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<p>By Roger Olson</p>
<p>When I look back over my life and career, I can confidently say there was no more important influence on my theological development than Dr. Ralph Powell who <a href="http://www.sfseminary.edu/news/index.php?newsid=308" type="external">passed away</a> at age 96 on August 7 in Sioux Falls, S.D.</p>
<p>He was not a theological genius (in the usual sense of the term — a great innovater) or productive writer (I think he had one or two scholarly articles published). But he was one of the best teachers of balanced, sane, spiritually profound, insightful, wise evangelical theology I have ever known or heard of.</p>
<p>Dr. Powell taught theology at North American Baptist Seminary (the new name of the German Department of Rochester Theological Seminary where Walter Rauschenbusch taught) when it moved from New York to South Dakota. He earned his Th.D. degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary and taught theology at NABS from 1950 to 1981.</p>
<p>I was his student in several theology courses during my student years at NABS in the 1970s and fortunate enough to be in Sioux Falls when his retirement party was held in 1981 and I attended it.</p>
<p>I visited Dr. Powell and his wife many times after that. Virtually every time I found myself in Sioux Falls I felt drawn to visit him. Stan Grenz, whose father was Dr. Powell’s pastor for some years, and I dedicated our book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Needs-Theology-Invitation-Study/dp/0830818782" type="external">Who Needs Theology?</a> to him.</p>
<p>I could tell many stories about Dr. Powell — as could any of his former students. He was a most dramatic lecturer with a very peculiar accent and he spit when he lectured. Here’s one memorable quote from one of his systematic theology lectures: “If it takes reading these [non-evangelical] theologians to sting you into appreciating the richness of your evangelical heritage, then, so be it! Be stung!” (Some students complained that he made us read Barth, Brunner, Tillich and other non-evangelical theologians.) When he said “Be stung!” he leaned way over the podium towards the students and saliva flew out of his mouth.</p>
<p>I remember that he served involuntarily as interim dean of the seminary when Gerald Borchert left NABS (a great loss to the seminary). Dr. Powell said to me: “Roger, never forget this. The road to scholarly perdition is paved with the stones of administration.” I have never forgotten and have steadfastly resisted any attempts to get me involved in administrative duties.</p>
<p>I remember one day during his systematic theology lecture on Luther’s idea of the “hidden God” he went over to the windows and hid behind the curtains, occasionally peeking out at us with that unique grin of his. I was absolutely captivated by him — not because of his style but because of his wisdom and piety. I spent many hours in his office talking theology with him. I’m sure I drove him crazy with my questions, but he was always patient.</p>
<p>I came to NABS a confused, bewildered, deeply troubled young Bible college graduate. The Bible college I attended specialized in “Christian” anti-intellectualism. I wouldn’t even call it fundamentalist; it didn’t deserve such an august label.</p>
<p>Many of my professors (not all, thank God) took the approach to education expressed in the German saying “Eat up, little birdies, or die.” I was labeled a rebel just for asking questions my teachers couldn’t or didn’t want to answer. I had to educate myself by reading books and seeking out those few instructors who did deserve the posts they held for special help.</p>
<p>I came away from Bible college with no theology at all, just a bag of Bible verses and unquestionable (but highly dubious) dogmas. And a load of shame put on me by teachers, fellow students and administrators for daring to ask questions and challenge nonsense.</p>
<p>Seminary, especially Dr. Powell, rescued me from utter theological ruin which was quickly leading me to spiritual ruin. Cognitive dissonance was the general rule of my mind. I knew from my own reading that much of what I had been taught was unintelligible nonsense and I had not been taught any method of theological discernment or construction.</p>
<p>I really didn’t know where to turn. Dr. Powell rescued me. He became my trusted mentor and friend and life-long example of how to develop a balanced, sane, evangelical theology and how to teach it.</p>
<p>If any of my students over 30 years think I did them any good at all, Dr. Powell gets much of the credit. I will miss him greatly. I feel like a milestone has been passed with Dr. Powell’s passing.</p> | Saying goodbye to a mentor and friend | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/saying-goodbye-to-a-mentor-and-friend-4/ | 3 |
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<p>Grain and soybean futures fell across the board on Wednesday, reversing gains made overnight.</p>
<p>With traders starved of positive news, small overnight rallies that are promptly erased during day trading have become a pattern, said Brian Hoops, president of brokerage Midwest Market Solutions.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Grain and soybean prices were trying "to climb a bit further up and possibly even out from the hole they have been pushed into during the past few weeks," said Dan Hueber, manager of advisory firm the Hueber Report.</p>
<p>But prices failed to find support on poor technical indicators and general pressure on the commodity sector.</p>
<p>Wheat prices led the losses, plunging to multimonth lows. May Chicago wheat futures fell 3% to $4.06 1/4 a bushel, the lowest close since Dec. 29 at the Chicago Board of Trade. Kansas City and Minneapolis contracts also recorded sharp losses.</p>
<p>Analysts said traders piled into bets that wheat prices would fall after futures closed below their 100-day moving average on Wednesday. That sparked a selloff Thursday. Continuing rain in U.S. wheat growing regions didn't help, they said, exacerbating concerns about another bumper harvest that would add to the grain surplus.</p>
<p>U.S. rain also pressured corn prices. Futures found some support last week as wet weather delayed planting for the upcoming crop, but mixed forecasts have eased those concerns.</p>
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<p>Charlie Sernatinger, a broker at ED&amp;F Man Capital, said windows of dry weather might provide enough of an opportunity for planting to catch up with, or even exceed, last year's pace.</p>
<p>"That would certainly kick a leg out from the three-legged stool prices are sitting on," he said.</p>
<p>CBOT May corn futures fell 1.1% to $3.57 3/4 a bushel, the lowest close since March 30. CBOT May soybean futures, meanwhile, fell 0.4% to $9.46 3/4 a bushel.</p>
<p>Write to Benjamin Parkin at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 20, 2017 16:02 ET (20:02 GMT)</p> | Grain and Soybeans Futures Fall on Technical Pressure | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/20/grain-and-soybeans-futures-fall-on-technical-pressure.html | 2017-04-20 | 0 |
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<p>The monthly test of Hawaii’s siren warning system for tsunamis and other natural disasters will have a new tone when it sounds Friday — one designed to alert residents of an impending nuclear attack.</p>
<p>“We believe that it is imperative that we be prepared for every disaster, and in today’s world, that includes a nuclear attack,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige said, adding that the possibility is remote.</p>
<p>Ige said the new test will ensure the public knows what they should do in case of an imminent attack. If a missile is launched, residents and tourists would have less than 20 minutes to take shelter, officials said.</p>
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<p>“There needs to be different action taken should there be a nuclear attack than what is expected for a hurricane or tsunami,” the governor said this week.</p>
<p>The attack warning will produce a different tone than the long, steady storm siren that people in Hawaii have grown accustomed to. It will include a wailing sound in the middle to distinguish it from the other alert.</p>
<p>Vern Miyagi, administrator for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said the state delayed the test for a month to let people know it would be happening. Hawaii turned to public service announcements on TV and radio, town hall meetings, information on agency websites and media stories.</p>
<p>“The public can handle it. They’re not going to panic,” Miyagi said.</p>
<p>The test comes the same week that North Korea fired a powerful nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile it calls the Hwasong-15, leading analysts to conclude the nation has made a jump in its missile capability. The weapon would have a range of more than 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers), easily reaching the U.S. mainland.</p>
<p>Hawaii is the closest state to North Korea, and its large military presence could make it more of a target. The island of Oahu is home to the U.S. Pacific Command, the military’s headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region. It also hosts dozens of Navy ships at Pearl Harbor and is a key base for the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps.</p>
<p>Miyagi has previously said a nuclear strike on Hawaii would result in thousands of deaths, thermal radiation, severe damage to critical infrastructure, widespread fires and other chaos.</p>
<p>Hawaii lawmakers have been urging emergency management officials to update Cold War-era plans for coping with a nuclear attack.</p>
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<p>“I think it’s responsible to do this,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said of the tests, though adding the chances of an attack are slim.</p>
<p>The tests will continue on the first day of every month. If the siren sounds because an attack is imminent, residents and tourists should get inside and stay tuned for further instructions, officials said.</p>
<p>Hawaii no longer has any nuclear shelters. When the Cold War ended, funding for maintaining them ran out as the threat of attack ended, emergency officials said.</p>
<p>Lorraine Godoy, 75, who was born and raised on the Big Island, said she vividly remembers the air raid sirens that used to blast during the Cold War. She said the upcoming tests will bring back memories from her childhood, when she had a curfew and the sirens blared often.</p>
<p>“It’s very scary. It’s loud. It’s frightening,” Godoy said. “I’m just glad I don’t have any children or grandchildren living here . because it was very scary to hear as a child.”</p>
<p>She said the tests are a “reminder that this is not a safe world anymore. Even here, in Hawaii, it’s not safe.”</p>
<p>Tourism officials disagree, saying travelers “should not be alarmed by the testing.”</p>
<p>“Its implementation is consistent with the state’s longstanding policy to be prepared and informing the public well in advance of any potential threat to Hawaii’s well-being,” George Szigeti, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, said in a statement.</p> | Hawaii revives Cold War relic: test system for nuke attack | false | https://abqjournal.com/1100039/hawaii-revives-cold-war-relic-test-system-for-nuke-attack.html | 2017-11-30 | 2 |
<p>The Trump administration is back at the Supreme Court, asking the justices to continue to allow strict enforcement of a temporary ban on refugees from around the world.</p>
<p>The Justice Department’s high court filing Monday follows an appeals court ruling last week that would allow refugees to enter the United States if a resettlement agency in the U.S. had agreed to take them in. The appellate ruling could take effect as soon as Tuesday and could apply to up to 24,000 refugees.</p>
<p>The administration is not challenging the part of the ruling that applies to a temporary ban on visitors from six mostly Muslim countries. The appeals court ruled that grandparents and cousins of people already in the U.S. can’t be excluded from the country under the travel ban.</p> | Trump Administration Appeals to Supreme Court on Refugee Ban | false | https://newsline.com/trump-administration-appeals-to-supreme-court-on-refugee-ban/ | 2017-09-11 | 1 |
<p />
<p>This cartoon requires Macromedia’s Flash Player. If you don’t see the cartoon above, <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="external">download the player here</a>.</p>
<p>Mark Fiore is an editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a <a href="http://www.markfiore.com" type="external">web site</a> featuring his work.</p>
<p /> | Smarter Than You | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/smarter-you/ | 2008-08-05 | 4 |
<p>Legend has it that Kurt Cobain referred to Teenage Fanclub as "the best band in the world" on a regular basis. While that's a bit extreme and may not have even been said, it did get me interested enough to listen to them. Turns out they're talented songwriters and they do a pretty good job of putting a song together. I don't think I'll start seconding Cobain's alleged statements just yet, but I will give this great band credit where credit is due.</p>
<p>What are you listening to tonight?</p> | C&L's Late Nite Music Club With Teenage Fanclub | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/10/cls-late-nite-music-club-teenage-fanclub | 2014-10-27 | 4 |
<p>JULY 29, 2010</p>
<p>By KATY GRIMES</p>
<p>Faced with a $19.1 billion state deficit and no acceptable budget in the works, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reinstated furloughs for state workers on Wednesday. In an executive order declaring a fiscal emergency, the governor called for state employees to take three unpaid days off a month, beginning Aug. 1.</p>
<p>The order came after the governor said last week that he will not sign a budget before he leaves office next January unless he gets the reforms he wants. “And if I don’t get all of the things that we need in order to be fiscally responsible and to make the changes, the tax reforms, the budget reforms and the pension reforms, I will not sign a budget and it could actually drag out until the next governor gets into office,” said the governor.</p>
<p>Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear, on Wednesday said that the governor has stated this same position repeatedly, throughout the budget talks.</p>
<p>When asked what no budget might mean to the state, Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, replied, “Very bad. It means we can’t borrow.”</p>
<p>Ducheny, chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, told CalWatchdog that the governor’s latest statement about the budget is the “most irresponsible thing he’s ever said,” and “shows his attitude toward the state.”</p>
<p>When asked how long the budget stalemate could go on, Ducheny said that she remembered one year in the 1990’s when the budget had not been signed as late as October.</p>
<p>But, as a “concession to Republicans,” Ducheny said, “We’ve been exploring tax reform, to get talks going again.”</p>
<p>“Democrats have been at a place to close the budget, but the governor’s unwillingness shows his lack of concern for the state,” said Ducheny. “Democrats do not have tax increases in the budget,” Ducheny stated. “We are only extending the taxes people already pay, and stopping the upcoming corporate tax breaks.” “A one-year delay is not going to hurt anyone,” she added.</p>
<p>McLear said he “disagreed” with the tax language Ducheny used and said, “No one including the governor wants to make cuts. The Democrats’ attempt to eliminate tax incentives for employers are nothing more than tax increases.”</p>
<p>“We’ve done our end of the budget” McLear said. “We got our budget done on time.”</p>
<p>“But Democrats just want the governor to sign a budget with tax increases,” said McLear. “The people said no to tax increases by a 3 to 1 margin on the ballot in May 2009. Democrats will be taking money from small businesses, not just big corporations, who then can’t hire people. Raising taxes instead of encouraging business to hire people is what the governor said he will not let happen.”</p>
<p>“Democrats have tried to explore alternatives and are hoping Republicans could support tax reforms,” said Ducheny. “The budget the Senate laid out in May is the right one.”</p>
<p>If a budget is not approved, Ducheny said that interest will continue to accrue on the debt owed to the state’s unpaid vendors and on the money that the state borrows.</p>
<p>But no one seems willing to discuss insolvency. When asked what would happen to the state if a budget is not approved until another governor is sworn in, no one would address the ultimate “what if scenario.”</p>
<p>The Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer is the one person in the administration who can answer that question, but is out on vacation right now, and his press office referred all calls to the governor’s spokesman. When asked the question, McLear said, “I would have to check with the Department of Finance for that answer.”</p>
<p>But the costs to the state continue to grow, even if it is debated between the parties about how the debt is calculated. In his weekly radio address last weekend, Assembly Minority Leader Martin Garrick said, “If you take our $19.1 billion dollar deficit and divide it by 365 days, you’ll find that the state spends $52.3 million dollars more than it receives in tax revenues for every day the budget is late. The math is quite simple, and highlights a serious overspending problem in state government. But legislative Democrats reject this notion.”</p>
<p>Ducheny disagreed with Garrick’s calculations and said the $52.3 million is a “fake number.” “Republicans count anticipated savings, and then use what would be saved in the total amount that the state is losing,” Ducheny said. Calling it an “erosion of savings,” Ducheny added that “there are consequences with being late.”</p>
<p>However, Ducheny said the biggest problem with no budget, are the massive costs being shifted to counties: “The $4 billion cost shift of CalWorks to already strapped counties are cuts to real people. …&#160; “And now with the minimum wage and furloughs today, the governor shows that he governs by press releases and not with programs.”</p> | More furloughs, but no budget | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/07/29/more-furloughs-but-no-budget/ | 2018-07-20 | 3 |
<p>Caterpillar Inc reported a lower third-quarter profit on Tuesday and gave a downbeat forecast, saying demand for its new machinery was suffering because of global economic weakness and an abundance of used equipment.</p>
<p>The world's largest construction and mining equipment maker also cut its full-year revenue outlook for the second time while increasing its estimate of 2016 restructuring costs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Caterpillar were down 1 percent at $85.17.</p>
<p>The company, which last year had announced plans to cut jobs and close factories, expects its challenges to persist into next year, Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman said in a statement.</p>
