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<p>By PATRICK HEALY Columbia MissourianThe same war broke under opposite skies.In Columbia, a cold rain accompanied President Bush as he promised military victory and the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule.(...)The nighttime airstrikes represented the culmination of stressful, uncertain days for people across the world and in Columbia. Columbians said the last hours before the attacks were quiet and tense.</p>
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<p>Many residents said they felt more and more apprehensive as Saddam’s 48-hour window to leave Iraq lapsed at 7 p.m. Some riveted themselves to CNN and National Public Radio, skipping dinner to learn about the 17 Iraqi soldiers who surrendered before fighting began.</p>
<p>Others tried to deflect their anxiety by diverting their attention. They went swimming, studied at Lakota Coffee Co., folded laundry, hooked up a new computer printer and took the dogs for a walk.</p>
<p>MU student Josh Neustrom and several friends loaded candy, Q-Tips, Bibles and puzzle books into care packages destined for troops stationed in the Middle East.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Columbians look to Middle East as threat becomes action | false | https://poynter.org/news/columbians-look-middle-east-threat-becomes-action | 2003-03-20 | 2 |
<p>Imagine you’re standing in the produce section of your local grocery faced with a variety of apples. You want to make the best choice, for the good of your family, farm workers and the environment. Do you buy the organic Galas shipped from across the country or the Granny Smiths grown conventionally but locally?</p>
<p>The decision is not easy.</p>
<p>First, consider organic. Organic farming, because it shuns synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, is friendlier to the environment than conventional practices. And evidence is increasing that organic food is better for you.</p>
<p>Organic produce on average contains about twice the essential minerals of conventionally grown food, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition. And a University of Washington study found that children eating conventional food had six to nine times the pesticide exposure of children who ate an organic diet.</p>
<p>It is no wonder that consumers have made organic food the fastest growing sector of agriculture. Sales of organic food are rising by 20 percent annually.</p>
<p>But organic is not without problems. As organic sales have grown, organic farming has moved away from its small family-farm roots and is becoming industrialized. The organic carrots I buy at Wal-Mart were probably grown on a large scale, a system dependent on fossil-fuel mechanization, underpaid farm labor and imported organic fertilizers. How sustainable over the long run is the diesel tractor plowing up the soil? How fair are the labor practices? And the chicken litter fertilizer might be organic, but how far was it shipped before it was spread on the field?</p>
<p>This distance question highlights a problem of our entire food system, including organic: our love affair with airlifted, railroaded, tractor-trailored grapes in December or tomatoes in February. Often this produce comes from Mexico or Chile or some other faraway place, and its cheap price belies the waste of energy used to transport it to our tables.</p>
<p>“Eaters might begin to question the sanity of eating food more traveled than they are,” quips Joan Dye Gussow, author of “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931498245/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Organic Life</a>“. Noting that a calorie is a unit of energy, she says: “It costs 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry from California to New York.”</p>
<p>The burning of fossil fuel to move food means more globe-warming greenhouse gases. My organic carrots from Wal-Mart might do my body good, but in eating them, I’m harming the larger body of our earth, and that ultimately circles back to everyone’s health.</p>
<p>Now consider locally grown food. It solves the problem of shipping food long distances. The Granny Smith from your nearby orchard only has to travel a few miles, in contrast with the 1,000 to 2,000 miles that most of our food travels from field to plate. And because of this short commute, local food — organic or conventional — is naturally fresher and tastier.</p>
<p>Another advantage of buying locally is food security. Today’s centralized system processes food in huge factories and moves products in large quantities, creating attractive targets for terrorists looking to contaminate as much food as possible. A decentralized system of small local farms and processors would be much harder to disrupt on a large scale.</p>
<p>Finally, buying local food means keeping our dollars circulating in our own communities.</p>
<p>So next time you are in the supermarket pondering the organic Gala or the local Granny Smith, consider how you might help create a food system that is both organic and local. Seek out a local farmers market or vegetable subscription service that provides a weekly bag of produce. Meet your local farmers this way. Encourage them to use organic methods and local sources of compost and other soil amendments. And seek out the small growers, who don,t have to exploit labor to gather their harvests.</p>
<p>If you enjoy quality food and a healthy planet, consider what you eat, where it was grown and how. Let’s choose both organic and local if possible, so we can begin moving our food economy in ways that benefit our health and the earth’s.</p>
<p>JIM MINICK teaches at Radford University in Virginia and also farms. A poet and essayist, his latest work, “Finding a Clear Path”, will be published in 2005. Minick is a member of the Land Institute’s Prairie Writers Circle, Salina, Kan.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Beyond Organic | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/11/27/beyond-organic/ | 2004-11-27 | 4 |
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<p>Ochoa, then 20 and on probation for drug possession, had already rejected two plea offers and wanted to prove his innocence. But the judge made it clear the odds were against him because he had been identified by the victims as the perpetrator. If convicted, Ochoa feared he would never see his young son again.</p>
<p>“I felt like I was gambling with my life,” he said from his home in the Dallas area.</p>
<p>He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and spent about a year in prison before DNA linked the crime to another man in 2006. Ochoa was cleared and released within days.</p>
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<p>Hundreds of others have faced the same dilemma. More than 300 of the more than 1,900 people who have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989 pleaded guilty, according to an estimate by the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry is maintained by the University of Michigan Law School using public information, such as court documents and news articles.</p>
<p>Last year, 68 out of 157 exonerations were cases in which the defendant pleaded guilty, more than any previous year.</p>
<p>Critics say the numbers reflect an overwhelmed criminal justice system with public defenders who have more cases than they can handle and expedience on the part of court officials, who can save the government money with plea bargains compared with costly trials.</p>
<p>“Our criminal justice system has lost its way,” said David O. Markus, a prominent Miami defense attorney. “For a long time, it was our country’s crown jewel, built on the principle that it was better that 10 guilty go free than one innocent be wrongfully convicted. Now sadly, the system accepts and even encourages innocent people to plead guilty.”</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, state and federal lawmakers reacted to rising crime rates by imposing mandatory minimums and other sentencing laws to crack down on felons. As the penalties and risk of going to prison grew, so did the percentage of defendants who opted to plead guilty.</p>
<p>Last year, more than 97 percent of criminal defendants sentenced in federal court pleaded guilty compared with about 85 percent more than 30 years ago, according to data collected by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The increase in guilty pleas has been a gradual rise over the last three decades.</p>
<p>No entity gathers statistics for all state courts, but prosecutors, defense attorneys and law professors say they have also seen more cases at that level resolved by guilty pleas and fewer cases going to trial.</p>
<p>“When the penalties are so high, no one wants to take the risk of going to trial because if you lose, you’re going to go away for a long, long time,” said Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in New York.</p>
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<p>No one knows exactly how many innocent people are behind bars for pleading guilty. Sociologists have estimated that between 2 and 8 percent of people who plead guilty are in fact innocent, said Rakoff, who has studied the issue for years.</p>
<p>In Ochoa’s case, he was charged with two counts of armed robbery and carjacking. Authorities said the crime occurred outside a nightclub in Buena Park, California. He faced 15 years to life in prison.</p>
<p>Ochoa’s attorney, Scott Borthwick, said he tried to talk him out of pleading guilty. Ochoa’s DNA wasn’t on anything inside the stolen car, but the carjacking victims positively identified him. Borthwick said the judge told him during a meeting in his chambers that if Ochoa was convicted by jurors, the judge would give him the maximum: life.</p>
<p>About 10 months after he pleaded guilty, another man was arrested in a different carjacking. The DNA found in the car in Ochoa’s case matched the man, who confessed to the crime.</p>
<p>After Ochoa’s release, he joined his family, who had moved to the Dallas area. He was turned down for jobs at Walmart and other places because the violent felony still showed up on his record, he said.</p>
<p>An officer for the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board initially recommended that Ochoa not receive any money for his imprisonment, saying Ochoa contributed to his erroneous conviction by pleaded guilty.</p>
<p>But in the end, the board granted Ochoa $31,700. He also got $550,000 to settle his lawsuit against the city of Buena Park and its police department.</p>
<p>Ochoa used the money to buy a house and began working as an electrician. That’s how he now supports his wife and two kids.</p>
<p>Even those who are close to Ochoa don’t understand why he pleaded guilty. His brother calls him dumb and his dad says he wouldn’t have signed the deal, Ochoa said.</p>
<p>“It’s hard for a person that hasn’t been through that to understand the way it is,” Ochoa said. “I didn’t want to plead guilty for something I didn’t do. I wanted to fight it.”</p>
<p>Judge Robert Fitzgerald, who heard Ochoa’s case, declined through a spokeswoman for the Orange County Superior Court to comment. Orange County District Attorney Anthony Rackauckas, whose office prosecuted it, said he was not immediately available for comment.</p>
<p>Those who were exonerated after pleading guilty often have prior criminal records, like Ochoa, and come from poor backgrounds and are not well-educated. They’re typically represented by public defenders juggling dozens of cases in a day and looking to cut good deals for their clients.</p>
<p>Many were cleared of wrongdoing by taking a new look at DNA evidence in blood or other body fluids, according to the University of Michigan database. Some were the victims of prosecutorial misconduct, while shoddy police work was to blame in other cases — such as a mistaken FBI hair analysis or falsified fingerprint evidence. Some falsely confessed because of improper interrogation techniques while others, like Ochoa, maintained their innocence throughout.</p>
<p>It’s not just prosecutors and defense attorneys who seek to cut plea deals. Many judges prefer that route. Judges who resolve cases rather than let them languish tend to be seen as more successful. Similarly, prosecutors who close cases tend to rise faster in their careers.</p>
<p>U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Lee Brannon of West Palm Beach, Florida, outlined his reasoning for a deal-first approach in a recent case involving victims of a serial sex molester. The victims had sued the federal government because the molester, a wealthy and well-connected financier, was allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges without the victims’ advance knowledge.</p>
<p>Brannon urged the two sides to settle.</p>
<p>“If you go to trial, you’re going to lose control of the outcome. Nobody knows for sure how this is going to turn out,” he said. “Settle the case. That’s the way to move on.”</p>
<p>___</p> | Trial or deal? Some driven to plead guilty, later exonerated | false | https://abqjournal.com/889404/trial-or-deal-some-driven-to-plead-guilty-later-exonerated.html | 2016-11-15 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A former Albuquerque police officer recently acquitted of killing his wife has voluntarily relinquished his New Mexico police officer certification.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy says Levi Chavez recently gave up his certification but he declined to give a reason why.</p>
<p>Chavez can reapply for his certification in three years and must take a course.</p>
<p>The former officer was fired in 2011 following his indictment in connection of the death of his wife, Tera Chavez.</p>
<p>In July, jurors acquitted Chavez of murder following a trial that drew national attention. A wrongful death lawsuit filed against Chavez by his wife’s family was dismissed last week after a settlement was reached.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former APD officer Levi Chavez gives up certification | false | https://abqjournal.com/317786/former-apd-officer-levi-chavez-gives-up-certification.html | 2 |
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<p>Tests that were run on former NFL star Aaron Hernandez's brain revealed that the football player was suffering from advanced chronic traumatic encephalopathy before his death in April, <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20777856/lawyer-says-aaron-hernandez-had-advanced-stages-cte" type="external">reports ESPN</a>. Hernandez's daughter is now suing the NFL and the New England Patriots for convincing Hernandez that the sport was safe.</p>
<p>Hernandez's lawyer, Jose Baez, said in a press conference at his office on Thursday that the tests confirmed that the player was suffering from one of the most intense cases of the disease ever recorded.</p>
<p>"We're told it was the most severe case they had ever seen for someone of Aaron's age," Baez said.</p>
<p>Dr. Ann McKee, who directs the CTE Center at Boston University, said that the degenerative disease in Hernandez's brain was in its third of four stages.</p>
<p>Hernandez's daughter, Avielle, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Thursday accusing the NFL of depriving her of her father's companionship.</p>
<p>An NFL spokesman declined to comment on the matter, saying that the organization had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.</p>
<p /> | The NFL is going to fight back against assertions made in the Aaron Hernandez CTE lawsuit | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/09/21/nation/aaron-hernandez-had-advanced-cte-before-his-death | 2017-09-22 | 1 |
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<p>Even before George Jetson entranced kids with his cartoon flying car, people dreamed of soaring above traffic congestion. Inventors and entrepreneurs have long tried and failed to make the dream a reality, but that may be changing.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Nearly a dozen companies around the globe, including some with deep pockets such as European aircraft maker Airbus, are competing to be the first to develop a new kind of aircraft that will enable commuters to glide above crowded roadways. A few of the aircraft under development are cars with wings that unfold for flight, but most aren't cars at all. Typically they take off and land vertically like helicopters. Rather than a single, large main rotor, they have multiple small rotors. Each rotor is operated by a battery-powered electric motor instead of a conventional aircraft piston engine.</p>
<p>It's no sure bet that flying-car dreams will turn into reality. There are many obstacles, including convincing regulators that the aircraft are safe, figuring out how to handle thousands of new low-flying aircraft over cities without collisions and developing batteries that will keep them aloft long enough to be useful.</p>
<p>But entrepreneurs are moving forward. They see a vast potential market for "air taxis" and personally owned small aircraft to transport people from the fringes of metropolitan areas to city centers as urban areas grow more congested and people spend more time stuck in traffic. They envision tens of thousands of one or two-person flying taxis delivering passengers to the rooftops of office buildings in city centers and other landing pads during rush hours.</p>
<p>"In as little as 10 years, products could be on the market that revolutionize urban travel for millions of people," said Zach Lovering, the leader of Airbus' project to develop an autonomous flying taxi called the Vahana. The name means the mount or vehicle of a Hindu deity.</p>
<p>Uber released a 98-page report in October making the business case for air taxis, which the company sees as the future of on-demand transportation. Uber doesn't have any plans to develop a flying car itself, but the online transportation network is advising several companies that have aircraft in the works.</p>
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<p>"The role we want to play is as a catalyst for the entire industry," said Nikhil Goel, an Uber project manager for advanced programs.</p>
<p>Some of the aircraft are drones that will be preprogrammed for each flight and monitored or operated from the ground or a command center. Others are designed for human pilots.</p>
<p>It's unclear yet how much the aircraft will cost, although prices are likely to vary significantly. Some of the aircraft are designed to be individually owned, while others are envisioned more for commercial use. Designers hope that if demand is high, prices can be kept affordable through economies of mass production.</p>
<p>Several recent developments could make these aircraft possible. Advances in computing power mean the rotors on multi-copter drones can be adjusted many times per second, making the aircraft easy to control. Drones have also benefited from advances in battery and electric motor technology. Some companies, like Chinese dronemaker EHang, are scaling-up drones so that they can carry people.</p>
<p>Another aircraft under development, Santa Cruz, California-based Joby Aviation's S2, looks more like a conventional plane except that there are 12 tiltrotors spread along the wings and tail. And some, like the Vahana, a cockpit mounted on a sled and flanked by propellers in front and back, don't really look like any aircraft in the skies today.</p>
<p>"In terms of what you can make fly in a reliable manner, the solution speed gateway that (computer) chips have gone through recently have literally opened the door to a whole new world of flying machine possibilities," said Charles Eastlake, an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor emeritus of aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>But he also cautioned: "My best engineering guess is that people actually using autonomous air taxis in the next 10 or 15 years is possible, but definitely not certain. The challenges are big."</p>
<p>Key for many of the designs will be the development of longer-lasting lightweight batteries. Currently available batteries could probably keep an air taxi aloft about 15 to 30 minutes before it would have to land, experts said. Depending on how fast the aircraft flies, that probably isn't quite enough to transport passengers between nearby cities or across metropolitan areas, experts said.</p>
<p>Another hurdle will be winning Federal Aviation Administration certification for any radical new kind of aircraft when approval of even small changes in aviation technology can take years.</p>
<p>The FAA said in a statement that it is taking a "flexible, open-minded, and risk-based approach" to flying cars. FAA officials have discussed with several manufacturers the certification of aircraft that will be flown with a pilot in the beginning, and later converted to an autonomous passenger aircraft.</p>
<p>While further research is needed to ensure that autonomous aircraft are safe, "we believe automation technology already being prototyped in low-risk unmanned aircraft missions, when fully mature, could have a positive effect" on aviation safety," the agency said.</p>
<p>Reducing noise is another challenge since air taxis will be taking off and landing in densely populated areas. So is creating enough landing pads to handle lots of aircraft at the same time. A new air traffic control system would also likely be needed.</p>
<p>"It's pretty clear that the existing air traffic control system won't scale to the kind of density at low altitudes that people are talking about," said John Hansman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who chairs the FAA's research and engineering advisory committee.</p>
<p>NASA is developing an air traffic control system for small drones that perhaps could be expanded to include flying cars.</p>
<p>"There's no question we can build the vehicle," Hansman said. "The big challenge is whether we can build a vehicle that would be allowed to operate in the places where people want to use it."</p>
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<p>Associated Press videographer Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.</p> | A commuter's dream: Entrepreneurs race to develop flying car | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/01/30/commuter-dream-entrepreneurs-race-to-develop-flying-car.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Feb. 15, 2013</p>
<p>By John Seiler</p>
<p>Republicans continue to mull over their two defeats by President Barack Obama. And their virtual dissolution in California, which once produced presidents who won landslides: Nixon and Reagan.</p>
<p>One of the best GOP strategists is Morton Blackwell, whom I met in the mid-1980s when I lived in Washington, D.C. He just wrote a new analysis attacking the party’s increasing dependence on high-paid consultants, “ <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/the-gops-consultant-problem/?print=1" type="external">The GOP’s consultant problem</a>.” He doesn’t specifically mention California, but what he says applies here more than elsewhere. He writes:</p>
<p>“Most consultants take a 15% commission (over and above client-paid production costs and his retainer) from media vendors for all placements.”</p>
<p>So for the $180 million of her own money that Meg Whitman spent on her losing 2010 gubernatorial campaign, $27 million went to the consultants — plus production costs and retainers.</p>
<p>Now, get this. The consultant only gets paid for big media splashes on TV and radio. He gets nothing, Blackwell writes, for “precinct organization … Voter ID phone banks … voter registration drives … youth efforts … the election day process to get out the vote.” That is, the essence of politics is avoided by the GOP consultants because it doesn’t earn them a 15 percent commission.</p>
<p>In the 2012 election, as well as in 2010, Democrats excelled at all those things. Maybe it’s a difference of culture. Democrats, especially in California, are dominated by unions, who are used to membership drives and organizing to fight for or against ballot initiatives. They always have had strong grassroots organizations.</p>
<p>By contrast, Republicans have a business background. They think you offer a “product,” put up some ads for it, and people either buy&#160;it or they don’t. If they buy it, you make a profit (or win the election); if they don’t buy it, you take a loss (or lose the election) and move on to the next product offering.</p>
<p>Blackwell specifically attacks, “The suckering of many rich candidates who are falsely led by consultants to believe they can win.”</p>
<p>We certainly saw that in California in 2010 with Whitman’s campaign. The eBay billionaire had no idea what she was getting into. She talked about “running the California government like a business.” But politics isn’t business. Business means offering somebody a product that the purchaser can refuse and buy something else; it’s voluntary. Government is coercion. It’s putting a gun to the heads of taxpayers, taking their money, and spending it on special interests. Elections are, as H.L. Mencken wrote, “the advance auction of stolen goods.”</p>
<p>The same thing happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who thought he could bring his Hollywood bluster and contract negotiating skills to “running the California government like a business.” His personal charisma and the recall circus of 2003 brought him to power; the real-estate boom of the mid-2000s kept him in power in 2006.</p>
<p>But in the end, he was rolled by the Capitol power players for spending increases that blew out the budget and led to his record $13 billion tax increases of 2009. The state economy tanked much faster than the U.S. economy and he left office in disgrace followed by personal scandal.</p>
<p>The consultants to his campaigns took their 15 percent.</p>
<p>In addition to all their other problems, Arnold’s folly took a severe toll on the California Republican Party. After losing his 2005 special election slate of reform initiatives, Arnold shifted fast to the Left, embracing AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. It’s projected to k <a href="" type="internal">ill 1 million jobs</a>— long after he left office, of course.</p>
<p>And to show how things have changed, in the seven years since then, environmental extremists no longer even refer to “global warming,” but to “climate change,” which President Obama referred to three times in his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/us/politics/obamas-2013-state-of-the-union-address.html?_r=0&amp;pagewanted=all" type="external">State of the Union address</a> this week. That way, any bout of bad weather becomes an excuse to increase government control over our lives vastly more than it already does to prevent a potential ecological catastrophe.</p>
<p>The result was that Arnold tarnished what was left of the anti-tax, small-government “brand” of the California GOP. Some say that was a good thing because they needed to move away from “extreme” right-wing positions. But now the CA&#160;GOP has no brand at all. It’s even <a href="http://www.voiceofoc.org/politics/article_8a2b7a38-2f6b-11e2-8920-001a4bcf887a.html" type="external">losing seats</a>in the Legislature in former Republican strongholds such as Orange County.</p>
<p>Blackwell recommends a return to grassroots organizing and online efforts such as those that have worked for the Demcorats. Incoming CA GOP Chairman Jim Brulte <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/party-408987-brulte-gop.html" type="external">is recommending something similar</a>. In California, it’s going to take a lot more than that.&#160;But it’s a start.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Republicans’ consultant problem — especially in CA | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/02/15/republicans-consultant-problem-especially-in-ca/ | 2018-02-20 | 3 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — The minimum wage is increasing in Arizona with the arrival of the new year.</p>
<p>The Arizona Republic <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/jobs/2017/12/28/arizonas-minimum-wage-increase-50-cents-10-jan-1/982427001/" type="external">reports</a> that the state's minimum wage rose Monday by 50 cents to $10.50 an hour and will go even higher in Flagstaff. Unemployment has fallen across the state in recent years.</p>
<p>Arizona's minimum wage stood at $8.05 an hour as recently as 2016. The Jan. 1 increase is part of a series of annual increases approved by voters in November 2016 elections.</p>
<p>The state's minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $12 an hour in 2020, with further increases linked to inflation.</p>
<p>Flagstaff ushered in the new year with a minimum-wage increase of 50 cents to $11 an hour.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — The minimum wage is increasing in Arizona with the arrival of the new year.</p>
<p>The Arizona Republic <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/jobs/2017/12/28/arizonas-minimum-wage-increase-50-cents-10-jan-1/982427001/" type="external">reports</a> that the state's minimum wage rose Monday by 50 cents to $10.50 an hour and will go even higher in Flagstaff. Unemployment has fallen across the state in recent years.</p>
<p>Arizona's minimum wage stood at $8.05 an hour as recently as 2016. The Jan. 1 increase is part of a series of annual increases approved by voters in November 2016 elections.</p>
<p>The state's minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $12 an hour in 2020, with further increases linked to inflation.</p>
<p>Flagstaff ushered in the new year with a minimum-wage increase of 50 cents to $11 an hour.</p> | Arizona hikes minimum wage by 50 cents | false | https://apnews.com/amp/439c4a0158254cc9b38ef522eeaeedd7 | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
<p>&gt; <a href="http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1128158813281710.xml&amp;coll=3" type="external">U.S. Attorney pushes reporter, bans him from news conference (MR)</a> &gt; <a href="http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=3qm6qyyzq2u5lcluip6owj8te0uezpng" type="external">NYU journalism department increases its faculty by 60% (Chronicle)</a> &gt; <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/ap/20051002/ap_en_tv/tv_saving_lives_2" type="external">CNN photographer Biello praised for helping Katrina victims (AP)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12793539.htm" type="external">U.S. military says killing of Knight Ridder's Salihee was justified (KR)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-arrest01.html" type="external">Sun-Times columnist Steinberg charged with domestic battery (S-T)</a> &gt; <a href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/14657/index.html" type="external">Bitter?: WSJ serves pretzels and cheese at Lipman's farewell bash (NY)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/352002p-300078c.html" type="external">Report: Curtain finally falling on CBS News chief Heyward (#2) (NYDN)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nypost.com/business/28851.htm" type="external">Hearst's Black shops book with tales about Murdoch, other bigwigs (NYP)</a></p> | Additional items for October 3, 2005 | false | https://poynter.org/news/additional-items-october-3-2005 | 2005-10-03 | 2 |
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<p>According to more than a few reputable news organizations, Barack Obama just may be the best gun salesman the firearms industry never hired. And as it turns out, not only are the 10 and 12 gauge shotguns, .50-cal hand cannons, and 5.56 mm long distance shoulder fired weapons flying off the shelves.</p>
<p>As of late, certain weapons with less-than-threatening monikers such as “mouse gun” and “Glock in the box” are also hot sellers in case of a sudden outbreak of Zombie Apocalypse, the never popular TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It), or the Democrats geting their way when it comes to fundamentally changing the Second Amendment; whichever comes first. Case in point would be the recent article penned by&#160;Mike Boyle on <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/28/mouse-gun-magic/" type="external">The Daily Caller</a> news portal on Apr. 28, 2016.</p>
<p>With 1-4 shot derringers or pint-sized revolvers once wielded mainly by rascally riverboat gamblers or cops as their BUG (Back Up Gun), Boyle cites that everyday citizens are now snapping up both micro and folding guns. And they definitely aren’t your granddad’s Saturday Night Special stuffed in his back pocket.</p>
<p>As noted by Boyle, the smallish shooting irons, popularly known as “mouse guns,” aren’t just glorified conversation starters or fashion accessories. Specifically, Boyle wisely admonishes, “Never lose track of the fact you might actually have to shoot someone with your carry piece in order to save your life or a loved one.”</p>
<p>While popular culture has often correctly painted the picture of yesteryear’s derringers and BUGs as small caliber weapons of last resort, today’s security conscience man on the go or no-nonsense “you’ll eat orange slices and like it” soccer mom can legally purchase pistols no bigger than a playing card, or those indistinguishable from a smartphone or a high-tech flashlight.</p>
<p>As seen on the photo above, micro-pistols of a caliber capable of dropping a horse are available for law abiding citizens. As seen in the accompanying video, Magpul Industries is developing their own Transformer-esque 9 mm FPG (Folding Pocket Gun).</p>
<p>For those that would rather pass on their own “Glock in a box,” there’s always the Minnesota startup company <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/03/30/folding-gun-that-looks-like-smartphone-worries-police.html" type="external">Ideal Conceal</a> who’ve targeted mid-summer for the release of their potent .380-caliber two shot derringer. The twist with their product is that at a casual glance the folding gun appears to be nothing more than an everyday smartphone.</p>
<p>Also reported recently by the likes of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/10/us/gun-sales-terrorism-obama-restrictions.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a> and Great Britain’s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3547905/Obama-responsible-huge-increase-gun-related-jobs-number-rising-73-cent-anti-fire-arm-stance.html" type="external">The Daily Mail</a>, the law of unintended consequences just may have snake bit Barack Obama regarding gun sales. While Obama’s anti-gun rhetoric has been well known since his swearing-in back in 2009, not only is the citizenry purchasing weapons in record numbers for fear of federal laws curtailing or flat-out outlawing private gun ownership, gun manufacturing is one of the very few factory-based sectors that’s seen any real growth.</p> | Thanks to Obama, gun sales rise – especially ‘mouse guns’ and FPGs | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/thanks-to-obama-gun-sales-rise-especially-mouse-guns-and-fpgs/ | 2016-04-29 | 0 |
<p>Paul Sancya/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Remember this summer when Ted Cruz refused to attack Donald Trump? Now, it seems, the Cruz campaign is making up for lost time. With <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa_republican_presidential_caucus-3194.html" type="external">polls&#160; showing</a> Trump in the lead in Iowa—and only a few days left for Cruz to overtake him—Cruz and his surrogates are now tearing into Trump with all they’ve got. The game plan: Convince Iowans that Trump is a liberal masquerading as a Republican.</p>
<p>On Wednesday night, a jam-packed rally for Cruz in West Des Moines started to feel a lot like an anti-Trump rally.</p>
<p>Whether or not the Trump attacks will win the day for Cruz, the audience at Wednesday’s gathering ate them up. The rally, which was billed as a pro-life event, drew leaders of the religious right and other socially conservative Cruz backers, such as Rep. Steve King of Iowa and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Here are the top attacks on Trump from the event.</p>
<p>Down with the “art of the deal”: Donald Trump likes to talk up his book, The Art of the Deal, promising that as president, he would make good deals for the United States. These promises are a little vague, but the gist is that President Barack Obama is weak and a poor negotiator—an oft-cited example is the nuclear agreement with Iran—and that, by contrast, Trump knows how to drive a hard bargain. At the rally Wednesday, Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent social conservative in Iowa who has endorsed Cruz, characterized Trump’s deal-making as code for compromising on conservative principles.</p>
<p>“[Trump] says the establishment is warming up to him because he’s all about the art of the deal,” Vander Plaats, one of several surrogates who spoke on Cruz’s behalf Wednesday evening, told the crowd. “I’ll tell you right now, the sanctity of life is not up for the art of the deal.” To whistles and cheers, he added a few more items not subject to negotiation: “God’s design for marriage and family,” “religious liberty,” and the Constitution.</p>
<p>If you don’t vote for Cruz, you’re voting for Trump: The Cruz campaign has recently embraced the message that if voters choose anyone but Cruz, they are throwing their votes away and helping Trump win. “This is race is going to come down to two individuals: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz,” Vander Plaats told the crowd. “So if you want to vote for anybody else, I’d say that vote goes to Donald Trump unless you vote for Ted Cruz.”</p>
<p>Vander Plaats is one of the latest victims of Trump’s classic Twitter attacks. Trump went after Vander Plaats, who heads a conservative Christian organization, The Family Leader, this week, <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/01/26/trump-takes-aim-bob-vander-plaats/79354322/" type="external">calling him</a> “phony” and “a bad guy!” Vander Plaats pushed back against those attacks on Twitter and at Cruz’s rally Wednesday, where he claimed victory in their Twitter spat. “We fought back and we won that Twitter war, ’cause the truth was on our side,” he said.</p>
<p>“You’re fired!”: For the second time in as many nights, Cruz laid into Trump for backing out of the next Republican debate on Thursday night, even taking a stab at Trump’s famous line from his reality show The Apprentice. “This is a job interview,” Cruz said. “I want you to imagine you put up an ad in the help-wanted pages, looking for a new employee to administer the government and turn the ship of state around. And imagine someone called you and said, ‘Yeah I’d like that job but I ain’t showing up for the interview.’ What would you say? ‘You’re fired.'”</p>
<p>Cruz then extended Trump an offer to debate one on one on Saturday night at Western Iowa Tech in Sioux City. “We already have it reserved,” he said. “So we have a venue, we have a time, all we’re missing is a candidate.”</p>
<p>Trump backs Planned Parenthood: Cruz promised the crowd that on his first day in office, he would open an investigation into Planned Parenthood. And Trump? “Donald Trump, today, supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>“Trumpcare”: “In a Republican primary, everyone’s going to say they oppose Obamacare,” Cruz said. “The question to ask, once again, is where were you? There’s actually one candidate on that stage—or actually, technically speaking now, not on that stage—who doesn’t say that. Listen, Donald Trump’s position on health care is he supports Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine for everyone.”</p>
<p>“We have Hillarycare, then Obamacare, and Trumpcare is socialized medicine for every American,” Cruz said. “Now listen, Donald is entitled to have that view. You might even call that a New York value”—a reiteration of an attack line he’s used recently to convince voters that Trump is a blue-state liberal in disguise. “Both he and Bernie Sanders are native New Yorkers.”</p>
<p>The “Trumpcare” attack was nearly identical in language to a <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430299/cruz-super-pac-warns-trumpcare-new-ad" type="external">new ad</a> one of the super-PACs backing Cruz began airing this week in Iowa.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Cruz’s Closing Argument in Iowa: Trump Is a Liberal in Disguise | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/ted-cruz-rally-was-basically-anti-trump-rally/ | 2016-01-28 | 4 |
<p>A Georgia man surrendered to cops on Thursday after he was apparently caught on video dragging an police officer with his car.</p>
<p>Brandon Christopher Adams of Savannah, Georgia, was charged with charged with aggravated assault and felony obstruction of a police officer after he dragged a cop with his car and almost ran him over last weekend in an incident recorded by the cop's body camera, police said.</p>
<p>Adams, 23, turned himself in Thursday and was arrested without incident, police said.</p>
<p>The police video, which has gotten wide circulation on YouTube, appears to show Adams refusing orders from the cop, who was answering a shoplifting call, and then speeding away with the cop's arm pinned between the seat and the seat belt Saturday.</p>
<p>The officer was treated at the scene for minor injuries.</p>
<p>— M. Alex Johnson</p> | Man Charged With Dragging Georgia Cop With His Car | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-suspected-dragging-georgia-cop-his-car-surrenders-n359086 | 2015-05-14 | 3 |
<p>An appeals court panel said Friday that federal officials must reconsider their decision not to regulate the size of airline seats as a safety issue.</p>
<p>One of the judges called it "the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Flyers Rights passenger group challenged the Federal Aviation Administration in court after the agency rejected its request to write rules governing seat size and the distance between rows of seats.</p>
<p>On Friday, a three-judge panel for the federal appeals court in Washington said the FAA had relied on outdated or irrelevant tests and studies before deciding that seat spacing was a matter of comfort, not safety.</p>
<p>The judges sent the issue back to the FAA. They said the agency must come up with a better-reasoned response to the group's safety concerns.</p>
<p>"We applaud the court's decision, and the path to larger seats has suddenly become a bit wider," said Kendall Creighton, a spokeswoman for Flyers Rights.</p>
<p>The passenger group says small seats that are bunched too close together slow down emergency evacuations and raise the danger of travelers developing vein clots.</p>
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<p>FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the agency was considering the ruling and its next steps. He said the FAA considers the spacing between seat rows when testing to make sure that airliners can be evacuated safely.</p>
<p>The airline industry has long opposed the regulation of seat size. Its main U.S. trade group, Airlines for America, declined to comment on the ruling.</p>
<p>Airlines have steadily reduced the space between rows to squeeze in extra seats and make more money. On discount carrier Spirit Airlines, the distance between the headrest of one seat and that of the seat in front of it — a distance called "pitch" — is 28 inches (71 centimeters), which, after accounting for the seat itself, leaves little legroom for the average passenger.</p>
<p>This year, news leaked that American Airlines planned to order new Boeing 737 jets with just 29 inches (74 centimeters) of pitch in the last three rows to make room for an extra row of premium-priced seats toward the front of the plane.</p>
<p>American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said Friday that after objections from customers and flight attendants, the airline backed off. Those rows will have 30 inches (76 centimeters) of pitch — still a tighter fit than the airline's current planes.</p>
<p>Flyers Rights said that the average seat has gotten narrower too — from 18.5 inches (47 centimeters) a decade ago to about 17 inches (43 centimeters). The group got the judges' attention.</p>
<p>"This is the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat," Judge Patricia Millett wrote in her ruling. "As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size."</p>
<p>The issue could wind up in Congress. Some lawmakers have proposed legislation to regulate seat size.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter</p> | Court: FAA must reconsider regulating airline seat size | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/28/court-faa-must-reconsider-regulating-airline-seat-size.html | 2017-07-28 | 0 |
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<p>A few weeks ago marked my third anniversary with Mother Jones. That’s 36 months of fact-based liberal wonkery, 156 weeks of Friday catblogging, and, oh, something like 8,000 blog posts or so.</p>
<p>And, of course, 18 issues of the magazine itself. During that time we’ve broken stories about the Republican plan to <a href="" type="internal">redefine rape,</a> the real long-term damage done by the <a href="" type="internal">Deepwater Horizon oil spill,</a> the nighttime raid that <a href="" type="internal">killed a sleeping seven-year-old in Detroit,</a> and much more. If you missed any of these stories, you missed some of the best reporting being done in America today.</p>
<p>But all this reporting is expensive, and this week we’re trying to raise $75,000 to keep it humming along—and to keep my blog online and free for everyone at the same time. So if you enjoy what I do every day, please show it by donating a few dollars to keep the entire MoJo operation going. Even $5 or $10 makes a difference, and $50 or $100 makes an even bigger difference. Plus, your donation is tax deductible. So please take a minute right now to give via <a href="https://online.icnfull.com/fnp/?action=SUBSCRIPTION&amp;list_source=7G1109DBE&amp;extra_don=1" type="external">credit card</a> or <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=VGG384ZRHUFB6" type="external">PayPal.</a></p>
<p>Thanks to the Citizens United case, corporations and the rich have more influence over the political system than ever. Someone has to fight back, and that’s something that I and the rest of the MoJo crew do every day. So please—help us out today.</p>
<p>The PayPal link <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=VGG384ZRHUFB6" type="external">is here.</a></p>
<p>The credit card link <a href="https://online.icnfull.com/fnp/?action=SUBSCRIPTION&amp;list_source=7G1109DBE&amp;extra_don=1" type="external">is here.</a></p>
<p /> | Fight Back Against Corporate Control of Politics | true | https://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/09/fight-back-corporate-control-politics/ | 2011-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Addictions. Gotta love ’em. Gotta hate ’em too, sometimes. But first, we gotta love ’em, or we wouldn’t have ’em in the first place. Addictions are the spices of our lives. Of course, too much spice spoils the enchilada. But remember, without a little salsa, it’s all just beans and dead meat.</p>
<p>Granted, addiction can certainly be a destructive force, wreaking havoc on your world, but it can also be the source of tremendous creative energy in human life.&#160; Sometimes, the only way to truly master something is to become passionately, obsessively addicted to it.&#160; Without the driving vigor of our addictions, we surrender to mediocrity, bureaucracy, and (shudder) mere functionality. The world’s greatest artists, many of our greatest statesmen, certainly our greatest lovers, and even some of our greatest scientists have been notoriously addictive personalities, all living and dying in overheated pursuits of pleasure, power, knowledge and love.</p>
<p>Our addictions give us a taste of paradise. It may be a temporary paradise, and it may be an artificial paradise, a dangerous, even doomed paradise, but the pursuit of paradise, ecstasy, bliss, nirvana, heaven-on-earth – also known as “the pursuit of happiness,” as written into the U.S. Declaration of Independence – is one of the great natural drives of humanity, maybe even of all so-called intelligent life on earth.</p>
<p>The Seven Deadly Addictions</p>
<p>Everybody’s addicted to something, even if it’s the philosophy of not getting addicted to anything. Some of us channel our addictive drives into stuff that society deems safe or constructive. For instance, work is a socially acceptable addiction, even though the heroes of our culture, the work-driven businessmen and traders, are more likely to die young of a heart attack (or jump out the window when the stocks crash) than the pot-smoking slackers among us. Shopping is another socially sanctioned narcotic, until all your credit cards are maxed out, and suddenly your favorite shopping outlets stop loving you back. Then there are prescription drugs, an all-American addiction with soothing celebrity-studded ads to make those mysterious little pills easier to swallow, and you don’t even have to worry about your credit cards if you’ve got the right insurance.</p>
<p>Other addictions are not generally treated with such compassion.&#160; Some are vilified and punished severely.&#160; The fact that you can be locked up and tortured for decades within the humongous U.S. prison system (a growth industry which thrives on addiction), over simply indulging your addiction to an “illegal substance” is bad enough.&#160; But it goes beyond questions of legality. Indeed, the very idea of addiction has assumed that mortifying place in our hearts and minds that a sense of sin used to occupy. To be a “sinner” is now cool, like sporting tattoos or playing in a band. Nobody’s ashamed to be a sinner anymore. But an addict? To be an addict is to be what a sinner used to be: weak, despised, disgraced and diseased. The concept of Original Sin is almost meaningless to the modern mind. But the Addictive Personality? We can all relate to that.</p>
<p>So, the Seven Deadly Sins have given way to the Seven Deadly Addictions: Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Food Obsessions, Workaholism and Gambling Mania are the first five. I’d put Exercise Junkies into the category of Workaholism. After all, an obsession with working out is just a variation on overworking. I’d place Stock Trading and my own personal addiction to playing the CPCs on Google Adwords under Gambling Mania.</p>
<p>Love Junkies</p>
