the vote, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett recommended that board members vote no on four closures–Manierre, Mahalia Jackson, Garvey and Ericson–and one school, Barton from the turnaround list.&#160;</p>
<p>On the remaining 50 schools, only one vote was not unanimous, with board members Carlos Azcoitia and Jesse Ruiz opposing the closure of Von Humboldt.</p>
<p>Taking pains to explain their actions, board members said they made a point of having at least one member visit each targeted school. Board President David Vitale said he and other members walked past vacant lots, saw floors devoid of students and classrooms used as storage.</p>
<p>“We have tried to understand school by school what this would mean,” he said.</p>
<p>In the end, board members said they voted in favor of the closings because they believed the rationale, often repeated by the district, that closing under-used buildings would allow them to focus limited resources on a smaller number of schools. As part of the action, 17 of the welcoming schools will become speciality schools, offering International Baccalaureate, STEM–science, technology, engineering and math–or fine arts programs. The welcoming schools will also get extra resources such as iPads, as well as upgraded facilities–air conditioning, science labs and libraries. &#160;</p>
<p>Azcoitia said the extra resources were the reason he voted for the actions; otherwise he would have voted no.</p>
<p>“If resources are not abundant, then this is what we need to do,” he said.</p>
<p>Board member Henry Bienen said that people who question whether closing schools will save money don’t understand economics. District officials have lowered their initial savings estimates.</p>
<p>“There are short-term costs of relocation, but fairly immediately we will see savings in not heating schools, not turning on the lights,” he said.</p>
<p>Bryd -Bennett also took time to defend her position. She reiterated that CPS has lost significant enrollment over the past decade and that has left some schools without many students and “tens of thousands trapped in under-utilized schools and under-resourced schools,” sometimes in split-grade classes and without access to current technology.&#160;</p>
<p>She said the blame rests with CPS for not making hard decisions previously, “Like it or not, our schools do have to change,” she said.</p>
<p>As she talked, attendees disrupted the board meeting saying “Children will die because of CPS lies.”&#160;</p>
<p>A Chicago police officer told board members that the department looked at things like lights along the way, the condition of buildings and other issues. He said Chicago police see the closings as an opportunity to bring together communities that have not previously gotten along.</p>
<p>“They will learn and play together,” he said.</p>
<p>But at least 100 parents and activists came to the board meeting to let members know how much they disliked the proposals.</p>
<p>As Erika Clark recited the entire long list of schools proposed for closure and declared that they were “my school,” the microphone shut off, signaling that she had exhausted her two minutes of allotted speech time.</p>
<p>Clark then sat down near the podium and was carried out by white-coated CPS security men. Clark staged one of several actions at the meeting and was one of the dozens of people forcefully removed while chanting or yelling. &#160;</p>
<p>The meeting started with a parade of aldermen asking board members to protect their schools. Ald. Latasha Thomas said she came to ask&#160; board members to step back and listen to what parents are asking for.</p>
<p>“Make sure you are not using a saw when you should be using a scaffold,” Thomas said.</p>
<p>Ald. Walter Burnett reminded the board that the city has a high homicide rate, and said it is disingenuous for the board to say a school is underutilized while opening new charter schools. LEARN Charter School is across from Calhoun, which will close. Rather than open charter schools, Burnett suggested schools be rebranded.</p>
<p>The public participation part of the meeting ended with a parent from Overton saying the fight won’t be over. “On the first day of school next year, we will be there,” she said.</p>
<p>The last speaker led the group in a prayer. “There is a right, there is a wrong, there is a just and an injustice,” said the woman who was there to oppose the closing of Morgan.&#160;</p> | 50 school closings approved at raucous board meeting | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/50-school-closings-approved-raucous-board-meeting/ | 2013-05-22 | 3 |
<p>Foldable patio chairs that can tip over when a person sits on the edge of the seat are among this week's recalled consumer products.</p>
<p>Here's a more detailed look:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>FOLDABLE PATIO CHAIRS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Foldable outdoor patio chairs sold individually and as a table and two chair bistro set by Linon Home Decor. They were sold at Bed Bath &amp; Beyond, Daily Fair, Home Goods, Marshalls, Old Time Pottery, and T.J. Maxx stores nationwide from February 2014 to February 2015.</p>
<p>WHY: The chair can unexpectedly tip over when a consumer sits on the edge of the seat, posing a fall hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Four consumers who have fallen from tipped-over chairs, including two reports of minor injuries.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 3,300.</p>
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<p>FOR MORE: Call Linon Home Décor Products Inc. at 800-262-1852 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit www.linon.com and click on the Recall icon for more information.</p>
<p>CHILDREN'S PAJAMAS</p>
<p>DETAILS: 25 styles of boys, girls and toddler sleep sets, sleepers, pants, nightgowns and robes sold in 100-percent polyester fleece or knit at Landsend.com and Lands' End kids catalogs from January 2014 through February 2015. The garments were sold in sizes 3 months to 16 (girls) and 20 (boys), and in various colors and patterns. The style number is printed on a tag affixed to the garments' neck, waist or side seam. More information on style numbers can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/Recall-Alerts/2015/Lands-End-Recalls-Childrens-Pajamas-and-Robes/</p>
<p>WHY: The pajamas and robes fail to meet federal flammability standards for children's sleepwear, posing a risk of burn injuries to children.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: None reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 173,000.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Lands' End at 800-300-7487 from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. CT daily or send email to [email protected]. Consumers can also visit www.landsend.com and click on "Recall and Safety Info" for more information, including photos of all styles and colors.</p>
<p>BICYCLE HANDLEBARS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Carbon and alloy Aerobars sold individually and with model years 2012 through 2015 Specialized Shiv bicycles and model year 2013 Specialized Transition Apex bicycles. The carbon Aerobar was sold in black with a white Specialized logo on the top side of the handlebar, and the alloy model was sold in black with no markings. They were sold at authorized Specialized Bicycle dealers nationwide and online at www.specialized.com from November 2011 to February 2015.</p>
<p>WHY: The bolt used to affix the Aerobars to the bicycle can loosen, posing a fall hazard to the rider.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Four reports of the Aerobars bolt loosening. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 8,300.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Specialized Bicycle Components at 800-722-4423 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, an authorized Specialized dealer or visit the www.specialized.com and click on "Safety Notices" for more information.</p> | Recalls this week include foldable patio chairs, bicycle handlebars, children's pajamas | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/27/recalls-this-week-include-foldable-patio-chairs-bicycle-handlebars-children.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Democracy Now! covers an attack on free speech. Where is the rest of the media?</p>
<p>There are plenty of people who’d rather the world never heard from Mumia Abu-Jamal. And now the state of Pennsylvania is trying to come up with a way to prevent him from being heard ever again.</p>
<p>Abu-Jamal is currently serving life in prison for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His case has, of course, been the subject of international attention, with many supporters arguing that his original trial was grossly unfair. While known primarily as a cause on the left, one of the most comprehensive critiques of the trial came from conservative legal writer Stuart Taylor&#160;(American Lawyer, <a href="http://stuarttaylorjr.com/content/guilty-and-framed" type="external">12/95</a>).</p>
<p>Abu-Jamal was a fairly well-known local radio journalist prior to the Faulkner killing; after being sentenced to death, he continued to write and speak from death row, and that work galvanized public interest in his case. He was removed from death row in 2011.</p>
<p>But this most recent controversy began when students at Goddard College in Vermont selected&#160;Abu-Jamal to give a prerecorded commencement address. That evidently motivated lawmakers in Pennsylvania to come up with a remedy that is, on its face, flatly unconstitutional. The Revictimization Relief Act, as the Philadelphia Inquirer ( <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2014-10-15/news/55019626_1_senate-gop-bill-legislation" type="external">10/14/14</a>) reported,</p>
<p>would allow the victim of a crime, or prosecutors acting on the victim’s behalf, to bring a civil action to stop an offender from engaging in conduct that causes the victim or the victim’s family severe mental anguish.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett: First Amendment, Schmirst Amendment (cc photo: Villanova Law)</p>
<p>Another Inquirer story ( <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2014-10-18/news/55152263_1_domestic-violence-bill-fast-tracked-bill-state-senate" type="external">10/18/14</a>) noted that some state lawmakers spoke out against the bill; one senator called it “the most extreme violation of the First Amendment imaginable.” On October 21, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed the bill into law, <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20141022_Corbett_in_Phila__signs__quot_Mumia_bill_.html#lfRq4hGhg8JpCcMx.99" type="external">declaring</a> that “over the years we’ve heard much about the constitutional rights of prison inmates.” Corbett seems proud not to have been listening.</p>
<p>The bill&#160;does not appear to have attracted much in the way of press attention, despite its shocking implications for anyone with an interest in a free press. And some of the coverage is unhelpful; the headline over an AP dispatch in today’s New York Times ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/us/pennsylvania-governor-signs-law-to-help-protect-crime-victims.html?ref=todayspaper" type="external">10/22/14</a>) is “Pennsylvania: Governor Signs Law to Help Protect Crime Victims.”</p>
<p>There are, of course, many people who feel victimized by the actions of other individuals; does the state really think that it can legally prevent those individuals from speaking, writing or being interviewed by reporters?</p>
<p>The story was covered on today’s edition of Democracy Now! ( <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/21/mumia_abu_jamal_speaks_out_from" type="external">10/21/14</a>), with excerpts of an interview with Abu-Jamal conducted by&#160;Prison Radio journalist Noelle Hanrahan:</p>
<p>The press ignores prisoners, as a rule. Most of what happens in prisons are never or rarely reported in the press…. Silence reigns in states all across the United States. But I went to court. I was forced to go to court by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I won, in a case called Abu-Jamal v. Price, which gives me the right to write. Now they’re trying to take away my right to read my own writings. How unconstitutional is that?</p>
<p>That point was underscored by Hanrahan:</p>
<p>This is about Mumia Abu-Jamal, but it’s really about all prisoners and what the journalists have to know from inside prisons. Our society really has this incredible incarceration addiction. And we need to know, as journalists, what’s going on inside. So it affects Robert “Saleem” Holbrook, a juvenile lifer who’s in Pennsylvania. It affects Bryant Arroyo, who’s a jailhouse environmentalist and lawyer inside Frackville prison in Pennsylvania. It affects our ability as a community to get the information that we need to make decisions.</p>
<p>This is not the first time there has been an attempt to silence Abu-Jamal. In 1994, NPR <a href="http://articles.philly.com/1994-05-17/news/25830010_1_mumia-abu-jamal-officer-daniel-faulkner-npr-spokeswoman-mary-morgan" type="external">abruptly cancelled</a> plans to air commentaries by him it had commissioned&#160;to air on All Things Considered.</p>
<p>And the fact that Democracy Now! is covering this story now brings to mind what happened in 1997, when the show was set to begin airing a series of Abu-Jamal commentaries. The radio station at Philadelphia’s Temple University, KRTI,&#160;abruptly canceled its contract with Pacifica and Democracy Now! (Extra!Update, <a href="http://wp.me/p2AI9o-nnth" type="external">4/97</a>) right before the pieces were to air.</p>
<p>In both cases, there were questions raised about what kinds of pressure were brought to bear on the media outlets. The controversy over NPR&#160;led lawmakers like Sen. Bob Dole to muse about the need for “closer oversight.” In the case of KRTI, there were suggestions that state funding could be at risk.</p>
<p>Media outlets that rely on the First Amendment–all of them, in other words–should speak up about the Pennsylvania government’s efforts to silence speech.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A New Way to Silence Mumia Abu-Jamal | true | http://fair.org/blog/2014/10/22/a-new-way-to-silence-mumia-abu-jamal/ | 2014-10-22 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Karan Ruhlen believes it’s better to give than receive, and in that spirit she decided this holiday season to celebrate her stable of artists by giving them a group show.</p>
<p>The show at Canyon Road’s Karan Ruhlen Gallery opened in mid-December, but runs until Jan. 11, gallery director Tim Squires said. The featured artists include painters Martha Rea Baker, Kurt Meer, Stephen Pentak, Daniel Phill, Vanita Smithey, Laurel Swab, Kevin Tolman, Pauline Ziegen and sculptors Gary Beals and Sally Hepler.Â&#160;</p>
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<p>Karan Ruhlen Gallery was established in 1993. The gallery has grown from its first historic location on De Vargas Street to its current location on Canyon Road with a few stops in between. Originally, the gallery represented Texas artists and one lone New Mexican, Elaine Holien. “In those days I, too, was an established painter,” Ruhlen said in a website statement. Through the years, the gallery has grown to represent well-established New Mexico artists.</p>
<p>The fine art gallery features abstract, contemporary, minimal, and realistic paintings and drawings, as well as sculpture, by regional and nationally known artists. Most of the gallery’s current artists have lived in New Mexico 15 to 55 years.</p>
<p>In its early days, the gallery was known for its “101 Cups — 101 Artists Show,” which for six years was an annual exhibition. “These shows gave me the opportunity to meet and get to know many artists of New Mexico and the Southwest region,” Ruhlen said.</p>
<p>Martha Rea Baker</p>
<p>“My recent paintings are about ‘transformation,’ ” Baker said in an artist’s statement. “My move to Santa Fe in December 2006 has influenced my work in a profound way. My paintings have increasingly become more abstract. I cannot help but be influenced by the stark beauty, unique light and simplicity of the landscape. And although my work is, for the most part, non-representational, I am intrigued by the rich history and culture of the area. I enjoy developing my paintings and collages with multiple layers of both paint and meaning.”</p>
<p>Having painted for 35 years, Baker is now working in acrylic collage and encaustic (melted beeswax, fused with heat).Â&#160;She enjoys abstracting her subjects and creating surfaces of subtle texture and rich patina through many thin layers of paint or wax. In both mediums, Baker scrapes back through the layers to uncover previous marks.</p>
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<p>Kurt Meer</p>
<p>As a University of Memphis art student, Meer says he was profoundly affected by the theories of Whistler. “I have adopted Whistler’s comparison of painting to music,” he said in a statement. “Color is like a keyboard where there is a root key or color harmony within which there are a variety of chords created by playing opposites against one another, such as warm and cool, saturated and unsaturated. All of these build to a tension that is resolved by returning to the root harmony.”</p>
<p>Whistler found one means of expressing his theories in a series of works depicting the River Thames at night. The Mississippi River that flows through his hometown of Memphis is the inspiration.</p>
<p>“For several years I worked in downtown Memphis and watched the changing face of the river throughout the seasons, in times of drought and flooding, and under varied lighting conditions, including sunrise and sunset,” he said. “I came to know its subtleties, and while the rivers in my paintings are imaginary abstractions of water, sky and vegetation shapes, they undoubtedly go back to my memory of the Mississippi and its fast-moving energy.”</p>
<p>Daniel Phill</p>
<p>Phill said in a statement that his abstract botanical paintings “are suggestive interpretations of vegetation and flowers. Images from nature are usually loosely incorporated within a landscape. My interest in depicting imagery through the lens of abstraction informs my process,” he added. “The ambiguity created by the composing and dissolving of form creates a tension between abstraction, figuration and the illusion of space.Â&#160;</p>
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<p>Phill’s process is intense. “Through pouring, dripping, scraping, brushing and smearing various viscosities of paint, I work to achieve an image that is organic and spontaneous,” he said. “My goal is to create works that play between the boundaries of abstraction and representation.”</p>
<p>Vanita Smithey</p>
<p>Many paths and opportunities present themselves along the course of a long painting career, Smithey noted in an artist’s statement.Â&#160; “After a decade or more of working abstractly, I found myself longing for the pleasure of revisiting the act of pure drawing, yet wanting a more contemporary approach than the work I had done previously,” she said. “I have always been amazed at the changes in painting styles of such artists as Diebenkorn, Pollock and Rothko, for example, and how through the years their interests and directions evolved, telling me that one can work in various directions at different junctions of one’s career.”</p>
<p>Laurel Swab</p>
<p>Painter and sculptor Laurel Swab lives and works in Colorado, where she has exhibited in a number of galleries and institutions.</p>
<p>Although a third-generation sculptor, Swab was inspired to teach herself to paint after a trip to Italy in 1998. The passion, atmosphere and execution of the figurative work of Renaissance painters like Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and DaVinci left a lasting impression on her. Swab reignites the realism and mood of the Old Masters with her rich and subdued palette. Her dramatic lighting creates a striking contrast between her subjects and their dark, atmospheric backgrounds.</p>
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<p>In 2002 Swab was awarded “Best Visual Artist” by the Pikes Peak Arts Council. She has received recognition for her painting and sculpture in the form of various awards and purchases by private collectors throughout the United States.</p>
<p>Kevin Tolman</p>
<p>“As I look around at this point in time, it seems almost as if painting has become a somewhat old-fashioned way of making art for many, and yet for me, this process of creating an artwork with more traditional materials on paper and canvas still remains an amazingly mysterious and alluring prospect,” Tolman said in an artist’s statement.Â&#160;</p>
<p>“It is my belief that painting can be a poetic way of reasoning on a two-dimensional surface. It is certainly my best voice. The paintings are bent to my will in a sort of dance, a balancing act between where I think a piece can go and where the piece will lead me, and it seems that a significant part of this process is allowing me to get out of control. I think I am trying very hard to not limit myself, persistently making an effort to encourage accident, and to let the work both change and evolve. This means that I create paintings that spring from, essentially, a continual uncertainty. But this also allows for the process to be interesting, invigorating and even entertaining while I am working,” he said.</p>
<p>Pauline Ziegen</p>
<p>Pauline Ziegen explores a modernist view of the landscape.Â&#160;Her work examines a romantic myth, an untouched view of the American West. It celebrates the expanse and luminosity of the land and sky. Her abstracted paintings are made with many layers of oil glazes to produce depth.Â&#160;Ziegen applies 22- karat gold leaf to the lower portion of each painting as a suggestion of the land and the richness of the earth.</p>
<p>She employs techniques used by Old Masters and the romantic painters: Turner, Corot, Innes and Corbet, who used complex layering to shape light. “In addition, Ziegen’s mark-making suggests she is interested in modernists such as Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly,” Squires said. “Her signature mark is the inclusion of a few select dotted lines etched in the surface of the under painting that are revealed upon close inspection of the work. These marks suggest a passage of time.Â&#160;They are a reminder of that which is no longer in view…the movement of the clouds, a rainbow, a trace of the past.”</p>
<p>Siegen’ paintings are minimal renderings of the landscape. They celebrate the spiritual essence of our relationship with nature.</p> | Karan Ruhlen Gallery Celebrates Its Stable of Artists | false | https://abqjournal.com/156225/karan-ruhlen-gallery-celebrates-its-stable-of-artists.html | 2012-12-28 | 2 |
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<p>Employees all make mistakes, but it's never fun to reprimand someone. Find out how to do it without ruining your relationships.</p>
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<p>Some human relations experts consider reprimanding an employee a sign of failure. “It is something done to punish people, and punishment rarely works as a long-term strategy to change performance or behavior,” says Randy Pennington, a leadership consultant in Addison, Texas.</p>
<p>Well, yes. But when Ashley arrives late for the third time in two weeks or Bob gets into a shouting match with a customer, you can’t ignore it, either.</p>
<p>“I learned a long time ago that if you don’t enforce the standards of the workplace, you set a new standard,” says John Kramb, co-owner, with his wife, Katherine Bigler, of Adams County Winery near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>So how do you reprimand an employee if necessary?</p>
<p>Employment attorney Scott Behren of Behren Law Firm in Weston, Florida, suggests you start by having an employment manual that spells out your disciplinary procedure — preferably a classically “progressive” system in which the employee receives a series of warnings with instructions on how to correct the issue.</p>
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<p>“I think most employees are willing to take constructive criticism when they are told clearly what they did wrong and are given an opportunity to fix it,” says Behren, who typically represents employees. “In my experience, most problems occur when the employee is not told what was done wrong, is not given a chance to fix the situation, and where the employer’s own policies are not followed or are not followed uniformly.”</p>
<p>Human resource professionals offer these additional tips:</p>
<p>Handle the matter privately. Few people respond well to public reprimand, says career management coach Bettina Seidman of Seidbet Associates in New York City. Deliver your message privately, and keep it confidential.</p>
<p>Act promptly, but calmly. You don’t want to overreact in the heat of the moment, or overlook important information. “Although behavior and performance issues should be addressed as soon as possible after the event, the manager needs to have all the facts and not jump to conclusions,” says HR consultant Penny Miller of Venture HRO LLC in Wichita Falls, Texas.</p>
<p>Don’t just talk, listen. “The employee may have a problem you can help him solve that will facilitate the behavior change,” notes Edward Navis, an HR consultant in Little Falls, New Jersey. “Alternately, there might be a very logical explanation for the problematic performance.”</p>
<p>Focus on actions or behaviors, not attitude. The issue isn’t what the employee thinks or feels, but whether his or her behavior is appropriate, Navis says. “Supervisors often tell the person they have a bad attitude or they are lazy,” agrees Miller. “This is an attack on the person and creates defensiveness.”</p>
<p>Be specific. “Instead of saying, ‘You’re always late,’” Miller advises, “say, ‘In the past week, you have been late twice. On Monday you were X minutes late and on Thursday you were Y minutes late.’”</p>
<p>Explain the standard and why it’s important. While it may seem like common sense to you, it’s important that employees know what’s expected of them and why. Example: “Your workday starts at 8 a.m. and I need you here on time. If you are late, there is no one to serve customers, which frustrates them and causes us to lose sales.”</p>
<p>Get a commitment from the employee to change. “Although you might think that once you are at this stage it’s too late for change,” Miller says, “the point of discipline is still to change behavior so you can avoid all of the hassle of terminating employment, hiring a replacement and training.”</p>
<p>Consider offering help. This may not apply in the case of, say, a tardiness problem, but it could make sense in other situations. “If the employee has high potential and/or a specialty expertise that would be hard to replace, you might want to offer to split the cost of a coach to help the individual make the behavior change,” says Leigh Steere, co-owner of management consulting firm Managing People Better LLC in Boulder, Colorado.</p>
<p>Don’t dilute the message. “Softening the impact of the reprimand by sandwiching it between two compliments, an old disciplinary tactic, is confusing and ill-advised,” Navis says. “You want the problematic performance or behavior to change, so the reprimand must have full impact.”</p>
<p>Document the conversation. “If the person does the same thing half a dozen times and you end up terminating him or her, then the documentation you’ve been collecting will help you defend against any potential litigation,” explains Ben Eubanks, a corporate HR specialist and blogger at upstarthr.com. Behren suggests having both employer and employee sign the document, and giving the employee an opportunity to set out a defense of his or her conduct.</p>
<p>Hold everyone to the same standard. “Otherwise,” says Navis, “an attorney can claim that you must have reprimanded this particular employee for a unique reason, like his membership in a protected class.”</p>
<p>Reprimanding employees is never going to be pleasant. But handled properly, it can be productive.</p> | The Right Way to Reprimand | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/04/13/right-way-reprimand.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>The Affordable Care Act (ACA) must not be allowed to fail because it would trigger dire health and financial consequences for Americans, <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2017/08/24/tribune-editorial-dont-let-obamacare-fall-apart/" type="external">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> says in an editorial published Thursday.</p>
<p>“Letting Obamacare collapse, just to have the satisfaction of watching a Democratic idea crash and burn, would be really, really bad,” the Utah newspaper’s editorial board writes.</p>
<p>The editorial sites former governors Mike Leavitt of Utah and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin —&#160;both Republicans and ex-heads of Health and Human Services —&#160;as wanting the ACA saved. Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who also ran the HHS, is on board as well.</p>
<p>“All were clear that any move to just let the whole system fall about our ears would be intensely irresponsible. It would cause millions of Americans to lose their access to affordable healthcare and be at risk, if not of deadly disease, then of bankruptcy,” the paper says.</p>
<p>Ditto for Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican and longtime ACA critic, who the editorial says now believes Congress —&#160;after being unable to repeal and replace the ACA —&#160;should fix its flaws “or watch it collapse, taking the protection of millions of Americans along with it.”</p> | Salt Lake Tribune: Don't Let Obamacare Collapse | false | https://newsline.com/salt-lake-tribune-dont-let-obamacare-collapse/ | 2017-08-24 | 1 |
<p>When Donald Trump is in real trouble, he turns to Marc Kasowitz.</p>
<p>When a journalist dared to allege Trump was worth less than the billions he claimed; when women came out of the woodwork to accuse the future president of sexual assault; and when reporters sued for the unsealing of candidate Trump’s divorce records, Kasowitz—the prominent New York attorney with a shock of perfectly-coiffed white hair, a flair for the dramatic, and most important, a 15-year record of aggressive service—answers the call.</p>
<p>And so Kasowitz has answered it again, according to reports that the president hired the millionaire litigator to serve as his personal attorney in a Justice Department investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence last year’s presidential election.</p>