<p>"In North America, the market has an abundance of used construction equipment, rail customers have a substantial number of idle locomotives, and around the world there are a significant number of idle mining trucks," Oberhelman said.</p>
<p>The company said it expected construction-related equipment sales for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017 to be lower previously anticipated.</p>
<p>"Many of our businesses, including mining, oil and gas, rail and construction, are currently operating well below historical replacement demand levels in many parts of the world," Oberhelman said.</p>
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<p>Caterpillar reported a third-quarter profit of $283 million, or 48 cents per share, down from a revised $559 million, or 94 cents per share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Excluding restructuring costs, earnings per share came to 85 cents, exceeding analysts' estimates of 76 cents.</p>
<p>Revenue fell to $9.2 billion from about $11 billion. Analysts had expected $9.8 billion.</p>
<p>The company estimated 2016 restructuring costs at $800 million, compared with a previous forecast of $700 million.</p>
<p>So far, it has reduced its global full-time and flexible workforce by 14,100 to 108,800 employees as part of the restructuring plan, which runs through 2018.</p>
<p>Caterpillar forecast 2016 profit at $3.25 per share, excluding restructuring costs. Analysts were expecting $3.50.</p>
<p>The company said it expected full-year revenue of about $39 billion, down from a prior outlook of $40.0 billion to $40.5 billion.</p>
<p>Last week, Caterpillar said Jim Umpleby, who heads its energy and transportation division, would replace Oberhelman as CEO on Jan. 1. Oberhelman will stay on as executive board chairman until March 31.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Meredith Davis in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)</p> | Caterpillar posts lower earnings, cuts sales outlook | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/25/caterpillar-posts-lower-earnings-cuts-sales-outlook.html | 2016-10-25 | 0 |
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the California Lottery’s “Fantasy 5” game were:</p>
<p>06-10-18-23-24</p>
<p>(six, ten, eighteen, twenty-three, twenty-four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $80,000</p>
<p>¶ The numbers are listed in sequential order, but any combination wins.</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the California Lottery’s “Fantasy 5” game were:</p>
<p>06-10-18-23-24</p>
<p>(six, ten, eighteen, twenty-three, twenty-four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $80,000</p>
<p>¶ The numbers are listed in sequential order, but any combination wins.</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Fantasy 5’ game | false | https://apnews.com/9a867ace0883444ebeb0898a660fc31a | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
<p />
<p>So you’re not a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and you’re not an Arizona Cardinals fan, but you’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party and you need to know who to root for. Before you pick the Cardinals because you’re a progressive and you love underdogs, I urge you to consider a few facts.</p>
<p>Dan Rooney, the 76-year-old owner of the Steelers and a lifelong Republican, <a href="http://kdka.com/local/Dan.Rooney.Obama.2.699251.html" type="external">endorsed Obama</a> and <a href="http://www.nancarrow-webdesk.com/warehouse/storage2/2008-w43/img.389153_t.jpg" type="external">stumped for him</a> not just in Pennsylvania but in the surrounding swing states. He did so despite the fact that Obama’s promise of increased taxes on the wealthy forced Rooney’s family to restructure the ownership of the team. Head coach Mike Tomlin is a vocal Obama supporter. At a recent press conference he said, “Barack is selling hope. And I’m buying.” Steelers players have spoken out about how they hope to win the Super Bowl in part because it would mean they would be the first championship sports team to visit Obama’s White House. (Also worth noting: Barack Obama <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmiZs2stDRQ" type="external">grew up a Steelers fan</a> and is <a href="http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/01/21/barack-obama-44th-president-steelers-fan-at-least-on-super-bo/" type="external">rooting for the Steel Curtain on Sunday</a>.)</p>
<p>The Bidwell family, longtime owners of the Cardinals, are major Republican donors. Their donor history can be found on opensecrets.org, but to save you time, I’ll point you to a couple links. The <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/07/mccain-money-1.html" type="external">LA Times</a> reports that team President William Bidwell and Vice President Michael Bidwell each gave $50,000 to Republicans this past election season. <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12548_Page2.html" type="external">Politico</a> adds that as fundraisers for McCain, they bundled upwards of $350,000 for the Republican presidential candidate.</p>
<p>Mull that over as you tip back your favorite adult beverage on Sunday evening. I think your choice is clear.</p>
<p>Update: More proof! Arizona’s starting quarterback Kurt Warner <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/27/ap/tech/mainD8L0LBN01.shtml" type="external">appeared in an advertisement opposing stem cell research</a> in 2006.</p>
<p /> | Who Should Progressives Root for in the Super Bowl? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/who-should-progressives-root-super-bowl/ | 2009-01-27 | 4 |
<p>SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Officials say a 37-year-old Army veteran suspected of fatally shooting his estranged wife or girlfriend in San Antonio and then fleeing with their 18-month-old son has died after shooting himself.</p>
<p>Capt. John Koch of the Guadalupe County sheriff's office tells The Associated Press that Richard Concepcion was pronounced dead Sunday at a hospital. A multi-county manhunt had ensued after the woman was shot and the child was taken earlier Sunday in San Antonio.</p>
<p>About two hours after an Amber Alert was issued, Concepcion and his son were found by authorities in Guadalupe County, located east of San Antonio. The child was safe in Concepcion's truck.</p>
<p>A U.S. Army Medical Department and School spokesman tells the <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Manhunt-sparked-by-killing-child-abduction-ends-12513910.php" type="external">San Antonio Express-News</a> Concepcion was an Army staff sergeant on transition leave until his retirement.</p>
<p>SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Officials say a 37-year-old Army veteran suspected of fatally shooting his estranged wife or girlfriend in San Antonio and then fleeing with their 18-month-old son has died after shooting himself.</p>
<p>Capt. John Koch of the Guadalupe County sheriff's office tells The Associated Press that Richard Concepcion was pronounced dead Sunday at a hospital. A multi-county manhunt had ensued after the woman was shot and the child was taken earlier Sunday in San Antonio.</p>
<p>About two hours after an Amber Alert was issued, Concepcion and his son were found by authorities in Guadalupe County, located east of San Antonio. The child was safe in Concepcion's truck.</p>
<p>A U.S. Army Medical Department and School spokesman tells the <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Manhunt-sparked-by-killing-child-abduction-ends-12513910.php" type="external">San Antonio Express-News</a> Concepcion was an Army staff sergeant on transition leave until his retirement.</p> | Suspect in slaying of Texas woman dies after shooting self | false | https://apnews.com/amp/88b12301f56446bfa1cd331b1a29cb93 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Luka Rocco Magnotta may have struck again - even as he awaits extradition to Canada from his German jail cell - after two Vancouver schools received body parts in the mail on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The exclusive St. George's boys school received a foot, and False Creek Elementary received a hand, with the afternoon mail, the <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/06/luka-rocco-magnotta-vancouver-body-parts/" type="external">National Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>"The focus of our investigation is to identify the victim and from where the packages were mailed," Vancouver deputy police Chief Warren Lemcke said, according to the Post.</p>
<p>A coroner is examining the body parts for links with nearly identical deliveries to political offices in Ottawa at the end of May.</p>
<p>Magnotta, the 29-year-old self-described gay porn actor and accused kitten killer, is the only suspect in a sordid murder case involving a Chinese student in Montreal.</p>
<p>A janitor discovered Jun Lin's headless corpse inside a suitcase outside Magnotta's apartment building on May 29.</p>
<p>At nearly the same time, the Conservative Party of Canada office in Ottawa received a severed human foot in the mail.</p>
<p>Canada Post tracked another package to a sorting facility in Ottawa containing a human hand; it was addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada.</p>
<p>Magnotta fled Canada for Paris on May 29, a few days after police believe Lin was killed.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/120605/luka-rocco-magnotta-canadian-psycho-berlin-video" type="external">'Canadian Psycho' says he won't fight extradition</a></p>
<p>A secretary received the package at False Creek school on Tuesday, <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/body-parts-sent-to-vancouver-schools-possible-link-to-lin-killing/article4233634/?cmpid=rss1" type="external">The Globe and Mail</a> reported.</p>
<p>The school's principal said he can't remember seeing a return address, and the package wasn't addressed to anyone in particular.</p>
<p>Despite the gruesome discovery, "I think everyone is OK here,"&#160;Bruce Murton told the Globe.</p>
<p>"It was a suspicious, smelly package," he added.</p>
<p>Magnotta faces numerous charges, including murder, upon his return to Montreal.</p>
<p>German police arrested him in Berlin on Monday after a nine-day, international man hunt.</p>
<p>After video of the alleged killing surfaced online, police admitted publicly for the first time Tuesday a cloaked figure in the video might have eaten parts of the victim, the <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Luka+Rocco+Magnotta+accused+eating+part+slain+student+with+video/6731586/story.html" type="external">Montreal Gazette</a> said.</p>
<p>Magnotta earned the nickname "Canadian Psycho" because music from the film "American Psycho" played in the video, where a blindfolded man is attacked and killed with an ice pick and knife.</p>
<p>There was also scenes in the video of someone performing sex acts on the corpse.&#160;</p>
<p>Police found other body parts in the trash outside Magnotta's apartment, but admitted Lin's foot, hand and head are still missing.</p>
<p>While police said definitively the Ottawa and Montreal body parts belonged to Lin, they will wait for forensic testing before making further announcements.</p>
<p>"We're working closely with the postal services to see if there could have been something (else) shipped,? police Cmndr. Ian Lafreniere told the Gazette.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/france/120604/canadian-psycho-magnotta-leaves-trail-paris" type="external">'Canadian Psycho' leaves trail in Paris</a></p> | Magnotta may have mailed body parts to schools | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-05/magnotta-may-have-mailed-body-parts-schools | 2012-06-05 | 3 |
<p><a href="" type="external" /> Please submit your info on www.DefendTrump.com if you are going. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/MAGA" type="external">#MAGA</a> <a href="" type="external" />88 people interested - 8 going <a href="https://www.facebook.com/330201017032791/posts/1367927633260119" type="external">Source</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">What Do We Do NEXT?</a>April 22, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">July 4th Tea Party</a>May 17, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">9/12 March On DC - Videos &amp; Pictures</a>September 18, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p> | Please submit your info on www.DefendTrump.com if you are going. #MAGA88 peopl? | true | http://libertyfederation.org/please-submit-your-info-on-www-defendtrump-com-if-you-are-going-maga88-peopl/ | 2017-01-04 | 0 |
<p>Romenesko LettersForrest Brown recalls his days as a teenaged hand-wringing nerd. "I went off to college, learned a little something about thickening your skin and doing what you know in your gut is right," he writes. "In fact, I learned some of that in, of all things, journalism classes. The newspaper industry in 2005 is that hand-wringing nerd. And it's time to get over it. ... We need to quit letting these self-absorbed, biased, agenda-obsessed critics send us into paroxysms of self-doubt and public crying jags."</p> | It's time to get out there and practice confident journalism | false | https://poynter.org/news/its-time-get-out-there-and-practice-confident-journalism | 2005-06-02 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p>A 20-year-old girl from Bury, UK, who uses fake tan regularly, tried the St Moriz Darker Than Dark for the first time, with astonishing effect.</p>
<p>Miss Ebony Foley posted pictures online stating that her face turned brown and she had to stay inside for about a whole week afterward.</p>
<p>She explained that she switched from her usual lotion because the shop (Boots, a major beauty chain in the UK) where she buys fake tan had run out of her usual product. According to Miss Foley, she had told the shop assistant that she wanted a 'nice and brown' color.</p>
<p>But the product instead turned her face black and left her too embarrassed to leave her house for a week.</p>
<p>Miss Foley: "My body looked fine but my face turned black instantly. It was well funny. My boyfriend Dean was literally scraping it off my face with the hard bit of a sponge. It was coming off like dirt."</p>
<p>"I use false tan all the time, but this has never happened before. I get spray tans all the time but I thought I would do this one myself. It was funny, people were saying I changed race for a couple of hours. Everybody at work was laughing their heads off. People at work were saying it was so funny as my name is Ebony."</p>
<p>Fake tan is indeed quite popular with UK girls in the Manchester and Liverpool areas, and a lot of mishaps have been reported in the British press before, but this would be the first case of total "blackface" if Miss Ebony's reports are accurate.</p>
<p>"I was supposed to be going out with the girls for cocktails in Manchester on Saturday but am not bothering now. My arms are still black."</p>
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5119931/Energy-worker-turns-face-black-fake-tan-disaster.html" type="external">dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5119931/Energy-worker-turns-face-black-fake-tan-disaster.html</a></p> | Fake Tan Disaster Turns Woman Black | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/12745-Fake-Tan-Disaster-Turns-Woman-Black | 2017-11-27 | 0 |
<p>CAPAC, Mich. (AP) — Teams participating in this year's FIRST Robotics competition will be taking a step back so they can make several steps forward.</p>
<p>The challenge is based on classic arcade video games such as Donkey Kong. Teams will be required to build robots that can pick up and stack power cubes.</p>
<p>"It's very doable," said Janet Antilla, who coaches the Capac High School Metal and Soul team with her husband, John Antilla, and the help of three of the four Antilla children.</p>
<p>"We have stacked things before ... and we have hung a robot before," she told the <a href="http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2018/01/06/robotics-teams-venture-into-8-bit-universe/1010216001/" type="external">Times Herald</a> . "It's similar to things we have done, but it's also different from things we have done."</p>
<p>Students representing 21 teams from throughout Michigan were at Capac High School on earlier this month for the reveal of the 2018 challenge. Brennan Master, 16 and a junior at Marysville High School, came prepared with a Super Mario Odyssey cap.</p>
<p>"I figured this year would be based on a video game," the member of the Marysville Vi-Bots said. "I figured for the occasion I would wear something that was in tune with a video game, and Mario was good for that."</p>
<p>The reveal stayed with the retro theme, using an animation based on an 8-bit arcade game.</p>
<p>Students were urged to compete with what FIRST's Woodie Flowers calls "gracious professionalism" — competing hard, but playing well with others.</p>
<p>"Gracious professionalism to me is sportsmanship, but it goes a little bit farther," Janet Antilla said.</p>
<p>Her husband, John Antilla, also coaches the Capac team. He said FIRST in the Thumb has grown from eight teams to the current 21.</p>
<p>"It stimulates real-world interest in science, technology, engineering and math," he said. "It gives them that hands-on experience...</p>
<p>"More than that, it allows the student to interact with adults ... and learn adult behavior in the workplace."</p>
<p>FIRST is not merely a robot-building competition, he said. Students are required to create a business plan and to find sponsors.</p>
<p>"It really is a microcosm of real-world business," John Antilla said.</p>
<p>Jon Smith, a teacher at Marysville High School and the coach of the Vi-Bots, said his team has grown to 38 kids who had been looking forward to Saturday since the start of the school year.</p>
<p>"I was doing fine until about 10:30 last night," he said. "That's when the anxiety set in."</p>
<p>The Vi-Bots, as they have done the past two years, will be playing host to a FIRST District event, April 5-8. Smith said 40 teams have signed up to compete in Marysville.</p>
<p>Rachel Foster and Chris Foster, of Armada, are members of Da Moose, an independent team not affiliated with a high school. They were looking forward to the big reveal.</p>
<p>"I like having things to go out and do," said Rachel Foster, 17. She said friends told her and her brother about Da Moose.</p>
<p>"This is a team that is willing to accept new people," she said.</p>
<p>Chris Foster, 14, said he had another reason for becoming a member of Da Moose.</p>
<p>"My mom made me," he said.</p>
<p>Sandy Foster said her two kids have embraced FIRST and being on Da Moose.</p>
<p>"I had to drag them to the first meeting, but they loved it once they went," she said.</p>
<p>Bryson DenUyl, 16 and a member of the Vi-Bots, agreed that being in FIRST Robotics is almost as fun as the Port Huron to Mackinac Island sailboat race. He was a member of a class-winning crew in the 2017 race.</p>
<p>"It's more of a long-term thing," he said.</p>
<p>Joseph Herrick, 14, was at his first reveal. He's a ninth-grader at Brown City High School.</p>
<p>"I like robots and stuff," he said.</p>
<p>His father, Randy Herrick, said the competition builds life skills.</p>
<p>"Right now, he's learning a skill that he can turn into a profit when he's out of school," Herrick said.</p>
