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<p>Cher must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed again today. But, instead of <a href="" type="internal">tweeting profane things about Sarah Palin</a>, she decided to share with some fans her lack of thanks for the American holiday.</p>
<p>As Twitchy <a href="http://twitchy.com/2013/11/28/cher-refuses-to-celebrate-thanksgiving-calls-it-beginning-of-a-great-crime/" type="external">reports</a>, a fan asked why she didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with her family and Cher responded:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Another follower then asked her if she could elaborate on the “crime” part of her tweet and she said:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Thankfully the creator and actress from HBO’s Girls, Lena Dunham, (link to piece) has stayed off of twitter so far today. We don’t want her tweeting about <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2013/05/27/lena-dunham-memorial-day-urine" type="external">drunk bathroom breaks again</a>. Liberal feminist celebrities: turning American days of thanks and remembrance into personal opportunities for idiotic rants.</p> | Cher Calls Thanksgiving A 'Great Crime' | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/cher-calls-thanksgiving-great-crime | 2018-10-04 | 0 |
<p>Shares of health-care companies rose as a recovery in risk appetite supported biotech stocks. Officials in the United Kingdom said the National Health Service plans to distribute generic versions of Gilead's Truvada HIV drug in a clinical trial to avoid infringing the biotech company's patent protection.</p>
<p>--Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 11, 2017 16:23 ET (20:23 GMT)</p> | Health Care Up as Improved Risk Appetite Buoys Biotech -- Health Care Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/11/health-care-up-as-improved-risk-appetite-buoys-biotech-health-care-roundup.html | 2017-08-11 | 0 |
<p>Hundreds of U.S. and Chinese officials met for two days in Washington last week but couldn't come to terms over who was responsible for NSA leaker Edward Snowden's departure from Hong Kong late last month.</p>
<p>The U.S. dispute with the government of Hong Kong over Snowden, who was allowed to board a flight to Moscow in late June despite a provisional arrest request issued by the U.S. Justice Department, has never been resolved. Hong Kong officials <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/hk-says-us-got-snowdens-middle-name-wrong-064609730.html" type="external">claimed</a> that the U.S. government failed to respond to requests for additional information and identified Snowden's middle name as "Joseph," not James. But U.S. officials have said repeatedly the request was valid on its face and should have been honored.</p>
<p>At a July 12 press conference with senior U.S. and Chinese government officials, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns criticized Beijing, as well as Hong Kong, for letting Snowden go to Russia, where he still sits in an airport transit terminal weighing various Latin American asylum offers.</p>
<p>"When we encounter differences or sensitive issues, we need to address them directly in consultation with one another. And that is why we were very disappointed with how the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong handled the Snowden case, which undermined our effort to build the trust needed to manage difficult issues," said Burns. "Over the past two days, we made clear that China's handling of this case was not consistent with the spirit of Sunnylands or with the type of relationship - the new model - that we both seek to build."</p>
<p>Burns was referring to the Sunnylands resort in California where President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping held <a href="" type="internal">their first official summit</a> in early June, just as the Snowden leaks began to come out.</p>
<p>Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi directly disputed Burn's accusation that Beijing was involved in the decision to let Snowden leave Hong Kong. He also defended the actions of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) with regards to the case.</p>
<p>"With regard to the Snowden case, the central government of China has always respected the Hong Kong SAR government's handling of cases in accordance with law. The Hong Kong SAR government has handled the Snowden case in accordance with law, and its approach is beyond reproach," he said. "Others should respect this, and I believe China and the United States have sufficient wisdom to tap the potential of cooperation between the two sides. We hope and believe the two sides have the wisdom to manage well our differences."</p>
<p>The meetings in Washington also included the first official meeting of a U.S.-China bilateral working group on cyber crime. Yang said cyber hacking in the U.S.-China relationship is no longer an issue solely for China to address.</p>
<p>"The Chinese side pointed out that China is a victim of hacking attacks. China's view is that the relevant international cyber rules should be developed by the U.N. to help uphold cyber security in all countries," he said.</p>
<p>Burns also lectured his Chinese counterparts on human rights. The State Department <a href="" type="internal">downgraded</a> China last month in its annual report on human trafficking, placing China on the same tier as Cuba, North Korea, and Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>"During the course of the dialogue, we also expressed our ongoing concerns about human rights in China, particularly recent instability in Tibetan and Uighur areas of China. The goal of this conversation is to emphasize the importance of human rights to the bilateral relationship," said Burns. "We firmly believe that respect for universal rights and fundamental freedoms will make China more peaceful, more prosperous, and ultimately more secure."</p> | Snowden case roils major U.S.-China dialogue | true | https://thedailybeast.com/snowden-case-roils-major-us-china-dialogue | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, making it slightly more affordable to borrow for a home.</p>
<p>Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 3.95 percent from 3.99 percent last week. The average has tumbled from 4.20 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>Relatively low mortgage rates have helped would-be homebuyers who are coping with rising housing costs. The National Association of Realtors said the median home sales price increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to $248,000 in November. Part of the reason why prices have risen so much is that the number of homes on the market has declined by nearly 10 percent since November 2016.</p>
<p>The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.38 percent from 3.44 percent in the prior week. This same rate average 3.44 percent last year.</p>
<p>The interest charged on U.S. Treasury notes dropped from a week ago, causing mortgage rates to slip in response.</p>
<p>The average on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages slipped to 3.45 percent from 3.47 percent last week.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, making it slightly more affordable to borrow for a home.</p>
<p>Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 3.95 percent from 3.99 percent last week. The average has tumbled from 4.20 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>Relatively low mortgage rates have helped would-be homebuyers who are coping with rising housing costs. The National Association of Realtors said the median home sales price increased 5.8 percent from a year ago to $248,000 in November. Part of the reason why prices have risen so much is that the number of homes on the market has declined by nearly 10 percent since November 2016.</p>
<p>The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.38 percent from 3.44 percent in the prior week. This same rate average 3.44 percent last year.</p>
<p>The interest charged on U.S. Treasury notes dropped from a week ago, causing mortgage rates to slip in response.</p>
<p>The average on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages slipped to 3.45 percent from 3.47 percent last week.</p> | Average 30-year mortgage rates slip to 3.95 percent | false | https://apnews.com/amp/520f99d608c84e8c888ecd3d21be5ae9 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A surfer was rescued in Northern California after losing his board and becoming trapped in an alcove against a rocky cliff where he was pounded by waves.</p>
<p>Surfer Gavin Carpenter says he was on a cliff in Santa Cruz on Monday getting ready to jump in the water when a huge swell dragged him into the ocean.</p>
<p>Carpenter said Tuesday he lost his board and had become exhausted when another surfer reached him, put him on a board and helped him climb back onto the rocks.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old says he mistimed a wave and that was lucky to only have some abrasions. He says he plans to treat the surfer who helped him to dinner.</p>
<p>A National Weather Service High Surf Advisory for the Santa Cruz coastline says swells Tuesday could reach up to 15 feet.</p>
<p>SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A surfer was rescued in Northern California after losing his board and becoming trapped in an alcove against a rocky cliff where he was pounded by waves.</p>
<p>Surfer Gavin Carpenter says he was on a cliff in Santa Cruz on Monday getting ready to jump in the water when a huge swell dragged him into the ocean.</p>
<p>Carpenter said Tuesday he lost his board and had become exhausted when another surfer reached him, put him on a board and helped him climb back onto the rocks.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old says he mistimed a wave and that was lucky to only have some abrasions. He says he plans to treat the surfer who helped him to dinner.</p>
<p>A National Weather Service High Surf Advisory for the Santa Cruz coastline says swells Tuesday could reach up to 15 feet.</p> | Surfer rescued off Santa Cruz amid swells | false | https://apnews.com/amp/60e7103bc10943dd982b888b1f3a49a5 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45976898@N02/4575184210/"&gt;Arasmus Photo&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>The day when the majority of newborns in the US are nonwhite minorities is almost here. The Wall Street Journal&#160; <a href="http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704312104575298512006681060.html?mg=reno-wsj#printMode" type="external">reports</a> today that, between July 2008 and July 2009, the percentage of minority newborns in this country jumped from 46.8 percent to 48.6 percent. That likely means the point at which minority newborns are 50 percent or more of all US-born kids is almost here, if it hasn’t occurred already.</p>
<p>It’s also a reminder of the major demographic shift in this country, in which all whites cease to be the majority, replaced instead by a “majority minority.” Here’s the Journal on this:</p>
<p>“The question is just when,” said Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. He guesses the milestone will be crossed in the next few years, and could happen as early as 2011…</p>
<p>A number of forces are pushing the US toward a “majority minority” future. The median age of the white population is older than that of nonwhites, and thus a larger share of minority women are in prime child-bearing years. In addition, white women are having fewer children than nonwhites, while the growth in mixed marriages has led to more multiracial births.</p>
<p>Right now, minorities in toto comprise around 35 percent of the US population, up from 30 percent in 2000, according to Census data, which means the white majority will remain for a few decades more. (In 2008, the Census predicted a nationwide majority-minority by 2050.) Already, though, four states—Hawaii, Texas, California, and New Mexico—have majority-minority populations. This, of course, is the context for the nation’s increasingly fraught immigration debate, with states like Arizona pitted against the Obama administration and more left-leaning immigration reformers. The battle will only grow more feverish, as other states like <a href="http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=121701" type="external">Michigan</a> try to pass Arizona-like immigration bills of their own.</p>
<p>For future political candidates, this demographic shift is a stark reminder of who they’ll need to court if they want to be elected. With that in mind, you’ve got to wonder if immigration crackdowns like Arizona’s law won’t soon be a political suicide for the politicians backing them.</p>
<p /> | White Newborns Soon the Minority | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/white-newborns-soon-minority/ | 2010-06-11 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Avondale Industries Inc. was acquired by Northrup Grumman Corporation in 2001. Founded in 1938, Avondale first began building ocean-going ships in the 1950’s. From 1959 to 1985, the Company operated as a subsidiary of Ogden Corporation. Over the past two decades, a majority of Avondale’s contracts were for the construction of US Navy surface ships, although it also built container ships and crude oil tankers.</p>
<p />
<p>COMPANY NAME: COMPANY HEADQUARTERS: 5100 River Rd., Avondale, LA 70094 COMPANY WEB SITE: <a href="http://www.northropgrummanshipsystems.com" type="external">www.northropgrummanshipsystems.com</a>2001 GROSS REVENUES: NANUMBER OF EXMPLOYEES: NATYPES OF BUSINESS: Ship design and construction.TYPES OF FEDERAL CONTRACTS: Design and construction of vessels for the US Navy.</p>
<p /> | Company Profile: Avondale Industries Inc. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2002/03/company-profile-avondale-industries-inc/ | 2018-05-01 | 4 |
<p>ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Chris Holtmann figured an off-night from Keita Bates-Diop was inevitable. So, too, is the Ohio State coach’s first Big Ten loss.</p>
<p>But it did not coincide with his star player’s first subpar performance in weeks.</p>
<p>Holtmann became the first coach in 95 years to win his first seven Big Ten games as No. 22 Ohio State defeated Northwestern 71-65 on Wednesday night. Holtmann is the third Big Ten coach to win his first seven conference games, joining Wisconsin’s Walter Meanwell (1911-12) and Iowa’s Sam Barry (1922-23). Holtmann replaced Thad Matta, the program’s all-time wins leader, this season.</p>
<p>“It really does not mean anything,” Holtmann said. “I think that’s a reflection on the players as much as anything. We’ve got a group that really likes each other. And it’s easy to like each other when you’re on the streak that we’re on right now, but I sensed that they even liked each other when we had some rough spots earlier in the year.”</p>
<p>C.J. Jackson had 12 points and eight assists, Micah Potter scored 13 points off the bench and Bates-Diop, the Big Ten’s leading scorer and reigning two-time player of the week, had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Buckeyes (16-4, 7-0), who won their sixth straight overall.</p>
<p>Vic Law scored 14 points and Scottie Lindsey had 13 for Northwestern (11-9, 2-5) as the Wildcats suffered their second straight double-digit loss.</p>
<p>Picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten in a preseason media poll, the Buckeyes have been the story of the conference so far this season. Coming off successive routs of then-No. 1 Michigan State, Maryland and Rutgers, Ohio State led Northwestern by as many as 15 in the second half before holding off a late Wildcats charge.</p>
<p>Northwestern got within three at 68-65 on a 3-pointer by Lindsey with 43 seconds left, but Jackson sealed the victory from the foul line.</p>
<p>“Obviously I’m disappointed in the result of the game, but I was actually very proud of my team tonight,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “I loved our fight. If you would have said to me we were going to hold them to 70 points and hold Keita to 10 points, I would have probably lived with that result.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Ohio State: While winning has become routine for the Buckeyes, pulling out close games has not. This was the smallest margin of Ohio State’s 16 victories, 14 of which were by double digits.</p>
<p>“We didn’t always play our best, but man, this is one we’ll feel good about,” Holtmann said. “You’re playing on a team’s home court, they’re probably going to make shots, they’re probably going to make a run.”</p>
<p>Northwestern: With four starters back from the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance, the Wildcats have fallen far short of expectations and are going to have turn things around in a hurry to make a case for another invitation to the dance.</p>
<p>ALL-AMERICA CANDIDATE?</p>
<p>Holtmann praised the overall play of Bates-Diop, who was averaging 20.3 points overall and 23.3 in Big Ten play before going 4 of 12 from the field and 2 for 4 from the line against Northwestern.</p>
<p>“No one in the country, that I’ve seen, has went through the kind of stretch that he’s had in terms of efficiency,” Holtmann said. “It’s unbelievable, and I hope we have a full appreciation for how good he’s been in this stretch. And he’s going to have a night or two where it doesn’t go his way. But the fact that he stayed in there and competed, I’m so proud of him.”</p>
<p>LATE SCRATCH</p>
<p>Northwestern forward Aaron Falzon was removed from the starting lineup a few minutes before tip with a back injury. Falzon, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, averages 6.8 points. His replacement, Gavin Skelly, had 11.</p>
<p>MAJOR DROUGHT</p>
<p>Northwestern did not make a shot from the perimeter in the final 14:14 of the first half. The Wildcats missed 12 straight jump shots during that stretch as Ohio State turned a 12-6 deficit into a 33-25 halftime lead.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Ohio State: The Buckeyes host Minnesota on Saturday.</p>
<p>Northwestern: The Wildcats host Penn State on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Chris Holtmann figured an off-night from Keita Bates-Diop was inevitable. So, too, is the Ohio State coach’s first Big Ten loss.</p>
<p>But it did not coincide with his star player’s first subpar performance in weeks.</p>
<p>Holtmann became the first coach in 95 years to win his first seven Big Ten games as No. 22 Ohio State defeated Northwestern 71-65 on Wednesday night. Holtmann is the third Big Ten coach to win his first seven conference games, joining Wisconsin’s Walter Meanwell (1911-12) and Iowa’s Sam Barry (1922-23). Holtmann replaced Thad Matta, the program’s all-time wins leader, this season.</p>
<p>“It really does not mean anything,” Holtmann said. “I think that’s a reflection on the players as much as anything. We’ve got a group that really likes each other. And it’s easy to like each other when you’re on the streak that we’re on right now, but I sensed that they even liked each other when we had some rough spots earlier in the year.”</p>
<p>C.J. Jackson had 12 points and eight assists, Micah Potter scored 13 points off the bench and Bates-Diop, the Big Ten’s leading scorer and reigning two-time player of the week, had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Buckeyes (16-4, 7-0), who won their sixth straight overall.</p>
<p>Vic Law scored 14 points and Scottie Lindsey had 13 for Northwestern (11-9, 2-5) as the Wildcats suffered their second straight double-digit loss.</p>
<p>Picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten in a preseason media poll, the Buckeyes have been the story of the conference so far this season. Coming off successive routs of then-No. 1 Michigan State, Maryland and Rutgers, Ohio State led Northwestern by as many as 15 in the second half before holding off a late Wildcats charge.</p>
<p>Northwestern got within three at 68-65 on a 3-pointer by Lindsey with 43 seconds left, but Jackson sealed the victory from the foul line.</p>
<p>“Obviously I’m disappointed in the result of the game, but I was actually very proud of my team tonight,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “I loved our fight. If you would have said to me we were going to hold them to 70 points and hold Keita to 10 points, I would have probably lived with that result.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Ohio State: While winning has become routine for the Buckeyes, pulling out close games has not. This was the smallest margin of Ohio State’s 16 victories, 14 of which were by double digits.</p>
<p>“We didn’t always play our best, but man, this is one we’ll feel good about,” Holtmann said. “You’re playing on a team’s home court, they’re probably going to make shots, they’re probably going to make a run.”</p>
<p>Northwestern: With four starters back from the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance, the Wildcats have fallen far short of expectations and are going to have turn things around in a hurry to make a case for another invitation to the dance.</p>
<p>ALL-AMERICA CANDIDATE?</p>
<p>Holtmann praised the overall play of Bates-Diop, who was averaging 20.3 points overall and 23.3 in Big Ten play before going 4 of 12 from the field and 2 for 4 from the line against Northwestern.</p>
<p>“No one in the country, that I’ve seen, has went through the kind of stretch that he’s had in terms of efficiency,” Holtmann said. “It’s unbelievable, and I hope we have a full appreciation for how good he’s been in this stretch. And he’s going to have a night or two where it doesn’t go his way. But the fact that he stayed in there and competed, I’m so proud of him.”</p>
<p>LATE SCRATCH</p>
<p>Northwestern forward Aaron Falzon was removed from the starting lineup a few minutes before tip with a back injury. Falzon, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, averages 6.8 points. His replacement, Gavin Skelly, had 11.</p>
<p>MAJOR DROUGHT</p>
<p>Northwestern did not make a shot from the perimeter in the final 14:14 of the first half. The Wildcats missed 12 straight jump shots during that stretch as Ohio State turned a 12-6 deficit into a 33-25 halftime lead.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Ohio State: The Buckeyes host Minnesota on Saturday.</p>
<p>Northwestern: The Wildcats host Penn State on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Holtmann makes Big Ten history as Ohio St. tops Northwestern | false | https://apnews.com/c35810f1f2024af49af88ff7eb82433b | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Checking out the news I came across a news article from AFP describing charges recently filed against four US servicemen who were stationed in Iraq in 2007. The charges included conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, among others. According to the military press release, these four soldiers conspired to kill Iraqi detainees while they were serving in the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry (Regiment). Besides the fact that this sounds like another attempt by military brass to blame low ranking GIs for their screwup, there is the greater fact that if these men are charged with conspiring to murder Iraqis, then shouldn’t there be some other folks facing the same charge? It’s not like these four GIs went over to Iraq by themselves, set up a prison and decided to kill some of the Iraqis detained there.</p>
<p>No, they were there because the Pentagon sent them there after starting a war and occupation ordered by the White House and certified by Congress. These men and women in Washington knew that their war and occupation would kill Iraqis. In fact, they counted on this fact in the hope that they would achieve their goals of destroying the government of Saddam Hussein and replacing it with one willing to do Washington’s bidding. The fact that they have yet to achieve the latter goal is a big reason why the GIs charged with the aforementioned conspiracy charges were in Iraq in the first place. It is not my place to determine the guilt or innocence of these four men, but I’m pretty certain that if those in Washington and Virginia who planned and funded the war in Iraq were charged with conspiracy to murder Iraqis, there would be no question of their guilt.</p>
<p>When I used to argue against the US war in Vietnam with my father and some of his officer pals, the argument would often turn to the morality of that war. Napalm, Agent Orange, carpet bombing – these constituted premeditated murder in my mind. The officers arrayed against me, being religious men for the most part, would argue that my perception was wrong. The deaths of civilians, they explained, was unintentional and the deaths of combatants was justifiable. Nowadays, we call those unintentional civilian deaths “collateral damage” – refusing even to acknowledge their humanity. Like so many Jesuits arguing for the rightness of killing heathen savages in the New World, the officers would insist that there was a difference between killing in war and killing in other circumstances.</p>
<p>My response was one shared by many people opposed to the war and argued quite convincingly by Howard Zinn in his book <a href="" type="internal">Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal</a>. That argument goes like this (I paraphrase Zinn here): Since killing civilians is inevitable in modern warfare it cannot be called an accident. Bombers and helicopter pilots don’t necessarily intend to kill civilians, but when they attack villages and crowded city streets they know that civilians will be killed. When soldiers and Marines on the ground cannot tell the difference between a civilian and an insurgent and are told to clear an area, they will kill civilians. This killing may not be deliberate, but it is not an accident. Zinn sums it up with this sentence: “It (this killing) is not part of the war. It is the war.” I don’t know if this line of thinking ever convinced my dad or any of his friends, but it certainly applies to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you doubt this, check out some of the testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan vets on the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) <a href="http://ivaw.org/" type="external">website</a>.</p>
<p>Once one accepts the argument made by Zinn and a multitude of others, then there is no question that if the soldiers on the ground and in the air are involved in manslaughter and murder (whether they believe they are or not), the those who sent them there to commit these crimes are involved as well. So, whether the four servicemen charged with conspiracy to murder Iraqis are convicted or let off like the men involved in the massacre at Haditha, there can be no real justice until the men and women responsible for them being there are also charged not only for conspiring to kill Iraqis, but also to kill Afghans and Americans.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Conspiracy to Kill Iraqis? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/07/30/a-conspiracy-to-kill-iraqis/ | 2008-07-30 | 4 |
<p>Mitt Romney ventured into Miami this week and at a campaign stop at Palacios de los Jugos, only a day after introducing his running mate Congressman Paul Ryan.</p>
<p>Romney, without Ryan, did not mention “Cuba”, once. It was a check-the-box visit to a key constituency in a swing state. That the venue was owned by a federally convicted coke smuggler (reported by Miami New Times) serves to remind that when considering Florida politics, Miami is ground zero. It is where the 2000 presidential election was stolen. It is where the housing boom materialized. It is the mortgage fraud capital of the United States. It is where backstories deserve attention.</p>
<p>Romney was introduced by Florida senator Marco Rubio, a political offspring of Castro hatred. Rubio has plenty of company; he is a West Dade boy through and through. The bona fides against Castro are so important in Miami politics that Rubio’s resume includes serious misrepresentations of his parents’ experiences prior to becoming exiles from Cuba.</p>
<p>On one level the primary purpose of anti-Castro fervor was used to enlist support in Congress for re-taking the island nation and then, to grind its economy to dirt. A more important purpose, though less recognized by the rest of the nation, was to organize control of Miami-Dade politics, including contracts flowing from its multi-billion dollar budget. Jorge Mas Canosa, the founder of the Cuban America National Foundation in Miami, became renown for the railing against the Castro regime, but he was wealthy through political connections at County Hall. There were two important purposes of that control: first, to influence infrastructure contracts and, second, to rezone farmland to development. Both cemented political alliances. Anti-Castro sentiment was easier to mine in the Mas generation because the wounds were so fresh. Over time, and after Miami-Dade politics was locked down by Cuban American campaign funders from the development community, the demographics began to change. Mas Canosa (and Miami’s) economic base was suburban sprawl, places like West Dade where Marco Rubio grew up. As suburbs moved further and further from real jobs at the airport or downtown, the new buyers in those former Everglades wetlands were less likely to be Cuban than flight capital from other parts of the Americas.</p>
<p>The person who most closely followed Mas’ leadership in the business community, at the intersection of local politics and zoning control, was a Cuban American developer, Sergio Pino. Pino and his allies exerted control through the Latin Builders Association and through support of Spanish AM radio personalities who specialized in riling up voting blocs with anti-Castro venom. In contrast to Mas, Pino was and is all business. And business is non-partisan (although in Miami it leans heavily GOP). Chris Korge — prominent Democratic fundraiser– and Rodney Barreto — Jeb Bush lieutenant — found wealth following in Pino’s “lobbyist, first, developer later” footsteps.</p>
<p>Two factors are in play, in the “post-ideology” Miami. First, demographics. Younger Cuban Americans are eager to help family left behind in Cuba and view the Miami-Dade political ladder with cynicism. It carries over to indifference and even animosity toward the embargo. The second is economics. The housing crash severely hobbled suburban sprawl in west Dade. Many of the principal actors — like Pino — have been pinned down by debt. The housing crash collapsed Miami businesses based on sprawl. Pino founded US Century Bank to compliment his production home building juggernaut, US Century Homes. The bank, during the boom boom years, grew quickly to over a billion dollars in deposits and a reputation as the insider piggy-bank, but now hobbles along — its Tier One Capital supported by the largest contribution of federal TARP money in the state of Florida.</p>
<p>In Miami New Times, the owner of Palacios de los Jugos Reinaldo Bermudez, who served three years in federal prison, observed, “Here in Miami there are a lot of people with money who have had problems with the law… Thankfully, we all have the opportunity in this country to re-enter society when we’ve done something wrong.”</p>
<p>But there are also a few people who organized vast economic wealth around local political levers that operated according to hatred of Castro which wasn’t illegal in the slightest. It is supported by US foreign policy. They, too, are looking for a way back in the game and in the way that agnostic application of politics most benefits: dropping the embargo against Cuba. There is no money to be made building suburbs in Miami. Havana? Not yet.</p>
<p>There are external factors at work. The collapse of real estate and banking in Spain has had an important effect on local Miami deal makers who successfully exported their business models to Spain, where US-style ghost suburbs now litter the landscape. There has been very little examination of this phenomenon through which a compelling argument can now be made, by Republicans, that lifting the embargo is needed to revive fortunes that were lost in the crash.</p>
<p>Who, exactly, gets to “control” access to Cuba from Miami is the question.</p>
<p>So long as the Cuban American developers were printing money by rezoning farmland to sprawl, the embargo served the purpose to organize Miami and Florida politics to their bidding. Now that sprawl is dead in the dust, the rationale for opposing trade with Cuba has vanished. It requires some leadership in the Cuban American community to reorganize the story line, in order to drop the embargo. The Romney agreement to deploy Marco Rubio, a surrogate for Jeb Bush, to deliver his introduction at the upcoming Republican National Convention applies. Rubio in the spotlight focuses on the electoral value of Florida. But that ignores the backstory. Behind the scenes, it sets the stage for a reversal of the embargo in a way that advantages the GOP if Romney wins.</p>
<p>It is anyone’s guess how Cuba will react to withdrawing the embargo under a Romney presidency. Insiders in Cuba have also benefited from the intractable status quo. But if Republicans vote to bring down the wall, deals will be made regarding access. The stakes are so high in Miami that Republican leaders may decide to sit on the issue until after the election. On the other hand, there is Paul Ryan who was sent to Iowa instead of appearing as expected with Romney in Miami. Delaying support for dropping the embargo could cost Romney the election. Why? Because Romney desperately needs Hispanic votes. Were he to signal support for his running mate’s opposition to the embargo, there would be a rainbow effect with Hispanic voters in western states. Is there a plan afoot to hold down Florida, by Rubio, while Romney ventures across the states?</p>
<p>Timing is everything. Were Romney to play the drop-the-embargo card and lose, it would give President Obama — in his second term — political cover to take down the wall. But the Republicans would not be in control. Democratic senator Bob Menendez (NJ), would. And because of that risk, Florida GOP leaders like Bush and Rubio may sit on their hands this cycle, stop Romney from talking about Cuba or only give him talking points that rehash the same old garbage and let him fight for the Hispanic vote on his own. So what?</p>
<p>Miami Republicans have waited fifty years for Cuba, deploying US foreign policy gridlock to mine political benefits like a Ditch Witch while extracting massive wealth from suburban sprawl. What’s another four more years?</p>
<p>ALAN FARAGO, conservation chair of&#160; <a href="http://www.everglades.org/" type="external">Friends of the Everglades</a>, lives in south Florida. He can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Romney Does Florida | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/08/17/romney-does-florida/ | 2012-08-17 | 4 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — It didn't surprise Angelique Kerber that she would rediscover her tennis mojo in Australia.</p>
<p>She will take good vibes as well as a narrow head-to-head edge onto Rod Laver Arena for her Australian Open semifinal match against top-seeded Simona Halep on Thursday.</p>
<p>"I feel good here. This is a special one because I won here, my first Grand Slam," said Kerber, who beat Serena Williams in the 2016 Australian Open final and also won the U.S. Open later that year. She's the only major still in the women's draw, but that's been the case since she beat Maria Sharapova in the third round.</p>
<p>After slipping from No. 1 to 21 in the rankings during a barren 2017, Kerber has started the new year strongly, winning four matches at the Hopman Cup mixed team tournament in Perth, five victories on the way to the Sydney International title and now another five matches so far at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>"Í was working hard in the off-season and I know I can win close matches, going out there and playing good in the bigger tournaments," Kerber said.</p>
<p>Halep, a two-time French Open finalist, is aiming for another shot at a first Grand Slam title after quickly overcoming a slow start to beat sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>And Kerber, equally dominant against in a 6-1, 6-2 win over U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys, takes no comfort from the 5-4 head-to-head lead on Halep despite winning five of the past six matches. The latest of those was a 6-4 6-2 win at the 2016 end-of-season WTA championship.</p>
<p>"I think it will be a long match with a lot of long rallies. I played against her for a lot of times and it was always tough and close," Kerber said.</p>
<p>Halep has been bothered by an ankle ailment and had to fend off match points in a third-round win over Lauren Davis that finished 15-13 in the third, but said she has "started to feel the rhythm and everything and I was more aggressive" in her quarterfinal win.</p>
<p>On the match against Kerber, she said: "She likes it here and I'm starting to like this tournament, too. I'm ready, I feel strong mentally."</p>
<p>Caroline Wozniacki is hoping to edge closer to that elusive first Grand Slam singles title in the other semifinal against unseeded Elise Mertens.</p>
<p>At No. 36, Mertens is the lowest-ranked player of the last four in the women's singles, but she has shown she's not overawed by anyone in the tournament and is physically and mentally in good shape.</p>
<p>The 22-year-old Mertens, who jumped 91 ranking places last year, conserved energy during the tournament's often stifling heat, not dropping a set before beating fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 to reach a Grand Slam semifinal at just her fifth attempt and on her first visit to Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Second-seeded Wozniacki is playing her sixth Grand Slam semifinal match, and only second at the Australian Open.</p>
<p>"I have to serve well, return well. Stay aggressive, make her move," Wozniacki said.</p>
<p>A finalist at the U.S. Open in 2009 and 2014, Wozniacki needed three sets to beat Mertens on clay in a semifinal in Bastad, Sweden last year at their only previous meeting.</p>
<p>"She's very talented, obviously, had a very good tournament. It's going to be very difficult, but I'm excited for the challenge and excited for playing the semifinals," she said.</p>
<p>Wozniacki dismissed any notions of tiredness after finally wrapping up her 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-2 quarterfinal win against Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the early hours of Wednesday morning, forced to wait and follow the Rafael Nadal-Marin Cilic five-setter on Rod Laver Arena.</p>
<p>The day off in between matches didn't hurt, she said, "I can sleep in, reset. I'm not really too worried."</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — It didn't surprise Angelique Kerber that she would rediscover her tennis mojo in Australia.</p>
<p>She will take good vibes as well as a narrow head-to-head edge onto Rod Laver Arena for her Australian Open semifinal match against top-seeded Simona Halep on Thursday.</p>
<p>"I feel good here. This is a special one because I won here, my first Grand Slam," said Kerber, who beat Serena Williams in the 2016 Australian Open final and also won the U.S. Open later that year. She's the only major still in the women's draw, but that's been the case since she beat Maria Sharapova in the third round.</p>
<p>After slipping from No. 1 to 21 in the rankings during a barren 2017, Kerber has started the new year strongly, winning four matches at the Hopman Cup mixed team tournament in Perth, five victories on the way to the Sydney International title and now another five matches so far at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>"Í was working hard in the off-season and I know I can win close matches, going out there and playing good in the bigger tournaments," Kerber said.</p>
<p>Halep, a two-time French Open finalist, is aiming for another shot at a first Grand Slam title after quickly overcoming a slow start to beat sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>And Kerber, equally dominant against in a 6-1, 6-2 win over U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys, takes no comfort from the 5-4 head-to-head lead on Halep despite winning five of the past six matches. The latest of those was a 6-4 6-2 win at the 2016 end-of-season WTA championship.</p>
<p>"I think it will be a long match with a lot of long rallies. I played against her for a lot of times and it was always tough and close," Kerber said.</p>
<p>Halep has been bothered by an ankle ailment and had to fend off match points in a third-round win over Lauren Davis that finished 15-13 in the third, but said she has "started to feel the rhythm and everything and I was more aggressive" in her quarterfinal win.</p>
<p>On the match against Kerber, she said: "She likes it here and I'm starting to like this tournament, too. I'm ready, I feel strong mentally."</p>
<p>Caroline Wozniacki is hoping to edge closer to that elusive first Grand Slam singles title in the other semifinal against unseeded Elise Mertens.</p>
<p>At No. 36, Mertens is the lowest-ranked player of the last four in the women's singles, but she has shown she's not overawed by anyone in the tournament and is physically and mentally in good shape.</p>
<p>The 22-year-old Mertens, who jumped 91 ranking places last year, conserved energy during the tournament's often stifling heat, not dropping a set before beating fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 to reach a Grand Slam semifinal at just her fifth attempt and on her first visit to Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Second-seeded Wozniacki is playing her sixth Grand Slam semifinal match, and only second at the Australian Open.</p>
<p>"I have to serve well, return well. Stay aggressive, make her move," Wozniacki said.</p>
<p>A finalist at the U.S. Open in 2009 and 2014, Wozniacki needed three sets to beat Mertens on clay in a semifinal in Bastad, Sweden last year at their only previous meeting.</p>
<p>"She's very talented, obviously, had a very good tournament. It's going to be very difficult, but I'm excited for the challenge and excited for playing the semifinals," she said.</p>
<p>Wozniacki dismissed any notions of tiredness after finally wrapping up her 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-2 quarterfinal win against Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the early hours of Wednesday morning, forced to wait and follow the Rafael Nadal-Marin Cilic five-setter on Rod Laver Arena.</p>
<p>The day off in between matches didn't hurt, she said, "I can sleep in, reset. I'm not really too worried."</p> | Kerber vs Halep, Wozniacki vs Mertens in Aussie Open semis | false | https://apnews.com/amp/52e4d9007b1b46c9976af2c0747dc047 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>With the economy growing and the financial system returned to health, now is a good time to review the raft of banking regulations put in place since the financial crisis, Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell said Thursday. "Many of the statutory provisions and regulations put in place...were novel; it is not likely we would have gotten everything exactly right on the first attempt," Powell said in a speech to The Global Finance Forum. Powell was not specific about many of the changes he would support beyond giving relief to smaller banks. He said "core reforms" should be protected but bank management should not be trapped in paperwork and unable to "devote as much of their resources to supporting economic growth."</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Fed's Powell Open To Adjusting Post-crisis Bank Regulation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/20/fed-powell-open-to-adjusting-post-crisis-bank-regulation.html | 2017-04-20 | 0 |
<p>On Monday, responding to President Trump actions vis-à-vis immigration over the weekend, Starbuck's outgoing CEO Howard Schultz announced in a letter to employees that Starbucks would hire 10,000 refugees in the 75 countries in which Starbucks does business, adding, “our Partner Resources team has been in direct contact with the partners who are impacted by this immigration ban.”</p>
<p>Schultz made various points in his announcement, starting with ripping Trump for his actions: “Let me begin with the news that is immediately in front of us: we have all been witness to the confusion, surprise and opposition to the Executive Order that President Trump issued on Friday, effectively banning people from several predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, including refugees fleeing wars.”</p>
<p>Then Schultz called Trump’s presidency an “unprecedented time, one in which we are witness to the conscience of our country, and the promise of the American Dream, being called into question.”</p>
<p>Followed by the usual hyperbolic rantings of the committed leftist: “I am hearing the alarm you all are sounding that the civility and human rights we have all taken for granted for so long are under attack.”</p>
<p>Schultz then segued to his plans for action; supporting DACA, as he wrote, “There are nearly three quarters of a million hardworking people contributing to our communities and our economy because of this program. At Starbucks, we are proud to call them partners and to help them realize their own American Dream. We want them to feel welcome and included in our success, which is why we reimburse them for the biennial fee they must pay to stay in the program and why we have offered DACA-related services at our Opportunity Youth hiring fairs.”</p>
<p>Hiring refugees: “There are more than 65 million citizens of the world recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and we are developing plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business. “</p>
<p>"Building Bridges, Not Walls, With Mexico": Schultz noted that Starbucks has opened 600 stores in 60 cities in Mexico since 2002, and boasted that Starbucks has “sourced coffee from Mexico’s producers and their families for three decades . . . With the support of thousands of Starbucks partners and millions of customers, we have also donated half a million coffee trees to support 70,000 families, and we will be expanding the initiative this year to generate another 4 million tree donations.” He added, “As I told Alberto Torrado, the leader of our partnership with Alsea in Mexico, we stand ready to help and support our Mexican customers, partners and their families as they navigate what impact proposed trade sanctions, immigration restrictions and taxes might have on their business and their trust of Americans.”</p>
<p>Schultz concluded with electoral politics: “If there is any lesson to be learned over the last year, it’s that your voice and your vote matter more than ever . . . I can assure you that we will do whatever it takes to support you, our partners, to realize your own dreams and achieve your own opportunities. We are in business to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time – whether that neighborhood is in a Red State or a Blue State; a Christian country or a Muslim country; a divided nation or a united nation. That will not change."</p>
<p>Schultz had made his feelings about political issues made public before; in 2013, he issued a <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/blog/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz/1268" type="external">public request</a> for customers and employees to refrain from bringing guns into Starbucks outlets, writing, “Recently, however, we’ve seen the “open carry” debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called “Starbucks Appreciation Days” that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of “open carry.” To be clear: we do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners. For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas—even in states where “open carry” is permitted—unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel.</p>
<p>Complete text of Schultz’s Sunday announcement <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-29/starbucks-announces-plans-hire-10000-refugees" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Starbucks: We’ll Hire 10,000 Refugees | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12959/starbucks-well-hire-10000-refugees-hank-berrien | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
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<p>Bruce Cockburn, one of Canada’s most esteemed folk singers, may have found a path of redemption for the disgraced Nixon. In Cockburn’s song “Call Me Rose,” Nixon – he died in 1994 – returns to Earth as a single mother of two living in the projects.</p>
<p>The song is on his 2011 CD, “Small Source of Comfort,” and has Nixon singing, “I was the boss of bosses the last time around/I lived by cunning and ambition unbound/the suckers said they’d stand behind me right or wrong/as if they thought that hubris was the mark of the strong…”</p>
<p>Cockburn said he woke up one morning with that song in his head, though songwriting is usually a more deliberate process for him.</p>
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<p>“I was at a loss to explain to myself where it came from. There it was. I couldn’t ignore it,” he said in a phone interview from Ponte Vedra, Fla.</p>
<p>Cockburn said the song relates to his recollection of a media campaign years ago in the United States to rehabilitate Nixon’s image.</p>
<p>“For about a month every time you’d turn on the TV you’d hear that Nixon was misunderstood and that he was one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century,” he said.</p>
<p>The song also comes out of Cockburn’s own “inner sorting out of issues with regard to male power.” Nixon, he said, had his good points and bad points as a person and a president.</p>
<p>“He famously got caught. He seemed like a suitable figure for the song to talk about,” Cockburn said.</p>
<p>The album also has songs dealing with other themes. There’s a lament (“Each One Lost”) about two Canadian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. Cockburn witnessed their coffins being carried on a tarmac to a waiting plane.</p>
<p>Another song, the instrumental, “Comets of Kandahar,” reflects on the thrilling sight of jet fighters taking off in the dark.</p>
<p>For his Tuesday, March 12 KiMo Theatre concert, Cockburn will bring six- and 12-string guitars, a dobro, a dulcimer and maybe a charango, an Andean stringed instrument.</p>
<p>Besides touring, he is writing the long-overdue first draft of a memoir and helping to care for his 15-month-old daughter.</p> | Cockburn reaches within in songwriting | false | https://abqjournal.com/175794/cockburn-reaches-within-in-songwriting.html | 2013-03-08 | 2 |
<p>The three countries named in the indictment of former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort span three separate continents but all have something in common: They're island nations with a legacy of relatively lax oversight of offshore entities and a known history of being a conduit for suspicious money.</p>
<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates of using shell corporations located in the three countries — Cyprus, the Seychelles, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — as a way to hide assets and keep from paying taxes.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"They don't ask questions about what their banks know about their customers, which is a basic requirement to stop money laundering," said Ted Truman, a fellow at the Peterson Institution for International Economics and an expert on money laundering.</p>
<p>The Mediterranean island country of Cyprus plays an outsized role in Manafort's indictment. The country is listed as the domicile for a dozen of Manafort's shell corporations and the alleged source of millions of dollars in wire transfers in and out of the country.</p>
<p>Cyprus has been a focus for anti-money laundering officials going back to the 1990s, but is probably best known for its alleged ties to money flowing in and out of Russia. The country had been accused in the past of providing lax oversight to potential money laundering, as well as providing ways for Russian and Ukrainian officials to hide assets abroad.</p>
<p>"Russia has become the primary source for investors in Cyprus, usually through banks or companies set up as trusts. Most of the money that goes into Cyprus is then invested back in Russia," said James S. Henry, an economist and former journalist with the Tax Justice Network, which studies offshore tax havens.</p>
<p>Cyprus and Russia have a favorable tax treaty, which has resulted in Cyprus having a cottage industry of bankers and lawyers on the island who primarily exist to set up shell corporations and trusts to help money move in and out of Russia, Henry and other experts said.</p>
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<p>Its role has drawn scrutiny from other members of the European Union as well, particularly after Cyprus joined the bloc in 2004. When Cyprus suffered its own financial crisis in 2012 and 2013 and requested a bailout, German intelligence reportedly estimated that Russians had roughly $26 billion in deposits in Cypriot banks. EU authorities, worried that any bailout package would ultimately be going to help out Russian multimillionaires, insisted Cyprus place even tough anti-money laundering laws and regulations as part of any rescue deal. Cyprus banking officials have in recent years started taking tought action and asking uncomfortable questions to suspicious clients, desperate to rebuild confidence in the banking system.".</p>
<p>"Since its entry into the European Union in 2004 and especially after the 2013 banking collapse, Cyprus has done much to clean up its act," said Sofronis Clerides, professor and chair of the economics department at the University of Cyprus. "Unfortunately, it takes a long time for the stigma to wash off."</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors became interested in Manafort's activities in Cyprus years ago as part of a broad investigation to recover stolen Ukrainian assets after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych there in early 2014. No U.S. criminal charges were filed in that case.</p>
<p>It's worth noting that setting up foreign companies and bank accounts is not illegal, however using them to evade taxes or hide proceeds from ill-gotten gains is. Manafort and his business partner pleaded not guilty in district court Monday.</p>
<p>The other two countries in the Manafort indictment play decidedly smaller roles in both Manafort's alleged operations and international money laundering overall.</p>
<p>Located at least a thousand miles from any major continent in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is primarily used by French and African investors as a place to discreetly park money. The country was repeatedly named as a domicile for offshore tax havens in last year's Panama Papers investigation.</p>
<p>While not historically an offshore tax haven like the Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, the Caribbean island nation Saint Vincent and the Grenadines recently has been considered an at-risk place for money laundering. In the indictment, Manafort allegedly had at least two offshore corporations based in the Grenadines.</p>
<p>The Financial Action Task Force, an international watchdog organization for money laundering, placed Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on its so-called "black list" back in 2000 for its lack of money laundering controls, but it was taken off that list a few years later. The Tax Justice League listed Saint Vincent as one of the more secretive places to park money.</p>
<p>There's a fourth country worth noting that gets listed repeatedly in the Manafort indictment: the United States, particularly the State of Delaware. Investors and companies have long used Delaware as a place to set up shell corporations to take advantage of Delaware's loose corporate regulations. Manafort himself allegedly had at least nine corporate entities set up in Delaware.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>AP Reporter Melenaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report from Cyprus.</p> | Countries in Manafort indictment known to laundering experts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/31/countries-in-manafort-indictment-known-to-laundering-experts.html | 2017-10-31 | 0 |
<p>CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois incurred $1.03 billion in late bill payment penalties last year largely as a result of the state’s unprecedented two-year budget impasse, the state comptroller reported on Monday.</p>
<p>The first monthly debt transparency report by Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza found Illinois ended 2017 with $9.246 billion in unpaid bills from vendors, service providers and others. This also included invoices held by state agencies and bills totaling $2.3 billion that still lack legislative appropriation.</p>
<p>The fuller picture of Illinois’ chronic inability to pay its bills promptly was made possible by a new law that took effect on Jan. 1. The law requires monthly instead of annual reports from state agencies to the comptroller, whose office pays Illinois’ bills.</p>
<p>“Now we can all see a clearer picture of what Illinois owes to small businesses, universities, community colleges, social service providers and others,” Mendoza said in a statement. “The Debt Transparency Report takes the politics out of the numbers to provide meaningful data.”</p>
<p>An impasse between Illinois’ Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature left the state without complete budgets for two straight years. That situation ended in July when lawmakers enacted a fiscal 2018 spending plan and income tax rate increase that overruled Rauner’s vetoes.</p>
<p>The budget’s enactment stopped Illinois’ credit ratings, which are the lowest among the 50 states, from slipping into junk.</p>
<p>Despite the budget stalemate, Illinois continued to operate on spending mandated by state law or by court orders, ballooning the unpaid bill backlog to a record high $16.675 billion.</p>
<p>With the state accruing late bill payment penalties of as much as 12 percent annually, Illinois sold $6 billion of general obligation bonds in October to help pay down the backlog.</p>
<p>The spread for Illinois’ 10-year bonds over the municipal market’s benchmark triple-A yield scale widened to as much as 335 basis points last June. The spread, which subsequently narrowed to 177 basis points at year end, stood at 185 basis points on Friday.</p>
<p>The bond proceeds, along with $2.2 billion in federal matching funds, helped deflate the backlog to $8.835 billion, according to the comptroller’s office.</p>
<p>Mendoza called on Rauner, who is scheduled to unveil his fiscal 2019 budget next month, “to present taxpayers with a detailed proposal for paying off the operating debt and interest penalties his administration ran up.”</p>
<p>The comptroller said the state needs to deal with $2.3 billion of incurred liabilities that cannot be paid without enacted appropriations.</p>
<p>Under a program launched by Rauner in 2015, outside private lenders were allowed to purchase certain overdue state bills from vendors and service providers in exchange for the late payment penalties owed by the state.</p>
<p>Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Daniel Bases and Matthew Lewis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A fatal crash and vehicle fire of a Tesla Inc Model X near Mountain View, California, last week has prompted a federal field investigation, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday, sparking a big selloff in Tesla stock.</p>
<p>Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent, or $25 a share, to close at $279.18, the lowest close in almost a year, after news of the investigation.</p>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2. Moody’s said the ratings “reflect the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also “faces liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla shares fell another 2.6 percent in after-hours trading.</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook for Tesla “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>Moody’s said Tesla is targeting weekly production of 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, and 5,000 per week by the end of June, down from the company’s year-earlier production expectations of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017 and 10,000 by the end of 2018. Tesla plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Shares of chipmaker Nvidia Corp, which supplies Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL], Tesla, Volkswagen AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">VOWG_p.DE</a>) and other automakers, closed down 7.8 percent after it disclosed it suspended self-driving tests across the globe.</p> QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCIDENT
<p>In last week’s accident, it was unclear if Tesla’s automated control system was driving the car. The accident involved two other cars, the NTSB and police said. Tesla vehicles have a system called Autopilot that handles some driving tasks. The 38-year-old Tesla driver died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added data shows that Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times... and there has never been an accident that we know of.”</p>
<p>The company said it is working with authorities to recover the logs from the computer inside the vehicle to try to gain a better understanding of what happened. The company statement did not address if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>“We have been deeply saddened by this accident, and we have offered our full cooperation to the authorities as we work to establish the facts of the incident,” Tesla said in a statement earlier.</p>
<p>Government scrutiny of the Palo Alto, California company is mounting. This is the second NTSB field investigation into a Tesla crash since January.</p>
<p>The California Highway Patrol said the electric-powered Tesla Model X crashed into a freeway divider on Friday and then was hit by a Mazda before colliding with an Audi.</p>
<p>The Tesla’s lithium batteries caught fire, and emergency officials consulted company engineers before determining how to extinguish the battery fire and move the vehicle safely. NTSB said the issues being examined include the post-crash fire and removing the vehicle from the scene.</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>The Tesla blog post said Tesla battery packs are designed to ensure that a battery spreads slowly in the rare circumstance it catches fire.</p>
<p>In January, the NTSB and U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent investigators to California to investigate the crash of a fire truck and a Tesla that apparently was traveling in semi-autonomous mode. The agencies have not disclosed any findings.</p>
<p>The NTSB can make safety recommendations but only NHTSA can order automakers to recall unsafe vehicles or fine automakers if they fail to remedy safety defects in a timely fashion. Before the agency can demand a recall, it must open a formal investigation, a step it has not yet taken.</p>
<p>Tesla’s Autopilot allows drivers under certain conditions to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods. Still, Tesla requires users to agree to keep their hands on the wheel “at all times” before they can use Autopilot.</p>
<p>The NTSB faulted Tesla in a prior fatal Autopilot crash.</p>
<p>In September, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said operational limitations in the Tesla Model S played a major role in a May 2016 crash in Florida that killed a driver using Autopilot. That crash raised questions about the safety of systems that can perform driving tasks for long stretches but cannot completely replace human drivers.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">Volkswagen AG</a> 161.38 VOWG_p.DE Xetra +6.38 (+4.12%) VOWG_p.DE
<p>Tesla in September 2016 unveiled improvements to Autopilot, adding new limits on hands-off driving.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Lisa Shumaker, David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The internal watchdog at the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday he is launching a review into allegations by Republican lawmakers that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor a former adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.</p> Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies during a Judiciary Committee hearing into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, said in a statement his review will examine whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to secretly conduct surveillance on Carter Page and his ties to Russia.</p>
<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters last month he planned to ask Horowitz to investigate the alleged surveillance abuses.</p>
<p>The allegations were outlined in a memo commissioned by U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and declassified for public release by Trump, over the objections of Justice Department officials and Democrats on the panel.</p>
<p>The Republican memo claims that the FBI used in part a dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to justify the warrant, and failed to disclose to the court that Steele was employed by a firm funded by Democrats to do opposition research on Trump’s business dealings.</p>
<p>The FBI staunchly opposed the public release of the memo at the time, saying there were “material omissions of fact.”</p>
<p>Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have since released their own memo, accusing Republicans of deliberately omitting facts in an effort to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.</p>
<p>The Democrats concluded that the Justice Department did not engage in misconduct when applying for the warrant.</p>
<p>House Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Jerrold Nadler said it is a “shame” that Horowitz must devote resources to probe a “conspiracy theory.”</p>
<p>Trump lambasted Sessions in late February for referring the Republican memo to Horowitz for investigation. The president wrote in a tweet: “Why is A.G. Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate massive FISA abuse? Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey, etc.”</p>
<p>Trump’s tweet mischaracterized the role inspector generals play in investigating alleged misconduct inside federal agencies, and it prompted Sessions to issue a sharp rebuttal defending his decision.</p>
<p>Horowitz was sworn into his post in 2012 during the Obama administration, and previously served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission under Republican President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>A still non-public report by Horowitz accusing former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe of lack of candor was used recently as the basis for Sessions to fire McCabe on March 16, less than two days before he was set to retire.</p>
<p>Despite Trump’s prior concerns with letting Horowitz investigate the alleged surveillance abuses outlined by Republicans, the president cheered the decision to terminate McCabe, calling it on Twitter a “great day for Democracy.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by James Dalgleish and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump accused Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) on Thursday of not paying enough tax, taking advantage of the U.S. postal system and putting small retailers out of business, but did not present any evidence to back up his criticisms or suggest any specific actions he planned to take.</p>
<p>Trump has attacked Amazon and its Chief Executive Jeff Bezos several times, and his latest comment on Twitter came a day after news website Axios reported that Trump was obsessed with the world’s largest online retailer and wanted to rein in its growing power with federal antitrust laws.</p>
<p>“I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state &amp; local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump tweeted early on Thursday.</p>
<p>Amazon shares fell as much as 4.5 percent in morning trade, but later pared losses, down 1.3 percent at midday. The stock dropped 5 percent on Wednesday following the Axios report. Amazon declined to comment on the tweet.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-amazon-com-trump-whitehouse/trump-has-no-actions-against-amazon-white-house-idUSKBN1H52SZ" type="external">Trump 'has no actions' against Amazon: White House</a>
<a href="/article/us-amazon-com-trump-lobbying/amazons-washington-influence-machine-built-to-withstand-trumps-attacks-idUSKBN1H52RF" type="external">Amazon's Washington influence machine built to withstand Trump's attacks</a>
<p>It was not clear what Trump’s comments were based on.</p>
<p>Amazon has in the past been criticized for attempting to skirt state sales taxes, but since April last year it has voluntarily collected state sales tax on items it sells direct to customers in all 45 states that have one. Amazon does not have to collect taxes on third-party or marketplace sellers.</p>
<p>States and municipalities could gain between $8 billion and $13 billion in annual revenue if they could require online retailers to collect sales tax, according to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office.</p>
<p>The issue is still being disputed at the federal level, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on April 17 in a case which could reverse a 1992 decision and let states require online retailers to collect state sales tax.</p>
<p>Washington and Pennsylvania recently enacted laws requiring collection of third-party merchants’ sales taxes, and other states are expected to follow.</p> POST DISPUTE
<p>Trump’s charge that Amazon causes the United States Postal Service (USPS) to lose money is unsubstantiated.</p>
<p>Details of Amazon’s payments to USPS, which delivers its packages to millions of U.S. consumers and businesses, are not publicly known. USPS declined to comment on Trump’s tweet.</p>
<p>An independent agency of the U.S. federal government, USPS reported a net loss of $2.7 billion for fiscal 2017, largely due to increased costs of retirement benefits.</p>
<p>Lucrative online retail delivery for Amazon and other online retailers is the fastest-growing part of USPS’ business, helping offset a sharp decline in regular first-class mail. Its revenue from shipping and packages in fiscal 2017 was $19.5 billion, up 13 percent from the previous year.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>“Common sense suggests USPS needs Amazon more than Amazon needs USPS,” Stifel analysts wrote in a research report this week.</p> PERSONAL VENDETTA?