<p>Several news outlets have pointed out that Trump’s retainer could pose a conflict of interest. Kasowitz employs Joe Lieberman, the former senator floated to be in the running for the FBI director job, a position that <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/expanded-fbi-search-lawyers/" type="external">no one seems to want</a>. Kasowitz’s firm also <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/trumps-longtime-lawyer-is-defending-russias-biggest-bank?utm_term=.wd6a1PgdZa#.admy48QvBy" type="external">represents</a> Russia’s largest bank, OJSC Sberbank, in a federal case unrelated to Trump. And until Tuesday, Kasowitz was representing Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s company in an appeals argument, <a href="https://twitter.com/neal_katyal/status/867353548664844288" type="external">according to Neal Katyal</a>, the attorney representing defendant Morgan Stanley in the case. “Bummer. I was looking fwd to it. I've not met him but by all accounts he is an excellent lawyer,” Katyal <a href="https://twitter.com/neal_katyal/status/867353730089455617" type="external">tweeted</a>. Earlier this year, the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/Manafort's-plan-to-'greatly-benefit-the-Putin-Government?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP_Politics" type="external">Associated Press</a> reported that Deripaska paid Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort $10 million a year to lobby for Putin-friendly oligarchs and pro-Russian governments from 2006 until 2009.</p>
<p>Kasowitz—a Yale and Cornell University law school graduate, known as a trial lawyer who is willing to represent Davids and Goliaths alike—has little experience in criminal matters, but should former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation uncover criminal activity, the 62-year-old litigator would likely bring on a team of attorneys better versed in criminal law. For now, loyalty seems to be Kasowitz’s best asset.</p>
<p>Kasowitz did not return requests for comment, but in January, told <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-go-to-guy-for-his-toughest-legal-battles-1484060401" type="external">the Wall Street Journal</a>, “Trump is a great client.”</p>
<p>He’s certainly dependable.</p>
<p>Trump first hired Kasowitz’s firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres &amp; Friedman, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/22/business/bondholders-and-trump-negotiating-debt-terms.html" type="external">in 2001</a>, to restructure $1.3 million in bondholder debt held by his Atlantic City casinos.</p>
<p>In 2005, Kasowitz represented Trump in a failed suit against his Hong Kong partners, The Cheng Group, over accusations that they tried to sell a West Side property for less than it was worth, stiffing Trump in the process.</p>
<p>Later that year, Kasowitz demanded a retraction and apology from journalist Tim O'Brien who wrote in "TrumpNation" that Trump was worth as little as $150 million—a far cry from the net worth of $5 billion he liked to claim.</p>
<p>In a letter to O'Brien’s publisher Warner Books, Kasowitz wrote the book “contains out-and-out defamatory falsehoods concerning Mr. Trump, his business and his family," and demanded that Warner “immediately cease and desist further publishing and disseminating this book."</p>
<p>When Warner did not comply, Trump sued O’Brien for <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2430267/trumps-lawsuit-on-net-worth.pdf" type="external">defamation</a> to the tune of $5 billion. When the case was dismissed in 2009, Trump <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/business/media/16trump.html" type="external">complained</a>, “the libel laws in this country have never been fair.”</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Kasowitz found greater success on Trump’s behalf in 2006, with a suit against condo board members at one of his properties, Trump World Tower. The bizarre lawsuit alleged the condo members had breached their contract and fiduciary duties in an attempt to take over the management of the property, and accused several members of threatening to murder other members, abusing condo employees, and walking around naked in front of staff.</p>
<p>Longtime attorney Alan Garten told the Wall Street Journal that Kasowitz has worked for Trump “countless times” behind the scenes, but with the 2016 announcement of his presidential candidacy, Kasowitz was set back to attack mode.</p>
<p>Last year, Kasowitz, threatened The New York Times with "prompt initiation of appropriate legal action" for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html" type="external">the publication of 1995 tax records</a> which revealed a $916 million loss that could have allowed Trump to avoid paying federal taxes for nearly two decades. And he successfully represented Trump against the paper of record and Gannett in their efforts to unseal Trump and ex-wife Ivana’s <a href="" type="internal">1990 divorce record</a>s. In his motion against the unsealing, Kasowitz wrote, “There is simply no importance, overriding or otherwise, to unsealing the matrimonial records of a political candidate." Meanwhile, Ivana’s lawyer offered a different, but compelling argument: “Does anybody doubt that Donald isn't that nice to women?" her attorney <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-ivana-divorce-records-228119" type="external">asked the presiding judge</a>.</p>
<p>And Kasowitz, who also counts disgraced former <a href="" type="internal">Fox News host Bill O’Reilly</a> as a client, has defended Trump against claims of sexual harassment both in court and in the media.</p>
<p>In a letter to The New York Times following the paper’s publishing of claims from women who said Trump inappropriately touched them, Kasowitz threatened to sue, saying the article was “reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se.”</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/us/politics/donald-trump-lawsuit-threat.html" type="external">reply that quickly went viral</a>, a lawyer for the Times wrote, “Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host’s request to discuss Mr. Trump’s own daughter as a ‘piece of ass.’ Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump’s unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.”</p>
<p>No lawsuit was ever filed.</p>
<p>Kasowitz does seems poised to appear on behalf on Trump against one accuser, however. Summer Zervos, a booted “Apprentice” contestant <a href="" type="internal">filed a lawsuit against Trump for defamation</a>stemming from allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances. In March, Kasowitz <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/28/trump-claims-immunity-apprentice-contestants-lawsuit/99729932/" type="external">filed a motion</a> questioning the constitutionality of the lawsuit, “since it could “distract a President from his public duties to the detriment of not only the President and his office but also the Nation.” The case is still in its early stages.</p>
<p>Despite his imperfect track record on Trump’s behalf, Kasowitz has shown to be the kind of attack dog that Trump values most. It’s a tenacity that even former adversaries admire.</p>
<p>David Dean, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/nyregion/port-authority-found-negligent-in-1993-bombing.html?_r=0" type="external">a case brought by victims of the 1993 Port Authority bombings against the New York City</a>, in which Kasowitz represented the defense, recalled at the end of a nearly decade-long fight, holding Kasowitz “in high regard,” and described him in an interview with The Daily Beast as “smart, ethical, and hardworking.”</p>
<p>“I don’t respect his client,” Dean continued. “I’m appalled by what Trump is doing to this country, but Kasowitz I respect.”</p> | Can Trump’s Sex Assault Lawyer Save Him on Russia? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/can-trumps-sex-assault-lawyer-save-him-on-russia | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
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<p>Unfortunately, high-yield stocks have become a high-risk area for investors over the past several years. Due to low interest rates, investors have become so hungry for yield that they've gobbled up almost anything that pays a high rate, which has pushed valuations up and yields down. Meanwhile, the thirst for yield has caused income-focused companies to do whatever it takes to satiate that desire, sometimes taking on elevated levels of risk to pay at a compelling level, which has often led to disastrous results.</p>
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<p>That said, not every high-yield stock is a disaster waiting to happen. Two that stand out as having the ability to not only sustain but likely grow their payouts are Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL) and Brookfield Property Partners (NYSE: BPY), which both currently offer yields well in excess of 5%.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Oil baron John D. Rockefeller famously quipped that the only thing that gave him pleasure was to see his dividends coming in. Because of that, he'dlikely be enamored with the dividend dynamo that Buckeye Partners has become. Once part of his Standard Oil Company, Buckeye has since grown into a leading global terminal and pipeline company that pays a pretty generous 7.25% distribution.</p>
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<p>Fueling that high yield is the fact that Buckeye Partners' storage and pipeline assets generate very predictable cash flow, with 95% coming from stable fees. Thanks to its relatively low maintenance costs, the company doesn't have much need for that money, enabling it to distribute about 90% of it back to investors.</p>
<p>That said, Buckeye isn't just a glorified bond, because it has the ability to increase its payout. Fueling that growth is a combination of retained cash flow, which it supplements with outside capital from the debt and equity markets to build and buy additional cash flow-generating assets. While relying on the capital markets does increase its risk, Buckeye has a relatively low leverage ratio of 4.1 times debt to adjusted EBITDA, which supportsan investment-grade credit rating. In fact, thanks to a recent acquisition and growth projects entering service, Buckeye expects to increase its distribution every quarter this year. Given its outlook, the payout should increase by about 4% over last year's rate, which is roughly in line with the 4.2% increase it delivered over the course of 2016. Needless to say, Buckeye is the type of stock that John D. Rockefeller would love to own.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Global real estate giant Brookfield Property Partners shares one key similarity with Buckeye: It also generates relatively stable cash flow by leasing out space in its properties under long-term contracts. Overall, it has 92% of its core office portfolio leased, with an average remaining term of eight years, while rental agreements support a 96.5% occupancy rate at its retail properties. These contracts generate a growing stream of cash flow, 80% of which Brookfield Property Partners sends back to investors via a distribution that currently yields 5.34%.</p>
<p>Brookfield Property Partners retains a bit more of its cash flow so that it has the funds for redevelopment projects to improve its properties and charge higher rents. Meanwhile, the company leverages its investment-grade credit to source outside capital, which it uses to build and buy new properties. As a result of the embedded lease rate growth of its portfolio and development projects under way, Brookfield expects its earnings to rise 8% to 11% annually over the next five years. That growth positions the company to increase its distribution by 5% to 8% annually over that same time frame. It's what makes Brookfield Property Partners the lazy way to be a rent-collecting landlord.</p>
<p>Buckeye Partners and Brookfield Property Partners offer investors a reasonably low-risk way to collect a relatively high yield. Fueling that dynamic combination is their solid financials, consisting of stable cash flow-generating assets, strong balance sheets, and conservative payout ratios. However, what sends these two over the top, in my opinion, is that they have the clear ability to grow their already healthy payouts, which means investors can sit back and watch a growing stream of dividends coming into their account.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Brookfield Property Partners. 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> | 2 Stocks to Buy With Dividends Yielding More Than 5% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/31/2-stocks-to-buy-with-dividends-yielding-more-than-5.html | 2017-03-31 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>An ex-con charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Rio Rancho police officer was charged Friday with violating federal firearms laws under the U.S. attorney's "worst of the worst" initiative.</p>
<p>Andrew Romero, 28, who has served two prison terms and who was being sought by police at the time of the shooting Monday night, is being held on $5 million cash-only bail in the shooting death of officer Gregg Benner during a traffic stop in southeast Rio Rancho.</p>
<p>Romero was arrested several hours later after he robbed a gas station in Albuquerque, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Police said Romero fired at Benner multiple times as the officer approached the car after a short chase. He had failed to report to a drug treatment program in February as part of a plea deal, under which he avoided a 13-year prison term, and was a suspect in a string of armed robberies.</p>
<p />
<p>On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico announced that it was charging Romero with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Romero has prior convictions that include voluntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault.</p>
<p>The federal firearms charge carries a possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison. If federal prosecutors can prove he is an "armed career criminal," he could face a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The U.S. Attorney's Office intends to prosecute the case under its "worst of the worst" initiative, which brings federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies together to target violent and repeat offenders with the goal of removing them from communities in New Mexico "for as long as possible."</p>
<p>Thirteenth Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said Thursday that he will be seeking the state's harshest punishment - life in prison without the possibility of parole - for the first-degree murder charge Romero is facing for Benner's death.</p>
<p>Tabitha Littles, Romero's girlfriend, also has been charged with first-degree murder (accessory) in connection with the officer's death. She was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center on Friday.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Suspected killer of police officer faces federal firearms charge | false | https://abqjournal.com/592068/murder-suspect-now-faces-federal-charge.html | 2 |
|
<p>TEMUCO, Chile (AP) — When Pope Francis visits the de facto capital of Chile's Mapuche people, he will be inserting himself into one of Latin America's longest-running conflicts involving indigenous populations, and one that periodically erupts in violence.</p>
<p>Leaders of both the Mapuches and the Chilean government have said in recent weeks they hope Francis can facilitate dialogue on disputes dating to the late 19th century, when the Mapuches, known for their ferocity resisting Spanish and other European settlers, were definitively defeated by the Chilean military.</p>
<p>At stake are many thorny issues: ownership of ancestral lands in the southern Araucania region, legal recognition of the Mapuches' language and culture, and discrimination that their leaders say permeates all facets of life.</p>
<p>"In practical terms, we as a people don't exist. It's shameful," said Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change. "We need negotiations. We hope that the pope plants the seeds for it to happen."</p>
<p>How far the pope goes in any statement supporting the Mapuches will be closely watched, and even fretted over. Francis, a native of neighboring Argentina and the first pope from Latin America, has shown strong support for indigenous peoples during visits in other countries. In Bolivia in 2015, he went so far as to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's "grave sins" committed against indigenous communities during the colonial era.</p>
<p>His visit to Temuco on Wednesday takes him to a region of high volatility. While the vast majority of Chile's estimated 1 million citizens of Mapuche descent oppose using violence, a small number use it to push their agenda.</p>
<p>In recent years scores of churches have been among the targets — including three firebombed Friday in the nation's capital, Santiago. Like in previous incidents in Araucania, pamphlets extolling the Mapuche cause were found at the scene of one of the churches, though no arrests were made and no group has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>"There is both hope and worry about the pope's visit," said Emilio Taladriz, director of Multigremial de la Araucania, a conglomerate of unions across several industries. "The area is still one of conflict."</p>
<p>Protests are expected in Temuco, including outside the Maquehue Air Base where the pope will celebrate Mass. It was built on land that was taken from Mapuches in the early 20th century and remains a point of friction.</p>
<p>Chilean authorities plan to deploy more than 4,000 police officers in Temuco's streets as, flanked by 16 police vehicles, Francis rides in the popemobile down a central avenue before visiting an order of nuns.</p>
<p>A Mapuche choir will participate in the Mass, and afterward the pope will have lunch with a group of Mapuches hand-picked by local bishops.</p>
<p>Fernando Diaz, a priest in the Temuco area who has worked with Mapuches for years, expressed disappointment that Francis is not scheduled to meet with any of the leaders of the cause.</p>
<p>"The visit has been planned so the pope sees as little of the reality as possible," Diaz said.</p>
<p>Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and theology professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, said every papal visit disappointments someone over who gets or does not get an audience, but the pope generally finds a way to carve out time for what is important to him.</p>
<p>"Usually Francis has a good ear and tries to adapt," said Faggioli.</p>
<p>The first papal visit to Chile since Saint John Paul II in 1987 comes as the Catholic Church's role with indigenous peoples in the Andean nation of 17 million people has shifted.</p>
<p>During the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, many Chilean bishops pushed to protect native peoples and get their cultures recognized. But today the hierarchy is much more aligned with business interests.</p>
<p>In 1987, John Paul II gave a pointed nod to Mapuches that surely prompted cringes within Pinochet's government, which was unsympathetic toward indigenous groups and cracked down on any form of dissent.</p>
<p>During his homily, John Paul said faith in God could overcome all human-caused problems, implicitly referring to friction between Mapuches and the Chilean state.</p>
<p>"It's for this reason that the pope, from Temuco, encourages the Mapuches to conserve with healthy pride the culture of its people," the former pontiff said, adding that included "the traditions and customs, the language and its own values."</p>
<p>Since then, the Mapuches have made significant strides. The return of democracy in Chile in the 1990s set the stage for creation of a government body, the National Corporation of Indigenous Development, that is dedicated to issues related to the country's native peoples and spurred many changes.</p>
<p>Some ancestral lands have been returned. University scholarships have been set aside for Mapuches along with other benefits not open to all Chileans. Various aspects of Mapuche culture, such as many foods, have become part of the mainstream.</p>
<p>Still, problems persist, ranging from economic to social. Araucania remains the country's poorest region, and Mapuches complain of frequent abuse at the hands of security forces.</p>
<p>One case that reverberated strongly in the community involved the arrest of two Mapuche brothers, ages 13 and 17, while police were searching for five wanted Mapuche men in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 17-year-old, Brandon Hernandez Huentecol, was shot in the back by a police officer while face-down on the ground, resulting in a nearly two-month stay in the hospital and several surgeries for a shattered pelvis.</p>
<p>The officer has not been charged and failed to appear in court in response to a summons to testify.</p>
<p>Over a year later, the boy's mother is beseeching Francis to bring his influence to bear.</p>
<p>"I know you are a man who professes Christian values and love for thy neighbor and for those who can't defend themselves," Ada Huentecol, said recently in an open letter to the pope. "That is why I ask that you help us, that you speak up and demand justice for my son."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Mauricio Cuevas reported from Temuco, and Peter Prengaman reported from Paihuano, Chile.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Prengaman on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/peterprengaman" type="external">www.twitter.com/peterprengaman</a></p>
<p>TEMUCO, Chile (AP) — When Pope Francis visits the de facto capital of Chile's Mapuche people, he will be inserting himself into one of Latin America's longest-running conflicts involving indigenous populations, and one that periodically erupts in violence.</p>
<p>Leaders of both the Mapuches and the Chilean government have said in recent weeks they hope Francis can facilitate dialogue on disputes dating to the late 19th century, when the Mapuches, known for their ferocity resisting Spanish and other European settlers, were definitively defeated by the Chilean military.</p>
<p>At stake are many thorny issues: ownership of ancestral lands in the southern Araucania region, legal recognition of the Mapuches' language and culture, and discrimination that their leaders say permeates all facets of life.</p>
<p>"In practical terms, we as a people don't exist. It's shameful," said Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change. "We need negotiations. We hope that the pope plants the seeds for it to happen."</p>
<p>How far the pope goes in any statement supporting the Mapuches will be closely watched, and even fretted over. Francis, a native of neighboring Argentina and the first pope from Latin America, has shown strong support for indigenous peoples during visits in other countries. In Bolivia in 2015, he went so far as to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's "grave sins" committed against indigenous communities during the colonial era.</p>
<p>His visit to Temuco on Wednesday takes him to a region of high volatility. While the vast majority of Chile's estimated 1 million citizens of Mapuche descent oppose using violence, a small number use it to push their agenda.</p>
<p>In recent years scores of churches have been among the targets — including three firebombed Friday in the nation's capital, Santiago. Like in previous incidents in Araucania, pamphlets extolling the Mapuche cause were found at the scene of one of the churches, though no arrests were made and no group has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>"There is both hope and worry about the pope's visit," said Emilio Taladriz, director of Multigremial de la Araucania, a conglomerate of unions across several industries. "The area is still one of conflict."</p>
<p>Protests are expected in Temuco, including outside the Maquehue Air Base where the pope will celebrate Mass. It was built on land that was taken from Mapuches in the early 20th century and remains a point of friction.</p>
<p>Chilean authorities plan to deploy more than 4,000 police officers in Temuco's streets as, flanked by 16 police vehicles, Francis rides in the popemobile down a central avenue before visiting an order of nuns.</p>
<p>A Mapuche choir will participate in the Mass, and afterward the pope will have lunch with a group of Mapuches hand-picked by local bishops.</p>
<p>Fernando Diaz, a priest in the Temuco area who has worked with Mapuches for years, expressed disappointment that Francis is not scheduled to meet with any of the leaders of the cause.</p>
<p>"The visit has been planned so the pope sees as little of the reality as possible," Diaz said.</p>
<p>Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and theology professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, said every papal visit disappointments someone over who gets or does not get an audience, but the pope generally finds a way to carve out time for what is important to him.</p>
<p>"Usually Francis has a good ear and tries to adapt," said Faggioli.</p>
<p>The first papal visit to Chile since Saint John Paul II in 1987 comes as the Catholic Church's role with indigenous peoples in the Andean nation of 17 million people has shifted.</p>
<p>During the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, many Chilean bishops pushed to protect native peoples and get their cultures recognized. But today the hierarchy is much more aligned with business interests.</p>
<p>In 1987, John Paul II gave a pointed nod to Mapuches that surely prompted cringes within Pinochet's government, which was unsympathetic toward indigenous groups and cracked down on any form of dissent.</p>
<p>During his homily, John Paul said faith in God could overcome all human-caused problems, implicitly referring to friction between Mapuches and the Chilean state.</p>
<p>"It's for this reason that the pope, from Temuco, encourages the Mapuches to conserve with healthy pride the culture of its people," the former pontiff said, adding that included "the traditions and customs, the language and its own values."</p>
<p>Since then, the Mapuches have made significant strides. The return of democracy in Chile in the 1990s set the stage for creation of a government body, the National Corporation of Indigenous Development, that is dedicated to issues related to the country's native peoples and spurred many changes.</p>
<p>Some ancestral lands have been returned. University scholarships have been set aside for Mapuches along with other benefits not open to all Chileans. Various aspects of Mapuche culture, such as many foods, have become part of the mainstream.</p>
<p>Still, problems persist, ranging from economic to social. Araucania remains the country's poorest region, and Mapuches complain of frequent abuse at the hands of security forces.</p>
<p>One case that reverberated strongly in the community involved the arrest of two Mapuche brothers, ages 13 and 17, while police were searching for five wanted Mapuche men in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 17-year-old, Brandon Hernandez Huentecol, was shot in the back by a police officer while face-down on the ground, resulting in a nearly two-month stay in the hospital and several surgeries for a shattered pelvis.</p>
<p>The officer has not been charged and failed to appear in court in response to a summons to testify.</p>
<p>Over a year later, the boy's mother is beseeching Francis to bring his influence to bear.</p>
<p>"I know you are a man who professes Christian values and love for thy neighbor and for those who can't defend themselves," Ada Huentecol, said recently in an open letter to the pope. "That is why I ask that you help us, that you speak up and demand justice for my son."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Mauricio Cuevas reported from Temuco, and Peter Prengaman reported from Paihuano, Chile.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Prengaman on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/peterprengaman" type="external">www.twitter.com/peterprengaman</a></p> | Joy, angst over pope visit to Chile's restive Mapuche region | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0466c37e25df404788e2219ac9a64446 | 2018-01-14 | 2 |
<p>AT CLARK STREET Xavier Botana, a former administrator with the Illinois State Board of Education, has been appointed director of teacher accountability. Botana replaces Sandra A. Givens, who retired. …Carlos Rosa, previously director of school quality assurance in the Office of Accountability, has been appointed deputy chief accountability officer. Rosa replaces Alice Perez-Peters, who retired. Joseph Atria will take over Rosa’s former post. …Joseph Hahn is now director of assessment and compliance, a new title. Responsibility for research, which Hahn previously managed, was shifted to the department of research and program evaluation.</p>
<p>MOVING IN/MOVING ON Effective June 1, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot has been named chair of the board of directors at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Lawrence-Lightfoot, the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University, has been a board member since 1991. She succeeds outgoing chair John E. Corbally. … Former Chicago Tribune writer John McCarron left his post as communications director at the Metropolitan Planning Council in January. Kim Grimshaw Bolton is replacing him.</p>
<p>PRINCIPAL RETIREMENTS The following principals have retired: Sheila Schlaggar, Edison Regional Gifted Center; Charlotte Ann Blackman, Chalmers; Gloria Rice-Woolfolk, Faraday; Curtis Murphy, Carver Military Academy. Saundra Gray, previously assistant principal, is acting principal at Edison. Patricia Vaughn-Dossiea, previously assistant principal, is contract principal at Chalmers. Victoria Ford, former principal at Calhoun North, is acting principal at Faraday. Cynthia Hannah is acting principal at Calhoun North. Dr. William Johnson, former assistant principal, is acting principal at Carver.</p>
<p>PRINCIPAL CONTRACTS Phyliss Crombie-Brown, previously desegregation coordinator for Region 5, has been named contract principal at Ron Brown Elementary. Arey DeSadier, former assistant principal at Lewis, is now contract principal at Fort Dearborn. He replaces Nina Cook, who retired.</p>
<p>LSC AWARDS Six schools were honored at the Union League Club with “Gold Star” awards, which recognize exemplary councils for their work. The winners include: Lake View High, Nash Elementary, Galileo Elementary, Telpochcalli Elementary, Dawes Elementary and Mireles Academy. The competition was sponsored by the Chicago Successful Schools Project and a committee of civic and community leaders.</p>
<p>BRIDGE OF BOOKS PROJECT Sue Hepker, a consultant for the Illinois Resource Center, will head up Bridge of Books, a project that pairs four public elementary schools in Chicago with four schools in Gauteng, South Africa. Fifth-graders from both schools will use the Internet and e-mail to teach each other about their respective cultures. Hepker, who was educated in South Africa, emigrated to Chicago in 1996 and has been working with the Bridge of Books project for the Illinois Resource Center since 1997. Hepker also serves as co-director of Hug-A-Book, an inner-city literacy program used by Head Start and day care centers.</p>
<p>PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR</p>