<p>FIRST Robotics is the brainchild of entrepreneur and innovator Dean Kamen, who appeared briefly in the reveal animation to give students a pep talk.</p>
<p>"It doesn't matter how many times you fail if you are trying to do something that has never been done," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Times Herald, <a href="http://www.thetimesherald.com" type="external">http://www.thetimesherald.com</a></p>
<p>CAPAC, Mich. (AP) — Teams participating in this year's FIRST Robotics competition will be taking a step back so they can make several steps forward.</p>
<p>The challenge is based on classic arcade video games such as Donkey Kong. Teams will be required to build robots that can pick up and stack power cubes.</p>
<p>"It's very doable," said Janet Antilla, who coaches the Capac High School Metal and Soul team with her husband, John Antilla, and the help of three of the four Antilla children.</p>
<p>"We have stacked things before ... and we have hung a robot before," she told the <a href="http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2018/01/06/robotics-teams-venture-into-8-bit-universe/1010216001/" type="external">Times Herald</a> . "It's similar to things we have done, but it's also different from things we have done."</p>
<p>Students representing 21 teams from throughout Michigan were at Capac High School on earlier this month for the reveal of the 2018 challenge. Brennan Master, 16 and a junior at Marysville High School, came prepared with a Super Mario Odyssey cap.</p>
<p>"I figured this year would be based on a video game," the member of the Marysville Vi-Bots said. "I figured for the occasion I would wear something that was in tune with a video game, and Mario was good for that."</p>
<p>The reveal stayed with the retro theme, using an animation based on an 8-bit arcade game.</p>
<p>Students were urged to compete with what FIRST's Woodie Flowers calls "gracious professionalism" — competing hard, but playing well with others.</p>
<p>"Gracious professionalism to me is sportsmanship, but it goes a little bit farther," Janet Antilla said.</p>
<p>Her husband, John Antilla, also coaches the Capac team. He said FIRST in the Thumb has grown from eight teams to the current 21.</p>
<p>"It stimulates real-world interest in science, technology, engineering and math," he said. "It gives them that hands-on experience...</p>
<p>"More than that, it allows the student to interact with adults ... and learn adult behavior in the workplace."</p>
<p>FIRST is not merely a robot-building competition, he said. Students are required to create a business plan and to find sponsors.</p>
<p>"It really is a microcosm of real-world business," John Antilla said.</p>
<p>Jon Smith, a teacher at Marysville High School and the coach of the Vi-Bots, said his team has grown to 38 kids who had been looking forward to Saturday since the start of the school year.</p>
<p>"I was doing fine until about 10:30 last night," he said. "That's when the anxiety set in."</p>
<p>The Vi-Bots, as they have done the past two years, will be playing host to a FIRST District event, April 5-8. Smith said 40 teams have signed up to compete in Marysville.</p>
<p>Rachel Foster and Chris Foster, of Armada, are members of Da Moose, an independent team not affiliated with a high school. They were looking forward to the big reveal.</p>
<p>"I like having things to go out and do," said Rachel Foster, 17. She said friends told her and her brother about Da Moose.</p>
<p>"This is a team that is willing to accept new people," she said.</p>
<p>Chris Foster, 14, said he had another reason for becoming a member of Da Moose.</p>
<p>"My mom made me," he said.</p>
<p>Sandy Foster said her two kids have embraced FIRST and being on Da Moose.</p>
<p>"I had to drag them to the first meeting, but they loved it once they went," she said.</p>
<p>Bryson DenUyl, 16 and a member of the Vi-Bots, agreed that being in FIRST Robotics is almost as fun as the Port Huron to Mackinac Island sailboat race. He was a member of a class-winning crew in the 2017 race.</p>
<p>"It's more of a long-term thing," he said.</p>
<p>Joseph Herrick, 14, was at his first reveal. He's a ninth-grader at Brown City High School.</p>
<p>"I like robots and stuff," he said.</p>
<p>His father, Randy Herrick, said the competition builds life skills.</p>
<p>"Right now, he's learning a skill that he can turn into a profit when he's out of school," Herrick said.</p>
<p>FIRST Robotics is the brainchild of entrepreneur and innovator Dean Kamen, who appeared briefly in the reveal animation to give students a pep talk.</p>
<p>"It doesn't matter how many times you fail if you are trying to do something that has never been done," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Times Herald, <a href="http://www.thetimesherald.com" type="external">http://www.thetimesherald.com</a></p> | Michigan student groups prepare for robotics competition | false | https://apnews.com/amp/847a66f777534a95801cd0d613bb0bc0 | 2018-01-15 | 2 |
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<p>Robert Perea, 26</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A corrections officer for the Metropolitan Detention Center was caught soliciting sex from a child during an online sting by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Robert Perea, 26, thought he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl named Reagan when he sent two pictures of his penis and arranged to meet up for sex on Thursday.</p>
<p>“Reagan” turned out to be a detective who arrested Perea when he arrived at the meeting spot, the complaint states.</p>
<p>“They had had several conversations with him,” said Sgt. Aaron Williamson, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. “During which he had sent some sexual pictures to what he believed was a 13-year-old.”</p>
<p>Captain Ray Gonzales, a MDC spokesman, said Perea had worked at the detention center since December 2009. Gonzales said he has been put on administrative leave during the investigation but could not comment on whether he had ever been disciplined in the past for misconduct.</p>
<p>Perea was charged with two counts of criminal sexual communication with a child, child solicitation and contribution to the delinquency of a minor. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $10,000 cash or surety bond on April 2 and released the same day. Gonzales said as an officer, Perea was kept in separate housing from the other inmates during his stint behind bars.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | MDC officer arrested for child solicitation during online sting investigation | false | https://abqjournal.com/564592/mdc-officer-arrested-for-child-solicitation-during-online-sting-investigation.html | 2 |
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<p>More than 100 Syrians were killed Friday in what is being called a massacre in Houla, near the flashpoint of Homs.</p>
<p>Among the 108 reported dead, almost 80 were women and children who were, according to the United Nations, executed in their homes. Another 30 or so people died from artillery fire that was directed the town.</p>
<p>In response to the executions and continued flouting of the international peace plan, several western nations have shutdown diplomatic relationships with Syria, expelling that country's diplomats. So far, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland, among others, have all ordered Syria's diplomats out of the country, according to various media reports.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday and was assured that the Syrian government was going to investigate the massacre. But western countries were unconvinced that Assad's promises meant anything, more than a month after he promised to implement a U.N.-backed cease fire agreement that remains mostly an idea.</p>
<p>In Houla, survivors and foreign peacekeepers reported a grizzly scene, where people were killed at close range by knives and gunfire.</p>
<p>"Eyewitnesses told the BBC that pro-government shabiha militiamen had carried out the killings. Survivors said they had hidden or played dead," <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18252818" type="external">the British broadcaster wrote</a>. "Syrian leaders insist that the massacre was the work of "terrorists", aiming to derail the peace process and provoke intervention by Western powers."</p>
<p>Some 50 more people reportedly died in violent clashes on Tuesday. More than 9,000 people have died in the Syrian revolt since it began more than a year, according to United Nations estimates that are months old.</p>
<p>Bridget Kendall, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, said there's no way to know whether the coordinated diplomatic protest would change anything on the ground in the Middle Eastern nation, but western countries are quickly running out of tools to use to try and bring the situation to a peaceful resolution.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Russia and China signed off on the strongest effort yet, a United Nations resolution denouncing the Houla massacre, but still there's been no action taken to try and end the revolution.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/world/middleeast/kofi-annan-meets-with-bashar-al-assad.html?pagewanted=3&amp;_r=1&amp;hp" type="external">The New York Times</a>, Annan's bringing new force to the effort to get his peace plan implemented, with buy-in from all of the permanent members of the Security Council.</p>
<p>Russia's support is seen as critical to any hopes of ending the crisis. The country has been an impediment to any concrete action that might threaten the stability of its allies in Damascus.</p>
<p>Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was prepared with military options should they be needed to bring about a resolution in Syria. But so far, there seems to be no appetite for such action.</p>
<p>“There is always a military option, but that military option should always be wielded carefully,” General Dempsey said on Fox News. “Because one thing we’ve learned about war, I have learned personally about war, is that it has a dynamic all its own — it takes on a life of its own.”</p> | VIDEO: Doubts still about whether Syrian expulsions will improve deteriorating situation | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-29/video-doubts-still-about-whether-syrian-expulsions-will-improve-deteriorating | 2012-05-29 | 3 |
<p>Baghdad</p>
<p>A fake bomb detector long exposed as useless as a means of discovering explosives continues to be used by the Iraqi army and police at hundreds of checkpoints in Baghdad as their chief method of finding out if vehicles contain bombs and weapons.</p>
<p>The continuing reliance of the Iraqi security forces on the instrument may explain how al-Qa’ida has succeeded in sending vehicles packed with explosives undetected into Baghdad where they have exploded, killing and wounding several thousand people over the last year.</p>
<p>The bomb detectors, known as ‘sonars’ to Iraqis, are small hand held black colored devices with a wand protruding that is supposed to twitch if there are explosives or weapons present. It is meant to work on the same principle as water divining and has no power source, but relies&#160; on the static electricity generated by the movement of policeman or soldier holding it.</p>
<p>The British and American governments, numerous independent experts and repeated tests have shown that&#160;&#160; ADE-651, manufactured by ATSC company in the UK, does not work. Jim McCormick, the managing director of ATSC, was arrested on suspicion of fraud in January and the British government banned the export of the ADE-651. At the same time the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into how the bomb detector had been purchased at a cost of $85 million by the Iraqi security forces in 2008 and 2009. ATSC was not answering the phone number given on its website yesterday.</p>
<p>Despite the well-attested useless of the bomb detector senior Iraqi security officials have attested their confidence in it and the Interior Ministry has never withdrawn it. A government spokesman said earlier in the year that only some of the ‘sonars’ were fake and ineffective and these had been removed from the streets. No spokesman was available yesterday to comment on the continued use of the devices.</p>
<p>The normal procedure in Baghdad is for a policeman or soldier at a check point to walk beside a vehicle holding the hand-grip of the wand. If it twitches he tells the occupants of the vehicle that he suspects them of carrying concealed explosives or weapons. When it turns out that these not present, as almost invariably happens, it is explained that the ‘sonar’, has been misled by the presence of perfume or even platinum fillings in teeth.</p>
<p>Many Iraqi policemen have themselves ceased to believe that the ADE-651 works. Police Captain Hussein Ali says: “Time and again we have found it is useless and we don’t believe in it any more.” He explains that when he and his men first received the instrument in early 2009 they were happy because they believed they finally had the means of finding concealed explosives and weapons. He said: “We were told it was very modern and would free people from the fear of terrorism. Now we &#160;are embarrassed by it.”</p>
<p>Not all those who use the ADE-651 have become skeptics. Earlier this week I was prevented from entering one heavily guarded area with my car because the wand had twitched as it had been walked past the left side of the vehicle. I continued on foot but the police insisted that the car be parked a hundred yards away from them in case it really did contain a bomb. Yesterday the same car was stopped on Jadriyah bridge over the Tigris and held for 45 minutes for the same reason until a police lieutenant suggested we cross the river by another bridge where a similar inspection by a bomb detector produced no results.</p>
<p>The use of the fake bomb detectors inevitably makes it easier for al-Qa’ida to send its vehicle bombs through checkpoints. So many innocent vehicles are stopped that there is a permanent traffic jam in Baghdad during rush hour. Most people in the city have ceased to believe that the devices work. Mustafa Emir, a student, said “the sonars are not useful and do not protect people. They should be given to the children as toys.” He blamed them for making him and other students late at their university so they missed the first lecture of the day. “The sonar is always showing that out minibus has arms and explosives in it, though it is obvious we are just male and female students trying to study.”</p>
<p>PATRICK COCKBURN is the author of “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416551476/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | Baghdad’s Dud Bomb Detectors | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/03/baghdad-s-dud-bomb-detectors/ | 2010-06-03 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Lawmakers demanded answers Wednesday from leading social media companies about why they haven’t done more to combat Russian interference on their sites, and said congressional action might be needed in response to what one Democrat called “the start of cyberwarfare” against American democracy.</p>
<p>Representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Goggle struggled at times to defend themselves against complaints they didn’t act quickly or thoroughly enough as it became evident that Russians used the sites to <a href="" type="internal">try and influence the 2016 U.S.</a> <a href="" type="internal">election</a>.</p>
<p>The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said his questions about the interference were “blown off” by the companies until this summer.</p>
<p>“Russia’s actions are further exposing the dark underbelly of the ecosystem you have created,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner as Congress held a second day of hearings on the issue.</p>
<p>The House Intelligence Committee planned an afternoon hearing as part of the Capitol Hill investigation into Russian meddling in the election and whether it was linked to Donald Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>The companies faced questioning Tuesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee.</p>
<p />
<p>The message was clear from a Democrat on both those Senate committees: Do more or Congress will.</p>
<p>“I must say I don’t think you get it,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “What we’re talking about is a cataclysmic change. What we’re talking about is the start of cyberwarfare … We are not going to go away, gentlemen.”</p>
<p>New details</p>
<p>The companies disclosed new details this week about the election interference. Facebook said Russia-linked ads reached as many as 126 million people. Twitter said it uncovered and shut down 2,752 accounts linked to a Russian agency, nearly 14 times as many as it handed over to congressional committees three weeks ago.</p>
<p>Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned against jumping to conclusions that the Russian interference on social media platforms was designed to help one candidate or another.</p>
<p>“This is an incredibly complex story,” said Burr, R-N.C. He added: “We do better when you do better.”</p>
<p>Facebook has turned over more than 3,000 ads it found on the site that are linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. They have not yet been released, but Burr revealed some details in an attempt to rebut reports that they were targeted to contested states such as Michigan and Wisconsin close to the November 2016 election.</p>
<p>Burr said more ads were targeted toward Maryland, a solidly Democratic state. Many ads were also targeted to New York, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won, and Missouri, carried by Republican Trump. Most of the geographically targeted ads ran in 2015, before the primaries were decided, he said.</p>
<p>‘Heart of Texas’</p>
<p>Burr showed photos of events in Texas that were organized by one of the Russian pages called “Heart of Texas.” He noted that some who attended the events said they noticed that no one from the organizing group was there.</p>
<p>Warner pressed Facebook’s general counsel, Colin Stretch, on whether the company had cross-referenced accounts taken down during the French election this year to see if they corresponded to any of the Russia-linked accounts that operated in the U.S.</p>
<p>Warner said he found it “disappointing” when Stretch could not answer whether they had.</p>
<p>‘Absolute miss’</p>
<p>He also asked Stretch why Facebook delayed taking down an account that purported to be linked to the Tennessee Republican party.</p>
<p>“That was an absolute miss,” Stretch said.</p>
<p>Facebook said Monday that the Russia-linked accounts generated 80,000 posts on 120 pages between January 2015 and August 2017. Possible views reached the millions after people liked the posts and shared them. Those are separate from the 3,000 ads the committee turned over to the committees.</p>
<p>Twitter said its Russia-linked accounts put out 1.4 million election-related tweets from September through Nov. 15 last year — nearly half of them automated. The company also found nine Russian accounts that bought ads, most of which came from the state-backed news service RT, previously known as Russia Today.</p>