<p>Then there’s #6: Love Addiction. This one’s a mass attacker. Excepting the occasional sociopathic loner, everybody gets it. What normal, people-oriented person has not suffered from the deep, sweet agony and ecstasy of codependent love addiction? Since being identified as a disease, “codependency” has spread like the flu, because who can’t relate to the symptoms, who hasn’t yearned to hold and be held, to care and be cared for, to depend on someone who depends on you? Isn’t that what sharing your life is all about? Not according to many self-proclaimed gurus with troubled pasts who tell us we must–at any cost–break our addictions and squash our dependencies on the people who mean the most to us.</p>
<p>Constant avoidance of codependency leads to “addiction to perfection,” a phrase coined by Marion Woodman to describe chronic fear of involvement with others, a far more debilitating affliction than lovesickness. Of course, the experience of being in love can have negative consequences, ranging from separation anxiety to murder, if a toxic combination of character and circumstances comes into play. But codependency itself is not “dysfunctional.” There’s nothing wrong with being Addicted to Love. &#160;Just don’t get addicted to loving a jerk.</p>
<p>If you find yourself getting involved with jerk after jerk after jerk, okay, you win the prize label of “Love Junkie,” and would probably benefit from therapy, if for no other reason than the fact that a therapist will give you that full-focused attention you crave.&#160; That longing for attention is the very thing that keeps sending you head first into the arms of jerks in the first place!&#160; But if your paramour is a paragon, or at least a non -jerk, then why not give it all you’ve got? As the 18th century French playwright P.A.C. de Beaumarchais said long before there were Women Who Love Too Much, “Where love is concerned, too much is not even enough.”</p>
<p>And yes, you could make a mistake. You could find yourself deeply involved or addicted to someone or something that’s really hurting you. Then you must make the Herculean effort to extricate yourself from your many-pronged addiction as from the jaws of a many-headed hydra. If you defeat the hydra, you’ll be a hero. If the hydra defeats you, well…it happens to the best of us.</p>
<p>Why is it so tough to leave a jerk? Because being in love is like being on drugs. Hard drugs. True love, or even deluded love, is a natural high far finer and smoother than anything you could inject, smoke, snort, drink or swallow. Of course, love isn’t something you can pick up at the pharmacy or even on the black market. You can’t really even “find love.” Love finds you.&#160; It strikes you like a mystical gift from God, an arrow from Eros, or a practical joke from tricky, fickle old hot Mama Nature, the Original Drug Dealer.</p>
<p>The first Love Drug Stew that Mama stirs up is a fricassee of powerful chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine, phenylethylamine (PEA) and other natural cousins of amphetamines, stimulants and painkillers that flow through your bloodstream and permeate your cells, creating a place within you where hormones meet holiness, angels dance, and the city never sleeps. This “hot love” eventually dies down, leading many to wonder: Where has the love gone?&#160; But often, the sizzling heat gives way to “warm love,” when opiate-like endorphins and sweet-feeling oxytocin flow in, sensitizing your nerves, stimulating muscle contraction, enhancing orgasm and making cuddling feel absolutely divine, bringing on that nice, warm sense of well-being you get when you’re really comfortable with someone. The thing about Warm Love is that, unlike Hot Love, it can last forever. In fact, it’s quite habit-forming. This is why breaking up is so hard to do. Even when you know someone is wrong for you, and you should move on, it often feels like you can’t. Why? Because you’re chemically addicted. Oxytocin, when it’s got you hooked on the wrong partner, can be tougher to quit than heroin. Sometimes you need a therapist, a whole support group or just a really good friend to help you kick the habit.</p>
<p>But if you’re with the right person, the cozy codependent compounds that concoct Warm Love create a “good addiction,” helping to keep you happy together long after your Hot Love peaks have petered out. Warm Love chemicals aren’t just a high; they’re a health benefit, naturally strengthening your heart and immune system, as well as your relationship.</p>
<p>Sex Addiction</p>
<p>Last but not at all least, we come to #7 of the newly revised Seven Deadly Sins, the deadliest, most demonized and glamorized sin of the pack: Sex Addiction.</p>
<p>Just about every horny person who calls me for sex therapy these days – male or female – asks me if I think they’re a “sex addict.” Often they come up with the notion they suffer from “sex addiction” while researching their favorite fetish online. All roads lead to Rome, and almost all sexual or fetishistic search words eventually take the seeker to articles deploring an interest in that fetish as a form of sex addiction.&#160; Then again, perhaps someone they know has called them a “sex addict” in a fit of righteous exasperation. Or maybe they identify with certain sexy but star-crossed superstars like David Duchovny, Charlie Sheen, Amy Winehouse or Kanye West, or powerful former Presidents like Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy, all of whom have been branded by the media and various “experts” with this most exciting, perverse, shame-riddled and downright sinful of labels.&#160; Then again, they might just be intoxicated by the idea of being utterly out of control, ruled by their libidinous desires, or by a seductress who takes advantage of their vulnerable, addictive sensibilities.&#160; Yes, the modern Scarlet Letter doesn’t stand for simple Adultery anymore, but for Addiction—Sex Addiction.</p>
<p>But what exactly is sex addiction? Is it even possible to come up with a definition that all the so-called experts can agree on? Probably not. According to some sex addiction specialists, an interest in any type of sex other than married-monogamous-missionary-position-sex-with-the-lights-off could qualify you. So, if you masturbate regularly, enjoy pornography, have an affair, go to swing parties, dance in strip clubs, like phone sex, see a dominatrix, work as a dominatrix, wear panties under your clothes (if you’re a guy) or over your clothes (if you’re a gal), own more than three pairs of stiletto heels (if you’re a guy or a gal) or if you fantasize about anyone or anything other than your beloved, you are at risk of being branded a sex addict.&#160; I guess if you host a show about sex in a bed wearing lingerie surrounded by dildos under a giant photo of a bonobo chimpanzee, you might as well have “Sex Addict” tattooed across your cleavage.</p>
<p>Not that sex addiction is just a joke; it can be a very serious, complicated matter best treated with highly focused therapy.&#160; Sex addiction can take a variety of forms and can involve any sexual practice. It’s not the activity that makes the addict, it’s the attitude.&#160; The true sex addict compulsively engages in unwanted behaviors that make his or her life unmanageable.&#160; The “unmanageable” part is the key, because we all, on occasion, have bad sex or do sexual things we’re not so proud of.&#160; Unmanageability could involve anything from failing college exams because Internet porn overtook studying, to spending the family savings on a blackmailing dominatrix, to engaging in bareback sex in public restrooms while your wife and kids sit at the dinner table watching the roast get cold. A true addict is out of control.&#160; He or she may wish to stop yet repeatedly fails to do so, often ruining relationships and experiencing job loss, financial troubles, sickness, arrest, accidents, guilt, shame, low self-esteem, impotency and despair.</p>
<p>Sounds pretty bleak, but if the sex addict really wants to change, he or she can.&#160; The first step is usually admitting that you have a problem and deciding that you want to make a change.&#160; The next step is reaching out for help, which can take many different forms. You might benefit from talking to a therapist who can help you understand the problem and put you on a program for positive change.&#160; You could join a group that can help you to voice those thoughts and feelings you’ve only been able to express through negative sex-addictive behaviors, and ultimately support your efforts to change for the better.&#160; You might be able to use a friend as a sounding board, though friends tend to have their own agendas in mind for you. Books, art and even snarky self-help advocates (who often quote the great thinkers of history, even if they personally have nothing original to say) can also be helpful when you want to tame the wild beasts of an obsessive-compulsive libido. Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other religious institutions can also assist certain types of addicts, though they generally have a very specific religious agenda, and have been known to commit religious sexual abuse upon their congregants.</p>
<p>Though sex addiction is a real problem, much of what is solemnly or sensationally labeled “sex addiction” is just normal erotic angst, sexual experimentation, fetishistic fun and relationship troubles. Ironically, these days, many people seem to grab the term like a designer label on sale, because even though it’s embarrassing and demeaning, calling yourself a “sex addict” is, well, sexy.&#160; Some long to wear a glittering Scarlet Letter “A” for Addict on their breast, and seem disappointed when I say “um, just because you masturbate three times a week does not make you a sex addict.”&#160; More and more people seem to like the idea of being sex addicts with no ability to control their prodigious desires. It’s become something of a fad, or at least a trend.&#160; Normal healthy people with sex problems, frustration, fetishes, questions and fantasies do often benefit from sex therapy and fantasy roleplay.&#160; But they don’t require the intensive treatment the true addict needs. Treatment for addiction can be as hazardous to humanity as the addiction itself.&#160; Just look at the murders committed on antidepressants, the innocents thrown into prison for nothing more than smoking a joint, the decent people branded as sex addicts, dysfunctional or even criminal just because they pursue unusual, albeit consensual sex practices.&#160; Addiction can be awful.&#160; But far worse than a society that harbors a few crazed addicts is one that reduces our sexuality – or the rest of our lives – to merely being functional.</p>
<p>Dr. SUSAN BLOCK is a sex educator, cable TV personality, author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure and hostess of Dr. Suzy’s Speakeasy. Commit Bloggamy with her at <a href="http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/" type="external">http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/</a> Email her at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | On Sex Addiction | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/04/17/on-sex-addiction/ | 2009-04-17 | 4 |
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gas has dropped below $2 a gallon at a handful of stations in Oklahoma and Texas this week, a level that a price-watching group said Friday was the lowest in the nation and a bargain that's proven irresistible to some long lines of drivers coming from miles away to fill up.</p>
<p>A station in Oklahoma City started the trend earlier this week at a new location as a way to thank residents who put up with construction. Two nearby stations followed suit, becoming what Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com said early Friday were the only ones in the United States with sub-$2 gas. A San Antonio, Texas, station also later dropped its price.</p>
<p>"When I first saw it, I thought it was a misprint," said Marcus Hendricks, a student who lives in south Oklahoma City, at the OnCue Express in southeast Oklahoma City, where the price was $1.99 per gallon for gas with a 10 percent blend of ethanol. "There were so many cars it looked they were giving something away for free. They practically are."</p>
<p>The nationwide average for a gallon of gas was $2.71 Friday, nearly $1 below this year's peak of $3.70 in June. Gas hasn't been this cheap since October 2010. The decline has been driven by falling global oil prices as supplies are high. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 68 cents to $66.11 a barrel in New York on Friday, after hitting $107 in June.</p>
<p>Gas prices are expected to keep falling nationwide, perhaps by as much as another 10 cents to 20 cents per gallon by the end of the year, said AAA Oklahoma spokesman Chuck Mai. The statewide average in Oklahoma was $2.48, tied for third-lowest in the nation behind Missouri's $2.43 average and Mississippi's $2.47. The highest prices were $3.81 in Hawaii, $3.47 in Alaska and nearly $3.12 per gallon in New York, according to AAA.</p>
<p>"The world is swimming in crude oil right now. And this of course is what is driving our pump prices in this country, that and good old-fashioned street corner competition," Mai said. "It may not be a gas war, but it certainly is one upsmanship, or maybe in this case, one downsmanship."</p>
<p>OnCue Express in Oklahoma City first lowered its price to $1.99 earlier this week at the station that has been open about a month.</p>
<p>"We probably inconvenienced the neighbors during construction and we wanted to do something for them, and we came up with this idea," said Jim Griffith, CEO of Stillwater-based OnCue Express. He said OnCue's price will rise "probably soon," but that he's not losing money on the sales.</p>
<p>"I'm not cutting a fat hog, but I am making a small profit at that price," Griffith said.</p>
<p>At the OnCue Express, employees used orange cones and hand signals to direct drivers who were backed up at about a dozen gas pumps in front of the store. Samantha Hitsman, a stay-at-home mom, said she drove about 20 miles from Del City to get gas.</p>
<p>"I've got all kinds of appointment to run, so I thought I'd fill up," she said.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Sean Murphy contributed to this report.</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gas has dropped below $2 a gallon at a handful of stations in Oklahoma and Texas this week, a level that a price-watching group said Friday was the lowest in the nation and a bargain that's proven irresistible to some long lines of drivers coming from miles away to fill up.</p>
<p>A station in Oklahoma City started the trend earlier this week at a new location as a way to thank residents who put up with construction. Two nearby stations followed suit, becoming what Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com said early Friday were the only ones in the United States with sub-$2 gas. A San Antonio, Texas, station also later dropped its price.</p>
<p>"When I first saw it, I thought it was a misprint," said Marcus Hendricks, a student who lives in south Oklahoma City, at the OnCue Express in southeast Oklahoma City, where the price was $1.99 per gallon for gas with a 10 percent blend of ethanol. "There were so many cars it looked they were giving something away for free. They practically are."</p>
<p>The nationwide average for a gallon of gas was $2.71 Friday, nearly $1 below this year's peak of $3.70 in June. Gas hasn't been this cheap since October 2010. The decline has been driven by falling global oil prices as supplies are high. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 68 cents to $66.11 a barrel in New York on Friday, after hitting $107 in June.</p>
<p>Gas prices are expected to keep falling nationwide, perhaps by as much as another 10 cents to 20 cents per gallon by the end of the year, said AAA Oklahoma spokesman Chuck Mai. The statewide average in Oklahoma was $2.48, tied for third-lowest in the nation behind Missouri's $2.43 average and Mississippi's $2.47. The highest prices were $3.81 in Hawaii, $3.47 in Alaska and nearly $3.12 per gallon in New York, according to AAA.</p>
<p>"The world is swimming in crude oil right now. And this of course is what is driving our pump prices in this country, that and good old-fashioned street corner competition," Mai said. "It may not be a gas war, but it certainly is one upsmanship, or maybe in this case, one downsmanship."</p>
<p>OnCue Express in Oklahoma City first lowered its price to $1.99 earlier this week at the station that has been open about a month.</p>
<p>"We probably inconvenienced the neighbors during construction and we wanted to do something for them, and we came up with this idea," said Jim Griffith, CEO of Stillwater-based OnCue Express. He said OnCue's price will rise "probably soon," but that he's not losing money on the sales.</p>
<p>"I'm not cutting a fat hog, but I am making a small profit at that price," Griffith said.</p>
<p>At the OnCue Express, employees used orange cones and hand signals to direct drivers who were backed up at about a dozen gas pumps in front of the store. Samantha Hitsman, a stay-at-home mom, said she drove about 20 miles from Del City to get gas.</p>
<p>"I've got all kinds of appointment to run, so I thought I'd fill up," she said.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Sean Murphy contributed to this report.</p> | Gas prices below $2 a gallon in Texas, Oklahoma | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e5f0658c812542048a4b4ae0de681a13 | 2014-12-05 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A shooting in an apartment in the 300 block of Vermont NE shortly after midnight Thursday left one man dead and several others injured, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department said.</p>
<p>Police arrived at the apartment about 10 minutes before 1 a.m. in response to reports of several gunshots. They found the body and at least three injured males.</p>
<p>Two of the injured men told police they had been attacked. A third said there had been a fight and he had been shot when he tried to run away.</p>
<p>Police spokesman Elder Guevara said the injured were taken to University of New Mexico Hospital. The extent of their injuries is unknown.</p>
<p>Initial reports said it appeared that a fight occurred inside the apartment. Criminalistics and homicide detectives were investigating, but no arrests had been made by mid-afternoon. Vermont between Copper and Chico was shut down well into the morning.</p>
<p>Names of the victims will not be released until all parties have been identified and their involvement confirmed, Guevara said. The next of kin of the deceased male had not been located.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | One dead, others hurt in shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/310855/one-dead-others-hurt-in-shooting.html | 2 |
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<p>Generic drugmaker Mylan NV reported a 31.2 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by demand for products it gained through the acquisition of Swedish drugmaker Meda last year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Mylan, under federal investigations related to high prices for its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment, said revenue rose to $3.27 billion in the fourth quarter from $2.49 billion a year earlier.</p>
<p>The company's net profit rose to $417.5 million, or 78 cents per share, in the quarter from $194.6 million, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)</p> | Mylan's quarterly revenue jumps 31 percent | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/01/mylan-quarterly-revenue-jumps-31-percent.html | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
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<p>The police are calling the four calls “irresponsible,” and note that frivolous emergency calls tie up resources that could otherwise go to actual emergencies.</p>
<p>In England, citizens can call another number, 101, for non-emergency police matters like a stolen car or property damage. None of these crimes would be appropriate 101 calls either, it should be noted.</p>
<p>But there’s another reason the calls are worth attention: they are also definitely pretty funny.</p>
<p>The first begins: “I put some money in this vending machine, and they’re refusing to give me my money back, and I need that money to make an emergency call,” begins one caller. “You’ll have to come sort it out.” The dispatcher replies that the vending machine problem is “absolutely not” a reason to call the police emergency line. “You need to contact the vending machine company, the dispatcher continues. I’m going to clear the line now because you’re holding it up for people who have genuine emergencies.”</p>
<p>The caller responds with an obscene suggestion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In another, a caller tells the dispatcher that there’s a “hedgehog in the backyard, and we’re a bit scared.” After asking the caller to clarify whether the animal was alive or dead (it was alive!) the dispatcher says, “well that’s where the hedgehogs live, in gardens.”</p>
<p>She adds, “the hedgehogs are good for your garden. They kill your slugs.” The caller replies “yeah, but we don’t want our slugs to get killed, but we’re a bit scared.” The dispatcher tells the caller there’s “not much we can do” about the hedgehog before hanging up.</p>
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<p /> | Silly ’emergency’ calls frustrate British cops | false | https://abqjournal.com/517066/silly-emergency-calls-frustrate-british-cops-2.html | 2 |
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<p>Many of my readers have been wondering what happened to the leaders of the Republican Party since the election when the party took such a beating. Herewith a report.</p>
<p>The leader whose career has generated the most interest is, of course, Joe the Plumber. Many people thought Joe would complete whatever training he needed to become a licensed plumber. That was not to be. Unlike John McCain, who returned quietly to the United States Senate to continue his life as a senator, and Sarah Palin, who went back to Alaska to resume being a governor, Joe went in a brand new direction. He became a correspondent for Pajamas TV. His first assignment sent him to Israel, a position for which he was uniquely qualified.</p>
<p>Before the 2008 election he had an extensive interview with Shepard Smith of Fox News in which he explained why a vote for Barack Obama was a vote for the “death of Israel.” The interview was lengthy and I’ll not try to synthesize Joe’s cogent explanation in a few hundred words. It was no surprise, however, to learn that because of his incisive analysis of Mr. Obama’s position he was hired by Pajamas and sent to Israel. A quick review of Pajama’s webpage gives an idea of the kind of in-depth reporting Joe did from there. Joe posted many stories including “what he thinks Israel’s response [to the proposed cease fire with Hamas] will be based on his conversations with regular Israelis”, and an analysis of “what the media should and should not do in time of war.”</p>
<p>After completing his assignment in Israel he returned to Washington where, according to a posting on Pajama’s website, on February 5 he was asked to “investigate the stimulus package” proposed by Mr. Obama. On February 11 the site said he had a report wrapping up “his investigation of the stimulus bill for PJTV.”</p>
<p>His next big assignment was to be part of the Conservative 2.0 Conference that was being held in conjunction with the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2009 convention that took place February 26-28. Joe was to participate in a panel entitled “Bias in Media and Education.” His appearance there was also listed in the CPAC agenda.</p>
<p>Joe was not the only celebrity to be part of the CPAC meeting. Many of the failed presidential candidates from the 2008 election season were there to make their suggestions as to how to save the country from the plight into which George Bush had thrust it. Their main message was that whatever the new president was doing was wrong, ignoring the fact that the recent election suggests that much of the country thought everything they’d done during the preceding eight years was even more wrong. The main speaker was not, however, a failed candidate but an icon of the conservative movement and someone who said shortly after Mr. Obama’s inauguration “I want him to fail.” The speaker was none other than Rush Limbaugh. According to reports Mr. Limbaugh was slated to speak for an hour but because he had so much to say, he spoke for almost an hour and a half. Explaining what he meant by saying he wanted Obama to fail he explained that the president’s plans include “rampant government growth, wealth that is not being created yet . . . being spent” and it is that policy that he hopes will fail.</p>
<p>It is clear what Joe’s future might be. He could be another Walter Cronkite. It is less clear what Rush Limbaugh’s future is. White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, observed that Mr. Limbaugh is the “voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.” He pointed out that whenever a Republican criticized Rush, the critic found it necessary to “run back and apologize to him and say they were misunderstood.” Mr. Emanuel was probably thinking of Michael Steele, the new Republican National Committee chairman. Responding to CNN’s D.L. Hughley’s statement that Rush is the “de facto leader of the Republican party,” Mr. Steele said that the title belonged to him and went on to say that Rush is a “mere entertainer” whose show is “incendiary” and “ugly.” Using his golden microphone, Rush went on the attack the following day referring to Mr. Steele as a “so-called Republican” and saying the party needed a little leadership.” In response to Rush’s attack Mr. Steele retreated saying: “My intent was not to go after Rush-I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. . . . There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”</p>
<p>Now that that we all agree he’s the leader we can move on. It’s not too early to focus on the upcoming presidential elections in 2012 and it’s certainly not too early to suggest that an ideal Republican ticket would be led by Rush Limbaugh with Joe the Plumber as his running mate.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI is a lawyer living in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at: &#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The New Leaders of the GOP | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/03/05/the-new-leaders-of-the-gop/ | 2009-03-05 | 4 |
<p>U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) wants to set itself apart from rivals in the eyes of investors, with a top goal of delivering "superior returns to shareholders." That aim led the company to lay out five priorities for its cash flow:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>One thing that's clear from the plan is that ConocoPhillips' top priority is to return money to investors. That's also evident in the company's recently unveiled three-year operating strategy, which should see it return $7.5 billion in cash to investors in share repurchases alone by the end of 2020, with more money headed their way via a growing dividend. That combination of cash returns and prudent growth positions the oil giant to deliver a compelling total annual return, even if crude stays low.</p>
<p>About a year ago ConocoPhillips unveiled its strategy to create value for investors in an increasingly uncertain oil market, which included the five cash flow priorities listed earlier. However, the company also said that it would sell between $5 billion and $8 billion in assets in the three years that followed to accelerate its value proposition, with a plan to use the money to repurchase $3 billion in stock and pay off several billion dollars in debt.</p>
<p>Since that time the company has vastly exceeded its initial expectations, given that it's on pace to sell $16 billion in assets by year-end, driven by the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/30/conocophillips-takes-a-surprising-turn-to-supercha.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">sale of several Canadian oil and gas properties Opens a New Window.</a> to Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE) for $13.3 billion. That deal and those that followed enabled ConocoPhillips to lower the cash flow break-even level of its current portfolio to less than $40 a barrel, because it mostly offloaded low-margin assets to Cenovus and other buyers. Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips used the cash proceeds to retire debt that lowered its interest expenses, and it repurchased shares, expecting to spend $3 billion on the buyback by year-end.</p>
<p>Those actions set the company up to generate more cash in the coming years. It estimated that, combined with its current cash balance, it can produce enough cash flow at $50 oil to:</p>
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<p>Even after allocating capital across those priorities, the company expects to end 2020 with about $4.5 billion in cash. Meanwhile, if crude prices rise, ConocoPhillips would generate even more excess cash, with a portion likely heading back to investors via buybacks, since that's the quickest way for the company to ensure it meets the target of returning 20% to 30% of cash flow to investors each year.</p>
<p>ConocoPhillips' updated plan is the most shareholder-friendly one in the industry: It consistently returns money to investors via an above-average dividend and steady repurchases, with built-in upside as oil prices rise. While several rivals recently unveiled shareholder-focused strategies, none go as far as ConocoPhillips. For example, Canadian shale driller Encana (NYSE: ECA) recently shifted the focus of its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/18/this-oil-stock-is-thriving-through-innovation.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">go-forward strategy Opens a New Window.</a> from growing production to cash flow. As a result, Encana expects to increase cash flow by a 25% compound annual rate through 2022, which would produce $1.5 billion in excess cash over that time frame. However, other than continuing to pay a paltry dividend yielding 0.5%, Encana doesn't yet have a formal plan to return any of the money to investors.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, U.S. oil giant Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) recently announced plans to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/21/another-oil-giant-sees-value-in-an-unexpected-plac.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">repurchase $2.5 billion of stock Opens a New Window.</a> by the end of 2018. Anadarko would pay for those repurchases by tapping the $6 billion war chest of cash it built up during the downturn by selling assets. However, aside from that one-time authorization, there doesn't appear to be a sustainable plan to send cash to investors, since Anadarko's current operating strategy calls for it to spend all its cash flow on drilling more wells or expanding midstream infrastructure. That leaves it with little room to return cash above its minuscule 0.4% dividend once it exhausts its current cash balance.</p>
<p>ConocoPhillips' focus on returning cash has already paid dividends for investors, given that the stock has delivered a nearly 25% total return over the past year. That has eclipsed not only the red-hot S&amp;P 500's slightly more than 24% total return, but is well above the sub-3% return of the average oil stock over the past year.</p>
<p>This outperformance versus its peers should continue, since none come close to rivaling its shareholder-first plan, which should deliver a blend of dividend income and growth over the next few years. That return potential makes ConocoPhillips, which can thrive at low oil prices, a top-notch oil stock to buy.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than ConocoPhillipsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=8ebb8a1a-a2fa-414f-a12c-d4a8c55d2544&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and ConocoPhillips wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=8ebb8a1a-a2fa-414f-a12c-d4a8c55d2544&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Matthew DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7e3c7210-c4bf-11e7-8c88-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | This Oil Giant Is Putting Investors First | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/11/this-oil-giant-is-putting-investors-first.html | 2017-11-11 | 0 |
<p>By Rachit Vats</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Rising demand for jet sales pushed Boeing (NYSE:) Co’s stock to the top of the in 2017, and record cash flow to fuel projects, sustain dividends and buy back shares could give it another bumper year, analysts said.</p>
<p>After a resurgence in jet sales driven by a solid global economy and with most of its production issues behind it, Boeing has found itself flush with record free cash flow – a profitability measure widely watched by investors for industrial stocks.</p>
<p>“We believe Boeing shares are still moderately undervalued, particularly if the company can sustain free cash flow margins in the 13-15 percent range,” Fort Pitt Capital Group founder Charles Smith told Reuters.</p>
<p>“Given our expectations for moderation in capex over the next couple years, along with continued efficiencies on the 787 Dreamliner, we think this can happen,” said Smith, whose funds held a 0.04 percent stake in Boeing as of Sept. 30, according to Reuters data.</p>
<p>Smith said Boeing’s third quarter free cash flow margin was 12.45 percent.</p>
<p>The company has increased its free cash flow from $1.83 billion in 2010 to an estimated $10.5 billion in 2017. That figure would be an increase of 34 percent from 2016.</p>
<p>The surge in cash flow has energized the company’s shares, pushing up the stock price by more than 90 percent in 2017. Still, the stock trades at a slight discount to its aerospace peers.</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) analyst Rajeev Lalwani said if management executes on another year of growth, tax reform materializes and free cash flow multiples catch up with peers, one can expect “another +50 percent year.”</p>
<p>Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg recently confirmed that the company expects to grow operating cash flow annually through the end of the decade, adding that it remains committed to returning about 100 percent of free cash flow to investors.</p>
<p>Free cash flow points to a company’s ability to expand production, develop new products, make acquisitions, pay dividends and reduce debt.</p>
<p>Boeing last month raised its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replaced its existing $14 billion share buyback plan with a new $18 billion authorization.</p>
<p>Since the end of 2012, the world’s biggest airplane producer has pumped back nearly $40 billion to its investors through dividend and share repurchases while still investing substantially in products, services and people.</p>
<p>Fort Pitt’s Smith says Boeing’s management is doing well allocating capital between new projects, acquisitions and buybacks and predicts a return on shareholder equity of 17-18 percent that gives shares a “fair value” estimate for 2018 of $300 to $360.</p>
<p>Boeing’s shares were trading up 1 percent at $313.75 on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The company, however, has to overcome near-term challenges like its troubled aerial tanker refueling program and longer term concerns such as macroeconomic issues and possible supply chain problems, Morgan Stanley’s Lalwani said.</p>
<p>But for now the stock remains popular among investors, with 13 out of 25 analysts rating it a “buy” or “strong buy”.</p>
<p>“It’s a bull market and Boeing is a classic kind of late stage bull market stock – mega cap, high quality, global orientation,” said Kenneth Fisher, whose asset management firm owned about $70 million of Boeing stock as of Oct. 17.</p>
<p>Boeing said in September it will raise production of 787 Dreamliner jets to 14 a month in 2019 from 12 currently, indicating reviving faith in wide-body demand.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Boeing said it delivered 763 jetliners in 2017, likely retaining the title of the world’s biggest plane maker compared with European rival Airbus SE.</p> | Boeing shares have more room to fly in 2018: analysts | false | https://newsline.com/boeing-shares-have-more-room-to-fly-in-2018-analysts/ | 2018-01-09 | 1 |
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<p>U.S. District Judge Robert Brack ordered the city administration and police union to work with a court-appointed monitor to craft a policy that more clearly defines the promotions policy.</p>
<p>The police union had objected to the policy, saying it gave the police chief too much discretion to determine who gets promoted to sergeant.</p>
<p>The city, in turn, argued that the chief needs some discretion to ensure that APD sergeants – the front-line supervisors of the police force – have a strong grasp on civil rights and community-oriented-policing strategies. The old policy was too formulaic, based largely on whether officers passed a test, the city said.</p>
<p>Brack agreed that the chief needs some discretion, but some parts of the policy need to be better-defined, he said.</p>
<p>He noted that the court-appointed monitor has described the new policy as “usable” but not “ideal,” so clearly there’s room for improvement.</p>
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<p>“Officers need to have a more concrete idea of the types of incidents that will count against their opportunities for advancement,” Brack wrote.</p>
<p>He directed the APD administration and the police union to report back to him by March 1.</p>
<p>Brack is the judge overseeing a settlement that requires a series of police reforms in Albuquerque. The agreement is the result of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in 2014 that found APD had a pattern of violating people’s rights through the use of excessive force.</p>
<p>The settlement requires the city to develop fair promotional practices that prioritize constitutional, community-oriented policing.</p> | Judge: APD needs more work on its promotions policy | false | https://abqjournal.com/900818/judge-apd-needs-more-work-on-its-promotions-policy.html | 2 |
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<p>GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Wide receiver Michael Clark gave up basketball to chase his football dream in college.</p>
<p>The road led him all the way to Lambeau Field for his NFL debut Saturday night.</p>
<p>With injuries taking a toll on the Packers' receiving corps, Clark could get more chances to make an impression on coach Mike McCarthy when Green Bay wraps up its season on Sunday against the Detroit Lions.</p>
<p>"It feels like I've been waiting forever for this to happen," Clark said after practice Wednesday.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-6 Clark played in 12 college basketball games as a freshman in the 2014-15 season at St. Francis of Pennsylvania, a small school in the Northeast Conference. But football, a sport he hadn't played since his freshman year in high school in Tampa, Florida, kept tugging at Clark.</p>
<p>So he gave up his basketball scholarship to play football and landed at Marshall. He got reacquainted with the sport while redshirting in 2015 before debuting in 2016 with 37 catches for 632 yards and four touchdowns.</p>
<p>With a year of eligibility remaining, Clark decided to take his sparse resume and turn pro. Clark went undrafted but landed with the Packers. With his size, Clark stood tall but he didn't immediately stand out.</p>
<p>"It was foreign. Just words," Clark said of the playbook. "All that stuff blew past me. I couldn't keep up in meetings. Just found myself spacing out a lot. I couldn't keep up at all."</p>
<p>Once Clark caught up, his skill came to the forefront. He made some splash plays in training camp but failed to make the roster and toiled for most of the season on the practice squad. Clark was added to the active roster on Dec. 1 and played in his first game against the Vikings.</p>
<p>With star receiver Davante Adams inactive with a concussion and veteran receiver Jordy Nelson lost late in the first half with a shoulder injury, Clark wound up getting extensive playing time. He was targeted a team-high nine times, catching three for 36 yards. Quarterback Brett Hundley turned to Clark in key spots, with a pair of third-down passes and three more on fourth down.</p>
<p>"I've been with Brett since camp, building his confidence in me and making plays," Clark said. "Everybody sees me making plays, so who wouldn't want to throw it to me?"</p>
<p>With his size, Clark makes for an inviting target.</p>
<p>"Just a big dude," Hundley said. "He's just a good receiver. He's been busting his butt for the past year and he's developed every day, every week, and I cannot wait to see what he brings this week and what he turns into this year."</p>
<p>Clark figures to play a key role this week against the Lions. Adams remains in the concussion protocol, and McCarthy said it will be tough for Nelson to return this week.</p>
<p>They were two of seven players not practicing on Wednesday, a list rounded out by receiver Geronimo Allison (illness), guard Jahri Evans (knee), running back Aaron Jones (knee), tight end Richard Rodgers (shoulder), outside linebacker Nick Perry (shoulder/ankle).</p>
<p>With so much talent potentially sidelined for Sunday, Clark might be line for more targets in Detroit. He'd like to use a strong performance as a starting point for next season.</p>
<p>"If you're not confident in yourself, I wouldn't be here," Clark said. "Stuff like this doesn't happen by accident. I had confidence in myself, I knew I could do it and that's what I did."</p>
<p>GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Wide receiver Michael Clark gave up basketball to chase his football dream in college.</p>
<p>The road led him all the way to Lambeau Field for his NFL debut Saturday night.</p>
<p>With injuries taking a toll on the Packers' receiving corps, Clark could get more chances to make an impression on coach Mike McCarthy when Green Bay wraps up its season on Sunday against the Detroit Lions.</p>
<p>"It feels like I've been waiting forever for this to happen," Clark said after practice Wednesday.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-6 Clark played in 12 college basketball games as a freshman in the 2014-15 season at St. Francis of Pennsylvania, a small school in the Northeast Conference. But football, a sport he hadn't played since his freshman year in high school in Tampa, Florida, kept tugging at Clark.</p>
<p>So he gave up his basketball scholarship to play football and landed at Marshall. He got reacquainted with the sport while redshirting in 2015 before debuting in 2016 with 37 catches for 632 yards and four touchdowns.</p>
<p>With a year of eligibility remaining, Clark decided to take his sparse resume and turn pro. Clark went undrafted but landed with the Packers. With his size, Clark stood tall but he didn't immediately stand out.</p>
<p>"It was foreign. Just words," Clark said of the playbook. "All that stuff blew past me. I couldn't keep up in meetings. Just found myself spacing out a lot. I couldn't keep up at all."</p>
<p>Once Clark caught up, his skill came to the forefront. He made some splash plays in training camp but failed to make the roster and toiled for most of the season on the practice squad. Clark was added to the active roster on Dec. 1 and played in his first game against the Vikings.</p>
<p>With star receiver Davante Adams inactive with a concussion and veteran receiver Jordy Nelson lost late in the first half with a shoulder injury, Clark wound up getting extensive playing time. He was targeted a team-high nine times, catching three for 36 yards. Quarterback Brett Hundley turned to Clark in key spots, with a pair of third-down passes and three more on fourth down.</p>
<p>"I've been with Brett since camp, building his confidence in me and making plays," Clark said. "Everybody sees me making plays, so who wouldn't want to throw it to me?"</p>
<p>With his size, Clark makes for an inviting target.</p>
<p>"Just a big dude," Hundley said. "He's just a good receiver. He's been busting his butt for the past year and he's developed every day, every week, and I cannot wait to see what he brings this week and what he turns into this year."</p>
<p>Clark figures to play a key role this week against the Lions. Adams remains in the concussion protocol, and McCarthy said it will be tough for Nelson to return this week.</p>
<p>They were two of seven players not practicing on Wednesday, a list rounded out by receiver Geronimo Allison (illness), guard Jahri Evans (knee), running back Aaron Jones (knee), tight end Richard Rodgers (shoulder), outside linebacker Nick Perry (shoulder/ankle).</p>
<p>With so much talent potentially sidelined for Sunday, Clark might be line for more targets in Detroit. He'd like to use a strong performance as a starting point for next season.</p>
<p>"If you're not confident in yourself, I wouldn't be here," Clark said. "Stuff like this doesn't happen by accident. I had confidence in myself, I knew I could do it and that's what I did."</p> | Ex-college hoopster Michael Clark gets shot at WR with Pack | false | https://apnews.com/amp/30f9bd5381194a4787c3ff0dd78be2c3 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>The world economy is recovering from the recent recession but the recovery is going to be slow, said Jeff Immelt, chief executive of <a href="" type="internal">General Electric</a> Co (NYSE:GE).</p>
<p>"Recovery is underway, but it's a long, slow recovery. Slower than we'd like," Immelt told an audience of executives from mid-size businesses in Columbus. "There is just a lot of volatility, because the world has problems and classic institutions have not been able to solve those problems."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | GE's Immelt: Recovery 'Slower Than We'd Like' | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/10/06/ges-immelt-recovery-slower-than-wed-like.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>Wells Fargo &amp; Co's failure to convince regulators it can go through bankruptcy without severely disrupting financial markets is effectively costing the bank $100 million in trading revenues each quarter, its management said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In December, Wells Fargo failed a so-called living will test administered by U.S. bank regulators. As a result, the bank is not allowed to establish international bank entities or acquire non-bank subsidiaries until regulators sign off on an amended plan.</p>
<p>Regulators can eventually force Wells Fargo to shrink its balance sheet to the level it was at on Sept. 30 if it does not appease them within two years.</p>
<p>Instead of waiting for that possibility, the third-largest U.S. bank is keeping its balance sheet at that size.</p>
<p>"Because we wouldn't want to put ourselves in the position of having to make an abrupt change for something that was out of our control, we decided to leave things at that level, and they're still operating there today," Chief Executive Tim Sloan said on a call with analysts after the bank reported first-quarter earnings.</p>
<p>Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said Wells Fargo is holding lower trading assets to maintain balance sheet size, a decision that prevents the bank from earning an extra $100 million per quarter.</p>
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<p>(Reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Meredith Mazzilli)</p> | Wells Fargo says failure on 'living will' test hurting trading revenues | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/13/wells-fargo-says-failure-on-living-will-test-hurting-trading-revenues.html | 2017-04-13 | 0 |
<p>Lately, the market seems to have gotten a bad rap. People are downright gloomy and I’ve read a number of articles saying “the end is near.”</p>
<p>But, in looking at a chart of the S&amp;P, I don’t see it. To the contrary, the market just broke from short-term congestion and is making new yearly highs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The “end” may well be near, but for now the bulls remain in control.</p>
<p>You can’t go five minutes these days without someone talking about Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). &#160;Ever since it came out, my advice was to stay away from it: I just didn’t have enough information (from the chart) to say if it was a good or bad bet. &#160;And “bet” is accurate, because I think the company is still too new to tell if it can justify its valuation.</p>
<p>But now, I’m starting to have second thoughts, primarily because there’s almost universal contempt for the stock. Beyond that, typically when stocks of this volatility -- think stocks like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) -- drop 30% from recent highs, it’s a good time to buy. If you use the June highs, FB has done that, and it may be time to weigh in.</p>
<p>Again, this is pure speculation and a buy certainly isn’t justified via the charts. On the other hand, if you’re patient, it may pay off.</p>
<p>Maybe the polar opposite of FB is Procter &amp; Gamble (NYSE:PG). I noticed Warren Buffett was dumping it, but I still like it (and own it). For new purchases, you might wait for a break above resistance. Once it does that, it should make a nice run.</p> | Wall Street: Less Gloomy Than it Seems | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/08/17/wall-street-less-gloomy-than-it-seems.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>AN EDUCATION PRICE TAG&#160;&#160;&#160; How much does a good education cost? That question is the focus of researchers for the recently launched Illinois School Funding Adequacy Initiative at National-Louis University.Ted Purinton, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, and Michelle Turner-Mangan, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Inquiry, are the principal researchers. Modeled on the work of University of Wisconsin researcher Allan R. Odden, the project will put a price tag on educating average-performing and at-risk children to meet high standards, using research-proven strategies and best practices. For instance, research shows that,&#160;in the primary grades,&#160;low-income children in classes of no more than 15 children had significantly higher achievement than their peers, says Purinton, so the per-pupil cost of educating poor children would include the cost of hiring enough teachers to lower class sizes. The project will also examine spending in Illinois and how it matches up with what research recommends schools spend money on. A task force of educators, funding activists, legislators and civic leaders will craft a strategy for using the research findings to drive policy.</p>