<p>The Chicago Assistant Principals Association is hosting a seminar Saturday, April 6, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Quality Inn at 1 S. Halsted. Michael Mahone, chief investigator for the department of school and community relations, is the guest speaker. The free seminar is open to non-members and carries a unit of professional development credit. For more information, call (773) 553-2406.</p>
<p>Compiled by Leah Kerkman</p> | Comings and goings | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/comings-and-goings-4/ | 2005-07-28 | 3 |
<p>Discussion Paper - International Security Program, Belfer Center</p>
<p />
<p>This paper explains changes in NATO's nationbuilding strategy for Afghanistan over time as an internal push-and-pull struggle between the major NATO contributors. It distinguishes between he "light footprint" phase, which had numerous problems connected to limited resources and growing insurgency (2003–2008), NATO's adoption of a comprehensive approach (CSPMP) and counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy (2009–2011), the transition and drawdown (2011–2014), and the Enduring Partnership (beyond 2014). The paper explains NATO's drawdown, stressing both increased budgetary strictures compelling decisionmakers to focus on domestic concerns nd predominant national narratives connected to a protracted stabilization effort in Afghanistan. The United States provided constant pressure for NATO to develop integrated civilian-military capabilities and implement a security-development-governance strategy. It was supported by he United Kingdom, which sought to maximize its political influence, and Poland, which saw NATO as an insurance premium. Germany long resisted the idea of participating in a war-like effort, while France resisted NATO becoming a toolbox for Washington's broader strategic purposes. NATO's internal decisions reveal a pattern of negotiated power and predominant national narratives affecting economic cost-benefit calculi.</p>
<p /> | NATO in Afghanistan: Democratization Warfare, National Narratives, and Budgetary Austerity | false | http://belfercenter.org/publication/nato-afghanistan-democratization-warfare-national-narratives-and-budgetary-austerity | 2013-12-01 | 2 |
<p>Throughout the 1980s until the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the world still shivered in the edgy cold war air. The global yearning for world unity and peace appeared to be cast far off into a never-never land. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists report of 1980 positioned the nuclear clock at 7 minutes to midnight. The US and the Soviet Union still viewed nuclear weapons as an “integral component of their mutual security.” Incensed, one Bulletin writer thought that the Soviets and the US behaved like “nucleoholics”—drunks who insist that this drink will be their “last one.”</p>
<p>One year later in 1981, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the US’s hardened nuclear posture pushed the clock ahead three minutes, to 4 minutes before midnight. In fact, the early 1980s was a worrisome time for the world. Things did look gloomy. US-Soviet relations had reached their iciest point in decades. Dialogue had almost stopped. In the Bulletin’s assessment, “Every channel of communication has been constricted or shut down; every form of contact has been attenuated or cut off. And arms control negotiations have been reduced to a species of propaganda.”</p>
<p>By 1984 it was 3 minutes to midnight. In fact, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world reached its highest point in 1986. Moreover, superpower deployment of SS20s in Soviet Bloc countries, American Pershing missiles in W. Europe and Britain’s replacement of Polaris armed submarine fleet with Trident missiles drove thousands of anti-nuclear protestors into the streets.</p>
<p>By 1988, miraculously enough, President Ronald Reagan’s hard-line approach to the “evil empire” had softened. In the early 1980s Reagan had entertained scenarios of nuclear attack and even dreamed up crazy ideas like a missile defense shield, popularly known as “Star Wars.” Hobsbawm thinks that the US experience of defeat and public ignominy in the 1970s fuelled the “apparent insanity of this outburst of military fever, the rhetoric of apocalypse, and the bizarre international behaviour of US governments, especially in the early years of President Reagan (1980-1988)” (p. 247). The US was suffering from the trauma of humiliation: the “greatest power on earth” couldn’t defeat the Viet Cong or even decisively confront the consortium of feeble Third World states that strangled oil supplies in 1973 or handle the Iranian hostage taking crisis with skill and aplomb. But in the late 1980s something almost miraculous occurred.</p>
<p>Capturing this unlikely moment, the Atomic Bulletin exclaimed: “The US and the Soviet Union signed the historic Intermediate nuclear forces treaty, the first agreement to actually ban a whole category of nuclear weapons.” This momentous occasion, which even included treaties to ban all nuclear weapons by 2000, was propelled by Gorbachev-Reagan and signed in 1987. Gorbachev also promised to remove all troops from Afghanistan and Mongolia by July 28th. Hobsbawm hails Gorbachev’s complex positive role in sealing this agreement and observes that Regan “actually believed in the coexistence of the USA and the USSR, but one which should not be based on an abhorrent balance of mutual nuclear terror” (p. 249). Hobsbawm thinks that the Cold War ended in 1987.</p>
<p>The Cold War was beginning to thaw a trickle or two. Both the US and the USSR had distorted and overstretched their economies as massive amounts of money were spent on armaments. But the USSR, with its command-state economy scarcely able to compete with that the US, driven as it was by new technologies, and drained by payments to Soviet allies and dependents, couldn’t handle massive debt (The US debt was 3 trillion) as the world capitalist system seemed able to do. The Cold War was, Hobsbawm points out, a “war of unequals” (p. 251). But, while there was a fleck of hope of moving beyond endless wars in 1987, from 1945 until the late 1980s the superpowers sought to win friends and influence people by feeding them huge supplies of arms. The world was drowning in weapons of destruction. It still is!</p>
<p>Yet even though the world has reduced its numbers of nuclear weapons to around 15,000 (down from the heights of 50,000-70,000 in the chilly 1980s), these alone can provoke the “nuclear winter” scenarios imagined by scientists writing in the early 1980s. The apocalyptic image of black, sooty smoke from cities and industrial sites billowing and darkening the sky would block out the sunlight over the entire planet. This would precipitate, in turn, disastrous consequences for agriculture, fires raging uncontrollably everywhere, radioactivity permeating life and ruining modestly decent everyday life. Alan Robock (“Nuclear winter,” Climate change, vol. 1, May/June 2010, p. 420) states: “A nuclear explosion is like bringing a piece of the Sun to Earth’s surface for a fraction of a second. Like a giant match, it causes cities and industrial areas to burn.” The image of nuclear winter—analyzed by scholars and exploited by film makers —is one unwanted heritage of the “culture of fear” gripping the 1980s imagination.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 1980s: From Star Wars to the End of the Cold War | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/02/21/1980s-from-star-wars-to-the-end-of-the-cold-war/ | 2018-02-21 | 4 |
<p>Last Sunday, in Trento, Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi was speaking at an economics conference when protesters began demonstrating outside and inside the event. They were protesting plans to dramatically expand the U.S. military base called Vicenza in their community.</p>
<p>Prodi, who led a center-left coalition to take power, sat silently as one woman protest leader was given the microphone to <a href="" type="internal">address the audience</a>.</p>
<p>“We voted for you on the basis of a manifesto which spoke of less servitude towards the military and of participatory democracy. Where are those words?” she asked.</p>
<p>Prodi did not address the issue in his speech but told the media afterwards, “On the U.S. base at Vicenza, the government has made its decision, a decision we are sticking to.”</p>
<p>The several hundred protesters outside had to be carried away before Prodi could leave.</p>
<p>The demands of the Italians include:</p>
<p>BUSH, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. THE WORLD HAS HAD IT.</p>
<p>ITALY, DON’T FOLLOW BUSH! ITALY AND EUROPE MUST ACT AUTONOMOUSLY AGAINST THE MISGUIDED RATIONALE OF SUPREMACY AND WAR.</p>
<p>NO TO THE BASE IN VICENZA AT DAL MOLIN, NO TO U.S. BASES, NO TO MILITARIZATION, NO TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS, NO TO THE F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER, NO TO THE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM.</p>
<p>Bush will be in Rome on June 9 and a national demonstration is planned to oppose his visit and the U.S. military empire.</p>
<p>The “missile defense system” issue is becoming quite big throughout Europe as Bush rushes forward with deployment plans of interceptors in Poland and a Star Wars radar facility in the Czech Republic. On May 26 <a href="http://nezakladnam.cz/index.php" type="external">thousands protested</a> against U.S. plans for the radar facility in the Czech Republic. The public in both Poland and the Czech Republic are strongly opposed to these new U.S. bases but their governments are giving in to Bush’s pressure.</p>
<p>In Australia the government is joining the U.S. for military war games called Talisman Sabre 2007. The maneuvers will bind Australia with the U.S. military expansion currently sweeping across the north-west Pacific Ocean. This increasing militarization is anchored on the small island of Guam which the U.S. now occupies.</p>
<p>The majority of the 20,000 U.S. troops, planes, ships and submarines which engage in military exercises such as Talisman Sabre in Australia are either home based in Guam, are rotated to Guam, or transit through Guam from bases in Hawaii and the U.S. continent. Activists on Guam have been calling on the U.S. for many years to give the island back to the people.</p>
<p>Australian activists are now &lt;http://www.peaceconvergence.com/&gt;organizing to hold protests nationwide opposing Talisman Sabre. For two weeks, beginning mid-June, 12,400 Australian troops will participate in live aerial, ship to shore and land based artillery bombardments with the U.S. troops. Of particular concern is that the war games will be held in some of Australia,s most precious environments. Shoalwater Bay Training Area, which is partly within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, has seen a massive government injection of public funding to upgrade and expand facilities in preparation for these and future war games.</p>
<p>One Australian activist put it this way: “Don’t worry that the world is melting down from climate change and the oceans of aviation fuel and heavy crude oil their ships will guzzle up to come here from the other side of the world. Don’t worry about the carcinogenic nature of all these heavy metal bombs (even if we can`trust’ them on their word not to use depleted uranium bombs) they will explode and will drift on the wind over Australia for up to one thousand kilometers from the drop site. …. We have a moral obligation to object to our sacred soil being used to train soldiers for pre-emptive wars that are launched to steal natural resources from people who are no threat to us, who are always the main casualties in these adventurist wars to grab their natural resources so we can indulge our own first world lifestyles.”</p>
<p>In addition, some 230 miles north of Perth, at Geraldton on Australia’s west coast, the Bush administration is building a new base. When completed, it will control two geostationary satellites that feed intelligence to U.S. military forces in Asia and the Middle East. Most Americans know nothing about Geraldton, just as they know nothing about other Australian sites such as the U.S. submarine communications base at North Cape or the U.S. missile-tracking center at Pine Gap. But there is growing concern Down Under that Prime Minster John Howard’s conservative government is weaving a network of alliances and U.S. bases that puts Australia under full control of the U.S. military machine.</p>
<p>Just like in Italy, the public in Australia is not behind their nation’s subservience to the U.S. All over the world people are learning that their governments, as corporate globalization takes hold, have become slaves to the interests of corporate profit and militarism.</p>
<p>As we see the activists in Italy, Czech Republic, Guam, and Australia work hard to resist U.S. militarism, we in the U.S. must step up and stand in solidarity with those on the receiving end of the mighty U.S. military boot that is coming down hard on their necks.</p>
<p>A global peace movement is in motion.</p>
<p>BRUCE K. GAGNON is Coordinator of the <a href="http://www.space4peace.org/" type="external">Global Network Against Weapons &amp; Nuclear Power in Space</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/06/06/a-global-peace-movement-is-taking-shape/ | 2007-06-06 | 4 |
<p>A despairing country elected a president who promised change. Americans arrived from every state to witness in bitter cold Obama’s swearing in ceremony. The mall was packed in a way that it has never been for any other president.</p>
<p>The people’s good will toward Obama and the expectations they had for him were sufficient for Obama to end the gratuitous wars and enact major reforms. But Obama has deserted the people for the interests. He is relying on his non-threatening demeanor and rhetoric to convince the people that change is underway.</p>
<p>The change that we are witnessing is in Obama, not in policies. Obama is morphing into Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>Obama has not been in office four months and already a book could be written about his broken promises.</p>
<p>Obama said he would close the torture prison, Guantanamo, and abolish the kangaroo courts known as military tribunals. But now he says he is going to reform the tribunals and continue the process, but without confessions obtained with torture. Getting behind Obama’s validation of the Bush/Cheney policy, House Democrats pulled the budget funding that was to be used for closing Guantanamo.</p>
<p>The policy of kidnapping people (usually on the basis of disinformation supplied by their enemies) and whisking them off to third world prisons to be interrogated is to be continued. Again, Obama has substituted a “reform” for his promise to abolish an illegal policy. Rendition, Obama says, has also been reformed and will no longer involve torture. How would anyone know? Is Obama going to assign a US government agent to watch over the treatment given to disappeared people by third world thugs? Given the proclivity of American police to brutalize US citizens, nothing can save the victims of rendition from torture.</p>
<p>Obama has defended the Bush/Cheney warrantless wiretapping program run by the National Security Agency and broadened the government’s legal argument that “sovereign immunity” protects government officials from prosecution and civil suits when they violate US law and constitutional protections of citizens. Obama’s Justice Department has taken up the defense of Donald Rumsfeld against a case brought by detainees whose rights Rumsfeld violated.</p>
<p>In a signing statement this month, Obama abandoned his promise to protect whislte-blowers who give information of executive branch illegality to Congress.</p>
<p>Obama is making even more expansive claims of executive power than Bush. As Bruce Fine puts it: “In principle, President Obama is maintaining that victims of constitutional wrongdoing by the U.S. government should be denied a remedy in order to prevent the American people and the world at large from learning of the lawlessness perpetrated in the name of national security and exacting political and legal accountability.”</p>
<p>Obama, in other words, is committed to covering up the Bush regime’s crimes and to ensuring that his own regime can continue to operate in the same illegal and unconstitutional ways.</p>
<p>Obama is fighting the release of the latest batch of horrific torture photos that have come to light. Obama claims that release of the photos would anger insurgents and cause them to kill our troops. That, of course, is nonsense. Those resisting occupation of their land by US troops and NATO mercenaries are already dedicated to killing our troops, and they know that Americans torture whomever they capture. Obama is fighting the release of the photos, because he knows the barbaric image that the photos present of the US military will undermine the public’s support for the wars that enrich the military/security complex, appease the Israel Lobby, and repay the campaign contributions that elect the US government.</p>
<p>As for bringing the troops home from Iraq, this promise, too, has been reformed. To the consternation of his supporters, Obama is leaving 50,000 US soldiers in Iraq. The others are being sent to Afghanistan and to Pakistan, where on Obama’s watch war has broken out big time with already one million refugees from the indiscriminate bombing of civilians.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, war with Iran remains a possibility, and at Washington’s insistence, NATO is conducting war games on former Soviet territory, thus laying the groundwork for future enrichment of the US military/security complex. The steeply rising US unemployment rate will provide the needed troops for Obama’s expanding wars.</p>
<p>Obama can give a great speech without mangling the language. He can smile and make people believe his rhetoric. The world, or much of it, seems to be content with the soft words, which now drape Dick Cheney’s policies in pursuit of executive supremacy and US hegemony.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Morphing Dick Cheney | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/05/21/morphing-dick-cheney/ | 2009-05-21 | 4 |
<p>IMAX Corporation will build 10 new IMAX theaters in China in partnership with IMAX China Holding Inc. and Shanghai Aurora Movie Co., the company said Wednesday. Eight of the theaters will be built at Imax's construction projects throughout China and the other two locations are not yet determined. Shares of IMAX have fallen 8.6% in the past three months compared to the S&amp;P 500's gain of 9%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | IMAX To Build 10 New Theaters In China | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/13/imax-to-build-10-new-theaters-in-china.html | 2016-04-13 | 0 |
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<p>By a 5-0 vote Tuesday night, the school board approved a resolution stating that it opposes the construction of a cell tower at West Alameda Street and St. Francis Drive, which is near the K-8 Gonzales Community School.</p>
<p>While an application for a waiver to construct a cell tower at that location has not been filed, AT&amp;T has inquired about building one there in the past. The tower would be on the property where a Burger King and a gas station are located.</p>
<p>The resolution lists the reasons why the district is taking the stand. Among them are that the health and safety of students, the school and community was a fundamental concern; the site is in a historic district and would possibly reduce home values in the neighborhood; enrollment and/or diversity at the school could be impacted; cell towers sometimes fall, so could cause an inferno at a nearby gas station; and exposure to low frequency electromagnetic fields could cause cancer.</p>
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<p>A draft of the resolution stated the message was to be communicated to the Santa Fe Historic District Review Board, which decides on such matters within historic districts. But the board’s vice president, Steven Carrillo, recommended language be added to include the City Council and AT&amp;T.</p>
<p>“I think we need to be proactive,” he said.</p>
<p>The city council would address the issue only if the review board’s decision is appealed.</p>
<p>Susan Duncan, who introduced the resolution, agreed to accept Carrillo’s addition.</p>
<p>There was little discussion among board members before the vote, but Duncan said there wasn’t much to add after the six people who spoke in opposition of the tower during public forum spoke so eloquently.</p>
<p>Carrillo did add that comments made by George and Debby Kaschner, who have two children attending Gonzales, convinced him to vote for the resolution.</p>
<p>George Kaschner, who said he holds multiple degrees, including in engineering and physics, said constructing a cell tower near a school was “wrong on so many counts.” He focused his remarks on safety and health issues, saying that children and the elderly are most susceptible to the health risks associated with electromagnetic fields.</p>
<p>Debby Kaschner said there is a danger of cell towers falling. One just fell in Las Vegas, Nev., last month, she said.</p>
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<p>“This is an accident waiting to happen,” she said.</p>
<p>She added that she is a brain tumor survivor.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to see kids put through that trauma,” she said.</p>
<p>Dee Beingessnor said she has three children attending Gonzales, but they won’t be going there if a cell tower is built nearby. She said she’s already applied for a transfer in case it is built. If the transfer wasn’t approved, she said she’d send them to private schools.</p>
<p>“I’m a big believer in public schools, but I will not risk my child’s safety,” she said.</p>
<p>Melinda Espinosa, a student at Gonzales, was there with her mother, Heather. Melinda said she’s heard about the health risks associated with cell towers.</p>
<p>“I don’t want that happening to me,” she said, adding she was worried about her friends as well. “For them to be at risk too, makes me scared.”</p>
<p>The matter came up during board discussion at a meeting earlier this month. It was noted then that there’s already a cell tower located on school property at Santa Fe High School, and board member Lorraine Price wondered aloud whether the school district could take steps to have it removed.</p>
<p>At Tuesday’s meeting, she asked Superintendent Joel Boyd to look into getting out of that contract. Boyd said it was already under review.</p> | SFPS opposes cell tower by school | false | https://abqjournal.com/180332/sfps-opposes-cell-tower-by-school.html | 2013-03-20 | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">In last weeks column, Opens a New Window.</a>I pointed out that the presidents new jobs plan is too short-term and doesnt do enough to tackle the real economic issues we are facing. Unemployment rates in August increased in more than half the states; 12 states showed improvement, but these gains were marginal at best. To make matters worse, the Census Bureau just released data showing the poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1%, the highest rate since 1993. Faced with record unemployment and poverty rates, the administration is going to have to get more innovate in their approach to spur substantial, long-term job growth.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>To learn more about potential long-term solutions, I spoke with Dr. Elliot Lasson, executive director of <a href="http://www.joblinkemployment.com/cms/default.aspx" type="external">Joblink of Maryland Opens a New Window.</a>, a nonprofit organization based in Baltimore.</p>
<p>Identify What We Have</p>
<p>There are in fact jobs out there. The problem is identifying them and how to link people to them. According to Lasson, we need a national initiative to take inventory of existing jobs, which are often hard to fill. As pointed out in the 2011 Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey, more than half of American employers cant fill mission-critical positions. The top five hardest-to-fill positions included: skilled trades, sales representatives, engineers, drivers and accounting/finance staff.</p>
<p>Education is key when it comes to staffing these hard to fill positions. Take sales for example: Part of the challenge is that many sales positions today require specific proficiencies in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math, also known as STEM. Many adult workers lack these core proficiencies, which takes them out of contention for these positions. Knowing the positions available in the market now and in the future will help us better focus our educational efforts to help match candidates skills with the needs of employers.</p>
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<p>Bolster STEM Education</p>
<p>Heres another problem: Many available jobs require basic proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and math, all areas where U.S. students have fallen behind. The 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found that American Fourth graders ranked 11th and eighth graders ranked 9th in the world in math and science knowledge. In light of the fact that the U.S. is widely considered a leader in science and technology innovation, these rankings are not only unacceptable, but downright disturbing.</p>
<p>A recent report from the United States Department of Commerce Education and Statistics Administration stated that over the past 10 years, growth in STEM jobs was three times as fast as growth in non-STEM jobs. STEM workers are also less likely to experience joblessness than their non-STEM counterparts.&#160; The report went on to indicate that STEM occupations are projected to grow by 17.0% from 2008 to 2018, compared to 9.8% growth for non-STEM occupations. This begs the question: Who will fill these jobs? Based on the current state of education in this country its a good bet that a significant portion likely wont be Americans.</p>
<p>Lasson also pointed out that we have become an end-user society where we love using our <a href="" type="internal">iPad</a>s, smartphones, and Wiis, but have little interest the development, engineering, and manufacturing of these devices. In order to redirect the unemployed in this country, Lasson says some sort of structured national adult curriculum needs to be developed and implemented, one that would be driven by employer needs, not academics. However, Lasson points out that for the long-term, the government needs to be proactive in promoting STEM in the lower grades to promote a sense of trajectory towards these fields as adults.</p>
<p>Michael <a href="http://www.drwoody.com/" type="external">Dr. Woody Opens a New Window.</a> Woodward, PhD is a CEC certified executive coach trained in organizational psychology. Dr. Woody is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/YOU-Plan-5-Step-Taking-Economy/dp/1599321750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1264605778&amp;sr=1-1" type="external">The YOU Plan: A 5-step Guide to Taking Charge of Your Career in the New Economy Opens a New Window.</a> and is the founder of Human Capital Integrated ( <a href="http://www.humancapitalintegrated.com/" type="external">HCI Opens a New Window.</a>), a firm focused on management and leadership development. Dr. Woody also sits on the advisory board of the Florida International University Center for Leadership.Follow Dr. Woody on <a href="http://twitter.com/drwoody" type="external">Twitter Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/DrWoody/68127538503?v=wa" type="external">Facebook Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;</p> | Identifying the STEM of Our Jobs Problem | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/09/19/identifying-stem-our-jobs-problem.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
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<p>CHICAGO — Let’s applaud the best education reform policy proposed this year: A test — similar to a bar exam — for teachers.</p>
<p>This suggestion is fundamental, necessary and overdue.</p>
<p>One other word comes to mind to describe my answer to education policy observers who are asking whether we should hold teachers to rigorous national standards: Duh.</p>
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<p>The exam idea was proposed by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who, in her introduction to the AFT’s “Raising the Bar” report, laid out the thinking behind what amounts to a seismic disturbance in the world of teacher preparation: “We must do away with a common rite of passage, whereby newly minted teachers are tossed the keys to their classrooms, expected to figure things out, and left to see if they (and their students) sink or swim.”</p>
<p>I’ll take that a step further and say that it’s also high time to do away with the common practice of letting teachers tackle subject areas in which they possess little formal scholarship.</p>
<p>A meticulous weed-out system and an overall culture of excellence that trickles down to the individual school level could help address this.</p>
<p>In 2011, the National Center for Education Statistics released a report — “Education and Certification Qualifications of Departmentalized Public High School-Level Teachers of Core Subjects” — which broke down the types of teachers in classrooms based on a 2007-08 schools and staffing survey.</p>
<p>In general, a majority of teachers of the 11 broad subject fields such as languages, science and math held both a postsecondary degree and certification in their main teaching assignments. But what’s surprising is just how many don’t.</p>
<p>For instance, 25 percent of English teachers, 34 percent of math teachers and 25 percent of science teachers were not considered highly qualified.</p>
<p>What’s worse is how many underqualified teachers are concentrated in schools that serve overwhelmingly minority student bodies.</p>
<p>In a 2008 report called “CORE PROBLEMS: Out-of-Field Teaching Persists in Key Academic Courses,” the Education Trust found that “in America’s secondary schools, low-income students and students of color are about twice as likely as other students to be enrolled in core academic classes taught by … teachers … who possess neither certification in the subject they have been assigned to teach nor an academic major in that subject.”</p>
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<p>As the AFT report notes, “Teaching, like other respected professions, must have a universal assessment process for entry that includes rigorous preparation centered on clinical practice as well as theory, an in-depth test of subject and pedagogical knowledge, and a comprehensive teacher performance assessment.”</p>
<p>Rigor is the key word here. Another study — the National Council on Teacher Quality’s 2011 report “Student Teaching in the United States” — has shown the weakness of many teacher-preparation plans. Three-quarters of the 134 randomly sampled programs the council evaluated failed to meet five basic standards for a high-quality program.</p>