<p>Google said it found evidence of “limited” misuse of its services by the Russian group, as well as some YouTube channels that were likely backed by Russian agents.</p>
<p>During Tuesday’s hearing, none of the companies would commit to fully supporting legislation proposed by Warner and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would bring political ad rules from TV, radio and print to the internet.</p>
<p>Klobuchar dismissed pledges from the companies this week to be more transparent about political ads, calling that an unenforceable “patchwork” of self-policing. The companies have put new measures in place for election ads, though they have done less to address the issue ads that were found after 2016.</p> | Senators grill social media companies on Russian interference | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/senators-grill-social-media-companies-on-russian-interference/ | 2017-11-01 | 1 |
<p />
<p>General Motors' self-driving unit, Cruise Automation, has more than doubled the size of its test fleet of robot cars in California during the past three months, a GM spokesman said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As the company increases the size of its test fleet, it has also reported more run-ins between its self-driving cars and human-operated vehicles and bicycles, telling California regulators its vehicles were involved in six minor crashes in the state in September.</p>
<p>"All our incidents this year were caused by the other vehicle," said Rebecca Mark, spokeswoman for GM Cruise.</p>
<p>In the past three months, the Cruise unit has increased the number of vehicles registered for testing on California streets to 100 from the previous 30 to 40, GM spokesman Ray Wert said.</p>
<p>Cruise is testing vehicles in San Francisco as part of its effort to develop software capable of navigating congested and often chaotic urban environments.</p>
<p>Investors are watching GM's progress closely, and the automaker's shares have risen 17 percent during the past month as some analysts have said the company could deploy robot taxis within the next year or two.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A U.S. Senate panel approved legislation on Wednesday that would allow automakers to greatly expand testing of self-driving cars. Some safety groups have objected to the proposal, saying it gives too much latitude to automakers.</p>
<p>As Cruise, and rivals, put more self-driving vehicles on the road to gather data to train their artificial intelligence systems, they are more frequently encountering human drivers who are not programmed to obey all traffic laws.</p>
<p>In filings to California regulators, Cruise said the six accidents in the state last month involved other cars and a bicyclist hitting its test cars.</p>
<p>The accidents did not result in injuries or serious damage, according to the GM reports. In total, GM Cruise vehicles have been involved in 13 collisions reported to California regulators in 2017, while Alphabet's Waymo vehicles have been involved in three crashes.</p>
<p>California state law requires that all crashes involving self-driving vehicles be reported, regardless of severity.</p>
<p>Most of the crashes involved drivers of other vehicles striking the GM cars that were slowing for stop signs, pedestrians or other issues. In one crash, a driver of a Ford Ranger was on his cellphone when he rear-ended a Chevrolet Bolt stopped at a red light.</p>
<p>In another instance, the driver of a Chevrolet Bolt noticed an intoxicated cyclist in San Francisco going the wrong direction toward the Bolt. The human driver stopped the Bolt and the cyclist hit the bumper and fell over. The bicyclist pulled on a sensor attached to the vehicle causing minor damage.</p>
<p>"While we look forward to the day when autonomous vehicles are commonplace, the streets we drive on today are not so simple, and we will continue to learn how humans drive and improve how we share the road together,” GM said in a statement on Wednesday.</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Joseph White in Detroit; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)</p> | GM more than doubles self-driving car test fleet in California | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/04/gm-more-than-doubles-self-driving-car-test-fleet-in-california.html | 2017-10-05 | 0 |
<p>By Sam Husseini / <a href="http://fair.org/home/should-media-expose-sources-who-lied-to-them/" type="external">FAIR</a></p>
<p>The mysterious source called “Deep Throat” (played by Hal Holbrook) in “All the President’s Men,” based on the book about the Watergate scandal by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. (FAIR)</p>
<p>If an anonymous source knowingly and maliciously feeds a media outlet false information, should they continue to be granted anonymity? If media continue to protect the deceptive source’s identity, doesn’t that ensure the continuance of a disinformation conveyor belt?</p>
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<p>On June 26, three CNN journalists resigned after an article alleging Donald Trump associates’ ties to Russia was retracted by the network. Brian Stelter, CNN‘s media reporter ( <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/26/media/cnn-announcement-retracted-article/index.html" type="external">6/27/17</a>), wrote:</p>
<p>The story, which reported that Congress was investigating a “Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials,” cited a single anonymous source. These types of stories are typically reviewed by several departments within CNN—including factcheckers, journalism standards experts and lawyers—before publication.</p>
<p>The original story has been taken down, replaced by an editor’s note that states: “That story did not meet CNN‘s editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. [Anthony] Scaramucci,” a Trump ally named in the piece. Scaramucci, a financier who was part of the Trump transition team and was recently named chief strategy officer of the U.S. Export/Import Bank, frequently appears on CNN as a Trump surrogate.</p>
<p>Stelter reported: “‘CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted,’ Scaramucci tweeted the next morning. ‘Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.'”</p>
<p>There are several problems here, but it’s hard to determine what the underlying issues are, given CNN‘s and Scaramucci’s desire to simply “move on.” Firing the individual journalists and sweeping the original piece under the rug, rather than openly examining what the issues are, seems more about damage control, and possibly <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/06/27/cnn-staffers-didnt-resign-over-retracted-story-they-got-fired/" type="external">avoiding lawsuits</a> from well-connected individuals, than about protecting the integrity of the news process.</p>
<p>One serious question that arises in this and other critical cases is: What was the role of the “single anonymous source”? Did this source knowingly feed CNN false information? If so, why is the anonymity preserved for the source? So they can do it again and again?</p>
<p>Of course, identity protection for whistleblowers and other sources is a cornerstone of good journalism. And sources can pass on false or flawed reporting without any ill intent. But what of sources that intentionally use media outlets to disseminate dubious information?</p>
<p>FAIR has noted this problem for decades. For example, after the crash of TWA 800 in 1996 ( <a href="http://fair.org/extra/media-bomb-on-twa-crash/" type="external">Extra!, 1/1/97</a>):</p>
<p>From the moment the media began covering the 747 crash near the media capital of New York City, terrorism was clearly the preferred scenario. This view was disseminated by investigators hiding behind anonymous quotes and reporters hiding behind anonymous sources. Here’s how Dan Rather introduced the CBS Evening News (7/19/96): “They don’t say it publicly yet, but crash investigators now believe it was a bomb that brought down TWA 800.” With such reporting, theories could be put forward with no evidence—and no one to hold responsible if the theories turned out to be guesses.</p>
<p>A prime example of the abuse of anonymous sourcing was the aluminum tubes story. In 2005, I confronted Judy Miller, the infamous former New York Times reporter, about this issue. She and Times colleague Michael Gordon had written a critical piece ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/world/threats-responses-iraqis-us-says-hussein-intensifies-quest-for-bomb-parts.html" type="external">9/8/02</a>) during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq that cited anonymous administration officials claiming Iraq had “embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb,” including the tubes (which turned out to be conventional rocket parts).</p>
<p>Vice President Richard Cheney appeared on Meet the Press (9/8/02) the morning of this New York Times report, citing it as evidence of Saddam Hussein’s alleged drive to obtain a nuclear program. Miller and Gordon had written:</p>
<p>An administration official called discussions about the aluminum tubes and Iraq’s intentions “a normal part of the intelligence process.” … He added that the best technical experts and nuclear scientists at laboratories like Oak Ridge supported the CIA assessment [that the tubes were for a nuclear program].</p>
<p>In fact, the nuclear scientists did not support such an assessment. When I questioned her, Miller refused to name the source that fed her this false information and Marvin Kalb, the moderator of the event, ran interference, stopping further follow-ups (Sam Husseini, <a href="https://husseini.posthaven.com/confronting-miller-kalb-covers-for-miller-who-covers-dot-dot-dot-for-whom" type="external">11/16/05</a>).</p>
<p>As this case illustrates, the current structure is like having a loaded gun lying around. When a crisis happens, a government source wanting to smear a foreign government, or even help provoke war, has the mechanisms to do so without fear of consequence or accountability. They hide behind anonymous quotes, and their media contact hides behind anonymous sources. Both are effectively off the hook.</p>
<p>It’s often viewed as sacred tenet of journalistic ethics that a source should never be divulged, no matter what, but that’s not true. In “ <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=l20xlBHOhnsC&amp;pg=PA82&amp;lpg=PA82&amp;dq=should+newspapers+name+source+when+source+has+lied+or+misled+them&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=TE8pmtKvy3&amp;sig=s91uZYBa0rsetFrHZ7oGbYF37uQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjWnfHs0KzRAhWK8CYKHQtVA0sQ6AEIJzAD#v=onepage&amp;q=should%20newspapers%20name%20source%20when%20source%20has%20lied%20or%20misled%20them&amp;f=false" type="external">The Elements of Journalism</a>,” first published in 2001, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel wrote:</p>
<p>A growing number of journalists believe that if a source who has been granted anonymity is found to have misled the reporter, the sources’ identity should be revealed. Part of the bargain of anonymity is truthfulness.</p>
<p>And there is at least one highly notable precedent. In 1996, the Wall Street Journal ( <a href="http://www.jeffreywigand.com/wallstreetjournal.php" type="external">2/1/96</a>) published a story: “Getting Personal: Brown &amp; Williamson Has 500-Page Dossier Attacking Chief Critic.” The Journal had been given dubious and exaggerated dirt on cigarette whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand. Rather than running with it—or just passing on it—they exposed it. Writers Suein L. Hwang and Milo Geyelin effectively turned on a source and outed the information they were provided as part of an oppressive smear campaign.</p>
<p>In a series of pieces, Glenn Greenwald and other media critics have derided dubious stories that rely on questionable anonymous sources over the last year, especially regarding Russia—for example, “CNN Journalists Resign: Latest Example of Media Recklessness on the Russia Threat” (Intercept, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/27/cnn-journalists-resign-latest-example-of-media-recklessness-on-the-russia-threat/" type="external">6/27/17</a>) and “Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking US Electric Grid” (Intercept, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/russia-hysteria-infects-washpost-again-false-story-about-hacking-u-s-electric-grid/" type="external">12/31/16</a>). But the focus has generally been on the journalistic failings of the reporters who conveyed the false claims, not on holding the sources of those claims accountable. One exception was a <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/817132677862162432" type="external">Twitter exchange</a> with me, where Greenwald responded with respect to the Post utility hacking story: “Right. Two US officials told WPost that Russia invaded US electric grid. This was totally false. Why is Post protecting their identity still??”</p>
<p>Similarly, Washington Post media writer Erik Wemple ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/01/04/washington-post-cites-discussions-aimed-at-preventing-recurrence-of-vermont-utility-story/?utm_term=.33ae81597f43" type="external">1/4/17</a>) wrote about the Post‘s false story about Russian electrical hacking, in Washington Post Cites ‘Discussions’ Aimed at Preventing Recurrence of Vermont Utility Story,” but didn’t raise the question of why the dubious anonymous source should continue to have protection.</p>
<p>Obviously, anonymous sourcing is not the only issue. In the Vermont utility story, the Post didn’t initially contact the utility in question, which would have likely shot down that story. But the anonymity question is still critical, especially when the named subject of a story cannot, for whatever reason, be contacted or relied upon.</p>
<p>The dynamics of exposing a mendacious source are seen in the case of a relatively small paper, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which in 2011 was examining rumors that a local food chain, Schnucks, was going to sell its area stores. A Schnucks spokesperson denied the story, and the paper didn’t publish anything. Soon thereafter, the rumors turned out to be true, the stores were sold. The Commercial Appeal then published a piece that included the false denial—with the source’s name (CJR, “Calling Out a Source that Lied,” <a href="http://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/calling_out_a_source_that_lied.php" type="external">9/9/11</a>). But some of the unique aspects of this episode suggest why it happens so rarely. The stores were sold, so Schnucks didn’t have to care what anyone thought of them anymore. And the Commercial Appeal, it would seem, no longer had any use for maintaining good relations with sources at Schnucks.</p>
<p>As it is, the prospect that a source can maintain their anonymity after placing false stores ensures that it will happen again and again. The source can simply go to another media outlet the next day. Or, worse still, the same outlet, as if nothing wrong was going on.</p>
<p>Protection cannot be an invitation to falsification. If there’s evidence of malicious intent on the part of the source—perhaps malicious intent that the journalist shares for ideological or other reasons—then both should be effectively exposed. A media outlet should indeed have an ethical obligation to expose a falsifying source.</p>
<p>Either way, the news organization should offer some sort of meaningful explanation beyond simple retraction, as in the recent CNN case—more like a journalistic autopsy. It’s possible that the source in direct contact with the media outlet simply passed on information they thought was accurate. It’s possible that someone further up the information food chain was the one with malicious intent. That is to be determined by the outlet after serious examination of the particulars of stories. If the outlet won’t name a seemingly falsifying source, it should give a serious explanation as to why. This is not to be confused in any way with sources who give controversial information, or actual documentation, to media organizations, and are derided or even prosecuted for such truth-telling.</p>
<p>The Gordian knot of deceptive anonymous sources must be cut. That is virtually impossible to do without exposing such sources’ identities, when warranted—unless outlets in the news business would rather be in the disinformation business.</p>
<p>Sam Husseini is a FAIR associate and writer based in Washington, D.C. His personal blog is <a href="http://husseini.posthaven.com/" type="external">http://husseini.posthaven.com</a>.</p> | Should the Media Expose Dubious Anonymous Sources? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/should-the-media-expose-dubious-anonymous-sources/ | 2017-07-03 | 4 |
<p>BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese artists have turned an abandoned villa into art studios. They call it "Mansion." It won't save the world, but it's giving a new lease on life to a historic home in Beirut.</p>
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<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/73466960" type="external">60 Seconds on Earth: Of Mansions and Art in Lebanon</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/globalpost" type="external">GlobalPost</a>.</p> | 60 Seconds on Earth: Working to save a piece of Lebanese history | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-14/60-seconds-earth-working-save-piece-lebanese-history | 2013-10-14 | 3 |
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<p>The ranking was based on five parameters: Attendance rates as a percentage of population, adult admission prices, youth admission prices, length of each fair and daily precipitation averages during the time of the fair.</p>
<p>The State Fair last year attracted nearly 500,000 visitors.</p>
<p>Fair general manager Dan Mourning said he was “ecstatic with the ranking,” particularly in view of the state’s placement at or near the top of other highly publicized lists that highlight our shortcomings, including high school graduation rates, poverty, child well-being, unemployment, auto theft, violence, DWI and more.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Our State Fair ranking is something positive,” he said. “We were one of two fairs that stayed in the top 10, and the only fair that increased its ranking. When you look at New Mexico, our demographics and our economic engine, to be able to attract almost a half million people in 11 days to a state fair, in a state with a little over 2 million people is a pretty good feat.”</p>
<p><a href="https://d3el53au0d7w62.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/14/bright-spot-logo.jpg" type="external" />Mourning said the New Mexico State Fair offers the best in food and entertainment. “We’ve made it affordable, people can get here pretty easily, and it’s family friendly.”</p>
<p>The SmartAsset study also highlighted the New Mexico State Fair’s new innovative transportation partnership with Uber, which was the first of its kind for events in New Mexico, the variety of midway rides, and the multiple nights of competitive events sponsored by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.</p>