<p>Amazon founder Bezos also privately owns the Washington Post, which won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its investigation of Trump’s donations to charities. The probe found that many of Trump’s philanthropic claims were exaggerated and often were not charitable donations. Trump often refers to the paper on Twitter as the #AmazonWashingtonPost.</p>
<p>White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah denied on Thursday that Trump’s criticism was a personal grudge.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1450.495 AMZN.O Nasdaq +19.08 (+1.33%) AMZN.O
<p>“A lot of people have made this, with respect to Amazon, about personalities and the CEO at Amazon - we’re talking about Jeff Bezos here,” he said on Thursday on the Fox News channel. “It’s really about policy.”</p>
<p>Shah said Trump was not making specific policy changes.</p>
<p>“There are a number of proposals that have worked their ways through the House and the Senate or have been considered by the House and the Senate. He’d be supportive of such efforts,” he said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Damon Darlin in Washington and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Mary Milliken and Bill Rigby</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday rejected Saudi Arabia’s bid to dismiss lawsuits claiming that it helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and should pay billions of dollars in damages to victims.</p> People watch the Tribute in Light installation illuminated over lower Manhattan as seen from Brooklyn, marking the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, U.S., September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan said the plaintiffs’ allegations “narrowly articulate a reasonable basis” for him to assert jurisdiction over Saudi Arabia under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), a 2016 federal law.</p>
<p>The Saudi government has long denied involvement in the attacks in which hijacked airplanes crashed into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.</p>
<p>Lawyers for Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision. At a Saudi stock market event in New York, asked whether the court decision would have a negative impact on Saudi investment in the United States, Capital Market Authority Chairman Mohammed A. ElKuwaiz declined to comment, saying he had not seen the news.</p>
<p>Daniels’ decision covers claims by the families of those killed, roughly 25,000 people who suffered injuries, and many businesses and insurers.</p>
<p>The judge also dismissed claims that two Saudi banks, National Commercial Bank and Al Rajhi Bank, and Saudi Binladin Group, a construction company controlled by the bin Laden family, provided funds and financial services for the attacks, saying he lacked jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia had long had broad immunity from Sept. 11 lawsuits in the United States.</p>
<p>That changed in September 2016, when the U.S. Congress overrode President Barack Obama’s veto of JASTA, allowing such cases to proceed.</p>
<p>Obama had warned that the law could expose U.S. companies, troops and officials to lawsuits in other countries.</p>
<p>Daniels said the plaintiffs could try to prove that Saudi Arabia was liable for the alleged activities of Fahad al Thumairy, an imam at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, California, and Omar al Bayoumi, said to be an intelligence officer.</p>
<p>They were accused of helping two hijackers acclimate themselves to the United States, and begin preparing for the attacks.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia had argued that the plaintiffs could not show that any Saudi official, employee or agent planned or carried out the attacks.</p>
<p>James Kreindler, a lawyer for many of the plaintiffs, said he was “delighted” the case can proceed.</p>
<p>“We have been pressing to proceed with the case and conduct discovery from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, so that the full story can come to light, and expose the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks,” he said in a phone interview.</p>
<p>The judge also dismissed claims against the state-affiliated charity Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina, saying the plaintiffs’ “guilt-by-association” claims did not overcome its presumption of immunity.</p>
<p>The case is In re: Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 03-md-01570.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom Brown and Grant McCool</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Illinois budget impasse cost state $1 billion in late payment penalties U.S. opens probe into fatal Tesla crash, fire in California U.S. watchdog to probe Republican claims of FBI surveillance abuses Trump escalates attack on Amazon, focusing on tax, shipping Saudi Arabia must face U.S. lawsuits over Sept. 11 attacks | false | https://reuters.com/article/illinois-budget/illinois-budget-impasse-cost-state-1-bln-in-late-payment-penalties-idUSL2N1PH147 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>The president got what you might call a grassroots display of support at the White House, welcoming an 11-year-old Virginia boy who offered to help cut the lawn.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump high-fived Frank Giaccio, who lives in the Washington suburb of Falls Church. The White House says Frank wrote Trump to say he admires the president’s business acumen and runs his own neighborhood lawn-care business.</p>
<p>Frank was so focused on pushing the lawn mower, he didn’t notice Trump had emerged to greet him until the president was next to him in the Rose Garden.</p>
<p>Trump says Frank is “the future of the country” and will soon be “very famous.”</p>
<p>Frank said he wants to be a Navy SEAL, to which Trump exclaimed, “He’ll make it.”</p> | Trump Invites 11-Year-Old Boy to Mow Rose Garden Lawn | false | https://newsline.com/trump-invites-11-year-old-boy-to-mow-rose-garden-lawn/ | 2017-09-15 | 1 |
<p>As Israel continues its air strikes on Syria Sunday, reactions are already trickling in even as key parties (Israel, anyone?) remain mum on the attacks.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/130505/israel-Iran-syria-hezbollah-lebanon-IDF" type="external">Israeli war planes hit Syria again, allegedly targeting Iranian weapons bound for Hezbollah</a></p>
<p>UN secretary general <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=6797" type="external">Ban Ki-Moon issued a statement Sunday afternoon</a> asking for "restraint."</p>
<p>“The Secretary-General calls on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint, and to act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict,” Ban's spokesperson said in the statement.</p>
<p>“The Secretary-General urges respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region, and adherence to all relevant Security Council resolutions," he added.&#160;</p>
<p>Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/05/05/3286886/egypt-condemns-israeli-airstrikes.html#storylink=cpy" type="external">one of the first regional leaders to comment</a>on the air strikes on the outskirts of Damascus which allegedly targeted convoys of missiles en route to Hezbollah.&#160;</p>
<p>Morsi said that Egypt "strongly objects" to the bloodshed and the use of Syria's military against its people, but also rejects the violation of Syrian sovereignty and "exploiting its internal crisis under whatever pretext."</p>
<p>He said that the strikes "increase the complexity of the situation."</p>
<p>The Free Syria Army also commented on the strikes, denying any links to the Israeli offensive, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/live-blog-israel-launches-second-syria-strike-in-two-days-sources-say-1.519250" type="external">Ha'aretz reported</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>"We condemn Israeli aggression in Syrian territory, but have no connection to it," said&#160;Free Syria Army spokesman Loay al-Mikdad.&#160;</p>
<p>"The regime will continue making idle threats like it has done so for 42 years … The Assad regime is on its way out despite all its efforts to divert attention away, he added.</p>
<p>Iran — a close ally of the regime of Bashar al-Assad — condemned the air strikes, but according to the Associated Press gave no hint of a stronger response from Tehran.</p>
<p>"As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won’t have any active involvement in the operations," <a href="http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/syria/iran-read-help-train-syrian-army-if-damascus-asks-assistance" type="external">said Iran's commander of ground forces General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan</a> on Sunday.&#160;</p>
<p>Internationally, Britain was the first to comment about the attacks. Foreign minister William Hague stood behind Israel's right to defend themselves <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10038635/Syria-air-strike-Israel-has-the-right-to-defend-itself-says-William-Hague.html" type="external">in an interview with Sky News Sunday</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>"All countries have to look after their own national security, of course, and are able to take actions to protect their own national security," Hague said, before receiving confirmation of the strikes.&#160;</p>
<p>"The longer this goes on, the stronger the case becomes for lifting the arms embargoes on the National Coalition, on the Syrian opposition, if we're left with no other alternative to that," he added.&#160;</p>
<p>Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt also <a href="https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/331055572323557376" type="external">responded on Twitter</a>:&#160;</p>
<p>The United States has not yet commented on Sunday's strikes, though <a href="http://www.dw.de/israeli-airstrikes-on-syria-bring-swift-and-strong-reactions/a-16792903" type="external">President Obama stood up for Israel's right to defend</a> their national security interests after news of the initial strike Thursday night surfaced.&#160;</p>
<p>"The Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," he said, without mentioning the strike directly. "We coordinate closely with the Israelis, recognizing that they are very close to Syria, they are very close to Lebanon."</p>
<p>CBS News' Mark Knoller tweets:&#160;</p>
<p>Israel itself has stayed the quietest. Asked by GlobalPost to comment on the report, Israel's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor quoted philosopher Ludwig Wittgestein: "'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.'"</p>
<p>We'll see how long that lasts. &#160;</p> | The world reacts to Israel's continued air strikes on Syria | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-05/world-reacts-israels-continued-air-strikes-syria | 2013-05-05 | 3 |
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>I've compared these two sector-leading healthcare REITs <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/12/better-buy-welltower-vs-hcp-inc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">before Opens a New Window.</a>, but things have changed recently. Specifically, REITs have performed wonderfully, and these two in particular have done extremely well. In fact, Welltower (NYSE: HCN) just hit a fresh 52-week high as I was writing this, and HCP (NYSE: HCP) has completely erased the losses it suffered earlier this year when it posted a surprise loss.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's a refreshed look at these two stocks, the REIT market in general, and which is the better buy now.</p>
<p>As a group, REITs have performed exceptionally well in 2016. Just take a look at the performance of Welltower and HCP, as well as a few leading REITs specializing in other types of real estate:</p>
<p>Data by YCharts.</p>
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<p>There are a few possible reasons for this. Mainly, it looks like the low-interest environment will stick around for longer than anyone originally thought. This helps REITs in a few ways. It makes borrowing money cheaper, which generally leads to higher profit margins when REITs acquire new properties. It also makes REITs more appealing to investors, since the dividends they offer put most bond yields to shame, and offer upside potential.</p>
<p>Another reason is the recent market volatility, both to the upside and downside. REITs typically have relatively consistent income streams, and in uncertain times, consistency is an investors' best friend.</p>
<p>For a thorough look at Welltower and healthcare real estate in general, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/25/3-reasons-to-invest-in-health-care-real-estate-wit.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">check out this other article Opens a New Window.</a> I wrote, but in a nutshell, Welltower mainly invests in senior housing and long-term care facilities. The business model is to acquire properties that are better than those offered by competitors, and partner with some of the best operators in the business.</p>
<p>And, it's been a successful business model. Throughout its 45-year history, Welltower has done an impressive job of producing excellent returns for investors: It has averaged a 15.6% total return and has increased its dividend at an annualized rate of 5.7%.</p>
<p>HCP has a similar business model, but with more exposure to post-acute and skilled nursing properties, primarily through its portfolio of HCR ManorCare assets. Those assets have run into some trouble recently, causing an unexpected loss in the fourth quarter of 2015, and HCP has decided to <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/12/hcps-spinoff-what-investors-need-to-know.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">spin them off Opens a New Window.</a> into a newly created REIT during the second half of 2016.</p>
<p>As far as healthcare real estate in general goes, there are some good reasons to hold it as a long-term investment. For starters, the U.S. population is aging -- fast. In fact, the 65-plus population is expected to roughly double by 2050, and the older age groups such as 85 and above are expected to grow even faster.</p>
<p>Image source: HCP investor presentation.</p>
<p>In addition, healthcare costs have been increasing at a faster rate than inflation, and the market is highly fragmented, which means there are plenty of opportunities for these companies to grow.</p>
<p>As I've mentioned a few times, both of these REITs have performed well over the last few months. In fact, Welltower and HCP's stock prices have risen by 17% and 22% respectively, since I first compared the companies in March of this year. Plus, HCP has increased its 2016 funds from operations (FFO) guidance since that time. Therefore, it's a good idea to take another look at both companies' valuation.</p>
<p>Data source: Company financials. Adjusted or normalized FFO projections are used when available.</p>
<p>There are a couple of points to be aware of here. First, both companies have gotten considerably more expensive than they were just four months ago, although I still wouldn't call these valuations high. For comparison, popular retail REIT Realty Income trades for 24.3 times 2016 FFO, and apartment REIT Equity Residential trades for a multiple of 21.4. The difference is mainly because of the (correctly) perceived risk involved with senior housing properties, given that the industry as a whole has experienced some financial difficulties lately.</p>
<p>Also, at first glance it appears that HCP is significantly cheaper than Welltower. However, bear in mind that HCP has experienced more earnings volatility than Welltower in recent history as a result of its troubled HCR ManorCare portfolio. Plus, there is some level of uncertainty involved with the upcoming spinoff. Simply put, the difference in valuation is somewhat justified.</p>
<p>One thing is for sure: Both of these REITs have gotten considerably more expensive recently. Neither one of these stocks is the bargain it was just a few months ago.</p>
<p>Having said that, neither one seems particularly expensive, either. Although I own both in my retirement account and plan to hang on for decades to come, I lean toward HCP at the present time. I think the spinoff of the troubled HCR ManorCare assets will create profit opportunities, both for the remaining HCP assets and for the newly created REIT. There will undoubtedly be some growing pains, but for investors with a long time horizon, I believe HCP will deliver excellent returns over the years.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/KWMatt82/info.aspx" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Digital Realty Trust, HCP, Realty Income, and Welltower. The Motley Fool recommends Welltower. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048" 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" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Better Buy: Welltower Inc. vs HCP, Inc. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/29/better-buy-welltower-inc-vs-hcp-inc.html | 2016-07-29 | 0 |
<p>My good friend “Betty” broke-up with her long-term boyfriend for a new guy who is … kind of icky.&#160;Since they started dating, she’s drinking more and smoking pot almost daily.&#160;I’m worried about her, but I don’t want to act like her mom either.&#160;She’s really into this guy but I just don’t see the appeal and feel weird hanging out with her when he is around.&#160;It doesn’t help that because of my job, I have to avoid illegal activity. She and I have been friends for a long time. What should I should do?</p>
<p>It’s understandable you’re concerned. No one likes seeing their bestie blaze up with a wastoid. What a drag.</p>
<p>The hope is Betty’s relationship proves to be short-lived. The hope is she realizes that her behavior has swung too far in one direction and needs to circle back to a more moderate lifestyle. The hope is her new dude is an unfortunate rebound you two will be cackling about in the near future over chips and guac.</p>
<p>You: Remember when you dated that low-budget Snoop Dog? What was his name? Brian?</p>
<p>Her: Oh my god, what was I even thinking?</p>
<p>You: I don’t know, dude. But you were under his spell for a hot minute.</p>
<p>Her: You know what it was? He was always down to watch those bullshit reality shows on Bravo. That was his one redeeming quality. Should we get another round of margs?</p>
<p>You: Yes! Most definitely.</p>
<p>The good news is that you have an angle: lead with your concerns about your job. That’s a legitimate issue that doesn’t pass judgment on her behavior. Say that while you enjoy spending time with her, her activities make you vulnerable at work. See what she says.</p>
<p>While his habits are annoying, they’re not entirely uncommon for young adults. In the meantime, try to be a support system as much as you can stand. Lots of women don’t enjoy hanging out with their friends’ significant others. It’s fairly common. You can either make the best of it or try to schedule one-on-one time with her. If you know that nighttime hangs with her leads to drinking and smoking, steer your meetups to more G-rated activities. Go to the movies, have a picnic in the park, or meet up for coffee. Stay away from bars or nightclubs.</p>
<p>If you want to check in with your friend to make sure her partying isn’t a symptom of a larger problem, say something like, “You’ve been rollin’ pretty hard lately. Everything okay?” And just see what she says. You aren’t judging her behavior; you’re just noticing and checking in.</p>
<p>Also, this is a good opportunity to reach out to your B-team of friends and make an effort to align yourself with people who enhance your life. You don’t have to sever the friendship with Betty, just take a baby step back and widen your circle.</p>
<p>The last thing to keep in mind is that people go through phases. Maybe Betty is a party-hard phase. Usually with a bit of time, they tend to settle down. Keep being a friend to her and see where the pieces land. You can’t do anything about her dud boyfriend, but you can maintain a thoughtful distance so when she comes to her senses and kicks him to the curb, you’ll be there to happily resume the friendship.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Make It Stop</a>&#160;is a weekly column in which Anna Goldfarb — author of “Clearly, I Didn’t Think This Through” and the blogger behind the blog, Shmitten Kitten&#160;— tells you what’s up. Want a fresh take on a stinky dilemma? Email&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>&#160;with the subject “Make It Stop.” She’ll make it all better, or at least make you laugh. Girl Scout’s honor.</p> | Make It Stop: “My BFF’s New Boyfriend Is Kind Of A Loser” | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-07-24/make-it-stop-my-bffs-new-boyfriend-is-kind-of-a-loser/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dboyfriend | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Personal and Tactical Factors Matter Most for Democratic Candidates, Ideological Divides for Republican Candidates</p>
<p>by Andrew Kohut, President, Pew Research Center</p>
<p>With the first votes of the 2008 presidential election soon to be cast in the early-decision states, the likely outcome of these contests is more in doubt than in any election cycle in recent history. For the Democratic candidates, the decisive factors are personal and tactical. For Republican contestants, however, the ultimate outcome may be decided more by the relative strength of long quiescent but newly combative ideological elements within the GOP, a struggle that is likely to take longer to play out.</p>
<p>In Iowa, the Democratic race may well hinge on a generation gap that has gotten much less attention thus far than has the gender gap. December polls by ABC/ Washington Post and Newsweek showed Barack Obama not only catching up with Hillary Clinton, but pulling slightly ahead among likely caucus goers. But the internals of the polls suggest that Obama’s lead is indeed a fragile one. In the Newsweek poll, the Illinois senator tops his New York rival by a wide margin among voters who will “probably” vote (40% to 27%), but among those who say that they will “definitely vote” the race is even (31% vs. 32%).</p>
<p>This gap reflects a pattern apparent in both December polls. Obama runs far better among younger voters, who turn out less reliably than older voters. In the Newsweek poll Obama has a 25-percentage point lead among those less than 50 years of age, while Hillary leads by 15 points among those ages 50 and older — a spread wider than the gender gap recorded in Iowa.</p>
<p>For Obama and Clinton — as well as for John Edwards, who is in striking distance of the front runners in most polls — preferences and enthusiasm for the candidates are not particularly linked to judgments about which candidate comes closer to the voter’s position on the issues. The pluses and minuses are personal attributes: Hillary’s experience, electability, and image as a strong leader appeal to her older and somewhat more conservative supporters. Obama’s likeability, compassion and potential to effect change are his strong points with his younger, somewhat more liberal backers in Iowa.</p>
<p>The Democratic race in Iowa is likely to hinge on how well the campaigns can motivate their potential backers to turn out for the complicated and time-consuming caucuses. On the Republican side, the situation is more fundamental, hinging as it does on a potential divide between social and economic conservatives within the party. Mike Huckabee’s rise to the top of the heap in the Iowa polls is a product of overwhelming support from white evangelical Protestants, who make up 47% of likely GOP caucus-goers.</p>
<p>Many Christian conservatives are wary of Romney’s Mormonism as they are also wary of Giuliani’s positions on social issues. The Newsweek poll found only 41% of Iowa evangelicals saying that Mormons are Christians and just 11% saying they are likely to vote for the former Massachusetts governor. And while Rudy Giuliani earns high ratings from Republicans in most places for his ability to deal with terrorism, discomfort with his positions on social issue in states like Iowa is quite apparent. A mid-November ABC/Washington Post poll found just 11% of Iowa Republicans choosing the former New York mayor as the candidate they most trusted to handle social issues and his overall standing among this highly socially conservative electorate reflects that concern.</p>
<p>But that is Iowa and, down the road, perhaps South Carolina as well. In New Hampshire, where Republicans are much more moderate on social issues – a majority is pro-choice – an early December ABC/Washington Post poll found little evidence of Huckabee fever. Romney remained the frontrunner at 37% followed by McCain (20%) and Giuliani (16%). Huckabee garnered the support of only 9% of likely voters in a state where many independents will cast ballots, and just 15% of the probable electorate is composed of evangelicals.</p>
<p>While New Hampshire may be exceptionally moderate, the GOP outlook in the rest of the country falls somewhere between it and Iowa. A nationwide ABC/Washington Post poll taken last week found Giuliani losing ground to Huckabee, although he remained the front runner with the support of 25% of likely voters. Huckabee and Romney tied for second place — with the support of 19% and 17% respectively — closely followed by McCain and Thompson.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most telling finding of that particular poll was that when Republicans were asked which candidate best reflects the core values of the GOP, no consensus whatsoever emerged. Responses were about equally divided among all five of the leading candidates. And that is where the Republicans find themselves — with divides between social conservatives whose acid tests involve positions on abortion and gay marriage, and economic conservatives who may insist on conservative positions on tax policy and size of government. How far Huckabee goes may well be defined by whether economic conservatives find his perceived populism tolerable.</p>
<p>As has been the case in this campaign so far, the shoe is on the other foot when it comes to Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats are much more unified, and their nominee will be the candidate who campaigns the best. Whether an Obama victory in Iowa will lead to an unraveling of Hillary’s continuing huge nationwide lead over her rivals remains questionable. A mid-December Gallup Poll found Clinton with a 45%-to-27% margin over Obama. Any Obama bounce into and out of New Hampshire will have to be substantial to erode such a margin.</p>
<p>For the Republicans, caught in a potentially divisive wrangle, the factors that will determine the winner are far less clear. Coalitions of economic conservatives and libertarians may well take on Huckabee. Should they succeed in cooling down his momentum, which of the other front runners wins the prize will be as much a puzzle as it was before the Huckaboom.</p> | Primary Preview: Dynamics Differ for the Two Parties in Early Races | false | http://pewresearch.org/2007/12/19/primary-preview-dynamics-differ-for-the-two-parties-in-early-races/ | 2007-12-19 | 2 |
<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Dean Baker about the debt boogeyman for the October 21, 2016, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.</p>
<p>Dean Baker: “When there’s not enough demand in the economy, the government absolutely has the responsibility to run large deficits, because it has to make up for the shortfall in demand elsewhere.” (photo: Alton Christensen/ <a href="http://billmoyers.com/guest/dean-baker/" type="external">BillMoyers.com</a>)</p>
<p>Chicago Tribune ( <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-federal-deficit-national-debt-edit-1019-20161018-story.html" type="external">10/18/16</a>)</p>
<p>Janine Jackson: The announcement that one agenda item for the final presidential debate would be “debt and entitlements” was not surprising. “Debt and entitlements,” linked together that way, are always on corporate media’s agenda, but though the terms are tossed around a lot, they’re rarely unpacked or explained. In place of facts, we get fear. The Chicago Tribune <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-federal-deficit-national-debt-edit-1019-20161018-story.html" type="external">said</a> if they could inject one debate question, it would be: “Secretary Clinton, Mr. Trump, you have children. Why aren’t you scared?”</p>
<p>Well, Americans face many serious challenges. Are runaway national “debt and entitlements” one of them? We’re joined now by Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, where you’ll find his blog, <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/" type="external">Beat the Press</a>, and he’s the author of, most recently, <a href="http://deanbaker.net/books/rigged.htm" type="external">Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer</a>. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Dean Baker.</p>
<p>Dean Baker: Thanks a lot for having me on.</p>
<p>JJ: I believe I have been asking you to break down media confusion on this issue <a href="" type="internal">for at least a decade</a> now. It’s clearly a very useful confusion for some people, and it’s persistent. First of all, the word “entitlement,” if we can start with that—at this point it’s basically a pejorative, and almost a thought-stopper. What are people really talking about when they talk about “entitlements,” or specifically about “cutting runaway entitlements”?</p>
<p>DB: Yeah. The use of the word itself, as you say, is a pejorative, and I gather most of the people using it know that it’s not actually a pejorative. It’s to avoid saying “Social Security and Medicare.” That’s long and short. Because those are the bulk of the items that fill that entitlement category.</p>
<p>Entitlements is a budget term. Budget wonks in Washington all know what it is, and probably are being very neutral when they use it. But when the larger public hears that, and certainly when you’re talking about a national debate of the presidential candidates, that is a large public audience, and they’re not mostly budget wonks. They’re thinking “entitlements,” you know, someone’s getting something for nothing; they’re not thinking Social Security and Medicare.</p>
<p>So if you just rephrased all this—oh, Social Security and Medicare, are you going to cut those?—odds are you get a much different reaction, because these are hugely popular programs across the political spectrum. Republicans support these programs pretty much in the same numbers as Democrats. So you’d have a very different debate if everyone understood they’re asking about cutting Social Security and Medicare.</p>
<p>JJ: Absolutely. I mean, Social Security is paying benefits now to tens of millions of people, of seniors, of people with disabilities, and, I understand, one in ten American children. So it’s clearly a very different conversation if you talk about it in those terms, although, of course, there’s a whole set of fear-mongering around Social Security itself.</p>
<p>I cited that Chicago Tribune <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-federal-deficit-national-debt-edit-1019-20161018-story.html" type="external">editorial</a>, but you really can open any paper on a given day and find a piece saying, our national debt is outrageous, who will think of the children, you know. Now, I understand, there’s new data that is being read as supporting that idea. What’s going on here with the deep concerns? I really have heard, we’re headed toward doom in terms of national debt. What are they talking about?</p>
<p>Gary Varvel, Indianapolis Star (10/16/15)</p>
<p>DB: Well, you know, the implication is that somehow there’s this explosive debt that’s just going to be this massive burden on our kids. And you could beat this up any number of different ways, and I and others have. Most immediately, the debt does impose some burden, that we have to pay interest on the debt, so every year a certain amount of money has to go to pay interest, rather than paying for programs like Medicare or education, other things that we might value.</p>
<p>And the reality is that the money we’re paying in interest is actually very low today; it’s about 8/10ths of a percent of GDP. It comes to around $150 billion a year. Now, it sounds like a lot of money, but if you go back to the early ’90s, we were paying over 3 percent of GDP in interest. That would be on the order of $550 billion a year. So we’re actually paying much less interest today, the reason simply being that we have very low interest rates in the economy. So debt’s not a burden that way.</p>
<p>The other point, if we go for the classic economic story, a large deficit is supposed to crowd out private investment by pushing up interest rates. So the story would be, if we have a real high deficit, we’re going to have high interest rates, and then we won’t have investment. And that’s going to be bad for our kids, because instead of businesses investing, becoming more productive, we’re spending all our money on Social Security and Medicare, they’d say. So good for the people on Social Security and Medicare, but our kids will be poorer because of that.</p>
<p>Well, A—interest rates are actually extremely low today, so they’re lower than anyone expected them to be. So clearly that’s not the obstacle.</p>
<p>The other point, and I and others—I mean, even the International Monetary Fund makes this point—we’ve actually been restrained in our growth because the deficits have not been large enough. Ever since the collapse of the housing bubble, 2007–2008, we’ve been operating well below our potential level of output. And the significance of that is that when the economy is weaker, firms invest less.</p>
<p>So when we’re concerned about this investment story, we actually should want a larger deficit, both because the deficit can directly increase investment—we build up our infrastructure, we improve education, which also increases productivity—but also by spending more, we could crowd private investment in. So the economy’s actually considerably smaller today because we haven’t been running large deficits than was projected ten years ago. So we’re not helping our kids by keeping the deficit down. It doesn’t make any sense.</p>
<p>JJ: And I think part of the problem there has to do with the recourse to a personal analog: You don’t want to be in debt, that’s bad for you, right, for your household income, or something like that. And that’s not really a—of course, if you’re paying money to go to school, then it might make sense to have some debt as an individual. But it’s just not a useful analog, and it’s one that politicians and pundits often seem to take recourse in.</p>
<p>DB: Yeah, they jump to that all the time. And it’s understandable from the standpoint of a politician, because most people aren’t thinking about the economy and how big the government is and its role in the economy. So we all understand we can’t keep adding a thousand dollars to our credit card debt every month; we can get in trouble at some point if we do that. And you go, OK, well, the government’s like that.</p>
<p>Well, the government’s not like that. First of all, the government, at least we don’t expect it to die, so basically the story is that it should be there pretty much forever. I make the analogy, at least, let’s think of a corporation, you know, General Electric. If the CEO of General Electric went to his board and said, oh, we didn’t make any money last year, but we paid off our debt, they would look at him like he’s nuts.They want to make a profit, they don’t care about the debt.</p>
<p>The point being that General Electric expects to be around forever. Maybe they won’t be, but they’re acting as though they do. And certainly the government has reason to believe it will be around forever, so we don’t have to pay off the debt. So that’s one part.</p>
<p>But the other part is that the government has responsibility for supporting the economy. No one in their right mind should think, oh, I’d better spend another hundred dollars this month, because otherwise — we as individuals can’t influence the economy. The government can, and when there’s not enough demand in the economy, the government absolutely has the responsibility to run large deficits, because it has to make up for the shortfall in demand elsewhere. And that’s why these deficits that we’ve been running have been good, and they would be better if they were larger.</p>
<p>JJ: There’s confusion and misinformation around the debt and also around “entitlements.” But then there’s a third thing that happens, which is that “debt and entitlements” becomes a phrase. What’s the problem with making that linkage?</p>
<p>DB: First off, I mentioned Social Security and Medicare being the major ones. Social Security actually, as a practical matter, can’t contribute to the debt, at least under law as it’s now written, because the way the law is written, Social Security can only spend money that’s in the trust fund. So that’s the designated Social Security tax, and savings from past taxes, they can spend that. But if they ever exceed that, the program has to cut back its spending. So the only way Social Security could ever spend more money than it takes in is if Congress were to change the law. So the idea it’s runaway, no, Congress would actually have to change the law for it to be runaway. It can’t possibly run away.</p>
<p>In terms of Medicare, I guess I’d make two points here. One is that the rise in Medicare costs is driven by the overall rise in healthcare costs. It’s not like we uniquely have a problem with Medicare being out of control; it’s healthcare costs in the US are out of control. And Medicare, of course, pays for healthcare in the private sector; it’s not its own healthcare program that way.</p>
<p>But the other point that there’s too little recognition of: Actually, the finances of Medicare have improved hugely under the Obama administration. You could decide how much credit you want to give him for that, but the shortfall in the program, projected shortfall, was over 3-and-a-half percentage points of payroll back in 2009 when he first took office. Today it’s just over 7/10ths of a percentage point. So the shortfall has declined by 80 percent.</p>
<p>So the idea, somehow, these programs are just spending crazily and they’re going to bankrupt us, A, with Social Security, it’s literally not possible unless Congress changes the law, and in the case of Medicare, we actually have a program that’s in much, much better financial shape today, at least by our understanding of it, than it was just eight years ago. So what’s the problem here?</p>
<p>JJ: Finally, I think folks think that we’re looking at Social Security and Medicare because somehow that is, no matter how we feel about it, it’s still a source of a drain, or something like that. And it has to do with what we are able to see, even in the budget. You’ve written about other things that, if we’re looking for things that involve a commitment of resources that perhaps future generations should be concerned about, there are other things we could be thinking about, but we’re kind of discouraged from doing so.</p>
<p>DB: Yeah. Again, at the end of the day, if we’re talking about a generational issue, we’re handing people a whole economy. So on the one hand, one of the things I mentioned in that piece was we have military commitments. Again, we could back away from them, but those, as we know, are hard to do. It’s not a question of what you or I want, it’s what’s going to be politically viable. So we’re spending a lot of money in Iraq and Afghanistan because 15 years ago, we made a commitment to go to war there, and we’re still spending a lot of money on that.</p>
<p>Other areas—and I raise this, and people look at me kind of blank-faced; I’ll try to make it as simple as possible—patent monopolies are a way in which the government pays for things. So we give companies a patent monopoly, and that’s ostensibly how we’re paying for medical research. So we’re saying, we want Pfizer to research new drugs, you develop a new drug and we’re going to let you charge monopoly prices. That’s, in effect, a tax. So we don’t look at that? I &#160;don’t know what economic model says we’re supposed to ignore it, because Pfizer in effect is taxing the American people, rather than the government. I mean, it has the same impact.</p>
<p>And those are very large. In the case of just prescription drugs alone, the patent tax, if you like, some of them are on the order of $350 billion a year, about 2 percent of GDP. It’s a huge amount of money. And, of course, we have it in other areas: software, medical equipment, any number of other areas where it’s a very big portion in the price of the products. So to pretend that somehow the deficit or debt is going to be bankrupting our kids, and not look at all these other ways that we’re imposing burdens on them with our actions today….</p>
<p>I’d really be remiss in not mentioning global warming. Again, somehow let’s imagine, 20 years out, we could tell our kids, hey, we paid down the debt, and then we’ve destroyed the environment. We go, oh, you should thank us. I mean, obviously they should spit in our face. You know, we hand them a whole economy, a whole society, and, for that matter, the natural environment, and acting like somehow we’re measuring generational equity by the size of the debt is pretty silly.</p>
<p>JJ: We’ve been speaking with Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. You can find his blog Beat the Press at their website, <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/" type="external">CEPR.net</a>, and also you can find his <a href="http://deanbaker.net/books/rigged.htm" type="external">book</a> there, Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Dean Baker, thank you for joining us this week on CounterSpin.</p>
<p>DB: Thanks a lot, Janine.</p> | ‘We’re Not Helping Our Kids by Keeping the Deficit Down’ | true | http://fair.org/home/were-not-helping-our-kids-by-keeping-the-deficit-down/ | 2016-10-26 | 4 |
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<p>Gorsuch, a well-respected, conservative legal star with a traditional background, won Senate approval on Friday, serving as a testament to the power of well-organized establishment Republican forces and a reminder of the ability of judicial fights to unite Republicans.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s confirmation required Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, to eliminate the 60-vote threshold, dubbed the “nuclear option,” to ensure approval with a simple majority. But after weeks of wrangling in the House over a plan to repeal and replace the so-called Obamacare law, the confirmation battle amounted to a badly needed triumph for Trump.</p>
<p>“This is a big win and it feels good to get this win,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., prior to Friday’s vote. “The nuances of a bill containing a myriad of provisions is totally different, totally different. But I do think the president can prevail with a good repeal-and-replace bill if he’ll put the weight of his credibility and office behind the effort, and I think he’s prepared to do that.”</p>
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<p>To be sure, a Supreme Court battle is far different from a complicated policy fight involving health care, which covers one-fifth of the nation’s economy and has been a central political fight since President Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park.</p>
<p>In some ways, conservative outside groups were preparing for Gorsuch’s nomination process for months. His name first surfaced as a potential Supreme Court pick in late September when Trump included him on a list of 21 possible successors to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. (Gorsuch was not on an initial list of potential justices he released in May 2016.)</p>
<p>That heads-up gave outside groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation time to review the potential jurists and create buy-in for Republicans once Trump made his choice. When Trump named Gorsuch in late January, the choice quickly won praise from groups like the Club for Growth, the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association.</p>
<p>“Gorsuch is somebody who pretty much everyone on the right wants to vote for and wants to support. We were starting with a good product,” said Michael Needham, chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America, one of several conservative groups that did not back the president’s health care law. “On health care, they kind of started with an egg and were surprised to find that the whole experience has been frustrating.”</p>
<p>For a new administration, the dual legislative battles over Gorsuch and health care have coincided with an internal struggle between the anti-establishment forces that helped propel Trump to the White House and establishment figures seeking to consolidate power.</p>
<p>The tensions spilled out into public this week when Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and a proponent of take-no-prisoners politics, lost his seat on the Principals Committee of the National Security Council, a group of high-ranking officials who meet to discuss pressing national security needs.</p>
<p>Bannon’s addition to the NSC had sparked criticism that it was inappropriate for the political adviser to play a role in national security matters. His departure suggested reduced influence and rising tensions amid Trump’s West Wing staff, particularly between Bannon and a more moderate group led by Trump’s senior adviser and powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner.</p>
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<p>The two senior aides have clashed of late, with Kushner holding Bannon responsible for the controversies surrounding the failures of the president’s travel ban and the health care bill. Bannon, meanwhile, believes the president’s son-in-law is trying to shift away from the populist rhetoric he believes won the White House, according to associates of the two men who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.</p>
<p>This week, Vice President Mike Pence, a solid member of the establishment wing of the White House, tried to revive the health care bill, working with the bloc of hard-line conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus to find a compromise that could pass the Republican-led House. That effort came after Trump, seizing his anti-establishment role, threatened to work to unseat conservative Republicans who did not line up behind him.</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers left for Easter recess with no deal, but have vowed to press on.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s success — and health care’s failure — shines a light on the ability of judicial battles to energize Republicans, who have long railed against judicial overreach and courts acting in ways reserved for the legislative branch.</p>
<p>Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said the importance of McConnell’s decision to refuse to consider Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland and ability to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court picks could not be overstated. He said Gorsuch’s selection managed to unite Republicans and pave the way for a more conservative court.</p>
<p>“Some people will try to say this makes the win less,” Schlapp said of the use of the nuclear option. “It makes the win bigger because it makes the next pick even easier to confirm.”</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>EDITOR’S NOTE — Ken Thomas has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2011.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner in Washington and Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/kthomasdc</p>
<p>An AP News Analysis</p> | Analysis: Gorsuch a win for Trump and GOP establishment | false | https://abqjournal.com/984558/analysis-gorsuch-a-win-for-trump-and-gop-establishment.html | 2017-04-07 | 2 |
<p>I don’t think teddy bears are mentioned anywhere in the Quran. Therefore, is the animated satirical series ‘South Park’ well within its rights to portray Prophet Mohamed dressed in a bear suit? What was the pressing need for such a depiction? The latest bit of news is that in the episode they have added the word Censored and replaced the image of the Prophet with that of Santa Claus in a similar suit.</p>
<p>Is there a message here?</p>
<p>Both convey in the popular imagination the spirit of giving. However, since the tele-series is known for its “biting satire”, it cannot be all about nurturing. As has become the norm, the makers have been threatened. By whom? A website called RevolutionMuslim.com that has 20 posters. In their enthusiasm to appear significant, they put up a picture of the Dutch filmmaker who was murdered for portraying violence against Muslim women. “They will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them,” the posting said.</p>
<p>I would like to know what makes this group important. Are they not akin to criminal gangs that operate in every society? Anyone can upload a picture and post a threat. Why has it been given this much mileage? Why are people like Sudanese writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali appearing on television to speak out almost immediately? If the channel, Comedy Central, wanted to ultimately censor the reference to the Prophet, it ought to have done it without too much noise. But would it have grabbed eyeballs? Would someone like me who has never watched the show even know about it? How many more viewers did they manage to get? How many hits did this website garner? It is commercial interests at work. Isn’t Santa also about marketing? Christmas is less about Christ than what you put on the Christmas tree.</p>
<p>The ‘South Park’ team as well as this kneejerk Muslim group are part of the same construct – to capitalise on people’s emotions. Normally, satire has a different purpose and anyway the show’s targets are celebrities and media icons. The Prophet, despite a huge following, does not quite fit in.</p>
<p>This really is not about the Prophet, but about profit. One in every four people in the world is a Muslim. It is a captive audience. Every once in a while, this happens and there is the usual ‘backlash’. Someone ought to conduct a study as to where and how this backlash begins? Is it engineered by vested interests rather than upholders of the faith?</p>
<p>Flashback to 2007. In Sudan a teddy bear was named Mohammed. This was in a school and from all accounts the Muslim students chose the name and the parents agreed to it. Again, there was a ruckus.</p>
<p>The ‘South Park’ protest group is based in the US. No one is asking the American establishment to waste its drones; they can simply give a warning as they would to a group of petty thieves. It is crucial that not every little organisation becomes the spokesperson of a faith.</p>
<p>There will be many fans of the series who will be disgusted because the new episode showed Jesus Christ watching pornography and the Buddha snorting cocaine. How liberal we are, they’d say. The only problem is that both these figures have been depicted in various forms and are recognisable. The Prophet is not. The Danish cartoons too had the typical bearded Bedouin look, but we do not know.</p>
<p>‘South Park’ uses animated characters, so it will not be an adequate representation. It is not meant to be. It might help Muslims to realise that when Barbie was taken off the shelves in the Middle East, she was replaced by Fulla, who was quite similar but was dressed in a black robe and matching scarf and promoted as espousing ““Muslim values”. There was a counter-reaction by a French sociologist who thought it was an Islamist strategy!</p>
<p>Did I not mention commercial interests? You take the mickey out of the Disney Mouse or the bluster out of Barbie and the world loses a huge market. No one is interested in really hurting religious sentiments if those sentiments can be reined in. Did not these same Muslims ask the buyers to get Fulla her “new spring abaya”? At one level, it really was a great move. But it was paying obeisance to Mammon.</p>
<p>It is the attitude that makes even Barbie’s makers, Mattel, have the audacity to create a doll called Leila who was supposed to represent a slave girl in the Ottoman court. This is pandering to several fantasies – the master syndrome, financial superiority, and a backwardness that people are expected to hark back to. Barbie gives no lessons in history, so this was deliberately vicious.</p>
<p>Given that this is the social structure, I would think sensible Muslims should just give ‘South Park’ a miss. Don’t watch it if it bothers you. Your god lies within you or, if you insist, in the holy book. If you want to play into the hands of those with dire motives, then be ready for more such ridicule. This is what they want.</p>
<p>Deny them their archetype and they will get tired. As I have said several times, there are people with the name of the Prophet who are unsavoury characters. You cannot go about changing all their names. If you believe in the Prophet, then there is nothing to defend. If you are insecure enough to become a chattel of muckrakers, then you are in no position to stand up for the belief system or the believers.</p>
<p>FARZANA VERSEY is a Mumbai-based author-columnist. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p /> | Grin and Bear It | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/04/23/grin-and-bear-it/ | 2010-04-23 | 4 |
<p>A bill preventing deep cuts in doctors' Medicare reimbursements hasn't been signed into law. But the government is already paying most doctors their full fees anyway.</p>
<p>Congress approved the bill Tuesday night, but the paperwork wasn't immediately sent to the president for his signature. The measure blocks a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments that took effect this month.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had previously said that without action, it would start making payments at the lower rates on Wednesday. It processes about 4 million claims daily.</p>
<p>The agency now says it is already making most payments at the full rates. In a written statement to health care providers, it says "a small volume of claims" are being processed at the lower levels.</p> | Medicare doctors bill not law yet, but government already paying full fees to most physicians | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/04/16/medicare-doctors-bill-not-law-yet-but-government-already-paying-full-fees-to.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p>LONDON — Delivering the latest jolt in Britain’s year of political shocks, Prime Minister Theresa May called Tuesday for a snap June 8 general election, seeking to strengthen her hand in European Union exit talks and tighten her grip on a fractious Conservative Party.</p>
<p>With the Labour opposition weakened, May’s gamble will probably pay off with an enhanced Conservative majority in Parliament — but it’s unlikely to unite a country deeply split over the decision to quit the EU.</p>
<p>May returned from an Easter break in the Welsh mountains to announce that she would make a televised statement on an undisclosed subject early Tuesday outside 10 Downing St. Speculation swirled and the pound plunged against the dollar amid uncertainty about whether she planned to resign, call an election or even declare war.</p>