<p>Many states require several standardized tests in order to qualify for certification. But take it from someone who’s sat for many of these tests: They are insultingly easy.</p>
<p>And yet there are plenty of “frequent fliers” who have to take them over and over until they can pass.</p>
<p>Extra education isn’t the answer, either — research has shown time and again that the additional master’s level courses or degrees that so many teachers earn in order to boost their pay are unrelated to their effectiveness in the classroom.</p>
<p>The AFT’s proposed high standards aim at the heart of what’s required for good teachers: Top students coming out of college with documented expertise in specific subject areas, uncompromising teacher training, exacting exams that demonstrate knowledge and stringent methods of training and evaluating classroom performance.</p>
<p>Lots of interested parties will hate this proposal. But it sounds a lot like the kind of academic achievement we expect of our successful public school students.</p>
<p>E-mail: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Copyright 2011, Washington Post Writers Group.</p> | Raise the Bar on Our Teachers | false | https://abqjournal.com/151613/raise-the-bar-on-our-teachers.html | 2012-12-07 | 2 |
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<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a broad review into technology issues at major brokerage firms, specifically looking at whether they have proper controls to address errors, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The SEC's review was prompted by a string of recent events, including a software glitch at Knight Capital which led to a $440 million trading loss, nearly bankrupted the firm and sent the market-maker scrambling for investors.</p>
<p>The SEC's examinations staff has sent out two batches of questionnaires to a sampling of brokerages asking for detailed information surrounding their automated systems for order-taking and order processing, these people said.</p>
<p>The SEC's new risk-targeted exams, which were reported earlier on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, are designed to help the agency better understand how brokerages make and implement technological changes, prevent problems from happening, and how they remediate glitches that may arise.</p>
<p>The results of the exams will be used to help inform SEC policy but could potentially lead to enforcement actions.</p>
<p>One thing regulators are expected to explore is whether or not brokerages should all be required to have "kill switches," a mechanism that can be used to quickly shut down trading before problems spread.</p>
<p>Next Tuesday, the SEC is convening a roundtable to discuss technology issues and how to prevent problems like the one experienced by Knight Capital. Kill switches are likely to be among the topics debated.</p>
<p>The SEC's examinations could also lead the SEC to issue an exam alert to help promote compliance more broadly throughout the industry.</p>
<p>The agency's decision to start a review into brokerages' automated systems first came in June -- about two months before Knight's disaster.</p>
<p>The first batch of questionnaires, sent to roughly a dozen brokerages, focused mostly on learning what policies and procedures firms have place to comply with the SEC's new "market access" rule.</p>
<p>That rule, which took effect last year, requires brokers to put in place risk control systems to prevent the execution of erroneous trades or orders that exceed pre-set credit or capital thresholds.</p>
<p>Separately, the SEC has also been looking to see if Knight was in compliance with the new market access rule when its trading error, which has been blamed on a software problem, occurred.</p>
<p>In August, after the incident at Knight Capital, the SEC decided to start a second leg of the exam process focused more on technology and governance.</p>
<p>The agency then sent out a second batch of questionnaires to roughly the same number of brokerages. Responses are due in mid-October, these people told Reuters.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | SEC Launches Brokerage Technology Reviews Following Recent Glitches | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/09/26/sec-launches-brokerage-technology-reviews-following-recent-glitches.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>Isaac “The Shermanator” Marquez, left, shows his tattoo with Diego Sanchez at his side during a news conference for Friday’s Jackson-Wink Fight Night 2.</p>
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<p>Extra-sensory perception? No, although that wouldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Experience. Stamina. Pace.</p>
<p>East, an MMA heavyweight from Los Lunas, is scheduled to face Lopez Friday night in a featured fight on Jackson-Wink Fight Night 2 at Isleta Resort &amp; Casino.</p>
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<p>It’s a rematch of an April 2012 fight on a King of the Cage card in Thackerville, Okla. East — 3-0 at the time, 12-3 now — lost that fight by third-round TKO.</p>
<p>East has been aching for another shot at Lopez since.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of bad blood going back and forth with me and him,” East said on Tuesday a news conference at Isleta. Lopez also has two victories over East’s younger brother, Tyler.</p>
<p>“This is like the third time we were supposed to have a rematch,” East said. “I’ve called him out a few times, and stuff got canceled. I always told him it was going to happen.”</p>
<p>That night 5½ years ago, East hit Lopez with everything but the fire extinguisher on the wall at Winstar World Casino. But Lopez, 29-8 at the time, would not go down.</p>
<p>“He takes a lot of punches,” East said, “and then he kind of wears you out with his face, really. You get tired of hitting it.”</p>
<p>By the end of the second round, East was tired, period. In the third, now with Lopez raining shots on a defenseless East, the fight was stopped.</p>
<p>Lopez, of Yucaipa, Calif., is now 56-26. Friday’s fight will be his 13th of the year.</p>
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<p>Still, East believes the experience gap has narrowed.</p>
<p>“I’ve had 10 fights since I fought him,” East said. “I’m a whole different fighter now.”</p>
<p>In the first fight, East said, “I punched that dude, like, 200 times in the first round and got tired. … I just wasn’t experienced enough, and he took advantage of that and knew how to weather the storm.</p>
<p>“Before I knew it, I couldn’t pick my arms up, and I was getting beat up. So (this time) I plan on just keeping a steady pace and not burning myself out.”</p>
<p>East, who has eight wins by knockout or TKO, would love to make it nine on Friday. But, he said of Lopez, “He’s got a head full of concrete, so I don’t know if I can knock him out.</p>
<p>“But if I have to just beat him around for 15 minutes like a heavy bag, I’m ready to do that, too.”</p>
<p>The East-Lopez fight is one of six pro matches scheduled for Friday’s card. A flyweight fight between Albuquerque’s Damacio Page (19-10) and El Paso’s Jesús Urbina (8-5) is the main event.</p>
<p>Five amateur bouts are planned.</p>
<p>THE SHERMANATOR: UFC legend Diego Sanchez will engage in what is labeled a display bout Friday with Isaac “The Shermanator” Marquez, who has Down’s syndrome.</p>
<p>Sanchez said Marquez began coming to Jackson-Wink MMA, where Sanchez trains, saying he loved MMA.</p>
<p>“I said, ‘Do you want to watch, or do you want to train?'” Sanchez said. “He said, ‘I want to train.’ We’ve been working every Thursday since, and this guy’s come a long way.”</p>
<p>Marquez has developed a following online, Sanchez said. “He’s a superstar, and he’s only getting bigger and better.”</p>
<p>Sanchez said his main concern for Marquez has always been his health — diet and exercise.</p>
<p>Of Friday’s “fight,” Sanchez said, “I’m ready for the challenge, and so is Isaac.”</p>
<p>To participate in the exhibition, co-promoter Mike Winkeljohn said, Sanchez needed permission from the UFC. UFC President Dana White gave the OK, Winkeljohn said.</p>
<p>THE SWITCH: When Friday’s card was first announced last month, Jackson-Wink lightweight Chris Brown was matched against Clovis’ Harvey Park — though Park is 8-1 as a professional and Brown has yet to fight as a pro.</p>
<p>The Pueblo of Isleta Tribal Commission, however, vetoed the match.</p>
<p>Park now is matched against Majdeddine Ayadi (10-2), a Frenchman who trains at Jackson-Wink.</p>
<p>Brown is matched against Albuquerque’s Brandon Trujillo (1-2). One of Trujillo’s losses came against Park, via second-round TKO (punches, leg kicks) on Jackson-Wink Fight Night 1 in February.</p> | East gets another shot at Lopez; ‘Shermanator’ steps up | false | https://abqjournal.com/1099132/shermanator-gets-his-shot-in-octagon.html | 2017-11-28 | 2 |
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<p>If confirmed by the Senate, Price will play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace the current health care law. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling the landmark measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill.</p>
<p>The president-elect has said he favors keeping provisions that allow young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance and that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>Trump is expected to announce Price’s nomination as early as Tuesday morning. The person familiar with decision insisted on anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of the official announcement.</p>
<p>Price, a 62-year-old six-term congressman and orthopedic surgeon, has chaired the House Budget Committee for the past two years. A bookish conservative from the Atlanta suburbs, Price has worked closely with House Speaker Paul Ryan to assemble GOP budgets aimed at reducing the annual deficit.</p>
<p>Last week, Price said whatever Republicans do to replace Obama’s health care law will bear a “significant resemblance” to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president. That bill would have gutted some of the health care law’s main features: Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help middle-class Americans buy private policies, the tax penalties for individuals who refused to get coverage and several taxes to support coverage expansion. The bill would have delayed implementation for two years.</p>
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<p>Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address “the real cost drivers” of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.</p>
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<p>Associated Press writers Bill Barrow and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.</p>
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<p>Follow Julie Pace at <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a></p> | Trump to nominate Georgia Rep. Tom Price as health secretary | false | https://abqjournal.com/897626/trump-to-nominate-georgia-rep-tom-price-as-health-secretary.html | 2016-11-29 | 2 |
<p>Only in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Anxiety is high in the City of Angels, one of the most car-dependent cities around, as residents prepared for a 53-hour closure this weekend of a crucial segment of one of the most heavily trafficked north-south corridors, Interstate 405, as part of a construction project.</p>
<p>The closure of the 10-mile section of highway in the U.S.'s second-largest city, the home of famously congested freeways and road rage, is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. local time Friday, and will end at 5 a.m. Monday morning. As workers began <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/carmageddon-could-result-in-20-mile-back-up-on-405.html" type="external">closing onramps and offramps</a>, Angelenos were preparing for what has been dubbed "Carmageddon," a massive traffic disaster, according to the Los Angeles Times:</p>
<p>"Carmageddon" traffic could back up 20 miles on the 405 Freeway -- as far south as the 110 Freeway -- under a worst-case scenario, transportation officials said.</p>
<p>Interstate 405 carries about 500,000 vehicles on a typical weekend, through western Los Angeles and over the Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley. City officials have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/us/16freeway.html" type="external">warning Southern California residents</a> for weeks about the potential for a traffic jam of epic proportions, complete with gridlock and chaos, and they've been begging residents to stay home or get far away, anything but driving anywhere near the construction area, the New York Times reported.</p>
<p>Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he thought July 16 and 17 "will be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/carmageddon-predicted-for-closing-of-las-405/2011/07/13/gIQA2dkGCI_blog.html" type="external">an absolute nightmare</a>," according to the Washington Post:</p>
<p>Commuters trying to get from a freeway like the 10 to the 101 will have no way to connect. Those trying to get from the San Fernando Valley to the central coast will find it impossible to do so. Four big hospitals in Santa Monica and Los Angeles have complained that doctors, nurses, and patients won't be able to get to emergency rooms.</p>
<p>For those who choose not to leave the area, local businesses were coming up with creative deals, including special packages at hotels and enticements from restaurants. According to Time:</p>
<p>If you plan to <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2083486,00.html" type="external">stay home to avoid the chaos</a>, Redbox, the operator of DVD-vending machines, has discounts for movies and video games. If you get hungry, you can order Papa John's, which has been blaring the slogan "Don't drive the 405. Let Papa John's deliver." If you dare to brave the traffic, you can listen to "Carmageddon Radio" on Sirius XM to stay updated on road conditions. If you want to leave home but not the city, the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills is offering "405 Staycation" packages to help people escape the gridlock. Or, if you do want to get out of Dodge, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas is offering weekend Carmageddon packages.</p>
<p>And for those who just absolutely have to go somewhere, helicopter taxi rides were being offered for $150 to passengers who just had to get to Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend, while JetBlue was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14168613" type="external">offering a $4 fare</a> to fly people from Burbank to Long Beach Airport, a 10-minute flight, according to BBC News.</p>
<p>The freeway shutdown is part of a $1 billion project to widen the highway and involves <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/15/us-carmageddon-losangeles-idUSTRE76E6KH20110715" type="external">demolishing a bridge</a> that carries Mulholland Drive across the highway, Reuters reported.</p> | As construction begins, Los Angeles braces for "Carmageddon" | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-07-16/construction-begins-los-angeles-braces-carmageddon | 2011-07-16 | 3 |
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<p>Courtesy of James C. Lewis The Carlisle, a 36-condo mixed-use building shown here, is planned at the southeast corner of Central and Carlisle SE, now occupied by a small former car wash converted to retail use.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A three-story, 36-condo building to be called The Carlisle with parking and some retail is expected to break ground in the next 35-40 days at the southeast corner of Central and Carlisle SE in the center of Nob Hill.</p>
<p>Veteran Albuquerque builder and developer Kenny Hinkes, who described the building’s architectural style as “New Orleans meets Hollywood,” said the $8.2 million construction project is aimed primarily at baby boomers who want to “move down in size without moving down in quality.”</p>
<p>The lot at 3600 Central SE was formerly occupied by a car wash that was converted to shop space with a sloped parking lot. After the current tenant, Ascension Body Modification, relocates April 1 to 1916 Central SE, it will be leveled to create what’s often called a garden level, built into the hillside, that will have a 43-space parking structure and 2,000 square feet of retail space.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The upper two stories will have 38,000 square feet of residential condos built in a U shape around a garden courtyard. Although square footages are not yet available, the condos will all be two bedroom/two bath with balconies or patios and separate storage. The building will have a common rooftop patio for residents.</p>
<p>The Carlisle will be just downhill and north of Immanuel Presbyterian Church at 114 Carlisle SE, which was consulted by Hinkes early in his planning process.</p>
<p>“We’re all for it,” said David Cameron, Immanuel’s pastor. “We were hoping something good would happen at that corner. The project will build residential density and create more foot traffic in the neighborhood.”</p>
<p>Hinkes has developed both commercial and residential condominiums in Albuquerque, including the three-story, 26-unit residential condo building at 110 Richmond SE, less than a half-mile west of The Carlisle.</p>
<p>Built in 2008 and completed in spring 2009, 110 Richmond went through a lull during the real estate slump but sold out in 2013, Hinkes said.</p>
<p>“My wife Jill and I hung in there,” he said. “We retained the value by not cutting prices and emerged at the other end.”</p>
<p>Condos at The Carlisle will be marketed by Keller Williams Realty in the $340,00-$350,000 range, Hinkes said. First Mortgage Co. will provide financing to buyers. The Carlisle is expected to be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2016.</p>
<p>The project could be described as another step in the gentrification of East Nob Hill, the less-traveled area of the Central Avenue corridor from Carlisle east to Washington. The four-story, 75-unit Platinum Apartments at 4100 Silver SE is expected to open this summer, while the redevelopment of the historic, but rundown, De Anza Motor Inn at 4301 Central NE is expected to start later this year.</p>
<p>In addition to Hinkes’ company, Carlisle Condominiums LLC, the development team includes James C. Lewis, architect; HB Construction, general contractor; Consensus Planning and Southwest Capital Bank. Hinkes’ Center Street Realty will manage the property once completed.</p> | New condos planned for the heart of Nob Hill | false | https://abqjournal.com/560646/new-condos-planned-for-the-heart-of-nob-hill.html | 2 |
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<p>The next question: if and when the Israeli army will start a ground offensive. "The World's" Quil Lawrence has the story.</p>
<p>Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinted today that Israel may expand its offensive: "We will do whatever it takes. We are ready to deepen and widen the operation in order to make sure that calm and tranquility will come back to the region."</p>
<p>There has been a steady buildup of Israeli land forces on the Gaza border. Tanks and artillery have been loaded onto trailers in the area, and thousands of reservists have been called up. So far the assault has been by air, and the Israeli air force it still has many targets in the Gaza Strip; but it’s widely assumed that some sort of land assault will follow.</p>
<p>Israel's prestige took a hit after its ground offensive in Lebanon in 2006. Israeli errors during that war gave a propaganda victory to another Islamic group: Hezbollah. Israel seems ready to launch another ground assault anyway -- that's because air power alone only goes so far.</p>
<p>A retired Israeli general says the real question is the goal of the operation: if it's a new ceasefire with Hamas, then air strikes might be enough; but if the goal is regime change in Gaza, Israel would need a much longer ground operation. That would involve higher risk, but would bring a higher reward.</p>
<p>PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">More "The World."</a></p> | Israel weighs ground offensive | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-12-29/israel-weighs-ground-offensive | 2008-12-30 | 3 |
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<p>Boeing Co has approached India's SpiceJet Ltd and Jet Airways Ltd as it gauges airlines' interest in its 737 MAX-10 aircraft, the stretched version of the yet-to-be-delivered 737 MAX narrow-body jetliner, a senior executive said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Indian carriers are rapidly expanding to meet demand in the world's fastest-growing aviation market, with most of the growth involving flights into and out of the country's biggest cities.</p>
<p>"We have presented it to both the airlines what the airplane looks like, and it's in a very preliminary stage," Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president, Asia Pacific and India sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told Reuters.</p>
<p>"If you are flying to the metros this (737 MAX-10) will be a perfect airplane, because runways are long, demand is there, frequency is already there."</p>
<p>Airplane makers typically line up orders before deciding whether to formally undertake building a new aircraft.</p>
<p>SpiceJet and Jet Airways have the option to substitute some of their existing orders of MAX planes with the MAX-10, Keskar said.</p>
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<p>In January, budget airline SpiceJet agreed to buy 100 new 737 MAXs aircraft with an option for 50 more, while Jet Airways had 75 orders for the 737 MAX through January 2017.</p>
<p>SpiceJet and Jet Airways did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Boeing is creating up to five versions of MAX, which will replace the current 737 "NG" introduced in 1997 and offer greater fuel efficiency.</p>
<p>The company has been looking at the feasibility of the 737 MAX-10 - the biggest aircraft in the MAX family - to take on rival Airbus , which has had strong sales of its A321neo, its largest single-aisle aircraft.</p>
<p>The first MAX model in production, the MAX-8, is on track to reach customers by mid-year.</p>
<p>The A321neo competes with Boeing's MAX-9, which carries a list price of $116.6 million and seats as many as 220 passengers. The A321neo seats as many as 236 and has a list price of $127 million.</p>
<p>Keskar said the incremental cost to operate the MAX-10 is going to be very little and airlines may face slightly higher costs on fuel, food and an extra cabin attendant.</p>
<p>"But your potential gain in the revenue will be phenomenal," he said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Rachit Vats and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)</p> | Boeing sounds out Indian carriers on 737 MAX-10 aircraft | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/03/boeing-sounds-out-indian-carriers-on-737-max-10-aircraft.html | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
<p>On Friday, the long-awaited trailer for the next installment of the Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi, hit the Internet, and it is redolent with hints of the action-packed and thought-provoking film arriving in December 2017.</p>
<p>Much of the trailer seems to be centered on Ahch-To, the planet where Rey discovered Luke at the end of The Force Awakens, where it appears that Rey is training. The trailer shows Finn, who was badly wounded in The Force Awakens, healing inside a pod, Poe Dameron running to his fighter, which is blown up, and some serious battles in the sky, one featuring First Order Walkers, and another between X-Wings and TIE fighters.</p>
<p>In a panel discussion that included writer-director Rian Johnson, producer Kathleen Kennedy, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill, and Kelly Marie Tran, who plays Rose, a maintenance worker for the Resistance, some clues about the film emerged.</p>
<p>Ridley slyly stated that “meeting one’s hero isn’t always a positive experience,” <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/14/15299770/star-wars-celebration-2017-the-last-jedi-panel" type="external">according</a> to The Verge, implying Rey meeting Luke may not be the easiest path for either of them, especially because there were hints in The Force Awakens that something had gone terribly wrong between Luke and his nephew, Kylo Ren, when Luke was training him. That hint is strengthened by the comment Luke makes at the end of the trailer: “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”</p>
<p>Johnson admitted that the best advice he got before he started The Last Jedi came from J.J. Abrams’ editors, who told him that you can never have enough BB-8, indicating we’ll be seeing plenty of the droid in the new film.</p>
<p>As The Verge points out, Star Wars films typically begin with the shot of a field of stars, but in the trailer for the new film, the field of stars we see at the beginning is soon revealed to be the ground where Rey has placed her hand for support. The Verge notes, “Given that discussion in the trailer of visualizing The Force — and of light and darkness — the star field could in fact by Rey’s visualization of The Force, with different points of light peeking out from the darkness.”</p>
<p>Johnson stated that after the First Order destroyed the capital of the Republic in The Force Awakens, they are moving, “very aggressively. not sitting on their hands. They’re making some big moves at the start of the film.”</p>
<p>John Boyega said his character, Finn, was still understanding where he fit in the galaxy, adding that Finn had to decide whether he wanted to stay with the Resistance or go back to the First Order.</p>
<p>Video of trailer below:</p> | WATCH: Star Wars 'The Last Jedi' Trailer Finally Here | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15420/watch-star-wars-last-jedi-trailer-finally-here-hank-berrien | 2017-04-14 | 0 |
<p>On MSNBC Wednesday morning, senior McCain advisor Nicolle Wallace said that John McCain won’t cut taxes for corporations, and that in fact he is “their worst nightmare.”</p>
<p>The quote is at about 5:10 in the above video, but if you rewind a bit, you’ll see host Joe Scarborough grilling Obama strategist Robert Gibbs on why Obama’s not proposing corporate tax cuts. Scarborough points out that other countries are reducing taxes on corporations and says that equivalent tax cuts are necessary to keep the U.S.</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/nicolle-wallace/ | 2 |
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<p>Last year, in a written affidavit to the conservative FAMiLY Leader, thrice married Newt Gingrich pledged to “defend” traditional marriage between one man and one woman, writing, “As President,&#160; <a href="//www.thefamilyleader.com/former-speaker-newt-gingrich-provides-written-response-to-the-family-leaders-marriage-pledge" type="external">I will vigorously enforce</a>&#160;the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions.” “I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman.”&#160;</p>
<p>But as the former House speaker gains steam as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney in the lead up to Saturday’s South Carolina primary, his second wife, Marianne Gingrich is claiming that he did not live up to his public proclamations. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Brian Ross, Gingrich claims her ex-husband wanted an&#160; <a href="//www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/01/newt-gingrichs-ex-wife-drops-bombshell.html" type="external">open marriage</a>. “He came to her and said, ‘I want to stay married to you and still have an affair with Calista, his current wife,” said Ross. “According to Marianne, he said ‘You need to share me,’ and she said ‘I don’t want to share,’ and the marriage ended.” Listen:</p>
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<p>The full interview will air on ABC after tonight’s GOP Presidential debate in South Carolina.</p> | Gingrich Ex-Wife's Pre-SC Bombshell: He Asked Her to Have an "Open Marriage" So He Could Stay With Mistress | true | http://alternet.org/newsandviews/article/764527/gingrich_ex-wife%27s_pre-sc_bombshell%3A_he_asked_her_to_have_an_%22open_marriage%22_so_he_could_stay_with_mistress/ | 4 |
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<p>“. . . . A time like this demands . . . . Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor ; Men who will not lie.”</p>
<p>Josiah Gilbert Holland, American journalist [1819-91].</p>
<p>Forget it Josh, baby, because in 2004 they are all liars and none of them has a sense of honor. Begin with those who approved the actions of US military torturers and then denied that they did. Descend further to those who slaughter sleeping children and declare they were terrorists. Then look at the creeps who give briefings about Iraq, knowing they are purveying trumped-up absurdities ; and eventually get to the bottom of the sleazy heap by gazing with abhorrence at the hideously self-satisfied, conniving trash of the Pentagon and their malevolent colleagues in the White House. From them all, the falsehoods flow like stinking sewage in a never-ending cascade of calculated foulness.</p>
<p>The mouthpiece in Iraq, Brigadier-General Kimmitt, whose flair for invention and glib misrepresentation never flags, distinguished himself even further last week when denying that US forces massacred people in the western desert of Iraq. During a hideous onslaught that will be forever a blot on the history of the US military, the troops of Bush destroyed an Iraqi hamlet and two score harmless citizens who had been attending a wedding.</p>
<p>Kimmitt stated flatly that there were “no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration.” But he lied. (Has he ever been to a Bedouin wedding in the desert? I have. And there are no leftovers, believe me.) Anyway, his first instinct was to deny there could be evidence that a wedding had been held.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Kimmitt, and for the last vestiges of belief around the world that the Bush machine might sometimes be trusted to tell the truth, there were two videos taken in the period of the wedding. Associated Press obtained one showing hours of ceremonies and innocent enjoyment on the wedding night ; then an AP camera team shot post-attack scenes showing fragments of musical instruments and decorations. “An AP reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video. Survivors say dozens of missiles were launched late at night after the festivities had ended and that women and children were among those killed, as were the bride and groom.” But was that enough to convince Kimmitt? Of course not. In fact “Brigadier General Kimmitt denied finding evidence that any children died in the raid although he admitted that a “handful of women”–perhaps four to six–were “caught up in the engagement.” “They may have died from some of the fire that came from the aircraft”, he said.”</p>
<p>And that was when I finally lost confidence in the US military. A sad day, indeed, for a former soldier who served alongside many American colleagues.</p>