<p>Mourning also noted that the State Fair has been getting national attention in the last year, being featured on the Travel Channel’s “Food Paradise” series and the Food Network’s “Carnival Eats” program.</p>
<p>According to the SmartAsset study, New Mexico was sandwiched between Mississippi, the best state fair in the country, and North Dakota as third best.</p>
<p>For the full list of state fair rankings, go to smartasset.com/mortgage/best-state-fairs-in-america-2017, and for more information on the New Mexico State Fair go to www.ExpoNM.com.</p>
<p>We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to [email protected].</p>
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<p /> | NM State Fair ranks second in the nation | false | https://abqjournal.com/1025598/new-mexico-state-fair-2nd-best-in-the-country.html | 2017-06-29 | 2 |
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<p>Both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy point to China as the main source of fentanyl, fentanyl analogs and fentanyl precursors that end up in North America.</p>
<p>Such statements “lack the support of sufficient numbers of actual, confirmed cases,” China’s National Narcotics Control Commission told DEA’s Beijing field office in a fax dated Friday.</p>
<p>In its letter to the DEA, which the commission also sent to AP, Chinese officials urged the U.S. to provide more evidence about China’s role as a source country.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It’s a point the state-run China Daily newspaper drove home publicly in an article this month stating that made-in-China carfentanil was not the cause of overdose deaths in the U.S.</p>
<p>DEA officials said their casework and investigations consistently lead back to China. DEA data also shows that when China regulates synthetic drugs, U.S. seizures plunge.</p>
<p>“China is not the only source of the problem, but they are the dominant source for fentanyls along with precursor chemicals and pill presses that are being exported from China to the U.S., Canada and Mexico,” said Russell Baer, a DEA special agent in Washington.</p>
<p>Beijing is concerned enough about international perceptions of China’s role in the opioid trade that after AP published investigations highlighting the easy availability of fentanyls online from Chinese suppliers, the narcotics commission made a rare invitation to a team of AP journalists to discuss the issue at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, a leafy complex just off Tiananmen Square at the historic and political heart of Beijing. They also provided responses, in writing, to AP’s questions.</p>
<p>U.S.-China cooperation is essential for mounting an effective global response to an epidemic of opioid abuse that has killed more than 300,000 Americans since 2000. The presence of fentanyl, a prescription painkiller up to 50 times stronger than heroin, and related compounds in the U.S. drug supply began to rise in 2013, after dealers learned they could multiply profits by cutting the potent chemicals into heroin, cocaine and counterfeit prescription pills.</p>
<p>Even as the U.S. Congress considers legislation that would punish opioid source countries, no government agency has produced comprehensive data on seizures of fentanyl-related substances by country of origin.</p>
<p>The national database on drug seizures overseen by DEA does not require reporting by source country and may not accurately reflect seizures of all fentanyl-related compounds. Baer said it didn’t even have a “fentanyl” category until around two years ago.</p>
<p>It also takes time for forensic chemists to identify drugs seized from the field, which means fentanyl-related samples may get incorrectly logged as other drugs. “The field agent may not, and I think it’s fair to say usually does not, revise or amend the initial seizure,” Baer said. He added that DEA is trying to improve its data-collection methods.</p>
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<p>The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to comment or to provide data that would back up the U.S. assertions.</p>
<p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it had data on fentanyl seizures by country of origin only for 2015: Nearly two-thirds of the 61 kilograms (134 pounds) of fentanyl seized last year came from Mexico. The rest, 35 percent, came from China.</p>
<p>DEA officials say Mexican cartels are key bulk suppliers of fentanyl to the U.S., but portray Mexico primarily as a transshipment point. U.S. authorities have tracked shipments of fentanyl precursors from China to Mexico and the U.S., but many appear legitimate and are diverted to the black market upon arrival, Baer said.</p>
<p>Mexican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted, said fentanyl and its precursors were coming from China. Only two labs trying to produce fentanyl from scratch have been located in Mexico in recent years, with others apparently taking simpler steps to turn precursors into fentanyl, the officials said.</p>
<p>Mexican authorities did not immediately respond to requests for data on fentanyl and fentanyl precursor seizures by country of origin.</p>
<p>Still, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence indicating that China plays an important role in the fentanyls trade and, despite disagreements about data, Chinese authorities have been proactive in trying to stop their manufacture and export.</p>
<p>It is easy to find Chinese companies online offering to export synthetic opioids, the AP found in investigations published in October and November . In response to that reporting, China’s narcotics commission said it was scrutinizing 12 opioid vendors the AP identified , along with other companies that advertise fentanyl analogs. They said they also found three American companies advertising fentanyls, and noted that some vendors use servers based outside of China. China’s National Narcotics Laboratory has analyzed 25 fentanyl-related samples since 2012, the vast majority of which were being smuggled by mail to the U.S. or Europe, the commission said.</p>
<p>In some cases, China has enacted faster, more comprehensive changes to its drug control laws than much of the rest of the world.</p>
<p>The commission said China has taken a precedent-setting approach to synthetic drug regulation, controlling dozens of substances that aren’t abused domestically. At the same time, Beijing has struggled to get the international community to reciprocate. China has twice asked the United Nations to place the drug ketamine under international control. Ketamine, also known as Special K, is widely abused within China but prized as an essential anesthetic across the developing world by the World Health Organization and others.</p>
<p>“China looks forward to further practical action taken by the U.S. to jointly promote the international control of ketamine,” the narcotics commission said in written remarks to AP.</p>
<p>Beijing already regulates fentanyl and 18 related compounds and is considering designating four more: carfentanil, furanyl fentanyl, acryl fentanyl and valeryl fentanyl, the narcotics commission told AP. A formal review began in October, and the process can take up to nine months. In the meantime, the commission said it had warned Chinese vendors and websites that carfentanil, a weapons-grade substance so lethal it has been called a terrorism threat, and other analogs can harm human health and should not be sold.</p>
<p>That message sent a ripple of anxiety across the internet and caused some to start pushing alternative opioids, like U-47700, the AP found in conversations with a dozen companies advertising drugs online. “Friend, fent is illegal in China, it is dangerous for us,” wrote one vendor.</p>
<p>Baer said DEA is actively investigating U.S.-based vendors who use dark net markets to sell fentanyl and related compounds, as well as Chinese companies that use U.S. servers to sell carfentanil.</p>
<p>But the extent to which those U.S. companies are merely retailing made-in-China drugs is not clear. Baer said the DEA doesn’t believe fentanyl is mass-produced in the U.S., though authorities have uncovered mom-and-pop pill press operations.</p>
<p>One of them was run by a 28-year-old in Utah, who was busted late last month with a pill press, piles of powder and cash, and nearly 100,000 pills laced with suspected fentanyl in his Cottonwood Heights home. According to the criminal complaint, the young man hired people to accept packages shipped to their homes, which they’d hand over unopened.</p>
<p>The packages came from China.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP reporters Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, Desmond Butler in Washington and researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.</p> | China disputes US claim it’s top source of synthetic drugs | false | https://abqjournal.com/911835/china-disputes-us-claim-its-top-source-of-synthetic-drugs.html | 2016-12-19 | 2 |
<p>Incredible! This time, when the People spoke, Congress listened.</p>
<p>At least 228 members of the House listened. They voted early this afternoon to reject the Bush Administration’s scaremongering, and the cowardly Democratic Congressional leadership’s attempt at ducking and covering by attaching some meaningless verbiage to what remains a case of legalized highway robbery. At least for the moment, the bailout scam is killed.</p>
<p>Earlier in the day, the Congressional switchboard was jammed. You could get through, but it took a dedicated finger on the redial button of your phone. Operators at the Capitol say it’s been that way for a week now, as Americans across the country have been flooding their Congressional delegations with phone calls (and emails) urging them to vote “No” on the Bush/Paulson Wall Street bailout.</p>
<p>That today was no exception, even after Democratic Party leaders (and both major party presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama) had bought into the plan following their adding of some window-dressing measures designed to make it look more palatable, showed that the public is not being fooled (calls were reportedly running better than 9:1 or more like 999:1 against a bailout, perhaps more like 99:1).</p>
<p>People see clearly that this proposal is a trillion-dollar giveaway to the very people who have been hollowing out and destroying the US economy for over a decade or more by convincing both parties to let them do whatever they want to get rich, free of any kind of significant oversight or regulation.</p>
<p>As Nobelist economist Joseph Stiglitz has written of this outrageous rip-off, there are four problems facing the financial system, and the bailout proposal only addresses one–getting the toxic mortgages off the banks’ books and onto taxpayers’ hands. Left unsolved is the gaping hole in banks’ balance sheets in the form of loans made to people and companies which cannot be repaid, which will mean they still won’t start lending money again. Left unaddressed too is the continuing collapse of housing prices, which will inevitably lead to more bank collapses even after the bailout. Finally, Stiglitz says there is the general loss of faith in the financial system–a major crisis which the bailout will also not solve.</p>
<p>Stiglitz doesn’t even address a fifth problem which is that this trillion-plus-dollar boondoggle (and when you add in the bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, the multiple mega-bank failures and the pending auto-industry bailout, you’re already talking $1.5 trillion and counting), all of it with borrowed money, the stage is being set for a collapse in the US dollar, with consequences that will reverberate through the economy. Consider: if the dollar collapses, as many experts say is almost inevitable with this kind of huge addition to the national debt, oil prices (which are set in dollars) will soar to compensate, the price of all the other goods that Americans import–more than half of everything we use in daily life thanks to the decimation of American manufacturing–will rise dramatically, and ultimately, in an effort to stem the bleeding, interest rates will have to be raised, thus bringing what’s left of the economy to a grinding halt.</p>
<p>All of this is readily predictable–and indeed a group of over 200 prominent economists has written Congress joining Stiglitz in opposing the bailout plan–but that doesn’t matter to the proponents of the bailout in Washington. What they want is to get past Election Day, and the bailout may do that, unless the public gets really aroused.</p>
<p>The tsunami of calls and emails to Congress, and last week’s nationwide demonstrations against the bailout suggest that the public is waking up to this looming disaster and to the fact that they are being sold a bill of goods.</p>
<p>But it ain’t over yet. We can be sure there will be arm-twisting now to try and get 12 members of Congress to change their votes and win passage in the House (the Senate, where two-thirds of the members aren’t facing election for two or four years, will probably pass the bill easily). A continued expression of public outrage and of a promise of retaliation at the ballot box against those who vote for the bailout needs to be expressed.</p>
<p>If you haven’t made an effort to call your two senators and your representative to demand that they vote “No” on this bailout, do it now (the number is 202-225-3121 or 202-224-3121), and don’t give up when you get a busy signal. That’s a sign that you are not alone. Just keep hitting “redial” until you get through. At that point, get the operator, before switching you, to give you direct numbers for your three members of Congress, so you can bypass the main switchboard number after that. If you did call, call again and say you don’t want anyone changing their vote to become a bailout backer.</p>
<p>Unlike the 2002 rush to war against Iraq, we’ve shown that this latest bum’s rush can still be stopped. We did stop it.</p>
<p>To make your next call more impactful, make sure you tell each member of your congressional delegation that any yes vote on the bailout means you will vote against them next election. To read about this strategy, go to: <a href="http://www.throwthemallout.synthasite.com/" type="external">ThrowThemAllOut.com</a>.. .and then spread the word.</p>
<p>Keep the pressure on!</p>
<p>And don’t forget to contact the Obama campaign too. How embarrassing for candidates Obama and McCain, who both got suckered into backing the bailout, which it is now abundantly clear the American people recognize as a ripoff.</p>
<p>PS: Imagine if the same kind of pressure had been brought on Congress back in October 2002 when Bush was scare-mongering Congress into approving a war against Iraq. We’d have 4500 young Americans still alive, 40,000 other young Americans would still have their limbs and other body parts. A million-plus Iraqis would still be alive. And the country would have an extra $500 billion with which to deal with the current economic crisis.</p>
<p>DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback). His work is available at <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Power of No | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/09/30/the-power-of-no/ | 2008-09-30 | 4 |
<p>Why was the coup mounted?</p>
<p>This requires assumptions about who carried out the coup. One theory is that the followers of self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen knew that they were going to be purged and decided to strike first.</p>
<p>Was the coup concocted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to give himself the excuse to crack down?</p>
<p>It is more likely that Mr Erdogan is taking advantage of a real coup to rid the armed forces and key state institutions of all who do not give him full obedience.</p>
<p>He called it “a gift from God” in that it would allow him to do so. An argument against the theory that the coup was a put-up job is that it involved too many people, including high-ranking military officers, and might even have succeeded if the plotters had been able to eliminate Mr Erdogan.</p>
<p>Why did the coup fail?</p>
<p>The plotters did not eliminate Mr Erdogan and did not include the majority of the military high command. They did not enjoy any popular support and did not gain control of communications and the media. They did not have enough soldiers to suppress popular protests in favour of the President. The timing of the coup is also peculiar since it took place late Friday night when people were still up and going outside and not in the early hours of the morning as is traditional.</p>
<p>Is the civilian reaction being orchestrated?</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan successfully orchestrated public protests in order to thwart the coup by calling for them on an iPhone held in front of a television camera. So far as can be judged these were carried out by his committed supporters and right-wing nationalists, the numbers on the streets being boosted by free public transport until Monday night. A feature of the coup was that there were no demonstrations in favour of it because the coup plotters announced a curfew and, in any case, Mr Erdogan’s many opponents do not necessarily want him replaced by a military government.</p>
<p>The mosques also played a significant role in mobilising his constituency by calling people onto the streets and delivering sermons all night long as jets flew overhead. Secular Turks are worried that religiously inspired mobs will become a permanent factor in Turkish politics, but there is no doubt that Mr Erdogan is massively popular among a large part of the Turkish public. An online poll by software company Streetbees shows that in answer to the question of whether or not they wanted the army to seize power 82 per cent said no and 18 per cent said yes. The president may be using the coup for his own ends but there is no doubt that he has a democratic mandate.</p>
<p>Is Turkey still a democracy?</p>
<p>In one sense yes: Mr Erdogan’s AKP party was democratically elected in a general election on 1 November, last year. But he runs an increasingly authoritarian government and has taken over or suppressed most critical television stations and newspapers. Mr Erdogan is getting close to his dream of an all-powerful presidency which controls all the levers of power including the judiciary, armed forces and bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Where does this leave the EU deal and the refugee crisis?</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan is a tough negotiator but has proven himself to be an unreliable partner when it comes to long-term commitments.</p>
<p>How will this affect relations with Russia (after the plane that was shot down, and ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin)?</p>
<p>Before the coup Turkey had effectively apologised for shooting down the plane. Mr Erdogan is trying to reduce Turkey’s international isolation by improving relations with Russia and Israel.</p>
<p>But relations with Russia are unlikely to be transformed so long as Turkey is backing groups seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia is committed to preventing regime change in Syria.</p> | Everything You Need to Know About the Turkey Coup | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/07/20/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-turkey-coup/ | 2016-07-20 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-48053914/stock-vector-vector-illustration-of-modern-icon-depicting-a-gay-marriage.html?src=LEGi4EpwRt1mry8o_iBuCg-1-57"&gt;Myvector&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