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<p>Since taking office after her predecessor David Cameron resigned in the wake of Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the EU, May had repeatedly ruled out going to the polls before the next scheduled election in 2020. But on Tuesday, she said she had “reluctantly” changed her mind because political divisions “risk our ability to make a success of Brexit.”</p>
<p>“We need a general election and we need one now,” May said. “Because we have, at this moment, a one-off chance to get this done, while the European Union agrees its negotiating position and before the detailed talks begin.”</p>
<p>For decades British prime ministers could call elections at will, but that changed with the 2011 Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, which established set polling days every five years. Now, the prime minister needs the backing of two-thirds of lawmakers and May said she would put her election call to the House of Commons on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Let us tomorrow vote for an election. Let us put forward our plans for Brexit and our alternative programs for government and then let the people decide,” May said.</p>
<p>Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, welcomed May’s announcement, making it very likely she will get lawmakers’ backing for an election.</p>
<p>May’s governing Conservatives currently have a slight majority, with 330 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons.</p>
<p>With Labour demoralized and divided under left-wing leader Corbyn and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats holding just nine Commons seats, May is calculating that the election will bring her an expanded crop of Conservative lawmakers.</p>
<p>That would make it easier for her to ignore opposition calls for a softer EU exit — making compromises to retain some benefits of membership — and to face down hard-liners within her own party who want a no-compromise “hard Brexit” that many economists fear could be devastating.</p>
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<p>Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that even for a cautious politician like May, the temptation of an early election was irresistible.</p>
<p>“She has a small majority, a big task ahead of her and a huge opinion poll lead,” he said. “If you put all those things together they equal a general election.”</p>
<p>Bale said a bigger majority would give May a new batch of loyal Conservative lawmakers and leave her less at the mercy of euroskeptics in her party “who otherwise could have made negotiations much more difficult.”</p>
<p>May triggered a two-year countdown to Britain’s exit from the EU last month, and high-stakes negotiations to settle divorce terms and agree on a new relationship are expected to start within weeks.</p>
<p>European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that he had a “good phone call” with May about the election, and the council said the bloc’s Brexit plans were unchanged by the announcement. Leaders of EU states are due to adopt negotiating guidelines at an April 29 summit, and the bloc will prepare detailed plans for the talks with Britain by late May.</p>
<p>Labour, the second-largest party in Parliament, campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, but Corbyn said he would respect voters’ decision to leave. He said Tuesday that Labour’s election platform in June would be for a more equal society and economy, and “a Brexit that works for all.”</p>
<p>Polls give May’s Conservatives a double-digit lead over Labour, which could have its worst election showing in decades. But the election still carries risk for May, with voters’ potentially wary at being asked to go to the polls again, less than a year after the EU referendum.</p>
<p>“I think actually it makes her look a little bit arrogant and a little bit complacent,” said Liberal Democrat lawmaker Alistair Carmichael. “She’s taking people for granted already and voters never like that.”</p>
<p>The strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats have seen thousands of new members join since the referendum and are likely to make gains. Leader Tim Farron said Tuesday that only his party can prevent a “disastrous hard Brexit.”</p>
<p>Rather than helping the country unite, the election could widen divisions within the United Kingdom. The U.K. voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU, but Scotland backed remaining by a large majority, and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is seeking to hold a referendum on independence from the U.K.</p>
<p>Sturgeon said Tuesday that May was seeking “to crush the voices of people who disagree with her.”</p>
<p>It was “all the more important,” she said, “that Scotland is protected from a Tory (Conservative) Party which now sees the chance of grabbing control of government for many years to come and moving the U.K. further to the right — forcing through a hard Brexit and imposing deeper cuts in the process.”</p>
<p>The Scottish National Party currently holds 54 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the British Parliament, making it the third-largest party there.</p>
<p>Still, currency markets welcomed May’s announcement as a harbinger of greater stability. The pound surged 0.7 percent against the dollar to $1.2658, recovering from a 0.4 percent drop an hour earlier as rumors swirled about the surprise statement.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.</p> | UK leader calls for early election to boost Brexit bid | false | https://abqjournal.com/989707/uk-leader-seeks-snap-june-8-election-to-bolster-brexit-hand.html | 2017-04-18 | 2 |
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<p>The authorities in Sri Lanka today proudly announced the arrest of a man who had tried to smuggle 1kg of gold and jewelry in his rectum.</p>
<p>According to the arresting customs officer, he singled out the man because "he was walking suspiciously"</p>
<p>The 45-year-old was making his way to India (where gold is highly popular) and stopped at Colombo international airport in Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>Given that gold in India is used for all bridal occasions, the price paid for it is higher than in surrounding countries, meaning smugglers will buy it in Dubai or Singapore and then try to smuggle it over the border with India to make a profit.</p>
<p>The smuggler, who probably wrecked his rectum, might now make a profit in prison because of his wrecked rectum in fact.</p>
<p>There have been similar cases in the past. Indians are famously hoarding gold as they believe it brings financial security. Even though this chap was arrested, it is believed that up to 700 kilograms of gold reach India illegally every day (in a similar manner, but let's hope for the gents in India not all literally just like that though).</p>
<p>Konal Doshi, of the Gems and Jewellers protection council: "This is unprecedented and unbelievable. A new industry has emerged in India - it is a very dangerous situation."</p>
<p>Smugglers are finding innovative ways to try and bypass customs. Every few weeks a new fad shows up. Gold has been melted to look like salted chips, like dates from Dubai or ground to a fine dust and mixed with other metals to look like or. Even hand painted belt buckles or torch batteries have been tried.</p>
<p>Indian economist Surjit Bhalla explains: "The move to increase import duty is not working. In India, everyone - even the poorest of the poor - invests in gold. This move can only work if all the smuggled gold is confiscated by the regulators."</p>
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<p>Source:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41383100" type="external">bbc.com/news/world-asia-41383100</a></p> | How Do You Smuggle 1Kg Of Gold? In Your Ass? | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/8643-How-Do-You-Smuggle-1Kg-Of-Gold-In-Your-Ass | 2017-09-25 | 0 |
<p>Celine Dion is a Las Vegas attraction. The Titanic hit-maker has been performing in the city for years, and after the mass shooting massacre that happened over a week ago, everything stopped, including her sold out shows.</p>
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<p>Dion has made Las Vegas home, so she was affected by the tragedy more than you know. Stephen Paddock was responsible for killing nearly 60 Americans and injuring over 500 as he knocked out windows at the Mandalay Bay and opened fire.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Celine</a> has raised a lot of money over the years and she wanted to give back to the community that has given her so much.</p>
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<p>On her first night back to the stage, Dion grabbed the mic and started to speak. This took everyone by surprise because she usually begins her shows with a song number. But this was different. This was special. The room was quiet and accommodating&#160;as she spoke from her heart. Reports are that attendees were in tears by the time she was finished.</p>
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<p>Here’s some of what Dion <a href="http://people.com/music/celine-dion-tribute-vegas-shooting-victims/" type="external">said</a>: “I hope that you’re doing okay … Before we start the show, I need to talk to you for a moment. I never start the show like this but tonight is very different. On Sunday we lost too many beautiful, innocent souls, and so many are still suffering. But tonight we’re going to let these families know that we are supporting them and that we will help them through their tragic loss.”</p>
<p>That’s when she announced to whom her concert would be dedicated to:&#160;“We dedicate tonight’s show to all of the victims and their families, and to the first responders, and to the doctors and nurses who are working around the clock to save lives, and to so many heroes who did whatever they could to help complete strangers in a time of desperate need.”</p>
<p>Watch this beautiful speech here:</p>
<p>God works in mysterious ways, and He always sends the right angel at the right time. On that night, Celine Dion warmed hurting hearts with that speech. She could have trotted out there and started the show like nothing happened, but her heart and her suffering wouldn’t let her.</p>
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<p>Dion is a true patriot who loves this country and the people who live here. She seized a great opportunity for a teaching moment and it was well-received.</p>
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<p>SHARE this great and inspiring video on your Facebook/Twitter timeline and let us know in our conversation area below what you thought of this video above.</p>
<p /> | Celine Dion Returns to Las Vegas Stage – Dedicates Show to Shooting Victims | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/celine-dion-vegas-shooting/ | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
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<p>The Agriculture Department is developing a vaccine that might be used if efforts to contain bird flu don't succeed. In Minnesota, 2 million turkeys have been culled because of the outbreak. (The Associated Press)</p>
<p>A pure "seed strain" would target the H5N2 virus - which has already cost Midwest turkey and chicken producers over 7 million birds since early March - as well as some other highly pathogenic viruses in the H5 family that have been detected in other parts of North America. If the USDA decides the vaccine is necessary to stop avian influenza, it will provide that seed strain to drug manufacturers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The process, though, is fraught with questions about which birds would get the vaccine, how it might affect exports and whether it would be effective against the rapidly spreading strain.</p>
<p>USDA officials say the H5N2 virus could be a problem for the poultry industry for several years. And they say the virus could reappear this fall when the wild waterfowl that are believed to carry it fly south for the winter. Another concern is that it could spread to big poultry-producing states in the East.</p>
<p>While government agencies and producers would much rather see tight biosecurity and other current strategies succeed, they want to have another tool available, said Dr. T.J. Myers, an associate deputy administrator for veterinary services with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.</p>
<p>The USDA's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Ga., is developing the seed strain, which is essentially a pure virus sample that could be the foundation for producing an effective vaccine. The center's director, Dr. David Swayne, said it has already gone through a couple rounds of lab testing, and that animal experiments will begin in early May to determine whether it's an effective strain to use. If those tests are successful and the USDA decides to put a vaccine into production, it would turn to the private sector to make it.</p>
<p>Dr. John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer, said it's not clear how much a vaccine would add to the cost of producing birds, but doesn't expect it would be much. It might be used mainly on the more expensive birds, such as those used for breeding, he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For turkey producers, the price of the vaccine could be minor compared to the cost of losing entire flocks, according to Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota. But a vaccine might be too expensive for the broiler chicken industry, where profits per bird are small.</p>
<p>Introducing a vaccine raises a lot of questions, Myers said, including which poultry would get it, in what kind of settings, whether it would be effective in stopping the disease and potential negative effects on poultry exports.</p>
<p>James Sumner, president of the Georgia-based USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said some countries might regard vaccine use as a reason to bar imports from the U.S. The vaccine could mask any viruses that poultry are carrying, because tests for the disease look for antibodies - the same antibodies that vaccines trigger a body to produce, he said.</p>
<p>Dr. Kyoungjin Yoon, an avian influenza expert at Iowa State University, said human experience shows flu vaccines don't always match well with viruses in circulation. Vaccine-induced immunity could also slow the detection of outbreaks, Yoon said. One of the main symptoms is that flocks start dying off quickly.</p>
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<p /> | USDA works on vaccine against spreading bird flu | false | https://abqjournal.com/573658/usda-works-on-vaccine-against-spreading-bird-flu.html | 2 |
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<p>First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.</p>
<p>Will 2016 be another wave election?</p>
<p>Going back to 2006, four of the last five election cycles have been wave elections, in which one party has taken control of at least one branch of government or a chamber of Congress -- by winning big on Election Day. The one exception was 2012, when President Obama won re-election, but control of the House and Senate didn’t change hands (even though Democrats gained seats in both chambers).</p>
<p>So the question with Election Day less than three weeks from now is: Is 2016 going to be yet another wave? Or will be it a status-quo election? The answer hinges on if Democrats take back control of the Senate -- and by a comfortable margin.</p>
<p>Our Top 9 Senate takeovers</p>
<p>Here’s a helpful way to keep score of the Senate races, and what constitutes a wave. We’ve listed what we consider to be the Top 9 Senate takeovers -- from most likely to switch parties, to least likely to switch.</p>
<p>If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, Democrats would need to net a gain of four Senate seats to retake control of the chamber. So running the table here -- or close to it -- would put Dems at 52-54 seats, and that would constitute a wave. By the way, we listed nine takeovers instead of 10 takeovers, because the others in consideration (Arizona, Iowa, Ohio) are unlikely to flip, even if there’s a wave. We could see the races in those three states getting to single digits, but it’s still very hard to see even a huge Clinton win being enough to oust the GOP incumbents there.</p>
<p>The Funky Runoffs</p>
<p>There are two more Senate races worth watching on Election Day -- the runoffs in Georgia and Louisiana. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) is the clear favorite in Georgia, but he needs to get clear 50% to avoid a runoff since there’s a Libertarian candidate in the race. Also, Louisiana holds its free-for-all “jungle primary” on Nov. 8 to replace retiring Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), and the top-two finishers (regardless of party) advance to the Dec. 10 runoff if no one clears 50%. David Duke is one of the numerous Republicans on the ballot.</p>
<p>It’s likely that the number of female senators will increase</p>
<p>There’s one more Senate-related point we want to make: It’s highly likely that the number of women in the Senate will increase. Yes, Chris Van Hollen’s primary victory in Maryland will reduce the Senate’s female ranks by one. And Sen. Barbara Boxer will be replaced by either Kamala Harris or Loretta Sanchez. But here are the possible female additions:</p>
<p>So it’s very possible the Senate’s female ranks will increase by two or three.</p>
<p>Clinton has benefited more from the debates than Trump has</p>
<p>Tonight is the third and final presidential debate, and it takes place at 9:00 pm ET in Las Vegas, NV. Our most recent NBC/WSJ poll found 31% of voters saying the previous two presidential debates made them more likely to back Hillary Clinton, versus 14% who said they made them more likely to support Trump; 52% said the debates made no difference.</p>
<p>Rockin the suburbs</p>
<p>One of the biggest reasons why Clinton is really pulling away from Trump? It’s all about the suburbs. The urban suburbs, a set of densely-populated, wealthy and well-educated counties, have swung heavily to Clinton since the summer. NBC News merged data from the last two NBC/WSJ polls, both in the field in the last two weeks, and found Clinton had a 26-point edge in those counties. A set of polls taken over this summer showed she had a much smaller 13-point lead in the same areas. In 2012, President Barack Obama carried the urban suburbs by 16 points, 10 points less than Clinton’s current margin.</p>
<p>Trump’s term limits pledge</p>
<p>Yesterday, the GOP nominee pledged to push for term limits for members of Congress – six years for House members and 12 years for senators. Yes, term limits are a common conservative proposal, but if you wanted more proof that Trump is running against the GOP -- which happens to be in control of Congress -- this pledge is it. What does this say for Richard Burr, Chuck Grassley, and John McCain? (Not to mention close Trump adviser Jeff Sessions?)</p>
<p>First Read’s downballot race of the day</p>
<p>Wisconsin: Democrat Russ Feingold was bounced from his seat in 2010, and he’s trying to snatch it back this cycle from his old rival, Republican Ron Johnson. The two men are ideologically opposed in this traditionally blue-leaning state; Feingold is a progressive champion, while Johnson has been a staunch conservative. If Feingold is victorious, it will be the first time since 1934 that an ousted senator came back six years later to defeat his former foe.</p>
<p>On the trail</p>
<p>Tim Kaine campaigns in Ohio and North Carolina… Mike Pence hits Colorado… Bernie Sanders campaigns for Clinton in Nevada… And Chelsea Clinton is in Arizona.</p>
<p>Countdown to Election Day: 20 days</p> | Will 2016 Be Another Wave Election? | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-presidential-debates/will-2016-be-another-wave-election-n668796 | 2016-10-19 | 3 |
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Yante Maten’s field goal in the lane with five seconds remaining gave Georgia a 61-60 Southeastern Conference victory against LSU on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>The Tigers (11-6, 2-3) pulled ahead 60-59 on a basket by Duop Reath with 39 seconds left, and the game-winning field goal followed an offensive rebound by Juwan Parker with 23 seconds to play.</p>
<p>LSU’s Tremont Waters missed an off-balance 3-point shot with two seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“I was supposed to set a screen and pop on the last play,” Maten said. “They were overplaying that a little bit, so I went back down inside and Turtle (Jackson) did a good job finding me.</p>
<p>The two baskets I made at the end of the first half helped establish myself.”</p>
<p>Maten was held scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the game, but finished with a game-high 21 points. Maten scored 17 of Georgia’s 37 second-half points, and grabbed 12 rebounds. Derek Ogbeide added 11 points for the Bulldogs (12-5, 3-3).</p>
<p>Brandon Sampson led the Tigers with 17 points. Reath added 12 points and Skylar Mays had 11. Waters, who was averaging 16 points a game, was held to six points.</p>
<p>“It’s just a tale of two halves,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “We controlled the pace in the first half. In the second half, they controlled things. They got the ball to Maten, their best player. They just beat us up in the paint and beat us up on the glass.”</p>
<p>Georgia, which trailed 34-24 at halftime, scored the first eight points of the second half. Maten made two field goals in that stretch. The lead exchanged hands seven times in the last five minutes, and neither team had more than a two-point advantage during that time.</p>
<p>“It was a hard-fought game against a very good LSU team that is underappreciated,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We were a little disorganized in the first half. In the second half, we just tried to get a little more organized and obviously, we rebounded the ball better.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Georgia: The Bulldogs got a much-needed road victory after losing at home to South Carolina last Saturday. Georgia, which had lost SEC games at Kentucky and Missouri, snapped a two-game losing streak.</p>
<p>LSU: The Tigers have dropped all three of their SEC home games. LSU had been beaten at home by Kentucky and Alabama. The Tigers have dropped back-to-back games for the first time since November.</p>
<p>TOP PLAYER DELIVERS</p>
<p>Yante Maten bounced back from a slow start to carry Georgia to its come-from-behind victory against LSU. Maten missed his first six field-goal attempts as the Bulldogs fell behind 32-20 with four minutes remaining in the first half. However, Maten made a couple of baskets in the last 2½ minutes before halftime.</p>
<p>In the second half, Maten made five field goals and sank all seven of his field goals. He added 12 rebounds and recorded his eighth double-double of the season.</p>
<p>REBOUNDING PROBLEMS</p>
<p>Georgia outrebounded the Tigers 38-27, and LSU was beaten by at least ten rebounds in the second consecutive game. The Bulldogs had 13 offensive rebounds which resulted in 17 second-chance points.</p>
<p>LSU was outrebounded 40-24 in its 74-66 defeat against Alabama last Saturday.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Georgia will attempt to go above .500 in the SEC when it plays at No. 17 Auburn on Saturday.</p>
<p>LSU will go for its third straight road SEC victory when it travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Yante Maten’s field goal in the lane with five seconds remaining gave Georgia a 61-60 Southeastern Conference victory against LSU on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>The Tigers (11-6, 2-3) pulled ahead 60-59 on a basket by Duop Reath with 39 seconds left, and the game-winning field goal followed an offensive rebound by Juwan Parker with 23 seconds to play.</p>
<p>LSU’s Tremont Waters missed an off-balance 3-point shot with two seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“I was supposed to set a screen and pop on the last play,” Maten said. “They were overplaying that a little bit, so I went back down inside and Turtle (Jackson) did a good job finding me.</p>
<p>The two baskets I made at the end of the first half helped establish myself.”</p>
<p>Maten was held scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the game, but finished with a game-high 21 points. Maten scored 17 of Georgia’s 37 second-half points, and grabbed 12 rebounds. Derek Ogbeide added 11 points for the Bulldogs (12-5, 3-3).</p>
<p>Brandon Sampson led the Tigers with 17 points. Reath added 12 points and Skylar Mays had 11. Waters, who was averaging 16 points a game, was held to six points.</p>
<p>“It’s just a tale of two halves,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “We controlled the pace in the first half. In the second half, they controlled things. They got the ball to Maten, their best player. They just beat us up in the paint and beat us up on the glass.”</p>
<p>Georgia, which trailed 34-24 at halftime, scored the first eight points of the second half. Maten made two field goals in that stretch. The lead exchanged hands seven times in the last five minutes, and neither team had more than a two-point advantage during that time.</p>
<p>“It was a hard-fought game against a very good LSU team that is underappreciated,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We were a little disorganized in the first half. In the second half, we just tried to get a little more organized and obviously, we rebounded the ball better.”</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Georgia: The Bulldogs got a much-needed road victory after losing at home to South Carolina last Saturday. Georgia, which had lost SEC games at Kentucky and Missouri, snapped a two-game losing streak.</p>
<p>LSU: The Tigers have dropped all three of their SEC home games. LSU had been beaten at home by Kentucky and Alabama. The Tigers have dropped back-to-back games for the first time since November.</p>
<p>TOP PLAYER DELIVERS</p>
<p>Yante Maten bounced back from a slow start to carry Georgia to its come-from-behind victory against LSU. Maten missed his first six field-goal attempts as the Bulldogs fell behind 32-20 with four minutes remaining in the first half. However, Maten made a couple of baskets in the last 2½ minutes before halftime.</p>
<p>In the second half, Maten made five field goals and sank all seven of his field goals. He added 12 rebounds and recorded his eighth double-double of the season.</p>
<p>REBOUNDING PROBLEMS</p>
<p>Georgia outrebounded the Tigers 38-27, and LSU was beaten by at least ten rebounds in the second consecutive game. The Bulldogs had 13 offensive rebounds which resulted in 17 second-chance points.</p>
<p>LSU was outrebounded 40-24 in its 74-66 defeat against Alabama last Saturday.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Georgia will attempt to go above .500 in the SEC when it plays at No. 17 Auburn on Saturday.</p>
<p>LSU will go for its third straight road SEC victory when it travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday.</p> | Maten’s shot with 5 seconds left pulls Georgia by LSU 61-60 | false | https://apnews.com/444e3a8a21694b688058167bc2bba107 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has taken a lot of heat for his combative leadership style. And lately, he’s been under fire for creating a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ubers-all-out-meritocracy-comes-under-fire-1488286803" type="external">culture of brazen meritocracy Opens a New Window.</a> at the hyper-growth company he co-founded in 2009. But you could always count on the uber-competitive entrepreneur to own it. Until now.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>An incendiary blog post by former engineer <a href="https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber" type="external">Susan Fowler Opens a New Window.</a> unleashed a firestorm from <a href="https://shift.newco.co/an-open-letter-to-the-uber-board-and-investors-2dc0c48c3a7#.2rqcp17ys" type="external">early investors Opens a New Window.</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/technology/uber-workplace-culture.html?_r=0" type="external">former employees Opens a New Window.</a> and the media alleging that Uber management fosters sexism, bias and bad behavior. The crisis escalated when an embarrassing <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-ceo-says-he-needs-leadership-help-after-video-shows-him-slamming-driver-1488347091?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fxml%2Frss%2F3_7014+%28WSJ.com%3A" type="external">video surfaced of Kalanick berating a driver Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In an email to employees on Tuesday, <a href="https://newsroom.uber.com/a-profound-apology/" type="external">Kalanick’s familiar defiance was gone Opens a New Window.</a>. It’s time to “fundamentally change as a leader and grow up,” he wrote. The question is, can he and will he? The answer is, that depends.</p>
<p>The good news, I suppose, is that Kalanick is in good company. Some of the most successful CEOs of our time – Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Andy Grove, to name a few – were not known for their empathy, to put it mildly. Behavioral change, however, takes more than acknowledgement that there’s a problem. It takes work. And it takes guidance.</p>
<p>To me, his and Uber’s issues do not appear to be existential or even out of the ordinary as alpha male executives running high-growth companies go. Uber’s corporate culture was actually modeled after that of <a href="" type="internal">another tech company that came under similar attack</a> a few years back: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).</p>
<p>Uber, though, finds itself in a very different competitive position than the retail giant. At $68 billion, it may be the most valuable startup in the world, but it still is a startup with intense competition from Lyft and now Google’s Waze unit. There’s also an active and growing #DeleteUber campaign.</p>
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<p>It bears mentioning that Silicon Valley is full of low EQ entrepreneurs that are so focused on achieving their vision that they deprioritize everything else. Their company cultures tend to be obsessed with winning and growth. And, for what it’s worth, their intention is never for employees to get trampled under the wheels of disruptive innovation.</p>
<p>Founders who find themselves in the kind of sticky situation that Kalanick is in, often turn to seasoned former executives as mentors to help them round out their rough edges. Probably the most successful executive coach in the Valley, at least in terms of helping young entrepreneurs become mature CEOs, was Bill Campbell.</p>
<p>A former head coach of Columbia University’s football team, Campbell worked at Kodak (NYSE:KODK) before Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO John Sculley tapped him to run marketing soon after the Cupertino company’s IPO. Campbell went on to run several tech companies, including Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), before deciding to focus on coaching as a way of giving back to the industry.</p>
<p>His first client, interestingly enough, was Amazon. In the late 90s, the board considered replacing founder Jeff Bezos with a more experienced executive, but one director, famed venture capitalist John Doerr, brought Campbell in to spend some time mentoring Bezos. You probably know the rest.</p>
<p>When Jobs returned to Apple in the NeXT acquisition, he talked Campbell into joining the board. From that point on, he was probably Jobs’ closest friend and confidante, helping to guide the company back from the brink of bankruptcy to become the most valuable corporation on Earth.</p>
<p>Doerr also brought Campbell to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), where the two convinced founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to work together with Eric Schmidt as CEO. At first, their styles clashed, but with some coaching by Campbell, they became the most successful management triumvirate in the history of Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, not every executive is coachable. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/postscript-bill-campbell-1940-2016" type="external">Google had a talented up-and-comer named Marissa Mayer Opens a New Window.</a>, but Campbell apparently found her to be lacking in empathy and resistant to coaching. That’s reportedly why Mayer never made it to senior vice president at the search giant, which ultimately led to her taking the <a href="" type="internal">CEO job at Yahoo</a>&#160;(NASDAQ:YHOO).</p>
<p>Sadly, the man who helped so many young entrepreneurs bridge the gap from brazen founder to mature CEO passed away in 2016, but he left behind a process. For leaders to change their behavior, they need to believe it’s necessary, they need a talented coach to guide them and they need to work hard. That’s now up to Kalanick and Uber’s board.</p> | Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's Leadership Problem | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/02/uber-ceo-travis-kalanicks-leadership-problem.html | 2017-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said Friday the preliminary autopsy results “have not indicated a clear cause of death” for Vanessa George, 25; her two daughters, Zoe Becenti, 4, and Chloe Becenti, 1; her sister, Leticia George, 20; and Leticia’s daughter, Haliegh Toledo, 3. Police had previously stated Haliegh was 1.</p>
<p>The women and children were reported missing from Albuquerque last week, and their bodies were discovered on a remote area of the Santa Ana Pueblo on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.</p>
<p>The family is from the Navajo Nation and officials with Santa Ana said they don’t have affiliation with the pueblo.</p>
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<p>Fisher said previously that investigators don’t believe they died from foul play by another party, but he would not clarify what that meant.</p>
<p>Family and friends of the two sisters and their daughters attend a candlelight vigil in Bernalillo, N.M., Friday. The five were found dead on Santa Ana Pueblo. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>On Friday evening, family and friends who had traveled to Albuquerque from Arizona, Colorado and around the state, gathered at El Zocalo visitor center in Bernalillo, just outside the pueblo, for a candlelight vigil for the sisters and their daughters.</p>
<p>About 50 people stood in a semicircle around a memorial of photos, flowers, stuffed animals and candles, with their heads bowed over the flickering flames in their hands.</p>
<p>Family members addressed the crowd in Navajo. A member of the Santa Ana Pueblo also addressed the crowd.</p>
<p>Vanessa and Leticia’s mother, Marietta George, clutched a framed photograph of her daughters and granddaughters, and a “Hello Kitty” baseball cap that Vanessa had liked.</p>
<p>The sisters’ cousin Tiffany Begay traveled to Albuquerque from Colorado with her husband and two daughters after she heard about what happened to the sisters.</p>
<p>Begay said she had talked to Vanessa the day before she disappeared and she had told her about wanting to move back to be with her mother in Red Valley, Ariz.</p>
<p>She said that, since the bodies were found, the family has struggled to make sense of what might have happened and everyone has a different theory.</p>
<p>“She didn’t say anything about going to Santa Ana,” Begay said. “How they were found doesn’t make sense. Why were they there? It’s just so confusing.”</p>
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<p /> | Candlelight vigil held for women, children, found dead at Santa Ana Pueblo | false | https://abqjournal.com/927648/candlelight-vigil-held-for-women-children-found-dead-at-santa-ana-pueblo.html | 2017-01-13 | 2 |
<p>TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The Latest on a pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways that ended with a crash at a Tempe intersection (all times local):</p>
<p>3:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Authorities have identified a driver who led state troopers on a 60-mile pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways that ended in a high-speed crash at a Tempe intersection.</p>
<p>Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say 31-year-old Mitchell Timothy Taebel was taken into custody Wednesday.</p>
<p>They say Taebel has an extensive criminal history in multiple states, but details weren’t immediately available and it was unclear if Taebel has an attorney yet.</p>
<p>After the SUV he was driving smashed into another vehicle and rolled, Taebel got out of the heavily damaged vehicle and was on a nearby sidewalk waving his arms and apparently yelling toward bystanders.</p>
<p>Troopers confronted him at gunpoint and tackled him.</p>
<p>10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>A slow-speed freeway pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways ended on a local street when a SUV being chased by state troopers accelerated through a Tempe intersection and collided with another vehicle before crashing.</p>
<p>Troopers swarmed the crashed SUV and arrested the driver. Meanwhile, other troopers went to the other vehicle involved in the crash Wednesday.</p>
<p>A person in the other vehicle was placed on a gurney and wheeled away.</p>
<p>Both vehicles involved in the crash were heavily damaged.</p>
<p>Before the SUV got off State Route 202 in Tempe, the pursuit across much of the metro area was at normal highway speed as about a dozen Highway Patrol cars followed at a distance.</p>
<p>TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The Latest on a pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways that ended with a crash at a Tempe intersection (all times local):</p>
<p>3:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Authorities have identified a driver who led state troopers on a 60-mile pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways that ended in a high-speed crash at a Tempe intersection.</p>
<p>Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say 31-year-old Mitchell Timothy Taebel was taken into custody Wednesday.</p>
<p>They say Taebel has an extensive criminal history in multiple states, but details weren’t immediately available and it was unclear if Taebel has an attorney yet.</p>
<p>After the SUV he was driving smashed into another vehicle and rolled, Taebel got out of the heavily damaged vehicle and was on a nearby sidewalk waving his arms and apparently yelling toward bystanders.</p>
<p>Troopers confronted him at gunpoint and tackled him.</p>
<p>10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>A slow-speed freeway pursuit on metro Phoenix freeways ended on a local street when a SUV being chased by state troopers accelerated through a Tempe intersection and collided with another vehicle before crashing.</p>
<p>Troopers swarmed the crashed SUV and arrested the driver. Meanwhile, other troopers went to the other vehicle involved in the crash Wednesday.</p>
<p>A person in the other vehicle was placed on a gurney and wheeled away.</p>
<p>Both vehicles involved in the crash were heavily damaged.</p>
<p>Before the SUV got off State Route 202 in Tempe, the pursuit across much of the metro area was at normal highway speed as about a dozen Highway Patrol cars followed at a distance.</p> | The Latest: Driver leads Arizona troopers on 60-mile pursuit | false | https://apnews.com/9636c80129484862be78c20ed1475db4 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
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<p>Apple is working on solutions that will help to improve the text input experience on its iOS devices.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fox-Business-Technology/190436904308381" type="external">Keep up with the latest technology news on the FOX Business Technology Facebook page. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>The Cupertino, California-based company has been discovered to be building an enhanced version of its autocorrect feature, the beginnings of which are currently hidden within the publicly available version of iOS 5, that adds suggested words above the iOS keyboard as users type. The functionality works much like the solutions currently found in Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, and it is viewed by many as a much-needed addition to Apple’s mobile OS.</p>
<p>IOS 5 brought with it a new notification system that combined elements from several other mobile platforms into one terrific solution. The result was welcomed by iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users with open arms, as many had viewed Apple’s previous notifications solution as one of the weakest areas of the iOS UX. We can definitely be counted among users who absolutely hated Apple’s previous notifications system.</p>
<p>With the notification pain point behind us, autocorrect remains as one of the biggest gripes among iOS users. It changes words to names pulled from a user’s address book when it shouldn’t. It also changes words like “yo” to “to” and “if” to “of” constantly, failing to properly utilize learning capabilities. Apple’s iOS autocorrect system does offer a keyboard shortcut feature that can help alleviate some issues, but it almost never works when you need it to. Autocorrect in iOS is so bad that a number of websites have popped up that are dedicated to sharing instances of autocorrect embarrassment.</p>
<p>IOS developer Sonny Dickson recently discovered the feature pictured above, however. Buried in the iOS 5 code and accessible using a quick hack, a new word suggestion bar appears above the iOS keyboard once the feature is enabled. Dickson calls the feature “an Android-like autocorrect keyboard bar” in a post on his personal blog, and he also details steps that users can take to enable the new suggestion bar with no jailbreak required.</p>
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<p>While this Android-like suggestion bar is a good start, it is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for Apple. As shockingly intelligent as Siri is, iOS text input sits on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. “It just works,” is a mantra Apple loves to apply to its products, and we hope we can safely use the phrase when referring to iOS text input some time in the near future.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/09/atts-planned-t-mobile-merger-will-create-96000-jobs-cwa-says/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR: - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/10/t-mobile-usa-revenue-slips-contract-customers-continue-to-flee-in-q3/" type="external">T-Mobile USA revenues slip, contract customers continue to flee in Q3 Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/10/kindle-fire-could-be-hotter-than-ipad-this-holiday-season-study-finds/" type="external">Kindle Fire could be hotter than iPad this holiday season, study finds Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/10/amazon-ups-kindle-fire-orders-on-strong-demand/" type="external">Amazon ups Kindle Fire orders on strong demand Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Apple Trying to Make iOS Autocorrect Less Horrible | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/11/09/apple-trying-to-make-ios-autocorrect-less-horrible.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
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<p>This is what you get under sharia law.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3377187/Screaming-agony-woman-caned-crowd-close-proximity-man-not-married-Indonesian-region-s-sharia-law.html" type="external">UK Daily Mail</a> reported that a woman collapsed and had to be taken to a hospital after receiving five lashes for the heinous crime of being “seen in close proximity” to a man she was not married to.</p>
<p>The Daily Mail added:</p>
<p>Nur Elita was marched to the yard of Baiturrahumim Mosque in Banda Aceh for violating the region’s strict Sharia laws, after she allegedly showed affectionate behaviour to a fellow university student.</p>
<p>Under the law men and women, who are not spouses, are not allowed to get too close due to the ‘khalwat’ offence and punishment is by public caning.</p>
<p>Hundreds came out to see her get beat, the report adds.</p>
<p>The woman was forced to kneel as a masked man — brave, right? — beat her on the back and shoulders.&#160; Afterwards, she was on the floor, doubled over in pain.&#160; The crowd cheered her beating.</p>
<p>The man she was seen with was also beaten, but was forced to stand for his punishment.</p>
<p>“Take these punishments as a lesson. What has been done by these convicts should not be taken as example,” said Zainal Arifin, the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh.&#160; “And I hope their canings today will be the last ever.”</p>
<p>And to think there are some who <a href="" type="internal">want sharia law in the United States</a>…</p>
<p>Here’s a video report, courtesy of the Daily Mail.</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a> page, please go <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a> and do so.</p> | Woman, man caned under sharia law for being ‘seen in close proximity’ to each other | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/woman-man-caned-under-sharia-law-for-being-seen-in-close-proximity-to-each-other/ | 2015-12-30 | 0 |
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<p>After listening to our flight attendant—a former auctioneer from Dallas—rattle off emergency escape instructions in double time and then tell jokes about her co-workers for the entire flight (one was a former Miss Dallas, the other Southwest’s steward of the year), I arrived in Austin, Texas, in high spirits.</p>
<p>I’m here to cover SXSW, Austin’s ginormous film-music-interactive festival that draws (last I heard) about 10,000 folks from around the country (and abroad) to the Texas capitol.</p>
<p>Before I start really digging into things here in Austin, a few quick observations:</p>
<p>1. Bars serve beer until 2 a.m. in Austin. Not 1:30, not 1:45, but 2 a.m. 2. The two people sitting on either side of me on my flight into Austin talked about the Eliot Spitzer scandal a lot. No one I’ve met so far at SXSW seems to care. 3. I’ve seen 3 Ron Paul bumper stickers so far. 4. Lou Reed is a very funny man (more on that later). 5. I’m surrounded by a lot of other white dudes in their 20s and 30s wearing plaid shirts, jeans, and Vans; and it’s kind of bugging me out. Yikes.</p>
<p>—Gary Moskowitz</p>
<p /> | The SXSW Slog Begins | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/sxsw-slog-begins/ | 2008-03-13 | 4 |
<p>An image of President Obama enjoying a last long drag on a cigarette is being used in a new campaign in Moscow to encourage Russians to give up smoking. The message: Both tobacco and the American president can kill you.</p>
<p>Although Mr. Obama has famously struggled to kick the nicotine habit, the image is actually Photoshopped, showing a wisp of smoke curling up from the cigarette as the president stares off into the middle distance. And the message of the public-service ads is considerably darker than just that smoking is bad for you, according to a report in the English-language Moscow Times.</p>
<p>“Smoking kills more people than Obama, although Obama kills a lot of people,” the poster’s ad copy reads. “Don’t smoke. Don’t be like Obama.”</p>
<p>The Moscow Times report notes that, in a time of rising U.S.-Russian tensions, Mr. Obama has been the target of other unflattering ad campaigns. A large Russian supermarket chain was forced to issue a public apology after it marketed a new chopping board depicting the president as a chimpanzee.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2016/feb/16/obama-stars-poster-child-russian-anti-smoking-ads/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Obama stars as poster child for Russian anti-smoking ads | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/16/obama-stars-poster-child-russian-anti-smoking-ads/ | 2016-02-16 | 0 |
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<p>This <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/news/cigarette-warnings-counterproductive-1485" type="external">story</a> first appeared at the <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/" type="external">Miller-McCune</a> website.</p>
<p>In June, President Obama <a href="http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2009/06/president-obama-signs-bill-for-fda-to.html" type="external">signed</a> a law requiring tobacco companies to post large, graphic warnings on cigarette packs. Current cautionary statements such as “Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema” and “Smoking is dangerous to your health” will gradually be replaced with more ominous assertions, including “Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease,” “Cigarettes cause cancer” and the refreshingly blunt “Smoking can kill you.”</p>
<p>But regulators may want to rethink this ashes-to-ashes theme. New <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&amp;_udi=B6WJB-4X85FG8-3&amp;_user=10&amp;_coverDate=09%2F18%2F2009&amp;_rdoc=1&amp;_fmt=&amp;_orig=search&amp;_sort=d&amp;_docanchor=&amp;view=c&amp;_acct=C000050221&amp;_version=1&amp;_urlVersion=0&amp;_userid=10&amp;md5=1fef84a88a7b09fbe7450693f1bd3cec" type="external">research</a> suggests that, for a certain set of smokers, those allusions to death may actually increase the likelihood they’ll light up.</p>
<p>That’s the conclusion of a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, which questions the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns that emphasize mortality threats. The researchers, led by psychologist Jochim Hansen of New York University and the University of Basel, suggest a campaign that dispels the belief smoking makes one cool or attractive could be more effective in getting at least some smokers to quit.</p>
<p>Hansen and his colleagues looked at cigarette pack warnings from the perspective of <a href="http://www.tmt.missouri.edu/" type="external">Terror Management Theory</a>, which was developed in the mid-1980s by psychologists <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/about/profile/819" type="external">Tom Pyszczynski</a>, Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon. It contends that our awareness of our own deaths creates the potential for extreme anxiety, which we keep at bay by reaffirming faith in our belief systems (which give our lives a sense of meaning) and maintaining a high level of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19379037?ordinalpos=1&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&amp;linkpos=1&amp;log%24=relatedarticles&amp;logdbfrom=pubmed" type="external">self-esteem</a>.</p>
<p>Reasonably enough, the researchers assert that for some people, smoking is a facet of their positive self-image. They consider the habit sexy or attractive, or perhaps a proud example of their rebellious spirit.</p>
<p>For those individuals, terror management theory suggests mortality-laced warning labels could be counterproductive. The threat to one’s life would presumably result in an urge to pump up one’s self-esteem—which, for those individuals, could easily mean a renewed commitment to smoking.</p>
<p>To test this concept, the researchers conducted a study of 39 smokers, ranging in age from 17 to 41. Participants filled out a questionnaire designed to measure the degree to which they base their self-esteem on smoking. They then were presented illustrations of a cigarette pack containing a warning message.</p>
<p>Half of them read warnings that spoke of the life-threatening consequences of smoking, such as “Smoking leads to deadly lung cancer.” The other half read warnings that did not involve mortality, such as “Smoking makes you unattractive.”</p>
<p>Following a 15-minute delay in which participants answered questions unrelated to smoking (so that the warning messages would leave their conscious minds), they answered a final set of questions including “Do you enjoy smoking?” “How important is smoking to you?” and “Are you going to smoke a cigarette directly after this study?”</p>
<p>The researchers found that, among those who associated smoking with self-esteem, the death-related warnings actually led to more positive attitudes toward cigarette use. They concluded the smokers clung more tightly to their habit as “a strategy to buffer against existential fears provoked by death-related warning messages.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, for these same people, the non-death-related warnings had a dampening effect on attitudes toward smoking. Warnings that smoking makes one less attractive “may be particularly threatening to people who believe the opposite,” they report.</p>
<p>The researchers admit it is impossible to know what percentage of smokers tie their self-esteem to the health-impairing habit. Thus, for the population at large, “it is difficult to predict whether a death-related or a death-unrelated warning message would be more effective,” they write.</p>
<p>“Yet one could speculate that certain populations base their self-esteem on smoking to a higher degree than others—for instance, young smokers who want to impress their peers,” they add. “If this turns out to be true, a consequence of our findings would be that such populations should be warned against noxious consequences of smoking with death-neutral messages.”</p>
<p>So those unfiltered warnings that are on the way may be counterproductive with the group the government is trying hardest to target: young smokers.&#160;Like&#160;previous research&#160;on the <a href="../../../mediator/graphic-anti-meth-ads-ineffective-892" type="external">Montana Meth Project</a>, the study&#160;is a reminder that death threats will capture people’s attention, but how they impact behavior is a much more complicated question.</p>
<p /> | Warning: Ominous Messages on Cigarette Packs May be Counterproductive | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/warning-ominous-messages-cigarette-packs-may-be-counterproductive/ | 2009-09-25 | 4 |
<p>On Tuesday evening, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) unleashed one of the more bizarre tweets in Congressional history: a picture of herself standing alongside former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deputy director Leanne English, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) with the royalist caption, “Incredibly thankful for the determination of Leandra English, the rightful Acting Director of <a href="https://twitter.com/CFPB" type="external">@CFPB</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefendCFPB?src=hash" type="external">#DefendCFPB</a>.”</p>
<p>The tweet smacks of Game of Thrones or the restoration of Charles II to the British throne. Nancy Pelosi would throw out the Usurper Mulvaney and make way for the rightful heir, Leanne English, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Bureaucrats.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Pelosi, English isn’t the rightful acting director of the agency, as a federal court found last night. She was installed inappropriately by the outgoing partisan hack director, Richard Cordray, and replaced by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, at the legal behest of the President of the United States.</p>
<p>But Democrats don’t think the Constitution applies to Democrats. So long as they can maintain power through whatever means necessary, they’re happy to do so. Fortunately, the revolution is over, and the English lost.</p> | FAKE NEWS: Pelosi Unleashes Bizarre Tweet Defending 'The Rightful Acting Director of CFPB' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/24091/fake-news-pelosi-unleashes-bizarre-tweet-defending-ben-shapiro | 2017-11-29 | 0 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The head of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcasters, phone and cable companies, says he will step down in January as President-elect Donald Trump takes office.</p>