<p>How can a human being, a citizen and soldier of a supposedly civilized nation, have the crassness, the sheer insensitivity, the moral blankness and lack of compassion to casually shrug off the death of “a handful of women” in such a fashion? Is there a Mrs Kimmitt, one wonders? What does she think of her husband’s dismissive comments about the violent deaths of innocents?</p>
<p>A senior officer speaking for the entire United States military in Iraq has told the world that it’s too bad, but “a handful” of wives, mothers, sisters, guilty of no crime whatever, were killed by US forces because they “were caught up in the engagement”. Caught up?</p>
<p>Kimmitt, you suppurating cur : they were in bed. The “handful” of lives you so casually dismiss–and there were more than six–were not “caught up”. They were slaughtered without pity by US forces. And you and everyone else has lied about the circumstances of their murder ever since. Poor Josiah Holland. He revered all that is best in American life. And, as have so many generations of Americans, he imagined that passage of years could only improve the moral outlook and practices of his countryfolk. He was wrong. He admired : “Men who have honor ; Men who will not lie” ; but this war on Iraq has spawned men and women who are dishonorable and who lie.</p>
<p>There is lying and lying, of course. Recently the chief executive and the top financial whizkid of Shell Oil were forced to resign because they told lies about the company’s circumstances, thereby (just as Enron’s crooks did), pushing up the share price. Once the Securities and Exchange Commission has got enough evidence (and there are several incriminating emails), it is likely prosecutions will follow. Very right and proper, you say. Quite so. But when some other people tell majestic lies, they are not sacked or prosecuted. Take, for example, the Pentagon’s lying twerp, Wolfowitz, one of the most evil figures in the Bush administration.</p>
<p>An exchange between Wolfowitz and the Senate Committee on May 14 shows us what this man is made of. The transcript can be found in the New York Times and on the Australian Broadcasting Company site ( <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/" type="external">www.abc.net.au/am/</a>). It is most revealing:</p>
<p>Senator Reed: Mr Secretary, do you think crouching naked for 45 minutes is humane? Wolfowitz : Naked, absolutely not. Senator Reed : So if he’s dressed up, that’s fine? Let me put it this way : 72 hours without regular sleep, sensory deprivation which would be a bag over your head for 72 hours. Do you think that’s humane? And that’s what this says, a bag over your head for 72 hours. Is that humane?</p>
<p>Wolfowitz: Let me come back to what you said the work–Senator Reed: No, no. Answer the question, Secretary. Is that humane? Wolfowitz: I don’t know whether it means a bag over your head for 72 hours, Senator I don’t know. Senator Reed: Mr Secretary, you’re dissembling, non-responsive. Anybody would say putting a bag over someone’s head for 72 hours, which is sensory deprivation–Wolfowitz : I believe it’s not humane. It strikes me as not humane, Senator.</p>
<p>It took a US Senator a long time to wring a grudging admission from Wolfowitz that torture is not humane. But Wolfowitz’s dissembling (to use the word of Senator Reed) goes further than his reluctance to concede the importance or even the relevance of human dignity. Wolfowitz “made numerous predictions, time and time again, that have turned out to be untrue . . . ” said Senator Hilary Clinton. Quite so : just like the predictions, time and time again, of the chief executives of Shell and Enron and so many other companies who lied consistently to the world in order to boost share prices and, of course, their own private hoards of cash, while beggaring their unfortunate shareholders.</p>
<p>Wolfowitz did not lie to improve his financial situation. He lied in order to justify his rabid desire for power and for war.</p>
<p>He publicly sneered at General Shinseki when the then Army Chief of Staff gave as his opinion that “several hundred thousand troops” would be needed to control post-invasion Iraq. (A campaign of vilification and denigration was then mounted against the honorable General Shinseki by Wolfowitz and his followers, some of whom, alas, were and still are wearing uniform.) But Wolfowitz was wrong. Totally wrong. And General Shinseki was right. Now, if Wolfowitz had been a company senior executive who had made a completely incorrect forecast, costing shareholders squillions, do you think for a moment he would still be in a position of responsibility in that company?</p>
<p>Of course not. If Wolfowitz had been comparably inaccurate in corporate life he would have been out on his ear in no time flat. Exposure of his predictions as lies would have reduced the share price, and investors would not have accepted that state of affairs for longer than a New York Heartbeat. Money, after all, is vitally important. But Wolfowitz’s arrogant and erratic predictions affected only lives.</p>
<p>Thousands of lives have been shattered because Wolfowitz’s predictions were lies. They were deliberate lies, because he refused to take into account the assessments and advice of those who knew better than he how to engage in war and cope with its aftermath. He did not only ignore the people whose careers have been devoted to the study of war : he held them openly in contempt, and continues to do so.</p>
<p>It is terrible that the dismal, back-stabbing, Byzantine climate of the Pentagon and, indeed, the culture of intrigue among senior echelons of the armed forces (but not all individuals, I hear, thank heaven), has crippled defense decision-making. The stage has been reached when nothing can be done unless it is thought to have the approval of those considered powerful enough to speak with the Cheney-Rumsfeld voice. This is passed down the line and amplified by Wolfowitz and other creatures of darkness whose influence is macabre and obscene. It is deeply troubling that these civilians are heavily involved in promoting and sidelining military officers on grounds of political and personal loyalty. The word is out in the military : if you want to survive, Do Not Contradict or Question any pronouncement coming from the top.</p>
<p>But who could not contradict or question the pronouncements–the sworn testimony–of Wolfowitz to the US Congress on February 27, 2003, just before the US began to wage war on Iraq? Wolfowitz announced that “These are Arabs [in Iraq], 23 million of the most educated people in the Arab world, who are going to welcome us as liberators. And when that message gets out to the whole Arab world it is going to be [a] powerful counter to Osama bin Laden. The notion that we’re going to earn more enemies by going in and getting rid of what every Arab knows is one of the worst tyrants, and they have many governing them, is just nonsense . . . We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”</p>
<p>Wolfowitz lied. And he was wrong ; wrong ; and wrong again. He has appallingly poor judgment and is manifestly incompetent. He is unfit to hold a position of trust and responsibility. But he remains in the Pentagon. Why?</p>
<p>Probably because his boss is a liar, too. For example, on February 20, 2003, a month before his invasion, Rumsfeld was asked on PBS “The News Hour’ “Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?” He replied : “There is no question but that they [US forces] would be welcomed.” On September 25, when it was obvious that chaos was developing in Iraq, Rumsfeld appeared on Sinclair Broadcasting. Anchor Morris Jones led into a question by saying “Before the war in Iraq, you stated the case very eloquently and you said . . . they would welcome us with open arms.”</p>
<p>This was an accurate and embarrassing observation, so Rumsfeld’s automatic response was to lie. He said “Never said that, never did. You may remember it well, but you’re thinking of somebody else. You can’t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said.” And, to the eternal shame of the US media, nobody has pressed him about his outrageous mendacity.</p>
<p>He is a proven liar, so there is little wonder he won’t sack his lying deputy for lying. And it goes on up the chain, because the man at the top tells lies, too. In the Bush speech to the Army War College on May 24 he described US torture of prisoners as being committed “by a few American troops who disregarded our country and disregarded our values.” He lied. It wasn’t “a few” ; far from it.</p>
<p>The New York Times reported on May 25 that “An Army summary of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan shows a widespread pattern of abuse . . . The cases from Iraq date back to April 15, 2003 . . . The Army summary is consistent with recent public statements by senior military officials, who have said the Army is actively investigating nine suspected homicides of prisoners held by Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan in late 2002. But the details paint a broad picture of misconduct, and show that in many cases among the 37 prisoners who have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army did not conduct autopsies and says it cannot determine the causes of the deaths . . . .”</p>
<p>This is an official military report, and the military commander-in-chief is a man who stated flatly that only “a few troops” were guilty of torture. (Let’s forget the word “abuse’: it is yet another attempt to disguise the unpleasantness of truth.) Bush is a disgrace. As disgraceful, indeed, as those who relished torturing helpless captives, at least 70 percent of whom, as the Red Cross recorded formally in its report to the Pentagon months ago, were not guilty of any crime atall. (Which is borne out by the hasty release of hundreds of prisoners from the hell of Abu Ghraib without any explanation of why they had been kept there.) And as disgraceful as the Marines who treated prisoners barbarically in June 2003 at Camp Whitehorse where, as reported by the Los Angeles Times on May 22, “one of the detainees died after he was left disabled and naked under a scorching sun”. He was “disabled’ by torture inflicted by Marines, but even after a whitewash report of the Whitehorse atrocities there had to be charges of misconduct against eight marines, which shows that the affair must have been REALLY bad. The treatment of prisoners by this unit was criminal. But not as wicked as the attack on the wedding party by Marines on May 19.</p>
<p>The Marines’ song goes:</p>
<p>“From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli We fight our country’s battles In the air, on land and sea . . .”</p>
<p>And now they can include the wedding party massacre of May 2004 in their battle honors.</p>
<p>“Soon American soldiers came [after the aerial rocketing and bombing that killed most people]. One of them kicked her to see if she was alive, she said. “I pretended I was dead so he wouldn’t kill me,’ said Shihab. She said the soldier was laughing.” (This was carried by Fox News, of all outlets, on May 24. OK; so we despise Fox News, which is usually a sick joke, but at least they had the decency to put the report on their website.) There is no intention on the part of US occupation forces to permit a proper investigation of the circumstances in which over forty people were killed in their attack. The senior Marine commander involved, Major General Mattis, has already pronounced the verdict : “I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don’t have to apologize for the conduct of my men.” Not even if they kick women. Not even if they kill kids. There will be no apology or punishment for atrocities, even when proved. The Marines have come a long way from the shores of Tripoli.</p>
<p>The Pentagon will continue to deny that this savage attack on civilians was other than justified. There is a precedent for attacks on wedding parties (there was a particularly horrible one in Afghanistan, which is a well-documented war-crime), and for lying, too. In fact just as I wrote these words a news alert came up about a comparable incident 35 years ago, in the time of the evil Nixon. In a hellish echo of what is being attempted by the current administration concerning covering up war crimes, the New York Times of May 27 reported Nixon-era telephone transcripts that reveal the extent of deceit within his Cabinet. “In their conversation on Nov 21, 1969, about the My Lai massacre, Mr [Defense Secretary] Laird told Mr Kissinger that while he would like “to sweep it under the rug,” the photographs [of the My Lai atrocities] prevented it. “There are so many kids just laying there; these pictures are authentic,” Mr. Laird said.” If it had not been for the photographs, there would have been energetic action to deny the whole thing.</p>
<p>It’s all horribly familiar. When found out in illegal barbarity : lie. If that doesn’t work, then try to cover up. Meanwhile, in a wholly cynical attempt to deny responsibility for war crimes, just declare “I don’t have to apologize for the conduct of my men”, at which loyal statement most of the American public will instantly place their hands on their hearts and with tears in their eyes shriek : “We’ve got to support Our Boys!”. Then, if there is just no alternative to holding a court martial, keep the whole charade focused on as low a rank as can be contrived and punish the guilty barbarian with a bag of cookies and two weeks’ leave. Who cares, anyway?–It will all blow over.</p>
<p>After all, who is concerned about the deaths of a bunch of forty desert ragheads, be they male or female, young or old? Torture and killing of Iraqis are considered by brainwashed troops and millions of other Americans to be justifiable payback for 9-11. To them, these people don’t matter. “A handful of women”, in Kimmitt’s contemptuous phrase, can be killed without mercy, qualm or retribution, and there is not one US figure in or out of uniform who is ever going to be punished for this war crime. Nobody will be held accountable. Such are the depths to which the Bush administration has sunk.</p>
<p>The lies of Kimmitt will become truth. The crazed fascist Limbaugh (and remember his talk show is the only one that is given so much time on US armed forces’ radio) and many other zealots will attempt to portray the massacre as a vital action in the “war on terror’ instead of admitting it to be a vile atrocity that stinks in the nostrils of the civilized world.</p>
<p>In the words of Josiah Holland, a true American patriot, the country needs “Men who have honor; Men who will not lie”. But it does not have them in the right places. There are none to be seen or heard in this administration because they have been sacked or silenced. The way to success in the Bush machine is to lie. And the liars are winning. They always do.</p>
<p>BRIAN CLOUGHLEY writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website <a href="http://www.briancloughley.com/" type="external">www.briancloughley.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Liars are Winning | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/06/02/the-liars-are-winning/ | 2004-06-02 | 4 |
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<p>Michelle Obama greets China on the tarmac as she arrives in Beijing for her goodwill tour.&#160;The First Lady's week-long trip with her two daughters Sasha and Malia, and her mother Marian is meant to promote education and cultural ties with China.</p>
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<p>The Obama ladies are greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at a guest house in Beijing. Michelle took Sasha Malia, and Marian&#160;to Beijing's former imperial palace that day.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama gives a speech next to American and Chinese national flags at the Peking University in Beijing.&#160;</p>
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<p>A group of lucky students got to shake hands with First Lady Michelle Obama after she delivered a speech at the Stanford Center at Peking University on March 22.</p>
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<p>The Obama women pose with Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, as they visit the Forbidden City.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama plays table tennis as she visits the Beijing Normal School, which prepares students to attend university abroad.</p>
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<p>&#160;Michelle Obama learns how to hold the writing brush from Chinese Presiden Xi Jinping's wife, Peng Liyuan, as they visit a traditional Chinese calligraphy class at the Beijing Normal School.</p>
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<p>An image of East meets West. A security guard for Michelle Obama stands beside a man wearing a Chinese ancient warrior costume during Obama's visit at the City Wall.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama and Sasha and Maila look at the Terracotta Warriors in China's central Shaanxi province of Xian.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama takes Sasha and Malia for a walk along the Great Wall Mutianyu, northeast of Beijing.</p>
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<p>First Lady Michelle Obama waves to onlookers as she enjoys a boat ride on Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing.</p>
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<p>During her visit to the Xi'an City Wall, Michelle Obama still made time to wow the kids with her jumprope skills.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama takes in the sights of Xi'an on a visit with her daughters.</p>
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<p>Michelle Obama is greeted by children during her visit to the Xi'an City Wall.</p>
<p /> | Michelle Obama Charms the Middle Kingdom | true | https://thedailybeast.com/michelle-obama-charms-the-middle-kingdom | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>The Vancouver Olympics tried to redeem itself in my eyes after the hideous opening ceremonies by closing with Neil Young (we’ll not mention Avril Lavigne) doing Long May You Run. While I won’t hold Neil’s performance against him anymore than I will Hawks and Doves, it didn’t win me for the Games. It seems that one of the qualifications for having a country represented at the Winter Olympics is that it had to own colonies at one point in its existence, while the Summer Olympics are opened up to all of those living slightly south of the border who were the colonies. The Winter games have always been a party for the rich nations and this year was certainly no different.</p>
<p>And speaking of parties; I was interested to see how the world media would pronounce on the very well developed and tolerated, if legally ambiguous, British Columbia marijuana mores. Forget California, much of the change in minds around marijuana over the last decades started with movements (and capital concentrations) in British Columbia. B.C. is a byword for quality herb and, relatively, chill enforcement with weed joining health care, curling and community theater as signposts of Canada’s more civilized society despite all of the similarities between them and us, the barbarians next door. With a wink and a nod Canada, more or less, let the heads alone during the games with only positive effects all around it would seem. But then, left to their own devices, pot smokers don’t cause much in the way of problems. In any case, weed was kind of made for a cross-country ski, wasn’t it? You might not win the race, but who cares?</p>
<p>I have to ask, however, if it were the Summer Olympics instead with streets of Nigerians and Brazilians passing spliffs rather than sedate Scandinavians, would the response would have been the same? To ask is to answer. Though I know which party I want invited to.</p>
<p>The media, always lazy, didn’t bother to look beyond Marc Emery’s Hastings Street compound for the story. The self-appointed “Prince of Pot” has always seen himself as the poster boy for the “marijuana movement”. Why? Because it’s free advertising for his numerous business interests. Of course the marijuana industry is full of every level of shady character, but most of them are content to stay in the shade. Not Emery. He passes himself off as the center of the party, hoping you don’t notice the fee attached. He’s even started his own political party to represent the interests of a “marijuana magnates” now cropping up as the curtain of legality is lifted just.</p>
<p>Emery is a parasite; an entrepeneur whose every moment is open to commodification. Because of the idiocy of US weed laws, he is the victim of an extradition case over the selling of seeds in the US. To Emery the case is just another opportunity for him to sell his product, himself. But this is symptomatic of what is going on in the underground economy across much of North America. As the legal status of pot is debated many involved in the billions of dollars industry are making forays above ground. And with them come all of the parochial interests of capital, whether that capital be legit or not. One can easily see the outlines of the coming legal industry, and it looks a whole lot like every other industry. Emery is only the most egregious example of this process.</p>
<p>Weed’s coming out party and the parameters of legality is being left to the big dealers, suppliers and growers. Amsterdamers complain bitterly about the lack of variety as the “free market” limits the choice to the strains with the most efficient turn around in just one of the many examples of capitalism killing a good thing. Some of the new proposals being entertained for state legislatures, and supported by the Bhang Barons, explicitly prohibit some home-grown, while seeking to regulate the big, commercial trade. The nature of the situation means that weed workers, consumers, home and small time growers can’t openly fight for their interests leaving the argument to those who can afford to buy their way in. Money talks. It will be the small growers, pot proletariat and the consumers that lose out, as usual.</p>
<p>Marijuana has come a long way since it was forced to make itself into a joke in order to be public, but if Emery is to be the icon of the new ganja zeitgeist then give me old-school stoner Jeff Spicoli any day of the week. Spicoli was all about riding a wave, Marc Emery is only about making a buck.</p>
<p>Matt Siegfried can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p /> | The Ganja Games | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/03/03/the-ganja-games/ | 2010-03-03 | 4 |
<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the Washington Lottery’s “Keno” game were:</p>
<p>01-04-05-06-12-15-16-17-18-19-21-27-34-36-43-44-45-55-56-77</p>
<p>(one, four, five, six, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-seven, thirty-four, thirty-six, forty-three, forty-four, forty-five, fifty-five, fifty-six, seventy-seven)</p>
<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening’s drawing of the Washington Lottery’s “Keno” game were:</p>
<p>01-04-05-06-12-15-16-17-18-19-21-27-34-36-43-44-45-55-56-77</p>
<p>(one, four, five, six, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-seven, thirty-four, thirty-six, forty-three, forty-four, forty-five, fifty-five, fifty-six, seventy-seven)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Keno’ game | false | https://apnews.com/5473c15b54884752a9c15329197d5bac | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Chris Smither performs at New York's Highline Ballroom on Thursday, July 12.Tim McDonnell</p>
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<p>Inside New York City’s Highline Ballroom, a gaggle of musicians and techies throng around a folding table stacked with cold beer and sandwiches. Most wear loose-fitting traveling clothes; they’ve just gotten off the road from home base in Boston, finishing the first leg of a <a href="http://smither.com/tour/" type="external">tour</a> that will stretch well into next year. A tall figure in black pushes back his mane of hair, more grey than the room’s average, and cuts a path through the crowd to a side room.&#160;</p>
<p>“Usually I play solo, so I’m not used to taking care of everybody,” he says, closing the door behind us.</p>
<p>Chris Smither has been in and out of rooms like this for nearly half a century, but he’s still getting used to bringing a band this size along with him. A singer-songwriter who points to the stripped-down styles of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt as major influences, Smither says it’s taken until recently to feel comfortable touring with a full backing band like the one on his twelfth studio album, last month’s <a href="http://smither.com/music/hundred-dollar-valentine-2012/" type="external">Hundred Dollar Valentine</a>.</p>
<p>Smither, now 68, rose to prominence in the early ’70s as a solo artist with an ear for a unique interweaving of Cambridge folk sensibilities with Delta blues technique, thumping bass lines on the low strings while plucking melodies on the high strings, tapping time with his foot, and singing in a voice with a low end that cuts like the edge of a broken whiskey bottle. He was never one to shun a little good sonic company, forging lifelong partnerships with the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Dr. John, but the arrangements on Hundred Dollar Valentine are thicker than usual, with a full complement of electric guitar, backing vocals, harmonica, bass, and drums on nearly every tune.</p>
<p>“I’ve found sympathetic ears” in this band, he says. “People who like my music for the right reasons, by which I mean my reasons.” He laughs, as he does between nearly every sentence, and the creases in his face seem to make his eyes sink even farther back in his head. He’s relaxed and comfortable, and still is an hour later in the spotlight. On stage he seems hardly to notice the musicians behind him. There’s no conducting; they can keep up with the train or fall off. Smither’s foot will still be tapping either way.</p>
<p>That stage presence reflects Smither’s entire philosophy about orchestration, which is essentially that no matter how many people are playing, he’s still a solo act. “Even with all the other pieces, there’s a basic simplicity,” he says. For that reason, he spent most of his career resisting anything that strayed too close to over-production, fearing the technological possibilities of the studio would overwhelm his fragile melodies. He started to open up with producer Steven Bruton on 1995’s Up on the Lowdown, and has come around even more with the nudging of current producer (and electric guitarist) David “Goody” Goodrich.</p>
<p>A bigger band isn’t the only thing special about this album: It’s the first to be stocked solely with original compositions. Smither has long been an avid player of covers, he says, “not because I don’t have enough songs of my own. I just like people to understand where I’m coming from, what I admire.” For this album, Goodrich convinced Smither it was time to cover himself, to dust off tunes that hadn’t been heard in ages and toss them in the pot with a suite of new ones. It’s the kind of album you could listen to on a long road trip in a pickup truck across some lonely stretch of America: songs about broken hearts, getting old, and how sometimes all you can do is turn your face to the wind and press on. &#160;</p>
<p>But Smither never dwells too long in minor keys; in <a href="http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/06/guest-blog-chris-smither/" type="external">a column for American Songwriter</a> he called the album “another collection of hope seasoned with resignation disguised as acceptance.” His exploration of these themes is not purely academic: early in his career Smither battled a decade-long bout of severe alcoholism, and his recovery has since fueled a resolute hopefulness that permeates even the saddest songs.&#160;</p>
<p>From his vantage point at the start of this tour, Smither doesn’t see himself packing it in anytime soon. He absently touches the brace on his left wrist: arthritis, creeping up after decades of throttling a guitar neck. “I have a feeling when I’m done I’ll know it,” he says. “But I don’t know it yet.”</p>
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<p>Click&#160; <a href="" type="internal">here</a>&#160;for more Music Monday features from&#160;Mother Jones.</p>
<p /> | Folk Singer Chris Smither’s “Basic Simplicity” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/chris-smither/ | 2012-07-30 | 4 |
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<p>Tax loopholes aren’t illegal, but they aren’t right. By using accounting tricks and taking advantage of our inefficient and loophole-ridden tax code, many large U.S.-based multinational corporations make their profits appear to be generated offshore, thereby avoiding paying U.S. taxes.</p>
<p>Some glaring examples: Microsoft keeps about $60 billion offshore, on which it would owe nearly $20 billion in U.S. taxes; Pfizer uses accounting gimmicks to shift the location of taxable profits offshore, allowing them to report no federal taxable income in the U.S. in five years; and Google achieved an effective tax rate of just 2.4 percent on its overseas profits between 2008 and 2010.</p>
<p>This corporate abuse of offshore tax havens allows corporations to avoid an estimated $90 billion in federal income taxes every year, plus $40 billion to $70 billion lost to wealthy individuals’ shifting money offshore.</p>
<p>This tax dodging also deprives state governments of billions of dollars in revenue. Altogether, tax havens cost state governments nearly $40 billion in lost revenue in 2011.</p>
<p>Fortunately, legislation has been introduced in the Senate, the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, that would close the most deplorable loopholes and save taxpayers $200 billion over 10 years.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When wealthy individuals and large corporations abuse offshore tax havens, Americans and small businesses are forced to shoulder the burden. Every dollar that corporations avoid in taxes is balanced by average citizens paying higher taxes and coping with cuts to public programs, not to mention a higher federal deficit.</p>
<p>The $150 billion we lose in tax havens a year would be more than enough to cover across-the-board spending cuts. It would be enough to provide Pell grants to 10 million students for four years of college; guarantee loans for half a million small businesses; or revamp America’s aging transportation infrastructure by building 15 commuter rail lines, 50 light rail transit lines and more than 800 bus rapid transit lines.</p>
<p>Now with the recent government shutdown, it’s time to close tax havens and put the public before special interests. As Congress faces the latest round of budget battles and the government shutdown, New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich should support the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, and stand with the public, not big corporations lobbying to protect their tax breaks.</p>
<p /> | Stop abuse of offshore tax havens | false | https://abqjournal.com/279313/stop-abuse-of-offshore-tax-havens.html | 2 |