<p />
<p>Indiana already passed legislation banning same-sex marriage years ago, but now, just to be sure, state Republicans are frantically scrambling to do it again. On Wednesday, a House committee on elections approved a measure to put a referendum on banning marriage equality on the November ballot. But there’s a catch: <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2014/01/22/round-2-for-same-sex-marriage-debate-/4772539/" type="external">it took two tries</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the testimony was a repeat of that given during a previous three-hour hearing on Jan. 13 before the House Judiciary Committee. The amendment stalled in that committee because there apparently were not enough votes to move the amendments to the full House.</p>
<p>That prompted House Speaker Brian Bosma to take the unusual and controversial step of reassigning the amendment and a companion bill to the elections committee, saying he was responding to the wishes of a majority of the GOP caucus.</p>
<p>In other words, Indiana’s Republican leaders are so dead set on banning gay marriage they upended the traditional process for putting initiatives on the ballot. But the real news is that they needed a workaround at all. Marriage equality, even in Indiana, is a popular enough position in 2014—and guaranteed to be increasingly more popular going forward—that even some staunch Republican legislators were wary of casting the crucial vote to slow its progress. With even places like Utah beginning to soften their attitudes on gay rights, though, the effort in Indianapolis looks less like the decisive victory its proponents are gunning for and more like an ever-so-temporary stop-gap solution.</p>
<p /> | Indiana Pulling Out All the Stops to Block Gay Marriage | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/indiana-pulling-out-all-stops-block-gay-marriage/ | 2014-01-23 | 4 |
<p>Jan 21 (Reuters) - Symbio Pharmaceuticals Ltd:</p>
<p>* ‍HAS INITIATED A PHASE 1 STUDY IN JAPAN FOR ORAL TREAKISYM IN PATIENTS WITH PROGRESSIVE SOLID TUMORS​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Tensions mounted over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Sacramento, California, black man when a protester sustained minor injuries when struck by a sheriff’s patrol car that was under attack by demonstrators, authorities said on Sunday.</p>
<p>About 150 people demonstrated in Sacramento on Saturday night to protest the March 18 shooting death of Stephon Clark, 22, who was gunned down in his grandmother’s yard.</p>
<p>The death of Clark, a father of two, was the latest in a string of killings of black men by police that have triggered street protests and fueled a renewed national debate about bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Protesters on Saturday night surrounded two marked Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department patrol cars and “began yelling while pounding and kicking the vehicles’ exterior,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement early Sunday.</p>
<p>“A collision occurred involving the sheriff’s patrol vehicle and a protester who was walking in the roadway,” the statement said. “The patrol car was traveling at slow speeds.”</p>
<p>The protester was identified by local media as Wanda Cleveland, 61, who regularly attends Sacramento City Council meetings.</p>
<p>The protester was transported by the Sacramento Metro Fire Department to a hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries, the Sheriff’s Department said.</p> A demonstrator, at a Stephon Clark vigil, reacts as a Sacramento County Sheriff's vehicle approaches in Sacramento, California, U.S., March 31, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video April 1, 2018. Twitter/ @southafricangd via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT: TWITTER/ @SOUTHAFRICANGD
<p>“Vandals in the crowd” damaged the patrol car, which “sustained scratches, dents, and a shattered rear window,” the Sheriff’s Department said.</p>
<p>Demonstrators interviewed by local radio and television stations, who prompted a flurry of similar Twitter responses, said the sheriff’s car failed to stop and called the incident a hit-and-run accident.</p>
<p>The incident is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol.</p> Slideshow (9 Images)
<p>Saturday’s demonstration brought together a multi-racial crowd, many in it holding signs such as “Stop Police Rage” and “Power to the People.” It was led by retired National Basketball Association player Matt Barnes, who grew up in the area and had two stints with the Sacramento Kings franchise.</p>
<p>Clark was shot by police responding to a report that someone was breaking windows. Police said the officers feared he had a gun but that he was later found to have been holding a cellphone.</p>
<p>Police have said he was moving toward officers in a menacing way. The shooting was captured on a body cam video released by police.</p>
<p>In several days of sporadic protests, protesters have blocked traffic and twice delayed fans from reaching games played by the Kings at the Golden 1 Center.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York: editing by Steve Orlofsky</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street shares plunged on Monday as investors fled technology stocks amid resurgent trade war worries, with key indexes trading below their 200-day moving averages and the S&amp;P 500 closing below that pivotal technical level for the first time since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.</p>
<p>The first trading day of the second quarter began with a broad selloff concentrated in the technology and consumer discretionary sectors, as losses by Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), among others, took center stage from retaliatory trade measures China unveiled on Sunday.</p>
<p>With the S&amp;P 500 in a 10 percent correction from its record high in late January, investors were increasingly concerned a nine-year bull market might be in danger of ending.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-stocks-instant/instant-view-stocks-tumble-led-by-tech-pullback-and-trade-fears-idUSKCN1H91HA" type="external">Instant View: Stocks tumble, led by tech pullback and trade fears</a>
<p>“It’s more complicated than just a tech selloff. What’s hurting everything is that the S&amp;P went through its 200-day moving average,” said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. “That attracts momentum sellers and they don’t care what the fundamentals are.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 458.92 points, or 1.9 percent, to end at 23,644.19 after dipping below its 200-day moving average. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> fell 58.99 points, or 2.23 percent, to 2,581.88 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 193.33 points, or 2.74 percent, to 6,870.12.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) was the biggest drag on the S&amp;P 500, down 5.2 percent, as President Donald Trump continued his twitter attacks on the online retailer.</p>
<p>All 11 major sectors of the S&amp;P 500 closed lower, with the biggest losses seen by the consumer discretionary .SPLRCD and technology .SPLRCT indexes, which were down 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>The tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged lower by Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>).</p>
<p>Shares of Tesla Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) ended the day down 5.1 percent after the company was reported to be making 2,000 Model 3s per week, missing its 2,500 target.</p>
<p>The electric automaker’s losses extend last week’s near 14-percent decline as investigations of a fatal California crash and a Moody’s credit downgrade weighed on the stock.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Health insurer Humana Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) shares closed up 4.4 percent on news it was in talks with Walmart ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) to expand their partnership or possibly be acquired by the retailer. Walmart stock fell 3.8 percent.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR fell to two-month lows as investors fled sliding stocks for safety ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 4.17-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.14-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1371.99 AMZN.O Nasdaq -75.35 (-5.21%) AMZN.O TSLA.O MSFT.O .DJI .SPX
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.71 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Kremlin aide said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the White House as the venue for a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin when they discussed the idea of meeting in a telephone call last month.</p>
<p>Since that call, on March 20, preparations for a possible summit have not progressed because of a diplomatic row, the aide, Yuri Ushakov, said.</p>
<p>“When our presidents spoke on the phone, Trump proposed having the first meeting in Washington, in the White House,” Ushakov told reporters at a briefing.</p>
<p>“Trump called Putin last month to congratulate him on his election victory and told reporters he believed he and Putin would meet “in the not too distant future.”</p>
<p>White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did not confirm an invitation had been issued to Putin, but said the two had discussed a number of venues for a potential meeting, including the White House.</p>
<p>“We have nothing further to add at this time,” she told reporters on Monday.</p>
<p>Rolling out a welcome for Putin in the White House, rather than at a neutral location, could anger Trump’s domestic critics, who accuse Russia of hostile acts against Western countries, including the United States.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
<p>Some current and former members of Trump’s team are under investigation for alleged collusion with Russia in the run-up to Trump’s inauguration. Trump denies any collusion.</p>
<p>Since the March 20 phone call, Washington expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed a Russian consulate over allegations that Russia was behind the poisoning of former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.</p>
<p>Russia denies involvement and has retaliated against the diplomatic sanctions in kind.</p> FILE PHOTO: Russia's President Vladimir Putin talks to U.S. President Donald Trump during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
<p>“Against the backdrop of these events, it’s difficult to discuss the possibility of holding a summit”, Ushakov said.</p>
<p>“We want to believe that the discussions (on a proposed summit) will begin,” Ushakov said.</p>
<p>“We want to hope that... one day, at one time or another we can arrive at the start of a serious and constructive dialogue.”</p>
<p>Reporting and writing by Denis Pinchuk; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by Christian Lowe and Robin Pomeroy</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s governor on Monday fiercely defended his administration’s right to help steer the insolvent, storm-ravaged island out of bankruptcy after a U.S. congressman said the process should be led by the island’s creditors and federally appointed oversight board.</p> Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello speaks during a Facebook live broadcast in the library of the governor's mansion, in San Juan, Puerto Rico January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alvin Baez
<p>In a scorching, 6,000-word letter delivered on Monday to U.S. Representative Rob Bishop, and seen by Reuters, Governor Ricardo Rossello accused the Republican lawmaker of turning “back the clock many decades to a time when the federal government simply imposed its will” on the U.S. territory.</p>
<p>Bishop, who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, was at the forefront of a 2016 federal law known as PROMESA, which moved Puerto Rico’s finances under the management of a federally appointed board.</p>
<p>In a letter last week, Bishop censured the board for lack of progress on a massive planned debt restructuring in Puerto Rico, directing the board to seek more input from the island’s financial creditors on a plan to stabilize the island.</p>
<p>Rossello said on Monday that flew in the face of PROMESA, which calls for the board and the governor to work together. He said the sides had made consensual progress on elements of Puerto Rico’s restructuring.</p>
<p>“I cannot and will not permit you to elevate concerns of bondholders on the mainland above concern for the well-being of my constituents,” Rossello said in the 13-page rebuke. “Your letter is truly disturbing in its reckless disregard for collaboration and cooperation in favor of an anti-democratic process akin to a dictatorial regime.”</p>
<p>Puerto Rico is navigating both the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. government history, with $120 billion in bond and pension debt, and its worst natural disaster in 90 years with September’s Hurricane Maria. The storm killed dozens, devastated the island’s infrastructure, and has left thousands without power more than six months later.</p>
<p>Rossello’s letter, scattered with legal arguments supporting a theory that the board’s powers are limited, foreshadows the potential for litigation if his government and the oversight board cannot come to terms on a path forward for the island.</p>
<p>The two sides have been collaborating on an economic forecast, called a fiscal turnaround plan, whose projections will determine, crucially, how much money the island has left over to repay its bondholders.</p>
<p>But they are apart on key issues, namely demands by the board to impose pension cuts and labor reforms. The governor has said those demands constitute specific policy decisions that exceed the board’s power.</p>
<p>The board has the authority to certify a plan unilaterally if it cannot reach terms with the governor, and Bishop’s letter was seen as a nod to that increasingly likely scenario. In it, Bishop essentially instructed the board to use its powers to enforce austerity measures and start collaborating with creditors rather than with just the government.</p>
<p>A unilateral plan would likely perpetuate already costly litigation over Puerto Rico’s financial future, because Rossello could resist implementing the board’s plan, and the board could then sue to enforce it, a scenario that has some precedent.</p>
<p>Rossello insisted his government was owed a seat at the table. “Congress did not create a control board ... with plenary policymaking power,” the governor said. “Congress expressly rejected such a model.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Symbio Pharmaceuticals initiated Phase 1 Study in Japan for Oral Treakisym in patients with progressive solid tumors Rising tension at protests over killing of black man in California Wall Street tumbles on tech sector, trade war worries Kremlin says Trump suggested Putin visit the White House Puerto Rico governor slams congressman over 'dictatorial' letter | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-symbio-pharmaceuticals-initiated-p/brief-symbio-pharmaceuticals-initiated-phase-1-study-in-japan-for-oral-treakisym-in-patients-with-progressive-solid-tumors-idUSFWN1PE1CO | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
<p>President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka had a private lunch Friday with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the White House said the U.N. chief invited her to follow up on her launch of a fund to help women entrepreneurs access capital.</p>
<p>U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq had no comment on the 90-minute meeting in Guterres' private offices. Ivanka, a senior adviser to her father, left U.N. headquarters without answering shouted questions on what was discussed. When she arrived, she smiled but also said nothing.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A White House official said the two discussed areas of common interest after the launch of the World Bank's economic facility to advance women's entrepreneurship that Trump's daughter supported.</p>
<p>The official, who insisted on speaking anonymously, said Ivanka Trump coordinated her conversations with U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. But Haley did not attend the lunch.</p>
<p>Ivanka Trump joined World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim earlier this month on the sidelines of the Group of 20 world leaders' summit to launch the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative.</p>
<p>Kim said at the time that the fund had raised more than $325 million so far for projects and programs to support women and women-led businesses by improving access to capital and markets, providing technical assistance, training and mentoring, and pushing public policy.</p>
<p>The fund grew out of conversations between Ivanka Trump and Kim early in Trump's administration. The president announced a $50 million contribution from the United States at the launch.</p>
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<p>While women entrepreneurs were one focus of their meeting, Guterres was also likely to have brought up the significant cuts to the U.N. budget proposed by the president and U.S. opposition to the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, which the secretary-general strongly supports.</p>
<p>Haley told CBS's "Face the Nation" earlier this month that she thinks Ivanka Trump considers herself "part of a public servant family" and wants to put forward "some effort to try and help the world."</p> | Ivanka Trumps has private lunch with UN chief Guterres | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/28/ivanka-trumps-has-private-lunch-with-un-chief-guterres.html | 2017-07-28 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Friends and activists are visiting the New York hospital where Black Lives Matter icon Eric Garner's eldest daughter is in grave condition after a heart attack.</p>
<p>Erica Garner has been hospitalized in Brooklyn since Saturday. Family members gave conflicting reports about her status Thursday. The friend running her Twitter account posted she had suffered brain damage.</p>
<p>Garner's mother, Esaw Snipes, tells the Daily News she's in a coma but there's a "glimpse of hope" she could recover.</p>
<p>The Rev. Al Sharpton was among well-wishers who visited the 27-year-old Garner on Thursday.</p>
<p>Eric Garner died after a police officer subdued him with a chokehold in 2014. His last words were "I can't breathe," which became a slogan for activists.</p>
<p>Erica Garner became a voice against police brutality after his death.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Daily News, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com" type="external">http://www.nydailynews.com</a></p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Friends and activists are visiting the New York hospital where Black Lives Matter icon Eric Garner's eldest daughter is in grave condition after a heart attack.</p>