<p>That will leave a 2-1 Republican majority at the commission, which next year is likely to start paring back or overturning the measures that Chairman Tom Wheeler pushed through in his three years at the FCC.</p>
<p>The former cable- and wireless-industry lobbyist championed policies that were intended to protect consumers and that rankled the phone and cable industries, including new “net neutrality” rules that prevent internet service providers from favoring their own sites and consumer online-privacy rules.</p>
<p>It’s typical for the FCC chairman to leave with a new administration, but there had been speculation that Wheeler might stay on. The agency is led by four commissioners and a chairman, and Wheeler could have stepped down as chairman and stayed as a commissioner. Trump will choose a new chairman.</p>
<p>“Serving as FCC chairman during this period of historic technological change has been the greatest honor of my professional life,” Wheeler said in a statement Thursday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | FCC Chairman Wheeler to resign on Inauguration Day | false | https://abqjournal.com/909572/fcc-chairman-wheeler-to-resign-on-inauguration-day.html | 2016-12-15 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 14 Nov, 2017 04:50Edited time: 14 Nov, 2017 04:51</p>
<p>Authorities in the Mexican state of Sonora, bordering the US, have captured a van-mounted bazooka-like cannon used to propel packages of drugs across the border.</p>
<p>The Mexican Attorney General’s Office Sonora branch seized the ingenuous contraption in a joint operation with military personnel near the town of Agua Prieta, right across the border from Douglas, Arizona. The improvised artillery piece consisted of a huge steel pipe, taking up most of the space in the back of a minivan, and an air compressor used to propel bundles of drugs across the border into US territory.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/377486-marijuana-catapult-border-patrol/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Some ‘ammunition’ for the gun was captured as well, amounting to over 825 kilograms (1,800 pounds) of marijuana, as well as about 2,000 bullets for more conventional firearms of various caliber. None of the criminals that operated the drug-launching machine were arrested in the operation.</p>
<p>Mexican smugglers have resorted to a number of inventive ways to deliver illegal drug packages into the US. In September 2016, another air cannon, with a 10-foot (about 3-meter) pipe mounted on a van with a specially-cut hole in its roof was seized in Agua Prieta. That launcher had the capacity to send bundles weighing about 27kg (60lbs) flying across the border fence.</p>
<p>Other intricate methods employed by smugglers over the years have included secret tunnels, light aircraft and medieval-style catapults, not to mention stuffing drugs in innocuous-looking things like watermelons, wheelchairs and even breast implants.</p> | Huge marijuana cannon for launching drugs across border seized in Mexico | false | https://newsline.com/huge-marijuana-cannon-for-launching-drugs-across-border-seized-in-mexico/ | 2017-11-14 | 1 |
<p>At this point, if anyone still believes that progressive proposals for health insurance reform contain ominous "death panels" designed to kill their grandparents, I have a bridge to sell them in Arizona. Fear not, my conservative friends: The bridge connects a tea bag <a href="/research/2009/04/10/warning-this-tea-may-cause-severe-damage-to-jou/149068" type="external">manufacturing</a> plant with a <a href="/research/2009/04/16/fox-news-militia-media-mainstreaming-the-fringe/149227" type="external">militia</a> training camp stuck in the 1990s, so you should feel right at home.</p>
<p>The "death panel" smear goes something like this: President Obama and his comrades in Congress are hell-bent on instituting mandatory end-of-life counseling sessions for American seniors as part of their socialist takeover of the health insurance industry. They will choose who gets to live and who will die. You know, <a href="/blog/2009/08/04/liddy-reads-buchanan-column-connecting-health-c/152876" type="external">just</a> <a href="/video/2009/08/06/limbaugh-the-obama-health-care-logo-is-damn-clo/152976" type="external">like</a> <a href="/video/2009/08/06/limbaugh-discusses-the-similarities-between-the/152982" type="external">Adolf</a> <a href="/blog/2009/08/07/simon-wiesenthal-center-preposterous-to-link-ob/153033" type="external">Hitler</a> <a href="/blog/2009/08/07/rush-limbaughs-obsession-with-nazi-comparisons/153042" type="external">and</a> <a href="/research/2009/08/13/conservative-media-ignore-their-own-long-histor/153313" type="external">the</a> <a href="/research/2009/08/17/wash-times-defends-fact-based-editorials-compar/153403" type="external">Nazis</a> <a href="/video/2009/08/19/limbaugh-nazi-sign-question-fabulous-barney-fra/153507" type="external">did</a> in Germany.</p>
<p>To date, the media have <a href="/research/2009/08/15/report-the-media-have-debunked-the-death-panels/153367" type="external">debunked</a> the "kill granny" lie more than 40 times. The nonpartisan FactCheck.org <a href="http://factcheck.org/2009/08/seven-falsehoods-about-health-care/" type="external">says</a> the claim of mandatory counseling on ending seniors' lives is "a misrepresentation." ABC's chief medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, <a href="/video/2009/08/13/abc-news-johnson-debunks-death-panel-abortion-f/153267" type="external">said</a> "the idea about death panels" is "not at all legitimate." PolitiFact.com has <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/23/betsy-mccaughey/mccaughey-claims-end-life-counseling-will-be-requi/" type="external">called</a> "death panel" claims "a ridiculous falsehood." When the Associated Press conducted a fact check of the bogus charge, it <a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090811/D9A0HFQO0.html" type="external">reported</a>, "No 'death panel in health care bill.' "</p>
<p>After former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/palin-obamas-death-panel-could-kill-my-down-syndrome-baby.php?ref=fpblg" type="external">claimed</a> that "Obama's 'death panel' " could decide the fate of her parents or her son who has Down syndrome, conservative radio host Larry Elder aptly <a href="/research/2009/08/10/fox-news-personalities-advance-palins-death-pan/153138#08140902" type="external">called</a> her comments "over the top."</p>
<p>Having been called on the carpet repeatedly for their "death panel" claims, other media conservatives like ABC's John Stossel and Fox News' Glenn Beck have taken a new approach. Many now <a href="/research/2009/08/19/after-repeated-debunkings-of-death-panels-conse/153542" type="external">claim</a> that while proposals for health insurance reform may not actually force seniors into end-of-life counseling, they will result in "de facto death panels" via the government's rationing of care. Seriously.</p>
<p>The <a href="/research/2009/08/20/myths-and-falsehoods-about-health-care-reform/153565" type="external">dubious right-wing spin</a> surrounding health insurance reform is a bit like that bad cough that just won't go away -- persistent and annoying.</p>
<p>Despite the coverage allotted to debunking the right-wing "death panel" smear, the bigger picture remains intact. Americans face real death panels from their own health insurance providers. Rather than simply debunking the right's false talking point, the media should have gone one step further and pointed out that health insurance companies make life-and-death decisions every day when they decide what they are willing and not willing to cover.</p>
<p>Largely lost in the media discussion surrounding health insurance reform is the reality of the status quo -- you know, why we need reform in the first place.</p>
<p>Back in June, the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS ignored a congressional <a href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=1671:energy-and-commerce-subcommittee-hearing-on-terminations-of-individual-health-policies-by-insurance-companies-&amp;catid=133:subcommittee-on-oversight-and-investigations&amp;Itemid=7" type="external">hearing</a> on insurance companies' practice of investigating the medical histories of people who become ill and submit claims for expensive treatments, and then rejecting those claims on the grounds that those individuals had pre-existing conditions. The goal is quite simple. Find something -- anything -- and cancel or deny coverage for needed, potentially life-saving treatment. Why save a life when you can save a buck?</p>
<p><a href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090616/testimony_beaton.pdf" type="external">Robin Beaton</a>, a former policyholder, testified in the hearing that she had been subject to this very practice. A retired registered nurse, Beaton's dermatologist had mistakenly indicated that she may have been suffering from a pre-cancerous skin condition. Soon after, she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. A few days before her scheduled double mastectomy, Blue Cross launched an investigation into her health records going back five years, convinced she was hiding a serious pre-existing condition.</p>
<p>Many Americans have stories just like Beaton's. Congress ultimately <a href="/research/2009/07/24/conservative-media-ignore-reality-in-invoking-r/152442#080309" type="external">concluded</a> that three major American insurance companies rescinded 19,776 policies for over $300 million in savings over five years, a number that Wendell Potter, a former senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company, said "significantly undercounts the total number of rescissions" by the companies.</p>
<p>It's not to say that the media ignore all stories like Beaton's; they don't. The modern media are in the drama business. Too often, media of all stripes characterize this important policy debate as a "he said, she said" over the government's role in health care, something that conservatives no doubt relish, and in the process, they fail to paint a picture of the way things currently exist.</p>
<p>This practice plays not only with the health of too many Americans, but with the health of modern journalism as well. We can hardly solve this crisis if we aren't being told the whole story.</p>
<p>Death panels are real. They do exist. Your own insurance provider could be in on it. And it's time the media said so.</p>
<p>Karl Frisch is a senior fellow at <a href="" type="internal">Media Matters for America</a>, a progressive media watchdog and research and information center based in Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to <a href="/blog/" type="external">County Fair</a>, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on <a href="http://twitter.com/karlfrisch" type="external">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/karl.v.frisch" type="external">Facebook</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/karlfrisch" type="external">YouTube</a>, or <a href="/u/login" type="external">sign up</a> to receive his columns by email.</p> | Those "death panels" really do exist | true | http://mediamatters.org/columns/200908200036 | 2009-08-20 | 4 |
<p>Colombian families whose relatives were massacred by paramilitaries cannot sue the Chiquita Brands fruit company in federal court, the 11th Circuit United States Court of Appeals <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/29/chiquita.pdf" type="external">ruled</a> last week. The victims charged that Chiquita was responsible for the deaths by funding a right-wing paramilitary group.</p>
<p>A panel of judges decided the victims did not have standing in U.S. court, even though the North Carolina-based banana giant pled guilty to U.S. criminal charges in 2007. The victims were claiming potentially billions of dollars in damages from the company.</p>
<p>The ruling was a big victory for the banana giant — and for the rights of American companies to finance international terrorism.</p>
<p>In a general statement sent to ThinkProgress, a Chiquita spokesman said, “Chiquita has long maintained that these cases do not belong in the U.S. courts and that the claims should be dismissed. We are gratified that the U.S. Court of Appeals has now agreed with us.”</p>
<p>As for the families whose loved ones were murdered, Chiquita says it has “great sympathy for the Colombians who suffered at the hands of these Colombian armed groups” but asserts “the responsibility for the violent crimes committed in that country belongs to the perpetrators, not the innocent people and companies they extorted.”</p>
<p>The perpetrators, in this case, are the United Auto-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the paramilitary umbrella group responsible for the most heinous human rights atrocities committed over the course of Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict.</p>
<p>By its own account, Chiquita made at least 100 payments — $1.7 million in total — to the AUC between 1997 and 2004. In the decade prior to that, the company had maintained a similar arrangement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nominally leftist rebel group chased out of the region by the combined (and coordinated) efforts of the AUC and Colombian military.</p>
<p>During that period, Colombia’s banana-growing region became the key battleground in the armed conflict, which had already degenerated into “by far the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the Western Hemisphere,” in the words of then-UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland. <a href="http://www.verdadabierta.com/victimas-seccion/asesinatos-colectivos/859-ni-las-balas-acabaron-con-sintrainagro" type="external">Civilian populations</a> throughout the Uraba region — and journalists, <a href="http://www.ens.org.co/aa/img_upload/45bdec76fa6b8848acf029430d10bb5a/cuaderno_19.pdf" type="external">labor organizers</a>, human rights advocates, community leaders, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Ghosts-Guerrilla-Politics-Colombia/dp/041593303X" type="external">left-leaning politicians</a>, in particular — were targeted as part of a crude but effective paramilitary total war.</p>
<p>Between 1997 and 2004, 3,778 people were murdered in Uraba, with an additional 60,000 forced into what is now the <a href="http://colombiareports.co/5-7-million-internally-displaced-colombians-idcm-report/" type="external">second-largest</a> internally displaced population in the world. Between 1991 and 2006, 668 unionists were killed from the main banana-workers union alone, according to the National Union School.</p>
<p>If the testimony of several former high-level paramilitaries can be believed, Chiquita played an integral role in the formation of Uraba’s so-called <a href="http://www.verdadabierta.com/tierras/despojo-de-tierras/4260-la-empresa-criminal-para-despojar-tierras" type="external">Quintuple Alliance</a>, a sprawling conspiracy made up of politicians and public servants, large landowners and business interests, military officials, paramilitaries, and narcotraffickers. This would at least partly explain why, <a href="http://www.verdadabierta.com/justicia-y-paz/juicios/604-bloque-elmer-cardenas/4871-tribunal-de-justicia-y-paz-pide-que-se-investigue-a-banadex-sa" type="external">in 2001</a>, some 3,400 AK-47 assault rifles sent to the AUC from <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/25/the_iran_contra_scandal_25_years_later/" type="external">Nicaragua</a>n trafficking partners were unloaded by a Chiquita subsidiary on a Chiquita dock, the same dock where a company official had recently paid $30,000 in <a href="http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/sites/dlib.nyu.edu.undercover/files/documents/uploads/editors/power-money-control.pdf" type="external">bribe</a> money to Colombian customs officials.</p>
<p>In its 2007 <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB340/20070313_sentencing_memo.pdf" type="external">settlement</a> with the Justice Department, Chiquita assured it never received “any actual security services or actual security equipment in exchange for the [AUC] payments.” Instead, the company says it paid the AUC out of concern for its employees — something it was not generally inclined to express through things like wage increases, favorable labor conditions, or a pesticide-free work environment, according to former members of the banana-workers union.</p>
<p>The invaluable National Security Archive has since released <a href="about:invalid#zSoyz" type="external">[AS2]</a>over 5,500 pages of internal company communications and legal findings indicating that, at the very least, Chiquita was aware that the payments could be breaking the law. Chiquita’s own legal counsel had warned, for instance, that any indirect benefits received from the payments, regardless of intent or knowledge, would be enough to expose the company to criminal liability and that any extortion exemption would be nullified by the repeated nature of the transactions.</p>
<p>Chiquita’s “sensitive payments” continued for two years after the AUC was officially labeled a “foreign terrorist organization” by the State Department in 2001 and for another 10 months after the company entered into talks with the Justice Department, the same time it claims to have become aware of the designation. (Of the $1.7 million total the company reportedly paid to the AUC, <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_161.html" type="external">$300,000</a> was sent following the start of negotiations with the Justice Department.)</p>
<p>The company, having knowingly and repeatedly approved transactions its own lawyers were flagging, also went to great lengths to disguise the payments, using special vocabulary in company accounting records and various intermediaries on the ground in Colombia, including elements of the alleged Quintuple Alliance.</p>
<p>Signed in 2007, the Justice Department agreement required Chiquita to pay $25 million in fines for having financed terrorism, $15 million less than the company reaped selling its Colombian subsidiary, its most profitable holding at the time. None of the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/04/27/story1.html?page=all" type="external">dozen high-level officials</a>who approved the payments has been prosecuted since. Nor have any reparations been paid to the victims, over 2,000 of whom have joined in seeking multi-billion-dollar damages against the company.</p>
<p>“We’re pitching it to the middle,” said Terry Collingsworth, one of the chief litigators for the Chiquita victims, in an interview with ThinkProgress. “Not only did they know, but they benefited from it.”</p>
<p>In the past decade, Collingsworth has brought similar suits against <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/24/marketingandpr.colombia" type="external">Coca Cola</a>, <a href="http://www.verdadabierta.com/lideres-de-tierras/1270-dole-tambien-financio-paramilitares-en-colombia-segun-demanda-semanacom" type="external">Dole Fruits</a>, and <a href="http://colombiareports.co/drummond-glencore-blood-coal/" type="external">the Drummond Company</a> — all also accused of paramilitary ties in northern Colombia — using an obscure piece of 18th-century anti-piracy legislation to “give teeth to international human rights law in the U.S. legal system.”</p>
<p>The precedence at stake is potentially enormous, once you consider the <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/" type="external">track</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bananas-United-Fruit-Company-Shaped/dp/1841958816?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1208555120&amp;sr=1-1" type="external">record</a> multinationals like <a href="http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/75717.html" type="external">Chiquita</a> have been dragging around for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html?_r=1&amp;" type="external">years</a> now. But the Chiquita suit, to date, has been decided not on the question of individual merit, but rather on what appears to be a radical ideological <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041702859.html" type="external">opposition</a> to the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/13/agenda-21-the-un-conspiracy-that-just-won-t-die.html" type="external">legitimacy</a> of international human rights law in the first place.</p>
<p>Building on a recent Samuel Alito-Clarence Thomas <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/kiobel-v-royal-dutch-petroleum/" type="external">concurrence</a> so extreme not even Antonin Scalia would sign onto it, Justice David Sentele, a Reagan appointee sitting in on the 11th Circuit, <a href="http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/12-14898/12-14898-2014-07-24.html" type="external">ruled</a> that the Chiquita suit lacked jurisdiction on its face, because “all the relevant conduct […] took place outside of the United States.”</p>
<p>“This opinion is shockingly negligent in terms of just actually dealing with the facts and dealing with the issues,” said Collingsworth, who is confident the decision will be overturned on review or appeal. “It’s almost flippant in terms of just gleefully throwing the case out.”</p> | How Chiquita Bananas Undermined The Global War On Terror | true | http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/02/3466915/chiquita-colombia-ruling/ | 2014-08-02 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Interest rates on home mortgages rose last week to hit their highest level in over a year, sapping demand from potential homeowners, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Rates climbed 2 basis points to average 4.17 in the week ended June 14, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It was the highest level since March of last year.</p>
<p>After hovering around record lows, rates have surged for six weeks in a row, pushed higher by worries that the Federal Reserve could slow its stimulus program sooner than had been expected. Rates have accelerated by 58 basis points since the start of May.</p>
<p>The Fed's bond purchases have kept borrowing rates, including mortgages, low. Though mortgage rates remain low by historical standards, the ultra-cheap mortgages have helped lure buyers back into the market and worries have crept in that higher rates could disrupt the still-young housing recovery.</p>
<p>The rise in rates appeared to hold back homebuyers as MBA's seasonally adjusted index of loan requests for home purchases - a leading indicator of home sales - fell 3 percent.</p>
<p>The gauge of refinancing applications slipped 3.4 percent, though the refinance share of total mortgage activity held steady at 69 percent of applications.</p>
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<p>The overall index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, declined 3.3 percent.</p>
<p>The survey covers over 75 percent of retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/partners/funnel/mortgage-rates.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Compare mortgage rates in your area. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Diane Craft)</p> | Mortgage Applications Skid as Interest Rates Jump | true | http://foxbusiness.com/news/2013/06/19/mortgage-applications-tumble-as-rates-rise-further-mba.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>The love of bluegrass and old-time music combined with the appreciation of New Mexico music and Mexican music is all part of the Santa Fe Traditional Music Festival.</p>
<p>The event, which runs tonight through Sunday at Camp Stoney, just outside Santa Fe, features workshops and performances from about 25 bands. Genres include bluegrass, old-time, Americana, honky-tonk, Balkan singing, mariachi, New Mexico music and a range of folk subgenres, including eclectic, cosmic, traditional and world.</p>
<p>“We have four venues,” said Ron Hale, chairman of the festival planning group. “We’re doing it at Camp Stoney, which is a church-related camp, 10 miles outside of Santa Fe. It’s on the edge of the national forest, and it’s a beautiful location, and they have several buildings that we’ll be using. There’s the main stage that will have the main performances, actually two stages that will have performances and then there’s a couple of others that will have primarily workshops.”</p>
<p>The event opens tonight with Mariachi Buenaventura, Bluegrass Collective with Jean-Luc Leroux and the Fast Peso String Band. Saturday is filled with a number of performances beginning at 10 a.m. with the ATC String Band and wrapping up with Albuquerque’s bluegrass band, Squash Blossom Boys, at 9 p.m. on the Paige Stage and starting at 10:30 a.m. with East Mountains singer-songwriters, Blue Moon, and ending at 4:30 p.m. with Albuquerque’s Americana folk band, The Kipsies, on the Barn Stage. The Gazebo will feature a variety of workshops from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. including banjo, dulcimer jam, ukulele, guitar and mandolin.</p>
<p>Sunday wraps up the event with gospel performances.</p>
<p>The Santa Fe Traditional Music Festival is an outgrowth of a previous festival called the Santa Fe Banjo and Fiddle Contest, which was started 43 years ago. The event was taken over by Southwest Pickers and renamed the Santa Fe Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival. Hale and a group banded together to present a festival again.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | String fever: Festival features bluegrass, old-time and New Mexico music | false | https://abqjournal.com/1052365/string-fever-3.html | 2 |
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<p>New Mexico Human Services Secretary Brent Earnest told The Associated Press that his department decided to delay implementation of the requirements and make some changes in response to concerns voiced during recent public meetings.</p>
<p>The final rules will be published Friday, and Earnest said the delay in implementation will give the state and the 60,000 recipients who stand to be affected more time to prepare.</p>
<p>"This is really about helping people build the skills they need to become more self-sufficient, move off of the public assistance programs and move back into regular employment either by getting a job or improving their earnings on the job," he said. "That's the focus of this. It's not about kicking people off the program."</p>
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<p>Social service advocates have argued that many people stand to lose their benefits because there aren't enough jobs or meaningful training opportunities in the poverty-stricken state.</p>
<p>They have also criticized the state's work program as a one-size-fits-all approach with no individual assessments for prospective workers.</p>
<p>Earnest said those concerns were heard and the state will be working with its contractor to ensure there are assessments that will look at what skills people need to develop in order to find work or what barriers might exist.</p>
<p>Another focus will be ensuring that the contractor has the right connections with employers and community service agencies, Earnest said.</p>
<p>"Really it's about building out a more robust list of places people can go and gain the skills they need," he said.</p>
<p>The requirements will be phased in starting Jan. 1 for adults without children. Those recipients with children under the age of 13 will be exempt, and those with children who don't qualify for an exemption will have to meet the requirements starting Oct. 1, 2016, seven months later than initially proposed.</p>
<p>For adults with children, the state also raised the age limit from 6 to 13, acknowledging that some families had concerns about child care costs.</p>
<p>New Mexico and other states have been moving toward reinstating work and job-training requirements for some food stamp recipients since federal officials warned that few states would be eligible for extensions of waivers that have been in place since the economy took a dive in 2009.</p>
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<p>Kansas, Oklahoma and Utah reinstated work requirements last year. Ohio, New York, Texas and Wisconsin all waived the work requirements for only part of the year or in certain areas of their states.</p>
<p>In New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez's administration first proposed reinstating work requirements last fall. A legal challenge followed, and the state dropped the effort.</p>
<p>The proposal was introduced again in May and more criticism followed.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Center for Law and Poverty and other groups had asked the state not to impose the new rules until there was evidence that the training and job placement programs were working.</p>
<p>Food-stamp benefits topped more than $675 million in New Mexico for the last fiscal year, a $40 million increase from the previous year. Enrollment also has ballooned to about 497,000 recipients.</p>
<p>While enrollment is expected to start leveling out, state officials say the work requirements will not be a big factor in estimating future enrollment.</p>
<p>About 12 percent of food stamp recipients in New Mexico - rather than the initial 15 percent - will be affected by the new rules, state officials said.</p> | NM delays new work rules for food stamps | false | https://abqjournal.com/634044/nm-delays-new-work-rules-for-food-stamps.html | 2 |
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<p>Firefighters work at the at the scene of an explosion at a three-story building in the Borough Park neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro says the explosion apparently happened after a stove was disconnected. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)</p>
<p>NEW YORK - Firefighters searched through rubble Monday for a missing resident and for clues into the cause of an apartment building explosion, which killed one tenant and injured three passers-by.</p>
<p>The Fire Department of New York said firefighters were combing through debris Monday in Brooklyn. A police dog also has been searching for any sign of the woman.</p>
<p>Authorities say 47-year-old Francesca Figueroa was apparently moving out of the second floor during the blast Saturday. Her sister, Nicura, told reporters her sister was missing.</p>
<p>"She's disappeared. I don't know. Nobody's found my sister," the sister told the Daily News of New York. "They haven't found her."</p>
<p>It's not clear whether Francesca Figueroa was at the building when it exploded. Authorities say the blast happened after a stove was removed from a gas line that may not have been properly disconnected. Nicura Figueroa told reporters her sister was cleaning out her apartment because her landlord pressured her to move, though it wasn't clear why.</p>
<p>"They wanted her to get out," Figueroa told the newspaper.</p>
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<p>Messages left with the number believed to belong to the landlord were not returned.</p>
<p>City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said firefighters received a call at around 1 p.m. Saturday reporting an explosion at a building in the Borough Park neighborhood. When emergency crews arrived, they found the entire front of the three-story building blown into the street. The fire commissioner said no one had reported smelling gas in the area.</p>
<p>The deceased tenant, Ligia Puello, was a native of the Dominican Republic. She lived in a third-floor apartment with her daughter, who was away at the time.</p>
<p>Her body was discovered in a stairwell near the second floor, close to the apartment where the explosion started, officials said.</p>
<p>Three people walking by the building were hit by debris. Ten firefighters had minor injuries.</p> | NYC firefighters hunt for woman missing since building blast | false | https://abqjournal.com/654806/nyc-firefighters-hunt-for-woman-missing-since-building-blast.html | 2 |
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<p>Black Friday will always be a frenzy of bargains, but with each passing year there are some elements that change. We at DealNews feel that the best way to make the most of this epic shopping event is to be prepared, so we've compiled a list of ways in which Black Friday 2013 will be different than previous years. Here's what you can expect.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>3D TVs Will Finally Be Affordable</p>
<p>HDTVs are the poster children of Black Friday. But while sets with this technology have typically been priced astronomically high, this year <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/Soon-3-D-TVs-Will-Cost-the-Same-as-Regular-55-HDTVs/857751.html" type="external">3D TVs will be cheaper than their non-3D counterparts Opens a New Window.</a>, particularly in the 55" category, which is the sweet spot for these TVs. Price-wise, we expect 55" 3D TVs to hit $425, which would not only blow away last year's November low of $799, but also undercut non-3D sets of the same size by $4.</p>
<p>There Are New Gaming Consoles (That We Actually Want)</p>
<p>Sorry, Nintendo, but last year's Wii U launch was just a warm up for this year's Black Friday, which will see <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/black-friday/predictions/gaming-toys/" type="external">a new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Opens a New Window.</a>. Unfortunately, actually scoring a console this month will be next to impossible; so, if you find either console at list price, that's about as close to a "deal" as you'll get. Alternatively, you can opt for console bundles, which will pair the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 with extra controllers, accessories, or games at a cheaper cost than purchasing each item individually. Or double down on a PS3 or Xbox 360, which will hit new lows now that their successors have debuted.</p>
<p>Doorbuster Deals Will Trick You into Remaining In-Store All Day</p>
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<p>Although most doorbusters can be found online — sometimes at <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/The-Facts-Behind-Black-Friday-Myths/" type="external">cheaper prices Opens a New Window.</a> — they're still one of the most effective ways to get shoppers to purchase items in-store. Retailers have caught onto this and will now scatter their deals throughout the day in an attempt to keep shoppers in-store longer, preferably spending more money. So whereas before you might have seen multiple doorbusters commence at 7 am, this year you'll see them debut at all hours of the day.</p>
<p>More Brick-and-Mortar Stores Will Price Match Amazon</p>
<p>Even with its <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/Want-Amazon-Free-Super-Saver-Shipping-Thatll-Be-10-More-Please-/885068.html" type="external">pricier shipping policy Opens a New Window.</a>, brick-and-mortar stores still fear Amazon. As a result, more brick-and-mortar retailers will join the Amazon price matching camp. Best Buy and Target have typically price matched with Amazon, and so far this year <a href="http://dealnews.com/lw/artclick.html?2,889394,4744133" type="external">Staples Opens a New Window.</a> is one of the new vendors to join the party.</p>
<p>Competing Devices Will Force Roku to Finally Offer Good Deals</p>
<p>Don't get us wrong. We're big fans of the Roku box, but year after year we've been disappointed with the company's modest Black Friday discount, which traditionally hasn't been the lowest price of the year. However, this year Roku is faced with an uphill battle as there are some major new players in the media-streaming industry, one of which is <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/Google-Chromecast-Is-the-Cheapest-Media-Streaming-Player-Yet/801567.html" type="external">Google's $35 Chromecast Opens a New Window.</a>. As a result, we expect Roku to offer better deals than its usual Black Friday discount. Roku also now has an extensive line of products ranging from the original Roku to the current Roku 3, which means retailers have stock of previous-gen models ready for discounts, likely making this year the first stellar year for <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/black-friday/predictions/blu-ray-media-players/" type="external">Roku deals Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Tablets Will See Major Discounts — Surface Tablets, That Is</p>
<p>Tablets deals are prevalent most of the year, so it comes as no surprise that these highly-sought after devices rarely see any significant discounts come the holidays. But this year things are different, particularly in the Microsoft camp. Weak sales and a new crop of Surface 2 tablets mean the boys in Redmond need to rid themselves of the first generation of Surface tablets. So in addition to <a href="http://dealnews.com/lw/artclick.html?2,889394,4744142" type="external">tablet discounts from Microsoft Opens a New Window.</a>, you can expect to see various retailers slicing prices on their stock of first-generation Surface tablets.</p>
<p>There Will Be More Credit Options for Small Businesses</p>
<p>While most consumers will turn to large retailers for their holiday shopping, there's good news for those who prefer patronizing their local small businesses. Thanks to a swarm of credit card processing apps like Square and PayAnywhere, more small businesses will be able to accept credit card payments at their stores. These apps have made it easier for small businesses to accept credit cards without the need to set up a merchant account with a bank, lease a card reader, or pay a setup fee. That all translates into more and easier payment options for the consumer.</p>
<p>Your Commercial Emails May Get Swallowed by Gmail</p>
<p>If you thought nabbing one of Amazon's lightning deals was difficult before, wait till you try buying one this holiday season. Thanks to <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/New-Gmail-Promotions-Tab-Yields-Special-Retailer-Coupons/839955.html" type="external">Google's new Gmail layout Opens a New Window.</a>, email sent by marketers can automatically get dumped into your "promotions" box. That means any time-sensitive sales you're tipped off to via email will sit in inbox purgatory until you look for them. Unless of course you disable this feature.</p>
<p>Just "Liking" a Facebook Page Won't Score You That Discount</p>
<p>Today's retailers are social media savvy, or at least they like to think they are. So whether you're getting first dibs on a sale or taking a sneak peak at an early Black Friday ad, chances are <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/Black-Friday-Twitter-Facebook-Ads-and-Promotions-But-No-Sales/892121.html" type="external">liking a Facebook page won't suffice anymore Opens a New Window.</a>. This year retailers will make customers jump through a hoop or two before offering up any discounts on goods. These hoops may entail subscribing to mailing lists, signing up for membership rewards, or even <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/macys-black-friday-ad-analysis/" type="external">following them on Pinterest Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>You'll Be Shopping Before the Turkey Is in the Oven</p>
<p>Love it or hate it, the <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/holiday-creep/" type="external">holiday creep Opens a New Window.</a> is here to stay and this year you can expect an even larger number of <a href="http://dealnews.com/features/black-friday-store-hours/" type="external">stores to open on Thanksgiving Day Opens a New Window.</a>. Sure, there will be people who shake their heads in dismay as Thanksgiving gets swallowed by corporate America, but shoppers have spoken and <a href="http://dealnews.com/lw/artclick.html?2,889394,4744154" type="external">they want stores to open earlier Opens a New Window.</a>. Black November, anyone?</p>
<p>Expect More Stores to Offer "Guaranteed Doorbusters"</p>
<p>Doorbusters are ultra-cheap items designed to lure shoppers into stores. But because of their limited quantities, only a handful of customers manage to get them — and people are wising up to that fact. So last year, Walmart offered its customers guaranteed doorbusters: if an item sold out, shoppers received Walmart vouchers that allowed them to buy the item at Black Friday prices, and pick it up when the item was back in stock and ready. It may take awhile before this becomes the norm for Black Friday, but we expect more retailers to offer similar vouchers this year.</p>
<p>There's One Less Week Between Thanksgiving and Christmas</p>
<p>With one less weekend to shop this year, consumers can expect to be bombarded with sales and promotions as early as the day before Thanksgiving. In addition, the <a href="http://dealnews.com/lw/artclick.html?2,889394,4744157" type="external">National Retail Federation Opens a New Window.</a> found that consumers will be a little more cautious with their spending budget this year. All this means that retailers will have to work twice as hard to get people to spend, and that means bigger-than-life advertising.</p>
<p>Read More from Deal</p>
<p><a href="http://dealnews.com/features" type="external">DealNews Features Opens a New Window.</a>:</p>
<p><a href="http://dealnews.com/features/holiday-creep/" type="external">The Holiday Creep Is a Jerk Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://dealnews.com/features/black-friday-store-hours/" type="external">Black Friday Store Hours Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://dealnews.com/features/10-Things-Not-to-Buy-on-Black-Friday/518931.html" type="external">13 Things Not to Buy on Black Friday Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 12 Ways Black Friday 2013 Will Be Different | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/08/12-ways-black-friday-2013-will-be-different.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>Members of the UNM basketball team dump buckets of ice water on UNM’s Hugh Greenwood and UNM basketball coach Craig Neil as part of the ice bucket challenge in front of the Pit Saturday afternoon. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach Craig Neal and senior guard Hugh Greenwood on Saturday accepted the #IceBucketChallenge for ALS awareness, having several Lobo basketball players dump buckets of ice on them in front of the Pit.</p>
<p>Before the ice was dumped, Neal sent a special message to a former Lobo and a member of a bitter rival, both of whom are fighting ALS.</p>
<p>“Fight the fight with (former Lobos tennis player and assistant coach) Loren Dils and (former San Diego State assistant basketball coach) Mark Fisher,” Neal said.</p>
<p>As the social media craze that the ALS Association has said has resulted in millions of dollars in donations in recent weeks, both were challenged on Friday to have a bucket of ice water dumped on them within 24 hours to raise awareness for ALS. Before they were soaked, each also paid the challenge forward.</p>
<p>Neal challenged former Lobos coach Steve Alford, now head coach at UCLA; Travis Ford, head coach at Oklahoma State; and Dan Majerle, head coach at Grand Canyon University.</p>
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<p>Greenwood challenged former Lobo teammates Tony Snell and Cameron Bairstow, now playing for the Chicago Bulls, and Alex Kirk, of the Cleveland Cavaliers.</p>
<p><a href="http://webnm.alsa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=NM_homepage" type="external">CLICK HERE</a> to learn more about the New Mexico chapter of the ALS Association.</p>
<p>In June, long before the ALS version of the challenge became a social media craze, UNM women’s coach Yvonne Sanchez <a href="http://www.golobos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=616936&amp;SPID=87116&amp;DB_LANG=C&amp;DB_OEM_ID=26000&amp;ATCLID=209524029" type="external">did an ice bucket challenge of her own</a>, though hers was a program to benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, posting a video of her players dumping a bucket of ice on her head that was posted on the school’s website.</p>
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<p>LOBO LINKS: <a href="" type="internal">Geoff Grammer’s blog</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Schedule/Results</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Roster</a></p> | VIDEO: UNM’s Craig Neal, Hugh Greenwood take #IceBucketChallenge for ALS | false | https://abqjournal.com/447233/video-unms-craig-neal-hugh-greenwood-take-icebucketchallenge-for-als.html | 2014-08-16 | 2 |
<p>Something was missing from the democratic debate last night. Well, a lot of somethings. But one thing specifically stood out to me as a reproductive justice activist and writer: there were zero questions about abortion. The moderators didn’t even reference it by euphemism. There was no “Tell us what you think about Planned Parenthood” or “We recently marked the anniversary of Roe v. Wade” or “How would you protect a woman’s right to choose?” Nothing. Zip. Zilch.</p>
<p>This omission — on the supposedly “liberal” media channel, MSNBC — is particularly glaring because the candidates themselves have made it an issue. In recent weeks, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both come out unequivocally against the four decade-long punishment of the poor and communities of color perpetrated by the <a href="http://www.fundabortionnow.org/learn/hyde" type="external">Hyde Amendment</a>which prohibits federal funding for abortion (despite what you may have heard from the republicans <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/01/26/3742810/planned-parenthood-investigations-country/" type="external">perpetually investigating Planned Parenthood</a>).</p>
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<p>Considering every Democratic president and any Democratic member of Congress who has voted for a federal budget since 1976 has at the very least tacitly approved of Hyde, a unified democratic presidential platform to abolish it — something that could be done <a href="http://www.theestablishment.co/2016/01/19/hillary-clinton-hyde-amendment-abortion-rights/" type="external">unilaterally in their first year</a> by refusing to sign a budget with a coverage ban attached — IS HISTORIC. While <a href="http://allaboveall.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Polling-Memo.pdf" type="external">86% of voters</a> think someone’s economic status or health insurance provider shouldn’t affect their access to abortion, politicians and corporate media are lagging behind the cultural shift. This means abortion access is still contentious even if the electorate has largely decided how they feel about it and the mass of people tweeting <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&amp;q=%23AskAboutAbortion" type="external">#AskAboutAbortion</a> last night want to hear the candidates’ plans to affirm and expand our rights.</p>
<p>We aren’t just shouting about it because we’re a bunch of angry feminists hoping to foment outrage about something. Abortion access has been incrementally diminished since Roe with a major acceleration over the past few years: more than <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2016/01/13/index.html" type="external">one-quarter of the 1074 abortion restrictions</a> passed have been enacted since 2011. Just in 2015, abortion restrictions were introduced in 46 states. If you were feeling comfortable or smug about your state, but don’t live in Nevada, North Dakota, or Utah, you need to check out <a href="https://amp.twimg.com/v/4eb7deee-d3fe-4435-85ac-d877af4b8904" type="external">this 22 second video</a> from&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/NPWF" type="external">National Partnership for Women &amp; Families</a>:</p>
<p>The channel hosting the debate has covered the outbreak of laws as well as the legal challenges by the <a href="http://www.reproductiverights.org/our-work/in-the-courts" type="external">Center for Reproductive Rights</a>, <a href="http://www.reproductiverights.org/case/whole-womans-health-v-hellerstedt" type="external">Whole Woman’s Health</a>, and others as they’ve wound through state and circuit courts all the way to the highest court in the land. The first abortion case in eight years is going to be heard <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33704-texas-women-are-already-inducing-their-own-abortions-will-the-supreme-court-worsen-this-trend" type="external">next month at the Supreme Court</a> — but NO ONE has been able to think of a question about reproductive rights at the democratic debates?</p>
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<p>Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, and MSNBC should collectively be ashamed of themselves. They had time to ask a question about Barry Goldwater and electability, but not about the one in four insured by Medicaid experiencing an unwanted pregnancy who is forced to carry to term against their will? And don’t tell me that they weren’t asking about “social issues” because “the candidates agree on 90% of them. Agreeing that an issue is important is NOT THE SAME THING as having THE SAME PLAN. Don’t just tell me what you BELIEVE, tell me what you’re going TO DO.</p>
<p>Example question on Hyde/reproductive rights: “Senator/Madam Secretary, you’ve come out against the Hyde Amendment; would you veto a budget with Hyde attached?”</p>
<p>THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. Especially for people who have covered politics in the US for as long as Todd and Maddow. We still don’t know that much about either of their plans on topics where they agree. The point of the primary debates is for primary voters — who are largely on the same side of the aisle as the candidates — to know the difference in the plans. Does no one remember the endless health care questions from 2008? It was and remains important for us to know more than “I support a woman’s right to choose” or “All Americans should have healthcare.” Obama and Clinton both were for all of us having access to healthcare in their soundbites, but their plans were very different. Many of us chose a candidate based on that particular issue — I know I sure did. I went back to my home state of Indiana, swallowed my anxiety, and door knocked for Obama the two days before the election. I’d been up for 40-something hours when election returns were coming in and stayed awake to watch Indiana turn blue on the map. I’d supported him since early in the primary race because I liked his plan better.</p>
<p>So, when do I get to hear the kind of policy/plan debate questions we had eight years ago? What are the candidate’s priorities in the first 100 days? What do they think they can accomplish without Congress? What will they need down ticket support on to push through the legislature?</p>
<p>And I don’t just mean on abortion. The rampant restrictions have made reproductive rights my most pressing concern, but many who like things about both candidates and/or want the strongest campaign from the democrat in the general are waiting to hear about a whole host of things.</p>
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<p>After Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, we only have Nevada and South Carolina ahead of&#160; <a href="http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2016-presidential-primary-schedule-calendar/" type="external">Super Tuesday on March 1</a> when fifteen contests are scheduled. We’re only scheduled to see one debate between now and then — <a href="https://www.democrats.org/more/the-2016-primary-debate-schedule" type="external">February 11th in Milwaukee, WI</a>. Let’s hope PBS and the Wisconsin Democratic Party can deliver a more on-point debate.</p> | Why Were Reproductive Rights Left Out Of Last Night’s Democratic Debate? | true | http://thefrisky.com/2016-02-05/why-were-reproductive-rights-left-out-of-last-nights-democratic-debate/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Ddebates | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Even North Dakota’s tourism director admits it isn’t easy promoting a state where the first day of the new year brought temperatures down to a brutal 45 below zero.</p>
<p>But having Hollywood actor and Minot native Josh Duhamel make the pitch helps, said Sara Otte Coleman, who heads the state’s tourism agency.</p>
<p>“He has increased awareness,” she said.</p>
<p>Among the least-visited states in the nation, the agency announced Wednesday that it will once again enlist the services of the star of several “Transformers” movies to lure visitors to the state better known for its brutal cold weather than as a tourist destination.</p>
<p>The agency also unveiled its $2.9 million marketing plan for 2018. It announced that Duhamel will be paid $365,000 to be the face of the state’s tourism campaign for the next two years. The actor wasn’t present at the announcement.</p>
<p>Duhamel already has earned $525,000 since 2013 to be North Dakota’s pitchman, records show.</p>
<p>The tourism marketing campaign features new TV and print ads, as well as new travel and hunting guides that feature Duhamel. Many also include his 4-year-old son Axl, whose mother is Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie.</p>
<p>This year’s campaign will feature Duhamel’s hometown of Minot and Grand Forks. It is a continuation of the North Dakota Legendary brand that was established in 2002 to help create more awareness of the state and what it has to offer, Otte Coleman said.</p>
<p>It will continue to showcase North Dakota’s outdoor activities as well as its top tourist destination, Theodore Roosevelt National Park located in the badlands in the western part of the state.</p>
<p>Tourism officials will continue to gear marketing campaigns toward audiences in the neighboring states of Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana, as well as Wisconsin and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Coleman said. The agency also will target the Chicago-area this year, she said.</p>
<p>Duhamel has been a good ambassador, and his television and other advertising have boosted visits to the state, Coleman said.</p>
<p>The actor only lent his voice to the state’s tourism campaign from 2013-15, but his role was expanded in 2016, said Kim Schmidt, a tourism spokeswoman.</p>
<p>A survey was done that year that showed the advertising campaign reached 3.8 million households resulting in 354,000 non-resident trips to the state. All told, the advertising brought in $104 in non-resident spending for every $1 spent on advertising, Coleman said.</p>
<p>A survey has not been done since.</p>
<p>North Dakota’s tourism division is part of the state Department of Commerce. The agency has a two-year budget of about $11 million and has 11 employees.</p>
<p>Coleman said the agency has had discussions with Bismarck native and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz about becoming a paid spokesman for the state but nothing has materialized yet.</p>
<p>BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Even North Dakota’s tourism director admits it isn’t easy promoting a state where the first day of the new year brought temperatures down to a brutal 45 below zero.</p>
<p>But having Hollywood actor and Minot native Josh Duhamel make the pitch helps, said Sara Otte Coleman, who heads the state’s tourism agency.</p>
<p>“He has increased awareness,” she said.</p>
<p>Among the least-visited states in the nation, the agency announced Wednesday that it will once again enlist the services of the star of several “Transformers” movies to lure visitors to the state better known for its brutal cold weather than as a tourist destination.</p>