<p>Task force members are: Dominic Belmonte, president and CEO, Golden Apple Foundation; Mary Cahillane, chief financial and administrative officer, Spencer Foundation; Roger Eddy, state representative, (R-Hutsonville); Lori Fanello, assistant regional superintendent, Boone/Winnebago regional office of education; Ed Geppert, Jr., president, Illinois Federation of Teachers; Linda Hernandez, superintendent, Rockford Public Schools; Michael Hollingsworth, superintendent, Midlothian School District, Brenda Holmes, board member, Illinois State Board of Education; Michael A. Jacoby, executive director, Illinois Association of School Business Officials; Michael Johnson, executive director, Illinois Association of School Boards, Kimberly A. Lightford, state senator and chair, Senate Education Committee; Max McGee, president, Illinois Mathematics &amp; Science Academy; Pedro Martinez, chief financial officer, Chicago Public Schools; Terry Mazany, president and CEO, Chicago Community Trust; Ralph Martire, executive director, Center for Tax &amp; Budget Accountability; Robert W. Pritchard, state representative (R-Sycamore) and co-chair of House Education Caucus; Kathy Ryg, state representative (D-Vernon Hills); Donald D. Schlomann, superintendent, School District 303 (St. Charles); J. Glenn Schneider, director of government relations, Ed-RED; Kevin S. Semlow, director of state legislation, Illinois Farm Bureau; Jerry Stermer, president, Voices for Illinois Children; Miguel Del Valle, city clerk, City of Chicago; Toni Waggoner, senior budget analyst, Illinois State Board of Education; Cheryl D. Watkins, principal, Pershing West Magnet School.</p>
<p>NEW CHARTER CHIEF&#160;&#160; Former Chicago Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski will become chair of the University of Chicago Charter Schools next January, one of her duties as the university’s new vice president for civic engagement. This fall, the university opened a new middle-school charter, Carter G. Woodson Campus, in the former Woodson South building in Grand Boulevard. Lipinski will also provide leadership support for other university education initiatives and programs for at-risk children.&#160;</p>
<p>125 S. CLARK ST.&#160; Heather Obora has been promoted from officer of procurement and contracts to chief operations officer, a title previously held by M. Hill Hammock, who retains the title of chief administrative officer. Opal L. Walls, deputy officer of contracts and procurement, will replace Obora. …Jarvis Sanford, principal of Dodge Renaissance Academy, is the new area instructional officer for the Office of School Turnarounds.</p>
<p>ELSEWHERE&#160; In California, two groups representing school districts are suing the state board over its new requirement that all 8th-graders be tested in algebra, according to the Sept. 9 Sacramento Bee. The new requirement, championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, essentially mandates that 8th-graders take algebra. Here in Chicago, the number of schools teaching algebra to middle-grade students is up dramatically to 138, from 78 a year ago. … In New York, a commission recommends new limits on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s control over the city’s public schools, according to the Sept. 4 New York Times. The commission wants the Panel for Educational Policy to have more power over policies and budgeting, and give fixed terms to its members, who now serve solely at the discretion of the mayor. The commission also recommends that area school districts be revived to give parents more influence over schools and policy.</p>
<p /> | School funding research, U of C charter chief | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/school-funding-research-u-c-charter-chief/ | 2008-09-11 | 3 |
<p>CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday convicted a British woman of smuggling hundreds of powerful painkillers into the country, sentencing her to three years in prison.</p>
<p>The woman, 33-year-old Laura Plummer from Hull, has maintained her innocence since her arrest in October on arrival from Britain at Hurghada, a Red Sea resort city. She has insisted the Tramadol tablets were for her Egyptian partner, who suffers chronic back pain.</p>
<p>Tramadol is listed by Egyptian authorities as an illegal drug given its wide use as a heroin substitute. It’s legal in Britain. Plummer’s family says she had no idea that bringing the painkillers to Egypt was illegal. She did not try to hide them, they said.</p>
<p>The conviction came as a surprise since the hearing was supposed to be taken up by the argument of the defense. Plummer’s lawyers immediately lodged an appeal.</p>
<p>Plummer, a shop worker, appeared in court on Monday, but the judged adjourned the hearings to Tuesday. Her mother, Roberta Sinclair, was in Hurghada for the trial.</p>
<p>Her sister, Rachel Plummer, said the family’s hopes now hinged on the outcome of the appeal. “We’re just hoping. Even half of that (three years’ imprisonment) would be better. Anything less than three years. She doesn’t deserve that.”</p>
<p>The Plummers’ local member of parliament, Karl Turner, said Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt had raised her case with Egyptian authorities.</p>
<p>“I am hopeful that good sense will eventually prevail,” he told BBC Radio 4′s The World At One. “This is a damning indictment actually of the Egyptian authorities in the sense that good sense and fairness certainly hasn’t prevailed in this case,” he said.</p>
<p>“This is a decent woman who has made a terrible mistake who shouldn’t be incarcerated in any prison, never mind an Egyptian prison.”</p>
<p>CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday convicted a British woman of smuggling hundreds of powerful painkillers into the country, sentencing her to three years in prison.</p>
<p>The woman, 33-year-old Laura Plummer from Hull, has maintained her innocence since her arrest in October on arrival from Britain at Hurghada, a Red Sea resort city. She has insisted the Tramadol tablets were for her Egyptian partner, who suffers chronic back pain.</p>
<p>Tramadol is listed by Egyptian authorities as an illegal drug given its wide use as a heroin substitute. It’s legal in Britain. Plummer’s family says she had no idea that bringing the painkillers to Egypt was illegal. She did not try to hide them, they said.</p>
<p>The conviction came as a surprise since the hearing was supposed to be taken up by the argument of the defense. Plummer’s lawyers immediately lodged an appeal.</p>
<p>Plummer, a shop worker, appeared in court on Monday, but the judged adjourned the hearings to Tuesday. Her mother, Roberta Sinclair, was in Hurghada for the trial.</p>
<p>Her sister, Rachel Plummer, said the family’s hopes now hinged on the outcome of the appeal. “We’re just hoping. Even half of that (three years’ imprisonment) would be better. Anything less than three years. She doesn’t deserve that.”</p>
<p>The Plummers’ local member of parliament, Karl Turner, said Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt had raised her case with Egyptian authorities.</p>
<p>“I am hopeful that good sense will eventually prevail,” he told BBC Radio 4′s The World At One. “This is a damning indictment actually of the Egyptian authorities in the sense that good sense and fairness certainly hasn’t prevailed in this case,” he said.</p>
<p>“This is a decent woman who has made a terrible mistake who shouldn’t be incarcerated in any prison, never mind an Egyptian prison.”</p> | Egypt court convicts British woman of smuggling painkillers | false | https://apnews.com/eaca25640d59490983b48a055c867240 | 2017-12-26 | 2 |
<p>BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter offered a rare glimpse into his agenda for the upcoming legislative session on Thursday by announcing plans to ask lawmakers to create a chief education officer who would help make key changes inside Idaho's postsecondary system.</p>
<p>"We have a lot of agencies clinging to the status quo and status quo isn't going to get us there," Otter said while speaking to the Idaho State Board of Education. "I think this transition is going to take some time and I think it's probably going to have to change me a little too."</p>
<p>Otter said creating a higher education CEO would help the state reach its 2010 goal of getting 60 percent of Idaho's young adults to complete a post-secondary degree or certificate by 2025.</p>
<p>"I don't have any preconceived notion except success for this position," he said.</p>
<p>Otter then asked for the board's support of the idea, explaining the CEO position would have to work directly with the board in order to be effective.</p>
<p>Otter has typically declined to share details of his legislative wish list until his State of the State address for the past three terms he's been in office. However, he hinted at the CEO proposal in December by promising to drastically change the structure of Idaho higher education.</p>
<p>This year, his 12th and final State of the State speech will take place on Jan. 8 - the official kickoff of the 2018 session.</p>
<p>Thursday's announcement stems from various recommendations submitted by a task force appointed by the governor to review the state's postsecondary access and completion. The idea has also been endorsed by a handful of business executives, who sent a letter to Otter urging him to adopt the idea because of the growing need to have a better skilled workforce in Idaho.</p>
<p>Currently, Idaho is searching for three new college and university presidents. Otter said those openings make it an ideal time to begin revamping the system.</p>
<p>Roughly 40 percent of Idaho's residents between the ages of 25 and 34 have completed post-secondary education. The statistic has been incrementally decreasing since 2012 and officials were recently forced to push back their deadline of meeting the 60 percent goal from 2020 to 2025.</p>
<p>BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter offered a rare glimpse into his agenda for the upcoming legislative session on Thursday by announcing plans to ask lawmakers to create a chief education officer who would help make key changes inside Idaho's postsecondary system.</p>
<p>"We have a lot of agencies clinging to the status quo and status quo isn't going to get us there," Otter said while speaking to the Idaho State Board of Education. "I think this transition is going to take some time and I think it's probably going to have to change me a little too."</p>
<p>Otter said creating a higher education CEO would help the state reach its 2010 goal of getting 60 percent of Idaho's young adults to complete a post-secondary degree or certificate by 2025.</p>
<p>"I don't have any preconceived notion except success for this position," he said.</p>
<p>Otter then asked for the board's support of the idea, explaining the CEO position would have to work directly with the board in order to be effective.</p>
<p>Otter has typically declined to share details of his legislative wish list until his State of the State address for the past three terms he's been in office. However, he hinted at the CEO proposal in December by promising to drastically change the structure of Idaho higher education.</p>
<p>This year, his 12th and final State of the State speech will take place on Jan. 8 - the official kickoff of the 2018 session.</p>
<p>Thursday's announcement stems from various recommendations submitted by a task force appointed by the governor to review the state's postsecondary access and completion. The idea has also been endorsed by a handful of business executives, who sent a letter to Otter urging him to adopt the idea because of the growing need to have a better skilled workforce in Idaho.</p>
<p>Currently, Idaho is searching for three new college and university presidents. Otter said those openings make it an ideal time to begin revamping the system.</p>
<p>Roughly 40 percent of Idaho's residents between the ages of 25 and 34 have completed post-secondary education. The statistic has been incrementally decreasing since 2012 and officials were recently forced to push back their deadline of meeting the 60 percent goal from 2020 to 2025.</p> | Idaho governor to push for higher education changes | false | https://apnews.com/fc43e0fba4ae45238bfb6b6d4bc769c3 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
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<p>As most players were celebrating the team’s victory at the Club World Cup in Japan, Rodriguez was telling reporters about his disappointment of not playing enough minutes under coach Zinedine Zidane.</p>
<p>He hinted that he may leave Madrid, which means the club will begin the new year either trying to make Rodriguez happy again, or trying to find him another team.</p>
<p>Rodriguez, who arrived amid high expectations after thriving with Colombia at the 2014 World Cup, has a contract until June 2020, but he said he will use his time off during the winter break to try to make a decision about his future.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I can’t guarantee that I will stay,” the 25-year-old Rodriguez said. “I have to think about everything very carefully. I’m happy here, but I want to play more. And if I want to play more, I have to think about all of my options.”</p>
<p>Rodriguez played the last 20 minutes of Madrid’s semifinal match against Club America at the Club World Cup, and said he was disappointed for not having a chance to play in the final.</p>
<p>His complaints after the match didn’t sit well with some of his teammates.</p>
<p>Madrid captain Sergio Ramos said it wasn’t the time to be thinking about “personal issues.”</p>
<p>“I respect him and I hope that he stays, but today is a day to be happy, not to focus on other things,” Ramos said after Madrid defeated Kashima Antlers 4-2 in extra time to win the title.</p>
<p>Rodriguez quickly became a first-choice selection for coach Carlo Ancelotti after his arrival following the World Cup, but his playing time gradually diminished the following seasons.</p>
<p>The talented playmaker has had very few opportunities under Zidane, who has preferred to use more dynamic players in the midfield. Rodriguez has been relegated to the bench most of the time, and even then he hasn’t been getting many chances as a substitute.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t leave if I were James,” Zidane said recently. “I would stay in this great club. I think he will have minutes here. We know of his quality. He will be an important player for us.”</p>
<p>The top scorer at the World Cup in Brazil, Rodriguez has only two goals in 16 appearances this season, one of them in the 6-1 win over Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey, when nearly all of the team’s top players were rested.</p>
<p>If Rodriguez ends up deciding to leave, it’s likely that Madrid will try to negotiate either a trade or a loan instead of keeping the midfielder. He is still likely to be wanted by some of Europe’s top teams, and Spanish media has already linked him to clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Inter Milan.</p>
<p>Madrid’s next game is Jan. 7 against Granada in the Spanish league, a competition it leads with 37 points from 15 matches.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Tales Azzoni on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/tazzoni" type="external">http://twitter.com/tazzoni</a></p> | Unhappy Rodriguez a problem for Madrid entering new year | false | https://abqjournal.com/911703/unhappy-rodriguez-a-problem-for-madrid-entering-new-year.html | 2016-12-19 | 2 |
<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years — since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden’s home, aiding U.S. Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader.</p>
<p>Americans might wonder how Pakistan could imprison a man who helped track down the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Pakistanis are apt to ask a different question: how could the United States betray its trust and cheapen its sovereignty with a secret nighttime raid that shamed the military and its intelligence agencies?</p>
<p>“The Shakil Afridi saga is the perfect metaphor for U.S-Pakistan relations” — a growing tangle of mistrust and miscommunication that threatens to jeopardize key efforts against terrorism, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.</p>
<p>The U.S. believes its financial support entitles it to Pakistan’s backing in its efforts to defeat the Taliban — as a candidate, Donald Trump pledged to free Afridi, telling Fox News in April 2016 he would get him out of prison in “two minutes. ... Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.” But Pakistan is resentful of what it sees as U.S. interference in its affairs.</p>
<p>Mohammed Amir Rana, director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two countries is an old story that won’t be rewritten until Pakistan and the U.S. revise their expectations of each other, recognize their divergent security concerns and plot an Afghan war strategy, other than the current one which is to both kill and talk to the Taliban.</p>
<p>“Shakil Afridi (is) part of the larger puzzle,” he said.</p>
<p>Afridi hasn’t seen his lawyer since 2012 and his wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file “disappeared,” delaying a court appeal that still hasn’t proceeded. The courts now say a prosecutor is unavailable, his lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>“Everyone is afraid to even talk about him, to mention his name,” and not without reason, said Nadeem, who is also Afridi’s cousin.</p>
<p>In Nadeem’s office, the wind whistles through a clumsily covered window shattered by a bullet. On another window, clear tape covers a second bullet hole, both from a shooting incident several years ago in which no suspects have been named. Another of Afridi’s lawyers was gunned down outside his Peshawar home and a Peshawar jail deputy superintendent, who had advocated on Afridi’s behalf, was shot and killed, said Nadeem.</p>
<p>Afridi used a fake hepatitis vaccination program to try to get DNA samples from bin Laden’s family as a means of pinpointing his location. But he has not been charged in connection with the bin Laden operation.</p>
<p>He was accused under tribal law alleging he aided and facilitated militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region, said Nadeem. Even the Taliban scoffed at the charge that was filed to make use of Pakistan’s antiquated tribal system, which allows closed courts, does not require the defendant to be present in court, and limits the number of appeals, he said.</p>
<p>If charged with treason — which Pakistani authorities say he committed — Afridi would have the right to public hearings and numerous appeals all the way to the Supreme Court, where the details of the bin Laden raid could be laid bare, something neither the civilian nor military establishments want, his lawyer said.</p>
<p>Tensions have grown between Pakistan and the U.S. since Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of taking $33 billion in aid and giving only “deceit and lies” in return while harboring Afghan insurgents who attack American soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan. Days later, the U.S. suspended military aid to Pakistan, which could amount to $2 billion.</p>
<p>Infuriated by Trump’s tweet, Pakistan accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Wilson Center’s Kugelman advocated a “scaled-down relationship” between the two countries. He said both sides need to agree to disagree on some issues and instead focus on those areas where they can agree to cooperate against terror groups that both regard as threats, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.</p>
<p>Pakistan and the Taliban sanctuaries it provides are a big part of the insurgents’ success in Afghanistan, but it’s only one of many factors, Kugelman said.</p>
<p>“It’s foolish to suggest that if the Pakistani sanctuaries were eliminated, the insurgency would magically go away and the U.S. would be able to prevail in Afghanistan,” he said. “The Taliban has persevered because the U.S. still struggles to fight wars against non-state actors, and because the Afghan government has remained a weak and corrupt entity that has failed to convince a critical mass of Afghans that it’s a better alternative to the Taliban.”</p>
<p>Afridi spends his days alone, isolated from a general prison population filled with militants who have vowed to kill him for his role in locating bin Laden, said Nadeem. Still, Nadeem said authorities are treating Afridi well and he is in good health, according to those who have seen him.</p>
<p>There was a no indication whether U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells brought Afridi’s case up in recent meetings in Pakistan. But in a statement, the U.S. State Department told the AP that Afridi has not been forgotten.</p>
<p>“We believe Dr. Afridi has been unjustly imprisoned and have clearly communicated our position to Pakistan on Dr. Afridi’s case, both in public and in private,” it said.</p>
<p>In the past, Pakistan has compared Afridi’s dilemma with demands for the release of Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who is in U.S. custody convicted of trying to kill an American soldier in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>“To America, she (Siddiqui) is a terrorist,” said Kugelman. “To Pakistan, she is a wrongfully imprisoned innocent.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report</p>
<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years — since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden’s home, aiding U.S. Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader.</p>
<p>Americans might wonder how Pakistan could imprison a man who helped track down the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Pakistanis are apt to ask a different question: how could the United States betray its trust and cheapen its sovereignty with a secret nighttime raid that shamed the military and its intelligence agencies?</p>
<p>“The Shakil Afridi saga is the perfect metaphor for U.S-Pakistan relations” — a growing tangle of mistrust and miscommunication that threatens to jeopardize key efforts against terrorism, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.</p>
<p>The U.S. believes its financial support entitles it to Pakistan’s backing in its efforts to defeat the Taliban — as a candidate, Donald Trump pledged to free Afridi, telling Fox News in April 2016 he would get him out of prison in “two minutes. ... Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.” But Pakistan is resentful of what it sees as U.S. interference in its affairs.</p>
<p>Mohammed Amir Rana, director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two countries is an old story that won’t be rewritten until Pakistan and the U.S. revise their expectations of each other, recognize their divergent security concerns and plot an Afghan war strategy, other than the current one which is to both kill and talk to the Taliban.</p>
<p>“Shakil Afridi (is) part of the larger puzzle,” he said.</p>
<p>Afridi hasn’t seen his lawyer since 2012 and his wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file “disappeared,” delaying a court appeal that still hasn’t proceeded. The courts now say a prosecutor is unavailable, his lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>“Everyone is afraid to even talk about him, to mention his name,” and not without reason, said Nadeem, who is also Afridi’s cousin.</p>
<p>In Nadeem’s office, the wind whistles through a clumsily covered window shattered by a bullet. On another window, clear tape covers a second bullet hole, both from a shooting incident several years ago in which no suspects have been named. Another of Afridi’s lawyers was gunned down outside his Peshawar home and a Peshawar jail deputy superintendent, who had advocated on Afridi’s behalf, was shot and killed, said Nadeem.</p>
<p>Afridi used a fake hepatitis vaccination program to try to get DNA samples from bin Laden’s family as a means of pinpointing his location. But he has not been charged in connection with the bin Laden operation.</p>
<p>He was accused under tribal law alleging he aided and facilitated militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region, said Nadeem. Even the Taliban scoffed at the charge that was filed to make use of Pakistan’s antiquated tribal system, which allows closed courts, does not require the defendant to be present in court, and limits the number of appeals, he said.</p>
<p>If charged with treason — which Pakistani authorities say he committed — Afridi would have the right to public hearings and numerous appeals all the way to the Supreme Court, where the details of the bin Laden raid could be laid bare, something neither the civilian nor military establishments want, his lawyer said.</p>
<p>Tensions have grown between Pakistan and the U.S. since Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of taking $33 billion in aid and giving only “deceit and lies” in return while harboring Afghan insurgents who attack American soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan. Days later, the U.S. suspended military aid to Pakistan, which could amount to $2 billion.</p>
<p>Infuriated by Trump’s tweet, Pakistan accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Wilson Center’s Kugelman advocated a “scaled-down relationship” between the two countries. He said both sides need to agree to disagree on some issues and instead focus on those areas where they can agree to cooperate against terror groups that both regard as threats, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.</p>
<p>Pakistan and the Taliban sanctuaries it provides are a big part of the insurgents’ success in Afghanistan, but it’s only one of many factors, Kugelman said.</p>
<p>“It’s foolish to suggest that if the Pakistani sanctuaries were eliminated, the insurgency would magically go away and the U.S. would be able to prevail in Afghanistan,” he said. “The Taliban has persevered because the U.S. still struggles to fight wars against non-state actors, and because the Afghan government has remained a weak and corrupt entity that has failed to convince a critical mass of Afghans that it’s a better alternative to the Taliban.”</p>
<p>Afridi spends his days alone, isolated from a general prison population filled with militants who have vowed to kill him for his role in locating bin Laden, said Nadeem. Still, Nadeem said authorities are treating Afridi well and he is in good health, according to those who have seen him.</p>
<p>There was a no indication whether U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells brought Afridi’s case up in recent meetings in Pakistan. But in a statement, the U.S. State Department told the AP that Afridi has not been forgotten.</p>
<p>“We believe Dr. Afridi has been unjustly imprisoned and have clearly communicated our position to Pakistan on Dr. Afridi’s case, both in public and in private,” it said.</p>
<p>In the past, Pakistan has compared Afridi’s dilemma with demands for the release of Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who is in U.S. custody convicted of trying to kill an American soldier in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>“To America, she (Siddiqui) is a terrorist,” said Kugelman. “To Pakistan, she is a wrongfully imprisoned innocent.”</p>
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<p>Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report</p> | Doctor who aided hunt for bin Laden languishes, forgotten | false | https://apnews.com/bfafcd6f68ea4c5f91c89bda94552499 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>The Iowa Caucuses are less than a week away, and the GOP’s two frontrunners — Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz — are in a statistical tie, according to the <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/iowa/release-detail?ReleaseID=2318" type="external">latest poll</a> from Quinnipiac University.</p>
<p>What would happen to US&#160;foreign policy if one of these frontrunners won in November? For one, Cruz has promised to get aggressive with ISIS.</p>
<p>"We will carpet bomb them into oblivion,” Cruz said at a FreedomWorks summit in Iowa in December. “I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we are going to find out." &#160;</p>
<p>Would a hypothetical President Cruz make good on that promise? Victoria Coates, Cruz's foreign policy adviser,&#160;worked for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Texas Governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry.</p>
<p>“It sounds very simple, but [Cruz is] approaching the world from the very clear perspective of what’s best for America,” Coates says. “He believes our nation is the greatest force for good on the planet, so preserving it and protecting it should be our priority, and that’s been a very disciplined practice of his.”</p>
<p>But do raucous comments about annihilating American enemies really help to protect US&#160;peace and security?</p>
<p>“I’m never going to apologize for working for a candidate who wants to be too mean to the terrorists,” she says. “That doesn’t seem to me really to be a downside.”</p>
<p>According to Coates, a hypothetical President Cruz wouldn't&#160;be too concerned about harming civilians in ISIS-held areas.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, we are in a situation right now where we have an administration that has zero tolerance for any collateral damage,” she says. “War is a horrible, violent, messy business. One can be as humane as humanly possibly, and if one is going to successfully execute a military mission, there is going to be collateral damage. So I think what Senator Cruz is expressing is his willingness to do what is necessary to keep our country safe.”</p>
<p>In viewing the current fight against ISIS, Coates argues that the US&#160;must “change the rules of engagement governing our forces if we do want to be successful,” calling the Obama Administration’s strategy a “dismal failure.”</p>
<p>However, under the Obama Administration, about 90 percent of people killed in US-led drone strikes in Afghanistan over one five-month period were not “the intended targets,” <a href="https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-assassination-complex/" type="external">according to</a> The Intercept. Coates says it’s “a great mystery” why the Obama Administration would tolerate collateral damage in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not in ISIS strongholds in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>“One thing that has been a concern for me about this administration is that they’ve almost fetishsized the use of drones,” she says. “Drones are a useful technology, and they can do all sorts of extraordinary things — they’re going to put lasers on them that can take out ballistic missiles. That’s fantastic, but they remain a tool — they are not a strategy.”</p>
<p>In addition, Coates says Cruz would roll back the&#160;Iranian nuclear deal. She says Cruz would overturn the historic accord “on day one” of his presidency.</p>
<p>“He’s been very clear over the last two years, really since September ‘13 ... even before the infamous phone call between President Rouhani and President Obama, that we were starting out on the wrong foot,” Coates says.</p>
<p>Around the time of his <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/harry-reid-filibuster-government-shutdown-097263" type="external">marathon Obamacare filibuster</a> that included a reading of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham,” Coates says Cruz filed <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.RES.252:" type="external">legislation</a> that called for US&#160;hostages to be released, and for Iran to formally recognize Israel, before America reopened contact with Iran.</p>
<p>“For this administration, that came after — it was some sort of postscript to get the hostages out,” she says. “For me, that’s a pretty clear illustration of the differences of their approach. So, I think certainly it’s going to be a very heavy lift [to undo the Iran nuclear deal], but that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to do it.”</p>
<p>One of the rules of the Iranian nuclear agreement includes a <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/sep/08/politifact-sheet-6-things-know-about-iran-nuclear-/" type="external">provision</a> that ensures that inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency will have daily access to Iran’s nuclear sites to ensure that the nation is only using the technology for peaceful means. International inspectors monitoring Iran have said that revoking the historic deal would likely restart the nuclear course Iran had been on before the accord was struck.</p>
<p>Despite this international agreement, Coates says she doesn't believe Iran has ever stopped trying to make a nuclear weapon. She also said she doesn't believe anything that Secretary of State John Kerry has said on the issue.</p>
<p>“I absolutely believe a number of things the Iranians have said, which is that they believe they have a right to enrich uranium; that they believe they have a right to <a href="http://www.britannica.com/technology/ICBM" type="external">ICBMs</a>; that they believe they can keep testing them in defiance of the United Nations Security Council.&#160;I believe them when they say death to America; and I believe them when they say they’re going to wipe Israel off the map. All of those statements, which I believe, lead me to be extremely cautious about the agreement we’ve just concluded.”</p>
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<p>This <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/look-ted-cruzs-foriegn-policy/" type="external">story</a> first aired as an interview on PRI's <a href="http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/look-ted-cruzs-foriegn-policy/" type="external">The Takeaway</a>, a public radio program that invites you to be part of the American conversation.</p> | What a President Cruz's foreign policy might look like | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-01-29/what-president-cruzs-foreign-policy-might-look | 2016-01-29 | 3 |
<p>Aug. 10 (UPI) — A South Korean academic who triggered controversy after publishing a book on Korean “comfort women” said the issue of Japanese wartime brothels remains contentious, because the Korean public is operating under the wrong assumption the women were sex slaves.</p>
<p>Park Yu-ha, a professor of Japanese literature at Sejong University in Seoul, has previously said Korean women who worked in the brothels developed camaraderie with the soldiers at military outposts and volunteered to have sex with multiple soldiers as prostitutes.</p>
<p>These and other claims Park made in her 2013 book Comfort Women of the Empire have brought civil and criminal complaints from former comfort women, who have testified to countless rapes and beatings while forced to serve in brothels.</p>
<p>Park lost a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/world/asia/korean-comfort-women-park-yu-ha-japan.html" type="external">civil lawsuit</a> in 2016 but won a criminal case in 2017, when a court in Seoul ruled in favor of protecting academic freedom and expressions even “when they are wrong.”</p>
<p>Speaking on a panel in Seoul on Thursday, Park said the last 25 years of research indicates scholars’ understanding of the comfort women issue has “changed greatly,” but the changes are not reflected in public discussions and causing “national confusion.”</p>
<p>“It is necessary to have an idea, that the current understanding of the comfort women issue is not accurate,” Park said, according to News 1. “Controversy will continue as long as there is no making of [Korean] public awareness who the comfort women really were.”</p>
<p>Referring to calls for an official apology from Japanese leaders from the surviving comfort women, Park said, “asking the Japanese emperor or prime minister to get down on their knees and apologize will only worsen [Japan-Korea] relations.”</p>
<p>Park also criticized what she described on Thursday as the “idolization” of comfort women through the erection of bronze statues, depicting a teenage Korean girl, an icon of innocence and victimhood.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Lee_Yong/" type="external">Lee Yong</a>-soo, a survivor, has called Park, who studied at Japan’s Waseda University, a “pro-Japanese traitor.”</p>
<p>Reports of her remarks on Thursday brought strong reactions online, with local commenters suggesting Park “keep camaraderie” with troops at brothels and see whether her theory would hold at a comfort woman station.</p>
<p>A conservative South Korean civic group hosted Park’s presentation. Her views align with right-wing Japanese positions on comfort women.</p> | South Korea academic: 'Comfort women' not sex slaves | false | https://newsline.com/south-korea-academic-comfort-women-not-sex-slaves/ | 2017-08-10 | 1 |
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<p>Noted Santa Fe author and literacy advocate Pat Mora will read from her new children’s book “The Beautiful Lady — Our Lady of Guadalupe” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW.</p>
<p>The book retells the story of the well-known manifestation of the Virgin Mary in the Americas. Juan Diego, a 16th-century Aztec villager, had a vision of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill, near today’s Mexico City. In the vision, she asks that a church be built for her on the hilltop.</p>
<p>After repeated attempts to tell the bishop about la señora’s request, Diego finally gives him a sign from the Lady. When Diego opens his cloak in front of the bishop, out tumbles fresh roses. And on Diego’s cloak is emblazoned the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.</p>
<p>The story is told by the present-day character of Grandma Lupita to her granddaughter, Rose, and to Rose’s friend, Terry.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Mora is the author of several award-winning books. “Tomás and the Library Lady” won the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award, and “Dona Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart” was named an American Library Association Notable Book and received a Pura Belpré Narrative Honor.</p>
<p>Mora founded the family literacy initiative el dia de los niños/El dia de los libros, Children’s Day/Book Day.</p>
<p>Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher,an award-winning husband and wife team, illustrated the book. — This article appeared on page 24 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Santa Fe Author To Read From Her Book | false | https://abqjournal.com/162860/santa-fe-author-to-read-from-her-book.html | 2013-01-24 | 2 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While Ctrip.com (NASDAQ: CTRP) may have been the first major online travel agency (OTA) in China, it wasn't the only one. For much of the last five years, the company competed with eLong and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU)-backed Qunar (NASDAQ: QUNR). That meant a vicious price war that kept earnings down industrywide, while the major players jockeyed for market share of a growing pie.</p>
<p>But that all changed last year, as the company began a tie-up with eLong, and essentially acquired Qunar. In the post-consolidation world of China's OTAs, Ctrip is the undisputed top dog. So what can investors expect in the company's second-quarter earnings report on Aug. 31?</p>
<p>While I'm not too concerned with any company meeting analyst expectations, I do expect results to come in close to management's expectations. For the last couple of quarters, the company has exceeded these benchmarks -- a good sign that it understands its place in the industry.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Overall, revenue is expected to show growth of 70% to 75%, which would equate to roughly $655 million. Here's a breakdown by major subsection:</p>
<p>Beyond those headline numbers, there are a few key things that investors should keep an eye on. The first is within the transportation division. While airline fares have historically made up the bulk of revenue here, Ctrip has been working very hard to capture market share for both train and bus tickets as well. While these are still relatively small parts of the overall transportation pie, they are growing very quickly.</p>
<p>Furthermore, CEO and co-founder James Liang stated on the last conference call that Ctrip would begin focusing more on -- and devoting significant resources to -- outbound travel. This is crucial: As the Chinese middle class grows, their desire to travel beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom grows as well. If Ctrip can capture a bigger and bigger slice of that growing outbound-travel pie, it would be a huge win for the company.</p>
<p>Finally, I will be paying close attention on the conference call to both the company's gross margins, and any talk of couponing. Full-year gross margins fell from a high of 78.3% in 2010 to a low -- during the height of the price wars -- of 71.4% in 2014. They have since begun to recover, and last year they stood at 72.1%. The main benefit of a consolidated industry should be the ability to abandon couponing and continue seeing an uptick in gross margins.</p>
<p>It's important to remember that the Chinese OTA market is still relatively young. While Ctrip might experience hiccups along the way, it is now the biggest player in an industry that will likely be very important for decades to come.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2667&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFCheesehead/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Stoffel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Baidu and Ctrip.com International. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu. The Motley Fool recommends Ctrip.com International. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Will Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) Evolve in a Consolidated Market? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/25/how-will-ctripcom-international-ltd-adr-evolve-in-consolidated-market.html | 2016-08-25 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Three local commercial real estate affiliates of Boston-based Sperry Van Ness Corp. will undergo a name change, to SVN, as part of a corporate rebranding.</p>
<p>Instead of using the spelled-out name, the three affiliates will now be known, respectively, as SVN Commercial Real Estate Advisors, SVN Team Southwest and SVN Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage.</p>
<p>SVN Advisors was launched by Larry Ilfeld as SVN's first New Mexico affiliate in 2002, followed by Team Southwest headed by Tim House in 2003. Walt Arnold Brokerage, named for its founder, was an existing company when it affiliated in 2007.</p>
<p>A national franchise system approaching 200 offices worldwide, Sperry Van Ness provides technology systems, service lines and networking for its affiliates. Its offices are independently owned and operated.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Sperry Van Ness affiliates get new names | false | https://abqjournal.com/684699/sperry-van-ness-affiliates-get-new-names.html | 2 |
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<p>Following Vladimir Putin’s reelection as president of Russia, Donald Trump called him to offer his hearty congratulations. The fact that Trump thinks that Putin deserves applause for masterminding a sham election is bad enough. But in the midst of ongoing atrocities related to Russia’s election tampering in the United States, and it’s complicity in executing opponents with nerve agents on British soil, it is utterly disgraceful. And he was even <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/21/17147684/do-not-congratulate-trump-putin" type="external">warned</a> against sending congratulations by his top advisors, a warning that he ignored.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2082540175094100" type="external" /></p>
<p>Many Americans are outraged by Trump’s fealty to Putin, including a few Republicans who castigated him for praising the Russian tyrant’s undemocratic victory. But most Republicans are either defending Trump or remaining silent in the wake of yet another heinous act against the interests of America. And Trump’s greatest defender is, as usual, himself. In a Wednesday morning twitter rant, Trump tried to excuse sucking up to Putin by saying that…</p>
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<p>First of all, Obama didn’t call Putin while Russia was still trying to undermine America’s democracy and attacking our allies with chemical weapons. Secondly, the media are not the only critics of Trump’s Putin-fluffing. Ask GOP senators John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Lindsey Graham. Thirdly, would Trump have also said that getting along with Hitler was a good thing?</p>
<p>But the most troubling part of this tweet-plomacy is Trump’s curious reference to Russia helping with “the coming Arms Race.” Is there something he knows that he isn’t telling us?</p>
<p>It should be noted that any suggestion that an arms race is developing has to recognize that Trump himself is waging it. He has railed for months about what he regards as a depleted and ineffectual U.S. military. During his campaign, and now as president, Trump has promised to build up the military with an infusion of billions of dollars. He has advocated more and newer nuclear weapons, as well as piling on additional conventional munitions.</p>
<p>What’s more, Russia doesn’t seem to be a particularly helpful party when it comes to an arms race. Putin recently <a href="" type="internal">showed off</a> what he said were invincible new missiles that could be used against the U.S. and for which we would have no defense. If anything, Trump and Putin appear to be engaged in a mutually agreed upon escalation of weapons of mass destruction. Which would just make this the latest sweetheart deal that Trump has executed with his BFF.</p>
<p>It is no longer shocking when Trump says something false or stupid. That’s a nearly daily occurrence. But it is still worrisome when he makes dangerous comments that bring the country closer to conflict with foreign adversaries. Especially when those comments are contrary to the public policies and best interests of the nation.</p>
<p>By announcing that there is a “coming Arms Race,” Trump is alerting Russia and other nations of an intention by the U.S. to expand its military advantage. In effect, the comment has the potential to be the trigger for an arms race that didn’t exist previously. Hopefully somebody in the media will ask Trump what the heck he’s talking about. Although it may be too much to hope for that he actually knows.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p> | The Coming Arms Race? WTF is Trump Tweeting About Now? | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D35110 | 4 |
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<p>THURSDAY, Aug. 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) — More than 36 million people worldwide are blind, while 217 million more have moderate to severe vision loss, and experts now report that they expect those numbers to surge.</p>
<p>By 2050, the researchers said, the number of blind people is likely to hit 115 million, with 588 million more having limited sight. The burden is greatest in developing nations, according to a study of data from 188 countries.</p>
<p>“With the number of people with vision impairment accelerating, we must take action to increase our current treatment efforts at global, regional and country levels,” said study lead author Rupert Bourne. He is associate director of the Vision and Eye Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin University in Great Britain.</p>
<p>The study, published Aug. 2 in The Lancet Global Health journal, found southeast Asia has the most people who are blind. The study added that rates of blindness among older adults are highest in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.</p>
<p>The study covers 25 years — 1990 to 2015 — and offers projections for 2020 and 2050.</p>
<p>The researchers estimate that 0.75 percent of the world’s population was blind in 1990, compared to 0.5 percent in 2015. Over the same period, the rate of moderate to severe vision loss fell from 3.8 percent to 2.9 percent.</p>
<p>But those rates are forecast rise to 0.5 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, by 2020.</p>
<p>A key reason: The world’s population is getting older, and most vision loss is the result of aging. Compared to 2015, there were 5.4 million fewer blind people in 1990 and 57 million fewer with severe vision loss.</p>
<p>The researchers described the study as the first to include figures on presbyopia, an age-related form of farsightedness that can be treated with eyeglasses. More than 1 billion people over age 35 have the problem, which affects one’s ability to read. That includes 667 million people over 50.</p>
<p>The researchers stressed the need for targeting money for treatment. They noted that between 1990 and 2010, when investments were made in vision treatment, rates of blindness fell.</p>
<p>“Interventions for vision impairment provide some of the largest returns on investment, and are some of the most easily implemented interventions in developing regions because they are cheap, require little infrastructure and countries recover their costs as people enter back into the workforce,” Bourne said.</p>
<p>More information</p>
<p>The World Health Organization has more on <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/" type="external">vision loss and blindness</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.</p> | As world's population ages, blindness rates likely to grow | false | https://newsline.com/as-worlds-population-ages-blindness-rates-likely-to-grow/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-puts-iran-nuclear-deal-hands-congress-n810366" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>President Donald Trump is expected to put the 2015 Iran nuclear deal squarely in the hands of Congress, refusing to certify that Iran is in compliance with the deal but letting lawmakers decide whether to tear it up.</p>
<p>Congress will now have to decide if they will reimpose sanctions on Iran with regard to the country’s nuclear program, or attach new conditions to the agreement. Those sanctions were lifted as part of the 2015 agreement, and reimposing them would effectively destroy the deal, known as the JCPOA.</p>
<p>Getting a decision on sanctions out of Congress — which has been unable to agree on any significant legislation this year — is considered unlikely, meaning the status quo on the Iran agreement could remain.</p>