<p>Erica Garner has been hospitalized in Brooklyn since Saturday. Family members gave conflicting reports about her status Thursday. The friend running her Twitter account posted she had suffered brain damage.</p>
<p>Garner's mother, Esaw Snipes, tells the Daily News she's in a coma but there's a "glimpse of hope" she could recover.</p>
<p>The Rev. Al Sharpton was among well-wishers who visited the 27-year-old Garner on Thursday.</p>
<p>Eric Garner died after a police officer subdued him with a chokehold in 2014. His last words were "I can't breathe," which became a slogan for activists.</p>
<p>Erica Garner became a voice against police brutality after his death.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Daily News, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com" type="external">http://www.nydailynews.com</a></p> | Mom: Black Lives Matter icon Eric Garner's daughter in coma | false | https://apnews.com/amp/c8de040a8028481c91fbf19a1fbecb5b | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>That’s considerably lower than the 17 days initially reported by the new superintendent’s transition advisory team in October.</p>
<p>“That sounds a lot more realistic,” said Bernice García Baca, president of the National Education Association in Santa Fe, the local teacher’s union. Superintendent Joel Boyd’s transition advisory team released a report disclosing its findings on a number of issues in October. Among them were that “teachers and other staff” missed an average of 17 days during the 180-day school year, or 9.4 percent of work days, nearly double the national average of nine days per year (5 percent).</p>
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<p>Teachers disputed that data and claimed the numbers weren’t thoroughly vetted before they were released.</p>
<p>At that time, García Baca said the numbers made SFPS teachers look as if they were lazy and educating students wasn’t a priority for them.</p>
<p>“Nothing could be more incorrect!” García Baca wrote in an email to the Journal at the time.</p>
<p>She said then that a number of factors contribute to teacher absenteeism, including days spent on professional development, long-term sick leave and other legitimate reasons, such as jury duty and military duty.</p>
<p>In response, Boyd directed his staff to crunch the numbers more thoroughly and provide a breakdown of the reasons school employees were missing work.</p>
<p>Richard Bowman, the district’s chief accountability and strategy officer, did so and released the report Friday.</p>
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<p>“We’re drawing no conclusions from this,” he said. “I was just asked to break down the data by location, type of absence, and job class. The next step is to answer the question, why? I think what we need to look at is the impact on the instructional environment.”</p>
<p>To answer that question, Bowman said principals and other school personnel would be interviewed.</p>
<p>“The numbers are just the numbers. Now we have to figure out the story behind the numbers,” he said.</p>
<p>“That’s the part we want to be a part of,” García Baca said. “We’re hoping they include us when making those plans.”</p>
<p>Bowman explained that the data gathered by the advisory team was pulled from the district’s system used to assign substitutes. In his analysis, he supplemented that data with information about staff members on long-term leave and converted those absences to “vacancies.”</p>
<p>They were measured in three different job classes: “Teachers,” or anyone with “teacher” as part of their job title; “Education Paraprofessionals,” including special education and library services; and “Other,” which includes everyone else, such as nurses, counselors, therapists and secretaries.</p>
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<p>Reasons for vacancies were grouped into two categories: “Personal/Sick” leave and “Professional Development/District Business.”</p>
<p>Bowman said median averages, instead of mean averages, were used to get a more accurate representation.</p>
<p>“When you use the mean, people on long-term absences really skew the number, often very dramatically,” he said.</p>
<p>According to the report, the average teacher within the district missed a total of 12 days of school during the 2011-12 school year, seven of them for personal or sick leave and three days for professional development or district business. The other two unaccounted for days are a function of using averages, he said.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, 31 percent of teachers missed over 10 days due to personal or sick leave. That’s actually less than the state average, as reported by the Center for American Progress, which indicated 50 percent of New Mexico teachers miss more than 10 days of school.</p>
<p>But Bowman warned that comparison could be apples to oranges.</p>
<p>“Other folks don’t break out data like this. I think we’re one of the first in the state to break it out this way.”</p>
<p>Bowman’s analysis shows that the average education paraprofessional in Santa Fe missed eight days and employees in other job classifications miss an average of seven days.</p>
<p>Those groups rarely miss work for professional development or district business.</p> | Teachers Out 12 Days Per Year | false | https://abqjournal.com/151844/teachers-out-12-days-per-year.html | 2012-12-08 | 2 |
<p>Population figures are from the 2000 Census. The Chicago Reporter used www.stevemorse.org to convert the addresses of the six power plants to latitude/longitude coordinates. The Reporter used the Missouri Census Data Center Circular Area Profiles Web site to calculate the racial demographics of individuals living within a two-mile radius of those coordinates.</p> | Methodology (Toxic Neighbor) | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/methodology-toxic-neighbor/ | 2008-10-31 | 3 |
<p />
<p>On Friday, White House lawyers filed a motion in civil court, arguing against the House’s own filing last month in its attempt to enforce subpoenas against Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers. As I reported at the time, the White House <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10255.html" type="external">appears to be arguing</a> that the courts ought to stay out of the fight and let the House use other means of leverage to get the information it seeks from the executive branch.</p>
<p>the Legislative Branch may vindicate its interests without enlisting judicial support: Congress has a variety of other means by which it can exert pressure on the Executive Branch, such as the withholding of consent for Presidential nominations, reducing Executive Branch appropriations, and the exercise of other powers Congress has under the Constitution.</p>
<p>The entire document runs 83 pages. I’ll try to get my hands on a copy, to see what other dubious arguments the administration is making.</p>
<p /> | Contempt in Court | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/contempt-court/ | 2008-05-14 | 4 |
<p>While going to work isn't always something to celebrate, there's no reason you shouldn't get some satisfaction out of your day. Yet an almost depressing 52% of Americans consider themselves <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/06/12/hate-your-job-clearly-youre-not-alone.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8376b132-9715-11e7-b23c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">unhappy at work</a>, and while some of that might stem from being <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/08/15/are-you-making-what-you-should-be-at-your-job.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8376b132-9715-11e7-b23c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">undercompensated</a>, it might also boil down to the fact that they're just plain in the wrong roles.</p>
<p>In fact, many workers don't realize that being overqualified for a job can lead to major dissatisfaction. Here's how to tell if you're too skilled for your position.</p>
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<p>We all have tasks that are mundane by nature, like answering emails, filing paperwork, or logging data. But if you find that you're perpetually bored on the job, and you don't find your core tasks at all stimulating, take it as a sign that you simply might be overqualified.</p>
<p>Many jobs offer employees the chance to grow their skills and learn new things. Imagine you studied computer science in college. Even if you come into a job knowing what you're doing, there's a good chance you'll learn more as you get involved in new projects and tasks. But if you're in a situation where you honestly can't say you've learned a new thing in months, it probably means you're in the wrong position given your level of skill.</p>
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<p>There's nothing wrong with coming to the aid of those around you who struggle on the job. In fact, helping your colleagues is a good way to earn a solid reputation and show your boss that you're a true team player. But if you find that, generally speaking, you're the only one on the team who seems to have all the answers and there's no one else to turn to for similar advice, it may be that you deserve a <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/07/10/want-a-promotion-heres-what-you-need-to-do.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8376b132-9715-11e7-b23c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">promotion</a>.</p>
<p>Being an efficient worker is a good thing, in theory. But if you constantly find yourself seeking out new projects because you have a notable amount of free time on your hands, it could be that you're plowing through your core tasks much more quickly than management expects -- and that's a sign that you need more challenging work to begin with. Keep in mind that having too much visible downtime on the job can hurt you, so you really shouldn't be in a position where you're frequently begging for more work.</p>
<p>On the one hand, it may be nice to come to work knowing that you've got your job down pat, but if you reach a point where you're bored senseless and unstimulated, you soon might come to dread going into the office. That's why you're better off explaining to your manager that you're able to give much more than what your company is currently asking for, and that you'd prefer to put all of your skills to good use.</p>
<p>If there's another open role within your company that you feel you're qualified for, go ahead and make the case for it. A different option is to work with your manager to carve out a new position that allows you to make good use of your skills.</p>
<p>Finally, don't discount the possibility of looking outside your company if you're overqualified for your current role, but there's no workable solution internally. Challenging yourself will help you grow your career, so if you need to seek out a new job to do your skills justice, so be it.</p>
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<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;uuid=8376b132-9715-11e7-b23c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | 4 Signs You're Overqualified for Your Job | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/14/4-signs-youre-overqualified-for-your-job.html | 2017-09-14 | 0 |
<p>Economists agree that the collapse in housing markets in the United States plunged world economies into the worst crisis since the 1930’s. A revival of housing markets and new construction is one of the anticipated signs of recovery. In the meantime, the US taxpayer is on the hook for trillions of dollars of debt constituted from the detritus of the housing boom. If value is to be created in service of a new economic order, it is imperative that stimulus money be directed in ways that prevent reigniting a model of growth through construction and development that has demonstrably failed: namely, through the fraudulent wealth creator called suburban sprawl.</p>
<p>Congress recently permitted banks to no longer mark to market their toxic assets. In a real sense, this action postpones the day of reckoning for sprawl and its rotted foundation: derivative debt tied to mortgage backed securities. This wink and nod papers over—at immense taxpayer expense—and delays accounting for the excesses of the debt that showered billions on Wall Street and its supply chain.</p>
<p>In the final stage of the housing boom, from California’s Central Valley to the suburbs of Washington DC, it was called “the ownership society”: a marriage of greed and political imperatives accruing mainly to operatives and special interests identified with the Republican Party. Although we are through all that, by not confronting suburban sprawl and its costs directly, the Obama White House takes on considerable risk.</p>
<p>Here, there is danger in letting sleeping dogs lie. The construction and building industries, related to sprawl housing and construction of fringe suburbs, is dead as a doornail. Perhaps it is a pragmatic not to ask too directly; who owns what? On the other hand, the taxpayer does own a multi-trillion dollar share of assets that are rotten, toxic, cratered: our choice.</p>
<p>And since it is our choice, really, whether to shoulder such enormous fiscal burdens as the costs of suburban sprawl rotting on balance sheets everywhere, we might ask some common sense questions. For instance, if the day of reckoning of asset values is being delayed so that an incipient recovery (‘green shoots’) can help financial institutions and jobs through the crisis, what is the end result we have in mind?</p>
<p>A very small, powerful, and wealthy constituency is waiting for the pump to be primed, so that suburban sprawl can rise from its ashes and all asset bubbles begin inflating again. This is, after all, the path of least resistance. Marriages of convenience are convenient precisely because roles are well established. Economists offer no solution to the way greed lubricates political ambition and deforms democracy at the same time.</p>
<p>So if this is where we are headed, then it stands to reason that the recovery-to-be looks exactly like the same sprawling, platted opportunities for growth that are now half-empty subdivisions, or, millions of square feet of empty condos and strip malls and other commercial space built in the last gasp of an artificial boom serving hedge funds, flippers, and banks turned speculators. President Obama says otherwise, but there is nothing in TARP, or TALF, or any other specific funding measure to prevent stimulus moneys from flowing down exactly the same channels in respect to the built landscapes of America’s suburbs.</p>
<p>If we want, as a nation, another model of economic growth; one that does land us in the same crisis we are in, today, then “stress tests” for banks are a very rough tool for a job that requires fine thought and action. Banks are agnostic. They will sell loans to whatever the market wants and is within legal parameters. The market pretends to be agnostic, but it is not.</p>
<p>Indeed, if you pull the thread of controlling regulations intended to keep solid financial institutions far from the hands of speculators—in particular as relates to property development—where you end up is a place much closer to the need for “stress testing”: the underlying zoning and land use for construction and development.</p>
<p>The question of the hour is not why banks should be subject to stress tests but why land use decisions by local—and sometimes state—government are not. This is, after all, the fertile soil from which so much debt exploded like noxious weeds.</p>
<p>Banks and other financial institutions involve economic activities that link the interests of all Americans and so are regulated by the federal government. But test of federal interest is also true of land use, especially in farmland that converts to fringe suburbs through zoning changes by local government. Why should “one size fit all” when it comes to federal regulation of banks and insurance companies, but that control of private property is whatever owners can persuade local government to allow?</p>
<p>Both financial markets and raw land for suburbs have provided the opportunity for speculators arbitrage the inefficiency of laws regulating financial derivatives and what can be built from those confections of debt. The absence of regulations in financial derivatives marches hand in hand with the blushing bride: an empty, hollowed out regulatory structure that has failed to protect quality of life, environment, and communities.</p>
<p>A truer scenario for economic recovery would impose a stress test on zoning for land development, incorporating a higher set of hurdles than “concurrency” models that turn local zoning decisions into a game of counting angels on the head of a pin.</p>
<p>Almost as soon as the housing markets began to crash, the air at conservative foundations was filled with noise that land use regulations were to blame for our economic ills. Indeed, in state legislatures like Florida’s, the economic crisis has provided lobbyists from the Growth Machine with energy to knock down what marginal protections exist for sustainable growth. Instead of solving the budget crises, Florida’s Idiocracy is chasing down and mauling the state agency charged with growth management, pinning blame on too much regulation of development. The truth is that the sorts of development local and state government lavished attention to matched up exactly to the shape and cut of financial derivatives that wrecked the nation’s financial institutions.</p>
<p>Those responsible for the economic disaster are excellent at counting angels on a pin. Instead of medieval monks, we have land use and property rights lawyers, spurred on by speculators and local bankers who bought mortgages and sold them in packages and pools without looking or raising a single eyebrow. They are anti-regulation Idiocrats in a daisy chain with local title companies, mortgage brokers in Florida, and cement manufacturers promoting infrastructure by the ton, scooping up zoning officials and local politicians of every stripe along the way.</p>
<p>They are former Wall Street risk analysts lying low behind gated estates in Fairfield County, Connecticut and executives from Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and AMBAC, paid billions to miscalculate risk of derivatives bundling suburban sprawl. They are Congressmen and White House economic advisors, past and present, who made sure that derivatives received communion every time they came from the pews. Everyone took a slice. Everyone ate a wafer. Everyone skimmed from the top. (The Miami Herald detailed how more than 10,000 felons permitted to become Florida mortgage brokers. Regrettably, Herald executives never unleashed its investigative team to track the fraud up the political food chain. They had the beast in its hands and let it go.)</p>
<p>Few in the supply chain thought there was a risk to the fetid, lousy development that passed for sound judgment and property rights.</p>