<p>The agency also unveiled its $2.9 million marketing plan for 2018. It announced that Duhamel will be paid $365,000 to be the face of the state’s tourism campaign for the next two years. The actor wasn’t present at the announcement.</p>
<p>Duhamel already has earned $525,000 since 2013 to be North Dakota’s pitchman, records show.</p>
<p>The tourism marketing campaign features new TV and print ads, as well as new travel and hunting guides that feature Duhamel. Many also include his 4-year-old son Axl, whose mother is Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie.</p>
<p>This year’s campaign will feature Duhamel’s hometown of Minot and Grand Forks. It is a continuation of the North Dakota Legendary brand that was established in 2002 to help create more awareness of the state and what it has to offer, Otte Coleman said.</p>
<p>It will continue to showcase North Dakota’s outdoor activities as well as its top tourist destination, Theodore Roosevelt National Park located in the badlands in the western part of the state.</p>
<p>Tourism officials will continue to gear marketing campaigns toward audiences in the neighboring states of Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana, as well as Wisconsin and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Coleman said. The agency also will target the Chicago-area this year, she said.</p>
<p>Duhamel has been a good ambassador, and his television and other advertising have boosted visits to the state, Coleman said.</p>
<p>The actor only lent his voice to the state’s tourism campaign from 2013-15, but his role was expanded in 2016, said Kim Schmidt, a tourism spokeswoman.</p>
<p>A survey was done that year that showed the advertising campaign reached 3.8 million households resulting in 354,000 non-resident trips to the state. All told, the advertising brought in $104 in non-resident spending for every $1 spent on advertising, Coleman said.</p>
<p>A survey has not been done since.</p>
<p>North Dakota’s tourism division is part of the state Department of Commerce. The agency has a two-year budget of about $11 million and has 11 employees.</p>
<p>Coleman said the agency has had discussions with Bismarck native and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz about becoming a paid spokesman for the state but nothing has materialized yet.</p> | North Dakota tabs Duhamel as tourism pitchman through 2019 | false | https://apnews.com/d66e22761d8c45b18cffe50d1cdeae1c | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>Recently, the US press gave a few lines of coverage to the murders of four Kent State University students by Ohio National Guardsmen during antiwar demonstrations at the school thirty-five years ago. Sometimes these reports also included a reference to the murders of two more young people ten days later at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. These murders have always been a footnote to the Kent State killings. Part of the reason for this is the fact that they occurred after the Kent actions, but another aspect to this perception and portrayal is the fact that the young people who were murdered by police in Jackson were African-American. Through no fault of the Kent victims, the nature of US society is that white deaths count for more than those that occur to darker-hued individuals.</p>
<p>The facts of the assault on the Jackson State campus are as follows. Protests at Jackson State against the April 30, 1970 US invasion of Cambodia had been growing in intensity ever since the murders at Kent State. This in itself was not that unusual. Indeed, over 200 college and university campuses had closed in the days following the invasion and murders because of the intensification of protest and a growing student strike. The strike itself was even spreading to high schools and military bases as students rallied and GIs refused to fall into formation or work. In addition, only days after the Kent murders police forces killed six blacks in Augusta, Georgia during civil rights disturbances there. In the campus district of Jackson, the protests were growing larger and bolder, with motorists being harangued and told to drive a different route. Then when the rumor that the mayor of nearby Fayette, Charles Evers, (brother of slain Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers) and his wife had been shot and killed, things began to really heat up.</p>
<p>As one might imagine, there was an underlying current of racism and its accompanying tension present in the protests. After all, this was the United States and it was the South. In fact, it was Mississippi-a state that was still fighting the Civil War in 1970. Given this tension, the fact of the war’s racism, including the disproportionate numbers of Black men dying in the war, and the racist fear of much of white Mississippi, one could argue (at least in retrospect) that it was only a matter of time before something tragic occurred. As the evening grew dark, students and other protestors lit several fires in trashcans and on the grounds of the campus. When firefighters came to extinguish the fires, they were met with rocks and very vocal resistance from those who were rebelling. This was not unusual-firefighters often found themselves the recipients of abuse during protests where they were called in. As was also usually the case, the fire department called in police. A combination of seventy-five fully-armed Jackson police and state troopers arrived and held the crowd back until the firefighters put out the fires and left.</p>
<p>Then the cops moved in.</p>
<p>As they advanced towards a women’s dormitory on the campus, the cops were met with a barrage of verbal abuse and rocks. The cops continued to advance, took their positions and opened fire, loosing a barrage of shotgun fire into the crowd and the women’s dormitory behind them. According to the FBI report on the incident, over 460 rounds hit the building and an unknown number were fired directly into the crowd. When the order to stop shooting was finally given, two young men were dead. One of them was Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18 month-old son; and the other was 17 year-old James Earl Green, 17, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, who was walking home from work at a local grocery store when he stopped to watch the action. Twelve other college students lay on the ground wounded. According to an investigation conducted into the shootings by US Senators Walter Mondale and Birch Bayh, police did not call any ambulances to treat the wounded until they had picked up all of the shell casings that they could find. In other words, they did not call the ambulances until they had removed the evidence.</p>
<p>Just as in the aftermath of the Kent massacre, officials claimed that they had been shot at. Of course, no evidence to substantiate this claim was ever found. Furthermore, Jackson city officials claimed that their officers were not involved in the incident. This flies directly in the face of eyewitness reports from bystanders and students. However, unless there is a truth commission set up in the US some day in the future, the facts will always be murky and the truth will never be acknowledged by the forces in power.</p>
<p>As one can well imagine, these murders only exacerbated the state of crisis in the country. In fact, Nixon curtailed his war plans and, under heavy pressure from his more pragmatic advisors and antiwar liberals in the Congress, promised to withdraw US troops from Cambodia in sixty days.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s new collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Jackson State Murders, May 14, 1970 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/05/14/the-jackson-state-murders-may-14-1970/ | 2005-05-14 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the midst of Washington’s latest <a href="" type="internal">budget</a> <a href="" type="internal">battle</a>, some Republicans are returning to their election-year rhetoric of “takers” and “makers.” DC bureau chief David Corn breaks down the Republican talking points on the sequester with Al Sharpton on <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45755884/#50964122" type="external">MSNBC‘s Politics Nation</a>:</p>
<p>David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, <a href="" type="internal">click here</a>. He’s also on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidcorndc" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p /> | Corn on MSNBC: The Republican Party’s Broken Budget Rhetoric | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/corn-msnbc-republican-party-sequester-takers-makers/ | 2013-02-27 | 4 |
<p />
<p>New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s infamous trip to a closed public beach in the midst of a government shutdown inspired state legislators to propose a law Monday that would prevent future politicians from doing the same.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Democrat-led Assembly passed a measure Monday that would force the governor's beach house to close during a shutdown, while a second measure they approved would keep state parks open.</p>
<p>Those bills still need to be debated in the state Senate and would then need approval from the Republican governor.</p>
<p>Christie previously pledged to sign a measure the Legislature passed Monday that would pay state workers who were furloughed during the three-day shutdown this month. His spokesman declined to comment on the other measures, referring to office policy not to comment on pending legislation.</p>
<p>"If a beach is closed because of a state shutdown, it ought to be closed to everybody," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who proposed the measure to close the beach house during shutdowns. "Having it open to the governor and his guests while it's closed to all the other New Jersey residents who are paying for them to be there isn't right and it isn't fair."</p>
<p>Christie once again generated controversy last Sunday after his confrontation with a heckler at a Milwaukee Brewers game was caught on video. The 54-year-old called the fan a “big shot” before making his way back to his seat with a basket of nachos.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Christie had told reporters earlier that week that he planned to go to the beach house at Island State Park with his family during the Fourth of July weekend. An NJ Advance Media photographer in an airplane got the shot of him lounging on a chair in shorts, sandals and a Mets T-shirt and hat.</p>
<p>That inspired Wisniewski and other Democratic lawmakers to try to put a stop to it from happening again, including the measure to prevent the state from shutting down public parks during government shutdowns.</p>
<p>"Most camping trips or outdoor plans are made weeks or months in advance. It is unfair, and unreasonable to hold residents' holiday plans hostage over the Governor's and the legislature's inability to meet the budget deadline," Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle said.</p>
<p>Christie defended his visit to the shore while the public was denied access, saying earlier this month that he had previously announced his plans to vacation at the state-owned governor's beach house and that the media had simply "caught a politician keeping his word.</p>
<p>The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p> | Chris Christie's beach trip inspires NJ legislation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/07/31/chris-christies-beach-trip-inspires-nj-legislation.html | 2017-07-31 | 0 |
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<p>Take a look through the fall décor catalogs or browse the aisles of furnishings stores and you’ll see a recurring theme: matte finishes.</p>
<p>Curvy porcelain vases from Room and Board, rendered in matte gray, carbon and ivory, might adorn a table or mantle. (Room and Board via AP)</p>
<p>“Matte is having a moment right now,” says Donna Garlough, Joss &amp; Main’s style director. “Especially in white, black, chalky grays and pastels. It works because accents and lighting in a matte finish pair so naturally with some of the furniture trends we’re seeing.”</p>
<p>The trend has found its way into the kitchen, too.</p>
<p>Both GE and BlueStar offer ranges in matte slate finishes, while Williams-Sonoma has a suite of matte black Le Creuset cookware in its fall collection.</p>
<p>For crafty folk, matte spray paints can be fun to experiment with, says Garlough.</p>
<p>“You can paint anything with it, and I do mean anything,” she says. “I’ve seen stylists paint everything from an old telephone to an eggplant and turn it into an objet d’art.”</p>
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Matte finishes are a top fall décor trend | false | https://abqjournal.com/877795/matte-finishes-are-a-top-fall-deacutecor-trend.html | 2016-10-30 | 2 |
<p>Federal investigators formally investigated top Hillary Rodham Clinton aide <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Huma Abedin</a> for the crime of embezzlement after confirming she took a “Babymoon” vacation and maternity time at the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> without expending her formal leave, resulting in thousands of dollars of pay she wasn’t entitled to receive, The Washington Times has learned.</p>
<p>The probe also gathered evidence she filed time sheets charging the government for impermissible overtime and excessive hours after she converted from a full-time federal employee to a <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> contractor.</p>
<p>Those timecards were filed during a period that remains under investigation over questions about possible conflicts of interest, documents gathered by the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> inspector general show.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>, who served as a deputy chief of staff to Mrs. Clinton from 2009 to late 2012, told investigators she hadn’t noticed she had received a $33,000 lump sum payment — about a third of which investigators determined was improper — when she left the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a>.</p>
<p>She suggested her husband, the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, failed to let her know.</p>
<p>“My husband handles all the finances in our household,” she told investigators during a recorded interview in October 2014.</p>
<p>She said she only learned of the payment after being contacted by investigators two years after her departure. “I did ask my husband to look up our bank statements, and we did have a deposit,” she said during her interview.</p>
<p>She also acknowledged it was likely she did not fill out the required form when she went on a two-week vacation to Europe in 2011 while she was pregnant — a trip she called a “Babymoon” in emails and her interview.</p>
<p>The failure to file the form resulted in her having excessive vacation time cashed out to her in the lump payment upon leaving government, investigators concluded.</p>
<p>“You are 100 percent right on the Babymoon. I don’t recall. One hundred percent right. I don’t recall filling out any paperwork saying I was taking leave,” she told the investigators. “I’m not even going to blame it on my pregnancy brain.”</p>
<p>The <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a>’s inspector general formally concluded that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> failed to correctly submit multiple required time sheet and leave forms covering her vacation and maternity leave, resulting in an overpayment of $10,674.32 that she wasn’t entitled to receive when she left her job.</p>
<p>The Abedin investigation’s existence has been known for weeks, but the contents and findings have never been publicly released.</p>
<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has repeatedly questioned <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s compensation and work arrangements under Mrs. Clinton, suggesting she was overpaid and may have engaged in conflicts of interest when she worked both for State as a contractor and a firm in New York connected to friends of the Clinton family.</p>
<p>Charges of smear job</p>
<p><a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s lawyer, Miguel Rodriguez, has accused the senator of a smear job in suggesting there was any criminality.</p>
<p>The documents provided to The Times by a source outside the Senate or the IG’s office make clear, however, the inquiry was clearly criminal in nature and ultimately referred to federal prosecutors.</p>
<p>Mr. Rodriguez did not immediately return a call seeking comment from The Times on Wednesday.</p>
<p>However, he sent a letter to the OIG disputing its conclusions, saying investigators should have credited <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> for the time she worked while off rather than demand she repay the money.</p>
<p>“I am deeply troubled by gaps in the OIG’s investigation, holes in its methodology, unsupported allegations, as well as its conclusory demand (contradicted by evidence in the report itself) that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> refund the Department’s alleged overpayment,” he wrote.</p>
<p>“Further, while it is undisputed that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> worked during her periods of leave — and indeed that she was known as a workaholic who rarely took vacation — absolutely no effort was made to calculate the amount of time <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> worked during the periods in question and whether her work hours amounted to at least eight hours a day. Any <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> employee — indeed any government employee — deserves better, and so does <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>,” Mr. Rodriguez wrote.</p>
<p>The FBI was first alerted that the IG was conducting a “criminal investigation” of <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> in a memo dated Oct. 22, 2013, the records show.</p>
<p>After 15 months of extensive document-gathering and interviews, the IG submitted the case for review by the Justice Department public integrity division, which declined to prosecute <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>. The “alleged violations” cited were improperly requesting and approving annual leave and “embezzlement,” the documents state.</p>
<p>“The case was not declined based on the merits of the investigation,” stated the final investigative report, dated Jan. 26.</p>
<p>Such a designation usually means federal prosecutors decided not to pursue a case, but only because they didn’t think it worth the resources, not because the facts and evidence couldn’t support a case.</p>
<p>The designation opened the door for the department to seek reimbursement of $10,674.32 in payments that investigators concluded <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> was not entitled to receive, the documents show.</p>
<p>Investigators concluded that while they could not prove <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> had intended to defraud the government, “the investigation substantiated that <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a>, on several occasions, failed to submit a Request for Leave or Approved Absence.”</p>
<p>The failure left her with paid leave that should have been expended during her vacation and maternity, inflating her final payout when she left government.</p>
<p>Reputation as workaholic</p>
<p>In her interview, <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> offered several explanations, stressing repeatedly she always worked during her vacations and maternity leave.</p>
<p>She said she left it to a “timekeeper” in the department to fill out her forms for her when she was a full-time employee and believed she had the proper permission to take her maternity leave. She also claimed that, after the fact, she had been told the department had simply decided not to charge her for her maternity leave because she often worked during that time.</p>
<p>Investigators found some email evidence that a special arrangement was discussed to possibly let <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> avoid claiming leave time for her maternity but no evidence it was ever formalized.</p>
<p>“ <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a> was unable to say who made the determination to credit her hours. She also was unable to provide an accounting of the hours she worked while on maternity leave,” investigators wrote in their final report.</p>
<p>The investigators also interviewed a co-worker who clearly recalled telling <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> she needed to fill out formal paperwork to claim maternity leave, a document that was never located.</p>
<p>Investigators concluded the missing paperwork allowed <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>, among other things, to be paid eight hours by taxpayers on the day she actually delivered her son, the documents show.</p>
<p>(Over)time as a contractor</p>
<p>In her interview with investigators last fall, <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> acknowledged she personally filled out her time sheets when she returned to the department after maternity leave and came back as a contractor working out of New York, known in federal parlance as a “special government employee.”</p>
<p>That admission could affect an ongoing investigation into <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s simultaneous work in 2012 as both a special contractor at State and for a private firm in New York. Congress has asked the inspector general to investigate whether there were any conflicts of interest during that work.</p>
<p>In interviews with <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s colleagues, the inspector general agreed that handwritten time sheets governing her work as a contractor were in fact filled out by <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> in summer 2012.</p>
<p>Those time sheets claimed both improper overtime and excessive work hours not allowed under her SGE contract, the reports show.</p>
<p>The investigators questioned one administrative official in the department who processed timecards about two time sheets in which <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a> claimed she worked “no duty hours and 18 overtime hours” and another pay period where 13 hours of overtime were claimed when she was a special government employee.One of the IG reports recounted an interview with the <a href="/topics/department-of-state/" type="external">State Department</a> administrative employee about the overtime.</p>
<p>“When asked if she was aware SGEs did not receive overtime,” the report states, the employee told investigators she had been instructed to “keep track of <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Abedin</a>’s hours in the same manner as when she was” a regular full-time employee and could receive overtime.</p>
<p>A separate investigative report indicated <a href="/topics/huma-abedin/" type="external">Ms. Abedin</a>’s contractor time sheets “indicated she worked 1,290 hours while employed as an SGE” over six months but that federal regulations mandated “SGEs are to work no more than 1,040 hours in a calendar year.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/xGjXcUKYsKxMeCUl1" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Huma Files: Feds investigated top Hillary Clinton aide for embezzlement | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/9/huma-abedin-formally-investigated-embezzlement/ | 2015-09-09 | 0 |
<p>AIM Academy 54, Renaissance Academy 28</p>
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<p>Mount Pleasant 62, Yough 53</p>
<p>New Hope-Solebury 65, Christopher Dock 46</p>
<p>Northern Lehigh 56, Palmerton 47</p>
<p>Olney Charter 55, Motivation 51</p>
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<p>Pennsbury 61, Bensalem 51</p>
<p>Philadelphia Academy Charter 57, Parkway West 32</p>
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<p>Princeton Day, N.J. 80, Solebury 61</p>
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<p>Roxborough 74, High School of the Future 49</p>
<p>Saltsburg 72, St. Joseph 55</p>
<p>Seton-LaSalle 80, Freedom 23</p>
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<p>Twin Valley 58, Hamburg 32</p>
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<p>Woodlynde 62, West-Mont Christian 26</p> | Thursday's Scores | false | https://apnews.com/amp/d8b30f4f2cd14ffd888d494b93b9117c | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Owners of <a href="http://variety.com/tag/amazon/" type="external">Amazon</a>’s <a href="http://variety.com/tag/echo-show/" type="external">Echo Show</a> device found themselves cut off from their favorite YouTube videos Tuesday, with the device instead telling them that <a href="http://variety.com/tag/google/" type="external">Google</a> was “currently not supporting” the video service on the device. The disappearance of YouTube from the Echo Show, which was first reported <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/26/16371292/google-youtube-amazon-echo-show" type="external">by The Verge</a>, is just the latest instance of an escalating conflict between the two companies.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/amazon-nfl-thursday-night-football-sports-rights-1202570293/" type="external">Amazon</a> was quick to blame <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/animation-is-film-festival-1202565692/" type="external">Google</a> Tuesday, telling reporters that Google unilaterally started blocking access to its video service that afternoon:</p>
<p>“Google has chosen to no longer make YouTube available on Echo Show, without explanation and without notification to customers,” the company said in a statement. “There is no technical reason for that decision, which is disappointing and hurts both of our customers.”</p>
<p>Google shot back and said that it turned off access to YouTube for the Echo Show because Amazon’s implementation had violated Google’s terms of service:</p>
<p>“We’ve been in negotiations with Amazon for a long time, working towards an agreement that provides great experiences for customers on both platforms,” Google said in a statement. “Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience. We hope to be able to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon.”</p>
<p>It’s true that the companies have had disagreements for some time. Case in point: Amazon’s Fire TV never received an official YouTube app, and is instead using a web-based implementation.</p>
<p>Fire tablets and TVs also don’t carry any other Google apps, despite being based on Google’s Android operating system. However, Amazon decided to not license Android from Google, but instead used the open source components of the operating system in order to keep itself independent of Google’s services.</p>
<p>That never went over well with Google, and also resulted in Amazon not supporting many of Google’s devices and services. Amazon’s media apps are for instance not compatible with Google’s Chromecast streaming device, and the Amazon Video app isn’t distributed on Google’s Play Store.</p>
<p>Relationships reached a low point in late 2015, when <a href="http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/amazon-chromecast-apple-tv-ban-1201630010/" type="external">Amazon stopped swelling Google’s Chromecast streaming device</a>. At the time, Amazon also booted Apple TV from its website. However, more recently, the company recently struck a deal with Apple to once again carry the device, and also make its video app available to Apple TV users.</p>
<p>Google clearly wants Amazon to strike a similar deal. But the dispute between the two companies goes deeper — and now extended to the Echo Show as well.</p> | Amid Escalating Dispute, Google Blocks YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show | false | https://newsline.com/amid-escalating-dispute-google-blocks-youtube-on-amazons-echo-show/ | 2017-09-27 | 1 |
<p>Aside from his reputation as a crackpot&#160;conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones is known for being a loud bully&#160;who takes control of interviews. His bout with Piers Morgan on CNN was especially frustrating since there wasn’t really an exchange of ideas. Morgan never really challenged Jones in an effective way.</p>
<p>But in a little-known video from 2006, Jones was completely caught off-guard during a trip to New York’s Ground Zero when he was confronted by 9/11 Truth <a href="https://deadstate.kinsta.com/back-in-2007-the-makers-of-loose-change-got-completely-destroyed-in-a-debate-and-no-one-noticed/" type="external">debunker</a>, Mark Roberts.</p>
<p>It’s Alex Jones like you’ve never seen him before. He hesitates, he stumbles, and he’s clearly not prepared for Roberts’ pointed questions. When he gets really desperate, he turns to his audience of 9/11 truther minions for support.</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
<p />
<p>Michael Peddycord</p>
<p>January 10, 2014 at 4:23 am</p>
<p>If anything he said was true he would have had his guns taken away or been killed already. I’m inclined to believe he doesn’t actually believe in the nonsense that he says, he just likes the profits and easy job associated with it.</p>
<p>xander</p>
<p>June 27, 2014 at 7:43 pm</p>
<p>Alex Jones demonstrates how to make angry uncritical idiots follow you. The thing about something as fantastic and unsubstantiated as 9/11 Truth is that no one could think it’s true for any extended period of time without wanting it to be true. The alternative explanations raise more questions than they answer. They are full of contradictions and denial of proven facts. There was no airplane debris at the Pentagon? Lol, there was a lot of it and it was thoroughly photographed. Building 7 was a pre-planned controlled demolition? Lol, then why was the building leaning and buckling after burning for several hours and why did the fire department pull out rescuers in anticipation of a collapse? The twin towers were a pre-planned controlled demolition? Then how did they keep all of the workers needed for a project like that silent? Why crash planes into the towers? How do you set up explosive charges in a way that they are not damaged by planes crashing into buildings? It doesn’t take a terribly thoughtful person to notice these contradictions. What is needed to sustain this belief is some motivation to believe it is true. Whatever is motivating these loons, it is a sure sign of a growing movement of violent anti-social idiocy in our culture.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cottononcoupons.com/CO/cotton-on-free" type="external">cotton on free</a></p>
<p>June 14, 2017 at 12:24 am</p>
<p>Hello there, I found your site by the use of Google even as searching for a similar topic, your website got here up, it appears great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.</p>
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<p>Sign me up for the newsletter</p> | Show every 9/11 truther you know this video of Alex Jones getting humiliated at Ground Zero | true | http://deadstate.org/caught-on-tape-alex-jones-was-once-completely-humiliated-at-ground-zero-but-you-didnt-see-itfbrefreshforce/ | 2014-01-09 | 4 |
<p>Episode #58 of The Sunday Wire Radio Show resumes this Sunday November 9, 2014 presented by host Patrick Henningsen with 3 hours of power-packed talk radio and music…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:</p>
<p>SUNDAY – 5pm-7pm GMT | 12pm-3pm EST | 9am-12pm PSTTHE SUNDAY WIRE broadcasts LIVE, as this week’s host Patrick Henningsen from 21WIRE&#160;covers the latest from ISIS, Russia and China, as well as world reactions to NATO’s rampage during the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In the first hour – Patrick takes on <a href="" type="internal">Ebola</a>, media fear-mongering, and mass mind control. Later in the second hour, Patrick is joined by <a href="http://www.williamengdahl.com/" type="external">F.William Engdahl</a> live from Germany to discuss events unfolding in Ukraine, the Berlin Wall anniversary and global geopolitics. In the third hour we discuss the strange relationship between ‘Elephants and Donkeys’ aka the US midterm elections, political traps being set by the NWO in the 21st century, and more US troops heading to Iraq.</p>
<p>Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield – this is your brave new world…</p>
<p>*WARNING THIS EPISODE CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND ADULT THEMES*</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/sundaywire/acr_sunday_wire_ep_58.mp3" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Episode #58 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘Freedom or Fascism?’ Patrick Henningsen with guest William Engdahl | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/11/09/episode-58-sunday-wire-freedom-or-fascism-patrick-henningsen-with-guest-william-engdahl/ | 2014-11-09 | 4 |
<p>The Latest on a Massachusetts bakery that has been told by the government to remove "love" from its list of granola ingredients. (all times local):</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Federal officials say a Massachusetts bakery had several violations other than its listing of "love" as an ingredient in its granola.</p>
<p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told Nashoba Brook Bakery in Concord that "love" should be removed as an ingredient listed on the label of its Nashoba Granola.</p>
<p>In a letter this week, the FDA says federal regulations require that ingredients be listed by their common or usual name, and that love is not a common or usual name of an ingredient.</p>
<p>The FDA said Wednesday that listing love as an ingredient was just one of several violations, including a failure to clean its facility properly.</p>
<p>Bakery CEO John Gates says the company has gotten positive reactions from people since news of the letter began to circulate.</p>
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<p>___</p>
<p>1:45 p.m.</p>
<p>The co-owner of a Massachusetts bakery that the government has told to remove "love" from its list of granola ingredients says he doesn't understand why the company is being asking to make the change after nearly two decades.</p>
<p>Stuart Witt says the Nashoba Brook Bakery in Concord feels "very strongly that love is a big part of what we do."</p>
<p>Witt says the company has been open for nearly 20 years and has been selling its Nashoba Granola nearly that long. He says love has been listed on the label from the beginning.</p>
<p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told the company to remove the word from its label because love is not a real ingredient.</p>
<p>Witt says he's not happy about removing "love" but will comply with the FDA.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:50 a.m.</p>
<p>A Massachusetts bakery's granola may be made with love, but federal officials say it shouldn't be listed as an ingredient on the package.</p>
<p>Nashoba Brook Bakery, in Concord, has been told by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the label on its Nashoba Granola lists "love," and that needs to change.</p>
<p>In a letter posted this week, it says federal regulations require that ingredients must be listed by their common or usual name, and that "love" is not a common or usual name of an ingredient.</p>
<p>Bakery CEO John Gates, says the company has gotten positive reactions from people since news of the letter began to circulate. He says it's tapped into a feeling a lot of Americans have that the government can overreach, adding that it seems silly.</p> | The Latest: FDA: Bakery had violations besides 'love' label | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/04/latest-fda-bakery-had-violations-besides-love-label.html | 2017-10-04 | 0 |
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<p>These days it’s tricky enough <a href="/commentary/columns/2006/03/catch_of_the_day.html" type="external">navigating</a> the terrain of seafood for health concerns, much less moral ones. Plenty of organizations have compiled <a href="http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch.asp" type="external">comprehensive lists</a> of good and not-so-good fish to eat, depending on whether the fish are imperiled, how they’re caught, their overall health, and other factors.</p>
<p>But let’s say you’re out at a restaurant and there’s fish on the menu (for example, the buttermilk fried calamari that was on the menu when I was dining out last weekend) but you forgot your geeky pocket-sized sustainable fish reference guide. Feel caught in a moral quagmire? Simply get out your cell phone and text “fish” and the name of the fish to 30644. You’ll get a text informing you about the fish’s sustainability.</p>
<p>I tried the service and within seconds got a text back telling me:</p>
<p>squid; (GREEN) few environmental concerns; squid grow quickly making them resistant to fishing pressure</p>
<p>So I forged ahead, and the squid didn’t disappoint.</p>
<p>If your choice isn’t “green,” the text will provide you with alternatives. This nifty service is offered by the <a href="http://www.blueocean.org/" type="external">Blue Ocean Institute</a>.</p>
<p>—Joyce Tang</p>
<p /> | Text Your Way to Sustainable Seafood | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/text-your-way-sustainable-seafood/ | 2008-02-13 | 4 |
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<p>Melinda Villanueva was sentenced to nine years in prison by state District Judge Karen Parsons, who suspended the sentence and placed her on probation, the News said.</p>
<p>“She has been in jail for about eight months,” Assistant District Attorney Katherine Beckett told the judge. “The state is recommending she be given credit for the time served and go immediately to probation.”</p>
<p>Villanueva told Parsons she had learned her lesson about methamphetamine use, according to the News.</p>
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<p>An Otero County Drug Task Force officer brought the charges against Villanueva in November 2011, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Villanueva’s children range in age from 7 to 21, the News said.</p> | Mother of 7 Pleads to Drug Trafficking | false | https://abqjournal.com/140751/mother-of-7-pleads-to-drug-trafficking.html | 2 |
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<p>The man whose photo was used by Josh Duggar in his OKCupid profile is threatening to sue. TMZ has <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2015/08/22/josh-duggar-okcupid-profile-stolen-picture/" type="external">the scoop</a>:</p>
<p>Josh Duggar turned the life of a Hollywood DJ upside down by apparently jacking his pic for his OKCupid profile. Matthew McCarthy tells us he was shocked see his pic on the dating site, and way more shocked to know Duggar was posing as him to score chicks. Now check this out … it appears Duggar got the pic by Googling “random guy” … the third photo that comes up is Matthew’s. Matthew says he’s already lost a DJ gig because the club felt he was part of the sex scandal. He feels this is somehow defamation of character, and he’s considering his legal options. So much for playing Cupid.</p>
<p>Using somebody else’s photo in a hook-up profile is fairly common. Has anybody ever won such a lawsuit?</p> | Nightclub DJ Threatens To Sue Disgraced Christian Leader Josh Duggar For Using His Photo In OKCupid Profile | true | http://joemygod.com/2015/08/22/nightclub-dj-threatens-to-sue-disgraced-christian-leader-josh-duggar-for-using-his-photo-in-okcupid-profile/ | 2015-08-22 | 4 |
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<p>And, “Sex, God, Rock ‘n’ Roll” is the name of Davis’ cable TV comedy sketch show that recently concluded its second season on AXS TV. He co-hosts it with Kandyse McClure.</p>
<p>“It’s now on hiatus, between seasons two and three,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Boulder, Colo. “Reaction to it has been good.”</p>
<p>Comedy is one of the main ingredients in Davis’ professional life. He’s also an indie singer/songwriter and a Buddhist monk.</p>
<p>The Des Moines Register said Davis “may be the best songwriter you’ve never heard of.” Some of the songs on his latest CD, “Music for Mortals,” are about heavy stuff, like death and rebirth.</p>
<p>Davis will be on stage at The Box tonight and Saturday, March 16. He’ll sing and do comedy. Sort of a back-and-forth thing.</p>
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<p>Boulder, he said, is an important city for him to live in for spiritual and musical reasons.</p>
<p>“As a Buddhist practitioner it’s a very wonderful place to be. Trungta Rinpoche, a Buddhist priest from Tibet came here and established Boulder as one of the Buddhist epicenters of the world,” Davis said.</p>
<p>Davis is a contributing member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute in Boulder. And 11 years ago, he said, the Boulder commercial rock station KBCO-FM embraced him and his music. That station – indeed the entire Boulder and Denver area – were immediately welcoming, he said. That enabled him to quickly establish a following that continues to be supportive.</p> | It’s song, with a side of Buddhism | false | https://abqjournal.com/178298/its-song-with-a-side-of-buddism.html | 2013-03-15 | 2 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Barbara Boxer’s decision not to seek re-election to a fifth term provides a rare opening for ambitious California Democrats who have been waiting patiently to move up the political ranks.</p>
<p>Boxer, 74, and her Senate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, 81, won election to the Senate in 1992 and have pretty much had a lock on their jobs for as long as they have wanted to keep them. Another venerable Democrat is Gov. Jerry Brown, 76, who was just sworn in for a record fourth term, including two in the 1970s and 1980s.</p>
<p>“The number of Democratic rock stars that have been sitting on the bench is becoming longer and longer,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles. “Now, I think a lot of these folks are ready to bring their brand to a larger stage.”</p>
<p>Among the Democrats who might try to succeed Boxer: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor; state Attorney General Kamala Harris; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; and Tom Steyer, a retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire who sought to make climate change an issue in the midterm elections.</p>
<p>While lauding Boxer in prepared statements, none of the potential candidates indicated a possible Senate run.</p>
<p>Democratic Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Adam Schiff are also considered names to watch.</p>
<p>Boxer made it clear she felt no pressure to make room for a new generation of Democrats.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s fair to say because you reached a certain age, it’s time to retire,” she said during a telephone call with reporters.</p>
<p>Still, she said she wanted to announce her decision early enough in the election cycle to give potential successors plenty of time to organize.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if one person will come forward or 15 will come forward,” Boxer said.</p>
<p>Boxer has been a staunch supporter of abortion rights, gun control and environmental protections. She has said she is most proud of the vote that she cast against the war in Iraq, but also told reporters Thursday that she wished she had done more to galvanize opposition.</p>
<p>“It just weighs on me,” she said.</p>
<p>Political observers say Boxer’s work to protect the environment is one of her legacies. Boxer authored legislation that has designated more than 1 million acres of land in California as wilderness, a classification that generally does not allow for motor vehicles, new roads and mining. She also led efforts to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.</p>
<p>However, she has failed to help pass meaningful legislation to curb global warming, a longtime goal that became even more distant when Republicans won control of the Senate and Boxer lost her prized role as chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.</p>
<p>Boxer was elected to the House in 1982 and to the Senate one decade later. That was an election that marked a watershed year for women in politics, with four winning U.S. Senate seats.</p>
<p>Boxer would have been a prohibitive favorite to win re-election in a state where only 28 percent of the registered voters are Republicans. In California’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party.</p>
<p>Republicans view the retirement as positive for the 2016 elections in part because it could mean that Democrats will have to spend money to retain the seat, which they probably would not have done if Boxer were in the race. Still, it would be a huge upset if a Republican were to win.</p>
<p>“A California Republican starts every statewide race 15 points behind and is competing against arguably the most effective state political party in the country,” said Republican strategist Aaron McLear.</p>
<p>Elections in California are hugely expensive and could require Republicans to side with a candidate able to fund his or her own campaign, such as Rep. Darrell Issa or business executive Carly Fiorina, who lost to Boxer in her last race and is weighing a run for president. An aide said Issa had no plans to run for the Senate.</p>
<p>One potential Republican candidate is Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, who ran a competitive race for state controller last year. Her spokesman, Tim Clark, said the mayor had preliminary discussions about the possibility of running for Boxer’s seat and will revisit the issue now that she has announced her retirement. Swearengin cannot run again for Fresno mayor in 2016 because of term limits.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Donna Cassata in Washington and Fenit Nirappil in Sacramento contributed to this report.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Barbara Boxer’s decision not to seek re-election to a fifth term provides a rare opening for ambitious California Democrats who have been waiting patiently to move up the political ranks.</p>
<p>Boxer, 74, and her Senate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, 81, won election to the Senate in 1992 and have pretty much had a lock on their jobs for as long as they have wanted to keep them. Another venerable Democrat is Gov. Jerry Brown, 76, who was just sworn in for a record fourth term, including two in the 1970s and 1980s.</p>
<p>“The number of Democratic rock stars that have been sitting on the bench is becoming longer and longer,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles. “Now, I think a lot of these folks are ready to bring their brand to a larger stage.”</p>
<p>Among the Democrats who might try to succeed Boxer: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor; state Attorney General Kamala Harris; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; and Tom Steyer, a retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire who sought to make climate change an issue in the midterm elections.</p>
<p>While lauding Boxer in prepared statements, none of the potential candidates indicated a possible Senate run.</p>
<p>Democratic Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Adam Schiff are also considered names to watch.</p>
<p>Boxer made it clear she felt no pressure to make room for a new generation of Democrats.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s fair to say because you reached a certain age, it’s time to retire,” she said during a telephone call with reporters.</p>
<p>Still, she said she wanted to announce her decision early enough in the election cycle to give potential successors plenty of time to organize.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if one person will come forward or 15 will come forward,” Boxer said.</p>
<p>Boxer has been a staunch supporter of abortion rights, gun control and environmental protections. She has said she is most proud of the vote that she cast against the war in Iraq, but also told reporters Thursday that she wished she had done more to galvanize opposition.</p>
<p>“It just weighs on me,” she said.</p>
<p>Political observers say Boxer’s work to protect the environment is one of her legacies. Boxer authored legislation that has designated more than 1 million acres of land in California as wilderness, a classification that generally does not allow for motor vehicles, new roads and mining. She also led efforts to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.</p>
<p>However, she has failed to help pass meaningful legislation to curb global warming, a longtime goal that became even more distant when Republicans won control of the Senate and Boxer lost her prized role as chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.</p>
<p>Boxer was elected to the House in 1982 and to the Senate one decade later. That was an election that marked a watershed year for women in politics, with four winning U.S. Senate seats.</p>
<p>Boxer would have been a prohibitive favorite to win re-election in a state where only 28 percent of the registered voters are Republicans. In California’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party.</p>
<p>Republicans view the retirement as positive for the 2016 elections in part because it could mean that Democrats will have to spend money to retain the seat, which they probably would not have done if Boxer were in the race. Still, it would be a huge upset if a Republican were to win.</p>
<p>“A California Republican starts every statewide race 15 points behind and is competing against arguably the most effective state political party in the country,” said Republican strategist Aaron McLear.</p>
<p>Elections in California are hugely expensive and could require Republicans to side with a candidate able to fund his or her own campaign, such as Rep. Darrell Issa or business executive Carly Fiorina, who lost to Boxer in her last race and is weighing a run for president. An aide said Issa had no plans to run for the Senate.</p>
<p>One potential Republican candidate is Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, who ran a competitive race for state controller last year. Her spokesman, Tim Clark, said the mayor had preliminary discussions about the possibility of running for Boxer’s seat and will revisit the issue now that she has announced her retirement. Swearengin cannot run again for Fresno mayor in 2016 because of term limits.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Donna Cassata in Washington and Fenit Nirappil in Sacramento contributed to this report.</p> | Younger Calif. Democrats will jockey to replace Boxer | false | https://apnews.com/a1d98051aed44006a5002139f3c71fef | 2015-01-09 | 2 |
<p>The Reserve Bank of Australia has ended 2017 without a change in interest rates, with next year promising to deliver more of the same.</p>
<p>The central bank's board kept its cash rate target at a record low of 1.5% Tuesday as universally expected by economists.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The bank's holding pattern, stretching back to August 2016, leaves the RBA lagging many of its global counterparts, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, which have already raised interest rates this year, or are preparing to reduce the level of policy accommodation.</p>
<p>The decision comes after RBA Governor Philip Lowe told economists in late November there was no compelling case for a change in interest rates.</p>
<p>When announcing the on-hold decision Gov. Lowe reiterated Tuesday that the board judged that "holding the stance of monetary policy unchanged at this meeting would be consistent with sustainable growth in the economy and achieving the inflation target over time."</p>
<p>Foremost in the minds of policy makers are record low wages growth, ongoing slack in the job market and a dearth of inflation pressures.</p>
<p>That weakness comes with consumers reluctant to spend more, weighed down by record household debt and concerns that incomes aren't growing.</p>
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<p>Still, there are signs of some pep building in the economy, with investment strengthening, jobs growth improving, and profits high. All that comes as business surveys indicate firms are experiencing the best conditions in 20 years.</p>
<p>Economists expect the impression of a two-speed economy will keep policy makers watchful, unlikely to either raise or lower interest rates for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Write to James Glynn at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>December 04, 2017 22:54 ET (03:54 GMT)</p> | Reserve Bank of Australia Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/12/04/reserve-bank-australia-leaves-interest-rates-unchanged.html | 2017-12-04 | 0 |
<p>In a radio interview this Friday. Rep. Pete Olsen (R-TX) mocked the Obamacare requirement that healthcare plans cover prenatal and maternity care, asking why men should pay for coverage that they “can’t use.”</p>
<p>Speaking to radio host Sam Malone, while a supporter of the Senate GOP’s latest healthcare bill, Olsen conceded that it’s “dead on arrival,” adding that the bill still “has some problems.”</p>
<p>“I have some concerns because, one thing, they still guarantee coverage for ten essential conditions,” Olson said. “And one of those conditions — this is care for all, includes you and me — it’s prenatal care.”</p>
<p>“I think we all have what we call an X chromosome,” he continued. “You, me, JP, Tom and Chuck have those, which means we can’t have a baby. Why do we have to pay for that coverage that we can’t use?”</p>
<p>Considering that Olsen is almost militant in his “pro-life” stance, it’s interesting why he’d object to a mother’s maternity care being covered by a healthcare plan. In 2008, <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Pete_Olson_Abortion.htm" type="external">declared</a> that “life begins at conception and every life has a soul.”</p>
<p>“Abortion as a means of birth control horrifies every fiber of my being,” Olsen once said. “Our country should work to protect innocent life and I will vote that way in Congress. In the case of a mother’s life being in danger I would understand abortion being necessary.”</p>
<p>That being said, someone should tell Olsen that both females and males have an X chromosome.</p>
<p>Watch the video below, via <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gop-congressman-laughs-off-prenatal-coverage-why-do-we-have-to-pay-for-that-coverage-that-we-cant-use/" type="external">Right Wing Watch</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Featured image: <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/20/congressman-says-comments-about-clintons-were-step-too-far/" type="external">Texas Tribune</a></p> | GOP Rep objects to paying for maternity coverage because he as an ‘X chromosome’ | true | http://deadstate.org/pro-life-gop-rep-objects-to-paying-for-maternity-coverage-because-he-as-an-x-chromosome/ | 2017-06-27 | 4 |
<p>* Resignation comes after profit warning</p>
<p>* Paul Creffield appointed group operations director</p>
<p>* Countrywide losing market share- Exec Chairman Peter Long</p>
<p>* Shares up 2 pct (Rewrites with chairman’s comments, adds details, shares)</p>
<p>By Radhika Rukmangadhan and Noor Zainab Hussain</p>
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Countrywide’s Chief Executive, Alison Platt, stepped down on Wednesday, a week after the British real estate agent said a loss of market share to its competitors would hit its annual profit.</p>