<p>The announcement is expected to come in a noontime speech by Trump, who, officials said, will say that the nuclear deal is not in the national security interests of the United States. Multiple administration officials said the decision goes against the recommendations of a majority of the president’s national security aides.</p>
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<p /> | LIVE VIDEO: Trump Rants Uselessly About Iran Deal | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/10/13/live-video-trump-rants-uselessly-iran-nuclear-deal/ | 2017-10-13 | 4 |
<p>The 10-year anniversary of the devastating hurricane that wrecked New Orleans, Katrina, is sure to bring up a lot of emotions — but how much as the city “risen up” since then in terms of its economy and culture?</p>
<p>Billions of dollars have been pumped into New Orleans in order to help the city recover, and volunteers flooded the area to lend a helping hand in its time of need, according to an <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/orleans-rises-decade-katrina-gaps-remain-33239549" type="external">Associated Press report</a>.</p>
<p>New Orleans responded well, rebounding solidly in the last decade in a way that many people didn’t think possible, and reforms in schools, policing, and — perhaps most important — water management. That way, when the next storm hits, they’ll be a lot more ready.</p>
<p>However, all is not necessarily well in New Orleans. Even those who praise the city for rising up and sparking a rebirth note that there are still big problems, and many of these problems are the same ones that faced the city before Katrina.</p>
<p>For one thing, the city is going through its own gentrification problem: this newer New Orleans is now more expensive to live in, and it’s driving long-time African-Americans away. Meanwhile, the notorious Lower 9th Ward that was flooded by the hurricane is starting to see its murder rate rise again.</p>
<p>So those who say that everything is a lot better will sound very different than the other people who will talk about how things are so much worse, and they may both be right.</p>
<p>Katrina wreaked havoc on the city, creating a situation where there was up to 20 feet of flooded water, and 80 percent of the city was flooded. It was one of the most powerful storms to have ever struck American soil in recorded history.</p>
<p /> | A decade after Katrina, big problems plague New Orleans | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/08/22/a-decade-after-katrina-big-problems-plague-new-orleans/ | 2015-08-22 | 3 |
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<p>The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that Beijing has rapidly expanded its overseas media presence to promote a positive view of the rising Asian nation and the ruling communist party, even as it has tightened its control over media and online content at home, and increased restrictions on foreign journalists in China.</p>
<p>The bipartisan commission recommends that Congress strengthen the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires registration by people or companies disseminating information in the U.S. on behalf of foreign governments, political parties and other “foreign principals.” The law is applied to foreign lobbying efforts, but the Justice Department has also required registration by media outlets funded by foreign governments.</p>
<p>While some state-run Chinese media outlets do register, the commission says the law is applied unevenly. It calls for all staff of state-run outlets to be registered as they are not part of an open press.</p>
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<p>“They should all have to register under FARA,” said Larry Wortzel, who sits on the 12-member commission. “Since 1978, the U.S. cannot use the press for intelligence collection or perception management by law, and that’s not the case with China.”</p>
<p>The commission is mandated to provide recommendations to Congress for legislative and administrative action but its proposals don’t carry legal weight. Its members are selected by leaders of both parties in the House and Senate. They include former U.S. lawmakers, and former U.S. government, military and intelligence officials.</p>
<p>The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the commission’s annual report. It was released as President Donald Trump returned from a five-nation trip to Asia, including a state visit to China, where he criticized the government over trade but praised its leader, Xi Jinping.</p>
<p>The Russian state-funded TV channel RT registered under FARA this week after pressure from the U.S. government. The U.S. intelligence agencies have alleged RT served as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin as part of its multi-pronged effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Russia denies interfering.</p>
<p>Russia’s lower house of parliament retaliated to the U.S. action Wednesday, unanimously approving a bill allowing the government to register international media outlets as foreign agents.</p>
<p>Chinese state-run media outlets have expanded their overseas operations in recent years. The Xinhua news agency reported in 2015 it had 180 foreign bureaus. The commission contended that Xinhua gathers information and produces classified reports for the Chinese leadership on both domestic and international events.</p>
<p>According to the FARA website, Chinese media currently registered include the distribution companies of China Daily, People’s Daily Overseas Edition and Xin Min Evening News.</p>
<p>State Department data show that in 2016, some 836 non-immigrant visas for foreign media were issued to nationals of China — outnumbered only by Britain, Japan and Germany. That includes both Chinese media based in the U.S. and those who made short-term visits.</p>
<p>The commission says Chinese-state run media and private networks friendly to Beijing have a virtual monopoly in Chinese-language U.S. cable television, “distorting the information available to the Chinese-speaking community in the United States.” It also voiced concern that Chinese communist party-linked corporations involved in the U.S. media industry risk undermining the independence of American film studios by forcing them to self-censor to access the Chinese market.</p> | Congress urged to tighten rules on Chinese state media in US | false | https://abqjournal.com/1093154/congress-urged-to-tighten-rules-on-chinese-state-media-in-us.html | 2 |
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<p>Movies are showing at the Jea <a href="" type="internal" />n Cocteau, Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque and The Screen, and you can find the schedule at santafefilmfestival.com. Check it out — the wide variety is bound to yield something that appeals to you — before you head into the holiday chorus.</p>
<p>SANTA AND SATAN: You’ll find them both at longtime, popular (and free!) events this weekend in the City Different. Santa’s expected to turn up between 5:30 and 8 tonight in the annual Christmas at the Palace — Palace of the Governors, that is, at 105 W. Palace Ave. — and at the newer Santa’s Village being set up with activities and the Bearded One from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the Railyard. Both events are free, kid-friendly, and loaded with music, refreshment and activities.</p>
<p>A rooftop devil jeers the crowd at the 2015 Las Posadas. (Photo by Hannah Abelbeck)</p>
<p>The devil will make his appearance from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when the traditional Las Posadas, Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, takes place at the Santa Fe Plaza. The horned heckler will jeer from nearby rooftops, giving everyone a chance to hiss and boo in response. Carols and cookies follow in the Palace Courtyard.</p>
<p>SYMPHONY OF SONGS: Musical renditions of the season head into full swing, including the Santa Fe Symphony’s Christmas Treasures concert 4 p.m. Sunday at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., ranging from classical, such as excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” to James Stephenson’s “A Holly and Jolly Sing-Along” ($22 to $80, santafesymphony.org or 983-3530).</p>
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<p>The Sangre de Cristo Chorale presents “Carols of the Southwest” at 4 p.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church Santa Fe, 208 Grant Ave., and 4 p.m. Sunday at United Church of Los Alamos, 2525 Canyon Road. Tickets are $10 to $20 or free for ages 18 and younger, available at sdcchorale.com or at the door.</p>
<p>The Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble sings “Songs of Light and Enlightenment” at 6:30 p.m. today, Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday in Loretto Chapel, 207 Old Santa Fe Trail, and 3 p.m. Dec. 17 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel, 50 Mount Carmel Road. ($10-$35, www.sfwe.org, 988-1234)</p>
<p>And, finally, get your opera fix when mezzo-soprano Alyssa Martin and tenor Jack Swanson end the Santa Fe Opera’s annual winter tour with a concert at 7 tonight at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Admission is free for this hourlong event.</p> | Our picks of the week | false | https://abqjournal.com/906011/our-picks-of-the-week.html | 2 |
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<p>Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Monday that he would consider penalty against Mizuho Financial Group &lt;8411.T&gt; over a loans-to-mobsters scandal after closely examining a report issued by an outside panel earlier in the day.</p>
<p>Mizuho has been under fire after regulators last month reprimanded it for failing to terminate loans to members of organized crime syndicates for more than two years after it found about them.</p>
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<p>Aso's remark appeared to indicate that the Financial Services Agency may not force any harsher punishments on Mizuho after having ordered the bank to improve business practices as the lender did almost nothing about the mob lending for more than two years.</p>
<p>Aso, who is also financial services minister, was speaking to reporters after receiving a report from the external panel of lawyers hired by Mizuho, which said Japan's second-biggest bank by assets did not intentionally cover up the shady lending.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Shinji Kitamura; Writing by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Shinichi Saoshiro)</p> | Japan finmin: will mull penalty against Mizuho after panel report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/10/28/japan-finmin-will-mull-penalty-against-mizuho-after-panel-report.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>Bragger alert.</p>
<p>My husband and I were successful. The genius children, J and H, are, well, geniuses, and so much more. The genius children are kind, compassionate, and empathetic.</p>
<p>Allow me to shift into reverse, backing into the past—the time the genius children met their mom and dad, took that first big gulp of air outside the womb. When I held blob-like son J in my arms the first time, I was a novice. Lamaze classes had prepared me somewhat for labor and delivery…………….. but then what? My first thought, prior to wondering what to do with this crying THING I was desperately trying to placate with a nipple, was directed at the gods, “Please don’t ever let him go to war.” With H was born, eleven years later, I was calmer.</p>
<p>Anyway, when our son J was about seven, I made him watch Amityville Horror with me. What was I thinking? We’d moved to Baltimore from Lexington, KY. My husband Charles had finished his residency at the University of Kentucky and we were repaying thousands of dollars in medical school debt. We rented an apartment and decided to buy J a television for his room. It was a 13 inch black and white. One day, J said, “I’ve seen An Officer and a Gentleman 17 times. I think he was 9. When H was about six, I made him watch Chucky with me. What was I thinking?</p>
<p>When J was a teenager, he’d ask plaintively why I wasn’t more like Che. He wanted his mum to be a revolutionary. I’d say, “Because I’m your mother.” Emphasizing mother. Later, years later, when I’d been arrested for activism and was writing political opinion pieces, J suggested I had become too extreme. Charles was dead and J was worried about me. I’d mentioned I might self-immolate in front of the White House.</p>
<p>Back to the success, the genius children’s kindness, compassion, and empathy. This year for Christmas, John and his wife L gifted me with Kate Evans’ graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, Red Rosa. Even though Rosa Luxemburg opposed violence, her life, her death, and today’s war lust and police state here in America make me want to blow up some stuff, but then I’ve just watched V For Vendetta again this week. Still, that’s not the point of my telling you about this particular present. It’s the genius child I’m focusing on here, his kindness, compassion, empathy, and the gift he chose for me—the story of a woman devoted to justice.</p>
<p>And the other one, H, younger by 11 years. H and his wife V were shopping for Christmas gifts two weeks ago. Among the crowds, H said he felt disgusted. He had an image in his head. A Syrian mother, holding her children. He said she was dazed, appeared to be in shock. One of her children was injured, bloody. He said to V, “I can’t do this.” They fled Consumerism, USA, sat and talked, accessed the Internet, and selected charities. These genius children—yes, V is also a genius child, as is J’s wife, based their decisions on the very personal. For me, they donated to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. For my guy, the Innocence Project. For Laura and Erma, Paws4ever Animal Sanctuary, for J and L, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. For V’s family members, Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Against DAPL.</p>
<p>Kindness, compassion, and empathy. The genius children have it. Despite or perhaps because (heh heh) I made them watch those movies with me, while also providing love, listening to them, believing them, believing in them, teaching them the Golden Rule. They were/are loved and have been nurtured well not only by me but also by their father, their grandparents, their friends, nurtured by heartbreak experiences as well as the joyous.</p>
<p>Today is Thursday. I must submit this little piece soon, but I’m not finished. Just need to add to each of you a hope for kindnesses, good health, good humor, love, and justice. Plus this advice: Live as if there’s no tomorrow, because there may not be, and prepare to step into 2017 frightened yet willing to throw your body on the gears.</p> | Step Into 2017 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/12/30/step-into-2017/ | 2016-12-30 | 4 |
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) – China has banned speedskater Xiaoxuan Shi from the national team for two years after failing a drug test, removing her from their squad for next month’s 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the China Skating Association said in a statement.</p>
<p>Shi tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol on Dec. 14, the governing body said in a release posted on China’s General Administration of Sports.</p>
<p>Clenbuterol is a performance-enhancing substance sometimes found in weight-loss pills and is on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list.</p>
<p>The penalty is a “wake-up call” for Chinese athletes preparing for the Winter Olympics, which will take place in South Korea from Feb. 9-25, the Association said.</p>
<p>“There are loopholes in our education campaign against doping. We will take more measures and responsibility to prevent this from happening again,” the organization added.</p>
<p>The positive test is a blow for China, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.</p>
<p>Shi, 21, won a gold medal for the 500-metre sprint at the Junior Speedskating World Cup in 2016.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | China bans speedskater for positive drug test | false | https://newsline.com/china-bans-speedskater-for-positive-drug-test/ | 2018-01-07 | 1 |
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<p>Every Friday, Working In These Times rounds up labor news we've missed during the past week, with a focus on new and ongoing campaigns and protests. For all our other headlines from this week, go <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. —Jeremy Gantz, Working ITT editor</p>
<p>—The Michigan Professional Firefighters Union is <a href="http://www.mpffu.org/" type="external">pushing back</a> against a harebrained scheme that would give guns to firefighters and hoses to cops. Several towns in Michigan are debating whether to combine policing and firefighting into one job, Public Security Officer (PSO). The union is running ads in a bid to convince the public that combining two very different jobs won’t save lives or money, including this one:</p>
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<p>What’s more, combining the jobs of police officers and firefighters would be a civil liberties nightmare. Firefighters don’t need a warrant to burst into your house, but police officers do. What happens to our constitutional rights if the cop and the firefighter are the same person? Besides, if police and fire are merged, some people will hesitate to call the fire department in an emergency because they are afraid of the police. Maybe the city managers are really hoping to save money by effectively cutting off fire service to anyone who’s afraid of the police.</p>
<p>—During Passover and Holy Week, hundreds of religious leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego are leading processions in front of Hyatt hotels, calling for justice for Hyatt workers. The action is organized by UNITE-HERE. Clergy in religious garb will carry <a href="http://www.unitehere.org/presscenter/release.php?ID=4299" type="external">heavy mattresses</a> through the streets, to draw attention to the risks Hyatt housekeepers face every day. Housekeepers are expected to lift mattresses that weigh up to 100 pounds, and many are injured. The California legislature is considering a bill that would require hotels to use fitted sheets, which can be changed with less mattress-lifting.</p>
<p>—Remember how the revolution in Egypt was supposed to usher in a new era of freedom and democracy? Well, like their American brothers and sisters, Egyptian workers still have a lot of work to do to fulfill the promise of their revolution. With Mubarak gone, the interim military government is trying to re-abolish the <a href="http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/egyptian-teachers-protest-government-snooping-strike-ban" type="external">right to strike</a>.</p>
<p>Unionized teachers took to the streets this week to oppose the proposed anti-strike law and demand an end to “political security” officers spying on teachers in the classroom.</p>
<p>—This week, National Nurses United launched an online game called “ <a href="http://www.governorsofmisfortune.com/" type="external">Wheel of Misfortune</a>” (www.GovernorsOfMisfortune.com.). Players are invited to spin the virtual wheel to find out who’s the worst governor in America. The virtual wheel bears the likenesses of ten Republican governors, including Rick Perry of Texas, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Ric Snyder of Michigan and—wait for it—Scott Walker of Wisconsin.</p> | This Week in Labor: Union Fights Scheme to Give Guns to Firefighters, Hoses to Cops | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7230/labor_news_notes_union_throws_cold_water_on_scheme_to_give_guns_to_fir/ | 2011-04-22 | 4 |
<p>On a full-day drive through the Jordan Valley late last month, we skirted the earth’s oldest city and the lowest inhabited point, 400 meters below sea level. For 10,000 years, people have lived along the river separating the present-day West Bank and Jordan.</p>
<p>Since 1967 the river has been augmented by Palestinian blood, sweat and tears, ending in the Dead Sea, from which no water flows out, it only evaporates. Conditions degenerated during Israel’s land-grab, when from a peak of more than 300,000 people living on the west side of the river, displacements shoved Palestinian refugees across to Jordan and other parts of the West Bank. The valley has fewer than 60,000 Palestinians today.</p>
<p>But they’re hanging in. “To exist is to resist,” insisted Fathi Ikdeirat, the <a href="http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org" type="external">Save the Jordan Valley</a> network’s most visible advocate (and compiler of an exquisite new book of the same name, free for internet download: <a href="http://www.maan-ctr.org/pdfs/exit.pdf" type="external">www.maan-ctr.org/pdfs/exit.pdf</a>. At top speed on the bumpy dirt roads, Ikdeirat maneuvered between Israeli checkpoints, through Bedouin outposts in the dusty semi-desert, where oppressed communities eke out a living from the dry soils.</p>
<p>Just a few hundred meters away from such villages, like plush white South African suburbs drawing on cheap black township labour, stand some of the 120 Israeli settlements that since the early 1970s have pocked the West Bank. The most debilitating theft is of Palestinian water, for where once peasants gathered enough from local springs and a mountain aquifer to supply ponds that fed their modest crops, today pipe diversions by the Israelis’ agro-export plantations leave the indigenous people’s land scorched.</p>
<p>From the invaders’ fine houses amidst groves of trees with green lawns, untreated sewage is flushed into the Palestinian areas. The most aggressive Israeli settlers launch unpunished physical attacks on the Palestinians, destroying their homes and farm buildings – and last week even a mosque at Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem.</p>
<p>The Gaza Strip has suffered far worse. Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ bombing and invasion in early 2009, the 1400 mainly civilian deaths, the use of white phosphorous, political assassinations and the relentless siege are responsible for untold misery. International solidarity activists – including a Jewish delegation last month – are lethally attacked (nine Turks were killed in May) or arrested while trying to sail ships to Gaza with emergency relief supplies.</p>
<p>As Ikdeirat pointed out, the Jordan Valley’s oppression appears as durable, for Netanyahu vowed in February this year ‘never’ to cede this space to the land’s rightful owners. On our way back up to Ramallah for an academic conference, Ikdeirat looked down on his homeland from the western mountains, and outlined the larger struggle against geopolitical manipulation, land grabbing, minority rule, Palestinian child labour on Israeli farms and other profound historical injustices.</p>
<p>Given the debilitating weaknesses within Palestine’s competing political blocs – Hamas in besieged Gaza and Fatah in the Occupied West Bank, as well as the US-Israeli-Fatah-backed unelected government in Ramallah led by the neoliberal prime minister (and former World Bank/IMF official) Salam Fayyad – this is a struggle that only progressive civil society appears equipped to fight properly.</p>
<p>To illustrate the potential, 170 Palestinian organizations initiated the ‘Boycott, Divest, Sanction’ (BDS) campaign five years ago, insisting on the retraction of illegal Israeli settlements (a demand won in the Gaza Strip in 2005), the end of the West Bank Occupation and Gaza siege, cessation of racially-discriminatory policies towards the million and a half Palestinians living within Israel, and a recognition of Palestinians’ right to return to residences dating to the 1948 ethnic cleansing when the Israeli state was established.</p>
<p>The BDS movement draws inspiration from the way we toppled apartheid: an internal intifadah from townships and trade unions, combined with financial sanctions that in mid-1985 peaked because of an incident at the Durban City Hall. On August 15 that year, apartheid boss PW Botha addressed the Natal National Party and an internationally televised audience of 200 million, with his belligerent ‘Rubicon Speech’ featuring the famous finger-wagging command, “Don’t push us too far.”</p>
<p>It was the brightest red flag to our anti-apartheid bull. Immediately as protests resumed, Pretoria’s frightened international creditors – subject to intense activist pressure during prior months – began calling in loans early. Facing a run on the SA Reserve Bank’s hard currency, Botha defaulted on $13 billion of debt payments coming due, shut the stock market and imposed exchange controls in early September.</p>
<p>Within days, leading English-speaking businessmen Gavin Relly, Zac de Beer and Tony Bloom began dismantling their decades-old practical alliance with the Pretoria racists, met African National Congress leaders in Lusaka, and initiated a transition that would free South Africa of racial (albeit not class) apartheid less than nine years later.</p>
<p>Recall that over the prior eight years, futile efforts to seduce change were made by Rev Leon Sullivan, the Philadelphia preacher and General Motors board member whose ‘Sullivan Principles’ aimed to allow multinationals in apartheid SA to remain so long as they were non-racist in employment practices.</p>
<p>But the firms paid taxes to apartheid and supplied crucial logistical support and trade relationships. Hence Sullivan’s effort merely amounted, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it, to polishing apartheid’s chains. Across the world, taking a cue from the internal United Democratic Front, activists wisely ignored attempts by Sullivan as well as by ANC foreign relations bureaucrat (later president) Thabo Mbeki to shut down the sanctions movement way too early.</p>
<p>Civil society ratcheted up anti-apartheid BDS even when FW DeKlerk offered reforms, such as freeing Nelson Mandela and unbanning political parties in February 1990. New bank loans to Pretoria for ostensibly ‘developmental’ purposes were rejected by activists, and threats were made: a future ANC government would default.</p>
<p>It was only by fusing bottom-up pressure with top-down international delegitimization of white rule that the final barriers were cleared for the first free vote, on April 27 1994.</p>
<p>Something similar has begun in the Middle East, as long-overdue international solidarity with Palestinians gathers momentum, while Benjamin Netanyahu’s bad-faith peace talks with collaborationist Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas go nowhere. Yet if another sell-out soon looms, tracking the 1993 Oslo deal, we can anticipate an upsurge in BDS activity, drawing more attention to the three core liberatory demands: firstly, respecting, protecting and promoting the right of return of all Palestinian refugees; secondly, ending the occupation of all Palestinian and Arab lands; and thirdly, recognizing full equality for the Palestinian citizens of Israel.</p>
<p>Abbas and Fayyad are sure to fold on all of these principles, so civil society is already picking up the slack. Boycotting Israeli institutions is the primary non-violent resistance strategy.</p>
<p>BDS, says Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel ( <a href="http://www.pacbi.org" type="external">http://www.pacbi.org</a>), “remains the most morally sound, non-violent form of struggle that can rid the oppressor of his oppression, thereby allowing true coexistence, equality, justice and sustainable peace to prevail. South Africa attests to the potency and potential of this type of civil resistance.”</p>
<p>For more than 250 South African academics (plus Tutu) who signed a BDS petition last month, the immediate target was Ben Gurion University (BGU). During apartheid, the University of Johannesburg (UJ, then called Rand Afrikaans University) established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for scientific exchanges with BGU, which came up for renewal at the UJ Senate on September 29 (details are at <a href="http://www.ujpetition.com/" type="external">http://www.ujpetition.com/</a>).</p>
<p>Perhaps influenced by Mandela’s ill-advised acceptance of an honorary doctorate from BGU, the UJ Senate statement was not entirely pro-Palestinian, for it promoted a fantasy: reform of Israeli-Palestinian relations could be induced by ‘engagement’. Shades of Sullivan empowering himself, to try negotiating between the forces of apartheid and democracy.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the UJ Senate acknowledged that BGU “supports the military and armed forces of Israel, in particular in its occupation of Gaza” – by offering money to students who went into the military reserve so as to support Operation Cast Lead, for example. To its credit, the UJ Senate recognized that “we should take leadership on this matter from peer institutions among the Palestinian population.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, in an arrogant display of constructive-engagement mentality, the UJ Senate academics – many of whom are holdovers from the apartheid era – resolved to “amend the MOU to include one or more Palestinian universities chosen on the basis of agreement between BGU and UJ.”</p>
<p>Fat chance. The UJ statement forgets that Palestinian universities are today promoters of BDS. Even Al Quds University, which historically had the closest ties (and which until Operation Cast Lead actually encouraged Palestine-Israel collaboration), broke the chains in early 2009, because, “Ending academic cooperation is aimed at, first of all, pressuring Israel to abide by a solution that ends the occupation, a solution that has been needed for far too long and that the international community has stopped demanding.”</p>
<p>The man tasked with reconciling UJ’s Senate resolution with Middle East realpolitik is UJ Deputy Vice Chancellor Adam Habib. In 2001 he founded our University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, and led substantial research projects nurturing progressive social change. Habib was banned from entering the United States from 2006-10, for his crimes of being Muslim and speaking at a 2003 anti-war protest, and he is probably the most eloquent and highest-profile political analyst in South Africa today.</p>
<p>However, Habib made a serious mistake, when recently remarking: “We believe in reconciliation… We’d like to bring BGU and Palestinian universities together to produce a collective engagement that benefits everyone.”</p>
<p>Even Habib’s enormous persuasive capacity will fail, if he expects liberal Zionists to recognize the right of Palestinians to self-determination and Israel’s obligation to comply with international law. Writing in the newspaper Haaretz in early October, BGU official David Newman celebrated Habib’s remark and simultaneously argued, point-blank (with no acknowledgement of the South Africa case), “Boycotts do nothing to promote the interests of peace, human rights or – in the case of Israel – the end of occupation.”</p>
<p>(Yet even Israel’s reactionary Reut Institute recognizes BDS power, arguing in February 2010 that a “Delegitimization Network aims to supersede the Zionist model with a state that is based on the ‘one person, one vote’ principle by turning Israel into a pariah state” and that “the Goldstone report that investigated Operation Cast Lead” caused “a crisis in Israel’s national security doctrine… Israel lacks an effective response.”)</p>
<p>Habib deserves far better than a role as a latter-day Leon Sullivan uniting with the likes of Newman, and I hope he changes his mind about ‘engagement’ with Zionism.</p>
<p>After all, last year I witnessed an attempt to do something similar, also involving Habib and BGU. At the time of Operation Cast Lead and the imposition of the siege, Habib, Dennis Brutus, Walden Bello, Alan Fowler and I (unsuccessfully) tried persuading two academic colleagues – Jan Aart Scholte of Warwick University and Jackie Smith of Notre Dame – to respect BDS and decline keynote speaking invitations to an Israeli <a href="" type="internal">‘third sector</a>’ conference.</p>
<p>BGU refused to add Palestinian perspectives (a suggestion from Habib), and the lesson I quickly learned was not to attempt engagement, but instead promote a principled institutional boycott. Today as then, what Habib forgets is Barghouti’s clear assessment of power relations: “Any relationship between intellectuals across the oppression divide must be aimed, one way or another, at ending oppression, not ignoring it or escaping from it. Only then can true dialogue evolve, and thus the possibility for sincere collaboration through dialogue.”</p>
<p>The growing support for Palestinian liberation via BDS reminds of small but sure steps towards the full-fledged anti-apartheid sports, cultural, academic and economic boycotts catalyzed by Brutus against racist South African Olympics teams more than forty years ago. Today, these are just the first nails we’re hammering into the coffin of Zionist domination – in solidarity with a people who have every reason to fight back with tools that we in South Africa proudly sharpened: non-violently but with formidable force.</p>
<p>PATRICK BOND, a Durban-based political economist and co-editor of the new book Zuma’s Own Goal, was a recent visitor to Palestine at the invitation of Birzeit University in Ramallah.</p> | From Apartheid South Africa to Palestine | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/10/13/from-apartheid-south-africa-to-palestine/ | 2010-10-13 | 4 |
<p>Rhode Island joined the march of progress Thursday when it became the 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed. The decision marks the culmination of a 16-year effort to expand marriage rights in the heavily Roman Catholic state.</p>
<p>The final vote was 56-15 in the state’s House of Representatives. Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law to the jubilant cheers of hundreds of gays, lesbians their families and friends. The first weddings are scheduled to take place Aug. 1, when the law takes effect.</p>
<p>The legislation states that religious institutions can make their own rules regarding who can marry within their facilities and no religious leader will be required to officiate at the wedding ceremony of a same-sex couple.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>The Guardian:</p>
<p>According to a November Gallup poll, 53% of Americans support giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry, up from 27% in 1996. Rhode Island is the final state in the New England region to legalise same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Once consigned to the political fringe, gay marriage advocates succeeded this year thanks to a sprawling lobbying effort that included support from organised labour leaders, religious clergy, leaders including Chafee and Providence mayor Angel Taveras and hundreds of volunteers. Their efforts overcame the opposition of the Catholic church and lawmakers including senate president Teresa Paiva Weed, who voted no but allowed the issue to come to a vote anyway.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/03/rhode-island-us-gay-marriage" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Same-Sex Marriage Is Coming to the Ocean State | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/same-sex-marriage-is-coming-to-the-ocean-state/ | 2013-05-03 | 4 |
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<p>In this Friday, June 20, 2014 photo, people walk around a shopping mall in west London. London has long attracted big spenders. But every year around the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, a surge of spectacularly rich Middle Eastern shoppers arrive and take retail therapy to a whole new level — complete with an entourage of bodyguards, chauffeurs, and Gulf-registered Rolls-Royces and Ferraris flown in just for the occasion. It’s a huge and growing market for British shops, luxury hotels and restaurants, and many welcome the big spenders with exclusive products and VIP services like translators and personal shopping managers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)</p>
<p>LONDON — Before the fast, let there be a shopping feast.</p>
<p>From Harrods in Knightsbridge to the glittering diamond stores in Mayfair, London has long attracted big spenders. But every year around the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, a wave of spectacularly rich Middle Eastern shoppers arrives and takes retail therapy to a whole new level — complete with an entourage of bodyguards, chauffeurs, and Gulf-registered Rolls-Royces and Ferraris flown in just for the occasion.</p>
<p>Retailers call the boost in business the Ramadan Rush: A hugely lucrative and fast-growing market driven by wealthy Arabs who travel to Britain to escape the desert heat and indulge in buying luxury gifts before flying home for a month of fasting and increased religious observance. Another surge takes place during the Eid holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The spike in shoppers during the summer months has been so regular and noticeable on London’s streets that some have jokingly dubbed the phenomenon the “Harrods Hajj,” after the traditional Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.</p>
<p>“London is the place in Europe where the Middle Eastern visitor shops the most. It is almost their second home,” said Gordon Clark, U.K. manager at Global Blue, the Switzerland-based retail research firm. The company estimates that pre-Ramadan sales last July jumped 60 percent compared with the previous year.</p>
<p>Although tourists from the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar make up only a small percentage of total visits to Britain compared with those from the U.S. and Europe, they tend to be much more lavish spenders on average. Official figures show that Middle Eastern tourists ranked just 19th in terms of numbers of people last year, but came second in total spend — 888 million pounds ($1.5 billion).</p>
<p>The Kuwaitis are the biggest spenders, shelling out some 1,340 pounds ($2,275) per transaction last July, Clark said.</p>
<p>That corresponds with data from the London Luxury Quarter, a group that represents some of the highest-end businesses in central London. It said the average spend from Middle Eastern shoppers last year came just behind the Chinese, its top customers.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the best sellers are exclusive designer handbags and shoes, watches and jewelry, though a Harrods spokeswoman said food gifts like luxury fruit baskets and extravagantly packaged dates and cocoa-dusted almonds also sell briskly.</p>
<p>Ramadan falls on the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Muslims around the world fast from dawn to sunset for a month, starting from Saturday.</p>
<p>The weeks surrounding the month offer retailers an opportunity they can’t afford to miss, and many brands have responded to the trend by rolling out VIP services just for the period.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We have been working with luxury retailers who offer exclusive products during pre-Ramadan,” said Myf Ryan, marketing director at west London’s Westfield shopping center. “Dior has limited-edition exotic skin handbags, and Louis Vuitton and Burberry are offering private client services.”</p>
<p>The Westfield mall — one of Europe’s largest — hopes to bring in record sales with the help of extra Arabic-speaking concierges and personal chauffeurs. For the really prolific shoppers, there is a “hands-free” service, which involves helpers who collect the shopping bags and help pack them in the car.</p>
<p>Other cosmopolitan cities, like Paris or Dubai, also see their share of pre-Ramadan shopping. But analysts say London has become the favorite destination.</p>
<p>Language is one reason — most of the shoppers can speak English. But that’s just part of it.</p>
<p>“London has got the cultural aspects, the history, and it’s a wonderfully inclusive city to visit,” Ryan said. “The temperature’s comfortable. And because the Middle Eastern customer is so important, hotels and the tourism industry are also very adept at making them comfortable.”</p>
<p>All that may leave the average British or American shopper feeling a bit left out. But the Ramadan Rush does bring one direct benefit to the masses: Earlier sales. Many of Britain’s department stores and fashion brands have been adjusting their summer sales schedule to make sure the high rollers get to shop new stock when they arrive.</p>
<p>“They’re not interested in sales, because the stores are too busy,” Clark said. “It’s not a good shopping experience for them.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow Sylvia Hui at <a href="http://www.Twitter.com/sylviahui" type="external">www.Twitter.com/sylviahui</a></p> | Ramadan rush: Mega-rich shoppers descend on London | false | https://abqjournal.com/421722/ramadan-rush-mega-rich-shoppers-descend-on-london.html | 2 |
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<p>Former CIA Analyst</p>
<p>The editors of the New York Times this morning feign shock that in his speech at Fort Bragg yesterday evening President George W. Bush would “raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks.” Kudos for that insight! Better three years late than never, I suppose.</p>
<p>Forget the documentary evidence (the Downing Street minutes) that the war on Iraq was fraudulent from the outset. Forget that the U.S. and U.K. starting pulverizing Iraq with stepped-up bombing months before president or prime minister breathed a word to Congress or Parliament. Forget that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and his merry men-his co-opted, castrated military brass-have no clue regarding what U.S. forces are up against in Iraq. The president insists that we must stay the course.</p>
<p>As was the case in Vietnam, the Iraq war is being run by civilians innocent of military experience and disdainful of advice from the colonels and majors who know which end is up. Aping the president’s practice of surrounding himself with sycophants, Rumsfeld has promoted a coterie of yes-men to top military ranks-men who “kiss up and kick down,” in the words of former Assistant Secretary of State Carl Ford, describing UN-nominee John Bolton’s modus operandi at the State Department. So when the president assures us, as he did yesterday, that he will be guided by the “sober judgment of our military leaders” he is referring to the castrati.</p>
<p>This is all lost on doting congresspeople like Sen. John Warner (R-VA), who has been around long enough to know better than to recite oxymorons. Most striking last week was his quixotic appeal to the military’s top brass to give a candid assessment of the situation.</p>
<p>Is there no top military official-active-duty or retired-around to tell it like it is? Active-duty? No. Retired? Sure there are. But the latter get little or no ink or airtime in our domesticated media. There are, Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, for example, or Gen. Brent Scowcroft (USAF), who was national security adviser to George H. W. Bush and, until this year, Chair of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. If their remarks are reported at all, one must dig deep into the inside pages to find them. A General with the Courage to Speak Truth</p>
<p>More outspoken still has been Lt. Gen. William Odom (US Army, ret), the most respected senior intelligence officer still willing to speak out on strategic and intelligence issues. Unfortunately, you would have to understand German to know what he thinks of “staying the course” in Iraq, because U.S. media are not going to run his remarks.</p>
<p>Her is my translation of what Gen. Odom said last September on German TV’s Panorama program:</p>
<p>“When the president says he is staying the course, that makes me really afraid. For a leader has to know when to change course. Hitler did not change his course: rather he kept sending more and more troops to Stalingrad and they suffered more and more casualties.</p>
<p>“When the president says he is staying the course it reminds me of the man who has just jumped from the Empire State Building. Half-way down he says, ‘I am still on course.’ Well, I would not want to be on course with a man who will lie splattered in the street. I would like to be someone who could change the course…</p>
<p>“Our invasion of Iraq has made it a homeland for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Indeed, I believe that it was the very first time that many Iraqis became terrorists. Before we invaded, they had no idea of terrorism.”</p>
<p>At Fort Bragg yesterday, the president spoke of the need to “prevent al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban: a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends.” Too late, Mr. President, has no one told you that you’ve succeeded in accomplishing that yourself?</p>
<p>Gen. Odom, now professor at Yale and senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, does not confine his criticism to the president, Rumsfeld, and the malleable generals they have promoted. Odom has also been highly critical of leaders of the intelligence community, an area he knows intimately, having served as chief of Army Intelligence (1981-85) and Director of the National Security Agency (1985-88). Commenting on the farcical pre-election-campaign “intelligence reform” last summer, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, observing:</p>
<p>“No organizational design will compensate for incompetent incumbents.”</p>
<p>Odom is spot-on. In my 27 years of experience as an intelligence analyst I learned the painful lesson that lack of professionalism is the inevitable handmaiden of sycophancy. Military and intelligence officers and diplomats who bubble to the top in this kind of environment do not tend to be the real professionals.</p>
<p>And who pays the price? The young men and women we send off to a misbegotten, unnecessary war.</p>
<p>When the president spoke last evening, Medal of Freedom winners former CIA director George Tenet, Gen. Tommy Franks, and Ambassador Paul Bremer no doubt were cheering him on from their armchairs. A most unsavory spectacle.</p>
<p>If they question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied. Rudyard Kipling</p>
<p>RAY McGOVERN was a CIA analyst for 27 years from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades</a>, CounterPunch’s hot new book on the Afghan/Iraq wars. He works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Stay the Crooked Course | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/06/29/stay-the-crooked-course/ | 2005-06-29 | 4 |
<p>By C.J. Polychroniou / <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/38360-trump-in-the-white-house-an-interview-with-noam-chomsky" type="external">Truthout</a></p>
<p>On Nov. 8, 2016, Donald Trump managed to pull the biggest upset in U.S. politics by tapping successfully into the anger of white voters and appealing to the lowest inclinations of people in a manner that would have probably impressed Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels himself.</p>
<p>But what exactly does Trump’s victory mean, and what can one expect from this megalomaniac when he takes over the reins of power on January 20, 2017? What is Trump’s political ideology, if any, and is “Trumpism” a movement? Will U.S. foreign policy be any different under a Trump administration?</p>
<p>Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the U.S. was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the U.S. political system and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general.</p>
<p />
<p>C.J. Polychroniou for Truthout: Noam, the unthinkable has happened: In contrast to all forecasts, Donald Trump scored a decisive victory over Hillary Clinton, and the man that Michael Moore described as a “wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full-time sociopath” will be the next president of the United States. In your view, what were the deciding factors that led American voters to produce the biggest upset in the history of US politics?</p>
<p>Noam Chomsky: Before turning to this question, I think it is important to spend a few moments pondering just what happened on November 8, a date that might turn out to be one of the most important in human history, depending on how we react.</p>
<p>No exaggeration.</p>
<p>The most important news of November 8 was barely noted, a fact of some significance in itself.</p>
<p>On Nov. 8, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) delivered a report at the international conference on climate change in Morocco (COP22) which was called in order to carry forward the Paris agreement of COP21. The WMO reported that the past five years were the hottest on record. It reported rising sea levels, soon to increase as a result of the unexpectedly rapid melting of polar ice, most ominously the huge Antarctic glaciers. Already, Arctic sea ice over the past five years is 28 percent below the average of the previous 29 years, not only raising sea levels, but also reducing the cooling effect of polar ice reflection of solar rays, thereby accelerating the grim effects of global warming. The WMO reported further that temperatures are approaching dangerously close to the goal established by COP21, along with other dire reports and forecasts.</p>
<p>Another event took place on November 8, which also may turn out to be of unusual historical significance for reasons that, once again, were barely noted.</p>
<p>On November 8, the most powerful country in world history, which will set its stamp on what comes next, had an election. The outcome placed total control of the government — executive, Congress, the Supreme Court — in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history.</p>
<p>Apart from the last phrase, all of this is uncontroversial. The last phrase may seem outlandish, even outrageous. But is it? The facts suggest otherwise. &#160;The Party is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organized human life. There is no historical precedent for such a stand.</p>
<p>Is this an exaggeration? Consider what we have just been witnessing.</p>
<p>During the Republican primaries, every candidate denied that what is happening is happening — with the exception of the sensible moderates, like Jeb Bush, who said it’s all uncertain, but we don’t have to do anything because we’re producing more natural gas, thanks to fracking. Or John Kasich, who agreed that global warming is taking place, but added that “we are going to burn [coal] in Ohio and we are not going to apologize for it.”</p>