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<p>At a White House news conference, these are the words Gen. John F. Kelly, President Trump’s chief of staff, said he advised Trump to say to grieving widow, Myeshia Johnson, whose husband Army Sgt. La David Johnson was killed in Niger, along with three other U. S. soldiers — and five Nigerian soldiers in a joint mission.&#160; Kelly said that these are the words his “best friend, [Gen.] Joe Dunford told” him when his own son, Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.&#160; And in his “son’s case in Afghanistan – when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends.&#160; That’s what the President tried to say to four families the other day.” <a href="" type="internal">(“Full Transcript and Video: Kelly Defends Trump’s Handling of Soldier’s Death and Call to Widow,”</a> The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2017)</p>
<p>So, Gen. Kelly was “stunned . . . and brokenhearted at . . . a member of Congress who listened in on a phone call from the President of the United States to a young wife, and in his way tried to express that opinion – that he’s a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted.&#160; There’s no reason to enlist; he enlisted,” Kelly emphasized. &#160;“And he was where he wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken.”&#160; Kelly said, “That was the message that was transmitted.” ( Ibid)</p>
<p>The message being transmitted by General Kelly himself is racist.&#160; His comments also serve to divert attention from America’s imperialistic policies, which Sgt. Johnson did not know “he was getting himself into,” and for which he and his three comrades – and Kelly’s son and countless others – have needlessly died. &#160;&#160;&#160;First, Kelly’s racist projections in defense of his white supremacist boss, and the racist behavior of his boss.</p>
<p>Gen.&#160; Kelly reported that he was “stunned” as he “listened to this woman and what she was saying and . . . doing on TV.” (Ibid)&#160; “This woman” has a name.&#160; She is Fla. Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson who, as reported, was in the limousine with Mrs. Johnson, her two and six year old children, and Sgt. Johnson’s aunt and uncle who raised him since he was five years old.&#160; They were waiting for Mrs. Johnson’s husband’s body to arrive by transport at Miami International Airport. &#160;&#160;When President Trump’s call came to the limousine, Mrs. Johnson asked the Army attendant to put it on the speakerphone so everyone could hear the president’s words.&#160; Thus Wilson did not violate a confidential conversation as Kelly said.</p>
<p>What was Rep. Wilson “saying and . . . doing on TV” that “stunned” Gen. Kelly?&#160; Just as Kelly couldn’t say her name, Wilson said that President Trump couldn’t say Sgt. La David Johnson’s name.&#160; When the call from Trump ended, Wilson reported that Johnson’s wife said, “‘He didn’t even know his name.&#160; He kept calling him ‘Your guy.’&#160; . . . And he never said his name because he didn’t know his name. &#160;So he kept saying, ‘Your guy.&#160; Your guy.&#160; Your guy.’&#160; And that was devastating to her.”&#160; The Congresswoman also described Trump’s tone as “harsh” as he told the six-months pregnant grieving widow, “ ‘I guess he knew what he was signing up for but it still hurts.’ “&#160; Wilson also described Mrs. Johnson’s physical response to Trump’s words: “Myeshia, the entire time, was in a ball, rolled up almost like in a fetal position crying.” <a href="" type="internal">(“Rep. Frederica Wilson on Trump” ‘That Is Not What You Say to a Grieving Widow,’ ”</a> By Yamiche Alcindor, The New York Times, Oct. 18, 2017)</p>
<p>Gen. Kelly’s racism is seen in him being “stunned” and “brokenhearted” at what “this woman was saying and . . . doing on TV.”&#160; “Rep. Wilson had mentored Sgt. Kelly since he was a little boy, attending the elementary school where she taught.&#160; She became a school principal, and even has “an elementary school named after her in Miami Gardens, Sergeant Johnson’s home town.” &#160;&#160;As also reported, she has been close to the Johnsons and their family for decades. (Ibid) &#160;Similar to Kelly’s “best friend” Gen. Joe Dunford, whose words comforted Kelly when his son was killed in Afghanistan, Wilson was a best friend of Sgt. And Mrs. Johnson, which is why she was in the limousine.&#160; A fact beyond Kelly’s comprehension.</p>
<p>Revealing is the fact that a white general was “stunned and “brokenhearted” because “this [black] woman” shared with the media President Trump’s phone call to Mrs. Johnson.&#160; Never mind how heartbroken this grieving wife and pregnant mother of two small children was over the death of her husband and how devastated she was reported to be by Trump’s phone call.&#160; A call made 12 days after her husband’s death and only after he boasted to the press, that, unlike President Obama, he calls grieving families of soldiers killed overseas, yet still had not called the bereaved loved ones of the four soldiers killed in Niger.</p>
<p>Gen. Kelly ended his comments to the White House press corps with a lie about Rep. Frederica Wilson.&#160; He said that he attended “the dedication of the new FBI field office in Miami,” named after two fallen FBI agents.&#160; “And a&#160; congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building.&#160; . . . She just called up President Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money.”&#160; Kelly added, “And she sat down, and we were stunned.&#160; . . . Even for someone that is an empty barrel, we were stunned.” <a href="" type="internal">(“Full Transcript and Video: Kelly Defends Trump’s Handling of Soldier’s Death and Call to Widow,”</a> Ibid)</p>
<p>A video of Rep. Wilson’s comments at the dedication of the new FBI field office reveals that Gen. Kelly lied about her claiming credit for the new FBI office.&#160; She did not refer to any phone call to President Obama about money for the building.&#160; Rather, “she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlo Curbelo; and Senator Marco Rubio.” <a href="" type="internal">(“After Video Refutes Kelly’s Charges, Congresswoman Raises Issue of Race,”</a> By Yamiche Alcindor and Michael D. Shear, The New York Times, Oct. 20, 2017)</p>
<p>“Even for someone that is an empty barrel, we were stunned.”&#160; With this falsehood, Gen. Kelly reveals much about his own racist conditioning in defense of his white supremacist boss.</p>
<p>Gen. Kelly reveals more of the conditioning that prevents him from connecting with a grieving black family and their “best friend.”&#160; He tried to make sense of Sgt. Johnson’s death by saying his own son “knew what he was getting into,” and in his son’s case, “he was . . . exactly where he wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken.” <a href="" type="internal">(“Full Transcript and Video: Kelly Defends Trump’s Handling of Soldier’s Death and Call to Widow,”</a> Ibid)</p>
<p>It cannot be assumed that Sgt. La David Johnson was “exactly where he wanted to be.”&#160; His wife is six months pregnant with their child.&#160; One could assume that where he wanted to be was home with his wife and their two and six year old children during this critical time.&#160; Also, “when he died,” this black soldier was not “surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends.”&#160; He was separated from the three other soldiers in his unit.&#160; And it took two days to find his body.&#160; Which raises a question about the Army’s ethic regarding&#160; “no soldier is left behind.”</p>
<p>For a career military person, General Kelly appears to be either naive or, in that press conference, willfully withholding of what motivates many young men and women to enlist in the military.&#160; He said about Sgt. Johnson: “He’s a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted.&#160; There is no reason to enlist; he enlisted.&#160; And he was where he wanted to be.” (Ibid)</p>
<p>For many young black and brown and white men and women, there are various reasons to “enlist”. &#160;The military offers employment, which is scarce, and money for college, which is the only way most poor persons will ever walk on a college campus as students.&#160; The military also offers enlistment bonuses, and even a matching funds retirement. (See <a href="" type="internal">“I Want You . . . Badly: A complete guide to Uncle Sam’s recruiting incentives,”</a> By Phillip Carter and Brad Flora, Slate, Nov. 7, 2007)</p>
<p>“There is no reason to enlist.”&#160; With these words, Gen. Kelly made America’s capitalistic inequities disappear, and in their place “duty” and “honor” and “service” in the “protection of country.”</p>
<p>Sadly, Gen. Kelly is assumed to have to believe this militaristic propaganda to justify his own son’s tragic death and his own life-long military career in the service of “the greatest country in the world’s” &#160;capitalistic pursuit of world domination.&#160; Thus Sgt. Johnson “enlisted” and “was where he wanted to be.”&#160; And Congresswoman Wilson, whom he couldn’t name, is “an empty barrel” and where she should not be.</p>
<p>Gen. Kelly was “absolutely stunned . . . that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation.”&#160; He “thought at least that was sacred.”&#160; When he was “growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country.”&#160; Like, “women were sacred.&#160; &#160;Looked upon with great honor.”&#160; Kelly lamented: “That’s obviously not the case anymore.” <a href="" type="internal">(“Full Transcript and Video: Kelly Defends Trump’s Handling of Soldier’s Death and Call to Widow,”</a> Ibid) &#160;Kelly is actually saying that Congresswoman Wilson should keep her mouth shut and stay on the mindless patriarchal pedestal assigned to women, rather than getting on TV and speaking her mind.</p>
<p>“Women were sacred [and] looked upon with great honor.” &#160;These are the words of a chief of staff who takes orders from a self-professed sexual predator of women.&#160; Gen. Kelly’s commentary reflects who Kelly is, not “this woman.”</p>
<p>Like Gen. Kelly, President Trump’s racism led him to dismiss Rep. Wilson as “wacky” and her account of his telephone call to Mrs. Johnson “totally fabricated.”&#160; Never mind that Mrs. Johnson herself backed up Wilson’s account.&#160; Mrs. Johnson was quoted as “angry at the tone in his voice and how he said” her husband “ ‘knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway.’ “&#160; What “hurt” her “the most,” she said, was that “he couldn’t remember my husband’s name.&#160; . . . If my husband is out here fighting for our country, and he risked his life for our country, why can’t you remember his name?’ “ <a href="" type="internal">(“Soldier’s Widow Says Trump Struggled to Remember Sgt. La David Johnson’s Name,” B</a>y Yamiche Alcindor and Julire Hirschfeld Davis, The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2017)</p>
<p>In effect, President Trump called Sgt. Johnson grieving wife a liar. &#160;He dismissed her account of his phone call, tweeting, “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”&#160; (Ibid)&#160; Trump then resorted to the common defense of denial, which is a tried and true way to justify himself to his base:</p>
<p>“I can only say this.&#160; I was really nice to her.&#160; I respect her family, I certainly respect&#160;La David – who, by the way, I called David right from the beginning, they put a chart&#160;in front, La David, it says, La David Johnson.&#160; So I called right from the beginning,</p>
<p>There is no hesitation, one of the great memories of all time, no hesitation. <a href="" type="internal">(“Trump Says</a> <a href="" type="internal">Soldier’s Widow Must Be Wrong Because He Has ‘One of the Great Memories of All Time,’ “</a></p>
<p>By Ben Mathis Lilley, <a href="http://www.slate.com" type="external">www.slate.com</a>, Oct. 25, 2017)</p>
<p>Who are you going to believe?&#160; A documented white narcissistic pathologically liar and his lap dog chief of staff, or black mourners: slain Sgt. La David Johnson’s grief-stricken wife, Rep. Wilson, and Sgt. Johnson’s foster parents, Cowanda Jones-Johnson and her brother Richard, Sgt. Johnson’s aunt and uncle, who raised him since he was seven years old?</p>
<p>My work as a hospital chaplain for some 23 years involved developing empathetic relationships with diverse patients and their loved ones.&#160; I would not have lasted a month if I had imposed my personal experience and beliefs on to patients and their families.&#160; Comforting people involves experiencing their reality, not interpreting – or denying – it.&#160; General Kelly and President Trump, two white men, provide classic examples of how white hierarchically-controlled power structures prevent many white persons from seeing, never mind walking in, the footsteps of people of color.</p>
<p>Lying is not a problem for President Trump.&#160; Therefore, lying is not a problem for his chief of staff.&#160; So Congresswoman Wilson’s demand that Gen. Kelly apologize for lying about her has fallen on knowing ears.&#160; Remember: &#160;as a presidential candidate, Trump said he could shoot someone in Times Square and his base would still vote for him.&#160; Since his base would still support him even if he committed murder, &#160;there is no need to think twice about lying.&#160; According to Trump, his base is motivated by power, not morality and truth — many by white supremacist power. &#160;So why worry about a little white lie.</p>
<p>No worry at all.&#160; Iuiun an Oct. 30 interview with Laura Graham on Fox News, Gen. Kelly said he would “never” apologize to Congresswoman Wilson.&#160; He also revealed more of his own white supremacist conditioning, saying that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War.”&#160; Numerous persons criticized him for that comment, including Wilson who responded, “It is inconceivable to me that anyone of his age and stature could believe, let alone say aloud, that an inability to compromise is what led to the Civil War.”&#160; She added, “I’m also curious to hear what kind of compromise he thinks would have been acceptable given the choice between enslaving people and treating them like chattel or returning to them their God-given freedom.” <a href="" type="internal">(“White House Chief’s Remarks on the Civil War Elicit an Angry Response,”</a> By Glenn Thrush, The New York Times, Nov. 1, 2017)</p>
<p>So much for Gen. Kelly reported to be one of three people supervising the White House’s “adult day care center,” and protecting America from a chaotic president. (See <a href="" type="internal">“Bob Corker: White House is ‘adult day care center’ and Trump may start WWIII,”</a> By Martin Pengelly and Ben Jacobs, theguardian, Oct. 9, 2017)&#160; Kelly shares Trump’s white nationalist beliefs, which is why Trump selected him to be Secretary of Homeland Security.&#160; &#160;And, as reported, Kelly, “protected” America by following Trump’s xenophobic order and issuing “a directive to immigration officials across the country to try to portray undocumented immigrants swept up in mass raids as criminals.” <a href="" type="internal">(‘TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL JOHN KELLY ORFDERED ICE TO PROTRAY IMMIGRANTS AS CRIMINALS TO JUSTIFY RAIDS,’</a> By Alice Speri, The Intercept, Oct. 16, 2017)</p>
<p>With all the media coverage of President Trump’s conflicting phone call to grieving Mrs. Johnson, one would think that it would lead reporters to focus on why her husband was even in Niger, which is reported to be “one of the poorest places on the planet.” — and in no way a threat to the United States. <a href="" type="internal">(“A journey to the poorest place on earth,”</a> By Matt Wade, The Sidney Morning Herald, June 3, 2012)&#160; In&#160;fact, some senators were reported to be unaware that U. S. soldiers were in Niger.&#160; It is also assumed that America’s military footprint in Niger would lead investigative reporters to start raising questions about why soldiers are in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Japan, South Korea — and “in at least 172 countries and territories . . . in nearly every country,” a New York Times editorial reports. <a href="" type="internal">(“America’s Forever Wars,”</a> Oct. 22, 2017)</p>
<p>Sheldon Richman writes that one ”must be grateful when a prominent institution acknowledges how much the government intervenes around the world.”&#160; But, he says, “the editorial drips with irony since the Times has done so much to gin up public support for America’s imperial wars.” <a href="" type="internal">(“New York Times Acknowledges US Global Empire,”</a> Counterpunch, Oct. 30, 2017)</p>
<p>Our government tells us that America’s military is spread far and wide to protect us from “terrorists.”&#160; One example is Iraq, which former president George W. Bush falsely accused of having threatening weapons of mass destruction and ties to those who attacked America on 9/11.&#160; Bush used the horrible 9/11 attacks as a pretext for launching a so-called “global war on terrorism,” and then unnecessarily invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, causing unconscionable deaths and destruction.&#160; The “global war on terrorism” provides cover for America’s imperialistic pursuit of world domination.&#160; Perpetual war creates endless enemies and thus endless profits for the military/industrial/energy/intelligence/ religious complex.</p>
<p>Most mainstream media have avoided the critical issue of why U.S. soldiers are deployed around the world.&#160; In fact, they serve as apologists and guardians of the status quo.&#160; An example is numerous media transforming America’s worst war criminal into a statesman.&#160; Thus we have front-page news coverage of former president George W. Bush providing implied commentary on President Trump’s insensitive phone call to Mrs. Johnson and divisive “Make America Great Again” rants.&#160; Bush “spoke out at a news conference he convened in New York to support democracy,” saying, “ ‘We see nationalism distorted into nativism, forgetting the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America.’ ” He even said, “ ‘We’ve seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.’ ” <a href="" type="internal">(“Without Saying ‘Trump,’ Bush and Obama Deliver Implicit Rebukes,”</a> By Peter Baker, The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2017)&#160; “The chaos and despair” his administration, with bipartisan support, set in motion.</p>
<p>America is in great need of patriotic soldiers and political and faith leaders who dare to speak reality and moral truth to power regarding what Sgt. La David Johnson unknowingly “was getting himself into.”&#160; Patriotic soldiers like Major General Smedley Butler, “the most decorated Marine in U.S. history,” who served in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Haiti.&#160; Butler said of his over thirty-three years in the Marines:</p>
<p>I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General.&#160; And&#160;during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big&#160;Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers.&#160; In short, I was a racketeer for&#160;capitalism.&#160; I suspected I was just part of the racket of all time.&#160; Now I am sure&#160;of it. <a href="https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/major-general-smedley-butler" type="external">(“Major General Smedley Butler,”</a> Americans Who Tell The Truth: Major&#160;General Smedley Butler, www.americanswhotellthetruth.org)</p>
<p>America desperately needs faith leaders to speak truth to imperialistic power, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did in response to the Vietnam War.&#160; For him, the Vietnam War was “a time to break silence.”&#160; He said that he was led to speak out as he “walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men . . . in the ghettos of the North.”&#160; He “told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems . . . that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.”&#160; But their rightful response was: “What about Vietnam?”&#160; King said, “Their questions hit home.&#160; And I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. “&#160; King went on, “For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.” ( <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm" type="external">“Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence,”</a> Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City, American Rhetoric)</p>
<p>This is also “a time to break silence.” &#160;The Senate recently passed a $700 billion defense bill, ostensibly to protect American citizens.&#160; Never mind that this decision will merely continue to support America war profiteers at the expense of tens of millions of citizens who lack adequate health care and other life-sustaining supports in their rightful pursuit of happiness.&#160; Never mind also the continuing blowback violence in response to our government’s violation of other countries’ national sovereignty and killing of their citizens.&#160; The latest being the horrible terrorist attack in New York City on October 31, which left eight persons dead and 15 injured.</p>
<p>Sgt. La David Johnson, like so many American soldiers, did not know “what he was getting himself into” in Niger.&#160; But faith leaders should know by now that our bipartisan government, serving capitalistic interests, is getting our young men and women into immoral wars in the pursuit of profit, under the pretense of protecting America from “terrorists.”&#160; As with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “this is a time to break silence.”&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | “He Knew What He Was Getting Himself Into” | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/03/he-knew-what-he-was-getting-himself-into/ | 2017-11-03 | 4 |
<p>The investigation into <a href="" type="internal">the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice</a> in Cleveland was turned over Wednesday to prosecutors, who will ask a grand jury to decide whether criminal charges should be filed against the officer.</p>
<p>Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinckney told The Associated Press that his department conducted an "extensive, thorough and unbiased" investigation into the shooting of Rice outside a recreation center on Nov. 22.</p>
<p>Rice was shot by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann after he and another officer responded to a call about a person who may have a gun. It turned out Rice was carrying what police described as an "airsoft"-style pellet gun that resembled a firearm.</p>
<p>Surveillance video released by police show Loehmann, 26, shooting Rice <a href="" type="internal">within seconds</a>after the officers’ police car pulled up next to the boy.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Found Unfit in Previous Police Job</a></p>
<p>The sheriff's report does not conclude whether the shooting was justified and does not say whether Loehmann should be charged, <a href="http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cleveland/2015/06/03/tamir-rice-investigation-enters-new-phase/28430929/" type="external">NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland reported Wednesday</a>, citing sources.</p>
<p>The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office has said the case will be presented to a grand jury, but the timing is not clear. Prosecutors will review the investigation and could request more probing before presenting it to a grand jury, officials have said.</p>
<p>Rice's family has <a href="" type="internal">filed a lawsuit</a>against Loehmann and the other officer who was there during the shooting, Frank Garmback. A federal judge <a href="" type="internal">ruled on Monday</a> that that suit should be suspended for 60 days.</p> | Sheriff Sends Tamir Rice Shooting Report to Prosecutor | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sheriff-sends-tamir-rice-shooting-report-prosecutor-n369406 | 2015-06-04 | 3 |
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<p>Women’s groups have a bone to pick with Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has convened a series of closed-door meetings with various advisers and members of Congress to tackle budget negotiations with Congress. Despite the fact that women will be disproportionately affected by many of the decisions thanks to their over-representation in big-ticket programs for the elderly such as Medicare and Social Security, Biden has not included a single woman in his meetings. The “gang of men,” as the <a href="http://www.womensorganizations.org/" type="external">National Council of Women’s Organizations</a>have dubbed it, includes: Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), U.S. Senators John Kyl (R-Ariz.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The gang is negotiating with Biden, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, budget director Jack Lew, and economic adviser Gene Sperling.</p>
<p>The oversight is pretty striking. Biden typically had a good record on women’s issues while he was in the Senate, having drafted the landmark Violence Against Women Act in 1994, among other things. But he seems to have forgotten that there are girls in Congress and the administration who know something about the federal budget and economics. (See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Kornbluh" type="external">Karen Kornbluh</a>, for instance.) The women’s groups are calling on Biden to include more female voices in the negotiations so that they are fairly represented.</p>
<p>And for good reason: Social Security, one of the main potential drivers of the budget deficit over the long haul, is a critical safety net for elderly women, who are also heavy users of the other budget-buster, Medicare. For women over 65, Social Security accounts for more than three-fifths of their income, according to a <a href="http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/social-security-especially-vital-to-women-and-people-of-color-men-increasingly-reliant" type="external">new study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research</a>. For older men, by comparison, Social Security accounts for only half of their income. Social Security keeps half of all women over 75 above the poverty line. Given those figures, any cuts to the program are likely to have a significant impact on women. Unfortunately, the only people in the room talking about it right now are a bunch of dudes.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p /> | Biden’s Dude Problem | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/bidens-gang-men/ | 2011-05-24 | 4 |
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<p>Andreas Vgenopoulos, a Greek lawyer turned business tycoon, has died at 63.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Marfin Investment Group, the holding company he founded, announced that Vgenopoulos died early Saturday from a heart attack.</p>
<p>At the height of his success, Vgenopoulos acquired a string of businesses including Marfin Popular Bank, a passenger shipping firm, a private clinic and Greece's ailing state airline, Olympic.</p>
<p>Recent years, however, had seen a reversal of fortune. While he held on to most of his acquisitions, except for Olympic, the value of his investments shrank. He was also accused of corrupt lending prices in Cyprus, a charge he strongly denied.</p>
<p>Vgenopoulos was a champion fencer in the 1970s and competed in the 1972 Olympics.</p> | Greek businessman Andreas Vgenopoulos dies at 63 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/05/greek-businessman-andreas-vgenopoulos-dies-at-63.html | 2016-11-07 | 0 |
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<p>The lawsuit, filed in state court by Isaha Casias, of Hesperus, Colo., describes a scene of panic inside an enclosed, crowded vehicle parked outside the state penitentiary near Santa Fe two years ago. Some inmates passed out, including Casias, while others yelled and rocked the van in an effort to seek help, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Casias was convicted in 2013 of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm or destructive device by a felon, according to court records, and was released in August 2014.</p>
<p>His lawsuit alleges officers Taracina Morgan and Herman Gonzales on July 11, 2013, left him and 10 other inmates in the van despite knowing conditions could be harmful to prisoners. Casias' attorney, Matthew Coyte of Albuquerque, said his office has received multiple complaints stemming from treatment during transport rides, which he contends are notorious among prisoners. But Casias' experience represented one of the worst cases Coyte had reviewed, the attorney said.</p>
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<p>"If this kind of attitude remains unchecked, someone is going to die in the back of one of these vans," Coyte said.</p>
<p>The Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment Monday, and Morgan and Gonzales could not be reached.</p>
<p>According to the lawsuit, Casias and several other inmates were being transported from Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas to Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, stopping at the state prison near Santa Fe and other locations across the state.</p>
<p>Casias is seeking compensation for emotional damages and physical injuries, including a seizure that the lawsuit suggests was caused by conditions inside the van, and wrist and back pain from a fall. A compensation amount has not been determined.</p>
<p>Casias claims inmates were left in the van without air conditioning for up to an hour while Morgan and Gonzales were inside the state prison. When the officers returned and opened the van door for the inmates, an unconscious Casias, who was sitting closest to the back door, fell out of the vehicle, with his face and back hitting the bumper, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Casias also contends the two officers decided against medical staff's suggestion to leave him in Santa Fe for treatment, saying it would require too much paperwork. After he arrived in Hobbs, his request for treatment was not granted until almost two weeks later, according to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Lawsuit: Inmate denied treatment after suffering in hot van</p>
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<p /> | Suit: Inmate denied care after suffering in hot van | false | https://abqjournal.com/655127/suit-inmate-denied-care-after-suffering-in-hot-van.html | 2015-10-06 | 2 |
<p>By Brett Younger</p>
<p>If you’ve been searching for a new favorite show on television since Matthew Crawley, heir of Lord Grantham, died on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/" type="external">Downton Abbey</a>, then mark Sept. 10 on your calendar. That is when “ <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/snake-salvation/" type="external">Snake Salvation</a>” debuts on the&#160;National Geographic Channel.</p>