<p>Platt, who took personal responsibility for reviving the company’s main sales and lettings business in August, resigned as a result of the company’s current trading situation, Countrywide’s newly appointed Executive Chairman Peter Long told Reuters.</p>
<p>“We have lost our way in sales and lettings ... she (Platt) did the honourable thing and decided to step aside,” Long said.</p>
<p>Platt’s departure comes after Britain’s biggest lettings and estate firm, warned on its full-year profit and posted disappointing fourth-quarter results that sent its shares down about 20 percent.</p>
<p>The property services industry has suffered as a result of a drop in demand stemming from higher property taxes and the country’s vote to leave the European Union.</p>
<p>The organisational changes made by Countrywide, along with the cooling property market, led to it losing market share to other traditional competitors, Long said.</p>
<p>“There has been a lot of changes in the organisation and I think that caused disruption and a negative impact in terms of our ability to sell homes.” he added.</p>
<p>Platt took the helm in 2014 and took on more responsibilities in August as the company brought in a new organisational structure. The company said in a statement that she would also resign from the board and did not name a replacement for her.</p>
<p>Paul Creffield, previously managing director of the company’s commercial development division, has been appointed as group operations director with immediate effect, Countrywide said.</p>
<p>Creffield’s responsibilities would now also include the sales and lettings division, the company said.</p>
<p>The company also named Long, currently a non-executive chairman on the board, to become the executive chairman on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Within our core Sales and Lettings area ... a key priority will be to implement changes that will enable this area to start delivering once again,” Long said in a statement.</p>
<p>The company warned in November the market for housing transactions was challenging. At the time, Countrywide forecast results for the year ended December 31, 2017 at the lower end of market expectations.</p>
<p>This has forced property dealers, including Countrywide, to invest in digital expansion, close branches and slash headcount to stave off the growing threat from online agencies like Purplebricks that lure customers by charging lower fees.</p>
<p>Countrywide’s shares rose 2 percent to 102 pence at 1039 GMT. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Elaine Hardcastle)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NANTERRE, France (Reuters) - France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned for a second day on Wednesday by police investigating allegations that his 2007 election campaign received funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.</p>
<p>After a full day’s grilling on Tuesday, Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012 and remains an influential figure on the French right, was allowed to spend the night at home before his interrogation resumed in Nanterre, west of Paris.</p>
<p>It is the second major investigation for Sarkozy, who is also facing charges of illicit campaign spending overruns during his failed re-election bid in 2012.</p>
<p>The current questioning relates to accusations made by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who says he helped funnel 5 million euros ($6 million) from Gaddafi’s intelligence chief to Sarkozy’s campaign chief ahead of the 2007 election.</p>
<p>Neither Sarkozy nor his lead lawyer have commented publicly since the 63-year-old first answered the police summons on Tuesday. Sarkozy has in the past dismissed the allegations as “grotesque” and described them as a “manipulation”.</p>
<p>The inquiry began in 2013, after investigative website Mediapart published Takieddine’s allegations.</p>
<p>In an interview with Lebanon’s L’Orient du Jour newspaper published on Tuesday, Takieddine said he acted as an intermediary between France and Libya during the time that Sarkozy served as interior minister, before his election bid.</p> Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the judiciary police offices in Nanterre, near Paris, France, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
<p>Five months after Sarkozy was elected president, Gaddafi visited him in Paris. It was the eccentric Libyan leader’s first state visit to a Western capital in decades, and he pitched a Bedouin-style tent near the Elysee Palace.</p>
<p>Later, Sarkozy became one of the chief advocates of the NATO-led campaign against Gaddafi that resulted in the dictator’s overthrow and killing by rebels in 2011.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>In France, investigators can interrogate people for up to 48 hours, after which they must release them or notify them that they are being put under formal investigation, which signals serious suspicion but does not automatically lead to trial.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear when Sarkozy might know his fate, given that his questioners are free to stop the clock for breaks, sleep or longer timeouts between question-and-answer sessions before their 48-hour limit is up.</p>
<p>Sarkozy, once branded a “bling-bling” president, has been dogged for years by political scandals, but none has led to a conviction.</p>
<p>He is not the first French president to be questioned by police after leaving office.</p>
<p>His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was convicted in 2011, after his retirement, of misusing public funds to keep allies in phantom jobs. He was the first French head of state to be convicted of a crime since Nazi collaborator Marshall Philippe Petain in 1945.</p>
<p>Reporting by Benoit Tessier and Paris bureau; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Matthias Blamont and Gareth Jones</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A storm bearing snow, sleet and winds rolled through the eastern United States on Wednesday, crippling public transit and closing schools in several cities, as people in the region endured the fourth major snowstorm this month.</p>
<p>The nor’easter was on track to dump 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) of snow on areas from Philadelphia to New York City on Wednesday, said Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Dan Petersen.</p>
<p>The storm also lashed points along the East Coast with winds of more than 50 miles (80 km) per hour, according to the Weather Prediction Center.</p>
<p>The wintry blast on the second day of spring was dubbed “four’easter” by some media because it came after three previous storms this month. Those nor’easters left nine dead and more than 2 million homes and businesses without power.</p>
<p>New York’s normally bustling Times Square was sedate, even though the brunt of the storm had yet to hit.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to let the snow get in the way of our snow day,” said Cheryl Mandelbaum, 30, an elementary school teacher who was taking pictures with a friend, another teacher who had the day off because the city had canceled school.</p>
<p>Several inches of snowfall in Washington and its suburbs forced the closure of federal government offices, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.</p>
<p>Washington schools were also closed, and children in Philadelphia, parts of New Jersey and Pittsburgh also enjoyed a snow day. In Boston, students were told to trudge to school.</p>
<p>Further inland, between 5 inches and 8 inches (13 cm to 20 cm) of snow blanketed parts of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.</p> Bicycles covered by snow are seen a snowstorm in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
<p>Airlines scrapped more than 3,890 flights into and out of the United States, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, and nearly 1,000 other flights were delayed.</p>
<p>Jeremy McLellan, a standup comedian from Charleston, South Carolina, posted on Twitter that his flight was canceled and that he was stuck in New York City and would miss his wife’s baby shower.</p>
<p>“(Snow: If you can read this ... thank you.),” McLellan wrote.</p> Slideshow (29 Images)
<p>The storm was no laughing matter for millions of commuters, who faced dangerous roads.</p>
<p>In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy on Tuesday declared a state of emergency, as crews cleared roadways. Transit bus service was ordered suspended statewide, beginning on Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Throughout the East Coast, many other buses and trains, including some Greyhound bus and Amtrak rail routes, that millions of people rely on to commute to and from work and school also canceled service on Wednesday.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-weather-flights/fourth-northeast-u-s-winter-storm-forces-thousands-of-flight-cancellations-idUSKBN1GX2F0" type="external">Fourth Northeast U.S. winter storm forces thousands of flight cancellations</a>
<p>Widespread power outages were expected as heavy snow and ice combined with gusty winds may topple trees and power lines.</p>
<p>Already, about 28,000 electricity customers were without power in Virginia and West Virginia.</p>
<p>Across the country in Southern California, residents of Santa Barbara County were bracing for heavy rains forecast to hit the region this week and potentially trigger mudslides.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Alana Wise and Scott DiSavino in New York, Bernadette Baum in Montclair, New Jersey, Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Keith Coffman in Denver, and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing and additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, Editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $62.5 billion buy of U.S. peer Monsanto, the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry.</p>
<p>The tie-up is set to create a company with control of more than a quarter of the world’s seed and pesticides market.</p>
<p>Driven by shifting weather patterns, competition in grain exports and a faltering global farm economy, Dow and Dupont, and ChemChina and Syngenta had earlier led a wave of consolidation in the sector.</p>
<p>Both deals secured EU approval only after the companies offered substantial asset sales to boost rivals.</p>
<p>Environmental and farming groups have opposed all three deals, worried about their power and their advantage in digital farming data, which can tell farmers how and when to till, sow, spray, fertilize and pick crops based on algorithms.</p>
<p>The European Commission said Bayer addressed its concerns with its offer to sell a swathe of assets to boost rival BASF, confirming a Reuters story on Feb. 28.</p>
<p>“Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.</p>
<p>“In particular, we have made sure that the number of global players actively competing in these markets stays the same.”</p>
<p>Vestager said the Commission, which received more than a million petitions concerning the deal, had been thorough by examining more than 2,000 different product markets and 2.7 million internal documents to produce a 1,285-page ruling.</p> European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>The U.S. Justice Department, which is also reviewing the merger, said in a statement on its website that it would press on with its review and that the market in the two regions was quite different.</p>
<p>“While genetically modified seeds are largely prohibited in Europe, they are widely used throughout the United States,” the department noted. “The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice continues to examine the effects of the proposed transaction on American farmers and consumers.”</p>
<p>China has given conditional approval to the Bayer and Monsanto deal, which has won a green light in Brazil. It is currently being reviewed by Russian antitrust authorities too.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Bayer has already reached a deal to sell certain seed and herbicide assets for 5.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) to BASF and to give it a license to its global digital farming data. It will also divest its vegetable seeds business to BASF.</p>
<p>The Commission is due to rule on the BASF deal by April 16.</p>
<p>Online campaigns group Avaaz criticized the EU approval.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-usa/u-s-says-it-is-still-reviewing-bayers-planned-monsanto-acquisition-idUSKBN1GX2HZ" type="external">U.S. says it is still reviewing Bayer's planned Monsanto acquisition</a>
<p>“This is a marriage made in hell. The Commission ignored a million people who called on them to block this deal, and caved in to lobbying to create a mega-corporation which will dominate our food supply,” Avaaz legal director Nick Flynn said.</p>
<p>U.S.-incorporated Avaaz, funded by its members, is active in climate change, poverty, conflict and corruption issues.</p>
<p>The Greens grouping in the European Parliament echoed the sentiment, saying smaller players in the agriculture industry needed to be helped too.</p>
<p>“The agriculture industry is already far too concentrated, giving a handful of massive firms a stranglehold on food production. Merging two of the biggest players only makes a bad situation worse,” Greens spokesman Bart Staes said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Foo Yun Chee with additional reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; editing by Robin Emmott, David Evans and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and forecast at least two more hikes for 2018, signaling growing confidence U.S. tax cuts and government spending will boost the economy and inflation and lead to more aggressive future tightening.</p> The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington September 16 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
<p>Policymakers predicted rates would rise three times next year and two times in 2020, a further indication of confidence in the economy.</p> COMMENTS:
<p>STEPHEN MASSOCCA, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT WEDBUSH SECURITIES IN SAN FRANCISCO:</p>
<p>“We’re still below the all time high. The 30 year is also below its high. I don’t think there’s any new news here. It was a quarter of a point increase. We’re taking about 3 increases this year. I don’t know how anybody could be surprised.”</p>
<p>“If some economic numbers were really hot you might see four rate hikes this year. If employment was hot or inflation. I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think Powell is a don’t upset the apple cart guy.”</p>
<p>“My view is they’ll go to 2-2.25 percent and see what the reaction is. If we had 2-3 inflation reports of 3-4 percent the Fed would start acting more aggressively.”</p>
<p>JASON WARE, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT ALBION FINANCIAL IN UTAH:</p>
<p>“The market was concerned that we’d get more of a hawkish near term statement but the balance is, that looking ahead, there might be a steeper path into 2019 and 2020 for rate hikes. The market is trying to balance the near term with the longer term, but in the stockmarket, the near term matters more than the longer term. Then, we’ll take 2019 and 2020 as they come.”</p>
<p>ALEC YOUNG, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL MARKETS RESEARCH, FTSE RUSSELL, NEW YORK:</p>
<p>“Investors’ focus was very much on the Fed’s updated monetary policy outlook and the pace of future rate hikes. Markets came into today’s decision with many investors worried about the possibility of a Fed policy mistake if they tighten too much in the face of recent fiscal stimulus from tax reform, an uptick in inflation and ongoing synchronized global growth. The Fed’s updated economic outlook was less hawkish than feared, sparking a relief rally in stocks as markets discounted continued economic growth and gradual interest rate hikes. Overall, investors welcomed the fact that while the Fed remains confident in the economic expansion, it signaled a willingness to continue to be gradual in raising interest rates. Goldilocks is alive and well.”</p>
<p>MINH TRANG, SENIOR FOREIGN CURRENCY TRADER, SILICON VALLEY BANK, SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA:</p>
<p>“It looks like a bit of a letdown even though the Fed’s overall outlook is hawkish because their economic outlook has strengthened. That’s why we are seeing a bit of a disappointment on the dollar side. I still think the tone is long-term hawkish, which is bullish for the dollar. Going into 2018, there is a lot of bearishness on the dollar.”</p>
<p>CANDICE BANGSUND, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, GLOBAL ASSET ALLOCATION, FIERA CAPITAL</p>
<p>“There’s a new line in the statement essentially acknowledging that the economic outlook has strengthened in recent months, that’s obviously a more hawkish development, while at the same time also acknowledging that some of the data in Q1 has softened somewhat after a strong Q4.</p>
<p>“Our expectation going into the new Fed chairmanship has been a status quo, what we saw in the Yellen era. While his semi-annual testimony to Congress was a bit more on the blunt side, (Powell) acknowledged his personal outlook had strengthened. He wasn’t afraid to make his expectations or opinions heard. At the same time, right off the bat, what we’re seeing in the statement, a little bit for the hawks, a little bit more for the doves, it’s giving us that more status quo, gradual approach to normalization that we’ve been adjusting to and that’s why you’re seeing the markets respond as they have. But no major surprises.”</p>
<p>MARK GRANT, CHIEF GLOBAL STRATEGIST AT B. RILEY FBR INC,FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA:</p>
<p>“The FOMC policy statement was pretty much in-line with general expectations. Nothing moved dramatically with the exception of the equity markets that breathed a sigh of relief that more rate hikes were less likely past the three already baked into the markets. The statement was fairly optimistic about U.S. growth and seemed to ignore the Atlanta’s Fed’s GDP Now number of just 1.8 percent growth. The median FOMC member now expects a GDP of up 2.7 percent which is up 0.2 percent from their December forecast. I think that equities are reacting to the growth projections. Treasuries are off, but slightly. Overall, no real surprises and a continuing of the policies set under Ms. Yellen.”</p>
<p>THOMAS MARTIN, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER AT GLOBALT INVESTMENTS IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA:</p>
<p>“Everybody expected the rate increase but there was some question if it would go to three rates to four. It stayed flat at three raises for now. The reason was the Fed statement that economic activity has been moderating since the last time they talked about it. There is a moderation so they are not going to raise it to four at this time.</p>
<p>“All in all, the message for the markets and why the S&amp;P went up is that you see the message is economic growth is still OK now and perhaps sustainable more so than people might have thought for 2019 and 2020. But in the longer run you are going to have this moderation at a reasonable level. So really nice for equities.”</p>
<p>RUSSELL PRICE, SENIOR ECONOMIST AT AMERIPRISE, MINNEAPOLIS:</p>
<p>“I still think three is the most likely expectation this year. They did tweak their projections a little bit for both dovish and hawkish. The unemployment rate expectations were tweaked lower slightly, by a tenth of a percentage point.</p>
<p>“But expectations for the federal funds rate over the longer term were equally tweaked higher by a tenth of a percentage point.</p>
<p>“In other words, they indicated that unemployment can go a little bit lower without creating additional inflation pressures. Which is good from both the ability of the economy to continue to grow at a good pace without creating a lot of inflation and it shows they’re probably still in wait-and-see mode as to whether we overheat this year because of the added stimulus.”</p>
<p>“They are probably leaving themselves some room to operate given that, although the economy is likely to do well this year given the added stimulus, there is also the risk we could see a soft patch if the tariff situation continues to escalate. Like everyone else they want to see how that plays out.”</p>
<p>MATT MISKIN, MARKET STRATEGIST AT JOHN HANCOCK INVESTMENTS:</p>
<p>“The guidance in terms of the future rate hikes is a touch more hawkish than originally expected. 2019 looks like we’re going to get a faster pace of rate hike. This year, it looks like a similar projection.”</p>
<p>“This a new Fed Chairman starting with a bit of a hawkish tone as he takes leadership.”</p>
<p>“In terms of stocks, we have to see how it settles because initial reaction does not fully reflect well. I won’t be surprised to see financials and banks take a little bit more of leadership role. Stocks can get through a faster rate cycle as long as the growth is there to support it, and from what the Fed is forecasting, the GDP will be enough to support equities in a tighter cycle.”</p>
<p>AARON KOHLI, INTEREST RATE STRATEGIST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS, NEW YORK:</p>
<p>“I think the Fed did a pretty good job in pulling off a hike that was fairly well choreographed and well telegraphed to everyone. Compared to my expectations it’s a very dovish scenario.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be really interesting to see what (Powell) says in the context of the reaction to markets. What’s important in this meeting and what’s different from the past, it’s not that the market’s reaction to the Fed is worth watching, it’s that the Fed’s reaction to markets is worth watching. Primarily its Powell’s reaction to what the market does. Does he try to direct the market the way that Bernanke did or does he play a hands off approach and let the statement speak for itself the way Yellen did? Given the muted reaction maybe there’s not much of a chance of him needing to step in, but getting that response function to the market, gauging whether the market got it right or wrong, is super important.”</p>
<p>RANDY FREDERICK, VICE PRESIDENT OF TRADING AND DERIVATIVES, CHARLES SCHWAB, AUSTIN, TEXAS</p>
<p>“There was nothing real shocking here. I think the market shooting up and back down is typical. We often see the market make a quick knee jerk reaction and it’s often in the wrong direction.</p>
<p>“The more important thing will be when he (Fed Chairman Jerome Powell) is talking not on script in the press conference, but no surprise here. There was a 100 percent chance I think for almost eight weeks straight now that we would get this quarter point hike.</p>
<p>“If he says anything that for whatever reason the markets perceive to be hawkish, that there is going to be maybe a higher level of likelihood of four hikes, then the market is likely to sell off a little bit based on that. But I don’t think it will be huge.”</p>
<p>PRAVEEN KORAPATY, GLOBAL HEAD OF INTEREST RATE STRATEGY, CREDIT SUISSE IN NEW YORK:</p>
<p>“It was a little more dovish than our economists were expecting. But I would say overall if I looked at it separate from expectations, I would say on course – not too hawkish, not too dovish.</p>
<p>“We continue to think they’re on the path for four hikes this year even though the median dots didn’t move. I think we were one dot away from the median for 2018 moving up to four hikes. So I think four hikes should be people’s’ base case.”</p>
<p>JUAN PEREZ, SENIOR FX TRADER AND STRATEGIST, TEMPUS CONSULTING, WASHINGTON:</p>
<p>“The most important thing is the Fed sticking to its original plan of three rate hikes. Anymore would be too much. Any faster increases in borrowing costs could affect the economy. I think we are pretty good where we are in terms of the current pace of rate hikes. There was some thinking we could see up to four (hikes). The other thing is that the economic outlook has strengthened and that’s a good thing. It’s very consistent with what Powell told Congress. They do think the economy is strong enough for further increases in borrowing costs.”</p>
<p>KATHY JONES, CHIEF FIXED INCOME STRATEGIST, SCHWAB CENTER FOR FINANCIAL RESEARCH</p>
<p>“I though it leaned a little bit towards the hawkish side. One more dot shift and we would have gotten the expectation for four rate hikes this year, so they were pretty close to moving in that direction.”</p>
<p>“They upgraded their assessment of the economy, which I think is significant. I think that’s an indication that they’re taking into consideration tax cuts and spending increases.”</p>
<p>“All that suggests to me that they’re leaning a little bit hawkish. I’m surprised that the market has not responded to that, but I suppose that suggests there was a feeling this was already discounted by the market.”</p>
<p>JEFF CARBONE, MANAGING PARTNER, CORNERSTONE WEALTH, HUNTERSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA:</p>
<p>“The rate hike is no surprise. It was really reassurance about the amount of rate hikes we will get for 2018. There was no change there. That’s the big thing we were looking for…Inflation is still not a concern for them. There are positives with unemployment continuing to decrease. There was reassurance that the economy is strong. We may be in the later part of the business cycle, but it’s the early late stage of the business cycle. It still means there’s definitely more room for the market to run.”</p>
<p>FRITZ FOLTS, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, 3EDGE ASSET MANAGEMENT LP IN BOSTON:</p>
<p>“Right now the equity markets are holding their break and however they read the tea leaves coming out of this press conference is, at least in the short term, going to be very influential. I don’t see how you could say the Fed isn’t (a risk). The Fed could certainly be a risk, and I don’t think you can discount that. The problem is you have someone who’s an unknown. We haven’t had three press conferences with him and we don’t know how to interpret what he says.”</p>
<p>“We were comfortable not being as aggressive on equities going into this meeting because it could push markets one direction or the other.”</p> LINDSEY BELL, INVESTMENT STRATEGIST AT CFRA RESEARCH:
<p>“There weren’t really any surprises out of the press release, which is a good thing, and that’s why the market has reacted positively. The Fed is still expecting three rate hikes this year. They did hike 2019 by one and 2020 by two more. I think that was expected by the market.</p>
<p>“Going into the press conference, they’ve raised economic growth expectations and lowered unemployment, but inflation was little changed. So we’ll need a bit more explanation on that because you’d expect to see inflation moving up a bit higher in that type of environment.”</p>
<p>JIM PAULSEN, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, THE LEUTHOLD GROUP, MINNEAPOLIS</p>
<p>“That’s a Fed that really feels good about the economy, not only this year but into next year. That came through in rate hikes they put into play in 2019 and 2020. And they were only one vote away from a fourth rate hike in 2018. That tells you four hikes is very much on the table for 2018.”</p>
<p>“The initial response by equities was to go up because of the confidence the Fed seems to have in the economy. But with bond yields going up in anticipation of more hikes in coming, that kind of scared the stock market again.”</p>
<p>“That’s the struggle the market is in. Good growth in the economy also probably means higher inflation and higher yields. The market today is a microcosm of this year. It’s going nowhere fast. It goes up on good economic news it goes down on higher rate news.”</p>
<p>RICK MECKLER, PRESIDENT, LIBERTYVIEW CAPITAL MANAGEMENT IN JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY</p>
<p>“Certainly there was no surprise in terms of the actual hike. The positive for the market is that the focus on future rate hikes seems more due to a Fed view of a better economy than necessarily inflation prevention. If the economy can grow with moderate inflation, that is certainly the ideal situation for stocks.”</p>
<p>“That said, we are going to be continuing to see rate increases this year and it looks like next as well and that does provide more competition for equities. So I think it will be a struggle for the market to go up at the rate it has been as investors try and balance the strength of the economy with the opportunity to invest in fixed income at higher rates.”</p> MARKET REACTION:
<p>STOCKS: U.S. stocks extended gains, and were last up 0.7 percent. BONDS: U.S. bond yields dipped, then rose. FOREX: The dollar index .DXY hit a session low.</p>
<p>Americas Economics and Markets Desk; +1-646 223-6300</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 2-British estate agent Countrywide's CEO exits after profit warning France's Sarkozy faces second day of questioning in Gaddafi funds case 'Four'easter' storm in U.S. East brings snow day for kids, traffic nightmare for adults Bayer wins EU approval for $62.5 billion Monsanto buy Fed raises rates, signals confidence in strengthening economy | false | https://reuters.com/article/countrywide-ceo/update-2-british-estate-agent-countrywides-ceo-exits-after-profit-warning-idUSL4N1PJ2QY | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
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<p>Brad Winter, the new interim head of Albuquerque Public Schools, said Monday that he will welcome opinions from the community – unlike his predecessor, Winston Brooks.</p>
<p>Brooks often refused to work with community and business groups, which created animosity toward APS and damaged its reputation, Winter said Monday in an interview with the Journal.</p>
<p>“I could not work for him anymore,” Winter said, explaining he was fed up with what he described as Brooks’ unwillingness to work with the business community, the state Public Education Department and neighborhood groups.</p>
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<p>Winter said that, while he found it difficult to work with Brooks, he had planned to retire as APS’ chief operating officer in May anyway. Winter rescinded his retirement after the school board selected him to become interim superintendent Aug. 22, but he has said he will not seek the position permanently.</p>
<p>Winter also holds a seat on the Albuquerque City Council.</p>
<p>Brooks could not be reached for comment Monday.</p>
<p>The school board decided Aug. 15 to buy out the last two years of Brooks’ contract for $350,000. He was earning $250,000 a year in salary, plus benefits.</p>
<p>Winter said his top goals are to repair relationships with the community, reduce truancy and eliminate “drama” at district headquarters.</p>
<p>“People out there, they are angry,” he said, because many believed APS didn’t want partnerships.</p>
<p>Winter said he has made it a point to meet with community and business groups during his first three weeks on the job.</p>
<p>One was the Southwest Alliance of Neighborhoods, whose members were happy to see him, President Johnny Peña said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Peña said that, although the alliance had extended an invitation to Brooks, the former superintendent never met with them.</p>
<p>“Dr. Winter did come and made it clear he’s available,” Peña said.</p>
<p>The alliance told Winter it would like APS to place a greater focus on early childhood education and truancy, helping students in poor and single-family households, Peña said.</p>
<p>Winter agreed and said cutting down on truancy will go a long way toward improving student achievement in the district. There were 13,941 habitually truant students in APS in 2013, the last year for which data is available.</p>
<p>Winter said he’s also tried to improve relations with Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera and the Public Education Department. The relationship had been chilly in recent years after Brooks and school board members criticized the state’s new teacher evaluations and school grades – which are top PED initiatives under Skandera. Brooks was roundly criticized last year after he tweeted disparaging remarks about Skandera.</p>
<p>Brooks was suspended without pay for three days, and Winter at the time met with Skandera and Gov. Susana Martinez to try to mend the relationship.</p>
<p>But the relationship remained frigid, Winter said.</p>
<p>“Winston just had a profound effect on those folks. Nobody (at PED) wanted to work with him,” Winter said, adding he’s talked with Skandera since becoming interim superintendent.</p>
<p>Skandera said she hopes there can be an ongoing dialogue between her department and APS.</p>
<p>“It was a good start,” Skandera said Monday of her recent conversations with Winter.</p>
<p>Board President Analee Maestas and member Marty Esquivel have said that, although they have differences with the department over teacher evaluations and some other policy issues, they want APS to work with the PED.</p>
<p>That opinion is not shared across the board. Board member Kathy Korte has said it would be fruitless to open dialogue with the PED because she doubts the department would compromise on key policy issues.</p>
<p>Winter said Brooks at times unnecessarily clashed with other local governments. He pointed to a recent tiff with Bernalillo County over the pool at Rio Grande High School.</p>
<p>Bernalillo County, which owns the pool, ran out of money to complete a $3.6 million renovation needed to keep the pool open and Brooks balked at the county’s request that APS chip in $400,000 to finish project.</p>
<p>Brooks argued the district has a set system for funding capital projects, in which infrastructure projects are based on a needs analysis. He said funding the pool would undermine the district’s normal funding process.</p>
<p>While that was true, another option was available, Winter said. He said the amount requested was small enough that the district could tap the money needed from its operational budget. In the end, APS agreed to give $200,000 from its operational fund to the project after the city agreed to pitch in $200,000, too.</p>
<p>Winter’s contract with the school board extends through June 30 and includes a $200,000 base salary. Winter said he expects the board could hire a permanent superintendent by May 1.</p>
<p>He noted board members have said they won’t select a new superintendent until after the board elections in February. Korte, Esquivel and Maestas are all up for re-election.</p>
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<p /> | Winter wants to build bridges, cut drama | false | https://abqjournal.com/462869/interim-aps-head-mending-fences.html | 2 |
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<p>Confessions? Apologies? Nothing could be further from my mind. It has never occurred to me to apologize to anyone for the content of my life, which I would have judged on its balance of good and evil. I share Christine Stansell's respect for the healthy attitude displayed by people like Adam Michnik and only regret that I should have given any other impression.</p>
<p>Please understand: I am not as much concerned with crimes of yesterday as with the crimes of the present and with the future of the American left. Thus, I expected Eric Foner and Alice Kessler-Harris to do everything in their power to obfuscate the issues, for they rank among the leaders of the thinly disguised totalitarianism in which the American left wallows. Foner, as is his wont, refers to my ill-tempered polemic against Herbert Aptheker of thirty years ago without mentioning my subsequent essays on Aptheker and my assessment of the destructive features of our quarrels. He accuses me of personal attacks. Much depends on what means "personal." Where and when have I invoked the personal filth that his political faction routinely pours over me and especially my wife?</p>
<p /> | The Riposte | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-riposte | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>TEXARKANA, Ark. — Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy at a home in southwestern Arkansas.</p>
<p>Texarkana Police Department spokeswoman Kristi Bennett says officers found the boy suffering from a gunshot wound Saturday afternoon at the home in the city bordering Texas.</p>
<p>Bennett tells the Texarkana Gazette ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2kHmnxg" type="external">http://bit.ly/2kHmnxg</a> ) that the boy was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p>
<p>Bennett says investigators are working to determine what led to the fatal shooting. She says other children and adults were at the home when the shooting occurred.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Texarkana Gazette, <a href="http://www.texarkanagazette.com" type="external">http://www.texarkanagazette.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police say 12-year-old boy was fatally shot in Arkansas home | false | https://abqjournal.com/954072/police-say-12-year-old-boy-was-fatally-shot-in-arkansas-home.html | 2 |
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<p>James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, who allegedly <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/reports-shooting-at-congressional-baseball-practice" type="external">attacked members of Congress on Wednesday morning</a> at a baseball practice, had a history of violence even before his shooting rampage.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/congressional-shooter-loved-bernie-sanders-hated-racist-and-sexist-republicans" type="external">The Daily Beast</a> cited a police report stating that Hodgkinson was arrested in 2006 for domestic battery and discharge of a firearm because he punched a man’s girlfriend “in the face with a closed fist.” Hodgkinson also aimed a shotgun at the man, firing one round.</p>
<p>The same police report asserted that Hodgkinson was also “observed throwing” an unidentified minor, whom police identified as his daughter, “around the bedroom” After she got loose, Hodgkinson followed and “started hitting her arms, pulling her hair, and started grabbing her off the <a href="http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=bed" type="external">bed</a>.” When Hodgkinson’s girlfriend tried to flee in a vehicle, he “turned off the ignition …. James then pulled out a possible pocket knife and cut [her] seatbelt.”</p>
<p>On March 24, 2017, a neighbor of Hodgkinson called the St. Clair County Sheriff’s office, informing them that 50 shots had been fired nearby; Hodgkinson was shooting in the pine trees; an officer told him to stop, although Hodgkinson has a valid firearm license.</p>
<p>In March 2010, Hodgkinson wrote the Belleville News-Democrat, "I don't ever again want to hear how great a president [Ronald Reagan] was. All he did was give tax breaks to the rich and put the rest of the country (or at least 13.1 percent) out of work. To think the Republican Party can call this man their idol is un-American. It's all about the money.”</p>
<p>Another letter to the editor stated, “Also to fund the government deficit I hope the Obama administration raises the income tax rate for the rich to 70 percent or more."</p>
<p>Other letters to the editor from Hodgkinson evidencing his leftism can be found <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article156092134.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Hodgkinson called himself a Bernie Sanders supporter on social media; Sanders released a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sanders-condemns-supporter-who-shot-congressman?via=desktop&amp;source=copyurl" type="external">statement</a> decrying Hodgkinson’s actions, adding, “I have just been informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign,”</p> | Shooter Who Targeted Congressmen Had History Of Violence, Leftism | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17534/shooter-who-targeted-congressmen-had-history-hank-berrien | 2017-06-14 | 0 |
<p>This explainer has been <a href="#update2" type="external">updated</a>.</p>
<p>There’s a long list of scenarios that could sour the mood at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. “ <a href="" type="internal">Newt University</a>” could go off the rails. <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/08/23/convention_protests_attacks_fbi_homland_security_warn_of_anarchist_activity_at_rnc_dnc_.html" type="external">“Violent anarchists”</a> may make an appearance. <a href="http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/5-things-you-need-to-know-happening-in-florida-on-thursday-august-16" type="external">Fifteen thousand</a> protesters and Occupiers could gum up the GOP’s works. The <a href="http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/07/31/puppet-protests-a-problem-at-republican-convention/" type="external">ban on puppetry</a> might sadden Republican children. And then tropical storm Isaac, orginally forecast to hit Tampa just in time to spoil Mitt Romney’s big kickoff party. Mother Nature’s latest display of flagrant liberal bias now headed toward NOLA—but not before RNC organizers canceled the first day of the convention.</p>
<p>What is Isaac?</p>
<p>It’s a tropical storm that was thought to hit Tampa on Monday, the first day of the GOP nominating convention. Here’s an image from the National Hurricane Center’s Wednesday night forecast showing the fast-moving storm’s probable path (colloquially referred to as the “ <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22cone+of+doom%22+hurricane+florida+tropical+storm&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;aq=t&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;client=firefox-a" type="external">cone of doom</a>” in Florida):</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/204427.shtml?5-daynl?large#contents" type="external">National Hurricane Center</a></p>
<p>Where did the name “Isaac” come from?</p>
<p>Isaac has been used for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Isaac" type="external">four</a> distinct tropical cyclones in the Atlantic (tropical storms in 1988 and 2012, and hurricanes in 2000 and 2006). Names for hurricanes and storms are generally retired in the event of direct fatalities or extensive damage.</p>
<p>What are the chances the storm touches down in Tampa?</p>
<p>A direct hit by Isaac would be the first one Tampa has experienced in nine decades. Even including the worst-case scenario—torrential downpours, sizable storm surges, and full-scale hurricane-force winds—forecasters put the odds of evacuation at around <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/08/22/chances-of-hurricane-evacuation-in-tampa-placed-at-3-percent/" type="external">3 percent</a>. (However, some analysts gave Isaac a <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-storm-isaacbre87l0ph-20120822,0,910633.story" type="external">50 percent</a> chance of harming American oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.)</p>
<p>Are people besides convention-goers being affected by this storm?</p>
<p>Yes, very much so, and given the widespread danger Isaac poses in the Caribbean, it seems sort of myopic to focus on the RNC: Puerto Rico has opened 428 shelters, and 50 people have hunkered down so far, <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TROPICAL_WEATHER?SITE=ORAST&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">according to Gov. Luis Fortuno</a>. (Roughly 4,000 people are already without power, and more than 3,000 don’t have access to clean water.) The Virgin Islands are battening down the hatches as well and were hit with 40-mile-an-hour winds and a 10-foot surge of waves on Thursday.</p>
<p>Haiti, which is still recovering from the <a href="" type="internal">devastating</a> 2010 earthquake, could very well be <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/us/tropical-storm-isaac/index.html?hpt=wo_c2" type="external">in the path of the storm</a>. Here’s a video report:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>What role does Walmart play in Florida’s disaster response plan?</p>
<p>The state’s director of emergency management, Bryan Koon, is a business school grad whose last job was <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=25502160&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=wQVo&amp;locale=en_US&amp;srchid=a525303b-c50a-4a55-bb57-088926d11fea-0&amp;srchindex=1&amp;srchtotal=2&amp;goback=.fps_PBCK_*1_Bryan_Koon_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&amp;pvs=ps&amp;trk=pp_profile_name_link" type="external">running disaster response</a> for Walmart and Sam’s Club. His “ <a href="http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/Bryan-Coon-Major-Player-Jan-2012.html" type="external">extensive private-sector experience</a>”&#160;must have made him attractive to Republican Gov. Rick Scott, a privatization proponent whose personal portfolio has included Walmart stock and who has <a href="http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/3725523425/floridas-new-governor-rick-scott-really-loves" type="external">extolled the corporate chain’s values</a> on multiple occasions. (Walmart also <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/banking/republican-party-rick-scotts-inaugural-committee-rake-in-big-bucks/1146029" type="external">contributed</a> to Scott’s inaugural fund, and gave $15,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.)</p>
<p>While working at Walmart, Koon gave the Federal Emergency Management Agency <a href="http://beachpeanuts.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/emergency-management-or-disaster-in-the-making/" type="external">an interview</a> (its since been wiped from the government agency’s site) that offers some insight into his (and the corporation’s) disaster preparedness philosophy:</p>
<p>We have an extensive database that helps us keep track of what the most popular items are after each type of disaster, which enables us to get the right merchandise to an area more quickly in preparation for or in response to an emergency…</p>
<p>Our ideal situation is one in which private sector, non-governmental organizations and local, state and federal government emergency management organizations…develop inter-operable plans that maximize those strengths and minimizes gaps in coverage…We feel that we are on the right road to get to this eventuality, but it will still be a long trip. It started with Hurricane Katrina, where the folly of planning in a vacuum and hoping for the best was exposed and the benefits of involving the private sector were clearly illustrated.</p>
<p>Koon’s faith in Walmart’s ability to figure out a hurricane isn’t a total aberration; in 2008, multiple media outlets <a href="http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/Papers/Wal-Mart_to_the_Rescue.pdf" type="external">trumpeted “Wal-Mart to the Rescue,” an economist’s study</a> (PDF) that concluded the big-box store performed impeccably in the post-Katrina recovery, thanks to “superior organizational routines that emerge through private ownership and competitive markets.” Few of these media reports pointed out that the author, <a href="http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/" type="external">Stephen Horwitz</a>, is a politically conservative libertarian whose CV includes numerous articles for&#160;The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.</p>
<p>What have leaders in Florida been saying recently?</p>
<p>“Public safety—that’s going to be the No. 1 priority. We can have the convention again,” Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/story/2012-05-23/hurricane-tampa-republican-national-convention/55173876/1" type="external">said on Wednesday</a>.</p>
<p>“We’d be dealing a lot with storm surge issues down there,” Koon <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/story/2012-05-23/hurricane-tampa-republican-national-convention/55173876/1" type="external">told</a> reporters. “We’re also working on a high number of potential evacuations.”</p>
<p>Here’s footage of a press conference Scott held on Thursday morning:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>If this becomes a hurricane, where do folks find shelters?</p>
<p>The Hillsborough County government has a list [ <a href="http://tbrpc.org/tampabaydisaster/pdf/2012_hurricane_guide/Important_Info_Hillsborough.pdf" type="external">PDF</a>] of public hurricane shelters for both low and high intensity storms (all the listed locations are at local public schools).</p>
<p>Is Tropical Storm Isaac a liberal conspiracy?</p>
<p>Um, <a href="http://saucysocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/you_are_broken_trollcat-300x300.jpg" type="external">no</a>, but we’ll keep you posted if new information comes through suggesting otherwise. In the meantime, here’s Rush Limbaugh (a man famous for branding The Dark Knight Rises&#160;an <a href="" type="internal">anti-Romney conspiracy</a>) talking about how President Obama is orchestrating the storm-related panic in order to throw the Republican convention into <a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Limbaugh-takes-aim-at-Obama-over-hurricane-3809525.php" type="external">Day After Tomorrow–type chaos</a>:</p>
<p>I can see Obama sending FEMA in in advance of the hurricane hitting Tampa so that the Republican convention is nothing but a bunch of tents in Tampa, a bunch of RVs and stuff. Make it look like a disaster area before the hurricane even hits there.</p>
<p />
<p>Is there something about GOP conventions that attract hurricanes?</p>
<p>Not quite, but this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, either. For instance, just <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/08/22/isaac_rnc_convention_what_happens_if_the_storm_hits_during_the_gop_convention_.html" type="external">back in 2008</a>, Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana while Republicans were beginning their national convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Even though the hurricane ended up missing St. Paul by hundreds of miles, weather concerns caused organizers to cancel or roll back several opening-day events.</p>
<p>And, of course, there are still the ghosts of <a href="" type="internal">Hurricane Katrina</a>.</p>
<p>So, is climate change making this worse?</p>
<p>Well, it can’t be helping. <a href="" type="internal">Earlier this summer</a>, MoJo‘s Julia Whitty wrote about the reasons (“hotspots” in sea surface temperatures) that 2012 might be a <a href="" type="internal">bigger hurricane year for the East Coast</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>UPDATE 1 (Friday, August 24, 11:50 a.m. PDT): At maximum sustained winds at 60 mph (the threshold for turning into a hurricane is 74), Tropical Storm Isaac has gained strength, but <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/tropical-storm-isaac-stronger-set-to-impact-haiti-and-cuba-in-short-term/2012/08/24/c1cbdb86-ed9e-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_blog.html" type="external">does not</a> seem to be showing signs of rapid intensification. The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/tropical-storm-isaac-stronger-set-to-impact-haiti-and-cuba-in-short-term/2012/08/24/c1cbdb86-ed9e-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_blog.html" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Much of southern Florida could receive 6-9” in the next few days, with locally higher amounts. Areas in Haiti and Dominican Republic could see 10-20” of rain, with 6-12” in Jamaica and eastern Cuba. Besides flooding, additional threats include coastal storm surge, tornadoes, and of course, winds from the storm itself.</p>
<p>The storm does appear to be <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/tropical-storm-isaac-veers-west-republican-convention-woods/story?id=17072637" type="external">veering West</a>, away from the site of the Republican convention in Tampa. However, National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/tropical-storm-isaac-veers-west-republican-convention-woods/story?id=17072637#.UDfN-kSDoT4" type="external">said Friday</a> that “[n]ot by any stretch of the imagination [is Tampa] out of the woods with this thing.”</p>
<p>Here’s the National Hurricane Center’s <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/174905.shtml?tswind120#contents" type="external">updated</a> wind speed probability for the storm, for 8:00 a.m. EDT on Friday:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/174905.shtml?tswind120#contents" type="external">NHC</a></p>
<p>Update 2 (Sunday, August 26, 2:30 p.m. PDT): Sunday afternoon, Tropical Storm Isaac started blasting the Florida Keys with rain and heavy winds, and could escalate into a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches the northern Gulf Coast in the next couple of days. Isaac has already killed nine people: seven in Haiti (where 8,000 people were evacuated) and two in the Dominican Republic.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>But the political casualties seem to be getting more attention. Even though the hurricane is not expected to directly hit the RNC, the <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov" type="external">National Hurricane Center</a> has put out a tropical storm warning for Tampa Bay, and convention events have been postponed until Tuesday afternoon, when the worst of the storm is expected to have passed.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency and canceled all of his convention-related activities today and tomorrow in order to help prepare the area and the 70,000 convention-goers for the mess. The Obama administration has dispatched FEMA, which already has emergency response teams on the ground, and coastal residents <a href="http://www.fema.gov/news-release/fema-urges-residents-florida-keys-and-coastal-areas-take-steps-prepare" type="external">have been warned</a> they may need to evacuate.&#160;</p>
<p>Isaac is not going to rain on the Republican parade though. RNC Chair Reince Priebus <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/25/13480404-hurricane-impending-republicans-cancel-first-day-of-convention?lite&amp;__utma=238145375.1945765893.1343246196.1344522466.1345935451.8&amp;__utmb=238145375.1.10.1345935451&amp;__utmc=238145375&amp;__utmx=-&amp;__utmz=238145375.1343573691.5.4.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=msnbc%20american%20flags%20moon%20nasa&amp;__utmv=238145375.%7C8=Earned%20By=msnbc%7Cpolitics%7Cpolitics=1%5E12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1%5E13=Landing%20Hostname=www.msnbc.msn.com=1%5E30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&amp;__utmk=65302125" type="external">affirmed</a>: “The Republican National Convention is going to take place. We know that we will officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Forecasters are not sure exactly what the path of the storm will be, and say hurricane conditions could reach anywhere from New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle by late Tuesday. –Erika Eichelberger</p>
<p>Update 3 (August 27, 2012 10:50 a.m. PDT):&#160; Isaac has passed by Tampa and left the RNC unscathed, but is gathering strength and barreling its way towards the Gulf Coast, headed for New Orleans. The National Weather Service projects it will hit land as a Category 1 hurricane by late Tuesday.&#160;</p>