<p>The winning candidate, now the president-elect, calls for rapid increase in use of fossil fuels, including coal; dismantling of regulations; rejection of help to developing countries that are seeking to move to sustainable energy; and in general, racing to the cliff as fast as possible.</p>
<p>Trump has already taken steps to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by placing in charge of the EPA transition a notorious (and proud) climate change denier, Myron Ebell. Trump’s top adviser on energy, billionaire oil executive Harold Hamm, announced his expectations, which were predictable: dismantling regulations, tax cuts for the industry (and the wealthy and corporate sector generally), more fossil fuel production, lifting Obama’s temporary block on the Dakota Access pipeline. The market reacted quickly. Shares in energy corporations boomed, including the world’s largest coal miner, Peabody Energy, which had filed for bankruptcy, but after Trump’s victory, registered a 50 percent gain.</p>
<p>The effects of Republican denialism had already been felt. There had been hopes that the COP21 Paris agreement would lead to a verifiable treaty, but any such thoughts were abandoned because the Republican Congress would not accept any binding commitments, so what emerged was a voluntary agreement, evidently much weaker.</p>
<p>Effects may soon become even more vividly apparent than they already are. &#160;In Bangladesh alone, tens of millions are expected to have to flee from low-lying plains in coming years because of sea level rise and more severe weather, creating a migrant crisis that will make today’s pale in significance. With considerable justice, Bangladesh’s leading climate scientist says that “These migrants should have the right to move to the countries from which all these greenhouse gases are coming. Millions should be able to go to the United States.” And to the other rich countries that have grown wealthy while bringing about a new geological era, the Anthropocene, marked by radical human transformation of the environment. These catastrophic consequences can only increase, not just in Bangladesh, but in all of South Asia as temperatures, already intolerable for the poor, inexorably rise and the Himalayan glaciers melt, threatening the entire water supply. Already in India, some 300 million people are reported to lack adequate drinking water. &#160;And the effects will reach far beyond.</p>
<p>It is hard to find words to capture the fact that humans are facing the most important question in their history — whether organized human life will survive in anything like the form we know — and are answering it by accelerating the race to disaster.</p>
<p>Similar observations hold for the other huge issue concerning human survival: the threat of nuclear destruction, which has been looming over our heads for 70 years and is now increasing.</p>
<p>It is no less difficult to find words to capture the utterly astonishing fact that in all of the massive coverage of the electoral extravaganza, none of this receives more than passing mention. At least I am at a loss to find appropriate words.</p>
<p>Turning finally to the question raised, to be precise, it appears that Clinton received a slight majority of the vote. The apparent decisive victory has to do with curious features of American politics: among other factors, the Electoral College residue of the founding of the country as an alliance of separate states; the winner-take-all system in each state; the arrangement of congressional districts (sometimes by gerrymandering) to provide greater weight to rural votes (in past elections, and probably this one too, Democrats have had a comfortable margin of victory in the popular vote for the House, but hold a minority of seats); the very high rate of abstention (usually close to half in presidential elections, this one included). Of some significance for the future is the fact that in the age 18-25 range, Clinton won handily, and Sanders had an even higher level of support. How much this matters depends on what kind of future humanity will face.</p>
<p>According to current information, Trump broke all records in the support he received from white voters, working class and lower middle class, particularly in the $50,000 to $90,000 income range, rural and suburban, primarily those without college education. These groups share the anger throughout the West at the centrist establishment, revealed as well in the unanticipated Brexit vote and the collapse of centrist parties in continental Europe. [Many of] the angry and disaffected are victims of the neoliberal policies of the past generation, the policies described in congressional testimony by Fed chair Alan Greenspan — “St. Alan,” as he was called reverentially by the economics profession and other admirers until the miraculous economy he was supervising crashed in 2007-2008, threatening to bring the whole world economy down with it. As Greenspan explained during his glory days, his successes in economic management were based substantially on “growing worker insecurity.” Intimidated working people would not ask for higher wages, benefits and security, but would be satisfied with the stagnating wages and reduced benefits that signal a healthy economy by neoliberal standards.</p>
<p>Working people, who have been the subjects of these experiments in economic theory, are not particularly happy about the outcome. They are not, for example, overjoyed at the fact that in 2007, at the peak of the neoliberal miracle, real wages for nonsupervisory workers were lower than they had been years earlier, or that real wages for male workers are about at 1960s levels while spectacular gains have gone to the pockets of a very few at the top, disproportionately a fraction of 1%. Not the result of market forces, achievement or merit, but rather of definite policy decisions, matters reviewed carefully by economist Dean Baker in <a href="http://deanbaker.net/books/rigged.htm" type="external">recently published work</a>.</p>
<p>The fate of the minimum wage illustrates what has been happening. &#160;Through the periods of high and egalitarian growth in the ’50s and ’60s, the minimum wage — which sets a floor for other wages — tracked productivity. &#160;That ended with the onset of neoliberal doctrine. Since then, the minimum wage has stagnated (in real value). Had it continued as before, it would probably be close to $20 per hour. Today, it is considered a political revolution to raise it to $15.</p>
<p>With all the talk of near-full employment today, labor force participation remains below the earlier norm. And for working people, there is a great difference between a steady job in manufacturing with union wages and benefits, as in earlier years, and a temporary job with little security in some service profession. Apart from wages, benefits and security, there is a loss of dignity, of hope for the future, of a sense that this is a world in which I belong and play a worthwhile role.</p>
<p>The impact is captured well in <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/38217-a-divided-us-sociologist-arlie-hochschild-on-the-2016-presidential-election" type="external">Arlie Hochschild’s sensitive and illuminating portrayal of a Trump stronghold in Louisiana</a>, where she lived and worked for many years. She uses the image of a line in which residents are standing, expecting to move forward steadily as they work hard and keep to all the conventional values. But their position in the line has stalled. Ahead of them, they see people leaping forward, but that does not cause much distress, because it is “the American way” for (alleged) merit to be rewarded. What does cause real distress is what is happening behind them. They believe that “undeserving people” who do not “follow the rules” are being moved in front of them by federal government programs they erroneously see as designed to benefit African-Americans, immigrants and others they often regard with contempt. All of this is exacerbated by [Ronald] Reagan’s racist fabrications about “welfare queens” (by implication Black) stealing white people’s hard-earned money and other fantasies.</p>
<p>Sometimes failure to explain, itself a form of contempt, plays a role in fostering hatred of government. I once met a house painter in Boston who had turned bitterly against the “evil” government after a Washington bureaucrat who knew nothing about painting organized a meeting of painting contractors to inform them that they could no longer use lead paint — “the only kind that works” — as they all knew, but the suit didn’t understand. That destroyed his small business, compelling him to paint houses on his own with substandard stuff forced on him by government elites. &#160;</p>
<p>Sometimes there are also some real reasons for these attitudes toward government bureaucracies. Hochschild describes a man whose family and friends are suffering bitterly from the lethal effects of chemical pollution but who despises the government and the “liberal elites,” because for him, the EPA means some ignorant guy who tells him he can’t fish, but does nothing about the chemical plants.</p>
<p>These are just samples of the real lives of Trump supporters, who are led to believe that Trump will do something to remedy their plight, though the merest look at his fiscal and other proposals demonstrates the opposite — posing a task for activists who hope to fend off the worst and to advance desperately needed changes.</p>
<p>Exit polls reveal that the passionate support for Trump was inspired primarily by the belief that he represented change, while Clinton was perceived as the candidate who would perpetuate their distress. The “change” that Trump is likely to bring will be harmful or worse, but it is understandable that the consequences are not clear to isolated people in an atomized society lacking the kinds of associations (like unions) that can educate and organize. That is a crucial difference between today’s despair and the generally hopeful attitudes of many working people under much greater economic duress during the Great Depression of the 1930s.</p>
<p>There are other factors in Trump’s success. Comparative studies show that doctrines of white supremacy have had an even more powerful grip on American culture than in South Africa, and it’s no secret that the white population is declining. In a decade or two, whites are projected to be a minority of the work force, and not too much later, a minority of the population. The traditional conservative culture is also perceived as under attack by the successes of identity politics, regarded as the province of elites who have only contempt for the ”hard-working, patriotic, church-going [white] Americans with real family values” who see their familiar country as disappearing before their eyes.</p>
<p>One of the difficulties in raising public concern over the very severe threats of global warming is that 40 percent of the US population does not see why it is a problem, since Christ is returning in a few decades. About the same percentage believe that the world was created a few thousand years ago. If science conflicts with the Bible, so much the worse for science. It would be hard to find an analogue in other societies.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party abandoned any real concern for working people by the 1970s, and they have therefore been drawn to the ranks of their bitter class enemies, who at least pretend to speak their language — Reagan’s folksy style of making little jokes while eating jelly beans, George W. Bush’s carefully cultivated image of a regular guy you could meet in a bar who loved to cut brush on the ranch in 100-degree heat and his probably faked mispronunciations (it’s unlikely that he talked like that at Yale), and now Trump, who gives voice to people with legitimate grievances — people who have lost not just jobs, but also a sense of personal self-worth — and who rails against the government that they perceive as having undermined their lives (not without reason).</p>
<p>One of the great achievements of the doctrinal system has been to divert anger from the corporate sector to the government that implements the programs that the corporate sector designs, such as the highly protectionist corporate/investor rights agreements that are uniformly mis-described as “free trade agreements” in the media and commentary. With all its flaws, the government is, to some extent, under popular influence and control, unlike the corporate sector. It is highly advantageous for the business world to foster hatred for pointy-headed government bureaucrats and to drive out of people’s minds the subversive idea that the government might become an instrument of popular will, a government of, by and for the people.</p>
<p>Is Trump representing a new movement in American politics, or was the outcome of this election primarily a rejection of Hillary Clinton by voters who hate the Clintons and are fed-up with “politics as usual?”</p>
<p>It’s by no means new. Both political parties have moved to the right during the neoliberal period. Today’s New Democrats are pretty much what used to be called “moderate Republicans.” The “political revolution” that Bernie Sanders called for, rightly, would not have greatly surprised Dwight Eisenhower. The Republicans have moved so far toward a dedication to the wealthy and the corporate sector that they cannot hope to get votes on their actual programs, and have turned to mobilizing sectors of the population that have always been there, but not as an organized coalitional political force: evangelicals, nativists, racists and the victims of the forms of globalization designed to set working people around the world in competition with one another while protecting the privileged and undermining the legal and other measures that provided working people with some protection, and with ways to influence decision-making in the closely linked public and private sectors, notably with effective labor unions.</p>
<p>The consequences have been evident in recent Republican primaries. Every candidate that has emerged from the base — such as [Michele] Bachmann, [Herman] Cain or [Rick] Santorum — has been so extreme that the Republican establishment had to use its ample resources to beat them down. The difference in 2016 is that the establishment failed, much to its chagrin, as we have seen.</p>
<p>Deservedly or not, Clinton represented the policies that were feared and hated, while Trump was seen as the symbol of “change” — change of what kind requires a careful look at his actual proposals, something largely missing in what reached the public. The campaign itself was remarkable in its avoidance of issues, and media commentary generally complied, keeping to the concept that true “objectivity” means reporting accurately what is “within the beltway,” but not venturing beyond.</p>
<p>Trump said following the outcome of the election that he “will represent all Americans.” How is he going to do that when the nation is so divided and he has already expressed deep hatred for many groups in the United States, including women and minorities? Do you see any resemblance between Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory?</p>
<p>There are definite similarities to Brexit, and also to the rise of the ultranationalist far-right parties in Europe — <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38345-rising-european-fascists-welcome-trump-victory" type="external">whose leaders were quick to congratulate Trump on his victory</a>, perceiving him as one of their own: [Nigel] Farage, [Marine] Le Pen, [Viktor] Orban and others like them. And these developments are quite frightening. A look at the polls in Austria and Germany — Austria and Germany — cannot fail to evoke unpleasant memories for those familiar with the 1930s, even more so for those who watched directly, as I did as a child. I can still recall listening to Hitler’s speeches, not understanding the words, though the tone and audience reaction were chilling enough. The first article that I remember writing was in February 1939, after the fall of Barcelona, on the seemingly inexorable spread of the fascist plague. And by strange coincidence, it was from Barcelona that my wife and I watched the results of the 2016 US presidential election unfold.</p>
<p>As to how Trump will handle what he has brought forth — not created, but brought forth — we cannot say. Perhaps his most striking characteristic is unpredictability. A lot will depend on the reactions of those appalled by his performance and the visions he has projected, such as they are.</p>
<p>Trump has no identifiable political ideology guiding his stance on economic, social and political issues, yet there are clear authoritarian tendencies in his behavior. Therefore, do you find any validity behind the claims that Trump may represent the emergence of “fascism with a friendly face?” in the United States?</p>
<p>For many years, I have been writing and speaking about the danger of the rise of an honest and charismatic ideologue in the United States, someone who could exploit the fear and anger that has long been boiling in much of the society, and who could direct it away from the actual agents of malaise to vulnerable targets. That could indeed lead to what sociologist Bertram Gross called “friendly fascism” in a perceptive study 35 years ago. But that requires an honest ideologue, a Hitler type, not someone whose only detectable ideology is Me. The dangers, however, have been real for many years, perhaps even more so in the light of the forces that Trump has unleashed.</p>
<p>With the Republicans in the White House, but also controlling both houses and the future shape of the Supreme Court, what will the US look like for at least the next four years?</p>
<p>A good deal depends on his appointments and circle of advisers. Early indications are unattractive, to put it mildly.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court will be in the hands of reactionaries for many years, with predictable consequences. If Trump follows through on his Paul Ryan-style fiscal programs, there will be huge benefits for the very rich — estimated by the Tax Policy Center as a tax cut of over 14 percent for the top 0.1 percent and a substantial cut more generally at the upper end of the income scale, but with virtually no tax relief for others, who will also face major new burdens. The respected economics correspondent of the Financial Times, Martin Wolf, writes that, “The tax proposals would shower huge benefits on already rich Americans such as Mr Trump,” while leaving others in the lurch, including, of course, his constituency. The immediate reaction of the business world reveals that Big Pharma, Wall Street, the military industry, energy industries and other such wonderful institutions expect a very bright future.</p>
<p>One positive development might be the infrastructure program that Trump has promised while (along with much reporting and commentary) concealing the fact that it is essentially the Obama stimulus program that would have been of great benefit to the economy and to the society generally, but was killed by the Republican Congress on the pretext that it would explode the deficit. While that charge was spurious at the time, given the very low interest rates, it holds in spades for Trump’s program, now accompanied by radical tax cuts for the rich and corporate sector and increased Pentagon spending.</p>
<p>There is, however, an escape, provided by Dick Cheney when he explained to Bush’s Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill that “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter” — meaning deficits that we Republicans create in order to gain popular support, leaving it to someone else, preferably Democrats, to somehow clean up the mess. The technique might work, for a while at least.</p>
<p>There are also many questions about foreign policy consequences, mostly unanswered.</p>
<p>There is mutual admiration between Trump and Putin. How likely is it therefore that we may see a new era in US-Russia relations?</p>
<p>One hopeful prospect is that there might be reduction of the very dangerous and mounting tensions at the Russian border: note “the Russian border,” not the Mexican border. Thereby lies a tale that we cannot go into here. It is also possible that Europe might distance itself from Trump’s America, as already suggested by [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and other European leaders — and from the British voice of American power, after Brexit. That might possibly lead to European efforts to defuse the tensions, and perhaps even efforts to move towards something like Mikhail Gorbachev’s vision of an integrated Eurasian security system without military alliances, rejected by the US in favor of NATO expansion, a vision revived recently by Putin, whether seriously or not, we do not know, since the gesture was dismissed.</p>
<p>Is US foreign policy under a Trump administration likely to be more or less militaristic than what we have seen under the Obama administration, or even the George W. Bush administration?</p>
<p>I don’t think one can answer with any confidence. Trump is too unpredictable. There are too many open questions. What we can say is that popular mobilization and activism, properly organized and conducted, can make a large difference.</p>
<p>And we should bear in mind that the stakes are very large.</p>
<p>Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">permission</a>.</p> | Trump in the White House: An Interview With Noam Chomsky | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/trump-in-the-white-house-an-interview-with-noam-chomsky/ | 2016-11-14 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Holiday shopping is probably most fun when it’s for pets.</p>
<p>They aren’t really demanding anything, either because they’re selfless or because they pay no attention to human marketing schemes.</p>
<p>And in a loving home, there’s little that they actually need, so pet gifts tend to be treats or toys or — just as much fun — something pet-centric for the humans of the household.</p>
<p>Here are some ideas for pets and the people who love them.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cuddly Christmas: Holiday shopping for your furry friends | false | https://abqjournal.com/318753/3-more-charges-in-mans-beating-death.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greennblue2000/4142265752/in/photostream" type="external" />Credit: AntarcticBoy via Flickr.</p>
<p>The wandering albatross, that enormous glider of the southern oceans with the longest wings of any bird (some individuals exceed 11.5 feet/3.5 meters&#160;wingspans),&#160;needs strong winds to stay aloft. During periods of little&#160;or no wind they’re forced to roost on the water. Now a new <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6065/211.abstract" type="external">paper</a> in Science reports how a warming climate&#160;is fueling faster average winds over the southwestern Indian Ocean, and this has enabled albatrosses there to fly faster and cover more water in less time. Consequently breeding males and females spend less time at sea and spell their partner&#160;more frequently&#160;at the nest (in 1970 nest reliefs happened on average every 12.4 days, by 2008 every 9.7 days).&#160;Better-fed parents meant more eggs hatched successfully&#160;(in 1970 ~66 percent of eggs hatched, by 2008 ~77 percent). Plus adult birds now lose less weight during the breeding season, weighing an average of 2.2 pounds/1 kilogram heavier than a couple of decades ago. Perhaps this positive response to climate change will help offset <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/106003952/0" type="external">ongoing population declines</a> from birds <a href="http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/57/3/531.full.pdf" type="external">drowning in longline fisheries</a>.</p>
<p /> | Image-of-the-Week: Wandering Albatross | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/image-week-wandering-albatross/ | 2012-01-13 | 4 |
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<p>Mustangs’ fate?</p>
<p>One of the most interesting questions for the New Mexico Activities Association’s baseball state selection and seeding committee on Sunday is how to deal with West Mesa.</p>
<p>The Mustangs and Manzano are the most likely candidates for the No. 16 slot in the 16-team field, and both can make a case that it should be them.</p>
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<p>The Monarchs have an important win over Rio Rancho that certainly aids their cause.</p>
<p>The Mustangs beat Rio Grande, a victory that counts almost equally.</p>
<p>Both teams finished fourth in their district, so that’s a wash.</p>
<p>West Mesa will have a better overall record than Manzano. That helps.</p>
<p>Manzano beat West Mesa twice, however. That really hurts.</p>
<p>“We’re just trying to get over the hump and into the playoffs,” Mustangs coach Richard Cordova said.</p>
<p>Historically, the NMAA’s selection committee has not shown District 5-5A — West Mesa’s district — much love in playoff seeding. In any sport. This is another debit (a perceived one) for the Mustangs.</p>
<p>It is entirely possible that Manzano will get the last spot and carry a 10-game losing streak into state. This is the kind of thing that can happen when 75 percent of all the schools in a certain classification qualify for the postseason.</p>
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<p>Going into today’s doubleheader with La Cueva, Manzano had lost eight in a row and had been shut out in four of its last five games — albeit in a district that has a better pedigree than West Mesa’s.</p>
<p>“Our district is tougher than people think,” Cordova said.</p>
<p>Ultimately, those two head-to-head losses to Manzano — 4-2 in the metro tournament, and 5-4 in early April — could keep West Mesa on the outside when the field is announced Sunday.</p>
<p>“It’s bugging me,” Cordova said.</p>
<p>Those two losses linger with Cordova and his team. In the first loss, Cordova said, “I threw my No. 5 or No. 6 pitcher while they threw their No. 2.”</p>
<p>In the second loss, Cordova said, two West Mesa players had been suspended, and that proved to be pivotal.</p>
<p>“I know we’re the better team,” Cordova said.</p>
<p>But it’s out of his hands now, which no coach likes.</p>
<p>“I’m worried about it,” he said.</p>
<p>Regardless of how Sunday falls, the Mustangs certainly showed marked improvement from last season to this season.</p>
<p>After winning five games in 2012, West Mesa went 11-13 this season, and the Mustangs showed signs of real competitiveness against powers like Sandia and La Cueva.</p>
<p>Their name may not be called Sunday, but with a team so young, it seems like just a matter of time.</p>
<p>I will have a column in Sunday’s Journal with my baseball projections for the playoffs, but let me offer some early thoughts.</p>
<p>As the regular season doesn’t end until today for Rio Rancho, Cleveland, Cibola and Volcano Vista, this is a best guess, but here’s how I see the 5A field falling into place for the 5A programs in Rio West:</p>
<p>I have Volcano Vista in the No. 4 spot — assuming Sandia sweeps Eldorado today in District 2-5A. If Sandia splits with Eldorado, the Hawks should be the No. 3 seed.</p>
<p>The Sandia-Eldorado twinbill also could impact Rio Rancho. For the moment, I’ve got the Rams penciled in at No. 5, just behind Volcano Vista and just ahead of Las Cruces.</p>
<p>If Sandia slips, we could see the Hawks at No. 3 and the Rams at No. 4.</p>
<p>Cibola went a combined 4-0 against Valley and Cleveland, and also beat two district champions in Atrisco Heritage and Las Cruces. The Cougars, I believe, could go as high as No. 10 or No. 11, but I think it’ll be the 11th slot, just behind Hobbs.</p>
<p>Valley is hard team to peg; I’ve got the Vikings 14th, just behind Eldorado and Mayfield.</p>
<p>(Truthfully, Valley, Mayfield and Eldorado could go in any order in 12-14.)</p>
<p>I’ve got Cleveland in the No. 15 position. The Storm did beat La Cueva twice, but Cleveland is a fourth-place team in its district and the Storm went 0-2 against Valley.</p>
<p>As for West Mesa, well, I think the Mustangs deserve the No. 16, but I suspect the committee will take Manzano instead.</p>
<p>Here are my first-round projections as of today: No. 16 Manzano at No. 1 Carlsbad; No. 15 Cleveland at No. 2 La Cueva; No. 14 Valley at No. 3 Sandia; No. 13 Mayfield at No. 4 Volcano Vista; No. 12 Eldorado at No. 5 Rio Rancho; No. 11 Cibola at No. 6 Las Cruces; No. 10 Hobbs at No. 7 Atrisco Heritage; and No. 9 Oñate at No. 8 Rio Grande.</p>
<p>Work began this week at Cleveland High School to install light poles at the baseball stadium and CHS’ primary softball field.</p>
<p>The work will be finished in advance of the state tournaments, which begin later this month.</p>
<p>The revised playoff baseball schedule features several night games at Cleveland — one apiece at 7 p.m. on May 15 (Class 2A quarterfinal), May 16 (3A quarterfinal) and May 17 (4A semifinal) — which are significant insomuch as they will be the first night prep baseball games played in the city.</p>
<p>“We expect them to be through pretty quick,” Rio Rancho district athletic director Bruce Carver said.</p>
<p>Cleveland is a host site for state softball, but there are no night games scheduled this year, Carver said.</p>
<p>The school district, with the help of a bond that passed last spring, will be installing lights at five venues between now and the spring of 2015.</p>
<p>That also includes the primary softball field at Eagle Ridge Middle School (where Rio Rancho High plays), Rio Rancho High’s baseball field, and Rio Rancho’s soccer field.</p>
<p>The RRHS soccer field, plus Cleveland baseball and softball, were already set up to have lights.</p>
<p>The Rio Rancho baseball field and Eagle Ridge will require more ground work, Carver said.</p>
<p>One of the great benefits of having lights at Cleveland is that the Storm will be able to schedule a couple of night games next season. Cleveland would become the second high school in the metro area with lights; Rio Grande installed theirs several years ago.</p>
<p>Cleveland will run a test on the lights at both Cleveland fields on Monday night, Carver said.</p> | West Mesa may be left out of state | false | https://abqjournal.com/195742/west-mesa-may-be-left-out-of-state.html | 2013-05-04 | 2 |
<p>ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — English-bred Royal Albert Hall broke an 11-race losing streak with a 1 1/4-length victory Friday in the $58,000 allowance feature at Santa Anita.</p>
<p>Ridden by Rafael Bejarano and trained by Doug O’Neill, the 4-year-old gelding ran 1 1/4 miles on the turf course in 1:59.90. He paid $5.20, $3.40 and $2.80 for his second victory in 17 starts.</p>
<p>Excessive Kid returned $6 and $4.80, and Cardiac paid $6 to show.</p>
<p>ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — English-bred Royal Albert Hall broke an 11-race losing streak with a 1 1/4-length victory Friday in the $58,000 allowance feature at Santa Anita.</p>
<p>Ridden by Rafael Bejarano and trained by Doug O’Neill, the 4-year-old gelding ran 1 1/4 miles on the turf course in 1:59.90. He paid $5.20, $3.40 and $2.80 for his second victory in 17 starts.</p>
<p>Excessive Kid returned $6 and $4.80, and Cardiac paid $6 to show.</p> | Royal Albert Hall wins allowance feature at Santa Anita | false | https://apnews.com/00585c4c0cfc4130a4382213f01a061f | 2016-03-26 | 2 |
<p>Every dog owner knows that your dog can usually tell from your tone whether you are happy or not, but new research suggests that you might not have to speak at all.</p>
<p>According to research published in the February 12 edition of the journal Current Biology, researchers have found the first solid evidence to support the idea that dogs can read emotion in your facial expression. This, says the team, is the first solid evidence of any animal other than humans being able to read emotional expressions in another species.</p>
<p>“We think the dogs in our study could have solved the task only by applying their knowledge of emotional expressions in humans to the unfamiliar pictures we presented to them,” said Corsin Müller of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in a statement.</p>
<p>Other attempts have been made to test this ability in dogs, but none of them have been conclusive.</p>
<p>For this research, dogs were trained to discriminate between pictures of happy and angry faces. During the training the dogs were shown only the upper half or the lower half of a face. After being trained on 15 different pairs of images, representing 15 individual humans the dogs were tested in four different ways.</p>
<p>The animals were tested using half faces, in the same way they were trained, except with new faces. They were presented with the other halves of the faces used in training, the other half of the novel faces. Finally they were presented with the left half of the faces used in training instead of the top or bottom.</p>
<p>According to the researchers the dogs were able to predict happy or angry faces more frequently than random chance would allow in every case. This demonstrates, say the papers authors, that dogs can not only learn to read facial expressions but can apply that knowledge to new cues using different faces or different parts of the face.</p>
<p>“Our study demonstrates that dogs can distinguish angry and happy expressions in humans, they can tell that these two expressions have different meanings, and they can do this not only for people they know well, but even for faces they have never seen before,” says Ludwig Huber, senior author and head of the group at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna’s Messerli Research Institute.</p>
<p>Huber could not say exactly what the different meanings represent to the dogs, “but it appears likely to us that the dogs associate a smiling face with a positive meaning and an angry facial expression with a negative meaning,” he said.</p>
<p>According to Müller and Huber, when trainers attempted to create an association between a reward and an angry face the dogs responded more slowly to the training. This suggests that the dogs already had a negative association with anger and were reluctant to shift that association.</p>
<p>The team plans to continue their research and investigate the role of prior experience in the dogs ability to read human emotion. They also plan to study how the dogs express emotion and how their emotions are influenced by that of the humans around them.</p>
<p>“We expect to gain important insights into the extraordinary bond between humans and one of their favorite pets, and into the emotional lives of animals in general,” said Müller.</p>
<p /> | Dogs can read human facial expressions, say researchers | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/02/12/dogs-can-read-human-facial-expressions-say-researchers/ | 2015-02-12 | 3 |
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<p>U.S. President Donald Trump plans to host a bipartisan group of senators for dinner on Tuesday to make a push for tax reform and other top agenda items a week after he made an alliance with Democrats on raising the debt ceiling and funding government.</p>
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<p>The White House announced the dinner with the Republican president late on Monday, and a White House aide confirmed the guest list included three Democrats: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.</p>
<p>It also included Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and John Thune of South Dakota, the aide said, confirming a guest list first reported by the Washington Post.</p>
<p>"The president is committed to getting tax relief for middle-class Americans passed and is willing to work with Democrats and Republicans to do it," the official said.</p>
<p>The dinner comes as the Senate begins hearings this week on tax reform, an issue that Trump and Republicans in Congress promised to tackle on the campaign trail last year.</p>
<p>Trump is trying to persuade Democrats to support his push to cut tax rates and simplify the tax code this year, a plan critical to bolstering Republicans heading into 2018 congressional elections.</p>
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<p>Last month, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer laid out his party's demands for any bipartisan tax reform package in a letter to the president signed by 43 Senate Democrats and two independents.</p>
<p>But Donnelly, Heitkamp and Manchin, who face re-election in states that Trump won easily in the 2016 presidential election, did not sign it.</p>
<p>The White House saw that as a sign that they are "more open to working with us," the White House official said.</p>
<p>The dinner is the latest sign the president is willing to work with Democrats in Congress.</p>
<p>Last Wednesday, he stunned fellow Republicans by making a deal with Democrats to extend the U.S. debt limit and provide government funding until Dec. 8.</p>
<p>Heitkamp also traveled with the president on Air Force One on Wednesday to a tax event in her home state. She and Manchin had been in the running for a Cabinet position earlier in Trump's administration.</p>
<p>Trump last week also signaled willingness to work with Democrats to end congressional battles over the debt limit.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Susan Heavey and Chizu Nomiyama)</p> | Trump to meet U.S. senators in bipartisan push on taxes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/09/12/trump-to-meet-u-s-senators-in-bipartisan-push-on-taxes.html | 2017-09-12 | 0 |
<p>Los Angeles TimesMark Mazzetti reports the secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the American mission appears to violate a 2003 Pentagon directive that states: "Psy-op is restricted by both DoD [Department of Defense] policy and executive order from targeting American audiences, our military personnel and news agencies or outlets." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed the directive on Oct. 30, 2003.</p> | Planted news stories may violate 2003 Pentagon directive | false | https://poynter.org/news/planted-news-stories-may-violate-2003-pentagon-directive | 2006-01-27 | 2 |
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<p>Then, she rolled her chair over a metal plate that was lying on the floor of the North Fourth Arts Center, inscribing the plate with swirls of ink.</p>
<p>Other VSA Arts students used grease pens to draw images that sprang from their imaginations onto other metal plates.</p>
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<p>On Friday, those plates were treated and inked by master printers and master printers-in-training at the University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute, the world's only training center for lithographic master printers. While the delighted artists looked on, their drawings were replicated dozens of times. The prints will be given away Saturday morning at Robinson Park in Downtown Albuquerque at what Tamarind Director Marjorie Devon calls "a printervention."</p>
<p>(Full disclosure: My son is a VSA artist whose prints will be available at the printervention.)</p>
<p>Jessica Pinto, an artist with VSA Arts of New Mexico, created an image on a lithographic plate by rolling her inked wheelchair wheels over it. Master printers at the Tamarind Institute created several lithographic impressions of her work, seen on the table at right. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>If cities have souls, and I believe they do, they are nurtured at places like North Fourth and the Tamarind Institute, where people express themselves and by expressing themselves contribute to the entire city that which is unique and meaningful about each human being.</p>
<p>"It came out so pretty," Pinto said as she watched Jackie Riccio and Candice Corgan apply a blend of ink - sort of a rainbow effect - to her image.</p>
<p>"You moved so gracefully," Devon told her.</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
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<p>"That's proof of it," Devon said, pointing at the print.</p>
<p>"It came out super-amazing," Pinto said. "I love the rainbow combination."</p>
<p>The color choice was arbitrary, Riccio said. "Blends are so much fun," she said. "We'll jump at any excuse to do a blend."</p>
<p>Lithography is labor-intensive and demanding. Artists like Chagall, Matisse and Picasso called on master lithography printers to create the images they had in mind ever since they made their first line drawings on stone or metal plates. Few artists know how to print, so they come to Tamarind from all over the world to confer with the printers.</p>
<p>Marjorie Devon, who will retire in January after 30 years as Tamarind Institute director, says artists who create lithographs never look at their own art in quite the same way. Tamarind is the only institute in the world that trains master printers in lithography. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>They watch as preliminary prints are produced until they see the impressions they want. The printers roll out inks by hand on the plate. They carefully place sheets of paper over the ink, then run the paper through a press. Hundreds of impressions can be created, and remarkably, given that the entire process is done by hand, the prints are consistent.</p>
<p>The institute was organized as the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1960 on Tamarind Avenue in Los Angeles as a way to preserve and promote lithography in the United States. It moved to the University of New Mexico in 1970 and has been housed for the past four years in an airy, sunny building at Central and Stanford. UNM provides only a fraction of its funding. Tamarind also relies on grants and donations, and two-thirds of its revenue comes from sales of art.</p>
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<p>There are easier ways to replicate fine art than lithography. Rather than painstakingly drawing on a plate, then even more painstakingly capturing the drawing with ink on paper, one could take a computer image of a drawing on paper or a painting, then print it off on a laser or inkjet printer by the thousands.</p>
<p>"It's strange to pull a hand print in this day and age," Riccio said. "It's kind of like darkroom photography."</p>
<p>Artists make lithographs because the medium forces them to think about their work in new ways, Devon said.</p>
<p>In 1956, Pablo Picasso created an image for the cover of an exhibition catalog. The image required four colors. To print such an image, Picasso had to think of his image as four different images, each one printed in a different color.</p>
<p>Then, those four images had to come together into a single image that captured the artist's vision. Also, he had to think of the final result as the mirror image of what he drew on the plates, because the image on the printed page is the mirror image of the drawing on the plate.</p>
<p>Students in the Tamarind Institute printer program made prints from lithographs of artwork created by disabled artists from VSA Arts NM. This artwork was created by Mariah Maestas. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Tamarind routinely makes far more complicated lithographs than that.</p>
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<p>"It's a different visual language," Devon said. Artists who try lithography find they never think about their work in any other medium in quite the same way, she said.</p>
<p>VSA Arts of New Mexico has been helping people with disabilities become artists or appreciators of art for decades, but Devon had never visited the VSA facility on Fourth Street NW until six months ago. One of Tamarind's seven employees told her she needed to see what VSA was doing.</p>
<p>"I was blown away by the work going on there, and more than anything else, the pride they took in being artists," Devon said. "I really wanted to involve our students with VSA."</p>
<p>Devon, who is retiring next January after running Tamarind for 30 years, smiled as the plates yielded the VSA artists' impressions of faces, animals and abstractions to the paper.</p>
<p>"You can see how much from their hearts this art comes," she said. "You see how honest the work is."</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">ABQjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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<p /> | Lithography 'a different visual language' | false | https://abqjournal.com/582277/unms-tamarind-institute-trains-master-printers.html | 2 |
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<p>Image Source: Getty Images</p>
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<p>What:Shares of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals have fallen by close to 28% this year, according to data from <a href="http://www.spcapitaliq.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. Even apart from the recent sell-off stemming from the Brexit news, Merrimack's shares have struggled to shrug off the broader downturn among biotech and biopharma stocks that's hit cash flow negative companies like Merrimack particularly hard.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/MACK" type="external">MACK</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>So what:Merrimack's shares have crumbled despite the commercial launch of its advanced pancreatic cancer drugOnivyde that some industry experts project could be a blockbuster. Part of the problem has been the drug slightly missing consensus sales estimates in the first quarter, but that's probably not enough to explain the stock's dramatic slide.</p>
<p>Now what: The good news is that the Street has remained overtly bullish onOnivyde's nascent commercial launch.Specifically, analysts are forecasting Merrimack's revenues to climb by over 84% this year, and by another 40% next year. Put simply, Merrimack's stock is arguably grossly undervalued right now if these top-line estimates hold true going forward.</p>
<p>Then again, this biotech still won't break out of the red any time soon due to its costly clinical activities, and there's no telling when the market's mood will change. Until then, cash flow negative operations such as Merrimack are likely to continue to push lower, and investors might be best served keeping a close watch on this biotech from the safety of the sidelines for the time being.</p>
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<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/27/heres-why-merrimack-pharmaceuticals-stock-has-been.aspx" type="external">Here's Why Merrimack Pharmaceuticals' Stock Has Been Getting Crushed in 2016 Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/gbudwell/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">George Budwell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Here's Why Merrimack Pharmaceuticals' Stock Has Been Getting Crushed in 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/27/here-why-merrimack-pharmaceuticals-stock-has-been-getting-crushed-in-2016.html | 2016-06-27 | 0 |
<p>Former Vice President Joe Biden's late son Beau Biden's widow is now romantically involved with Hunter Biden, the younger brother of her late husband.</p>
<p>Joe Biden confirmed the information to <a href="https://pagesix.com/2017/03/01/widow-of-joe-bidens-deceased-son-having-affair-with-brother-in-law-hunter/" type="external">Page Six</a>, claiming that he and his wife Dr. Jill Biden were supportive of the new relationship. “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them," he said.</p>
<p>Beau Biden died in May of 2015 after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He had two children: Natalie and Hunter (named after his younger brother).</p>
<p>Joe Biden often claimed to have aborted his presidential ambitions following Beau Biden's death. In December of 1972, Joe Biden's first wife and 1-year-old daughter were killed in an automobile accident. His sons Beau and Hunter were in the same car and were injured in the crash.</p>
<p>Hunter Biden has three daughters: Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisy. He has separated from his wife Kathleen Biden.</p>
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<p>U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden (L), at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad, Saturday, July 4, 2009. US Vice President Joe Biden said today that America's role in Iraq was switching from deep military engagement to one of diplomatic support, ahead of a complete withdrawal from the country in 2011. AFP PHOTO/ POOL/ KHALID MOHAMMED (Photo credit should read KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>WILMINGTON, DE - NOVEMBER 02: Attorney General Beau Biden (L) celebrates his win with his wife Hallie Biden during a victory party for Democrats on November 2, 2010 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden won in his re-election bid for Delaware Attorney General against Independent candidate Doug Campbell. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 12: World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden and Kathleen Biden arrive at the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)</p>
<p>H/T Betsy Rothstein at <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/01/biden-her-time-bidens-sons-widow-finds-love-with-other-son/" type="external">The Daily Caller</a></p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Beau Biden's Widow Now Involved With His Married Brother | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14012/beau-bidens-widow-now-involved-his-married-brother-robert-kraychik | 2017-03-01 | 0 |
<p>On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart skewered Fox News personalities and other right-wingers who argue that the war on women is phony -- something concocted by Democrats for political gain (or something). Stewart played clips of conservative talking heads guffawing at the utter ridiculousness of a so-called "war on women"... followed by a clip that reminds us of the "war" that really concerns the right: the war on Christmas (dun dun duuuuuun!). It's actually a very smart segment, comparing the "evidence" for a war on Christmas ("No colored lights?! Noooo!") to the evidence for a war on women. You decide what the real war is!</p>
<p>Watch the full segment here:</p> | Jon Stewart to Fox News: "War on Women" Isn't OK Terminology, But "War on Christmas" Is? | true | http://alternet.org/newsandviews/article/900787/jon_stewart_to_fox_news%3A_%22war_on_women%22_isn%27t_ok_terminology%2C_but_%22war_on_christmas%22_is/ | 4 |
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<p>The Washington media was buzzing Wednesday after the leaders of the Tea Party Patriots came to town and announced that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) deserved a primary challenge, along with any other Republican who voted to raise the debt ceiling. Mark Meckler, a national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, told the Daily Beast that Boehner’s deficit plan was “an embarrassment.” At <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/tea-party-leader-maybe-we-should-see-about-a-new-speaker--20110727" type="external">a Christian Science Monitor breakfas</a>t, Meckler declared Boehner’s numbers “fake” and “phantom.”</p>