<p>This much-anticipated reality show follows a pair of serpent-handling Pentecostal preachers, Andrew Hamblin of Tabernacle Church of God in La Follette, Tenn., and Jamie Coots of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church of Middlesboro, Ky.</p>
<p>The Reverends Hamblin and Coots take with dead seriousness a specific portion of Mark 16:17-18: “These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.”</p>
<p>Some disapprove — serpent handling is illegal in narrow-minded states like Tennessee and Kentucky — but Holiness churchgoers have been “dancing with the snakes” for over 100 years.</p>
<p>The show will feature worshippers petting venomous reptiles in church and living within a broad definition of normal outside of church. The series hopes to make it clear that churchgoers who wrestle rattlers have the same everyday struggles with marriage, money and moccasins as the rest of us.</p>
<p>Only 16 programs have been planned, but this show is here to stay. Look for these upcoming episodes: “Bitten in Church,” “Sin or Serpents” and “Outlaw Religion.”</p>
<p>I am hoping that the second season will include “New Testament Scholar” in which a seminary professor (a snake in the grass?) explains that Mark 16:9-20 is a later addition to the text. I would set my DVR for an episode titled “But What If This Passage is a Metaphor?” I would be less enthused about a “Downing Drano” episode in which church members test the “drink any deadly thing” portion of the text.</p>
<p>“Snake Salvation” could begin a flood of church-based reality shows as television producers begin to realize the dramatic possibilities of combining the allure of reality TV with the reality of church life. Here are a few possibilities:</p>
<p>“America’s Next Top Middle School Sunday School Teacher.” Eighth graders try the patience of well-meaning but naïve educators who are not sure how to respond to “Where in the Bible does it say that God thinks polygamy is a bad idea?”</p>
<p>“The Bachelor.” Ten hopelessly romantic women compete for the hand of one tall, handsome, Bible-believing man. Follow the struggles of the most attractive male in the singles’ group as he weighs the appeal of women who may be at church at 9:45 on Sunday morning for reasons other than their love for Jesus.</p>
<p>“Deacon Dynasty.” This cast of old and powerful church leaders brings drama to a new level. Their heated conversations will keep you wondering what these bad boys and girls will say next. Watch them struggle to escape an old paradigm.</p>
<p>“Heaven’s Kitchen.” Aspiring chefs are put to the ultimate challenge of competing for recognition as the church’s best cook. Cutthroat casseroles!</p>
<p>“The Real Housewives of the Church.” This drama details the cast’s lives, loves and religious concerns. Churchgoing housewives in Orange County, Miami and Beverly Hills are more interesting than housewives who have never wondered how their hairstyle goes with their choir robe.</p>
<p>“16 and Not Pregnant.” This unscripted drama explores challenges facing churchgoing teenagers who are not pregnant.</p>
<p>“Trading Musicians.” Each Sunday churches with radically different worship styles trade musicians with hilarious results. Watch the senior adults’ faces when the first note of the prelude is played on an electric guitar.</p>
<p>“Survivor.” Members of a ministers’ peer group meet each month in an undisclosed location and choose one pastor to go into the insurance business.</p>
<p>Now for my favorite suggestion: “Church in the Real World.” Shows like “Snake Salvation” suggest that for a few, church is an escape from reality, but the opposite is more often true. The world of popular culture is not as real as the hope of Christ’s often dramatic church.</p> | Snake charmers | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/snake-charmers/ | 3 |
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<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andrew-Wiggins/" type="external">Andrew Wiggins</a> will get his money, but there are a few strings attached.</p>
<p>Timberwolves owner <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Glen_Taylor/" type="external">Glen Taylor</a> is ready to pony up and give Wiggins a max deal to stay with Minnesota long term, so long as he is willing to have a one-on-one meeting with his boss and commit to becoming a better player.</p>
<p>Taylor’s offer to Wiggins would be in the range of five years and $148 million, ESPN reports.</p>
<p>“To me, by making this offer, I’m speculating that his contribution to the team will be more in the future. We’ve got to be better. He can’t be paid just for what he’s doing today. He’s got to be better,” Taylor told the Associated Press about Wiggins.</p>
<p>“So when you’re talking about negotiations on his part, I’m already extending to him that I’m willing to meet the max. But there are some things that I need out of him, and that is the commitment to be a better player than you are today.”</p>
<p>Wiggins, 22, was the No. 1 overall draft pick of the Cavaliers in 2014, but never played a game for Cleveland and was traded to Minnesota along with former Cavs top pick Anthony Bennett for All-Star forward <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kevin_Love/" type="external">Kevin Love</a>.</p>
<p>Last season, Wiggins averaged a career-high 23.6 points on 45.2 percent shooting with four rebounds, 2.3 assists and a steal. The forward has career averages of 20.4 points, 4.1 boards and 2.1 assists in three seasons.</p>
<p>Minnesota is well-positioned to make a playoff run after the addition of All-Star swingman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jimmy-Butler/" type="external">Jimmy Butler</a> in an offseason trade with the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chicago-Bulls/" type="external">Chicago Bulls</a> to pair with Wiggins and young star center <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Karl-Anthony-Towns/" type="external">Karl-Anthony Towns</a>.</p>
<p>The Timberwolves also added veterans <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jamal_Crawford/" type="external">Jamal Crawford</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Taj_Gibson/" type="external">Taj Gibson</a> in free agency in hopes of improving on their 31-51 record last season.</p> | Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor wants to meet with Andrew Wiggins before extension | false | https://newsline.com/minnesota-timberwolves-owner-glen-taylor-wants-to-meet-with-andrew-wiggins-before-extension/ | 2017-08-08 | 1 |
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<p>As the Russian president held court in his personal residence, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Kiev's fledgling government and urged Putin to stand down.</p>
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<p>"It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying to achieve," Kerry said. "That is not 21st-century, G-8, major nation behavior."</p>
<p>KERRY: Offers economic aid, moral support</p>
<p>PUTIN: Takes somewhat conciliatory tone while talking tough</p>
<p>Although nerves remained on edge in the Crimean Peninsula, with Russian troops firing warning shots to ward off Ukrainian soldiers, global markets jumped higher on tentative signals that the Kremlin was not seeking to escalate the conflict. Kerry brought moral support and a $1 billion aid package to a Ukraine fighting to fend off bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Lounging in an armchair before Russian tricolor flags, Putin made his first public comments since the Ukrainian president fled a week and a half ago. It was a signature Putin performance, filled with earthy language, macho swagger and sarcastic jibes, accusing the West of promoting an "unconstitutional coup" in Ukraine. At one point he compared the U.S. role to an experiment with "lab rats."</p>
<p>But the overall message appeared to be one of de-escalation. "It seems to me (Ukraine) is gradually stabilizing," Putin said. "We have no enemies in Ukraine. Ukraine is a friendly state."</p>
<p>Still, he tempered those comments by warning that Russia was willing to use "all means at our disposal" to protect ethnic Russians in the country.</p>
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<p>Significantly, Russia agreed to a NATO request to hold a special meeting to discuss Ukraine on Wednesday in Brussels, opening up a possible diplomatic channel in a conflict that still holds monumental hazards and uncertainties. At the same time, the United States and 14 other nations formed a military observer mission to monitor the tense Crimea region, and the team was headed there in 24 hours.</p>
<p>While the threat of military confrontation retreated somewhat, both sides ramped up economic feuding. Russia hit its nearly broke neighbor with a termination of discounts on natural gas, while the U.S. announced a $1 billion aid package in energy subsidies to Ukraine.</p>
<p>"We are going to do our best. We are going to try very hard," Kerry said upon arriving in Kiev. "We hope Russia will respect the election that you are going to have."</p>
<p>Kerry also made a pointed distinction between the Ukrainian government and Putin's.</p>
<p>"The contrast really could not be clearer: determined Ukrainians demonstrating strength through unity, and the Russian government out of excuses, hiding its hand behind falsehoods, intimidation and provocations. In the hearts of Ukrainians and the eyes of the world, there is nothing strong about what Russia is doing."</p>
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<p>The penalties proposed against Russia, he added, are "not something we are seeking to do. It is something Russia is pushing us to do."</p>
<p>World markets, which slumped the previous day, clawed back a large chunk of their losses on signs that Russia was backpedaling.</p>
<p>Russia took over the strategic Crimean Peninsula on Saturday, placing its troops around its ferry, military bases and border posts. Two Ukrainian warships remained anchored in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, blocked from leaving by Russian ships.</p>
<p>"Those unknown people without insignia who have seized administrative buildings and airports - what we are seeing is a kind of velvet invasion," said Russian military analyst Alexander Golts.</p>
<p>The territory's enduring volatility was put in stark relief Tuesday morning: Russian troops, who had taken control of the Belbek air base, fired warning shots into the air as some 300 Ukrainian soldiers, who previously manned the airfield, demanded their jobs back.</p>
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<p>As the Ukrainians marched unarmed toward the base, about a dozen Russian soldiers told them not to approach, then fired several shots into the air and said they would shoot the Ukrainians if they continued toward them.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian troops vowed to hold whatever ground they had left on the Belbek base.</p>
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<p /> | Putin reduces tension over Crimea | false | https://abqjournal.com/362784/putin-reduces-tension-over-crimea.html | 2 |
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<p>We, as a feminist community, have spent the last four days in shock after the Isla Vista shooting. That the roots of the tragedy — violent misogyny — may be too intimately familiar to so many of us hasn’t softened the blow. Here we’ve tried to compile some of the best feminist writing in the aftermath, highlighting how our movements are processing, responding, and fighting back. Let us know what you’ve been reading in the comments.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/05/27/white_guy_killer_syndrome_elliot_rodgers_deadly_privileged_rage/" type="external">White guy killer syndrome: Elliot Rodger’s deadly, privileged rage</a> by Brittney Cooper at Salon</p>
<p>Every few years, the American public has to watch in horror as some white kid goes on a rampage, killing everything from babies to old people. Yet, neither the press nor the law will understand such perpetrators as monsters or terrorists. Few will have a conversation about white male pathology and the ways that systems of whiteness and patriarchy continue to produce white men who think like this.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/05/lets-call-isla-vista-killings-what-they-were-misogynist-extremism" type="external">Let’s call the Isla Vista killings what they were: misogynist extremism</a> by Laurie Penny at&#160;The New Statesman&#160;</p>
<p>The ideology behind these attacks – and there is ideology – is simple. Women owe men. Women, as a class, as a sex, owe men sex, love, attention, “adoration”, in Rodger’s words. We owe them respect and obedience, and our refusal to give it to them is to blame for their anger, their violence – stupid sluts get what they deserve. Most of all, there is an overpowering sense of rage and entitlement: the conviction that men have been denied a birthright of easy power.</p>
<p><a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/brutereason/2014/05/24/masculinity-violence-and-bandaid-solutions/" type="external">Masculinity, Violence, and Bandaid Solutions</a>&#160;by Miri Mogilevsky at Brute Reason</p>
<p>You will not hear that Black people&#160;who commit violent acts are never presumed to be mentally ill; they’re just presumed to be Black. You will not hear about how it’s only “terrorism” if a brown person does it; the fact that it’s politically motivated and intended to terrorize a particular group of people is not, apparently, enough. You will hear a lot about “not all men,” but you will not hear that misandry irritates and misogyny kills.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/the-archipelago/1bb065f76278" type="external">Misogyny is Poison, and You’re Drinking It</a> by Jess Zimmerman at The Archipelago</p>
<p>It’s so easy to say that Rodger is something awful and strange, an alien metabolism that somehow processes everyday interactions into poison. It’s so easy that men you know are doing it right now, as you read this—explaining to the women around them that this is about mental illness, not about hate. They’re doing this because they don’t want to admit that the poison is real and they’re drinking it too.</p>
<p />
<p>Naturally, this seems as good a time as any to remark on this “madman” and the lack of mental health services in the country. All these things are true, and even if we don’t know the extent to which mental illness played in these deaths, I’d still like to see better services and less barriers for people who are vulnerable due to mental health issues. These are all good, concrete issues that we can point to–tangible topics that we can blame for Elliot Rodger’s murderous rampage.</p>
<p>And yet, while we talk about these things, it buries the things we don’t like to talk about: the roles that entitlement and misogyny play in senseless acts of violence.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/89905/what-elliot-rodger-said-about-women-reveals-why-we-need-to-stamp-out-misogyny" type="external">What Elliot Rodger Said About Women Reveals Why We Need to Stamp Out Misogyny</a> by Liz Plank at Policy Mic</p>
<p>What happened in Santa Barbara is nothing less than a hate crime, and yet&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/24/justice/california-shooting-deaths/" type="external">mainstream news outlets</a>&#160;are distilling the issue to “mental illness” and&#160;“premeditated mass murder.” Although we should be shocked by Elliot Rodger’s actions, we should not be surprised. In fact, most school shootings share chillingly similar characteristics. It’s time we stop treating these incidents as anomalies and start recognizing the deep societal issues at play.</p>
<p><a href="http://qz.com/213553/what-isla-vista-shooter-horrific-manifesto-my-twisted-world-says-about-values/" type="external">What a close read of the Isla Vista shooter’s horrific manifesto, “My Twisted World,” says about his values—and ours</a> by Jeff Yang at Quartz</p>
<p>[B[ased on the memoir-cum-confession that he left behind, Rodger’s murderous rage was rooted in an obsessive self-hatred, born from his belief that he was entitled to, and thwarted from obtaining, a trifecta of privileges: Race, class, and gender. He saw himself as not quite white enough. Not quite rich enough. Not quite “masculine” enough, in the toxic, testosterone-saturated way that that term is defined in our society.</p>
<p><a href="http://bellejar.ca/2014/05/24/elliot-rodger-and-men-who-hate-women/" type="external">Elliot Rodger and Men Who Hate Women</a> at The Belle Jar</p>
<p>We don’t know if Elliot Rodger was mentally ill. We don’t know if he was a “madman.” We do know that he was desperately lonely and unhappy, and that the Men’s Rights Movement convinced him that his loneliness and unhappiness was intentionally caused by women. Because this is what the Men’s Rights Movement does: <a href="http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2013/10/18/paul-elam-of-a-voice-for-men-in-his-own-words/" type="external">it spreads misogyny, it spreads violence, and most of all it spreads a sense of entitlement towards women’s bodies</a>. Pretending that this is the a rare act perpetrated by a “crazy” person&#160;is disingenuous and also does nothing to address the threat of violence that women face every day.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/05/rightbloggers_santa_barbara_killers_sexist_rants_have_nothing_to_do_with_sexism_which_doesnt_exist.php" type="external">Rightbloggers: Santa Barbara Killer Elliot Rodger’s Sexist Rants Have Nothing To Do With Sexism (Or Guns)</a> by Roy Edroso at Runnin’ Scared</p>
<p>Any reasonable observer would look at this and conclude Rodger had problems with women, at least women who unfairly chose to live their lives as autonomous humans without regard for his needs. Rightbloggers saw it differently. To them, it might have meant any number of things, but what it certainly didn’t mean was that sexism exists.</p>
<p><a href="http://prospect.org/article/how-pick-artist-philosophy-and-its-more-misogynist-backlash-shaped-mind-alleged-killer" type="external">How ‘Pick-Up Artist’ Philosophy and Its More Misogynist Backlash Shaped Mind of Alleged Killer Elliot Rodger</a> by Amanda Marcotte at The American Prospect</p>
<p>Obviously, the discourse of male entitlement to female attention has long been a problem in our society. Young men angry at women for supposedly overlooking their charms for less worthy and more brutish sexual rivals existed long before The Game was published or PUA/MRA forums proliferated online. But the internet and the PUA community have created a self-haven for young men engaged in this self-pitying discourse, encouraging them to cultivate that chip on their shoulders, wallowing in misogynist accusations that women en masse are failing them by not giving up the sex these ostensibly unappreciated men believe they deserve.</p>
<p><a href="http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/05/24/pickup-artists-argue-that-game-is-the-solution-to-elliot-rodger-style-rampages-heres-why-theyre-wrong/" type="external">Pickup artists argue that “Game” is the solution to Elliot Rodger-style rampages. Here’s why they’re&#160;wrong</a> by David Futrelle at We Hunted the Mammoth</p>
<p>So how much of a solution is training a guy who is already filled with a toxic mixture of entitlement and self-loathing (yes, these strange bedfellows do often go together) in some techniques that might help him to tamp down his insecurities enough to manipulate some willing or not-so-willing women into bed?</p>
<p>You might have simply turned a mass killer into a serial rapist, or possibly a serial killer.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/05/the-power-of-yesallwomen.html" type="external">The Power of #YesAllWomen</a> by Sasha Weiss at The New Yorker</p>
<p>There is something about the fact that Twitter is primarily designed for speech—for short, strong, declarative utterance—that makes it an especially powerful vehicle for activism, a place of liberation. Reading #YesAllWomen, and participating in it, is the opposite of warily watching a man masturbate and being unable to confront him with language. #YesAllWomen is the vibrant revenge of women who have been gagged and silenced.</p>
<p><a href="http://brainyfemme.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/elliots-entitlement.html" type="external">Elliot’s Entitlement</a> by Cassie Goodwin at Brainy Femme</p>
<p>To be really honest though, the extreme outliers aren’t the guys that really scare me, deep down. It’s the rest of them – the quiet ones who think of themselves as “normal”, who think they’re “nice” because they’re not like THAT guy, but who still think they are owed everything they desire from women. Who think, quietly, but with certainty, that it’s not fair when a woman turns them down, that women who aren’t attracted to them are bitches, that they have the right to do whatever it takes to get what they want.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2014/05/elliot-rodger-price-toxic-masculinity/" type="external">Elliott Rodger and the Price of Toxic Masculinity</a> by Harris O’Malley at Paging Dr. Nerdlove</p>
<p>Maybe he was dealing with some sort of mental health issue. Maybe he was a sociopath. Maybe it was both. Maybe he was a skilled enough manipulator that he was able to tell the therapists what they wanted to hear. We don’t know. We may&#160;never&#160;know. But in the end, that’snot an explanation. That is just a way of compartmentalizing him, separating him out from the rest of the male population. A systematic “Not All Men”, as it were. It does far more harm, increasing the stigma of people who&#160;do&#160;suffer from mental illness and – more importantly – glosses over the&#160;real&#160;issue.</p>
<p>Some related readings:</p>
<p><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2372128" type="external">Hegemonic Masculinity and Mass Murderers in the United States</a> by Deniese Kennedy-Kollar and Christopher A. D. Charles in the Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice</p>
<p>This exploratory study examines the act of mass murder as an attempt by the perpetrators to lay claim to a hegemonic masculine identity that has been damaged or denied them, yet that they feel entitled to as males in American culture. Biographical information was gathered for 28 men who have committed mass murder in the United States since 1970 and examined for evidence of stressors to the perpetrators’ masculine identities. . . These stressors suggest that the motivations for mass murders are numerous and complex. There is no psychological profile unique to mass murderers and many authors have speculated on their motivations. However, in this study, the range of interrelated stressors experienced by the majority of mass murderers threatened their hegemonic masculine identity and these men engaged in violence to protect their identity.</p>
<p><a href="http://casemagazine.net/recently/wherearethegunwomen" type="external">Where are the Gun Women?</a> by Olivia Haber-Greenwood at CASE Magazine</p>
<p>Our failure to discuss violence as male-violence is an issue of naming. When a man commits a crime, his gender is left unnamed and he is allowed to represent some violent streak in American (or any other) culture. This is because men, from their dominant position, get to represent our culture on the whole. The fact that young American men are the most violent group of people in the industrialized worldis obscured by an understanding that America is a violent culture.</p>
<p><a href="http://prospect.org/article/look-inside-mens-rights-movement-helped-fuel-california-alleged-killer-elliot-rodger" type="external">A Good Men’s Rights Movement Is Hard to Find</a> by Jaclyn Friedman at The American Prospect</p>
<p>And make no mistake: anti-woman hate is the defining feature of the MRAs, and the examples above are the rule, not the exception. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a storied civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/misogyny-the-sites" type="external">told</a> 20/20: “The Manosphere is an underworld of so-called men’s rights groups and individuals on the Internet, which is just <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/women-battle-online-anti-women-hate-manosphere/story?id=20579038" type="external">fraught with really hard-line anti-woman misogyny</a>.” A Voice For Men makes no excuses for their hatred of women, from <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/bLi" type="external">posts</a> ranting about women who are “begging to be raped” to <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/bLj" type="external">treatises</a> about how fat women want to be sexually violated because it would mean we are desired.</p>
<p><a href="http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2013/10/Screen-shot-2013-10-13-at-5.30.04-PM-e1381890646987.png" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="twitter.com/azbrodsky" type="external">Alexandra Brodsky</a> is a Feministing editor, student at Yale Law School, and founding co-director of <a href="know" type="external">Know Your IX</a>.</p> | Roundup: Essential feminist writing on the Isla Vista shooting | true | http://feministing.com/2014/05/27/essential-feminist-writing-on-the-isla-vista-shooting/ | 4 |
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<p>Though the young leader’s birthday is well-known throughout the country, it has yet to be celebrated with the kind of adulatory festivities that accompany the birthdays of his late grandfather and father. Pyongyang residents did what they do every second Sunday of the new year — joined in sports events.</p>
<p>Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be 33 or 34 and the world’s youngest head of state, assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.</p>
<p>With the official period of mourning his father’s death over and his own powerbase apparently solid, Kim presided over a once-in-a-generation party congress last May that was seen by many as something of a coronation and the beginning of the Kim Jong Un era.</p>
<p>But he has continued to keep a step or two behind his predecessors in the country’s intense cult of personality. Kim’s grandfather, “eternal president” Kim Il Sung, and Kim Jong Il statues and portraits are found in virtually every public space or home. Their pins are worn over the hearts of every adult man and woman.</p>
<p>Rumors were rife that a new pin featuring Kim Jong Un would be issued during the May party congress, but they proved to be unfounded. Calendars for this year don’t denote Jan. 8 as anything other than a normal Sunday, and there was no mention of the birthday in Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party newspaper.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The only time Kim has been honored in public on his birthday was in 2014, when former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to him before an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang.</p>
<p>North Korean officials say the low-key approach — and the very little information made public about his wife and family — reflects Kim’s “humble” nature and respect for his forbearers. Kim seemed to amplify that image in his annual New Year’s address, when he closed with remarks about his desire to be a better leader.</p>
<p>Even so, 2017 could turn out to be a bigger than normal year in North Korea for Kim-related events.</p>
<p>State media have suggested Kim Jong Il’s birthday in February and especially Kim Il Sung’s birthday in April will be celebrated in a more lavish than usual manner, though exactly what’s in store is not known. And Kim Jong Un has already had something of a big New Year’s event — days after his address, tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in Pyongyang in the customary show of support for their leader.</p> | Just another Sunday? North Korea low key on Kim’s birthday | false | https://abqjournal.com/924547/just-another-sunday-north-korea-low-key-on-kims-birthday.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>Well, not really. But American tourists are one tiny step closer to Cuba's fine cigars and sandy beaches, thanks to a House Agriculture Committee vote narrowly recommending an end to the decades-old travel ban. Pro-embargo lawmakers in the House and Senate are expected to work their usual magic to defeat the measure.</p>
<p>Christian Science Monitor:</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee wrangled over the legislation, finally voting 25 to 20 to recommend it to the full House. The divided vote reflected some members' suspicion that the Agriculture Committee - which largely favored the farm-trade aspects of the bill - was being used by travel-rights advocates to get the lifting of the travel ban to the House floor.</p>
<p>The House Foreign Affairs Committee may also consider the legislation before it moves to the floor.</p>
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<p>The Agriculture Committee's close vote appears to portend rough days ahead for the bill, even though proponents of liberalizing US exchange with Cuba thought this was the best opportunity in years to chip away at the US embargo on Cuba.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0630/Cuba-travel-ahead-for-Americans-House-committee-advances-measure?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+feeds/top+(Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+Top+Stories)" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Pack Your Bags, We're Going to Cuba | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/back_your_bags_were_going_to_cuba_20100630/ | 2010-07-01 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The state Department of Public Safety has issued a missing person alert for 11-year-old Celeste Arnold, who reportedly ran away from her home in Capitan on Sunday.</p>
<p>The girl may have been en route to her grandmother’s house, according to police.</p>
<p>She is 4 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 100 pounds, has blond or strawberry-colored hair, color of eyes unknown, and was last seen wearing a gray hoodie, police said.</p>
<p>Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 1-800687-2419 or the state DPS Missing Person Hotline at 1-800-457-3463.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Capitan girl, 11, reported missing | false | https://abqjournal.com/180101/capitan-girl-11-reported-missing.html | 2013-03-19 | 2 |
<p>Associated Press&#160; <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>&#160;that on April 24 “a senior US military official speaking on condition of anonymity said in Kabul that Russia was giving machineguns and other medium&#160;&#160;weight weapons to the [Taliban].”&#160;&#160;No evidence was offered, and there was no confirmation from anywhere else concerning the allegation.&#160;&#160;And nobody pointed out that neither the Taliban nor any other militant group — including the private armies of CIA-supported&#160; <a href="" type="internal">warlords</a>&#160;— have any need of extra weapons, as they have plenty of their own that they have obtained by various means over the years.</p>