<p>Though the storm, which coincides with the seventh anniversary of Katrina, is nowhere near that monster storm’s Category 5 strength, it could still be pretty dangerous, according to <a href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/isaac-not-another-katrina-bu/71095" type="external">AccuWeather</a>. It’s big, extending hundreds of miles from its center, and moving fast, and will likely bring inland flooding, downed trees, power outages and storm surges of up to 12 feet.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Thousands have been evacuated in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and even though New Orleans residents haven’t yet been ordered to leave their homes, many in the Katrina-ravaged Ninth Ward have understandably “ <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-la-pn-fema-prepares-new-orleans-for-a-possible-hurricane-isaac-20120827,0,2017956.story" type="external">self-evacuated</a>.” FEMA has moved thousands of pounds of emergency supplies to distribution centers in the area, and over 4,000 Louisiana National Guard troops have been <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/27/isaac-looking-stronger-but-still-a-tropical-storm/" type="external">deployed</a> to help with the response.&#160;</p>
<p>But on to more pressing things. As networks move some of their correspondents and anchors from Tampa to New Orleans, Republicans <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-gop-convention-planners-watch-as-isaac-targets-new-orleans-20120827,0,7050353.story" type="external">worry</a> they may have to share airtime with footage of people evacuating and/or trying not to drown.&#160;</p>
<p>RNC Chair Reince Priebus, for his part, is <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/27/all-eyes-on-isaac-as-gop-convention-approaches/#ixzz24mFe4y7s" type="external">totally focused</a> on the storm’s potential victims. “Obviously we want to pray for anyone that’s in the pathway of this storm,” Priebus said today on NBC’s “Today” show, “but the message is still the same: that all Americans deserve a better future and that this president … didn’t keep the promises he made in 2008.” –Erika Eichelberger</p>
<p>Update 4 (August 28, 2012 9:00 a.m. PDT): This morning Isaac was <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/28/13521127-isaac-nears-new-orleans-with-a-lot-of-hazards-surge-rain-and-maybe-twisters?lite" type="external">heading towards landfall</a>, and will most likely hit the Louisana or Mississippi coast as a Category 1 hurricane late tonight or early tomorrow. The storm could bring winds of up to 90mph, and certain places may see rainfall of up to 20 inches. Twenty-two people have now been left dead in its wake. This morning Obama delivered a <a href="http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/28/obama-on-hurricane-isaac-now-is-not-the-time-to-tempt-fate/" type="external">statement</a> on Isaac from the White House. He urged residents to “listen to your local officials and follow their directions” and said he had signed a disaster declaration for Louisiana to ensure federal funding and FEMA help are at the ready. “We’re dealing with a big storm and there could be significant flooding and other damage across a large area,” he said. “Now is not the time to tempt fate. Now is not the time to dismiss official warnings. You need to take this seriously.” Or not. Because, as Rush Limbaugh <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/rush-limbaugh-isaac-obama-convention_n_1835674.html?utm_hp_ref=media" type="external">notes</a>, Obama is probably tampering with the forecast in order to screw with the RNC. The National Hurricane Center is “the regime… It’s the government. It’s Obama.” –Erika Eichelberger</p> | Will a Hurricane Ruin the GOP’s Big Bash in Tampa? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/republican-national-convention-tampa-hurricane-isaac/ | 2012-08-24 | 4 |
<p>In the lawless world of Guantánamo — and the United States’ even murkier network of secret prisons run by or on behalf of the CIA — it has taken six years and four months for British resident Binyam Mohamed to secure anything resembling justice.</p>
<p>Seized in Pakistan in April 2002, Binyam was rendered to Morocco three months later, where he was <a href="" type="internal">tortured</a> on behalf of the US for 18 months, in sessions that regularly included having his genitals cut with a razor, and was then held for nine months in Afghanistan, first at the “Dark Prison,” a secret prison run by the CIA, where he was also tortured, and then at Bagram airbase. He has been held at Guantánamo since September 2004.</p>
<p>When justice finally came for Binyam, it was not at Guantánamo, but in London’s High Court, where, last Thursday, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones delivered a stinging rebuke to both the British and the American governments: to the British for the complicity of the UK intelligence services in the US administration’s post-9/11 policies of “extraordinary rendition” and torture, and to the Americans for the lawless conduct of the trials by Military Commission that were established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to deal with “terror suspects” like Binyam (even though the judges professed in their ruling that they “did not consider it necessary to form any view about the overall fairness of the Military Commissions procedure”).</p>
<p>The road to the High Court opened up in May this year, when Binyam’s lawyers at the legal action charity Reprieve, who represent over 30 Guantánamo prisoners, teamed up with solicitors at Leigh Day &amp; Co. to sue the British government, seeking the release of information relating to British knowledge of Binyam’s rendition and torture, in preparation for his impending trial at Guantánamo.</p>
<p>In the event, this was prescient, as charges were leveled against Binyam on May 28, in connection with the <a href="" type="internal">spectral “dirty bomb” plot</a> that was dropped years ago against US citizen <a href="" type="internal">Jose Padilla</a>. It was, therefore, imperative that potentially exculpatory evidence — which the British possessed, and which they had also handed over to the Americans — was made available to his lawyers so that they could begin preparing a defense, and, preferably, discover evidence of torture, which would back up Binyam’s claims that the charges against him were based solely on confessions obtained through torture, and would, therefore, make the US administration call off his forthcoming trial.</p>
<p>It was an indication of how far removed the Military Commissions are from legal norms that, although Binyam’s lawyers contended that he had been tortured, and had discovered the records of “extraordinary rendition” flights that matched his accounts, the US administration had not only provided no information to enable them to defend him, but had also categorically refused to account for his whereabouts before his arrival at Bagram.</p>
<p>Whatever information they and the British possessed would, it was stated, be made available to Binyam’s military defense lawyer, Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley, at the discovery stage, should his trial go ahead, but as the trial of <a href="" type="internal">Salim Hamdan</a> demonstrated last month, some evidence was withheld from the defense until the last possible moment, and other evidence — relating, for example, to coercive interrogations of Hamdan conducted by the CIA in Afghanistan — was ruled off-limits by the military judge presiding over the trial, and was, essentially, regarded as though it didn’t exist at all.</p>
<p>In Binyam’s case, his lawyers sued the British government after an earlier attempt to secure potentially exculpatory evidence from the British government was turned down, when the Treasury Solicitors, acting on behalf of the government, attempted to brush aside British complicity in Binyam’s rendition, torture and false confessions by claiming that “the UK is under no obligation under international law to assist foreign courts and tribunals in assuring that torture evidence is not admitted,” and adding that “it is HM Government’s position that … evidence held by the UK Government that US and Moroccan authorities engaged in torture or rendition cannot be obtained” by his British lawyers.</p>
<p>Last Thursday, following a judicial review in the High Court that was triggered when Binyam’s lawyers sued the government, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones demolished the government’s defense of its actions in a 75-page judgment ( <a href="" type="internal">PDF</a>).</p>
<p>The judges made clear that, after Binyam was captured and US agents came to regard him as “a serious potential threat to the security of the United Kingdom,” the British intelligence services had “every reason to seek to obtain as much intelligence from him as was possible in accordance with the rule of law and to cooperate as fully as possible with the United States authorities to that end.” They concluded, however, that the actions of the intelligence services from May 2002, when a British agent visited Binyam in US-supervised Pakistani custody, until February 2003, when the British last received information from the US regarding his interrogations, had placed the British government in a position where it “was involved, however innocently, in the alleged wrongdoing,” which it had helped facilitate.</p>
<p>Regarding Binyam’s time in Pakistan, where the British agent who visited him on May 17, 2002 made it clear that the British government “would not help [him] unless he cooperated fully with the US authorities,” the judges ruled that Binyam’s detention was “unlawful” under Pakistani law, because he “was being detained by the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer.” Furthermore, the judges noted that the British intelligence services “provided further information to the United States and further questions to be asked of BM [Binyam]” for nine months after this visit, even though he “was still incommunicado and they must also have appreciated that he was not in a United States facility and that the facility in which he was being detained was that of a foreign government (other than Afghanistan).”</p>
<p>The judges noted that all of the above was particularly significant because the information obtained from Binyam was “sought to be used as a confession in a trial where the charges … are very serious and may carry the death penalty,” and that it is “a long-standing principle of the common law that confessions obtained by torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment cannot be used as evidence in any trial.” They therefore ruled that “by seeking to interview BM in the circumstances found and supplying information and questions for his interviews, the relationship between the United Kingdom Government and the United States authorities went far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.”</p>
<p>The gravity of this was brought home during the judicial review, when the agent who had interviewed Binyam in Pakistan was cross-examined for several days in closed sessions that were clearly so perilous for the agent, in terms of potential criminal liability for war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act of 2001, that he brought his own legal adviser with him, and, it was revealed in the judgment, initially refused to answer the judges’ questions, fearing self-incrimination. This, of course, is in marked contrast to the position held by the US administration, which has refused to sign up to the International Criminal Court, and which, in addition, maintains that it “does not torture” and continues to do all in its power to deny that it has been responsible for gross human rights abuses.</p>
<p>In the second part of their ruling, the judges took as their starting point an admission by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, which took place “after the commencement of this application but before the hearing,” that he had “identified documents which he considers could be considered exculpatory or might otherwise be relevant in the context of the proceedings before the Military Commission.” After stating that David Miliband had informed Binyam’s lawyers and had “provided these documents to the United States Government,” the judges added, “It is a matter of regret that the documents have not been made available in the proceedings under the Military Commissions Act in confidence to BM’s lawyers, who have security clearance from the United States authorities to at least secret level.”</p>
<p>This was not the judges’ only thinly-veiled criticism of the behavior of the US authorities, but it was for three specific reasons that they proceeded to rule that the Foreign Secretary was “under a duty” to disclose “in confidence” to Binyam’s legal advisers the requested information, which was “not only necessary but essential for his defense”: firstly, because the Foreign Secretary had not made the documents available to Binyam’s lawyers; secondly, because the US authorities had also refused to do so; and thirdly, because the Foreign Secretary had accepted that Binyam had “established an arguable case” that, until his transfer to Guantánamo, “he was subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by or on behalf of the United States,” and was also “subject to torture during such detention by or on behalf of the United States.”</p>
<p>Having demolished the cases put forward by both the British and American governments, the judges nevertheless held out a lifeline for the Foreign Secretary, pointing out that they would “make no order for the provision of the information” until he “had an opportunity to consider the interests of national security in the light of these judgments,” and set a date for a second hearing on Wednesday August 27.</p>
<p>On the day, what was initially regarded as a straightforward hearing for the Foreign Secretary to announce his response to the judges’ ruling turned into another long session as the government responded to the security concerns mentioned by the judges by filing a Public Interest Immunity (PII) Certificate seeking to suppress disclosure of the documents on the grounds of national security, and the US State Department attempted to strike a deal through correspondence with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).</p>
<p>John Bellinger, the State Department’s Legal Adviser, claimed that public disclosure of the documents was “likely to result in serious damage to US national security and could harm existing intelligence information-sharing arrangements between our two governments.” His only concession to the judges’ ruling was to note that the Office of the Chief Prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions had agreed to provide the British intelligence documents (44 in total) to the Commissions’ Convening Authority, Susan Crawford, if she requested them, “subject only to the condition that the names of American and British government officials and the locations of intelligence facilities will be redacted from the documents prior to their being provided.” He added that, if Binyam’s trial were to go ahead, the redacted documents would be made available to his military lawyer at the “normal discovery phase” of the process.</p>
<p>In a separate email to the FCO, Stephen Mathias, one of John Bellinger’s deputies, offered a further concession “by way of update,” in which he stated that the Legal Adviser had now decided to present the documents to Susan Crawford, without waiting for her to ask for them. Describing this as “a significant development,” Stephen Mathias proceeded to claim, with a degree of force that appeared rather intimidating, “Ordering the disclosure of US intelligence information now would have only the marginal effects of serious and lasting damage to the US-UK intelligence sharing relationship, and thus the national security of the United Kingdom, and of aggressive and unprecedented intervention in the apparently functioning adjudicatory processes of a longtime ally of the United Kingdom, in contravention of well established principles of international comity.”</p>
<p>As Ben Jaffey (for Binyam) argued in court, neither the State Department’s “carefully calibrated concessions” nor the British government’s claim of Public Interest Immunity were tenable. He pointed out, as the judges did in their ruling, that the case did not involve public disclosure of the documents, but only the confidential disclosure to Binyam’s lawyers, Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley and Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s Director, who both have US security clearance. He added that the supposed concessions demonstrated merely that the US government was determined to find any method possible to prevent disclosure, and added that nothing offered by the State Department addressed the “central question” relating to Binyam’s rendition and torture. “Where,” he asked, “was Mr. Mohamed between 2002 and 2004?”</p>
<p>Ben Jaffey was equally dismissive of the British government’s PII claims, noting, in particular, that David Miliband had effectively conceded that the British government was going to hand over the intelligence documents to Binyam’s lawyers until the State Department intervened, and calmly dismissing the government’s national security claims. His composure was in marked contrast to that of the government’s representative, Tim Eicke, who struggled to maintain a coherent argument, despite the best efforts of the many representatives of the government and the intelligence services at the back of the court, who kept slipping him notes suggesting new twists on the spurious national security case.</p>
<p>On Friday, the judges delivered their second judgment on Binyam’s case ( <a href="" type="internal">PDF</a>). Noting that the correspondence from the State Department effected a “significant change” in the US position, they nevertheless refused to accept the British government’s position regarding its Public Interest Immunity Certificate. They were, it seemed, convinced in particular by submissions from the Special Advocates who represented Binyam in the various sessions of the court that were closed to the public when confidential material was being discussed. In the opinion of the Special Advocates, the PII Certificate, and other proposals presented in a closed session on Wednesday, “failed to address, in the light of allegations made by BM, the abhorrence and condemnation accorded to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”</p>
<p>Adding that this issue was something whose significance had been “accepted on behalf of the Foreign Secretary,” the judges proceeded to note that the Foreign Secretary “nevertheless contended that the issues arising out of BM’s allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment were implicitly dealt with in his Certificate,” and in the documentation used in the closed session. “Having carefully considered this matter,” the judges wrote, “we do not consider that the issue arising out of the allegations made by BM is implicitly dealt with in these documents.”</p>
<p>Refusing to push the matter further, the judges commended the Foreign Secretary and the FCO’s Legal Adviser, Daniel Bethlehem QC, for having “gone to very considerable lengths to provide BM with assistance,” noting that it was “evident” that they had “been engaged in lengthy discussions which have led to the important changes” summarized in the second judgment. “This,” they added, “has been time-consuming and burdensome, and has rendered very real assistance to the interests of justice in this case.”</p>
<p>As a result, the judges concluded their second judgment by giving the Foreign Secretary another week to come up with a response to their initial ruling and the developments since. They suggested that this could be in the form of another security certificate, although I hope, of course, that, having been thrown another lifeline, the government might find it preferable, bearing in mind the Special Advocates’ description of “the abhorrence and condemnation accorded to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” either to give Binyam’s lawyers what they require, or, preferably, to convince the US administration that, in order to keep the door to the torture chambers firmly shut, the only available course of action is to drop the charges against Binyam and return him to the UK.</p>
<p>ANDY WORTHINGTON is a British historian, and the author of ‘ <a href="" type="internal">The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’</a> (published by Pluto Press). Visit his website at: <a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/" type="external">www.andyworthington.co.uk</a> He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Shining a Light on the Dark Prison | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/08/30/shining-a-light-on-the-dark-prison/ | 2008-08-30 | 4 |
<p>Courtesy &lt;em&gt;The Colbert Report&lt;/em&gt;</p>
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<p>In January, viewers catching the morning shows on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC met Heidi Ganahl, the bubbly founder and CEO of a national doggy day care chain called Camp Bow Wow.</p>
<p>“I’ve worked hard and played by the rules to make my franchise business a success,” Ganahl said in an ad that ran on all three networks, as video showed her fawning over a golden retriever. “Now, unelected bureaucrats at the National Labor Relations Board want to change the rules. As Americans, we deserve better. Tell Washington, ‘No.'”</p>
<p>Bankrolled by a free-market advocacy group called the Job Creators Network, the ad painted a sympathetic picture of a business owner struggling against onerous regulations imposed by the NLRB, the agency that enforces labor law and has long been a conservative target. But lurking behind the anti-NLRB campaign is a notorious PR operative and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing" type="external">astroturf</a> pioneer who encourages his corporate clients to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">“win ugly or lose pretty”</a> and who says he wakes up each morning trying “to figure out how to screw with the labor unions.”&#160;</p>
<p>The consultant, Rick Berman, is well known in political circles for funneling anonymous corporate money into vicious ad campaigns attacking various advocacy groups, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Humane Society of the United States, which he has accused of spending a minuscule amount of their donations on their stated missions. Berman, who heads the DC-based communications firm Berman and Company, typically launches his offensives through <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/08/mad_at_madd.html" type="external">a network of front groups.</a> He has used these organizations to fight regulations governing food safety, animal cruelty, workplace safety, secondhand smoke, and even tanning beds, and in the process keeps his corporate funders anonymous.</p>
<p>“We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors,” Berman bragged in an October speech that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">secretly taped</a> and shared with the New York Times. “There is total anonymity.” His brash M.O. has earned him a nickname—Dr. Evil—that Berman appears to relish.</p>
<p>The Job Creators Network, however, represents a different way of doing business for Berman: He has guided the group’s media strategy behind the scenes, while <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/ceo/" type="external">more than three dozen CEOs</a> have publicly signed on to support the organization’s mission. Its signatories include such corporate titans as Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson, Staples founder and onetime CEO Tom Stemberg, and Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus. Possible 2016 GOP contender and ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina co-chairs the Job Creators Network’s women’s coalition. But the group also features executives from lesser-known but successful companies, such as Ganahl and Stephen Salis, cofounder and CEO of the &amp;Pizza chain. It’s unclear how many of the Job Creators Network’s corporate members are aware the controversial Berman is a strategist for the network and its anti-NLRB campaign. As Berman himself has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">noted</a>, companies are often squeamish about publicly associating themselves with him, hence the emphasis on anonymity.</p>
<p>But there are key clues linking Berman and his firm to the Job Creators Network. The network’s media contact, Ted Peterson, notes on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodorelpeterson" type="external">his LinkedIn page</a> that he is employed as a digital-media strategist at Berman and Company. Berman and Company’s in-house web developer, <a href="http://chrisgherbert.com/" type="external">Chris Herbert</a>, included the web site of the Job Creators Network’s latest campaign, a project called <a href="https://defendmainstreet.com/" type="external">Defend Main Street</a>, in his <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691856-chris-hebert-portfolio-before.html" type="external">online portfolio</a> as an example of his work. An executive associated with the Job Creators Network confirmed Berman’s longtime involvement with the group.</p>
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<p>After Mother Jones asked Peterson about these connections, his LinkedIn page was briefly taken offline and republished without his photograph. Herbert’s website and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691858-chris-hebert-linkedin-before.html#document/p1" type="external">his LinkedIn page</a> were <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691854-chris-hebert-linkedin-after.html#document/p1" type="external">scrubbed</a> <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1692988-chris-hebert-portfolio-after.html#document/p1" type="external">of references</a> to Defend Main Street, other Berman projects—such as UnionFacts.com—and Berman and Company. Before his site was updated, Herbert had <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691856-chris-hebert-portfolio-before.html" type="external">billed himself</a> as “the main web developer for the infamous Washington, DC public relations firm Berman &amp; Company.” Peterson, Berman, and Alfredo Ortiz, the president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, did not reply to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The ad starring Camp Bow Wow’s Ganahl was part of the Job Creators Network’s ongoing assault on the National Labor Relations Board. In July, the NLRB released a nonbinding legal opinion saying that employees could name McDonald’s corporate headquarters in lawsuits they file against local franchise owners. (The NLRB has also filed a complaint against a McDonald’s franchise, for interfering with union activity, and it names the McDonald’s headquarters as a defendant.) Business owners who use a franchise model to expand worry that the NLRB’s moves <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-against-mcdonalds-to-test-nlrb-decision-on-franchisee-relationship-1421955168" type="external">could lead to</a> increased legal liability. That’s why the Job Creators Network has made the NLRB a main target of its advocacy.</p>
<p>Unlike other Berman projects, such as the Center for Union Facts (which specializes in anti-union advocacy), the Job Creators Network was not founded by Berman, and his company does not control the group. Herman Cain and Home Depot’s Marcus <a href="http://www.restaurantleadership.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&amp;nm=&amp;type=ESpotlight&amp;mod=Directories%3A%3ASpotlight&amp;mid=4E252702EFD2424696DA9A2FBD4DDA31&amp;tier=3&amp;id=CD4F25E015704F61B8BE45F3B8B66B16&amp;AudID=0CD81EA36DB646579255C27DEFD951AB" type="external">started</a> the group shortly after Cain dropped out of the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. The organization’s goal was to provide employers with ostensibly nonpartisan materials to distribute to their workers describing how government regulations could hurt their employment. (Cain later left the group.)</p>
<p>But the political leanings of the Job Creators Network are clear. The group has disseminated videos aimed at convincing workers that Obamacare is harmful to them; one features CEOs denouncing the health care law on Fox News. In another clip, Ortiz, the group’s president, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ngtySytlI" type="external">rails against</a> a Michigan law that raised wages for construction workers. The group has also produced a cartoonish <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A4NuyNNPcw" type="external">video</a> deriding government regulations, in which a sock puppet watches helplessly as a gaggle of federal inspectors tear apart the pizza he just ordered in the name of food safety.</p>
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<p>The Job Creators Network has raised and spent millions to promote this conservative agenda. In 2013, the last year for which there is public data, it hauled in nearly $4 million in donations and spent $4.5 million on marketing and events. The group hosts lavish business summits to recruit new CEOs as supporters, and it has attracted high-profile politicians and donors. Last year, Jeb Bush <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/events/jcn-ceo-leadership-summit/" type="external">keynoted</a> a Latino business leaders summit that the group held in Florida. “I hope that you get other people to join this cause,” he told the audience.</p>
<p>Berman’s work for the Job Creators Network has led to some inconvenient optics, particularly when it comes to Ganahl. Camp Bow Wow and its philanthropic foundation regularly <a href="http://blogs.denverpost.com/fetch/2010/08/22/saving-dogs-from-going-kennel-crazy/1580/" type="external">work</a> with local Humane Society chapters to <a href="http://www.campbowwow.com/news/franchise-news/284-camp-bow-wow-detroit-and-michigan-humane-society-host-annual-telethon" type="external">host</a> <a href="https://www.causes.com/posts/400877-the-bow-wow-buddies-foundations-on-our-way-home-project-please-help-us-raise-funds-for-the-winner-of-our-shelter-extreme-makeover" type="external">charity</a> <a href="http://www.campbowwow.com/us/il/oakpark/foster-pets" type="external">events</a>. Ganahl’s company has also made at least one <a href="http://www.campbowwowusa.com/news-254/press-releases/399-camp-bow-wow-provides-extreme-makeover-to-western-pennsylvania-humane-society" type="external">donation, of $50,000</a>, to a Humane Society animal shelter. Berman, though, is known for his crusade against the Humane Society on behalf of groups that oppose animal welfare regulation. His company has spent <a href="" type="internal">millions of dollars</a> running <a href="" type="internal">deceptive attack ads</a> against the group.</p>
<p>Yet Ganahl is the face of the Job Creators Network’s Berman-guided venture. In addition to starring in the 31-second ad that aired <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/230377-tv-ads-targets-nlrb-joint-employer-status" type="external">during the morning shows</a> on the major cable news networks, Ganahl appeared in a <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/DFMST_Politico.pdf" type="external">full page ad</a> in <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/job-creators-network-places-full-page-print-ad-in-politico-to-coincide-with-senate-help-committee-hearing-on-nlrb-joint-employer-franchise-recommendation-300030815.html" type="external">Politico</a>, the <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/230377-tv-ads-targets-nlrb-joint-employer-status" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a>, and Roll Call.</p>
<p>She declined to discuss Berman’s involvement with the Job Creators Network and whether his anti-Humane Society advocacy conflicts with her company’s philosophy and mission. “I support the Job Creators Network and their campaign to defend small businesses,” Ganahl wrote in an email. “I can’t speak to any relationships the organization has with vendors.”</p>
<p /> | Notorious Astroturf Pioneer Rick Berman Is Behind Business Group’s Anti-Labor-Board Campaign | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/rick-berman-job-creators-network/ | 2015-03-25 | 4 |
<p>Some of the country's biggest health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), Humana (NYSE: HUM), and Aetna (NYSE: AET), are walking back exposure to the Affordable Care Act next year. One reason why could be the expiration of reinsurance and risk corridors, two provisions that insurers have been relying on to reduce the risk of massive Obamacare losses.</p>
<p>In this clip from The Motley Fool's <a href="http://www.fool.com/podcasts/industry-focus?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Industry Focus: Healthcare Opens a New Window.</a> podcast, analyst Kristine Harjes and contributor Todd Campbell discuss why the expiration of these provisions could be behind insurers' decision to reduce their participation in the program.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A full transcript follows the video.</p>
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<p>This podcast was recorded on Aug. 17, 2016.</p>
<p>Todd Campbell: There could also be not only this undercurrent ofquid pro quo -- you passed my deal and I'llexpand my exchanges -- but it could also have something to do with the fact thatpart of the risk corridorsand the reinsurance provisionsof the ACA that have been smoothing theprofitability across the industry,those are expiring at the end of this year. So,they're looking at 2017 and they're saying, "OK, we'renot going to get the benefit ofreinsurance risk corridors," which,again, have been smoothing profitability across the industry, "andthat means there's a lot of uncertaintyregarding how we should be pricing our plans for next year. Why take on thatuncertainty if the DOJ isn't going to work with us onleveraging a bigger foot print?"</p>
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<p>Kristine Harjes: Todd,can you remind our listeners what exactly the risk corridor was?</p>
<p>Campbell:Sure. Riskcorridor, basically, what they do is theycollect money from plans that are profitable,those plans that have had extraordinary,unexpectedly high gains and then they redistribute those to the plans that have hadunexpectedly high losses. It was a way of helping to rein in the need to price these plans atsuch a high level to guarantee profitability. It was the way for Washington to say, "Listen, wewant you to participate,and we're going to provide a little bit of insurance to the insurers to make sure you don't lose your shirt bybeing part of the exchanges."</p>
<p>Harjes:Exactly. So,before we move on to the second part of our show,I want to bring back to you our investing take away. That's what we're doing this show for. Todd, what do you think,looking at this recent news and everything going on with the Department of Justice and these proposed mergers? How should an investor be looking at this?</p>
<p>Campbell:I think thatUnited Healthcare,of the companies that have said they're going to walk away, is probably the one with the least question marks,only because it doesn't have the Department of Justice overhang. If these deals get scuttled by the DOJ, Aetna's going to have to pay a breakup fee. So,that's a drag on earnings. Then, there's the uncertainty of "how will all these changes shake out?" I don't know, I think it's best for most investors toavoid these names until we get a little bit more clarity. If you're reallyinterested in insurance, maybe focus instead onsome of the Medicaid players,or some of the other stuff, rather than the commercial insurers.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFAnchor/info.aspx" type="external">Kristine Harjes Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. 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> | Another Reason Insurers Are Pulling the Plug on Obamacare? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/10/another-reason-insurers-are-pulling-plug-on-obamacare.html | 2016-09-10 | 0 |
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<p>A strange-looking bird with dark plumage showed up at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge this month to join the tens of thousands of cranes and geese that spend the winter in the Rio Grande Valley.</p>
<p>The problem: No one knows exactly what kind of bird it is.</p>
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<p>The debate has spread from the refuge’s fields and wetlands onto Facebook, where guesses have ranged from some kind of mutant to a Thanksgiving turkey disguised as a crane for self-preservation. Birding experts from New York to California continued studying photographs of the bird Thursday, spurring even more theories.</p>
<p>The refuge posted a photograph of the bird on its Facebook page this week, sparking dozens of comments. Aside from the disguised turkey and oil-slicked bird theories, some suggested it could be a hybrid between a crane and an emu or a trumpeter.</p>
<p>It could be a sandhill crane that has come down with a feather-staining fungal infection.</p>
<p>Or maybe he — or she — has a genetic disorder that results in too much melanin production.</p>
<p>“It’s different. It’s got to be a hybrid-cross more than likely, but what, we don’t know,” Refuge Manager Aaron Mize said in a phone interview.</p>
<p>Members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Team Sapsucker — known as some of the best birders anywhere, they hold the U.S. record for finding the most bird species in 24 hours — say it’s a sandhill crane.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We can’t say why it’s colored so differently, but we can be certain about species anyway,” said Pat Leonard, a spokesman for the Cornell lab.</p>
<p>Other bird-watchers have reported seeing birds with similar coloring in wintering areas in California and along the Platte River in Nebraska. Some experts have said breeding birds have been known to preen mud into their feathers, resulting in the unusual colors.</p>
<p>The refuge said Thursday a closer look at the bird through a spotting scope called into question at least one theory — that it had a case of feather-munching mites.</p>
<p>The only way to determine with certainty is to capture it so blood, tissue and feather samples can be taken and DNA tests runs. But managers at Bosque del Apache say it’s not worth stressing out the bird for the sake of answering what amounts to a trivia question.</p>
<p>“Whatever it is, it’s doing what a bird does. It looks healthy and happy, so we’ll leave it alone,” Mize said. “We probably won’t ever know, but it’s fun to speculate. It gets people excited. It’s interesting. It’s a curiosity, and that’s how we’ll treat it.”</p>
<p>The bird showed up about a week before the refuge’s annual crane festival, which draws thousands of bird-watchers from across the country. It stood out against the sea of gray sandhill cranes and white snow geese.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The bird is both shorter and skinnier than a lesser sandhill crane. The muscle structure of its legs appears to be different and so does its body shape, but Mize said its bill is crane-like.</p>
<p>When cranes fold their wings, their feathers drape over their rear ends in that classic crane-like flow. Not so much with this mystery bird.</p>
<p>“He’s goofy-looking,” Mize said.</p>
<p>The cranes that spend the winter at Bosque del Apache come from as far away as the western coastline of Alaska. Mize said that doesn’t mean some rare bird can’t hop a thermal and find its way to the refuge.</p>
<p>“Birds from all over the world can — and they do — show up in weird places, because it’s the nature of birds. They can fly,” Mize said. “This one is just a little different.”</p> | Mystery Bird at the Bosque | false | https://abqjournal.com/150050/mystery-bird-at-the-bosque.html | 2012-11-29 | 2 |
<p>The Rolling Stone article that everyone has been waiting for is out. <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history" type="external">Read it in full here</a>.</p>
<p>Rolling Stone:</p>
<p>George W. Bush’s presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.</p>
<p>From time to time, after hours, I kick back with my colleagues at Princeton to argue idly about which president really was the worst of them all. For years, these perennial debates have largely focused on the same handful of chief executives whom national polls of historians, from across the ideological and political spectrum, routinely cite as the bottom of the presidential barrel. Was the lousiest James Buchanan, who, confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that, as his most recent biographer has said, probably amounted to disloyalty — and who handed to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, a nation already torn asunder? Was it Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction? What about the amiably incompetent Warren G. Harding, whose administration was fabulously corrupt? Or, though he has his defenders, Herbert Hoover, who tried some reforms but remained imprisoned in his own outmoded individualist ethic and collapsed under the weight of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression’s onset? The younger historians always put in a word for Richard M. Nixon, the only American president forced to resign from office.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history" type="external">Link</a></p> | Read About 'The Worst President in History' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/read-about-the-worst-president-in-history/ | 2006-04-21 | 4 |
<p>RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Sen. Mark Warner doesn't often sound like he's working at his dream job.</p>
<p>He frequently expresses frustration with the Senate's slow pace and partisan gridlock, and he even considered quitting in 2012 to run for his old job as Virginia's governor.</p>
<p>The former cellphone pioneer and venture capitalist is a multi-millionaire — one of the richest members of Congress — and certainly doesn't need a senator's salary to pay the bills.</p>
<p>So why does he want a second term?</p>
<p>Warner, a Democrat, said he's begun to figure out how the Senate works and how he can make it a better place.</p>
<p>"Everything I've done in life has not had a straight path to success, it's had pitfalls along the way," Warner said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And coupled with that, I refuse to acknowledge the notion that America's not going to continue to be great — and the only way it can be great in our democracy is if you have people who can find common ground."</p>
<p>Warner is facing challenges from Republican Ed Gillespie and Libertarian Robert Sarvis in next month's election. While Warner's Democratic colleagues in several other states are facing tough re-election prospects thanks in part to President Barack Obama's sagging popularity, public polls have shown Warner with substantial leads.</p>
<p>Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, predicts Warner will have a small but comfortable margin of victory over Gillespie thanks in large part to a successful tenure as governor that saw Warner leave the Executive Mansion with favorable ratings.</p>
<p>"Mark Warner's job was to go around the state and remind people why they like him," said Kidd.</p>
<p>Warner's healthy lead in the polls has kept the Virginia senate race out of the national spotlight and largely kept away high-spending outside groups that have flooded other Senate contests.</p>
<p>Still, Warner and his supporters aren't taking chances. Warner has raised more than $9.9 million for his re-election campaign, and an allied super PAC funded largely by a small group of wealthy donors has spent $1.8 million attacking Gillespie.</p>
<p>"I'm pretty obsessed," Warner said of his re-election campaign. "We've got a major get out the vote, we've got a great ground game."</p>
<p>Gillespie, a former lobbyist and Republican National Committee chairman, is equally optimistic about his chances and has portrayed Warner as a lock-step Obama supporter whose votes for the president's policies — the Affordable Care Act in particular — have hurt Virginia's economy.</p>
<p>"Senator Warner's press releases are very bipartisan, but his floor votes are very party line," Gillespie said at a recent candidate debate.</p>
<p>Warner bristles at the charge. He has frequently distanced himself from the president and said he has several proposals aimed at improving Obama's health care law. Warner also notes that many Virginia Republicans support his re-election campaign, including former Sen. John Warner, who is not related.</p>
<p>Mark Warner frequently points to his work on the budget, where he was part of a bipartisan "Gang of Six" that tried unsuccessfully to strike a grand bargain on taxes and entitlement programs aimed at cutting the deficit.</p>
<p>"This battle will come back," he said. "We can't keep kicking the can."</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said Warner's bipartisan shtick is legitimate.</p>
<p>"Mark has been a very valuable member of the senate," said Chambliss, who said he's become close friends with Warner.</p>
<p>Chambliss added that Warner has grown into his role as a senator and is less frustrated by the slow pace of politics.</p>
<p>"In the last couple of years, I've seen a major adjustment on his part that the Senate is what the Senate is, and it just takes time," Chambliss said.</p>
<p>Jim Murray, a close friend and former business associate who speaks frequently with Warner, also said Warner's frustration was waned in recent years. He said Warner gets excited when he finds issues of interest and Republican partners to work with them on.</p>
<p>"Those moments have reassured him he might well be able to do some good," Murray said.</p>
<p>Before running for Senate in 2008, Warner flirted with the possibility of running for president. Asked about the 2016 presidential campaign, Warner said he's not interested.</p>
<p>"I don't expect that moment to come back," he said. "I think I can add value in the United States Senate."</p>
<p>RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Sen. Mark Warner doesn't often sound like he's working at his dream job.</p>
<p>He frequently expresses frustration with the Senate's slow pace and partisan gridlock, and he even considered quitting in 2012 to run for his old job as Virginia's governor.</p>
<p>The former cellphone pioneer and venture capitalist is a multi-millionaire — one of the richest members of Congress — and certainly doesn't need a senator's salary to pay the bills.</p>
<p>So why does he want a second term?</p>
<p>Warner, a Democrat, said he's begun to figure out how the Senate works and how he can make it a better place.</p>
<p>"Everything I've done in life has not had a straight path to success, it's had pitfalls along the way," Warner said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And coupled with that, I refuse to acknowledge the notion that America's not going to continue to be great — and the only way it can be great in our democracy is if you have people who can find common ground."</p>
<p>Warner is facing challenges from Republican Ed Gillespie and Libertarian Robert Sarvis in next month's election. While Warner's Democratic colleagues in several other states are facing tough re-election prospects thanks in part to President Barack Obama's sagging popularity, public polls have shown Warner with substantial leads.</p>
<p>Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, predicts Warner will have a small but comfortable margin of victory over Gillespie thanks in large part to a successful tenure as governor that saw Warner leave the Executive Mansion with favorable ratings.</p>
<p>"Mark Warner's job was to go around the state and remind people why they like him," said Kidd.</p>
<p>Warner's healthy lead in the polls has kept the Virginia senate race out of the national spotlight and largely kept away high-spending outside groups that have flooded other Senate contests.</p>
<p>Still, Warner and his supporters aren't taking chances. Warner has raised more than $9.9 million for his re-election campaign, and an allied super PAC funded largely by a small group of wealthy donors has spent $1.8 million attacking Gillespie.</p>
<p>"I'm pretty obsessed," Warner said of his re-election campaign. "We've got a major get out the vote, we've got a great ground game."</p>
<p>Gillespie, a former lobbyist and Republican National Committee chairman, is equally optimistic about his chances and has portrayed Warner as a lock-step Obama supporter whose votes for the president's policies — the Affordable Care Act in particular — have hurt Virginia's economy.</p>
<p>"Senator Warner's press releases are very bipartisan, but his floor votes are very party line," Gillespie said at a recent candidate debate.</p>
<p>Warner bristles at the charge. He has frequently distanced himself from the president and said he has several proposals aimed at improving Obama's health care law. Warner also notes that many Virginia Republicans support his re-election campaign, including former Sen. John Warner, who is not related.</p>
<p>Mark Warner frequently points to his work on the budget, where he was part of a bipartisan "Gang of Six" that tried unsuccessfully to strike a grand bargain on taxes and entitlement programs aimed at cutting the deficit.</p>
<p>"This battle will come back," he said. "We can't keep kicking the can."</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said Warner's bipartisan shtick is legitimate.</p>
<p>"Mark has been a very valuable member of the senate," said Chambliss, who said he's become close friends with Warner.</p>
<p>Chambliss added that Warner has grown into his role as a senator and is less frustrated by the slow pace of politics.</p>
<p>"In the last couple of years, I've seen a major adjustment on his part that the Senate is what the Senate is, and it just takes time," Chambliss said.</p>
<p>Jim Murray, a close friend and former business associate who speaks frequently with Warner, also said Warner's frustration was waned in recent years. He said Warner gets excited when he finds issues of interest and Republican partners to work with them on.</p>
<p>"Those moments have reassured him he might well be able to do some good," Murray said.</p>
<p>Before running for Senate in 2008, Warner flirted with the possibility of running for president. Asked about the 2016 presidential campaign, Warner said he's not interested.</p>
<p>"I don't expect that moment to come back," he said. "I think I can add value in the United States Senate."</p> | Warner says he's finding his role in US Senate | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f8a30efc942d4b2d916873da4cedb0de | 2014-10-11 | 2 |
<p>Photo by thierry ehrmann | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>The vultures are circling. They can see the wounded man on the ground, and are waiting for his end.</p>
<p>So are the human carnivores – the politicians.</p>
<p>They sing his praises, swear to defend him with all their heart – but in their heads they are already calculating who might be his successor. Each of them mutters to themself: Why not me?</p>
<p>Binyamin Netanyahu is facing the greatest crisis in his long career. The police are about to conclude their investigations. The Attorney General is under huge pressure to issue official indictments. The large demonstrations near the Attorney General’s home are growing from week to week.</p>
<p>The Attorney General, the Inspector General of the Police and the Minister for Internal Security were all personally picked by Netanyahu (and his wife). Now even this does not help. The pressure is too strong.</p>
<p>The investigations may drag on for another few months, but the end seems certain: State of Israel v. Binyamin Netanyahu will go to court.</p>
<p>When a member of the government is indicted for a felony, they usually resign, or at least take leave of absence. Not Netanyahu. No sir!</p>
<p>If he resigned, who would guard Israel and save it from the numerous dreadful dangers threatening the state from all sides? The Iranians are promising our extinction, the evil Arabs all around want to kill us, the leftists and other traitors threaten the state from within. How can we survive without Bibi? The danger is too awful to contemplate!</p>
<p>Netanyahu seems to believe this himself. He, his wife and his eldest son behave like a royal family. They buy without paying, travel as guests of others, receive expensive gifts as a matter of course.</p>
<p>Popular humor accompanies all these transgressions. The police has entered this spirit and decorated his files with many zeros.</p>
<p>File 1000&#160;concerns the gifts. The Netanyahus are surrounded by a crowd of billionaires, who compete with each other in presenting gifts. Many jokes were made about the expensive cigars and pink champagne given to the family – until it transpired that their value amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. And the donors expect&#160; something in return from the donees.</p>
<p>File 2000&#160;concerns a peculiar matter. Yedioth Ahronoth (“Latest News”) was Israel’s largest daily newspaper, until Israel Hayom (“Israel Today”) appeared – a paper distributed for nothing. It was founded by Sheldon Adelson, an admirer of Netanyahu and the owner of huge casinos in Las Vegas and Macao. It is devoted to the single task of glorifying King Bibi.</p>
<p>In a recorded private conversation, Netanyahu offered Noni Moses, the owner of Yedioth, a deal: Israel Today would reduce its size and circulation if Yedioth started to glorify Bibi. Legally, this may amount to bribery.</p>
<p>And then there is&#160;File 3000, deep beneath the sea. The German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp (two names well remembered as Hitler’s weapons suppliers) builds our submarines. Three, six, nine. The sky – or the sea – is the limit.</p>
<p>What do we need submarines for? Not to sink enemy fleets. Our enemies, such as they are, have no powerful fleets. But they may obtain nuclear missiles. Israel is a very small territory, and a nuclear bomb or two could destroy it. But no one will dream of doing so if they know that out there lurk submarines, which will respond with nuclear missiles within minutes.</p>
<p>The German shipyard, with the support of the German government, sells the submarines to the Israeli navy. No middlemen needed. But there are middlemen who put millions in their pockets. How many pockets? Ah, there we are. Quite a number of pockets, and all these pockets belong to people very close to the Prime Minister.</p>
<p>Perverted minds may imagine that tens of millions have reached the PM himself, perish the thought.</p>
<p>This week, a prestigious TV program aired an investigation, and the picture was shocking. The entire military and civilian environment seems to be infected by corruption, as in a failed African state.</p>
<p>One of the few lessons I have learned in my life is that nobody reaches the top of any profession if they are not devoted to it absolutely, totally.</p>
<p>To get stinking rich, you must love stinking money. Not the things money can buy, but money itself. Like the miser of Moliere, who sits all day and counts his riches. If you also want something else, love or glory, you will not get to be a multi-multi-billionaire.</p>
<p>Don Juan did not care for anything but women. Not love. Just women, more and more of them.</p>
<p>David Ben-Gurion wanted power. Not the pleasures of power. Not cigars. Not champagne. Not several villas. Just power. Everything else, like his Bible club and his reading Don Quixote in Spanish, was just pretense. He wanted power and held on to it as long as he could. (In the end, when he surrounded himself with a praetorian guard of youngsters like Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres, his colleagues ganged up on him and kicked him out, with some help from me.)</p>
<p>A person who wants political power, but also the amenities of life, several villas and a lot of money will not really reach the very top. Netanyahu is a good example.</p>