<p>It was an interesting choice of words, since they might also describe the number of tea partiers Meckler and his co-coordinator, Jenny Beth Martin, claim to represent. In the news coverage, Tea Party Patriots has been consistently identified has having at least 3,500 local chapters, making it one of the largest tea party organizations in the country. But many of those chapters are, to use Meckler’s term, phantom, which raises the question of whether the GOP House leadership should really be paying quite so much attention to the noise coming from the tea party leaders working the media circuit right now.</p>
<p>Last fall, the Washington Post’s Amy Gardner <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102304000_2.html?sid=ST2010110201489" type="external">tried to verify the TPP’s numbers</a>. She attempted to run down every one of its local chapters. Out of the 2,300 chapters TPP then claimed to have, Gardner could only identify 1,400; of those, she was only able to make contact with 647. Most had fewer than 50 members, and some consisted of a single person. That’s a fraction of the 15 million people TPP’s leaders often claim to represent when they’re on the Hill demanding that Republicans refuse to increase the debt ceiling. Which raises the question of why, exactly, Republicans are taking them so seriously.</p>
<p>There are other reasons to question the wisdom of Republicans taking economic advice from national leaders of the Tea Party Patriots and other top tea partiers in the news this week. Consider the fact that before riding the tea party movement to national fame, Meckler was a <a href="" type="internal">high-ranking distributor for Herbalife</a>, a company considered by many consumer groups and regulatory agencies to be a pyramid scheme. After that, he got into “affiliate marketing,” an industry responsible for all of those “tiny belly” ads haunting the Internet that the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ubiquitous-tiny-belly-online-ad-part-of-scheme-government-says/2011/06/27/gIQAbI6Q1H_story.html" type="external">FTC says are a scam</a>. His colleague, Jenny Beth Martin, also doesn’t have a great track financial record. In 2007, she and husband lost their house and <a href="" type="internal">ended up owing the IRS more than $500,000 in back taxe</a>s.</p>
<p>In print and TV interviews this week, Martin claimed that the majority of her members <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/tea-party-leader-suggests-to-fox-news-that-boehner-should-step-down-over-debt-talks/" type="external">thought Boehner should be replaced</a> as House speaker. The comments went viral and led to plenty of media coverage about tea party intransigence. It also prompted an outcry from tea party leaders working at the state level in the trenches, many of whom have disassociated with TPP because of displeasure with their tactics. <a href="http://www.myheritage.org/news/member-story-billie-tucker-jacksonville-fl/" type="external">Billie Tucker</a>, the founder of the First Coast Tea Party and an influential tea party activist in Florida, fired off an email to Martin expressing her dismay at Martin’s claim to represent the entire movement when talking about Boehner. She wrote:</p>
<p>Jenny Beth: Who the heck is giving you guys advice and pr help?</p>
<p>Calling for Boehner to resign did nothing but create more chaos in a chaotic time in our country. The media will and has run with it as if the entire tea party “membership” thinks Boehner should resign.</p>
<p>Boehner may not be doing the best job BUT…the timing of your statement caused me to have to answer to the press for it. Next time you plan to make such a big, hairy, audacious statement, why not let us in on it beforehand so we can prepare for the attacks and maybe your highly paid PR firm could give us talking points too.</p>
<p>Martin’s comments didn’t even dovetail with those of activists at a <a href="" type="internal">tea party rally</a> held on the Hill yesterday during the debt ceiling negotiations. Most of the speakers, from a variety of tea party groups, were calling on the Senate to get behind the Boehner plan and also to push the speaker to call for larger cuts.</p>
<p>The Republicans should also not be too concerned about the saber rattling of Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips, despite his landing a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-tea-party-is-unyielding-on-the-debt-ceiling/2011/07/27/gIQAGvEVdI_story.html" type="external">coveted spot on the Washington Post’s op-ed page</a> on Thursday bashing Boehner. The Tennessee-based Phillips is essentially a tea party of one. He is a prodigious blogger and occasional radio host who’s advocated such things as limiting voting to property owners and <a href="" type="internal">warning that WASPs are on the verge of extinction</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Few of the real tea party groups in his state will work with him because they see him as an opportunist. Last February, he borrowed $50,000 from a local businessman to help <a href="" type="internal">front the six-figure speaking fee for Sarah Palin</a> to headline a tea party convention he organized in Nashville. Phillips charged attendees more than $500, prompting most of the larger tea party groups and even many within the state to boycott the event.</p>
<p>Last July Phillips tried again to host a tea party convention, this time in Las Vegas at the Palazzo Hotel. The event was first postponed to October and unltimately canceled entirely for lack of interest. Last week, the hotel <a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-resort-sues-tea-party-group-over-hotel-bill-125851363.html?ref=363" type="external">sued Tea Party Nation</a> for stiffing the hotel on more than $500,000 for the unused rooms he booked. Phillips, you could say, knows something about not paying the bills, but that doesn’t necessarily make him the kind of expert the GOP ought to be making policy around.</p>
<p>All of this is not to say there might not be a tea party movement out there poised to seek retribution should Republicans should they raise the debt ceiling. It’s just that these particular folks you see on Fox News threatening to primary Boehner don’t necessarily represent them.</p>
<p /> | Tea Party “Leaders” The GOP Should Ignore | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/tea-party-leaders-gop-should-ignore/ | 2011-07-28 | 4 |
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<p>According to internal Trump administration correspondence seen by The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security has decided at the last minute to block Khaled Khateeb from traveling to Los Angeles for the Oscars.</p>
<p>Khateeb was scheduled to arrive Saturday in Los Angeles on a Turkish Airlines flight departing from Istanbul. But his plans have been upended after U.S. officials reported finding “derogatory information” regarding Khateeb.</p>
<p>Derogatory information is a broad category that can include anything from terror connections to passport irregularities. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Gillian Christensen, said, “A valid travel document is required for travel to the United States.”</p>
<p>“The White Helmets,” a 40-minute Netflix documentary, has been nominated for Best Documentary Short. If the film wins the Oscar, the award would go to director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara. Khateeb is one of three people credited for cinematography; Franklin Dow is the film’s director of photography.</p>
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<p>The film focuses on the rescue workers who risk their lives to save Syrians affected by civil war. Many of the group’s members have been killed by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air forces. The group also was nominated for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.</p>
<p>“The White Helmets” includes emblematic scenes of the deadly 6-year-old conflict: people digging through destroyed homes looking for survivors, at constant risk of “double tap” attacks that target first responders after they’ve arrived at the scene of a strike.</p>
<p>Khateeb had been issued a visa to attend the ceremony with Hollywood’s biggest stars. But Turkish authorities detained him this week, according to the internal U.S. government correspondence, and he suddenly needed a passport waiver from the United States to enter the country.</p>
<p>The correspondence indicated he would not receive such a waiver. There was no explanation in the correspondence for why Turkey detained Khateeb.</p> | Syrian who worked on nominated film can’t attend Oscars | false | https://abqjournal.com/958008/syrian-who-worked-on-nominated-film-cant-attend-oscars.html | 2 |
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<p>There are many myths about retirement that people often believe, and only by learning the hard way do many of those people realize the mistakes they've made in their retirement planning. By knowing about these myths before you retire, you can take action before it's too late to do anything about it. In particular, these five common misconceptions about retirement trip up many near-retirees, and it's important to get the facts so you can plan for retirement correctly.</p>
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Most retirees understand that the older you get, the less time you have to invest for the long run, and it therefore makes sense to reduce the amount of risk you take with your investment portfolio. In the process of making your investments more conservative, however, it's important not to make the mistake of going too far and getting rid of all your exposure to the stock market. Stocks are volatile, but they also provide greater growth opportunities than most other investments. Especially in the early years of your retirement, having some growth in your nest egg is crucial to set the stage for a retirement that could easily last 20 to 30 years. By emphasizing <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/18/3-stocks-to-keep-you-invested-after-retirement.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">high-quality stocks Opens a New Window.</a> that pay income and have good prospects for solid, dependable growth, even retirees can benefit from investing in the stock market.</p>
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<p>It's true that Medicare kicks in at age 65 for most Americans, providing valuable access to healthcare services that in many ways is more flexible than the insurance coverage most workers have during their careers. Medicare lets you use a wide array of providers without the geographical restrictions that most private plans impose. Yet Medicare comes with costs, including monthly premiums, deductibles, and copayments. Moreover, one key aspect about Medicare is that it doesn't put a cap on your out-of-pocket expenses, so you'll have to get either Medicare supplemental insurance or use a Medicare Advantage plan to put an upper limit on your theoretical liability for healthcare costs. <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/05/29/3-medicare-myths-debunked.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Understanding your Medicare options Opens a New Window.</a> is important to make the most of the program, and that requires some up-front advance research as well as ongoing monitoring.</p>
<p>It's natural to think that once your paycheck goes away, your tax bill will disappear as well. Yet retirees often find that they are even more aware of taxes they pay than they were during their careers. Without the payroll withholding that typically takes care of tax liability for workers, retirees who take taxable distributions from IRAs, 401(k)s, or other retirement accounts often find that they have to make quarterly estimated payments in order to avoid IRS penalties. Moreover, with required minimum distributions kicking in for many accounts at age 70-1/2, those who were successful in accumulating extensive savings often find that their tax bracket doesn't go down in retirement. By using Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k) accounts during your career rather than relying solely on traditional retirement accounts, you can help to ease the tax burden after you retire and keep more of your retirement assets for yourself.</p>
<p>Many investors have negative attitudes about annuities, and in some cases, it's for good reason. Some annuities come with high ongoing costs and tough restrictions that can lock you into contracts for years or else face paying large surrender charges. However, some annuities are good choices for retirees. Specifically, for those who need a constant stream of dependable income, immediate annuities or advanced life deferred annuities guarantee monthly payments that start either immediately or at a specified point in the future, and will last for the rest of your life. You shouldn't use your whole nest egg on such an annuity, but making it part of your retirement arsenal can be a good move.</p>
<p>Most retirees rely heavily on Social Security for the money they need to pay living expenses. Yet Social Security was never intended to replace all or even most of your salary. For most people, Social Security replaces around 40% of pre-retirement income, with those who earned more during their careers getting an even lower percentage. If you want to be financially secure, it's important to go beyond Social Security to get other sources of income in retirement, whether it's from investments, part-time work, or other employee benefits you earned during your career.</p>
<p>Myths about retirement can trip you up at the worst time possible. By being aware of these myths now, you can take steps to avoid them and have a better retirement.</p>
<p>The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>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> | 5 Retirement Myths -- Debunked! | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/06/5-retirement-myths-debunked.html | 2017-01-20 | 0 |
<p>(Reuters) - <a href="" type="internal">Halliburton</a> Co is suing <a href="" type="internal">BP</a> Plc for "negligent misrepresentation, business disparagement and defamation" related to BP's claims about who was to blame for last year's Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>Halliburton said BP provided inaccurate information prior to Halliburton carrying out its cementing services the day before the disaster, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Texas state court.</p>
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<p>Halliburton said BP knew or should have known about an additional hydrocarbon zone in the well and that the British company failed to tell Halliburton before it designed the cement program and then did not disclose it after the blowout.</p>
<p>"BP was solely responsible for identifying all hydrocarbon-bearing zones in the well and for identifying where the designed top of cement should be located in order to isolate all such zones," Halliburton said in the lawsuit.</p>
<p>BP said it was reviewing the lawsuit and so could not comment in detail, but it noted investigators had found multiple parties responsible for the accident, including Halliburton, and that independent investigations identified "serious problems" with the cementing of the well.</p>
<p>BP and Transocean Ltd , owner of the drilling rig that exploded and sank after the well blowout, are already locked in a legal battle over which company was at fault in the April 2010 disaster, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield services provider, said on Friday it had also moved to amend its claims against BP in separate litigation in New Orleans to include fraud.</p>
<p>The Houston-based company said it was fully indemnified under its contract with BP because it had performed the cement work according to BP specifications.</p>
<p>In April, London-based BP sued Transocean, Halliburton and <a href="" type="internal">Cameron International</a> . Cameron made the blowout preventer for the well, a so-called fail-safe device that failed to automatically shut down the well.</p>
<p>Shares of BP and Haliburton were both down 3 percent on Friday on the <a href="" type="internal">New York Stock Exchange</a>. The S&amp;P 500 index was about 2 percent lower.</p>
<p>The case is Halliburton Energy Services Inc v. BP Exploration &amp; Production Inc et al, No. 2011-52580 in Court 234 of the District Court of Harris County, Texas.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Ian Geoghegan and Krishna N Das in Bangalore, and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Steve Orlofsky)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Halliburton sues BP for defamation over Gulf spill | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/09/02/halliburton-sues-bp-for-defamation-over-gulf-spill.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>Waiting in an extraordinarily long line at one of our favorite barbecue restaurants – which had we been smart enough to think ahead might have been expected since it was the dinner hour on Friday night, just days before Christmas – we were honored to see a few people behave in such a way that it brought tears to our eyes.</p>
<p>An older gentleman who was probably in his 90’s was ahead of us in line, wearing a ball cap stating he was a World War II veteran. A young man turned to him, shook his hand and said, “Thank you for your service,” and they talked for a few minutes. The young man, who was also a veteran, was then drafted into conversation with another person waiting in line whose son was serving overseas.</p>
<p>A few moments later, a young girl – about 8 years old – turned to the older veteran and also said, “Thank you for your service.” This led to a conversation between the World War II veteran and the girl’s father.</p>
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<p>After the line moved forward and people were waiting at the counter to place their orders, the young girl’s father walked over to the older veteran and offered to pay for his dinner. The gentleman said, “Thank you very much but the restaurant just offered to pay for my meal.” Wow.</p>
<p>After experiencing this chain of events, we certainly had no complaints about the long line.</p>
<p>On so many levels, watching these younger people show this level of respect and admiration for a World War II veteran was special and heartwarming. These ordinary New Mexico people, who were probably at least 40 years younger than the veteran, understood the importance of his sacrifice and took the time to let him know.</p>
<p>They did this privately and personally – no television cameras were running, no pictures were being taken to brag about their exploit on Facebook, and nobody asked for any acknowledgement for their action. They just did the right thing, a kind and compassionate gesture to a respected senior citizen on a cold, winter night. They asked for nothing in return, would not have wanted any acknowledgement.</p>
<p>The older veteran must have appreciated the acknowledgement, and those of us who witnessed the exchanges were honored to see such caring, but it seemed those people were simply doing the right thing – and, therefore, probably did not see it as anything unusual or deserving of any special recognition.</p>
<p>These are the people with the power to make 2014 a year worth remembering. These people represent the values important to this country and the world. These people are the parents of children who will have learned the values necessary to respect others and to give freely when it is needed. These folks represent our hope for the New Year.</p>
<p>It is too simple to discuss 2014 in terms of global conflicts, politics in Washington, D.C., everyday issues such as making more money or losing weight. We believe the success of this coming year depends on regular folks living lives that include honor, respect, integrity and compassion.</p>
<p>Those few people at a crowded restaurant in New Mexico spoke loudly, showing us that the possibilities for success in 2014 are endless.</p>
<p>Contact the Ryans at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Selfless acts by respectful strangers give us hope for future | false | https://abqjournal.com/327767/selfless-acts-by-respectful-strangers-give-us-hope-for-future.html | 2 |
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<p>William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. Black was a central figure in exposing Congressional corruption during the Savings and Loan Crisis.</p>
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR: I'm Jaisal Noor for the Real News Network in Baltimore.
<p /> Equifax CEO Richard Smith faced a second day of sharp questioning from Congress on Wednesday over the theft of millions of people's personal data in a hacking breach. This week Equifax increased their estimate of how many people were affected by the hack to 145.5 million. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Smith and Equifax of profiting off the hack. Here's a clip.
<p />E. WARREN: In August, just a couple of weeks before you disclosed this massive hack, you said, and I want to quote you here, "Fraud is a huge opportunity for us. It is a massive growing business for us." Mr. Smith, now that information for about 145 million Americans has been stolen, is fraud more likely now than before that hack?
<p />RICHARD SMITH: Yes, Senator, it is.
<p />E. WARREN: Yeah. So the breach of your system has actually created more business opportunities for you.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Joining us to discuss this from Kansas City, Missouri is Bill Black. Bill is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri Kansas City. He's a white-collar criminologist, a former financial regulator and the author of, 'The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One,' and of course a regular contributor to The Real News.
<p /> Bill, let's start off by getting your response to that clip today. The Equifax CEO was in front of Congress for the second day just getting pummeled by Republicans and Democrats alike, not really coming up with any good answers in defense of Equifax's behavior or the fact that they're continuing to profit from this.
<p />BILL BLACK: There are no good answers at the most fundamental level. First, they were warned of this breach possibility, and they were told how to fix it, and they failed to do those things. That allowed the breach, but the breach shouldn't have led to the disclosures, because the information should have been encrypted and protected, but Equifax doesn't take even the most basic steps. The fundamental point, of course, is that we're not the customer, so there's nothing we can do to protect ourselves from Equifax. Indeed, Equifax is trying to make sure we have no legal remedies, and the administration is as well, taking away our ability to even sue when these things happen.
<p /> Now, Equifax is absolutely right. Fraud is massive. It's massive both because of the hacking community and because firms take so little care with our information, because it typically doesn't hurt them. It hurts us, so it really has created a profit opportunity. Everything Equifax did immediately after they went public, which was months later, with this breach, was designed to have them make money. What's off on the wings, of course, is an investigation of what looks like it was insider trading by senior executives as well. We don't know whether that will turn out to be true or not. Also, the officers may have personally seen it as a way to make money themselves.
<p /> All the facts that are coming out on Equifax are making things much, much worse for them and for other companies that follow very similar lackadaisical approaches.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Here's another clip of Senator Warren talking about how Equifax's profit has risen by 80 percent since these leaks have come out while consumers continue to pay the price.
<p />E. WARREN: I want to look at the big picture here. From 2013 until today, Equifax has disclosed at least four separate hacks in which it compromised sensitive personal data. In those four years, has Equifax's profit gone up? Mr. Smith?
<p />RICHARD SMITH: Yes, Senator.
<p />E. WARREN: Yes, it has gone up, right? In fact, it's gone up by more than 80 percent over that time. Because of this breach, consumers will spend the rest of their lives worrying about identity theft. Small banks and credit unions will have to pay to issue new credit cards. Businesses will lose money to thieves, but Equifax will be just fine. Heck, it could actually come out ahead.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Bill, can you respond to Senator Warren's comments there?
<p />BILL BLACK: Yeah. We don't know how much liability Equifax will have. We know that if Equifax gets its way, it will have only trivial liability to the people who it harmed. Our only possible remedy, if they're able to foreclose our legal remedies, and right now the Administration is doing everything possible to foreclose it, and the Supreme Court has been very helpful to business in removing our legal rights, then our only hope is the Federal government, and you have seen that over the last 15 years, it has been not vigorous in the least in protecting us from white collar criminals and that this administration has said it wants to make things worse. It wants to go to a voluntary disclosure and remedy system, sort of an honor system. It's incredible.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, he compared the recent 7.25 million dollar no-bid contract given to Equifax by the IRS, he compared that to giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to a minibar. Here's that clip.
<p />MR. KENNEDY: The contract, the seven million and change contract, does that involve taxpayer information that you would have access to?
<p />RICHARD SMITH: Senator, it's my understanding. I'm not profess to be deep in this particular contract. It is to prevent fraudulent access to the IRS, but beyond that, if you want more information, we can get that for you.
<p />MR. KENNEDY: You realize, to many Americans right now, that looks like we're giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to the minibar.
<p />RICHARD SMITH: I understand your point.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Your response, Bill?
<p />BILL BLACK: Well, it's a pretty nasty insult to Lindsay Lohan, to compare her to Equifax.
<p /> This is in the context that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been revealed to have had a significant breach of some quite confidential market information where they sat on it and didn't do much of anything. The no-bid contract, if that part is true, is terrible. That's just one of the things we teach, I teach, is how to run procurement systems, and that's just a way of encouraging fraud and corruption and cartels and overpricing, but of course it's obscene and it's of a piece.
<p /> The same type of thing happened with the banks. Even the very few banks that actually pled guilty to felonies and [inaudible 00:08:13] prosecution agreements, they agreed that they had committed felonies. None of them received the normal sanctions that those would mean that you would, for example, not be eligible for Federal contracts and such.
<p /> We have one rule for normal people, and we have a completely different rule for the very powerful, and of course we have still another rule for people with darker skins.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Bill, if this all wasn't enough, let's end on this news that came out yesterday that something like three billion Yahoo accounts were hacked in August 2013 affecting every single one of their customers at the time. What can you tell us about this?
<p />BILL BLACK: I can tell you, I teach economics, so I can do advanced math. Two thousand thirteen, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, that's a whole lot of years to finally figure it out that there were actually three billion hacks instead of one billion hacks. If we put this together and we made a novel of it or a movie, critics would pan it and say it's preposterous. "It's so unrealistic. It's so anti-business. We're just making them look like doddering fools when they're geniuses ..."
<p /> Okay. Again, our family rule is it is impossible to compete with unintentional self-parody, and Yahoo leaves me speechless.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: All right. Bill Black, once again, thank you so much for joining us.
<p />BILL BLACK: Thank you.
<p />JAISAL NOOR: Thank you for watching The Real News. | Senator Warren: Equifax Profits from Data Hack While Consumers Pay the Price | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/story%3A20145%3ASenator-Warren%253A-Equifax-Profits-from-Data-Hack-While-Consumers-Pay-the-Price | 2017-10-04 | 4 |
<p />
<p>China's Geely Automobile Holding Ltd &lt;0175.HK&gt;, whose unlisted parent owns Sweden's Volvo, on Wednesday said net profit more than doubled in 2016, the biggest rise in eight years as sales of its next-generation of vehicles outstripped expectations.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Hangzhou-based automaker said in a stock exchange filing that net profit for 2016 rose 126 percent to 5.1 billion yuan ($741.15 million), beating consensus expectations of 4.6 billion yuan in a Reuters poll of analysts.</p>
<p>Geely's revenue rose 78 percent to 53.7 billion yuan from a year earlier. It previously reported sales increased 49 percent to 765,851 vehicles for the year.</p>
<p>Geely has transformed itself from a no-frills domestic brand into an automaker with upmarket aspirations, using its 2010 acquisition of Volvo to up its game with models such as the recently launched GC9 sedan and Boyue sport-utility vehicle.</p>
<p>Geely will launch the first cars on a jointly-developed platform with Volvo under new brand name Lynk &amp; Co later this year with plans for the marque to go on sale in Europe next year and the U.S. in 2019.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Christopher Cushing)</p> | Chinese automaker Geely doubles profit on next-gen car sales boost | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/22/chinese-automaker-geely-doubles-profit-on-next-gen-car-sales-boost.html | 2017-03-22 | 0 |
<p>In one of the biggest banking combinations of 2013, Oregon’s Umpqua Holdings (NASDAQ:UMPQ) agreed to acquire regional lender Sterling Financial (NASDAQ:STSA) late Wednesday for $2 billion.</p>
<p>The transaction creates the largest West Coast community bank, with 394 locations in five states, about $22 billion in assets and $16 billion in deposits.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>After the deal closes, Spokane, Wash.-based Sterling Financial will operate under the Umpqua name and brand and the combined company will be led by Ray Davis, who is president and CEO of Umpqua.&#160; Sterling CEO Greg Seibly is set to join the new company as co-president.</p>
<p>Umpqua, which is based in Portland, agreed to pay 1.671 in shares and $2.18 in cash for each share of Sterling. Those terms give the deal a value of $30.52 a share, a roughly 15% premium on Sterling’s closing price of $26.55 on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Together, Umpqua and Sterling will create something unique in the financial services industry, an organization that offers the products and expertise of a large bank but delivers them with the personal service and commitment of a community bank,” Davis said in a statement.</p>
<p>The combined bank will have a presence in five West Coast states: California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.</p>
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<p>Umpqua said it expects the deal to boost its 2015 operating EPS by 12% with 100% of planned synergies phased in.</p>
<p>“We admire Umpqua's shared commitment to community banking and look forward to working with them to create one of the strongest, most innovative community banks in the country,” Seibly said.</p>
<p>The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2014, subject to shareholder, regulatory and other approvals.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the deal, the combined company will have 13 directors: nine representatives from Umpqua and four from Sterling.</p>
<p>The transaction has already received support from Thomas H. Lee Partners and Warburg Pincus, the two largest Sterling shareholders that each own about 20.8% of the bank’s stock.</p>
<p>“We have been very pleased with what Sterling has achieved since we made our investment in 2010, and are delighted with the decision to combine with Umpqua,” said David Coulter, Warburg Pincus’s vice chairman.</p>
<p>Shares of Sterling jumped 11.68% to $29.65 in premarket trading Thursday morning on the deal, while Umpqua ticked up 0.24% to $17.00.</p>
<p>JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) served as Umpqua’s financial advisor, while Sandler O’Neill advised Sterling.</p> | West Coast Lenders Sterling, Umpqua Join Forces in $2B Deal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/09/12/west-coast-lenders-sterling-umpqua-join-forces-in-2b-deal.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>MOSCOW, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Russian conglomerate Sistema is to issue a 10 billion rouble ($176.79 million) bond, denominated in roubles, on Jan. 26, according to an issue prospectus circulated to the market on Monday.</p>
<p>Sistema has to pay 100 billion roubles to resolve a dispute with Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft over the Bashneft oil company, under a settlement announced by both companies in December.</p>
<p>$1 = 56.5648 roubles Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jack Stubbs</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Online retailing behemoth Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) has cut ties with Washington lobbying firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &amp; Feld LLP and Squire Patton Boggs, Bloomberg reported on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: An Amazon.com Inc driver stands next to an Amazon delivery truck in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1447.34 AMZN.O Nasdaq +15.92 (+1.11%) AMZN.O ORCL.N
<p>The changes took place about a week before U.S. President Donald Trump accused Amazon in a tweet on Thursday of not paying enough tax, taking advantage of the U.S. postal system and putting small retailers out of business.</p>
<p>Amazon had cut ties from the lobbying firms last Friday and in their place hired Paul Brathwaite of Federal Street Strategies LLC and Josh Holly of Holly Strategies Inc, both of whom have previously worked as outside lobbyists for Airbnb Inc and Oracle Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>), the report said, citing a source.</p>
<p>Neither of the parties were immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.</p>
<p>The e-commerce giant employs about 15 lobbyists, according to earlier disclosures submitted to the U.S. Senate, with another 15 outside lobbying firms who each assign more lobbyists to work on behalf of the company.</p>
<p>The retailer spent $15.4 million in 2017 on lobbying in Washington, up from $12 million a year earlier.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Snap Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNAP.N" type="external">SNAP.N</a>) on Friday said it cut 7 percent of its global workforce in March, as disclosed by it in a regulatory filing <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564408/000156459018007282/0001564590-18-007282-index.htm" type="external">here</a>.</p> A woman stands in front of the logo of Snap Inc. on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) while waiting for Snap Inc. to post their IPO, in New York City, NY, U.S. March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>The social media company said it would incur about $10 million of cash expenditure due to severance costs to be reflected in the current quarter ending March 31.</p>
<p>As a result of the layoffs, primarily in its engineering and sales teams, the company said it sees savings of about $25 million in 2018.</p>
<p>The company had said it had 3,069 employees as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to its annual filing <a href="https://bit.ly/2pScNbz" type="external">bit.ly/2pScNbz</a>.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNAP.N" type="external">Snap Inc</a> 15.87 SNAP.N New York Stock Exchange -0.08 (-0.50%) SNAP.N
<p>The Snapchat parent has been under pressure from investors to reduce costs after revenue fell short of analyst expectations during Snap’s first year as a publicly traded company.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, a company memo had shown that the company would cut just over 120 engineers and reorganize its engineering team, Reuters reported.</p>
<p>The Southern California-based company said the workforce reduction “is to align resources around our top strategic priorities and to reflect structural changes in our business.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HOUSTON (Reuters) - A recent drought in oil company mergers and acquisitions could be coming to an end over a new Texas range war: U.S. shale producers are building miles-long horizontal wells that are running into their rivals’ land holdings.</p> FILE PHOTO -- A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County, Texas January 13, 2016. Picture taken on January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Anna Driver/File Photo
<p>This week, U.S. shale producer Concho Resources Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CXO.N" type="external">CXO.N</a>) said longer horizontal wells are among the factors spurring its $8 billion deal for rival RSP Permian Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RSPP.N" type="external">RSPP.N</a>), with well spacing and sharing infrastructure needs also playing roles. RSP Permian controlled the land adjacent to its own in many cases.</p>
<p>The average length of U.S. shale wells has grown by roughly 1,500 feet, or 25 percent, in the past three years to 7,213 feet, according to RS Energy Group, an energy investment data provider. Producers are drilling longer shale wells - some exceed three miles - to extract more crude from each well.</p>
<p>Oil company M&amp;A fell in the wake of the 2014 oil price crash and more producers refocused on their best holdings. The value of U.S. oil producer deals last year was less than half the $137.7 billion in 2013, according to data provider PLS Inc. That could be changing in West Texas’s Permian, the largest U.S. oilfield, where checkerboard-like leases dating to land grants made to railroads in the 19th century are hemming in producers.</p>
<p>“Consolidating acreage is going to be extremely meaningful,” said Brook Papau, managing director of RS Energy. “We’ll see more deals.”</p>
<p>Smaller companies with prime acreage, especially on the Permian’s western edge, could be buyout candidates, including Abraxas Petroleum ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AXAS.O" type="external">AXAS.O</a>), Lilis Energy LLEX.A and Jagged Peak Energy ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JAG.N" type="external">JAG.N</a>), industry analysts have told Reuters.</p>
<p>Shared transport systems, such as oil and gas gathering and water disposal, also are driving the need for scale and property acquisitions in addition to horizontal wells, called laterals, Concho Chief Executive Tim Leach said this week.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CXO.N" type="external">Concho Resources Inc</a> 150.33 CXO.N New York Stock Exchange +7.08 (+4.94%) CXO.N RSPP.N AXAS.O JAG.N CVX.N
<p>“Long laterals and (avoiding) the parent-child relationship” where close well spacing reduces output, drove the deal, said Leach. “Large, contiguous blocks of acreage are strategic,” he told investors.</p>
<p>After dropping 8.7 percent on the steep purchase price, Concho shares on Thursday retraced much of the fall, rising 5 percent to $150.33.</p>
<p>“The investment community has consistently espoused the merits of consolidation within a highly fragmented business,” said Simmons &amp; Co analyst David Kistler in a note to clients praising the Concho-RSP deal.</p>
<p>Still, M&amp;A is not the only way to get more adjacent land. Chevron Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVX.N" type="external">CVX.N</a>) last year swapped or sold more than 60,000 acres in the Permian Basin.</p>
<p>The deals, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a February earnings call, “create value by consolidating land positions, allowing longer laterals and other infrastructure efficiencies.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Andrea Ricci</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nervous stock investors are hoping an unusually U.S. strong earnings season can restore some of the optimism that characterized equity markets last year.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Imploding technology stocks and fears of a trade war have pummeled the market in recent days. Given the surge in volatility this year, there is no guarantee that worst is over.</p>
<p>Analysts predict strong results when reporting season starts up next month, with first-quarter S&amp;P 500 profit growth on track to be the highest in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters data. That follows a blockbuster fourth-quarter period, and recent corporate tax cuts that boosted forecasts for all of 2018.</p>
<p>A robust earnings period would bring back the focus on fundamentals and possibly put a floor under prices, supporting views that the 9-year-old bull market will go on, strategists said.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be earnings,” said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist and senior portfolio manager at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York. “The market has given up so much that earnings can start to redirect attention back into a market that has gotten much cheaper relative to where we were.”</p>
<p>With this year’s sell-off and rising profit forecasts, stocks also are near the cheapest on a price-to-earnings basis that they have been since late 2016. The S&amp;P 500 is trading at about 16.5 times forward earnings, well below the 18.9 level it was at in mid-December, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>(To view a graphic on S&amp;P PEs, click <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2E5ntYM" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2E5ntYM</a>)</p>
<p>Stocks’ rout in early February, and more recent selling following worries over a U.S. trade war with China, Facebook privacy issues and a collapse in other tech leaders, have made investors skittish and more likely to discount the relatively strong economic backdrop that persists.</p>
<p>“We’ve been caught up in all of these things that could happen and may happen and that the sky is falling, but once earnings season kicks in, it’s headline news and that steals away some of the negativity,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta.</p>
<p>To be sure, next week brings the monthly U.S. jobs report, a potential catalyst for further volatility. A strong payrolls report in early February had helped spark the stock sell-off that drove the S&amp;P 500 more than 10-percent below its Jan. 26 record high - a “correction.”</p>
<p>The job report briefly drove up bond yields and touched off worries that the Federal Reserve may need to speed up interest rate hikes. The S&amp;P 500 is now about 8 percent below its record.</p>
<p>Just in the first three months of this year, the S&amp;P has jumped or fallen 1 percent on 23 trading days, three times the number of 1-percent moves it made in all of 2017. In 2016, there were 48 such days.</p>
<p>Market participants agree that U.S. stocks are unlikely to return to the unusually calm conditions seen last year, when the Cboe Volatility Index, the most widely-followed barometer of expected near-term ups and downs for the S&amp;P 500, logged a record low daily average reading of 11. The VIX hit a two-and-a-half-year high above 50 in early February.</p>
<p>Expectations for U.S. earnings this year have jumped since December, when U.S. lawmakers approved sweeping changes to the tax law, including slashing the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Growth in other major economies has also lifted profit forecasts for the large stocks that generate a lot of sales overseas.</p>
<p>Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings for S&amp;P 500 companies to rise 18.5 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>The first-quarter S&amp;P profit forecast is up 6.3 percentage points since Jan. 1, while the forecast for all of 2018 is up 7.7 points since then, based on Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>That suggests the bar might be relatively low for the first quarter. “You still could see some relative upside there,” said Keith Parker, U.S. equity strategist at UBS.</p>
<p>Many companies already have announced plans for increased buybacks and dividends, or bringing cash back from overseas, and other ways to use their tax savings. More news on that front is expected this reporting period, which is set to start with reports from JPMorgan Chase and others April 13.</p>
<p>“If we get a discussion of repatriation - what companies are going to bring back ... that will have a positive effect on the market,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&amp;T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.</p>
<p>Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; editing by Alden Bentley and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Russia's Sistema to issue 10 bln rouble bond on Jan 26 - prospectus Amazon cuts ties with top Washington lobbying firms: Bloomberg Snapchat parent cuts 7 percent of its global workforce in March As shale wells grow longer, buyouts attract hemmed in oil producers Eager for calming news, investors look to earnings | false | https://reuters.com/article/russia-sistema-bonds/russias-sistema-to-issue-10-bln-rouble-bond-on-jan-26-prospectus-idUSR4N1PB029 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>When a massive luxury cruise ship docked outside the tiny Inuit town of Cambridge Bay this summer, it doubled the population of the town for a day.</p>
<p>“It was just jaw-dropping to think that the same amount of people that are in Cambridge Bay could fit onto that ship,” said Mia Otokiak, 21, a lifelong resident of the small, largely Inuit town in the Canadian province of Nunavut.&#160;</p>
<p>The Crystal Serenity, a 13-deck cruise ship carrying more than 1,700 passengers and crew, stopped there this August for the second time during a repeat of its historic 2016 voyage through the Northwest Passage.</p>
<p>The Serenity is by far the largest passenger ship ever to ply the waters of the Northwest Passage, from Alaska through the&#160;Canadian Arctic Archipelago and on toward Greenland.&#160;</p>
<p>The sea route was completely ice choked and impassable until the turn of the last century. Melting ice has opened it up to some ship traffic, but until&#160;last year only smaller, expedition-style cruise ships had made the journey.</p>
<p />
<p>Eva Kakolak and Mia Otokiak in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada.</p>
<p>Natasha Ewing, Ocean Networks Canada</p>
<p>The Serenity's arrival in Cambridge Bay&#160;last year was preceded by months of planning by residents of the small town, where the gravel roads dead-end at the edge of town and supplies have to be shipped in by boat.</p>
<p>“When I first heard that the Crystal Serenity was coming here ... I [had]&#160;mixed feelings,” Mia Otokiak said. “My biggest negative is always just how much traffic that’s bringing into our ocean that we use.”</p>
<p>The Crystal Serenity dropped anchor outside the town last month, and Otokiak’s grandmother, Eva Kakolak, 67, watched as passengers were shuttled from the beach to town in taxis, buses, and pickup trucks driven by volunteers. &#160;</p>
<p>Several cruise ships now stop here each summer, but the Serenity was by far the largest, and a frequent topic of conversation.</p>
<p>“The elders always say, 'Why are these big cruise ships coming through our path?'&#160;Kakolak said.&#160;“They always worry about the water, because we get our food from the water ... seals, fish, whitefish, walrus.”</p>
<p>Increased ship traffic brings concerns about water quality, but tourists also bring cash to this remote town that sits above the Arctic Circle.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Alex Newman/PRI</p>
<p>Cambridge Bay hosted art fairs each of the last two years for visitors getting off the cruise ship and streaming into town. Last year, Otiokiak helped two of her uncles sell their carvings and paintings, bringing in thousands of dollars. &#160;</p>
<p>“Both of them had families that they had to feed, both of them didn’t have jobs,” Otokiak said, “so it was really, really nice to see that, because of the Crystal Serenity, they got to make a lot of money for their families.”</p>
<p>Otokiak and Kakolak draw a direct connection between increased tourism in Cambridge Bay and climate change,&#160;which has melted sea ice enough to allow for leisure travelers to navigate a sea route that used to be deadly.</p>
<p>But many of those who saw changes in the Arctic on the cruise did not make the same connection.</p>
<p />
<p>John Stoll, vice president of Crystal Cruises, on board the Crystal Serenity in Boston Harbor.</p>
<p>Marco Werman/The World</p>
<p>“I’ve never really thought of it in [those]&#160;terms,” said Crystal Cruises Vice President of Land Programs John Stoll, when asked how he felt about his company making money off of climate change.</p>
<p>“We were lucky with the ice,” Stoll said. “Ten years, 15 years ago, we never would have been able to make the journey. But I think exposure to the region gives us a better sense of what’s happening.”</p>
<p>Passengers did have a front-row view of&#160;climate change on the 32-day journey, which ended in New York on Saturday.</p>
<p>“You see how many of the glaciers are retreating. I’ve seen it for myself, with my own eyes,” said Estelle Siteman of St. Louis, who camped out in Greenland for a night during the cruise. “I feel incredibly lucky that I have seen this in my life. I want other folks to be able to see this, and I worry that it won’t be a possibility.”</p>