<p>A 2014&#160; <a href="https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/audits/SIGAR-14-84-AR.pdf" type="external">analysis</a>&#160;titled&#160;Actions Needed to Improve Weapons Accountability&#160;by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) warned that “The scheduled reduction in Afghan security forces personnel to 228,500 by 2017 is likely to result in an even greater number of excess weapons. Yet [the US] DOD continues to provide the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) with weapons based on the ANSF force strength of 352,000 and has no plans to stop providing weapons. Given the Afghan government’s limited ability to account for or properly dispose of these weapons, there is a real potential for these weapons to fall into the hands of insurgents, which will pose additional risks to US personnel, the ANSF, and Afghan civilians.”</p>
<p>On the same day as the anonymous (as always) “senior US military official” told the media that Russia was providing guns to the Taliban the US defense secretary, General Mattis, visited Afghanistan. It was illuminating that his visit was not announced before he arrived, because,&#160;&#160;after sixteen years of war and&#160; <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/category/military/" type="external">expenditure</a>&#160;of 770 billion dollars of US taxpayers’ money on one of the most&#160; <a href="https://www.transparency.org/country/AFG" type="external">corrupt</a>&#160;countries in the world (169 out of 176, according to&#160; <a href="https://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/report_launch_how_to_tackle_corruption_in_afghanistan_new_report_17_februar" type="external">Transparency International</a>), it was unsafe to the point of hazarding his life to let anyone know he was coming — even people at the highest levels of what passes for government in Kabul.</p>
<p>And his&#160; <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-mattis-nicholson-russia-arming-taliban/28449422.html" type="external">media conference</a>&#160;was illuminating as well because, according to Radio Free Europe&#160;/&#160;Radio Liberty, General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said he “wouldn’t dispute that Russia’s involvement in the Afghan war includes Moscow providing weapons to the Taliban.”&#160;&#160;In similar style, CBS news&#160; <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-supplying-taliban-weapons-top-us-general-afghanistan-suggests/" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that when a reporter asked Nicholson “So you are not refuting that they are sending weapons?” he replied “Oh, no, I am not refuting that.”</p>
<p>Then the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a>&#160;told us that “Russia is sending weapons to Taliban, top US general confirms” and backed up its statement by saying that “The general in charge of US forces in Afghanistan appeared to confirm that Russia is sending weapons to the Taliban . . . General John Nicholson did not dispute claims that the Taliban is receiving weapons and other supplies from the Russians. ‘We continue to get reports of this assistance,’ Nicholson said.”</p>
<p>Who provides these reports?&#160;&#160;More anonymous officials?</p>
<p>It is noteworthy that Mattis did not echo “not refute/dispute”, but confined himself to observing, as&#160; <a href="" type="internal">accurately stated</a>&#160;by Al Jazeera, that “any weapons being funnelled here from a foreign country would be a violation of international law” which, although an almost unbelievably stupid comment, especially in the light of proven US arms supplies to Syrian rebel forces, reported by&#160; <a href="http://www.janes.com/" type="external">IHS Jane’s</a>&#160;&#160;and listed in&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Business Insider</a>, does not go as far as to give credibility to the unsubstantiated allegations that Russia is supplying arms to the Taliban.&#160;&#160;Even the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a>&#160;acknowledged that “weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market,” which doesn’t say much for Washington’s adherence to international law — or its control of all the weapons it sprays around the world.</p>
<p>Why would Russia want to send weapons to the Taliban?&#160;&#160;What possible advantage might there be in that for Moscow?&#160;&#160;The Taliban have already got plenty of weapons from many sources, the main one being the United States, via the Afghan army and police. The European Union ambassador to Kabul, Franz-Michael Mellbin,&#160; <a href="http://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/eu-investigate-weapons-sales-taliban" type="external">said</a>&#160;in February that “corruption is huge in the police force and it is a tragedy that weapons and ammunition go from police to the enemies of the state [i.e., the Taliban]. I had a discussion this morning with the Support Mission about this and on the international side there is no doubt that we find this to be a scandal which has to end.”</p>
<p>There is no chance of it ending, because as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction&#160; <a href="https://www.sigar.mil/newsroom/ReadFile.aspx?SSR=7&amp;SubSSR=29&amp;File=speeches/16/SIGAR_Carnegie_Speech.html#_ednref8" type="external">emphasized</a>&#160;in September 2016, “while corruption in Afghanistan pre-dates 2001 [when the Taliban government was toppled by militias who were bribed and armed by the CIA, a practice that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">continued</a>], it has become far more serious and widespread since then.”&#160;&#160;His reports, he said, detail “how the United States collaborated with abusive and corrupt warlords, militias, and other powerbrokers. These men gained positions of authority in the Afghan government, which further enabled them to dip their hands into the streams of cash pouring into a small and fragile economy.”</p>
<p>On April 25 the United Nations published a paper titled&#160; <a href="https://unama.unmissions.org/corruption." type="external">Afghanistan’s Fight against Corruption: The Other Battlefield</a>&#160;which is a travesty, because, as&#160; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4445116/UN-says-corruption-Afghanistan-challenge-despite-progress.html" type="external">pointed out</a>&#160;by Britain’s&#160;Daily Mail&#160;newspaper, it “does not extend to security forces, undermined by nepotism, favoritism and ghost soldiers, who exist only on paper and whose pay is diverted.”&#160;&#160;There’s nothing in the UN document about weapons being stolen or otherwise going missing, but the&#160;New York Times&#160; <a href="" type="internal">is more realistic</a>&#160;in its long report about ‘How Many Guns Did the US Lose Track of in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of Thousands.’&#160;&#160;It records that “the United States has handed out a vast but persistently uncountable quantity of military firearms to its many battlefield partners in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today the Pentagon has only a partial idea of how many weapons it issued, much less where these weapons are.”</p>
<p>Some of the NYT analysis is based on research by Iain Overton, director of the London-based&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Action on Armed Violence</a>&#160;(AOAV), who discovered that “overall, the US DoD found 484,680 small arms recorded, compared to the 503,328 AOAV researchers found” — and this figure does not include weapons provided to warlords and others by the CIA.&#160;&#160;One conclusion is that the discrepancies in figures of weapons provided to the Afghan armed forces is evidence of “the lack of accountability, transparency and joined up data that exists at the very heart of the US government’s weapon procurement and distribution systems.”</p>
<p>It is far from surprising that weapons have been easily acquired by the Taliban and any other armed group in Afghanistan that wants them.&#160;&#160;There is no need for them to go out on the world market and seek arms from anywhere else — it’s much simpler to stay at home and let the weapons roll in, either as a result of attacks on Afghan military bases or the simpler method of handing over a bit of cash to corrupt government officials and military officers who are supposed to account for them.</p>
<p>And then, muddying the waters and attempting to shift the blame for the corruption caused by this disastrous 16-year war away from the Pentagon and its NATO sub-office in Brussels to anyone else who might be easy to blame, it is attractive for “a senior US military official . . . on condition of anonymity” to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">tell reporters</a>&#160;that Russia is giving the Taliban “machine guns and other medium-weight weapons” and for the US commander in Afghanistan to declare that “we continue to get reports of this assistance.”</p>
<p>On April 26 came&#160; <a href="" type="internal">news</a>&#160;of two more US soldiers having been killed in Eastern Afghanistan, bring the number of US dead in that useless war to&#160; <a href="http://icasualties.org/OEF/Nationality.aspx?hndQry=US" type="external">2396</a>.&#160;&#160;The&#160;Washington Post&#160; <a href="" type="internal">note</a>d that “the deaths mark the third time this year that a member of the US military has died in combat in Afghanistan. On April 8, Army Staff Sergeant Mark R De Alencar was killed by small-arms fire, also in Nangarhar Province.”</p>
<p>Who provided the weapons to the insurgents who killed these young soldiers?&#160;&#160;And is it right that they should have died to support such a corrupt country?</p>
<p>On May 8 the&#160;Washington Post&#160; <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>&#160;that “President Trump’s most senior military and foreign policy advisers have proposed a major shift in strategy in Afghanistan that would effectively put the United States back on a war footing with the Taliban.”&#160;&#160;It is difficult to see how there could be more of a war footing than currently exists, with the drone assassinations, the sky black with ground attack aircraft, the killing of young American soldiers and the absurd use of the Monkey Of All Bombs, but the warniks in the US-NATO military alliance are raring to go with another surge that will be aimed at something or other they’ll think up between now and the US-NATO summit to be held on May 25 at the Pentagon’s sub-office in Brussels.</p>
<p>The surge they should be taking aim at is the all-penetrating corruption that has almost destroyed Afghanistan.&#160;&#160;Sending more troops into the quagmire&#160; <a href="" type="internal">didn’t work</a>&#160;in 2009, and it won’t work this time.&#160;&#160;American soldiers&#160;​are being killed, and&#160;it’s time that Mr Trump asked if the place is worth the life of a single American Ranger.</p> | Surging Corruption in Afghanistan | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/surging-corruption-in-afghanistan/ | 2017-05-12 | 4 |
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble, Boeing earnings disappoint</p>
<p>U.S. stocks looked set for a muted open Wednesday, holding off from building on the previous session's milestone-setting rally, as investors waited for an announcement on the Trump administration's tax plan.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16 points to 20,961, while those for the S&amp;P 500 index added 1 point to 2,386. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index rose 3 points to 5,551.</p>
<p>The subtle moves come after stocks on Tuesday moved sharply higher (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-poised-to-build-on-rally-with-flood-of-earnings-ahead-2017-04-25), as investors welcomed upbeat earnings and the possibility of significant corporate tax cuts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trumps-15-corporate-tax-rate-could-cost-the-government-2-trillion-2017-04-25).</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite jumped above 6,000 for the first time ever to close at a record high, while the Dow average gained 1.1%, and the S&amp;P 500 index added 0.6%.</p>
<p>See:A big chunk of the Dow's gains have come from earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-big-chunk-of-the-dows-gains-have-come-from-earnings-2017-04-25)</p>
<p>"Markets are excited to hear what Trump has to say on tax reform, giving him an opportunity to finally deliver on pro-growth policy, but conscious of having already failed miserably on health care and little to show for his first hundred days," analysts at Accendo Markets said in a note.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Trump administration is due to reveal a "massive" tax package later on Wednesday that will deliver reductions bigger than "any tax cut ever," the president has said.</p>
<p>Trump won't present the tax announcement himself, but will leave it to Treasury Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Director Gary Cohn, according to media reports (http://thehill.com/policy/finance/330588-mnuchin-cohn-expected-to-roll-out-trump-tax-plan). The press briefing at the White House is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.</p>
<p>Read:Trump's tax reform could lift the stock-market to new heights (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trumps-tax-reform-could-lift-the-stock-market-to-new-heights-2017-04-26)</p>
<p>Trump has vowed to slash the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%, but analysts note there have been few details given on how the cuts will be funded.</p>
<p>"The tax reform bill will still need Congress's approval to pass. If Trump is unable to get enough support, it will likely lead to substantial market disappointment likely to initiate a dollar and equity sell off," said Devata Tseng, technical analyst at FXPro, in a note.</p>
<p>The dollar traded mostly higher against other major currencies ahead of the announcement on Wednesday, with the ICE Dollar Index up 0.4% at 99.177.</p>
<p>A potential government shutdown this weekend was also on investors' minds on Wednesday. Some of those concerns, however, eased after Trump backed off on a demand for border-wall funding (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-backs-off-demand-for-immediate-border-wall-funding-2017-04-24), which was seen as an obstacle.</p>
<p>See:Should Wall Street fear a government shutdown? Here's how stocks fared in the past (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-wall-street-fear-a-government-shutdown-heres-how-stocks-fared-during-past-closures-2017-04-21)</p>
<p>Earnings season: The season continues in full swing, with a deluge of results hitting premarket. Shares of PepsiCo Inc.(PEP)slipped 0.8% even as earnings beat analyst forecast.</p>
<p>Anthem Inc.(ANTM) results also topped expectations, but shares were little changed ahead of the bell.</p>
<p>Twitter Inc. (TWTR) soared 11% ahead of the open (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-shares-soar-after-first-quarter-earnings-beat-2017-04-26), after the social media company beat first-quarter earnings expectations.</p>
<p>United Technologies Corp. (UTX) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) each climbed 0.8% after earnings.</p>
<p>Procter &amp; Gamble Co (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pg-earnings-beat-expectations-but-revenue-misses-2017-04-26).(PG) and Boeing Co (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/boeing-shares-fall-premarket-after-revenue-falls-short-of-estimates-2017-04-26).(BA) fell around 0.8% and 1.2% respectively after each missed on revenue forecasts.</p>
<p>After the market closes, earnings from Amgen Inc.(AMGN), Tractor Supply Co.(TSCO) and PayPal Holdings Inc.(PYPL) are on tap.</p>
<p>Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.(CMG) rose 1.3% in Wednesday's premarket trade after the casual restaurant chain reported first-quarter earnings ahead of forecasts late Tuesday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chipotle-shares-rally-6-after-companys-earnings-beat-2017-04-25).</p>
<p>Arconic Inc. (ARNC) shares also rallied ahead of the bell, up 2.7% after the aerospace and car maker supplier's earnings out late Tuesday topped Wall Street estimates (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/arconic-shares-rally-as-quarterly-earnings-beat-street-view-2017-04-25).</p>
<p>Other markets:Stocks in Asia closed mainly higher (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asia-pacific-markets-continue-to-ride-wave-of-gains-2017-04-25), propelled by optimism over the prospect of a U.S. tax overhaul.</p>
<p>European markets were slightly lower (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-struggle-to-hold-onto-20-month-high-ahead-of-trump-tax-unveiling-2017-04-26), after surging to historic highs following the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday. Centrist Emmanuel Macron came out on top and will battle against far-right Marine Le Pen in the second round on May 7--a vote Macron is expected to win.</p>
<p>Read:Emmanuel Macron: 5 things to know about the man poised to be France's president (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/emmanuel-macron-5-things-to-know-about-the-man-poised-to-be-frances-president-2017-04-24)</p>
<p>Oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-slip-again-as-us-supply-worries-resurface-2017-04-26-11033520) were lower ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's supply data out later on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Metals were mixed, with gold prices down 0.3%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose 1 basis point to 2.35%.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 26, 2017 08:42 ET (12:42 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock Market Rally Set To Take Breather As Investors Await Trump's 'big' Tax Plan | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/26/market-snapshot-stock-market-rally-set-to-take-breather-as-investors-await-trumps-big-tax-plan.html | 2017-04-26 | 0 |
<p>Photo by Fundamentaldan, courtesy Wikipedia</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s the <a href="" type="internal">trouble with emissions</a>. They’ve got killer hangovers. Take <a href="" type="internal">DDT</a>. Not only is it still with us, it’s actually increasing in the western North Atlantic—despite 30 years of restrictions on its use.</p>
<p>A modelling study published in <a href="http://europa.agu.org:8005/?view=article&amp;uri=/journals/gl/gl0924/2009GL041340/2009GL041340.xml&amp;t=2009,stemmler" type="external">Geophysical Research Letters</a> finds substantial quantities of the pesticide still being released from the World Ocean. And though most <a href="" type="internal">DDT use today</a> occurs in the southern hemisphere, concentrations are growing in the northern hemisphere as the old stuff cycles between oceans and atmosphere.</p>
<p>In fact, this study’s computer model, simulating DDT circulation between ocean and atmosphere from 1950 to 2002, suggests the regurgitation of old DDT from the ocean is now greater than from ongoing sources of DDT.</p>
<p>Plus the stuff’s migrating north and has been since the 1960s. Says the paper:</p>
<p>“The sea region that has been representing the most significant (secondary) DDT source is the western N Atlantic (Gulf stream and <a href="http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/north-atlantic-drift.html" type="external">N Atlantic Drift</a> regions).”</p>
<p>More bad news for a heavily populated part of the world and all the marine life left in those <a href="" type="internal">once heavily populated waters</a>. &#160;</p>
<p /> | Old DDT Migrating North | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/old-ddt-migrating-north/ | 2010-01-08 | 4 |
<p>Google Inc's quarterly results fell well short of Wall Street's expectations after its core advertising business slowed, stunning investors accustomed to consistently rapid growth from the Internet giant and wiping more than 9 percent off its market value.</p>
<p>The disappointing numbers on Thursday came hours ahead of schedule in a rare instance of premature filing. Google blamed the misfire on an unauthorized filing by its financial printers, RR Donnelley &amp; Sons Co, and later confirmed the numbers' accuracy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The earnings report, which had not been expected until after the market close, revealed a weakening in Google's core Internet advertising business and persistent losses at its recently acquired cellphone business, Motorola Mobility.</p>
<p>Shares of Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, finished Thursday's regular trading session down 8 percent at $695 after a brief trading halt. Some analysts said the inadvertent results release spurred confusion and exacerbated its stock price decline.</p>
<p>Google executives maintained in a conference call on Thursday that the company's various businesses continued to benefit from healthy growth and that Google was well-positioned to capitalize on consumer's increasing use of mobile devices.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Larry Page, speaking on his first earnings call since an unspecified voice ailment sidelined him from public speaking in June, said that Google's mobile business was now generating revenue at an annualized run rate of $8 billion.</p>
<p>Page acknowledged that mobile ad rates were below the rates that Google garners for ads that appear on its standard website. But he said the variety of Web-connected devices used by consumers is creating "a huge new universe of opportunities for advertisers."</p>
<p>"We're uniquely positioned to get through that transition and to really profit from it," Page said, citing Google's Android mobile software, the world's top operating system for smartphones by market share.</p>
<p>Google, which has been struggling to turn around a Motorola Mobility hardware business it bought for $12.5 billion, reported a 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion. Excluding certain items, it earned $9.03 a share, vastly underperforming the $10.65 analysts had expected, on average.</p>
<p>"We have been saying this thing was ripe for a pullback. It's not like they're Google not being Google, but you still have some major issues," said BCG analyst Colin Gillis.</p>
<p>"Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That's a negative. This is the mobile problem."</p>
<p>"The other bit is the Motorola millstone had been ignored by the market, and - boom - now you've got weak revenue from Motorola. When you acquire a business and you're about to whack all kinds of people and close offices, you know what happens to the employees? They take their eye off the ball. Sales are down," Gillis explained.</p>
<p>Net revenue growth at Google's main Internet business increased 17 percent year-over-year, the first time growth in that business has fallen below 20 percent since 2009. Google Finance Chief Patrick Pichette stressed on the conference call that the revenue growth rate was higher if the impact of foreign currency exchange rates was backed out.</p>
<p>"It was just too rapid a deceleration," said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser. "Many of the same underlying trends drive Facebook advertising."</p>
<p>Shares of Facebook Inc, which headed south shortly after Google's inadvertent filing, closed down 4.6 percent. Google's snafu recalled Facebook's debut, which was marred by technical glitches that also spooked traders and contributed to the stock's first-day decline.</p>
<p>The decline in Google's shares come after a three-month run-up in its stock, which reached an all-time high of $774.38 earlier this month.</p>
<p>A BAD MISS?</p>
<p>Google reported net revenue - excluding traffic acquisition costs - of $11.3 billion for the third quarter, below Wall Street's expectations for about $11.9 billion.</p>
<p>For the fourth consecutive quarter, the company reported a decline in average cost-per-click (CPC), a critical metric that denotes the price advertisers pay Google.</p>
<p>Average CPC declined 15 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from the second quarter of this year. Analysts say that Google, like many of its peers in the Internet industry, has been struggling to adapt to the rapid consumer uptake in mobile devices. Advertisers pay far less for ads on smartphones and tablets than for similar ads on desktop computers.</p>
<p>"The core business seems to have slowed down pretty significantly, which is shocking," said B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha. "The only conclusion I can look at is, search is happening more and more outside of Google, meaning people are searching more through apps than through Google search."</p>
<p>"That could indicate a secular change, especially when it comes to ecommerce searches. The big fear has always been, what if people decide just to go straight to Amazon and do their searches? And potentially that's what could be happening."</p>
<p>But Ryan Jacob, chairman and chief investment officer of Jacob Funds, said he viewed Google's results as only "minorly disappointing," with most of the weakness coming from Motorola as expected.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, by dropping an 8K in the middle of a trading day, people kind of shoot first, ask questions later," said Jacob, whose fund owns Google shares.</p>
<p>JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a note that the Google results were "light" but not as bad as they appeared at "first blush."</p>
<p>FILING SNAFU</p>
<p>Google, which recently overtook Microsoft Corp to become the second-largest U.S. technology company by capitalization, had been due to release its results after the market close.</p>
<p>The second paragraph of the press release merely read "Pending Larry quote," suggesting that space was reserved for comment from CEO Larry Page.</p>
<p>"Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization," Google said in a statement. "We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT."</p>
<p>Shares of RR Donnelley, the U.S. printing services company, slid as much as 5 percent. They closed down 1 percent at $10.76.</p>
<p>Reed Kathrein, a plaintiff lawyer with Hagens Berman who sues companies on behalf of investors, said investors would not have a claim against either Google or RR Donnelley because the earnings disclosure was likely a mistake.</p>
<p>"There's no fraudulent intent here," Kathrein said.</p>
<p>However, Google could have a negligence claim against RR Donnelly to recover any additional costs it incurred in responding to the incident, Kathrein added.</p>
<p>"Everyone is trying to figure out if there's any legal issue with respect to RR Donnelley," said Michael Matousek, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc, which manages about $3 billion in San Antonio.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Gerry Shih and Noel Randewich in San Francisco, David Gaffen and Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr and Gary Hill)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Google results miss; shares dive after premature report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/18/refile-update-5-google-results-miss-shares-dive-after-premature-report917775.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>Sweeping views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are visible along with the upper guesthouse on the Santa Fe Institute’s new Tesuque campus.</p>
<p>SANTA FE — If beautiful surroundings in a contemplative setting provide fuel for thinking great thoughts, scholars at the Santa Fe Institute should soon be producing a host of answers to the world’s problems. Or at least thinking of better questions to ask. A 36-acre estate nestled in the hills of Tesuque was donated late last year to the institute, giving it a second campus about 4.5 miles from its current location off Hyde Park Road. The original site is “bursting out at the seams,” said Jerry Sabloff, institute president. But a search hadn’t started for new land or expansion — administrators were simply looking for ways to use current space more efficiently, he said. “This was serendipitous,” he said. “This is a terrific opportunity for us.” “This” consists of the land and five buildings, offering a total of about 14,000 square feet of indoor space, which was once the vacation home and later primary residence of Eugene and Clare Thaw. The couple will stay at their New York home and no longer will have a Santa Fe area residence, according to Sabloff. Eugene Thaw, a long-time art collector, art dealer and philanthropist, declined to be interviewed for this story. But in an institute newsletter, he was quoted as fearing that selling the property would result in its quick dismantlement. “Why not choose to give away the property, before it turns into money, to the right new owners and have it serve a good purpose?” he said in the newsletter. “When I think about the world of science, when everything is going down the tubes and when ignorance is on the rise, if you could save one place that might start discursive thinking all over again, it would be the Santa Fe Institute.” Founded in 1984, the Santa Fe Institute puts together innovative thinkers from a variety of disciplines, feeds them and gets them talking. With luck, creativity flows and new ideas are sparked. Some evidence of ideas exchanged during scholars’ hallway chats can be seen in anything from physics equations to poems jotted with felt-tip marker on glass windows in the Institute’s main building off Hyde Park Road. The institute’s focus is the study of “complex adaptive systems,” Sabloff explained. Questions could include an examination of what happens to a food web if one item is removed, or, as was the case with William Frej, former USAID mission director for Afghanistan, wondering how resources can be delivered to a country in a way that would achieve the hoped-for results.</p>
<p>The library in the main house of the Santa Fe Institute’s new Tesuque campus includes a “secret room” behind the bookshelves. The property was the summer home and later primary home for Eugene and Clare Thaw, until it was recently given to the institute. (eddie moore/journal)</p>
<p>Say you deliver $1 million to a village. “You get unexpected results,” Sabloff said. “You may change the whole system, and find emergent problems that you had not thought about.” The institute has only 10 resident faculty members, but external faculty members, graduate and post-doctoral fellows, temporary appointments and visitors can bring the total on campus from about 30 usually there to well over a hundred in the summer. In the short term, Sabloff said he expects to use the new Tesuque campus simply to support current programs, housing visiting scientists and offering space for workshops for groups of eight to 10 people. A committee is looking at longer-term options and is expected to produce a report by the end of April. The value of the Thaws’ donation is between $1 million and $410 million.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Property Gifted to Santa Fe Institute | false | https://abqjournal.com/165473/location-conversation-contemplation.html | 2013-02-04 | 2 |
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