<p>He is no exception. His predecessor is in prison, and so are several former ministers. A former President of the State was just released from prison (for sexual offenses).</p>
<p>Netanyahu grew up in the a family which was not affluent. So did Ehud Olmert. So did Ehud Barak. So did Moshe Dayan. They all loved money too much.</p>
<p>Sarah Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s wife, is also about to be indicted. She is accused of paying for her extensive private needs with government funds. She is not widely appreciated. Everybody calls her Sarah’le (“Little Sarah”), but not from love. She also grew up in straitened circumstances and was a low-grade air stewardess when she met Bibi in a duty-free shop.</p>
<p>I was lucky. Until my tenth birthday, my family was quite rich. When we fled to Palestine, we soon became as poor as synagogue-mice, but much happier.)</p>
<p>Another lesson: no one in power should stay there for more than eight years.</p>
<p>People in power attract flatterers. Every day, year after year, they are told that they are just wonderful. So wise, so clever, so handsome. Slowly they become convinced themselves. After all, so many good people can’t be wrong.</p>
<p>Their critical senses become blunted. They get used to being obeyed even by people who know better. They become immune to criticism, and even get angry when criticized.</p>
<p>After the l12 year tenure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a wise and successful president, the American people changed their constitution and limited the terms of the president to two, altogether eight consecutive years. Very sensible.</p>
<p>I speak from experience. I was elected to the Knesset three times. I very much enjoyed the first two terms – eight consecutive years – because I felt that I was doing the right things in the right way. During my third term I felt that I was less keen, less innovative, less original. So I resigned.</p>
<p>Netanyahu is now in his fourth term. High time for him to be thrown out.</p>
<p>The Bible enjoins us: “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth” (Proverbs 24, 17). I do not rejoice, but I shall be very glad if he goes.</p>
<p>I do not hate him. Neither do I like him. I don’t think that I have spoken with him on more than two or three occasions in my whole life. Once when he introduced me to his second – not last – wife, a nice young American woman, and once when he saw my picture in a photo exhibition, wearing a pilot’s cap. He told me that I looked like Errol Flynn.</p>
<p>My attitude towards him is not based on emotion. It is purely political. He is a talented politician, a clever demagogue. But I believe that he is leading Israel slowly but surely towards a historic disaster.</p>
<p>People believe that he is devoid of principles, that he will do anything – just anything – to stay in power. That is true. But underneath everything there hide some ironclad convictions – the&#160;weltanschauung&#160;of his late father, the history professor, whose special field was the Spanish inquisition. Father Benzion Netanyahu was an embittered man, convinced that his colleagues despised him and blocked his career because of his extreme right-wing views. He was a fanatic, for whom even Vladimir Jabotinsky was far too moderate.</p>
<p>The father admired his elder son, Yoni, an army officer who was killed in the famous Entebbe raid, and did not respect Bibi very much. He once said that Bibi was not fit to be prime minister, but could make a good foreign minister – a very shrewd observation.</p>
<p>If Binyamin Netanyahu falls, which seems possible, who will replace him?</p>
<p>Like every clever (and unsure) leader, Bibi has destroyed every likely&#160;rival along the way.</p> | Anyone But Bibi: the Corruption of Netanyahu | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/14/anyone-but-bibi-the-corruption-of-netanyahu/ | 2017-08-14 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Isaiah Bailey scored four of his 22 points in overtime to help Bethune-Cookman beat Howard 92-87 on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Bailey was 7 of 14 shooting and made 7 of 10 free throws. Soufiyane Diakite added 21 points and 13 rebounds, and Jeffery Altidort chipped in 16 points for the Wildcats (7-9, 2-0 Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference), who outscored Howard 10-5 in the extra period.</p>
<p>RJ Cole scored 32 points and Charles Williams added 30 for Howard (3-15, 0-2).</p>
<p>The Bison had an eight-point lead with 3:00 minutes remaining in regulation. Bethune-Cookman closed on a 10-2 spurt, capped by a Shawntrez Davis game-tying layup at the buzzer. He was fouled on the drive, but missed the free throw to force overtime tied at 82.</p>
<p>The game was moved to nearby Trinity Washington University due to infrastructure damage caused by sub-zero temperatures at Howard's Burr Gymnasium.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Isaiah Bailey scored four of his 22 points in overtime to help Bethune-Cookman beat Howard 92-87 on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Bailey was 7 of 14 shooting and made 7 of 10 free throws. Soufiyane Diakite added 21 points and 13 rebounds, and Jeffery Altidort chipped in 16 points for the Wildcats (7-9, 2-0 Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference), who outscored Howard 10-5 in the extra period.</p>
<p>RJ Cole scored 32 points and Charles Williams added 30 for Howard (3-15, 0-2).</p>
<p>The Bison had an eight-point lead with 3:00 minutes remaining in regulation. Bethune-Cookman closed on a 10-2 spurt, capped by a Shawntrez Davis game-tying layup at the buzzer. He was fouled on the drive, but missed the free throw to force overtime tied at 82.</p>
<p>The game was moved to nearby Trinity Washington University due to infrastructure damage caused by sub-zero temperatures at Howard's Burr Gymnasium.</p> | Bethune-Cookman beats Howard 92-87 in OT | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a366ed15eea6440a8f77ab756b82cf76 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>McMurray also began her long, complicated battle with health insurance. She and many other transgender people face difficulties with health insurance providers that will not cover certain procedures or medications.</p>
<p>An estimated 700,000 transgender people live in the U.S. As public awareness of this population grows, spurred by such high-profile stories as Bruce Jenner's transition to Caitlyn, it's become clear that health insurance coverage for transgender-related procedures and wellness is a complicated maze of terminology and technicalities, experts say.</p>
<p />
<p>Leslie McMurray, right, sits next to Katie Sprinkle in Carrollton, Texas, in May. "I am one of those people who falls through the [health insurance] cracks," McMurray said. (Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News/TNS)</p>
<p />
<p>"When health care really stresses biology, it leaves a large portion of us out," said Nell Gaither, president of the Trans Pride Initiative, a Dallas advocacy group. "Our lives depend on medical intervention. One way or another, we'll figure out how to get the treatment we need. (But) when insurance doesn't work, a lot of people turn to the Internet, and that's extremely dangerous."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Insurance company representatives say their plans abide by industry standards, including meeting Affordable Care Act regulations, which include a clause that insurance providers cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identity or stereotypes.</p>
<p>And some insurance providers, like Aetna and Cigna, have broadened their policies to include more access for transgender-related coverage.</p>
<p>But many transgender patients who don't have ACA plans say they have had components of their coverage denied or have been denied insurance altogether because the provider considers gender dysphoria a pre-existing condition, which they do not cover.</p>
<p>Jody Herman, scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, said insurance policies vary by state. For example, California law requires that insurers cover gender reassignment and hormone therapy, but Texas doesn't. Some Texas legislators have tried unsuccessfully to end insurance discrimination.</p>
<p>After McMurray lost a six-figure salary, her financial situation shifted dramatically, making it difficult for her to afford insurance. The complicated life she suddenly found herself living brought her to the brink of suicide.</p>
<p>A 2014 study found that 46 percent of transmen and 42 percent of transwomen attempt suicide in their lifetimes, according to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a report published by the Williams Institute and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.</p>
<p>"For me, it was life or death," she said. She couldn't go on living in a body she felt she didn't belong in and didn't see any other way out.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>ACA plans include deductibles of up to thousands of dollars and high monthly payments - and gender reassignment surgery may not even be covered. So McMurray saw no sense in trying to get insurance.</p>
<p>In 2014, nearly 35 percent of transgender people living below the poverty level were uninsured, according to the Center for American Progress.</p>
<p>She began tapping into her retirement fund to pay for her procedures, which turned out to be more expensive than her surgeries because she had to pay taxes and penalties. She's continued to take from her retirement in order to make ends meet.</p>
<p>"The way health care is set up, I'm one of those people who slips through the cracks," McMurray said.</p>
<p>Federal employees can now undergo gender reassignment surgery through Aetna insurance plans because of a policy change that began in January. Aetna will be adding gender reassignment surgery to many other commercial plans over the next few years.</p>
<p>But breast augmentation, hair removal and forms of facial reconstruction are considered cosmetic, and will not be covered. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health considers both necessary for the transgender patient.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Health insurance a maze of problems for transgender people | false | https://abqjournal.com/601711/health-insurance-a-maze-of-problems-for-transgender-people.html | 2 |
|
<p>Update:</p>
<p>The captain of a South Korean ferry that capsized, leaving 29 people dead and 274 others missing, was arrested on Saturday, the country's Yonhap news agency said.</p>
<p>Yonhap said Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, faced five charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.</p>
<p>----------------------</p>
<p>The captain was not at the helm of the South Korean ferry that capsized two days ago, investigators said Friday, as anger spread over stalled rescue efforts for hundreds of missing passengers trapped by the submerged vessel.</p>
<p>"We have confirmed that the captain of the Sewol left the wheel to a third mate before the ship began sinking," chief investigator Park Jae-eok said as he announced the interim results of the investigation at the West Regional Headquarters of the Korea Coast Guard in Mokpo, 410 kilometers (about 254 miles) south of Seoul.</p>
<p>"We are investigating whether the captain left the pilothouse," he added, saying there have been conflicting testimonies about the captain's exact location at the time of the sinking.</p>
<p>Prosecutors on Friday issued arrest warrants for Captain Lee Joon-seok, the officer at the wheel and one other crew member for failing in their duty to aid passengers.</p>
<p>More than 48 hours after the 6,825-ton Sewol suddenly listed and then sank, a small of army of more than 500 exhausted divers — battling powerful currents in almost zero visibility — have yet to obtain any access to the ferry's interior.</p>
<p>The confirmed death toll stood at 28, but the focus of concern remained the 268 people still unaccounted for — hundreds of them children on a high school outing to the southern resort island of Jeju.</p>
<p>The vice-principal of a South Korean high school who accompanied hundreds of pupils on the ferry has committed suicide, police said on Friday.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/140417/south-koreans-blame-ferry-tragedy-national-cha" type="external">South Koreans blame themselves for ferry tragedy</a></p>
<p>Kang Min-gyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday. He appeared to have hanged himself with his belt from a tree outside a gym in the port city of Jindo where relatives of the people missing on the ship, mostly children from the school, were gathered.</p>
<p>Rescue operations continue</p>
<p>Little progress was made as rain, high waves and strong winds effectively hampered their desperate rescue attempts for the past two days.</p>
<p>Divers also began injecting oxygen into the ship to have the ship floated and to help potential survivors trapped inside breathe, the officials said, adding unmanned robots are also available to be dispatched underwater to find survivors.</p>
<p>Experts say that people can survive for 72 hours if there are "air pockets" in compartments.</p>
<p>Despite diverse options, however, the capsized ship went underwater completely around noon, further lowering the possibility that any survivors can be found.</p>
<p>Three salvage cranes, including a 3,200-ton one, also arrived at the scene earlier in the day, with more to come, either to move the hull to some other place where the tidal current is weak or to salvage it.</p>
<p>"But we are reviewing the options very carefully, as the salvage operations may hurt survivors trapped inside," a Coast Guard officer said. "We are also considering using a floating dock to set the ship afloat."</p> | South Korea arrests the captain of the ferry that capsized earlier this week | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-18/south-korea-arrests-captain-ferry-capsized-earlier-week | 2014-04-18 | 3 |
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<p>Albuquerque’s Sean Carlon (71-75) is at 4-over-par 146 and is tied for 28th place after two rounds of the 39th Junior PGA Championship in Bryan Texas. The 72-hole event ends Friday.</p>
<p>In the girls division, Rio Rancho’s Dominique Galloway is at 150 (75-75) and is tied for 25th while Socorro’s Shania Berger is at 164 (83-81) and is tied for 67th in the 78-player field.</p>
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Carlon, Galloway, Berger in Jr. PGA | false | https://abqjournal.com/438098/carlon-galloway-berger-in-jr-pga.html | 2 |
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<p>Sen. Al Franken was a guest on Morning Joe today, and was asked if polarization was as bad as the media thought it was.</p>
<p>"On this health care bill, the fact that McConnell is going to a group of 13 Republicans behind closed doors, that to me is the very wrong way to do it," he said.</p>
<p>"This is a disaster, what came from the House, anyway. I think this needs to be opened in a bipartisan way."</p>
<p>He also said he doesn't think McConnell can get 50 votes. "I hope they start sooner rather than later. This is incredibly important."</p>
<p>"Why can't we figure out how to do this in a bipartisan way?" Scarborough said -- with a straight face.</p>
<p>"That's what we're urging. I'm on the health care committee," Franken said..</p>
<p>"This the third time. You had Clinton's efforts in '93, '94, Obama's efforts in 2009 and 2010," Scarborough said.</p>
<p>"We had hearings. So much of that bill was Republican amendments," Franken pointed out.</p>
<p>"It's one-sixth of the economy. Why can't Republicans and Democrats get together and say, let's figure this out together? What is the problem?" (Again, with a straight face.)</p>
<p>"Ask Mitch McConnell," Franken said.</p>
<p>"It's not just Mitch McConnell's fault," Scarborough said.</p>
<p>"It is right now," Franken shot back.</p>
<p>"I'm talking about since '93. If you believe it's just the Republicans' fault, you can say that. I'm just curious. It's frustrating. it's one-sixth of the economy. We've got to get the cost curve down," Scarborough said. (straight face)</p>
<p>"You can't overstate to me the importance of health care," Franken said. "When I started running in '08, I knew half of all bankruptcies in the country were associated with a health crisis. I had a radio show and Elizabeth Warren would come on and tell me that. But you go around Minnesota and you see signs in cafes and VFWs, all with a spaghetti dinner for a family that's gone bankrupt," he said.</p>
<p>"How do we get together?" Scarborough asked.</p>
<p>"We've had this achievement. Talk to Mitch McConnell about this. He is saying, well, I don't know if we can get the 50 [votes]. What they are talking about, and why this is so awful, we're talking not just about 23 million people losing their health care, which is a CBO score, as you know but talking about pre-existing conditions, losing health care, which is completely backward," Franken replied.</p>
<p>"Medicaid matching with $900 million tax cut for wealthy Americans. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. I've gone to rural health meetings at hospitals, nursing homes, clinics. People are crying about this -- one woman was crying because her mom gets her home health care through Medicaid. Okay. She said, she's going to lose that and "my husband and I both work. we don't know what to do with my mom."</p>
<p>"It's going to be devastating for a lot of people. So many people in rural communities that voted for Donald Trump are going to be devastated. Their health care, hospitals, hospice care, you name it, rehab clinics all devastated by this."</p> | Al Franken On Healthcare Stalemate: It's Mitch McConnell's Fault | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2017/05/al-franken-healthcare-stalemate-blame | 2017-05-31 | 4 |
<p>POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Deontae North scored 24 points, Holland Woods added 13 and a go-ahead jumper, and Portland State rallied from 16 down to beat Idaho State 87-83 on Thursday night.</p>
<p>Ryan Edwards scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Deante Strickland scored 14 points for the Vikings (13-6, 3-3 Big Sky Conference), who outrebounded the Bengals 37-27 and scored 22 second-chance points off of 12 offensive rebounds.</p>
<p>Balint Mocsan’s 3 put Idaho State up 57-41 early in the second half, but the Vikings gained on runs of 10-2 and 10-4 and Bryce Canda’s 3 tied it at 80 with 3:57 to play. Woods scored a go-ahead jumper with 1:50 left for an 84-83 Vikings lead and Strickland and Edwards combined for three free throws from there while the Bengals missed two free throws and two field goals.</p>
<p>Jared Stutzman hit back-to-back 3s in Idaho State’s opening 15-5 run and the Bengals led 51-37 at halftime after hitting seven 3s and shooting 61.3 percent from the field.</p>
<p>Mocsan and Brandon Boyd scored 17 points apiece, Stutzman added 15, Sam Dowd 13 and Geno Luzcando 11 for the Bengals (8-9, 3-3), who have lost three straight.</p>
<p>POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Deontae North scored 24 points, Holland Woods added 13 and a go-ahead jumper, and Portland State rallied from 16 down to beat Idaho State 87-83 on Thursday night.</p>
<p>Ryan Edwards scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Deante Strickland scored 14 points for the Vikings (13-6, 3-3 Big Sky Conference), who outrebounded the Bengals 37-27 and scored 22 second-chance points off of 12 offensive rebounds.</p>
<p>Balint Mocsan’s 3 put Idaho State up 57-41 early in the second half, but the Vikings gained on runs of 10-2 and 10-4 and Bryce Canda’s 3 tied it at 80 with 3:57 to play. Woods scored a go-ahead jumper with 1:50 left for an 84-83 Vikings lead and Strickland and Edwards combined for three free throws from there while the Bengals missed two free throws and two field goals.</p>
<p>Jared Stutzman hit back-to-back 3s in Idaho State’s opening 15-5 run and the Bengals led 51-37 at halftime after hitting seven 3s and shooting 61.3 percent from the field.</p>
<p>Mocsan and Brandon Boyd scored 17 points apiece, Stutzman added 15, Sam Dowd 13 and Geno Luzcando 11 for the Bengals (8-9, 3-3), who have lost three straight.</p> | Portland St. rallies to beat Idaho St. 87-83 | false | https://apnews.com/ac8a0d107f724a4c85b543d0e19f5ac1 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>They wrapped their arms around the waists of people in front of them to prevent anyone from cutting in line in their desperation for one of just a few dozen slots granted daily with U.S. immigration authorities about a half-mile away.</p>
<p>Several thousand Haitians have traveled to Tijuana in recent months, overflowing migrant shelters and often sleeping outside next to their backpacks on sheets of cardboard, many after traveling 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) by foot, taxi and bus from Brazil through eight nations to the threshold of the United States. There have been so many that in August, Mexican authorities imposed a system of appointments in order to keep the Haitians away from the flow of other visitors at one of the world’s busiest border crossings.</p>
<p>Most of the Haitians appear unaware that the trip, and the desperate scramble at the border, has been in vain.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sept. 21 began putting Haitians in detention facilities before attempting to send them back to the homeland they fled, a departure from previous practice of freeing them on humanitarian parole. The U.S. softened its posture after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake but now treats them like people from other countries.</p>
<p>Many of the Haitians continuing to arrive in Tijuana have said they were unaware of the change, while those who knew about it said turning back was not an option. Brazil opened its doors to the Haitians after the earthquake devastated their impoverished country, but the South American country later developed its own economic problems, recently prompting many to seek work in the United States.</p>
<p>Antonio Juneiro, 40, is typical. He lived in Sao Paolo for four years until factory work dried up and he decided to join family in Miami. After spending $4,000 to reach Tijuana, the prospect of a job in the United States was worth the risk of getting deported to Haiti.</p>
<p>“When you have money, you have hope. You have health,” Juniero said at the Padre Chava migrant shelter in Tijuana, where he lived for a month while awaiting his appointment at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry.</p>
<p>The exodus from Brazil accelerated in May and has shown no sign of slowing. U.S. officials say about 5,000 Haitians showed up at San Ysidro from October 2015 through late last month, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana said at a recent congressional hearing that officials told her on a trip to Central America that 40,000 more were on their way. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said this week that an average of 300 Haitians and Africans were crossing Mexico’s southern border daily.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Nicaraguan authorities captured smugglers driving two trucks containing 98 migrants from Haiti and a variety of African nations. Authorities said they planned to return them to the border with Costa Rica where hundreds of others are stranded.</p>
<p>With hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Haitian men, women and young children regularly spending the night just outside the busiest United States border crossing, Mexican officials have moved to bring some order to the unruly scene by granting 20-day permits to stay in Mexico while also helping schedule their slots with the Americans on the other side.</p>
<p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection can only handle up to about 75 people a day at San Ysidro, and Tijuana authorities were unhappy about large crowds assembled on the Mexican side of the border crossing. So Mexican officials began distributing paper slips with dates to appear at San Ysidro but the documents were often copied. Now, three days a week, officials stamp dates to appear at San Ysidro on 20-day permits that Haitians receive to stay in Mexico.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Mexico also extends the 20-day permits to smaller numbers of U.S.-bound immigrants from Ghana, Senegal and other African countries.</p>
<p>One morning last week, 50 people who had dates to enter the U.S. quietly lined up at the border crossing. A Mexican official emerged from his trailer to say there was room for five more and was mobbed by about 100 people looking to cross. The official led the group across a bridge to a U.S. inspector, who directed them through a turnstile to an area inside the U.S. border station for questioning.</p>
<p>Once inside the United States, the Haitians cannot be turned back to Mexico. With the previous earthquake-related protections now dropped, they are held in U.S. detention centers pending repatriation.</p>
<p>Mexico’s National Migration Institute in Tijuana on Monday made appointments in the coming weeks for 766 people to enter at San Ysidro, making it one of its busiest days since the influx began. All people in line got a date, with the last ones getting appointments for Nov. 10, stranding them in Tijuana for more than five weeks.</p>
<p>Padre Chava, one of 10 Tijuana shelters that house Haitians, turned away hundreds over the weekend, leading many to sleep outside on cardboard sheets. The shelter accommodated 271 people Saturday, about half of them women — some pregnant — and 34 children. Many slept on floors without mattresses. Shouting matches erupted.</p>
<p>“We are exhausted, completely exhausted,” said shelter administrator Margarita Andonaegui. “When we have more than 200 people, we lose control.”</p>
<p>Rosario Lozada, the city’s director of migrant affairs, was exasperated after the latest arrivals raised her estimate of Haitians stuck in Tijuana to 2,000, half of them in shelters and the rest in hotels or on the streets.</p>
<p>“We’ve been going nonstop for almost five months, 24 hours a day,” she said.</p>
<p>It’s early to say if the U.S. policy shift is deterring Haitians from coming, but challenges lie ahead.</p>
<p>Haiti took back just 433 deportees in the 2015 fiscal year — before the influx, the recent policy shift and damage inflicted this week by Hurricane Matthew — and it’s unclear how many the impoverished nation is willing or able to absorb. The United States has a limited number of beds at its immigration detention facilities to accommodate people while flights and travel documents are arranged.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it was monitoring the hurricane and “will assess its impact on current policies as appropriate.” The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was working with other governments on how to address the Haitian immigrants.</p>
<p>Wilfred Jean-Luis, who moved to Brazil in 2014 and left when construction work dried up, was optimistic that he would eventually join cousins in Miami after a grueling journey that included getting robbed in Nicaragua, a common experience among the Haitians.</p>
<p>“How is Haiti going to able to take us back as deportees?” he asked after a night on Tijuana’s streets. “They don’t have the capacity.”</p> | Haitians mass at US-Mexico border despite deportation policy | false | https://abqjournal.com/862455/haitians-mass-at-us-mexico-border-despite-deportation-policy.html | 2016-10-06 | 2 |
Dems Dump Dorothy Friday Could Be ‘D Day’ For D Brown Dems May Bounce Dorothy Brown From Ticket Dems Taking Second Look At Brown Endorsement Hiring, ‘Pay To Play’ Part Of Dorothy Brown Probe Brown's Inside Pitch Brown Still Looking For Green Dorothy Brown, Feeling Heat Dorothy's Deed, Done Dirt Cheap Record Delays | false | https://bettergov.org/news/feds-charge-dorothy-brown-employee | 2015-11-20 | 2 |
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<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>19-20-23-24-32</p>
<p>(nineteen, twenty, twenty-three, twenty-four, thirty-two)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-11-30-33, Lucky Ball: 1</p>
<p>(ten, eleven, thirty, thirty-three; Lucky Ball: one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>03-17-23-49-66, Mega Ball: 23, Megaplier: 3</p>
<p>(three, seventeen, twenty-three, forty-nine, sixty-six; Mega Ball: twenty-three; Megaplier: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>1-2</p>
<p>(one, two)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>1-7</p>
<p>(one, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>3-2-0</p>
<p>(three, two, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>1-3-6</p>
<p>(one, three, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-7-6-9</p>
<p>(one, seven, six, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>4-4-2-8</p>
<p>(four, four, two, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>6-8-0-5-2</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, five, two)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-5-0-6-9</p>
<p>(three, five, zero, six, nine)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p>
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>19-20-23-24-32</p>
<p>(nineteen, twenty, twenty-three, twenty-four, thirty-two)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-11-30-33, Lucky Ball: 1</p>
<p>(ten, eleven, thirty, thirty-three; Lucky Ball: one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>03-17-23-49-66, Mega Ball: 23, Megaplier: 3</p>
<p>(three, seventeen, twenty-three, forty-nine, sixty-six; Mega Ball: twenty-three; Megaplier: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>1-2</p>
<p>(one, two)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>1-7</p>
<p>(one, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>3-2-0</p>
<p>(three, two, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>1-3-6</p>
<p>(one, three, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-7-6-9</p>
<p>(one, seven, six, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>4-4-2-8</p>
<p>(four, four, two, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>6-8-0-5-2</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, five, two)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-5-0-6-9</p>
<p>(three, five, zero, six, nine)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p> | FL Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/861a7d4f84ca451fa6470893a717f828 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>EPA’s new, supposedly improved sampling plan to test for residual toxic dust from the environmental disaster of 9/11 was released Tuesday evening to a response that ranged from “serious concern” on the part of Senator Hillary Clinton to dismay among community activists.</p>
<p>“[I]t appears at first glance that the EPA’s long-awaited plan has been designed in a way that is fundamentally inadequate to determine the true extent of WTC dust contamination,” said Congressman Jerrold Nadler of the Eighth District which includes Ground Zero.</p>
<p>“While we are pleased that EPA agreed to test workplaces as well as residences,” said David Newman, industrial hygienist for the <a href="http://www.nycosh.org/" type="external">New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health</a>and a member of the WTC Expert Technical Review Panel which has been meeting with EPA for the last year in an effort to arrive at a scientifically valid plan, “that is a hollow promise if employers can bar access for testing.”</p>
<p>Newman was referring to an aspect of voluntary testing which many community activists feel could make it impossible to get scientifically valid results: If EPA relies only on buildings whose landlords have volunteered to be tested, those are the buildings that are most likely to have been adequately cleaned. In office buildings, employees who are worried about what they may be getting exposed to at work will be at the mercy of the decisions of their employers who may be afraid of the liability issues that could ensue from testing.</p>
<p>Other problems with the plan include its reliance on a WTC ‘signature’ which would supposedly insure that contaminated dust that might be found in people’s homes indeed came from the disaster. Community activists have argued that the contents of the buildings were diverse and that nature did not obligingly mix them together into a homogeneous blend. This belief is borne out by experience: Independent testing performed in the years following 9/11 showed some apartments to have high levels of antimony; others, high levels of asbestos or lead, etc.</p>
<p>EPA’s initial plan as laid out by James Connaughton of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (the organization that changed at least one of EPA’s press releases following 9/11, turning cautionary statements about asbestos into reassurances) was to use asbestos as a surrogate for all the contaminants that might remain in people’s homes. This suggestion was denounced by organizations such as <a href="http://www.911ea.org/" type="external">9/11 Environmental Action</a> and the <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/groundzero/" type="external">Sierra Club</a> as well as being severely critiqued by independent experts. Asbestos was then replaced by two ‘signatures’, one for the collapse of the towers, the other for the fires that burned and smoldered for several months. The fire signature idea was abandoned. The collapse signature has metamorphosed several times. A few months ago it was to be slag wool. The current plan adds gypsum and concrete; the latter a contaminant too heavy to have travelled far from Ground Zero. The chameleon nature of the WTC signature underscores the dubiousness of the whole ‘signature’ notion since the essence of a signature is its constancy.</p>
<p>Even if EPA were to arrive at a reasonable plan, there are still problems with the way it would be executed. Residents who took part in EPA’s first cleanup, begun in September 2002, witnessed equipment that broke down, fans for air tests that were never turned on or, when they were turned on, were placed facing the wrong direction. Some community activists, including this writer, have argued for third party monitoring to prevent a repeat travesty.</p>
<p>JENNA ORKIN is one of twelve original plaintiffs in a potential class action lawsuit against the EPA and is director of the World Trade Center Environmental Organization. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Ground Zero’s Toxic Dust | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/05/13/ground-zero-s-toxic-dust/ | 2005-05-13 | 4 |
<p>From New Geography:</p>
<p>As the probability of President Barack Obama’s reelection grows, state and local officials across the country are tallying up the potential ramifications of a second term. For the most part, the biggest concerns lie with energy-producing states, which fear stricter environmental regulations, and those places most dependent on military or space spending, which are both likely to decrease under a second Obama administration.</p>
<p>On the other hand, several states, and particularly the District of Columbia, have reasons to look forward to another four years. Under Obama the federal workforce has expanded — even as state and localities have cut their government jobs. The growing concentration of power has also swelled the ranks of Washington‘s parasitical enablers, from high-end lobbyists to expense-account restaurants. While much of urban America is struggling, currently Washington is experiencing something of a golden age.</p>
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<p>Photo courtesy Joe Crimmings Photography, flickr</p> | Obama’s Second Term Win: A Victory for Public Employment and Lobbyists | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/who-stands-the-most-to-win-and-lose-from-a-second-obama-term/ | 2012-02-03 | 1 |
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<p>DAVOS, Switzerland — Playing the role of economic cheerleader, President Donald Trump told an annual gathering of political and business elites Friday that America is open for business and that economic growth in the U.S. under his “America first” agenda could benefit the globe.</p>
<p>Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, an incongruous location for a nationalist president, that American prosperity has created countless jobs around the world and he made clear he would remain focused on the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>But with a chamber of commerce-style pitch, the businessman-turned-president used the forum to sell the U.S. as a prime place to conduct business, noting the recent passage of a sweeping tax overhaul.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“America is the place to do business. So come to America, where you can innovate, create and build,” Trump said. “I believe in America.”</p>
<p>The president sought to strike a balance, tempering his nationalist agenda with reassurances to the globalist and cooperation-minded audience that his protectionist vision “does not mean America alone.”</p>
<p>“When the United States grows, so does the world,” Trump said. “American prosperity has created countless jobs around the globe and the drive for excellence, creativity and innovation in the United States has led to important discoveries that help people everywhere live more prosperous and healthier lives.”</p>
<p>Trump claimed he had inherited “years of stagnation” in the U.S. but recent economic figures show that U.S. companies and other employers added 2.1 million jobs in 2017, the lowest job growth in seven years.</p>
<p>Taking the stage, Trump received modest applause but some people kept their hands at their sides. The crowd was largely subdued as the president spoke but there were boos and hisses when he took a swipe at “how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be.”</p>
<p>The free-trade-focused gathering had viewed Trump with skepticism, given his “America First” message, but the White House has insisted that his protectionist policies and international cooperation can go hand-in-hand.</p>
<p>Trump addressed a crowd of over 1,500 people packed into a high-ceilinged hall in the modern conference center. Anticipation was high from attendees, who had watched the president closely since he arrived, snapping photos when he entered and as he moved from room to room.</p>
<p>Jay Flatley, executive chairman of California-based genome sequencing company Illumina, said Trump’s speech was “a very calming presentation, considering how it could have gone.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But Joseph Stiglitz, a frequent Trump critic and Nobel Prize winner in economics, found it far from convincing. He argued that the new U.S. tax cuts will create a bubble in the housing market. “I’ve never known an economy to grow long-term by real estate speculation,” he said.</p>
<p>Others faulted Trump for not using the opportunity to broaden the message beyond business and bring the U.S. into line with concerns expressed by other leaders in Davos — such as on climate change.</p>
<p>“I was very disappointed but not surprised that the president didn’t say anything positive about global warming,” said Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp. “He talked about doing things in partnership and together, and yet the United States is the only country in the world standing aside from the Paris agreement.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Jamey Keaton and Pan Pylas in Davos, Jonathan Lemire in New York and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>On Twitter follow Catherine Lucey at @Catherine_Lucey</p> | Trump declares America open for business under his tenure | false | https://abqjournal.com/1124649/trump-declares-america-open-for-business-under-his-tenure.html | 2018-01-26 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>KOB-TV reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2jn4HG5" type="external">http://bit.ly/2jn4HG5</a> ) that Miko Romero was charged with arson in connection with the Jan. 9 fire. No injuries were reported in the blaze.</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint, investigators determined the fire was intentionally set after finding a melted gas can.</p>
<p>Romero was interviewed by authorities Friday and has since been released on bond.</p>
<p>The complaint says Romero admitted to starting the house fire.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The blaze caused an estimated $4,000 in damage.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KOB-TV, <a href="http://www.kob.com" type="external">http://www.kob.com</a></p> | Man charged with arson of girlfriends’ Albuquerque home | false | https://abqjournal.com/928513/man-charged-with-arson-of-girlfriends-albuquerque-home.html | 2 |
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<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A Montana woman has died in a wreck that police speculate may have been caused by a medical episode involving the driver.</p>
<p>Authorities say the Helena woman died early Sunday at St. Peter's Health.</p>
<p>The Independent Record <a href="http://helenair.com/news/local/woman-dies-following-wreck-in-helena-saturday/article_b468d0b9-31e6-5589-b01c-ef83b35764a0.html" type="external">reports</a> that the accident was reported about 8 p.m. Saturday when a car driven by the woman went off the roadway and hit a tree.</p>
<p>Helena Police Cpt. Curt Stinson says an adult, male passenger suffered minor injuries.</p>
<p>The name of the victim was not immediately released.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Independent Record, <a href="http://www.helenair.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.helenair.com" type="external">http://www.helenair.com</a></p>
<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A Montana woman has died in a wreck that police speculate may have been caused by a medical episode involving the driver.</p>
<p>Authorities say the Helena woman died early Sunday at St. Peter's Health.</p>
<p>The Independent Record <a href="http://helenair.com/news/local/woman-dies-following-wreck-in-helena-saturday/article_b468d0b9-31e6-5589-b01c-ef83b35764a0.html" type="external">reports</a> that the accident was reported about 8 p.m. Saturday when a car driven by the woman went off the roadway and hit a tree.</p>
<p>Helena Police Cpt. Curt Stinson says an adult, male passenger suffered minor injuries.</p>
<p>The name of the victim was not immediately released.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Independent Record, <a href="http://www.helenair.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.helenair.com" type="external">http://www.helenair.com</a></p> | Montana woman dies in Helena traffic accident | false | https://apnews.com/f6237633af0346b99b086a655d2c1475 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>Photo: Sarah Kehoe</p>
<p />
<p>the land had been in Roges Brown’s family since 1882, all of 23 acres on the South Carolina coast, reverted now to oaks, magnolias, Spanish moss. Brown had played there as a child more than a half-century before. He had cleared the brush, gardened, gone crabbing down in the marsh. He knew there were no taxes owed on the land, nor any liens against it, and so he couldn’t understand why, at the Charleston County Courthouse, the land was being auctioned off like an abandoned car. All he could think was that it had to have something to do with the array of white lawyers and judges he’d encountered up to this point. “Everything you have, they take from you—just take it,” he thought. A glowering, 64-year-old Vietnam vet, he ended up appearing at the auction in full camouflage, “ranting and raving,” his lawyer remembers, “saying someone needed to die.” When the winning bid was submitted by a black man—his own nephew, no less—Brown was stunned. He wandered Charleston for a long time afterward, “just thinking, ‘search and destroy, search and destroy.'” Then he started writing letters to every public official he could think of, and finally he walked into the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation in Charleston, where he told the story first to managing attorney Willie Heyward, and, much later, to me.</p>
<p>In short, as Heyward explains it, Brown had fallen victim to the “heirs’ property” conundrum that afflicts tens of thousands of people throughout the South, many of them descendants of slaves who bought plantation land after the Civil War. Through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, black landowners tended to stay away from the courts and rarely put their wills through the legal system; without those official filings, title dispersed over time among all of an original owner’s descendants. Fractured ownership isn’t generally a problem unless the land becomes valuable—at which point someone typically discovers a provision in the law allowing any heir to file suit for his cut at any time. An auction is a common result, and developers, knowing that auctions mean deals, have been known to recruit an heir to file suit against his family, or to buy the heir’s share outright and file suit themselves. They appear at auction, as one observer puts it, “rubbing their hands and licking their lips.”</p>
<p>It has happened with particular frequency in Charleston County, where the coast is lined with old plantations and as many as 2,000 parcels of heirs’ property. Heyward can remember when few cared to be out there with the mosquitoes. Now, he says, “everyone wants to live by the marsh. Everyone wants to be by the birds and be secluded.” But as property has increased in value, black owners’ hold on it has loosened. Heyward travels the coast, informing owners on how the game is played and how they might solidify their ownership; he uses Brown’s odyssey as a case study of what can happen when a family ends up in court. “All you’ve got to do is turn one heir,” Heyward says, “and everyone loses.” Or almost everyone.</p>
<p>He and Brown took me for a tour of the land, a forest just a few miles from one of the state’s most prestigious golf courses. Heyward pointed beyond the marsh to two oak-covered islands (“That’s the ultimate in seclusion there”) and to the deep water that would allow yachts to dock at their owners’ doorsteps. “Believe me,” he said, “it’s an expensive piece of property.”</p>
<p>Brown confesses it was he, years ago, who first expressed interest in selling. When his nephew, Ben Smith, came forward offering to look into the matter, Brown and several other family members agreed to let him, even though Smith was not in line to inherit. Smith spoke with a woman whose grass he mowed, a realtor named Terryeabrook, whose Space Co. advertises itself as “Charleston’s only full service, African-American real estate company.” She in turn got in touch with a firm called Landmark Properties Inc., whose president was Melissa Seabrook. (According to Terry Seabrook, the two are not related. There is no current listing for Landmark Properties in Charleston; the attorney named as the firm’s representative in filings with the state of South Carolina, Ronald Richter, did not return Mother Jones’ phone calls.) Brown and other family members seem to have been ready to accept Landmark’s offer of $550,000, but a condition of the sale was a clear title. Hoping for a quick resolution, Brown and his siblings agreed to file the suit. When, in the course of the proceedings, the land was reappraised at nearly $2 million, Brown and six other heirs broke with Smith, and the court nullified thyeabrook deal. Judge Roger M. Young ordered the land placed on the market, and when after six months the property failed to sell, he set a date for it to be auctioned.</p>
<p>The day of the auction, August 21, 2002, there may have been more lawyers present than family members. As for bidders, there were only two, and one was Ben Smith, who seemed to have found someone to back his bid. (He “may have teamed with some other investors, I don’t know,” his lawyer told me.) Smith quickly won the land for $500,000, a quarter of its appraised worth.</p>
<p>The money arrived three years after the suit was filed. The suit itself had had the effect of a dinner bell, and so after the lawyers took their fees, some 70 heirs reached in for their share. Among them was an ancient woman from New York who, contrary to common belief, had never divorced the heir she’d married 75 years before. Her share was $34,000. Most of the rest had to content themselves with significantly less. Even long after the case was settled, there were letters coming into the file from heirs wanting a cut, claiming that relatives (“whom I know quite well”) had never notified them of the sale.</p>
<p>Roges Brown’s interest in the land was determined to be .74 of 1 percent, or $3,272.97, not much more than he had paid in legal fees. Ben Smith, who did not qualify as an heir at all, got about the same by way of compensation for trying to find a buyer for the land. Everything had gone according to proper procedure, Brown’s lawyer, Edward Pritchard Jr., told me, and he couldn’t understand why his client was so angry. “A lot of people,” he said, “just don’t understand how the law works.”</p>
<p>When Brown went finally to a lawyer who charged him nothing, Heyward agreed that the family had not understood the law, but he also knew the law had not looked out for the family. Changes that would protect heirs’ property—such as mandatory mediation—depend on political clout, which in the case of real estate laws comes mostly from developers. Charleston, notes Heyward, remains a culture that has changed very little. “They pride themselves on not changing,” he says. “That’s the tourist attraction. People come to Charleston to see things the way they were, not for progress.”</p>
<p>A year after buying the land, Smith flipped it to a developer from Pinehurst, North Carolina, for double what he’d paid at the auction—$1 million. Terry Seabrook brokered the deal. Plots next door to the property were recently selling for $200,000 an acre. For a time Smith lived directly across the street, in a gated golfing community called Hope Plantation. I wanted to ask him where he had gotten the money for the auction, but Brown said you can’t go into Hope Plantation, not even if you’re family. When I got Smith on the phone, he didn’t want to talk, and said in a cold, flat voice, “If you put my name in the paper…I’m going to have to shoot someone. Do you understand?” His name was going in, I told him, at which point he began to shout: “If you do that, sir, I’m coming to find your ass, and I’m going to put a bullet in your fucking head!” Then he slammed down the phone and returned to the solitude of his wealth.</p>
<p /> | For Sale by Owners | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/03/sale-owners/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
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<p>Radio: 610 AM</p>
<p>Probable starters: Game 1: Isotopes RHP Red Patterson (3-6, 4.81) vs. Chihuahuas RHP Michael Nix (3-2, 5.10). Game 2: Isotopes RHP Carlos Frias (6-4, 4.73) vs. Chihuahuas RHP Donn Roach (1-1, 3.42)</p>
<p>Tuesday: The scheduled game between the Isotopes and host El Paso was postponed because of inclement weather.</p>
<p>The teams will make up the game today as part of a doubleheader, both scheduled for seven innings.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The ‘Topes won the opener of the series Monday, 8-6.</p>
<p>This and that: Erisbel Arruebarrena has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games.</p>
<p>Next home game: Friday vs. Las Vegas, 6:05 p.m.</p> | ‘Topes today | false | https://abqjournal.com/423979/topes-today-265.html | 2 |
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<p>GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A 14-year-old girl could be charged with second-degree murder after her newly assigned foster mother was found dead in a Mesa County home.</p>
<p>The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports (https://goo.gl/mPu0JH ) prosecutors want to try the girl as an adult for allegedly stabbing 61-year-old Linda Smith multiple times with a serving fork after an argument. She had been placed in Smith’s home about a week before a caseworker found the body Feb. 13.</p>
<p>Coroner Dean Havlik told investigators an attack likely caused Smith to die suddenly due to her “medical frailty,” and none of the puncture wounds directly caused serious injury.</p>
<p>Smith suffered from heart and lung disease.</p>
<p>The girl was initially charged with manslaughter and assault in juvenile court.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Daily Sentinel, <a href="http://www.gjsentinel.com" type="external">http://www.gjsentinel.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Teen could face murder charge after foster mother found dead | false | https://abqjournal.com/964106/teen-could-face-murder-charge-after-foster-mother-found-dead.html | 2 |
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<p>U.S. oil prices closed at a 17-month high on Friday in quiet trade ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday week, even though the gain was small, as the market waits to see how OPEC manages its planned output cuts with Libya expecting to boost production.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Despite the 17-month high in U.S. futures, prices were little changed on Friday in a market that closed early for the Christmas holiday.</p>
<p>Brent futures gained 11 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at $55.16 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained seven cents, or 0.1 percent, to settle at $53.02, its highest close since July 2015.</p>
<p>That topped the previous 17-month high close for WTI set last week by a nickel and was the front-month's sixth daily gain in a row, its longest winning streak since August.</p>
<p>It also put the WTI contract up for a fifth week in six, gaining about 22 percent since mid November, which traders said was mostly related to the OPEC production cut agreement.</p>
<p>"Friday was a quiet, low volume day with little price movement," said Phil Davis, managing partner of venture capital fund PSW Investments in Woodland Park, New Jersey, noting WTI gained just enough pennies to set a new 17-month high.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"This is the time for maximum hype in oil. It's all related to the OPEC deal to cut output," Davis said, warning the high prices will not last if the market does not see the OPEC cuts over the longer term.</p>
<p>Over the past few weeks, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members agreed to lower output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1.</p>
<p>While major OPEC producers including Saudi Arabia and Iraq have told customers that supply will be cut in line with the OPEC deal, Libya and Nigeria are exempt because conflict has already curbed their output.</p>
<p>Libya's National Oil Corp hopes to add 270,000 bpd to national production over the next three months after announcing on Tuesday the reopening of pipelines leading from two major fields, Sharara and El Feel.</p>
<p>Another factor that analysts said could soon weigh on the oil market was an announcement this week that Saudi Arabia would boost domestic fuel prices as the government reduces its subsidies..</p>
<p>That could reduce internal oil consumption and leave more Saudi barrels for the export market, Tim Evans, Citi Futures' energy futures specialist, said in a report.</p> | Oil Settles at 17-Month High | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/23/oil-settles-at-17-month-high.html | 2016-12-23 | 0 |
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