<p>Siteman said she was in awe of the sculpturelike sea ice she saw while cruising through the Arctic,&#160;likening it to Gaudi’s towering Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona.</p>
<p>“I don’t ever think I want to go to the Caribbean again; I’m in love with the ice!” Siteman said when the Serenity stopped in Boston, near the end of its trip. &#160;</p>
<p>Preparing for the first-of-its-kind cruise last year took years of planning and kept one United States Coast Guard official up at night.</p>
<p>“I don’t want a repeat of the Titanic,” Adm. Charles D. Michel, the vice commandant, said at the&#160; <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/video/422153/joint-press-briefing-us-coast-guard-operations#.VwwKy2MsiHc" type="external">Global Leadership in the Arctic conference</a>&#160;in Anchorage two years ago, as <a href="" type="external">reported</a> by The New York Times. “This is a complex operation in a very environmentally sensitive and, frankly, navigationally difficult area, and the weather is incredibly treacherous there, logistics very difficult to deal with.”</p>
<p>As the cruise ship passed through the Arctic last year, the Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Air Force and Alaskan state officials staged a massive search and rescue simulation in the Bering Strait.</p>
<p>Crystal used a grade of fuel oil that would have been easier to clean up in a spill and exceeded regulations for wastewater discharge.</p>
<p>That first voyage through the Northwest Passage in the summer of 2016 went smoothly, and this year’s repeat trip was met with less fanfare.</p>
<p />
<p>The Crystal Serenity docked at the Boston cruise terminal near the end of its 32-day Norhtwest Passage journey.</p>
<p>Marco Werman/The World</p>
<p>In the end, Arctic experts gave Crystal Cruises high marks for environmental responsibility and safety planning.</p>
<p>One on-ship conservation expert praised the company for steering clear of an area known to be home to narwhals, out of respect for local First Nations communities.</p>
<p>But many Arctic experts worry this voyage signals the beginning of a new era of mass tourism through the remote north, an area where rescues and cleanups would be hard to stage.</p>
<p>"We're concerned that there are going to be other companies looking at this and saying, 'Oh, that looks easy,'" Jeffery Hutchinson, deputy commissioner of strategy and ship building for the Canadian Coast Guard, <a href="" type="external">told</a> the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail last year. "They may not have the resources or the experience to put the planning into a further voyage."</p>
<p>An uptick in tourism in the far north is just one way life is changing for those who live there.</p>
<p>Cambridge Bay resident Eva Kakolak hasn’t seen a musk ox, a shaggy type of oxen native to the Arctic, in almost two years, an anomaly she calls “really strange.”</p>
<p>Winters are getting shorter.</p>
<p>And her granddaughter Mia Otokiak explains that the permafrost, or the layer of ground that’s perpetually frozen, is starting to melt in places in and around the town of Cambridge Bay.</p>
<p>That means it’s harder for Otokiak and others to leave town on ATVs to hunt, fish, camp&#160;and visit ancestral grounds.</p>
<p>“The permafrost is melting and causing huge cracks in the earth,” Otokiak explains.&#160;“There’s some cracks that are probably like six feet [deep], and if you fell in there with a quad, your [ATV] would be totaled,” Otokiak said.</p>
<p>Both Otokiak and Kakolak worry about the future of their community on the front lines of climate change, but they remain cautiously optimistic.</p>
<p>They’re hoping that their family&#160;and the town of Cambridge Bay&#160;can adapt to the changes as they come — from melting ice and permafrost to the new waves of tourists who arrive as the ice disappears.</p> | Climate change brings melting ice, and cruise passengers, to a small town in Canada's north | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-09-19/climate-change-brings-melting-ice-and-cruise-passengers-small-town-canadas-north | 2017-09-19 | 3 |
<p>President Trump has stormed into the New Year on Twitter taunting a former aide and several foreign leaders , including those in North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and the Palestinians. (Jan. 3)</p>
<p>President Trump has stormed into the New Year on Twitter taunting a former aide and several foreign leaders , including those in North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and the Palestinians. (Jan. 3)</p> | Trump Taunts Ex-Aide, World Leaders in Tweets | false | https://apnews.com/03f7e5f5b17b43c2a087c5f9dbaffa18 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>CARSON CITY — Nevada’s burgeoning rooftop solar industry crashed and burned last year after new rates for net metering eliminated financial incentives for the green energy investment.</p>
<p>Now several state lawmakers want to get the industry back on track and growing again.</p>
<p>Nevada lost more than 2,500 rooftop solar installation jobs in 2016 after the less generous net metering rates were approved by the state Public Utilities Commission. Net metering provides homeowners with a credit for the excess electricity their systems generate.</p>
<p>Both the Assembly and the Senate have created special subcommittees on energy to focus on ways to make rooftop solar financially attractive for homeowners and put Nevada back on track with the industry and the thousands of jobs it can create in a state with nearly limitless sunshine.</p>
<p>This while balancing the effort with the vast majority of ratepayers who are not rooftop solar customers.</p>
<p>Specific proposals on net metering are not likely to emerge until later in the session.</p>
<p>Legislation dealing with energy issues has been introduced, including a measure that would require 80 percent of Nevada’s power to come from clean and renewable energy sources by the year 2040. The current goal for Nevada’s Renewable Energy Portfolio is 25 percent by 2025.</p>
<p>EXPERIENCE WITH ENERGY ISSUES</p>
<p>The Assembly subcommittee chairman is Chris Brooks, who has more than 15 years experience with the solar and green technology industries in Nevada.</p>
<p>The panel will focus both on net metering and renewable energy for the state, he said. Brooks introduced the bill seeking to increase reliance on renewable energy to 80 percent by 2040.</p>
<p>“Nevada is a leader in renewable energy and has been for quite some time,” Brooks said. “A lot of it is utility scale and you just don’t see it. We do a great job in providing clean energy.”</p>
<p>NV Energy is working to eliminate coal-fired electricity production, and projects that by March, 76 percent of its energy production will be from natural gas, 18 percent from renewable projects and 6 percent from coal.</p>
<p>Brooks said his renewable energy portfolio bill will help diversify the economy and create good-paying, high-quality jobs.</p>
<p>“But there is a lot of confusion and awkward starts and stops in rooftop solar policy,” he said.</p>
<p>A net metering bill passed by lawmakers in 2015, Senate Bill 374, sent the issue to state regulators for action after an effort in the Legislature to increase the allowable amount of net metering failed.</p>
<p>“I don’t know that we had enough information and enough guidance in that bill,” Brooks said. “And the results were unsatisfactory for most everyone involved. So now I think the Nevada Legislature has to take up those conversations.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>LEGISLATION STYMIES BUSINESS</p>
<p>The 2015 legislation directed the PUC to address any unreasonable subsidy to rooftop solar homeowners from non-solar customers. The PUC set a new rate for rooftop solar customers but it generated a huge outcry. Regulators grandfathered in customers who applied for the program before the new rate took effect on Jan. 1, 2016.</p>
<p>But major rooftop solar companies left the state because business ground to a halt under the new rate structure.</p>
<p>In 2016, Nevada saw a 32 percent loss in the installation sector, from 8,285 jobs to 5,598, according to a survey released this month by The Solar Foundation.</p>
<p>There are 24,852 net metering customers in Nevada with NV Energy generating 220.4 megawatts of electricity. But there have only been 60 new applications for net metering submitted to Nevada Power since Jan. 1, and only six for Sierra Pacific.</p>
<p>CHANGE MAY BE IN THE WIND</p>
<p>The PUC recently directed NV Energy to offer projected cost savings to as many as 1,250 future solar customers of its Sierra Pacific company in Northern Nevada at the original net metering rates. The utility, which operates as Nevada Power in Southern Nevada, has asked that this decision be reconsidered, arguing the savings should apply to all customers.</p>
<p>In the Sierra Pacific order, the panel, with two new appointees from Gov. Brian Sandoval, repudiated the earlier decision to make rooftop solar less financially attractive for homeowners, called the result “incongruous with the policy of the state of Nevada, the intent of SB 374, and the public interest.”</p>
<p>In comments on the Sierra Pacific order, PUC Chairman Joe Reynolds said: “What is the meaning of value? How important is rooftop solar to the state of Nevada and how should it be valued? Value is not always objective, but that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless. It’s real, just difficult to put a value to it.”</p>
<p>&lt;img src="https://www.reviewjournal.com/sites/default/files/LEG-SOLAR-bars-FEB26.jpg" style="float:right; margin: 1em 0 1em 1em; width:100%; max-width: 300px" alt="Private solar power generation 2004 -2016, Nevada (Gabriel Utasi/Las Vegas Review-Journal)" /&gt;</p>
<p>The PUC has not acted on the request for reconsideration.</p>
<p>The decision has potential implications for Southern Nevada homeowners who may want to consider installing rooftop solar systems. A rate case that could raise the issue for Nevada Power customers is expected later this year, but lawmakers may act on the issue before then.</p>
<p>Jessica Scott, regional director at Vote Solar, called the decision to reinstate net metering “an important step toward solar progress in Nevada.”</p>
<p>COMPETITION MAY BE ON HORIZON</p>
<p>Another wrinkle in the energy debate is Question 3, approved by voters in November, which would open the energy market to competition for all consumers if approved a second time in 2018.</p>
<p>Sandoval recently announced the creation of a committee to prepare for potential approval of the Energy Choice initiative headed by Lt. Gov Mark Hutchison.</p>
<p>“Stability in our energy market is crucial for all Nevadans,” Sandoval said. “A second passage of this initiative will change the way Nevadans consume energy from flipping on hallway lights and ensuring power in our hospitals to illuminating the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Taylor, executive director of the Clean Energy Project in Nevada, said it will be critical for the committee to consider ways to increase the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy.</p>
<p>“Governor Sandoval’s Committee on Energy Choice has an opportunity to ensure the principles endorsed by energy choice advocates, which will promote a clean energy economy that is already creating healthier communities and thousands of jobs, are an integral part of the market transition,” she said.</p>
<p>Contact Sean Whaley at [email protected] or 775-461-3820. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/seanw801" type="external">@seanw801</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>&lt;img src="https://www.reviewjournal.com/sites/default/files/LEG-SOLAR-pies-FEB26.jpg" style="margin: 1em 0; width:100%; max-width: 640px" alt="NV Energy coal reduction plan (Gabriel Utasi/Las Vegas Review-Journal)" /&gt;</p>
<p>RELATED</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Deal reached to grandfather in rooftop solar customers under more favorable rates</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Rooftop solar shifts $36M a year to nonsolar ratepayers in Nevada, study says</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Nevada’s rooftop solar battle heats up with referendum</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Nevada rooftop solar advocates working to win over lawmakers</a></p>
<p /> | Nevada lawmakers want solar industry back on track | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/nevada-lawmakers-want-solar-industry-back-on-track/ | 2017-02-19 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Are women and minorities seen as riskier when it comes to small business lending?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Banks seem to think so, according to a study released Tuesday by the Small Business Administration (SBA). According to the findings, even when controlling for factors like industry and credit score, African American, Hispanic and women business owners were less likely than white male business owners to have their loan applications approved.</p>
<p>The research also found these minority business owners rely more on their own money – and less on outside capital – than companies run by white male business owners. &#160;And given these factors, firms run by African Americans, Hispanics and women end up operating on a much tighter budget. According to the findings, this is true both at the startup stage and several years down the line.</p>
<p>“Level of startup capital is a strong predictor of business success,” the SBA wrote, referencing two earlier studies on the topic.</p>
<p>According to the SBA, Asians were looked at separately from African American and Hispanic business owners in the study, because their levels of wealth are similar to white business owners.</p>
<p>An earlier study mentioned found assets are the single most important factor in determining business creation, and explain why African Americans and Hispanics create businesses less often than whites in the U.S.</p>
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<p>The Economy’s Role It’s no secret on Main St. that the economy has played a major role in tightening purse strings when it comes to small business loans.</p>
<p>During the tough economic times of late, the SBA study showed banks made a “flight to quality,” which means they were more likely to invest in older firms and in companies operating in safer industries.</p>
<p>But, analysts warn, this move has serious implications for economic recovery.</p>
<p>High tech companies are typically seen as the riskiest to invest in – but they also are shown to promote the most economic growth through employment, assets and innovation. So avoiding high tech companies because of their risk factor can mean slower economic growth on a large scale.</p>
<p>When it comes to high tech firms, African American, Hispanic and female business owners tended to have much less startup experience than their white and male counterparts.</p>
<p>How to Look Better on Paper to Bankers In general, small businesses aren’t particularly attractive to bank lenders, simply because of their size, says Doug Naidus, founder and CEO of World Business Lenders.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to improve your chances of getting funding. Naidus says small businesses make some pretty common mistakes that hurt their chances of securing loans – and they’re easy to fix.</p>
<p>“Especially in food services, many businesses don’t deposit cash into their bank accounts before paying vendors,” says Naidus. Making sure to put all cash into your account, which will allow you to show all company revenue to lenders, making your business more attractive.</p>
<p>“Small business lenders are focused on financial health and cash flow, so not depositing cash deprives them of proof of your cash flow,” he says.</p>
<p>This may seem obvious, but Naidus says paying bills on time is huge when it comes to determining a small company’s risk factor.</p>
<p>“Lenders will do alternate credit verification, where they verify credit by checking with a business’s regular vendors,” he says. So paying your vendors on time – all the time – is one easy way to better your chances of getting a loan.</p>
<p>Getting taxes in on time falls into the same category, says Naidus, and is also extremely important.</p>
<p>Lastly, make good with your landlord.</p>
<p>“Lenders use landlord verification, and the tone is as important as the substance,” Naidus says, adding that getting in good with your landlord, and making sure he’ll give you a positive review, can really make or break whether a small business secures a loan.</p> | Study: Women, Minorities Get Fewer Business Loans | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/30/study-women-minorities-get-fewer-business-loans.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>The feud between SIlas Young and Jay Lethal has been long and violent, fueled by revenge, jealousy and animosity. Bully Ray has proved to be a major force as well as a mentor; Bullet Club has more competition than ever before.</p>
<p>Mandy Leon has last week's 3 Count and it's all about Will Ferrara vs. Cheeseburger, Jay Lethal and Cody and Bullet Club.</p>
<p>Ring of Honor is owned by Circa's parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group.</p> | Ring of Honor 3 Count: Silas Young, Bully Ray and Bullet Club | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/09/15/action-sports/ring-of-honor-3-count-silas-young-bully-ray-and-bullet-club | 2017-09-15 | 1 |
<p>The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve on Monday said Wells Fargo &amp; Co. is back on track for its living-will regulatory assessment.</p>
<p>The regulators said the bank "adequately remediated the deficiencies" in its 2015 plan and is no longer subject to "growth restrictions" that were imposed on it when the regulators said it failed the test in December 2016.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The news offers a bright spot for the San Francisco bank, which faces a potentially contentious shareholder meeting Tuesday following its sales practices scandal that erupted in the fall.</p>
<p>A Wells Fargo spokesman didn't immediately comment.</p>
<p>So-called resolution plans, known as living wills, are a requirement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which sought to prevent bailouts partly by forcing big banks to develop a plan for how they could go through bankruptcy without taxpayer assistance. The law directed regulators to judge whether plans are credible and gave them power to sanction, or even break up, firms that are found lacking.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo submitted a revised plan in March 2017.</p>
<p>In a letter to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Timothy Sloan dated April 24, the regulatory agencies highlighted the bank's steps in legal entity rationalization and changes to better map shared services, according to a copy shared with media.</p>
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<p>Wells Fargo is next required to file a new living will plan by July 1, 2017, alongside other banks.</p>
<p>Write to Emily Glazer at [email protected]</p>
<p>Wells Fargo &amp; Co., girding for a contentious shareholders meeting, got some unexpected good news on another front: regulators signed off on its attempt to fix a blueprint for avoiding a bailout should the bank ever founder.</p>
<p>The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve on Monday said Wells Fargo passed its so-called living will for 2015. The regulators had failed the bank early last year and dinged it a second time in December, essentially meaning Wells Fargo had failed a make-up test.</p>
<p>A Wells Fargo spokesman didn't immediately comment.</p>
<p>So-called resolution plans, known as living wills, are a requirement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which sought to prevent bailouts partly by forcing big banks to develop a plan for how they could go through bankruptcy without taxpayer assistance. The law directed regulators to judge whether plans are credible and gave them power to sanction, or even break up, firms that are found lacking.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo's December failure marked the first time the Fed and FDIC imposed penalties on a bank under the living-wills process, barring Wells Fargo at the time from creating new international banking units or acquiring any nonbank subsidiaries. There would have been additional sanctions if the bank didn't pass its most recent resubmission, such as capping growth or forcing it to divest certain assets or businesses.</p>
<p>In failing the bank in December, regulators said they thought the bank hadn't devoted enough resources to the test, or made enough changes to its approach when compared with other banks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Wells Fargo submitted a revised plan in March 2017.</p>
<p>In a letter to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Timothy Sloan dated April 24, the regulators highlighted the bank's steps in legal entity rationalization and changes to better map shared services, according to a copy shared with media.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo is next required to file a new living will plan by July 1, 2017, alongside other banks.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the bank must get through its annual shareholder meeting Tuesday where some of its board members face opposition to re-election. Shareholders, especially public pension funds, have continued to come out against re-electing at least several directors due to the bank's sales-practices scandal last year.</p>
<p>Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who oversees the state's pension fund for about 60,000 employees, said on a call with media Monday that if other shareholders agree that there should be changes in the bank's board, he hopes to have a "dialogue with the bank about more appropriate choices."</p>
<p>Rhode Island's pension fund holds 139,256 Wells Fargo shares worth about $7 million.</p>
<p>One large Wells Fargo shareholder, San Francisco-based Parnassus Investments Inc., said Monday it is voting against re-electing five Wells Fargo board members on its risk committee since the "oversight was lax and their remedies tardy," according to the investment firm. As of March 31, Parnassus funds held about 13 million Wells Fargo shares, or about 0.33% of shares outstanding, according to FactSet.</p>
<p>Write to Emily Glazer at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 24, 2017 18:28 ET (22:28 GMT)</p> | Fed, FDIC Say Wells Fargo 'Remediated Deficiencies' in 2015 Living Will -- 2nd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/24/fed-fdic-say-wells-fargo-remediated-deficiencies-in-2015-living-will-2nd-update.html | 2017-04-24 | 0 |
<p>TUESDAY, Sept. 19, 2017 — Although it’s becoming more commonplace, medical marijuana is rarely discussed in U.S. medical schools, a new study shows.</p>
<p>“Medical education needs to catch up to marijuana legislation,” said senior author Dr. Laura Jean Bierut, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.</p>
<p>“Physicians in training need to know the benefits and drawbacks associated with medical marijuana so they know when or if, and to whom, to prescribe the drug,” she explained in a school news release.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marijuana/" type="external">Marijuana</a> is now legal — at least for medical purposes — in more than half the states in the country, the researchers said.</p>
<p>Curriculum deans at 101 medical schools completed surveys about marijuana education. Just over two-thirds said their graduates weren’t prepared to prescribe medical marijuana. One-quarter said their graduates weren’t even able to answer questions about medical marijuana.</p>
<p>The researchers also surveyed 258 medical residents and fellows from across the country. Nine out of 10 said they were unprepared to prescribe medical marijuana. Eighty-five percent said they hadn’t received any education about medical marijuana.</p>
<p>A look at the Association of Medical Colleges database revealed that only 9 percent of medical schools taught their students about medical marijuana.</p>
<p>“As a future physician, it worries me,” said study first author Anastasia Evanoff, a third-year medical student.</p>
<p>“We need to know how to answer questions about medical marijuana’s risks and benefits, but there is a fundamental mismatch between state laws involving marijuana and the education physicians-in-training receive at medical schools throughout the country,” Evanoff said.</p>
<p>She added that physicians are now getting better training on opioids.</p>
<p>“We talk about how those drugs can affect every organ system in the body, and we learn how to discuss the risks and benefits with patients,” Evanoff said of opioids. “But if a patient were to ask about medical marijuana, most medical students wouldn’t know what to say,” she said.</p>
<p>The research was published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.</p>
<p>More information</p>
<p>The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more on <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine" type="external">medical marijuana</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.</p> | 9 of 10 docs unprepared to prescribe marijuana | false | https://newsline.com/9-of-10-docs-unprepared-to-prescribe-marijuana/ | 2017-09-19 | 1 |
<p>Some of the hospital industry's most active investing these days is happening outside the hospital.</p>
<p>Giant U.S. hospital operators, including Tenet Healthcare Corp., Dignity Health and HCA Healthcare Inc., are investing heavily in surgery centers, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics located outside hospitals, chasing after patients who increasingly want cheaper and more convenient care.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Insurers and employers that pay for health care are helping drive the change as they shift more Americans to high-deductible insurance plans, which require patients to pay more of their medical bills before insurance kicks in. That has pushed more patients to seek lower-cost options, says RBC Capital Markets managing director Frank Morgan, a hospital analyst.</p>
<p>Hospital demand slumped during the last recession, a trend that has continued even as the economy recovers, American Hospital Association data through 2014 show. Admissions growth at HCA hospitals has slowed in recent quarters to 1% to 2%, as a boost from the Affordable Care Act faded, while Tenet's admissions have been flat or down 1% to 3% most quarters since late 2015.</p>
<p>In an effort to strengthen their hold on their markets and prevent rivals from siphoning off patients, hospitals are investing outside their own walls. They are "following the patient," Mr. Morgan said.</p>
<p>The strategy also places hospital satellites closer to where patients live and work, which executives say they hope will win over new, loyal customers.</p>
<p>In July, Ashley Hammack rushed to a new free-standing ER in Spring Hill, Tenn., after growing weak from vomiting. The facility, a satellite of TriStar Centennial Medical Center, is a 10 minute drive from her home, about 20 minutes closer than the hospital where she delivered her daughter five months before.</p>
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<p>Doctors saw her quickly. "I never even sat down," Ms. Hammack recalled. She was treated for severe dehydration from what doctors suspected was food poisoning and sent home with medication.</p>
<p>Trevor Fetter, Tenet's outgoing chief executive, says company executives have pursued rapid outpatient expansion partially out of necessity. Slumping admissions contributed to Tenet and HCA lowering their earnings estimates for 2017, which in turn hit stock prices.</p>
<p>It's unclear how the shift to out-of-hospital care will affect long-term earnings. Non-hospital operations typically generate lower revenue than hospitals but produce higher profit and require less capital to build and run.</p>
<p>But "it's happening anyway," Mr. Fetter said. "Somebody else is going to do it to us if we don't do it ourselves."</p>
<p>Prices for common surgical care can be sharply lower outside of hospitals, which generally have higher overhead related to round-the-clock operations and the technology and specialists needed to treat more complex cases.</p>
<p>Cataract surgery and knee arthroscopy prices at ambulatory surgery centers were $5,000 to $2,500 less than at hospitals for employees and retirees with health insurance provided by the California Public Employees' Retirement System, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Calpers changed its benefits five years ago to nudge patients toward the cheaper ambulatory option, a spokesman said, and will expand its plan to include a dozen more surgeries starting in January.</p>
<p>Tenet Healthcare, which operates 77 hospitals, is expected to spend up to $1.9 billion through 2020 to complete the buyout of private-equity-backed United Surgical Partners International, an operator of ambulatory surgery centers. The company acquired slightly more than half of USPI in 2015 and agreed to buy the rest over five years. Tenet said it would spend an additional $100 million to $150 million annually on other free-standing surgery centers, emergency rooms and satellite locations.</p>
<p>Business from outside hospitals accounted for 28% of Tenet's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as of August, up from 5% in 2014. That business could be spun off or sold under pressure from an activist investor that is Tenet's largest institutional shareholder, according to analysts.</p>
<p>Dignity Health, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, owns hospitals in three states. After a string of joint ventures and a 2012 acquisition, it also now operates more than 280 free-standing emergency rooms, urgent care and workplace clinics and so-called microhospitals, which have emergency rooms, fewer beds and more limited technology.</p>
<p>Peggy Sanborn, vice president of strategic growth, mergers and acquisitions for Dignity Health, said joint-replacement surgery outside a hospital seemed impossible a decade ago. Now, aided by technology that has improved implants and made procedures less invasive, Dignity Health is able to replace hips and knees outside the hospital in limited cases, she said. Patients who receive the outpatient procedures are relatively healthy and at low risk for complications.</p>
<p>HCA, the largest publicly traded U.S. hospital company with 172 hospitals, says it will operate 120 free-standing urgent care centers by the end of the year, an increase of 40% from two years ago. The Nashville-based firm has doubled the number of free-standing emergency rooms it operates since 2015 to 64, and expects to increase that number to 80 by early next year.</p>
<p>HCA plans to spend $3 billion on expansion this year, including on new satellite locations, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Milton Johnson.</p>
<p>Some hospital executives tout outpatient growth as a strategy to win market share for hospitals. Patients who seek care at a neighborhood retail clinic may choose a hospital owned by the same company, they say. Employers and insurance companies may also prefer hospital operators with an expansive outpatient network.</p>
<p>HCA's hospital market share in Nashville grew to 35% from about 32% over the past five years as the company added three ambulatory surgery centers, four free-standing emergency rooms and 10 urgent care centers to the market. HCA also invested in its hospitals during that period.</p>
<p>Patients' drift away from hospitals has focused executives' attention on what hospitals should look like in the future.</p>
<p>Tenet is studying which services "over the next 10 to 20 years will stay in the hospital," Eric Evans, president of hospital operations for Tenet, told analysts on a conference call last month. For now, that includes trauma care and neurosurgery.</p>
<p>"Technology continues to open the door for more things to be done on an outpatient basis," Mr. Evans said. "Our goal is, as technology moves, is to be location-agnostic."</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 25, 2017 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)</p> | Warding Off Decline, Hospitals Invest in Outpatient Clinics | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/25/warding-off-decline-hospitals-invest-in-outpatient-clinics.html | 2017-09-25 | 0 |
<p>Most visual artists want to have their work displayed in museums, galleries, books, or even as&#160;installations in public parks. One artist, however, set her sights on displaying a series of art&#160;designs on the front page of her local newspaper.&#160;</p>
<p>Anna Schuleit Haber, a visual artist and MacArthur Fellow, is the mastermind behind the public&#160;art project known as “The Alphabet.” She worked with 26&#160;different designers and&#160;typographers from around the world to come up with the designs for the project —&#160;a series of 26&#160;custom letters of the alphabet.&#160;</p>
<p>The installation has “hijacked” the front page of the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise&#160;for over a&#160;month. Each custom-designed letter gets one day to dominate the front page of the Massachusetts&#160;daily newspaper.</p>
<p>And the newspaper is running stories connected to the letter in an arrangement around the&#160;typographical centerpiece on the front page.</p>
<p>Now the artists’ typographical work can be found all over Fitchburg: delivered to people’s front&#160;steps, stacked in residents’ living rooms, spread out over morning cups of coffee, and pressed&#160;up against the windows of newspaper racks and vending machines.</p>
<p>Schuleit Haber says her project was the result of searching for a way to connect the newspaper&#160;and its readers to the arts.&#160;“I said, ‘What if we connect the arts with your day-to-day rhythm? What if we use the actual front&#160;page to make art together? And the art would be visual as well as literal. It would be storytelling&#160;as well,” Schuleit Haber says, explaining how she persuaded&#160;the paper to let her take over the&#160;front page.</p>
<p>She decided the project would take the form of custom-designed letters of the alphabet because&#160;it was something the newspaper’s readers could easily connect to.&#160;</p>
<p>“I said, ‘Well, what if we used letters of the alphabet, the most unemotional series that everyone&#160;can agree on? A 5-year-old knows the alphabet and a 95-year-old knows it,’” she says.&#160;</p>
<p>The Fitchburg daily agreed to the project, and decided to collect a variety of local, community,&#160;and human interest stories to accompany each of the letters. For example, when the letter ‘F’&#160;ran, the newspaper put up a story about a man from Fitchburg who <a href="http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/breakingnews/ci_28362171/don-featherstone-creator-pink-flamingo-lawn-ornament-dies" type="external">invented the pink plastic&#160;lawn flamingo</a>.</p>
<p>So far, it seems the art project is being embraced by the paper’s readers. People have even&#160;begun collecting papers in the series, calling and asking where they can get copies of letters&#160;they don’t have in their set.&#160;</p>
<p>Schuleit Haber, however, says the public art project is about more than popularizing a local&#160;paper.&#160;</p>
<p>“We're also marking the sheer beauty of something that is rare. There's a rarity to the paper&#160;version which, in the end, lives a whole other life than something that's on the web. That's what&#160;I'm excited about as an artist. I love the feeling of paper, the tactile-ness. I love the smell of the&#160;ink in the press room when I go there at midnight. It's wonderful and just an honor and a great&#160;joy to work with a newspaper,” Schuleit Haber says.&#160;</p>
<p>“The Alphabet,” displays one letter on the front page of the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise&#160;every weekday, and is set to continue through August 11.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.studio360.org/story/the-abc-of-public-art/" type="external">This story</a> first aired as an interview on <a href="http://www.studio360.org/" type="external">PRI's Studio 360</a> with Kurt Andersen.</p> | The visual artist who 'hijacked' the front page of her local newspaper | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-08-07/visual-artist-who-hijacked-front-page-her-local-newspaper | 2015-08-07 | 3 |
<p>The Canadian mining company Nevsun – the first multinational miner inside Eritrea, one of Africa’s most secretive nations – did little to prevent forced labor at its gold and copper operations there, Human Rights Watch says.</p>
<p>A 29-page report released today chastises Nevsun Resources for agreeing to work with an Eritrean construction company notorious for using conscripted laborers who toiled in squalor for the firm.</p>
<p>“If mining companies are going to work in Eritrea, they need to make absolutely sure that their operations don’t rely on forced labor,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, a researcher at <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/15/eritrea-mining-investors-risk-use-forced-labor" type="external">Human Rights Watch</a>. “If they can’t prevent this, they shouldn’t move forward at all.”</p>
<p>Employees worked in poverty-like conditions with no sanitation and poor food when operations began in 2009. They toiled 12 hours per day, six days per week all for $15 per month, <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/nevsun-accused-of-turning-blind-eye-to-forced-labour/article7341010/" type="external">The Globe and Mail</a> reported.</p>
<p>Nevsun’s owners admit not knowing if forced labor existed when it started, but insist they took steps to prevent any further abuses and that none is used today.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/chatter/worlds-most-censored-country-eritrea" type="external">World’s most censored country? Eritrea</a></p>
<p>“Nevsun is committed to responsible operations and practices at the Bisha mine, based on international standards of safety, governance and human rights,” CEO Cliff Davis said on the <a href="http://www.nevsun.com/news/2013/january11/" type="external">company website</a>.</p>
<p>The report, called <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/01/15/hear-no-evil-0" type="external">Hear No Evil</a>: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Eritrea’s Mining Sector, was released today by the New York-based non-governmental organization.</p>
<p>HRW accuses Nevsun of failing to prevent forced labor and then reacting slowly to accusations once construction of its Bisha mine began.</p>
<p>The mine is a joint venture between Nevsun and the government-owned Eritrea National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO).</p>
<p>It was ENAMCO that insisted the Canadians use Segen Construction Company, a firm known for past human rights abuses. Now, Human Rights Watch wants other miners to avoid the same mistakes.</p>
<p>Firms from China and Australia, and another from Canada, plan to open projects inside the impoverished country rich with mineral resources.</p>
<p>Bisha produced 313,000 ounces of gold last year and employed almost 1,000 people. Nevsun said that since early 2011, Bisha has contributed more than $400 million directly to the government and added tens of millions more through wages and spinoffs, Nevsun said.</p>
<p>“As we get closer to construction, it’s something we’ll have to pay close attention to,” Greg Davis, vice-president at Canada’s Sunridge Gold Corp., told the <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/11/nevsun-resources-rejects-claims-it-used-forced-labour-at-eritrea-mine/" type="external">Financial Post</a>.</p>
<p>Eritrea is a nation of 6 million inside the&#160;Horn of Africa. It won its independence from Ethiopia in 1991.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/world-at-play/eritrea-soccer-team-disappears-believed-defected" type="external">Eritrea’s national soccer team disappears, believed to have defected</a></p> | Human Rights Watch blasts Canadian miner Nevsun for Eritrea operation | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-01-15/human-rights-watch-blasts-canadian-miner-nevsun-eritrea-operation | 2013-01-15 | 3 |
<p>Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p />
<p>While most scientists agree that oil is abiogenic, or formed from biomass, creationist John D. Matthews (credentials unknown) has a different theory:&#160;Oil comes from God. In Answers Research Journal, which is published by the creationist ministry <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/" type="external">Answers in Genesis</a> (the same folks who reported on the <a href="" type="internal">creationist Girl Scout</a>) Matthews <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/arj/v1/n1/origin-of-oil" type="external">argues</a> that God made petroleum in right after he made the Earth, and that the oil moved during the great flood.</p>
<p>As evidence for his theory, Matthews offers Noah’s Ark:</p>
<p>Some kind of oil derivative was used by Noah to waterproof the Ark. We also have to recognize that, in the pre-Flood landscape (although we do not have detailed descriptions in the book of Genesis), we do know that a wide range of minerals were available for human use. We read of gold, onyx, soil, building materials for cities, bronze and iron. The wide range of vegetation and the number of animal kinds also point to God who was liberal with his creative activity. So that although oil is not something simple (see earlier), the idea of God directly creating oil is not unreasonable when compared with other aspects of the young-earth creationist model.</p>
<p>Right. Read the Mother Jones story on evangelical oil prospecting <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>HT&#160; <a href="http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/where_does_oil_come_from/" type="external">J-Walk blog</a>.</p>
<p /> | Creationist Says Oil’s From God | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/creationist-says-oil-comes-god/ | 2009-07-29 | 4 |
<p>Illustration: Brian Stauffer</p>
<p />
<p>[Editor’s note: This story first ran online in December, 2011. This is the updated version that appears in the <a href="" type="internal">March/April 2012 issue</a> of the magazine.]</p>
<p>“THIS IS A COLLECT CALL from a correctional institution,” says the robotic female voice at the other end of the line. After a moment of confusion, I realize it must be Felix Garcia, whom I’d visited several weeks earlier in a northern Florida prison. He’s serving a life sentence on a robbery-murder charge for which his own brother now admits to framing him.</p>
<p>Felix is deaf, which is why he’s using a TTY operator. I’d sent him a card for his 50th birthday, a picture of flowers and some lame words of encouragement. Now he’s calling to thank me and to plead for help. Four of his fellow deaf inmates have tried to commit suicide, he explains; one somehow managed to swallow a razor blade. It sounds like Felix is thinking about doing the same. “Please,” the voice intones, “will you phone my lawyers? I can’t get through to them.”</p>
<p>Felix lost most of his hearing when he was still a kid. For most of his three decades behind bars, starting at age 19, he—like most deaf prisoners in America—has been housed in the general population with few services for his disability. He’s been raped, targeted by other prisoners, and ignored or taunted, he says, by guards who think he’s faking. Last year, he tried to hang himself.</p>
<p>“Felix,” I plead awkwardly. “You are not going to kill yourself.”</p>
<p>“I won’t do it,” he says finally. “I have Jesus.”</p>
<p>I repeat: “Do not kill yourself.”</p>
<p>“Yes, sir.” The call cuts off.</p>
<p>After a few minutes, I pick up the phone and call Pat Bliss, a 69-year-old paralegal who for the past 15 years has served as Felix’s advocate, crafting defense strategies, writing motions and briefs, and helping usher his case through the courts. The lawyer who helps Pat with the case calls her “an angel.” Which is something Felix needs more than anyone I’ve ever met.</p>
<p>Felix grew up in Tampa, one of six children in a working-class Cuban American family. Almost from birth he suffered from severe ear infections. He struggled with headaches and earaches and often missed school. He would stuff cotton balls in his ears, a former schoolmate recalls, to prevent pus from leaking out.</p>
<p>A good-looking kid with a sweet demeanor, he managed to make it through school by getting girls to tutor him—or help him cheat. Still, by high school Felix was having difficulty understanding people even when they spoke up, and he struggled to speak clearly as he lost the ability to hear his own voice. “I hear sounds, and I hear voices,” he would later tell a judge. “But I can’t make out the words unless I am looking at the person.” It felt, he noted, like being underwater.</p>
<p>Felix Garcia celebrating his GED in 1984 Courtesy Pat Bliss.</p>
<p>After graduating, Felix had a run-in with the law for passing a bad check. (He got probation.) He worked as a brick mason, and when he was 19, he and his girlfriend, Michelle, had a baby girl they named Candise. Occasionally he would hang around with his siblings, some of whom had gotten involved, as he puts it, with “the street.”</p>
<p>On August 4, 1981, his brother Frank, his sister Tina, and her boyfriend, Ray Stanley, took Felix to a pawnshop. Frank had a ring he wanted to hock. Saying he didn’t have ID on him, he asked Felix to sign the pawn ticket. The ring, it turned out, belonged to a man who’d been murdered the day before at a motel. Six days later police, having traced the ticket, arrested Felix at Tina and Ray’s house.</p>
<p>Felix insisted he knew nothing about the crime. Michelle and her mother later testified that he was with them at the time of the killing. But Frank, who knew the victim and had left his prints at the scene, fingered Felix as the killer and was convicted of armed robbery and second-degree murder—a lesser charge than he might have faced. Tina, who married Ray shortly after the arrest, also agreed to testify against her younger brother.</p>
<p>At trial, in 1983, a doctor declared that Felix had severe hearing loss—he still kept cotton in his ears to stanch the pus. The court issued him a hearing aid and a loudspeaker, neither of which helped him discern speech. Felix tried to read lips, but he was seated far from the witness box, and the prosecutor often faced in the wrong direction. For the most part, he had no idea what was going on.</p>
<p>IT’S HARD TO KNOW how many deaf people are locked up, since prison authorities don’t generally bother to keep count. While studying Texas prisons a decade ago, Katrina Miller, a corrections official turned academic researcher, discovered that a whopping 30 percent of the inmates met the clinical threshold for “hard of hearing.” In any case, the experts I spoke with say Felix’s experience is not unusual.</p>
<p>On paper, anyone with a disability is legally protected against discrimination. In practice, institutions of justice are often ill equipped or disinclined to deal with special needs. “Deaf people have a hard time,” says retired McDaniel College psychology professor McCay Vernon, an authority on the deaf who is familiar with Felix’s case. “The courts—judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers—just don’t understand what they’re up against. Turning up the sound system doesn’t mean the defendant better understands what’s going on. He just hears more noise.” Courtroom sign interpreters often can’t keep pace with proceedings, Vernon adds, and many deaf people simply lack the vocabulary to understand. “Their ability to read can lag far behind hearing people.”</p>
<p>Perusing the trial transcript years later, Pat asked Felix why he’d been so quick to answer “yes” to one question after another. “If I say no, they’re going to think I’m stupid,” Felix replied. “Plus I wanted to get off the stand and go home.” By the time the trial began, he’d already been in jail for two years.</p>
<p>In July 1983, Felix was convicted on the basis of his siblings’ testimony and the signed pawn ticket—the only physical evidence against him. He received a life sentence for first-degree murder and a concurrent 99 years for armed robbery and was placed in a maximum-security lockup. He and Michelle parted ways, and he never saw her again. His mother visited a few times, but then his parents wrote Felix a letter saying they were moving to Tennessee and that he shouldn’t look for them if he ever got out. By 1987, when he finally got an operation to take care of the pus drainage, Felix was living in a kind of sensory solitary confinement—until Pat Bliss found him.</p>
<p>Felix in 1999 Courtesy Pat Bliss.</p>
<p>PAT IS A PETITE FORMER UNITED Airlines flight attendant—once widowed and twice divorced—who lives alone in Virginia, in a big house decorated with teddy bears and wallpaper with pictures of deer. Her office is crowded with files containing Felix’s case documents, and its walls are adorned with photos of him. His only personal possessions, his early photo albums, are displayed on a shelf.</p>
<p>In the early 1990s, after Pat’s second husband died of cancer, she was at loose ends for a time. But she’d found a new calling when a woman in her Bible study “spoke out the message” that the Lord was sending Pat to work among prisoners. She attended one of the weekend trainings of Chuck Colson—the Watergate conspirator turned prison minister—and was soon working for defense lawyers as a liaison to local jails. In October 1996, she received a package from an inmate who was helping Felix with sign interpretation. It included court documents and a draft motion by a fellow prisoner hoping to reverse Felix’s conviction.</p>
<p>Reading over the papers, “I was appalled at the injustice,” Pat recalls. “I felt I had to do something.” Before long, she was preparing motions aimed at overturning Felix’s conviction on the grounds that he couldn’t understand the testimony at his own trial. But it turned out Florida law gives inmates only two years to file such motions, and Felix was nearly 12 years past that deadline. He also missed the cutoff for filing a federal habeas petition.</p>
<p>When his motion was denied, Felix “sat there in that box,” Pat tells me tearfully as we sit on her living room sofa. “He was shackled. And he mouthed to me, ‘Why? I am innocent.'” She continues: “I went to the jail after that and I told him, ‘Felix, I am sticking with you till the very end. I will be that mother you don’t have, that sister you don’t have.’ And he’s called me Mom ever since.”</p>
<p>Laura Rovner, a former staff attorney with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), told me Felix might have convinced a judge to toss his conviction were it not for the missed filing deadlines. After all, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandates that any entity receiving federal money have an effective communications system for the deaf, and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifically requires state and local agencies to make sure a disabled person can communicate as effectively as anyone else. “It is hard to think of a situation where that is more critical than where somebody is being tried for a serious crime,” Rovner says.</p>
<p>But institutions of justice “frequently do not honor the letter and spirit” of these laws, says Howard Rosenblum, who heads the NAD. “The challenge has been to actually litigate against every law enforcement agency, lawyer, court, and prison that violate the requirements.” The Justice Department could force state and federal prisons to comply, Rosenblum adds, but it has failed to do so. (The DOJ didn’t respond to my requests for comment.)</p>
<p>As a result, disabled people who land in the slammer face what David Fathi, head of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, calls “a nightmare of vulnerability, abuse, and exclusion from the most basic prison programs and services,” adding, “I think prisoners who are deaf or blind are often the worst off of all.”</p>
<p>Specifically, Rosenblum says, deaf and hard-of-hearing inmates are often “unable to understand instructions of guards, to take classes that make them eligible for early release, to learn skills, to know when meals are announced, to know when visitors are here to see them, to watch television, to use the telephone, to express grievances, to communicate with counselors or doctors, and to defend against claims of misconduct.”</p>
<p>Jack Cowley, a former Oklahoma warden who serves on the advisory board of the National Institute of Corrections (which provides federal support to corrections agencies) tends to agree. While most prison officials would say, “‘Oh, yes, we make accommodation,'” he says, “there is still this sort of deliberate indifference when it comes to back in the cellblocks.” Most state facilities, Cowley adds, try to house their deaf inmates together for mutual support, “and hopefully some staff member will find some compassion and look after them.” But “there’s not a lot of sympathy in the halls.”</p>
<p>In 2003, Pat approached the Florida courts with fresh evidence: an affidavit from Frank, who, apparently feeling remorseful, conceded that Felix was innocent. Felix had received it back in 1989 and given it to a jailhouse law clerk, who misfiled it as a habeas petition. When it was returned for refiling, Felix, flummoxed by the legal jargon, thought he’d been denied. Pat only discovered the affidavit years later while going through Felix’s papers.</p>
<p>Frank became the star witness at an evidentiary hearing the court ï¬nally granted in 2006, after a three-year delay. Pat had collected affidavits from five inmates who’d known Frank at various prisons. All swore that Frank had told them he’d pinned the killing on his kid brother in the hope of sidestepping death row. On the witness stand, Frank admitted the same: “He had nothing to do with it,” he testified. “It was me and Raymond Stanley that did it.”</p>
<p>Nearly a year later, the judge denied Felix’s motion for retrial or release, saying he couldn’t discern what was true.</p>
<p>ON A SUNNY SUMMER morning, after driving all the way from Virginia to Florida the previous day, Pat picks me up at the Jacksonville airport in her red Nissan Xterra. Our destination is the Jefferson Correctional Institution, two hours due west, a cluster of unremarkable sand-colored structures with dark, slanted roofs. When we arrive, an officer escorts us to a building where an assistant warden offers up his office for my interview with Felix. About 10 feet off stands a man with short salt-and-pepper hair. “Hi, Felix,” I call out, before reminding myself aloud, “Oh, right, he can’t hear me.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Garcia?” says the warden. “He can hear.”</p>
<p>In fact, the prison’s medical staff has deemed Felix profoundly deaf, with hearing loss exceeding 90 decibels. So he can hear, in some muffled fashion, the sound of a car horn, a Harley-Davidson, or a jet taking off, but not human voices. His prison-issued hearing aid merely amplifies the institutional din, Felix says. But because he tries so hard to accommodate and understand, guards think he hears more than he lets on.</p>
<p>Pat Bliss and Felix at Polk Correctional institution, June 5, 2010 Courtesy Pat Bliss.</p>
<p>Behind his round glasses, Felix’s face is gaunt but expressive, and his voice contains a note of desperation. He speaks and signs simultaneously, with Pat acting as our mutual translator. Felix explains that his situation has been getting worse. He was removed from a prison where he had a small community of deaf acquaintances and sent to a series of other facilities before landing here. Shortly before the move, he’d seen his daughter, now 30, for the first time since she was six months old—she lives in Florida, but too far away to visit regularly. At Jefferson, he’s housed apart from other deaf prisoners and lacks access to sign language interpreters. He lives in fear of offending fellow inmates by inadvertently ignoring them; shortly after arriving here he got into a fight and ended up in solitary.</p>
<p>I ask him about the rape. It happened in December 2010, he says, when two men assaulted him in a shower at the Department of Corrections’ Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. He reported it and for weeks afterward spent hours each day crouching in terror against his cell door, trying to decipher noises that might announce another would-be assailant. He was later transferred to the Madison Correctional Institution, where he attempted to hang himself with a sheet. The staff put him on suicide watch, Felix says, leaving him naked in a cell for six days. (Suicidal inmates, clarifies a prison official, are clad in a nonflammable, untearable paper “shroud.”)</p>
<p>In theory, Felix could file a civil rights lawsuit, but the Clinton-era Prison Litigation Reform Act makes it extraordinarily difficult for individual prisoners to bring a federal case. Class actions in New York and Virginia have resulted in somewhat improved services for deaf prisoners in those states, and there are suits pending against the Illinois corrections department and the federal Bureau of Prisons. A Florida lawsuit aimed at winning deaf inmates access to a device that would let them watch TV was tossed recently after prison officials argued that there were not enough plaintiffs to justify a class action. (In a deposition, an ADA compliance officer for the Department of Corrections admitted she had no idea how many deaf prisoners there were in the system; a DOC spokeswoman later told me that only 74 inmates were receiving services.)</p>
<p>Beyond trying to improve Felix’s lot in prison, Pat concedes, few options remain. She’s exhausted every angle in his criminal case. In theory, Gov. Rick Scott could grant him a pardon, but Scott, a tea party champion elected in 2010, has generally moved to make the clemency process more arduous. Felix will be eligible for parole in 2024, at age 62, but even then his odds will be abysmal. Only 50 Florida prisoners were paroled last year; in fact, the state eliminated parole for virtually all new convictions in 1995.</p>
<p>A few months after our interview, Felix was moved again, this time to Tomoka Correctional Institution, where there are deaf inmates and some programs available. He’s less isolated now but only slightly less fearful. “Many, many times, deaf people raped and beat and no help from the officers,” Felix wrote in a letter to McCay Vernon. “Many times I just want to die but have Jesus in heart…Pray every day to help other deaf.”</p>
<p /> | The Silent Treatment | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/deaf-prisoners-felix-garcia/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
<p>MIAMI (AP) — A Cuban teenager has died, days after doctors in Miami removed a 10-pound tumor from his face.</p>
<p>The Miami Herald reports that 14-year-old Emanuel Zayas’ condition went downhill after the surgery at the Holtz Children’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He died Friday from lung and kidney complications.</p>
<p>Dr. Robert Marx, head of the maxillofacial surgery at the University of Miami Health System, said the Zayas family donated the boy’s remains to science with the goal of learning more about Polyostotic fibrous dysplasia.</p>
<p>The teen’s tumor was benign, but it pressed on his trachea and threatened to suffocate him. The family came to Miami for medical care that wasn’t available in Cuba.</p>
<p>His parents, Noel Zayas and Melvis Vizaino are pastors of an evangelical church in Santa Clara.</p>
<p>MIAMI (AP) — A Cuban teenager has died, days after doctors in Miami removed a 10-pound tumor from his face.</p>
<p>The Miami Herald reports that 14-year-old Emanuel Zayas’ condition went downhill after the surgery at the Holtz Children’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He died Friday from lung and kidney complications.</p>
<p>Dr. Robert Marx, head of the maxillofacial surgery at the University of Miami Health System, said the Zayas family donated the boy’s remains to science with the goal of learning more about Polyostotic fibrous dysplasia.</p>
<p>The teen’s tumor was benign, but it pressed on his trachea and threatened to suffocate him. The family came to Miami for medical care that wasn’t available in Cuba.</p>
<p>His parents, Noel Zayas and Melvis Vizaino are pastors of an evangelical church in Santa Clara.</p> | Cuban boy dies after surgery to remove 10-pound face tumor | false | https://apnews.com/feedb2a3292d45388584860a60256ff4 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Marquette University Tribune NPR commentator and Esquire writer Charles Pierce returned to Marquette University and told students: "I did not take the route that was suggested by all my professors here. I kind of stumbled around until I fell into a bunch of stuff. The only plan I had was that I didn't want the plan everyone told me I should have." He attributes much of his success to "blind luck... and recognizing the opportunity when it's there."</p> | Esquire's Pierce avoided career path suggested by profs | false | https://poynter.org/news/esquires-pierce-avoided-career-path-suggested-profs | 2006-01-24 | 2 |
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<p>BELFAST (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who played a central role in brokering peace in Northern Ireland, may travel to Belfast this week to try to break a months-long political impasse, a source close to the talks said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Northern Ireland has been without a devolved administration since its collapse in January, raising the prospect of direct rule being reimposed from London, potentially destabilizing a delicate political balance in the British province.</p>
<p>Clinton was due in Belfast on Monday to meet the parties but the trip was postponed as Tropical Storm Ophelia began to batter Ireland's southern coast and moved towards Northern Ireland.</p>
<p>Depending on the weather, Clinton, who is scheduled to receive an Honorary Doctorate at Dublin City University on Tuesday, could travel to Belfast later that day.</p>
<p>"He's keen to help," the source told Reuters.</p>
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<p>Clinton traveled to Belfast in March to speak at the funeral of Martin McGuinness when he urged politicians to finish the work started by the Irish Republican Army commander who became a cornerstone of the peace process.</p>
<p>The main impediment in the talks between Irish nationalists Sinn Fein and the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is disagreement over the rights of Irish language speakers.</p>
<p>The British and Irish governments, who are facilitating the talks, have expressed cautious optimism that the region's power-sharing government can be restored this month but the parties have said there are still challenges to be addressed.</p>
<p>(Editing by Padraic Halpin and Angus MacSwan)</p> | Bill Clinton called to break Northern Ireland political impasse: source | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/10/16/bill-clinton-called-to-break-northern-ireland-political-impasse-source.html | 2017-10-16 | 0 |
<p>By Sean Penn, Ross Mirkarimi and Reese Erlich</p>
<p>Two of us (Sean Penn and Reese Erlich), during our travels to Iran in 2005, interviewed numerous ordinary Iranians. People were very friendly toward us as Americans but very hostile to U.S. policy against their country. We visited Friday prayers where 10,000 people chanted “Death to America.” Afterward some of those same people invited us home for lunch.</p>
<p>That contradiction continues today as Iran goes through its most significant upheaval since the 1979 revolution. Iranians are rising up against an authoritarian system but don’t want U.S. intervention.</p>
<p>Many Iranians believe that they have experienced a coup d’état in which the military and intelligence services have hijacked the presidential election. Through vote buying and manipulation of the count, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad guaranteed himself another four years in office.</p>
<p />
<p>In June over a million Iranians marched in the streets of major cities across the country. The spontaneous demonstrations included well-to-do supporters of opposition candidates, but also large numbers of workers, farmers, small business people and the devoutly religious. They were fed up with 30 years of a system that used Islam as an excuse for union labor strikebreaking, lack of women’s rights and repression.</p>
<p>The Iranian government responded to these peaceful protests with savagery, killing dozens of people. Some human rights groups put the number at over 100. The government admits arresting 2,500 people nationwide and continues to hold at least 500. Most are being held without charges or have simply disappeared.</p>
<p>The repression hasn’t killed the movement. On July 17, over 10,000 people came to Friday prayers in support of the opposition. Instead of chanting “Death to America,” they chanted “Death to the Dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Police attacked them with clubs and teargas.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in Washington, some politicians tried to use the crisis for their own ends. Sen. John McCain criticized President Obama for not taking a stronger position against the Iranian government. It’s ironic to hear McCain and other conservatives proclaim their support for the people of Iran when a few months ago they wanted to bomb them.</p>
<p>That doesn’t exactly build credibility among Iranians.</p>
<p>President Obama faces tough choices on Iran. If he speaks out loudly against Ahmadinejad, he is accused of meddling in Iran’s internal affairs. If he says too little, then right-wingers in the U.S. accuse him of being soft on Ahmadinejad.</p>
<p>In reality, the U.S. has very little ability to impact what has become a massive, spontaneous movement for change. And it shouldn’t. The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, bringing the dictatorial shah back to power. The Bush administration attempted to overthrow the Iranian government by funding and arming ethnic minority groups opposed to Tehran.</p>
<p>The U.S. government has no moral or political authority to tell Iranians what they should do. Iranians are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves.</p>
<p>That’s why citizen diplomacy is so important. Iranian demonstrators welcome the support of ordinary Americans. Joan Baez recorded a Farsi language version of “We Shall Overcome” that has shot around the world on YouTube.</p>
<p>Iranian activists are holding a hunger strike in front of the U.N. in New York from July 22 to July 24 demanding that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon send a special commission to Iran.</p>
<p>We urge you to participate in the July 25 demonstrations around the U.S. and in Europe. Stand in solidarity with Iranians and against U.S. intervention in Iran ( <a href="http://www.norcal4iran.org" type="external">www.norcal4iran.org</a>).</p>
<p>Sean Penn is an actor who wrote about Iran for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005. Ross Mirkarimi is a San Francisco supervisor, the first elected Iranian-American to hold that office. Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist and author of “The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis.”</p>
<p /> | Support Iran Protesters Without Meddling | true | http://truthdig.com/support | 2009-07-21 | 4 |
<p>BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nine Syrians froze to death crossing into Lebanon when an icy storm hit a smuggling route in the mountains near a border post with Syria, the Lebanese Army said on Friday.</p>
<p>The army rescued six others from near the Masnaa border crossing, one of whom later died in hospital, an army statement said.</p>
<p>The army arrested two Syrians on smuggling charges and is still searching for others lost in the snow, it added.</p>
<p>Syrians wishing to enter Lebanon must prove to Lebanese authorities they have reason to be in Lebanon, such as property ownership, an embassy appointment, or a residency permit.</p>
<p>For many Syrians fleeing war in their country, securing residency or work permits is impossible. Many are in Lebanon illegally and face arrest if discovered.</p>
<p>Lebanon took in around 1.5 million Syrian refugees at the height of Syria’s conflict, now in its seventh year.</p>
<p>Reporting by Lisa Barrington; editing by Mark Heinrich</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Syrians freeze to death crossing mountains into Lebanon | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-lebanon-syria/syrians-freeze-to-death-crossing-mountains-into-lebanon-idUSKBN1F81RO | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Oil prices edged higher in volatile trading on Friday as signs of strengthening demand was offset by still-high global stocks and concerns about economic growth.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Benchmark Brent and U.S. WTI crude oil contracts were on track for weekly gains, but fluctuated between intraday gains to losses amid conflicting signals on the supply/demand picture.</p>
<p>Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were up 48 cents at $48.90 per barrel at 1338 GMT, after trading as much as 64 cents higher and 27 cents lower.</p>
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $46.58 per barrel, up 50 cents, after trading between 64 cents higher 28 cents lower earlier in the day.</p>
<p>"It's been a jumpy Friday in the oil market," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy with Saxo Bank, adding that the volatility was "primarily driven by traders covering what up until recently was an extended short position."</p>
<p>Prices spiked earlier in the day following a force majeure declaration on exports of Nigeria's Bonny Light crude, but sank into negative territory after data showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in June, casting doubt on demand in the world's largest oil consumer.</p>
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<p>Both contracts were roughly 5 percent above the week's lows, aided by reports of accelerating demand growth from the International Energy Agency (IEA), crude oil import growth in China and falling crude stocks in the United States.</p>
<p>China's crude oil imports over the first six months of 2017 were 13.8 percent above the same period in 2016, customs data showed. Asian traders are selling oil products out of tanks amid soaring demand, while the EIA reported the largest drop in U.S. crude oil inventories in the week to last week in 10 months.</p>
<p>Analysts at Commerzbank said a reduction in the developed world's oil stocks was likely to continue "so long OPEC does not significantly increase its output any further."</p>
<p>Still, oil stocks remained comfortably above the five-year average, and prices are more than 16 percent below their 2017 highs, despite an extension to March 2018 of output cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) coordinated by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.</p>
<p>OPEC's rebalancing effort has been stymied in part by rising output from Libya and Nigeria, which are exempt from the cuts, but June compliance among other members also fell to just 78 percent, according to the IEA.</p>
<p>"It's not too long before the market starts looking at the supply situation ... which is anything but encouraging," PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said.</p>
<p>(By Libby George; Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein and Aaron Sheldrick in Singapore, editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)</p> | Oil edges up in choppy trade on signs of higher demand | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/14/oil-firm-as-signs-higher-demand-outweigh-worries-excess.html | 2017-07-14 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON — History is forever burdened by the propensity of the political class to stir the public into hysteria over this or that threat, even if fabrications — not fact — form the basis of the provocation. The Iraq war is the most grievous recent tragedy to fall into the pattern.</p>
<p>Phantoms are forever stalking the public conscience. The hype over gay marriage as a threat to the sanctity of the American family has led voters in 23 states to approve bans on such unions, thus relieving themselves of the psychic burden that gay couples pose to them — couples who are perceived, apparently, as a greater peril than a miserably sexualized pop culture that many of these same voters undoubtedly devour.</p>
<p>Fear is stoked unabashedly by partisans who gain from exaggerating whatever threat suits their purpose. Since the 2000 Florida election debacle, Republicans have had great success in convincing Americans that “voter fraud” — in particular, ineligible voters who cast ballots (or try to cast ballots) on Election Day — is a grave and growing threat to the republic and so requires each voter to present a photo identification in order to exercise what is supposed to be a fundamental right.</p>
<p>It matters not that the most frequent form of voting fraud is carried out through absentee ballots, which generally require no identity check other than verification of a signature. Or that even the Bush Justice Department, despite all efforts, has found no evidence that impersonating a qualified voter is at all commonplace. Or that states for decades managed to verify a voter’s identity by comparing that person’s signature on Election Day with a signature already on file.</p>
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<p>Inflaming the public imagination with such false claims is one thing. Convincing the supposedly learned and dispassionate justices of the Supreme Court is quite another.</p>
<p>Yet this is what the state of Indiana and its partisan allies in the Bush administration have managed to do. In upholding Indiana’s strict photo identification law — written by Republicans in the Legislature and passed over the objection of Democrats — the justices admitted that the state had provided absolutely no evidence that the type of fraud the photos would combat (that is, an illegitimate voter showing up and claiming to be a different, legitimate one) has ever occurred in the state.</p>
<p>“The only kind of voter fraud that (the Indiana ID law) addresses is in-person voter impersonation at polling places. The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history,” Justice John Paul Stevens admitted in his controlling opinion.</p>
<p>In fact, Stevens had to stretch so far to find an example that his footnote on the subject centers on Tammany Hall’s corruption of the 1868 New York City elections, and references a newspaper account of a single case of impersonation in the disputed 2004 Washington gubernatorial election — a contest in which 2.8 million votes were cast.</p>
<p>Stevens, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, also found that the law would do exactly what those who object to it claim: It would place a “heavier burden” on the voting rights of those least likely to hold a driver’s license or another acceptable photo ID — the elderly, the poor, the homeless and those with religious objections to being photographed.</p>
<p>In layman’s terms, this is the reasoning: Despite the completely bogus claims of voter fraud that allegedly would be combated through the identification requirement, Indiana may nonetheless disenfranchise some legal voters — notably, those who may tend to vote Democratic.</p>
<p>Voting-rights lawyers are taking solace in the nature of the opinion. It was narrow, they say, signed by only three justices (though in all, six justices voted to uphold the statute) and seems to invite future challenges. “They suggest there needs to be either someone who is likely to be denied a vote, or is denied a vote,” says Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, one of the groups that opposed the Indiana law.</p>
<p>Yet at its core, the decision says it is perfectly acceptable for a state to make it harder for some legal voters to cast ballots than others. The high court’s breathtaking illogic demeans it. More frighteningly, it diminishes democracy.</p>
<p>Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Mythmaking and Democracy | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/mythmaking-and-democracy/ | 2008-05-01 | 4 |
<p>The vibrant prints in <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/spring-summer-2018-ready-to-wear/stella-mccartney" type="external">Stella McCartney's spring/summer 2018 collection</a> turned heads, but not quite in the way McCartney had in mind.</p>
<p>Some accused the fashion designer, who debuted African-inspired designs at Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 2, of cultural appropriation.</p>
<p>Others complained that the models sporting McCartney's new looks lacked diversity.</p>
<p>But not everyone was offended by the African-inspired outfits.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.allthingsankara.com/2014/09/wax-print-what-is-ankara-what-is-ankara-fabric.html" type="external">ankara print</a> is often associated with African culture, the technique used to create the designs originates in Indonesian batik fabric. Using wax-resist dyeing, patterns are created when dye is blocked from staining the cloth.</p>
<p>Whether the line of easy-fitting, vividly-printed garments suggested inspiration or appropriation to followers of fashion, the collection certainly <a href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/915600625399947264" type="external">got people talking</a>.</p>
<p /> | People are accusing Stella McCartney of cultural appropriation in her new collection | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/10/05/fashion/stella-mccartney-accused-of-cultural-appropriation-in-new-collection | 2017-10-05 | 1 |
<p>The mainstream media is reeling. They are really freaking out. So much so that they may not realize that it's going to get even worse (or better, depending on your perspective).</p>
<p>Who is going to replace Comey? Given Trump's brash manner and don't-give-a-shit attitude towards the liberal media, he may very well do something that will outrage liberals and absolutely delight his core supporters.</p>
<p>Two words: Trey Gowdy. Gowdy, a South Carolina firebrand Republican, has been feared by many a liberal who has been questioned by his committees. A former prosecutor and solicitor, Gowdy is downright vicious when it comes to extracting the truth.</p>
<p>While it seems to be the hope of those in the FBI to have one of their own serve as Director, Trump may very well place the best person in the position. Gowdy's name is being floated. Trump supporters are celebrating the idea and liberals haven't even thought of the possibility.</p> | Trigger Alert: Trey Gowdy Being Considered for FBI Director | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/2833-Trigger-Alert-Trey-Gowdy-Being-Considered-for-FBI-Director | 2017-05-11 | 0 |
<p>From ABC LA:</p>
<p>State Republican legislators want an end to the high-speed rail project once and for all. Tuesday they introduced a new bill to cut off all funding for the project. Lawmakers have dubbed it the “Lemon Law.”</p>
<p>State Republicans say there’s a new “Lemon Law,” and the new transportation dud is California’s High Speed Rail project.</p>
<p>Orange County Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point) proposes to halt the sale of nearly $10 billion in voter-approved bonds to help finance the now-$100-billion system.</p>
<p>“The original price tag has tripled. Operating costs are being ignored, and we’re relying on a problematic ridership study,” said Harkey.</p>
<p><a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&amp;id=8498552&amp;rss=rss-kabc-article-8498552" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p> | GOP proposal: De-fund high-speed rail project | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/gop-proposal-de-fund-high-speed-rail-project/ | 2012-01-11 | 1 |
<p>Can the way consent works change over the course of a relationship?</p>
<p>What if you’re in a long-term relationship – do you still have to get your partner’s explicit consent before every sexual activity, and how do you make sure you still have consent if it’s not explicitly expressed in words?</p>
<p>These are some of the questions that can make the concept of consent confusing. So here’s a comic with some super clear answers.</p>
<p>Gear up to build the Consent Castle! It’s an awesome metaphor for how to establish consent before and during intimacy – and how to change the negotiation terms as you build a relationship.</p>
<p>We hope this can give you and the people you share it with a solid foundation for fun, healthy, and mutually satisfying intimate relationships.</p>
<p>With Love, The Editors at Everyday Feminism</p>
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<p>Title: Building Consent Castles</p>
<p>Robot Hugs (RH): My partner and I give workshops on consent. We talk a lot about consent activities – things to think about and things you can talk about to establish consent before and during intimacy.</p>
<p>(checklist of items to talk about)</p>
<p>Checklist text: Talking, texts, emails, checking in before, checking in during, checking in after, touch, body language, sharing fantasies, setting boundaries and limits, safe words, power dynamics, drug and alcohol use, emotional and mental state, triggers</p>
<p>(two people talking)</p>
<p>Dan: Wait a minute! I’ve been with my wife for 15 years. There’s no way we cover all of this every time we have sex! We usually don’t even explicitly ask each other! Are you saying that we’re not having consensual sex??</p>
<p>RH: Of course not!</p>
<p>RH: When we talk about these activities, we’re often talking about new relationships or pick-up sex and play. The truth is, the way we practice consent changes as we build relationships.</p>
<p>Text: Consent isn’t a checkbox.</p>
<p>(checkmark in a box beside the word ‘yes’)</p>
<p>Person 1: Consent achieved! Onwards!</p>
<p>Text: And it isn’t just a legal entity.</p>
<p>Judge: I now deem this encounter officially consensual.</p>
<p>(Dan and RH)</p>
<p>RH: (holding a wrench with the word ‘consent’ on it) Consent is a tool to build strong intimate, sexual, and romantic relationships! When you start out practicing careful and explicit consent, you’re building a Consent Castle that you can both enjoy!</p>
<p>Dan: Consent Castle?</p>
<p>(RH in front of a castle.)</p>
<p>RH: It’s my favorite consent metaphor. It goes like this:</p>
<p>Text: You’ve met someone awesome, and you decide you want to build a castle together/plan some sexy times. You’ll probably talk about what you want and what you don’t want.</p>
<p>(Pair of people talking)</p>
<p>Steph: I’ve been thinking about a drawbridge…</p>
<p>Kat: Oooh, and a moat!</p>
<p>(2nd pair of people talking.)</p>
<p>Bobbi: I’d really love to give you a blow job.</p>
<p>Chris: I’m not really into getting oral, but I love giving it…</p>
<p>Text: You might even draw up some diagrams:</p>
<p>(1st pair talking about a drawing in Panel 11 and 2nd pair talking about a drawing in Panel 12)</p>
<p>Steph &amp; Chris: So I was thinking about…</p>
<p>Kat &amp; Bobbi: Ooooh! That looks neat.</p>
<p>Text: You can talk about your experiences.</p>
<p>Kat: I’ve never worked with sandstone before.</p>
<p>Steph: That’s okay! I’ll give you some tips.</p>
<p>Chris: I’ve never really tried muffing before.</p>
<p>Bobbi: I’ll talk you through it. We can go slow.</p>
<p>Text: And it’s a good idea to check in to see how it’s going.</p>
<p>(1st pair talking. Steph is holding a paint roller.)</p>
<p>Steph: What do you think about the color so far?</p>
<p>Kat: I love it!</p>
<p>(2nd pair is talking and doing intimate things.)</p>
<p>Chris: How does this feel? Is it okay?</p>
<p>Bobbi: It’s good, maybe go a little faster?</p>
<p>(Steph and Kat on a construction site, wearing hardhats and shaking hands.)</p>
<p>Text: The point is, when you’re building something with someone, you usually start out being really careful. You use scaffolding, and wear hardhats and steel-toed boots. You communicate a lot to make sure you’re both on the same page.</p>
<p>RH: It might seem like a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun! You’re building something that you’re both going to enjoy.</p>
<p>Text: You don’t have to take these precautions, and maybe everything will be okay. But maybe…</p>
<p>(Steph looks concerned as a brick falls on Kat’s head.)</p>
<p>Kat: Owww!</p>
<p>(Bobbi is concerned and Chris is upset.)</p>
<p>Chris: That – that wasn’t what I wanted to happen.</p>
<p>Bobbi: I’m sorry.</p>
<p>(Steph and Kat sitting in chairs by a fire. Steph is using a tablet and Kat is reading.)</p>
<p>Text: As you build your castle, you’ll finish rooms, and you’ll both get used to the space. If you’ve built it right, you don’t have to wear hard hats all the time, because it becomes a safe, comfortable, familiar space.</p>
<p>(Chris is grabbing Bobbi’s butt.)</p>
<p>Text: As you establish a relationship based on consent, you learn what your partner likes and dislikes, and you may find that you’re doing sexy or intimate things without explicitly talking about it at all.</p>
<p>Chris: Come here, you!</p>
<p>Bobbi: tee-hee!</p>
<p>Text: The great thing about consent castles is that they are always works in progress. You may need to do some maintenance.</p>
<p>(Steph and Kat are looking at a chipped wall.)</p>
<p>Steph: Hmm, I think this needs a new coat of paint.</p>
<p>Kat: mhm.</p>
<p>(Chris is shyly talking to Bobbi, who is listening and offering support.)</p>
<p>Chris: I’ve been feeling really self-concious about my body during sex lately.</p>
<p>Bobbi: Okay – can I help with those feelings?</p>
<p>(Steph and Kat are on a construction site. Steph is on scaffolding and Kat is on the ground with a diagram, giving directions.)</p>
<p>Text: You might want to add a new room, or refurbish an old one. In that case, you put your hard hats back on and plan things out a little more carefully.</p>
<p>(Chris is proposing a sexy idea to Bobbi, who is giving feedback.)</p>
<p>Text: Similarly, you may want to add something new to your relationship. That’s the time where you slow down and start talking things through again to make sure you’re both excited and having fun.</p>
<p>Chris: I think… I think I’d like to try using a strap-on with you.</p>
<p>Bobbi: That might be fun! What does that look like for you?</p>
<p>RH: I use the Consent Castle metaphor because I think it’s a good illustration of how consent and healthy relationships reinforce each other.</p>
<p>(Dan and RH are talking)</p>
<p>RH: I don’t know anyone in a long-term relationship who always explicitly and fully negotiates sex and intimacy with their partners, every single time.</p>
<p>(RH talking in front of a castle.)</p>
<p>RH: But my experience is that by being careful and deliberate with consent early with someone new, you build a solid foundation for a mutually satisfying relationship.</p>
<p>(RH wearing construction gear and fishnet stockings, and holding a hammer and a diagram.)</p>
<p>RH: So gear up! Because this is going to be a lot of fun…</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>To learn more about this topic, check out:</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.robot-hugs.com/about/www.robot-hugs.com" type="external">Robot Hugs</a> is a webcomic that discusses identity, gender, and sexuality, explores depression and mental illness, and often includes cats. The creator lives in Toronto; they have a degree in Linguistics and a graduate degree in Information Studies. Specifically, they&#160;identify as a non-binary genderqueer peoplequeer mentally ill non-monogamous kinky critical feminist robot. Their&#160;hobbies&#160;include worrying, being concerned about things they&#160;can’t change, being angry, being uselessly angry, hiding from the world, and knitting. Follow Robot Hugs on Twitter @ <a href="https://twitter.com/RobotHugsComic" type="external">RobotHugsComic</a>.</p> | This Metaphor for Consent Might Be Just the Thing You Need to Make It Click | true | http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/07/metaphor-for-consent/ | 2016-07-18 | 4 |
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<p>The once-promising Silicon Valley backed juice startup Juicero is now offering full refunds on their $400 luxury juicer, after a media report showed the device may not bring much to the table.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The money-back offer came from the company’s CEO Jeff Dunn after Bloomberg earlier this week published a report claiming that consumers can actually squeeze the juice packets by hand, rather than use their pricey juicer to do it.</p>
<p>The full refund offer is extended to all customers within the next 30 days, even those who bought the product when it launched last year at the original price tag of $700, according to the company’s spokesperson.</p>
<p>Juicero, which launched in 2013, was immediately dubbed the “Keurig for Juice” for its ability to use Wi-Fi to make fresh organic juices at home. The concept also caught the attention of big investors like Google Ventures and was able to raise more than $120 million in the startup’s first two years.</p>
<p>Brita Rosenheim, founder of Rosenheim Advisors, a strategic and financial consulting firm based in New York City that focuses on food related tech, tells FOX Business that while this a “tough blow” to the company so early on, she doesn’t think it will have long-term effects.</p>
<p>“I don’t think this will necessarily knock Juicero out of the game, as we shouldn’t underestimate the target consumer’s desire for convenience,” Rosenheim says.</p>
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<p>However Rosenheim does says Juicero will need to “quickly find a way to offer move value” to their customers, beyond what they are currently offering.</p>
<p>“While the main outrage is focused on the price point (which likely needs to be adjusted), other value drivers could be accomplished through more relevant lifestyle/health integrations, or truly unique ingredient combinations,” she said.</p>
<p>Dunn, who has only been at the helm since last November, said in a blog post, “We know hacking consumer products is nothing new” and he thinks the juicer is “critical to delivering a consistent, high quality and food safe product.”</p>
<p>“The sum of the system — the Press, Produce Packs and App — working together is what enables a great experience. However, you won’t experience that value by hand-squeezing Produce Packs, which to be clear, contain nothing but fresh, raw, organic chopped produce, not juice. What you will get with hand-squeezed hacks is a mediocre (and maybe very messy) experience that you won’t want to repeat once, let alone every day,” Dunn wrote.</p>
<p>Dunn, who held executive positions at Coca-Cola, Bolthouse Farms and Campbell Fresh before joining Juicero, says working at the fresh juice startup has a much deeper meaning for him.</p>
<p>“The journey from Coca-Cola to carrots to Juicero’s rainbow of fruits and vegetables has let me connect my work to my personal mission and passion: solving some of our nation’s nutrition and obesity challenges,” he wrote.</p> | After Backlash, What's Next for $120M-Backed Startup Juicero? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/21/after-backlash-whats-next-for-120m-backed-startup-juicero.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p>The Iraq War has been deeply unpopular with most Americans for most of its nearly nine years, so it was heartening to hear that President Obama intends to pull out all our combat troops by year’s end. Nevertheless, after the bloodshed, destruction and unbelievable cost—well over a trillion dollars—we have almost nothing to show for our efforts beyond 4,500 dead U.S troops, many more Iraqi dead, the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and veterans suffering the alphabetical effects of Improvised Explosive Devices and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.</p>
<p>It turns out that those who opposed the war from its beginning were right: It’s come to an ignoble end. Obama has done his best to spin this, to make it look as though it was his call, but really, he had no choice. This was his Vietnam. We’ve been kicked out. All that’s missing are Iraq embassy workers on the rooftop clinging to a helicopter.</p>
<p>Those who have paid attention to the high-level discussions between Iraq and the U.S. in the last year will recall that as recently as last month, the official U.S. position was that we would be leaving tens of thousands of troops in Iraq to train Iraqi troops and police forces and provide security for diplomatic missions.</p>
<p>But that has not been the position of the Iraqis, who long ago tired of the killing and destruction visited on their cities, businesses, homes and families by U.S. forces, and the atrocities committed by the mercenaries we hired through discredited firms such as Blackwater (now Xe).</p>
<p>The names of the villains that got us into this debacle should go down in history—George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the coterie of war hawks who nested in the White House during the Bush administration.</p>
<p>Now they should be tried as war criminals.</p>
<p>They cooked the intelligence, and did real and lasting harm to the reputation of the U.S. by having people tortured. And they had people tortured. We ought to be ashamed.</p>
<p>And yet, what have we learned from this so far, or from the ongoing war in Afghanistan?</p>
<p>According to Obama’s new Pentagon chief, former CIA Director Leon Panetta, we’ve learned that killing people with drones and black ops by Special Forces teams is the future of American warfare.</p>
<p>This has to make you wonder about Panetta’s threats that military budget cuts will doom our armed forces. Overall military spending in the U.S. has doubled in the last decade to $700 billion annually. That figure doesn’t include the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Panetta says that cutting that military spending by as little as 7 percent a year over the next ten years—by $50 billion—will cripple our ability to protect the nation.</p>
<p>And whom does Panetta think we should worry about now?</p>
<p>China.</p>
<p>That nation is spending $95 billion a year on its military now–less than a tenth of what we spend when you add in our wars. Panetta says we have to keep spending hundreds of billions of dollars on our military to prepare for the coming Asian threat and “strengthen our presence in the Pacific.”</p>
<p>This is bizarre. We borrow 40 cents of every federal dollar we spend, including on the military, and China is our biggest creditor. So we will presumably borrow even more money from China to further build up our military so it can protect us from…China? Do you remember the scene from <a href="" type="internal">One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest</a>, when the inmates impersonate the doctors?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we sell coal, wood and other North American raw materials to China and their huge cargo ships return bearing cheap consumer goods. Our factories are dying while China goes full tilt. We seem to think we’re competing with them by eagerly helping them compete with us.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, our military and diplomatic leaders contend we should keep doing just what we’ve been doing, strutting and blustering.</p>
<p>But there is a good alternative, in which we actually learn something from the Iraq War: that we can no longer invade and occupy other nations. That option would be off the table. We’d cap our armed forces at a million members, stop commissioning new aircraft carriers and reduce staffing at our 800-plus foreign bases. We’d get out of Afghanistan tomorrow. We’d learn peace. And none of that can happen until the Obama administration has the courage to admit that the Iraq War failed.</p>
<p>George Ochenski&#160;rattles the cage of the political establishment as a political analyst for the&#160; <a href="http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/" type="external">Missoula Independent</a>, where this column originally ran.&#160;He lives in Helena, Montana. He can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>Exclusively in the New Print Issue of CounterPunch</p>
<p>THE SLOW DEATH OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH&#160;– Nancy Scheper-Hughes on Clerical Sex Abuse and the Vatican. PLUS Fred Gardner on Obama’s Policy on Marijuana and the Reform Leaders’ Misleading Spin. &#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">SUBSCRIBE NOW</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">Order your subscription today and get</a> <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">CounterPunch by email for only $35 per year.</a></p> | War Crime | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/11/03/war-crime-2/ | 2011-11-03 | 4 |
<p>Olivier Douliery/Pool via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX via AP</p>
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<p>Steve Bannon has been removed from the National Security Council, according to a memorandum released by the White House on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Bannon, Trump’s White House chief strategist, was added to the NSC shortly after Trump took office. The move received criticism both from the media and Congress.</p>
<p>You can read the memo below.</p>
<p>The White House seems to be spinning this story two ways: (1) Bannon was put on the NSC as a check on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Now Flynn is gone, so Bannon is leaving too. (2) Obama’s NSC was bad, bloated, and “operationalized,” and Bannon was there to oversee the transition of it back to a small, sleek, advisory committee. Now the reform project is over, so he is done.</p>
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<p>The first explanation doesn’t make a ton of sense. Flynn was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/politics/donald-trump-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn.html?_r=0" type="external">fired</a> back in early February, and presidents typically don’t hire people who can’t be trusted to be national security adviser.</p>
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<p /> | Steve Bannon Was Just Kicked Off the National Security Council | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/steve-bannon-was-just-kicked-national-security-council/ | 2017-04-05 | 4 |
<p>“It’s kind of nice seeing those same old mountains,” said U.S. Army Sgt. James T. Schmidt, an infantry squad leader from Decatur, Ill., assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, Task Force No Slack, while looking through his night vision goggles as the sun sets from a hilltop in the Shal Valley in eastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province, Nov. 8. This is Schmidt’s second combat tour to the same region in Afghanistan. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/5178899234/" type="external">Photo</a> by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, 210th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.</p> | We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for November 18, 2010 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/were-still-war-photo-day-november-18-2010/ | 2010-11-18 | 4 |
<p>John Amaechi has become the first current or former NBA player to <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2757105" type="external">come out</a> of the closet, and only the sixth such professional athlete from the four major American sports to do so. The former center for Orlando, Utah and Cleveland has written a memoir in which he describes life in the NBA as he started to open up about his sexuality, including mixed reactions from his team’s owner, coach and players.</p>
<p>In an interview with ESPN, Amaechi says there are other gay players in the league, but “they should not be pressured or pushed” to out themselves.</p>
<p>ESPN:</p>
<p>In the book and in an in-depth interview with ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” to be shown Sunday, Amaechi speaks and writes candidly about his pro career, his relationships with teammates and coaches, and how he began to live more openly as a homosexual while he was playing for the Jazz — frequenting gay clubs, both in Salt Lake City and in other NBA cities.</p>
<p />
<p>In the book and in his interview, Amaechi called Jazz owner Larry Miller a “bigot,” said former teammate Karl Malone was a xenophobe and said coach Jerry Sloan “hated” him.</p>
<p>Sloan, who was asked after practice Wednesday about Amaechi’s allegations that the coach had made homophobic comments and treated the player crudely, said he did not know about Amaechi’s sexuality when Amaechi was playing for the Jazz.</p>
<p>“We didn’t see eye to eye on a few things,” Sloan said.</p>
<p><a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2757105" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Retired NBA Player Comes Out | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/retired-nba-player-comes-out/ | 2007-02-08 | 4 |
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