<p>When bankers and the real estate development lobby get hold of reporters, what they say is this: be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water. But a stress test of what suburban sprawl has done to our nation would pass no one’s muster except those who profited mightily from making derivatives out of every kind of stable value. The simple home and wetland is equally orphaned by the madness that has allowed “private property rights” to triumph over every reasonable protection of the public commons.</p>
<p>Here is one example that stands for thousands: Vitran Homes of the Preserve; a failed platted subdivision of two baker’s dozen in Southern Miami Dade County. Miami Dade is the epicenter of the housing boom and bust for this reason: the code was broken, here, in the mid 1990’s, tying conservative values in the political sphere, to deregulation of financial instruments in the economic sphere, permitting unfettered building and construction to bludgeon laws protecting the environment, and government agencies, like a copper penny flattened on a railroad track. And it all went very badly wrong.</p>
<p>Today, Vitran Homes exists as shells formed of concrete blocks shaped into a single story, false gabled homes set in weed-strewn, former farmland. To say the development is unfinished is an understatement. Its window openings are open to violation by the elements and squatters: spaces for doors and half-completed stick frame joists propping up Mediterranean tiled roofs.</p>
<p>That’s the outside. Inside, the “homes” have been christened by broken bottles, crushed shopping carts, an aquarium lying in a pool of its own glass, a discarded pair of pants hardened into unintelligible evidence. The development is post apocalyptic; a place for teenagers seeking relief from boredom, drugs and the ritual testing how reality shatters on cement, a haven for stray dogs and squatters. Vitran Homes is not a work-in-progress: it is a work in collapse.</p>
<p>What Vitran Homes does “preserve”, and all that it preserves, is the hubris that accompanied the building boom, scattering low cost production housing into Florida farmland and wetlands like confetti. According to a recent AP story, nearly one in four houses in the neighboring Homestead and Florida City areas are in foreclosure: one of the highest rates in the nation.</p>
<p>When you hear the term “toxic assets”, think: these access roads, these lots, these concrete shells occupy an address in the portfolio of a bank or insurance company or hedge fund that may have used properties like this as collateral for a loan, for another insurance-related product like a credit default swap. Today, you may own it. It may be yours.</p>
<p>Appropriately, Vitran Homes is identified as “theoretical” SW 226th Street. It is theoretical the way that the asset value is represented as theoretical debt still marked on some bank’s balance sheet, and now pegged to a level that retains the simulacrum of value on a balance sheet. There is nothing theoretical about the weeds reclaiming Vitran Homes. There is not a job in sight, unless you count the new hospital at Homestead whose patients were scavenged from other nearby hospitals, mostly uninsured and uninsurable in the wealthiest nation on earth. It was all good, until it was crap.</p>
<p>On the other side of the street from Vitran in South Miami Dade, a Google Earth satellite image shows a massive development by Miami’s homegrown heavyweight production homebuilder—Lennar Corporation–, scarified and prepped and ready for cement. The Google photo is only a few years old. It shows the green land scraped bare: white as bone or the dust of ancient, pulverized coral reef.</p>
<p>Today the Lennar development is finished in a manner of speaking. The entire development has the look as if its building plans were printed from a single computer file: this one has two hundred fifty units, Mediterranean like the rest of South Florida off the Turnpike, fire hydrants spaced and cul de sacs measured according to code, building materials spec’ed in China, etc.</p>
<p>A key feature of the financing underlying platted subdivisions like this is sameness. Ratings agencies like Moody’s or Standard &amp; Poor’s bless derivatives according to computer models that match the theoretical housing, from cement to every other cost element, to theoretical addresses and surrounding demographics: the imagined pool of American consumers who flock to sameness because it is low-cost and filled with features that support consumer “preferences”.</p>
<p>Back in the day, the proponents of so much Lennar-type sprawl called it “what the market wants”. What the market wants was shouted from the rafters of the National Association of Homebuilders to the National Association of Realtors, from Associated Industries to the Chambers of Commerce. The mainstream media, especially newspapers, bought it hook-line-and-sinker because it came attached with muscular advertising dollars. Today, the entire region feels as though the oxygen has been sucked out and all that remains are hapless passengers stranded by a bus that never will never arrive.</p>
<p>The Lennar regional VP is the president of the Latin Builders Association; the influential Miami-based lobbying group that controlled Miami politics through vilification of Castro while imposing its own hegemony through the award of county contracts, from road building to the painting of highway stripes, from insider deals at Miami International Airport to the conversion of the last remaining farmland in South Florida to suburban sprawl. The owner of Vitran Homes of the Preserve is a director of the South Florida Builders Association.</p>
<p>Theirs was a game of risk to play private profit through artificial demand, inflated by land use lawyers paid $500 to $750 an hour and especially, to berate citizen objectors (“They don’t know what they are talking about.”) and bedazzle officials with powerpoint presentations and slick graphics papering over campaign contributions delivered, sometimes, in paper sacks. No one knew what they were talking about, and especially not in the vegetable fields where farmers loved pallets of sheet rock more than pole beans, cement trucks more than tomatoes, and the certainty of road graders and ditch witches in irrigation fields.</p>
<p>When it comes to suburban sprawl, everyone was paid and paid well to be dumb as dirt.</p>
<p>Production homebuilders and their associations do excel in this: use profits from mass production housing to blow through calculations of risk in zoning and permitting of development. Whether risk to investors or the environment, it is all the same: a blazing confidence that public policy must keep its mitts off the formulas that worked so well in the past; an imaginary tide lifting all fictitious names and luxury yachts registered in the Bahamas. Developments like Vitran Homes are exactly what the builders’ lobby wanted and lobbied for, turning valuable farmland into the fiction of demand and manageable risk. They were neither.</p>
<p>Lennar recently took out an unusual advertisement in the Miami Herald: “Builder Closeout: Every Condo Must Be Sold”. It was a full page ad in bold red, white and black graphics. No longer, at least in the case of its two enormous Miami developments called Colonnade and North Bay Village, is Lennar trying to lure buyers with the promise of protection if the buyer loses his or her job. Now it’s a “Sealed-Bid Auction: Your Best Price Plus Zero Dollars Closing Costs!”</p>
<p>At the very same time, the corporation is offloading its stale inventory at auction. In the midst of the worst housing markets in a century, Lennar is promoting zoning changes in Miami-Dade farmland—a multi-thousand unit development called Parkland– outside Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary, close to the Everglades. The company wants the zoning change today, even though it will be 2014 before the development is ready for occupancy.</p>
<p>Lennar wants its cake and eat it too: fair enough. As long as you are inside the legal boundaries, why not?</p>
<p>There is nothing mystical about the deals and hand-shakes between developers and officials charged with zoning decisions that lead to so much carnage in farmland and on waterfronts. Across the America’s suburban landscape, there has been nothing like “wise use”. The pattern of low density suburban sprawl has wrecked aquifers, destroyed natural habitats and, at during the political ascendancy of “family values” torn apart families by imposing huge costs on commuters and consumers.</p>
<p>If “wise use” worked, why have American taxpayers been forced to shoulder the trillions in debt, underwriting the horrendous miscalculation of risk that showered wealth from Wall Street down the supply chain of developers and production homebuilders, into the campaign coffers of local city and county commissioners?</p>
<p>In respect to promoting regulatory reform of banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies, the Obama White House has been exceedingly careful. Banks should be subject to stress tests.</p>
<p>But there should also be a federal “stress test” for local zoning, tied to subsidies to states and local jurisdictions. Without a federal stress test, including measures to prevent fiscal stimulus billions from reviving suburban sprawl, Americans will continue to be driven by a growth machine that is in key respects a Ponzi scheme, requiring future taxpayers to shoulder the costs of trillion dollar mistakes. A top-down approach to stress testing financial institutions will not lead to any kind of recovery—because the revolving door of big engineering firms, planners, government agencies, lobbyists, and elected officials is committed to reviving a failed economic model of growth.</p>
<p>Real estate developers, their supply chain, and land speculators are taking advantage of confusion and the appearance of relative calm in stock markets to harden their bunkers before citizens take up the pitchforks. The conservative foundation gin mills are hard at work buffing and polishing and re-branding failed models of growth.</p>
<p>If banks are stress tested but underlying land use is not, future growth will be along exactly the same pathways leading to the worst economic crisis since the Depression, green shoots and all. It doesn’t have to be that way, but does President Obama understand why it is?</p>
<p>ALAN FARAGO lives in south Florida. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | No Place Like Home | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/05/07/no-place-like-home/ | 2009-05-07 | 4 |
<p />
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<p>Shares of independent oil and gas producer Cabot Oil &amp; Gas (NYSE: COG) is up 10% as of 11:45 a.m. EST today. The impetus for this share price movement is an analyst upgrade from J.P. Morgan as well as approval for a pipeline in the Marcellus shale region that will increase natural gas takeaway capacity from the region.</p>
<p>Cabot Oil &amp; Gas has quietly become one of the better independent oil and gas companies in America's oil patch. Its focus in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shale formations make for some pretty attractive geology, and the company has some of the lowest production costs out there. Today, its internal rate of return on $2.00 per million BTU of gas in the Marcellus region is better than 100%.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>One of the things that has held back the Marcellus shale formation, though, is a lack of takeaway capacity. Unlike Texas or Oklahoma, which already had robust pipeline infrastructure in place, much of the Pennsylvania and Ohio regions have been starting from scratch and have been capacity constrained. So today, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Williams Companies'Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, it was a big dealespecially when you consider that Cabot Oil &amp; Gas was signed on as an anchor customer that had already committed to moving 1 billion cubic feet per day through the Atlantic Sunrise pipe.</p>
<p>When analysts at J.P. Morgan saw this today, they immediately upgraded this stock.</p>
<p>Normally, long-term investors should ignore such things as analyst upgrades and downgrades as they are normally based on short-term catalysts. The approval of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, however, is a big deal for Cabot both in the short and long term. It should open up Cabot's natural gas production to many more customers and could potentially even result in higher realized prices. Combine that with Cabot's low-cost operations and that could mean something for the bottom line.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx" type="external">Tyler Crowe Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Surge on Analyst Upgrade, Pipeline Approval | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/06/shares-cabot-oil-gas-surge-on-analyst-upgrade-pipeline-approval.html | 2017-02-06 | 0 |
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Washington Free Beacon Staff</a>May 22, 2014 8:16 am</p>
<p>Another Democrat has pulled the infamous <a href="" type="internal">race card</a>!</p>
<p>Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.) suggested in a hearing Wednesday that opponents of Obamacare do not like it simply because of the color of the president’s skin.</p>
<p>"I’ll be able to dig up some emails that make part of the Affordable Care Act that doesn’t look good-especially from people who made up their mind that they don’t want it to work because they don’t like the president. Maybe he’s of the wrong color, something of that sort. I’ve seen a lot of that and I know a lot of that to be true," Rockefeller said.</p>
<p>(h/t <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/democrat-senator-says-people-dont-like-obamacare-racists/" type="external">AR</a>)</p> | Deranged Dem: People Oppose Obamacare Because They’re Racist | true | http://freebeacon.com/issues/deranged-dem-people-oppose-obamacare-because-theyre-racist/ | 2014-05-22 | 0 |
<p>IDF Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich and U.S. Maj. Gen. John L. Gronski conduct a ceremony at Bislach Air Base, near Mitzpe Ramon on Sept. 18, 2017.</p>
<p>Patrick Henningsen <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>In terms of US and Middle East geopolitics, something extremely significant has just taken place this week, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the Western mainstream press. This latest addition to the Pentagon’s imperial portfolio of over 800 overseas military bases is sure to fuel even more resistance to what many see as a policy of global hegemony.</p>
<p>On Monday, the United States formally unveiled its plan to establish a permanent military installation inside of Israel.</p>
<p>The new US air defense base will be located in the Negev desert – a “base within a base” sharing the new location with an existing IDF facility at Mashabim Air Base located between the towns of Dimona and Yerucham. The base will fall under the umbrella of US <a href="http://www.eucom.mil/" type="external">European Command</a> (EUCOM) headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.</p>
<p>Plans for the new US Air Force base began under former US president Barack Obama, and transitioned to formation under President Donald Trump.</p>
<p />
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-us-establishes-permanent-military-base-in-israel/" type="external">Times of Israel</a>:</p>
<p>Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch, head of the IAF’s Aerial Defense Command, announced the establishment of the installation on Monday evening.</p>
<p>“It’s nothing short of historic,” he said. It demonstrates the “years-old alliance between the United States and the State of Israel.”</p>
<p>Already, we have seen Israeli PM Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu threaten Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding Iran’s military presence in Syria, warning that ‘ <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-israel/netanyahu-to-putin-israel-may-act-to-curb-irans-clout-in-syria-idUSKCN1B30JS" type="external">Israel may act to curb Iran’s clout in Syria</a>.’&#160; Naturally, this new facility will be viewed by regional stakeholders as a counter weight to the new Syrian situation.</p>
<p>The US base may also be used to launch air sorties to defend Israel’s recent illegal annexation of the part of the Golan Heights, land which it has managed to take under the cover of the Syrian conflict. Recently, Israel has managed to pry away this contested land from Syria <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185186" type="external">with the help of Al Nusra terrorists</a> on the ground, after they previously <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/golan-heights-peacekeeping-mission-in-trouble/a-16903125" type="external">chased out UNDOF Peacekeepers</a> which had been positioned there since 1974. Amazingly, the UN still <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/undof/" type="external">has not updated its website</a> to express this new reality on the ground (still showing a mission photo from 2012).</p>
<p>Earlier reports clearly show how Tel Aviv has been <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Israel-treating-al-Qaida-fighters-wounded-in-Syria-civil-war-393862" type="external">providing material assistance to Al Nusra terrorist fighters</a> – a policy which Israel has not apologised for.</p>
<p>This week’s joint military announcement by the US and Israel also happens to coincide with the Jewish feast Rosh Hashanah.&#160; The Times says: “It’s a few days before Rosh Hashanah” — the Jewish new year — “and we are undergoing a renewal and growing in our abilities that are important and necessary for the State of Israel.”</p>
<p>According to the Israeli spokesperson, the establishment of a US base in Israel will send a “message to the region.”</p>
<p>Whether that’s perceived as a positive message, or a message of US imperial expansion remains to be seen, but by most accounts, it’s likely to be the latter.</p>
<p>If anything, the establishment of a US base in occupied Palestine could help to reinvigorate the international pro-Palestinian activist movement, which traditionally has had an anti-Imperialist message in its mission.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, it’s hard to see how such a move by the US can be seen as a positive development for the region. Add to this other direct provocations by the US on behalf of Israel, and we have a recipe for potential disaster down the road. Earlier in his term, Trump also announced his desire to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – seen by many as an aggressive move by Washington, which would be viewed as an affront to a long-established policy respecting the political and religious neutrality of Jerusalem. Note that the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ45/PLAW-104publ45.pdf" type="external">Jerusalem Embassy Act</a>was passed into law in 1995, although successive US presidents have opted out of such a move in the interests of maintaining peace over this contentious issue.</p>
<p>Somewhat shockingly, Gen. Haimovitch went on to claim that this new base would somehow help to support an operation like the brutal Israel bombing of Gaza in the summer 2014, which saw the slaughter of some 1,500 Palestinian natives, many of them women and children. The Times explains:</p>
<p>He said that the importance of air defense was made clear during the 2014 Gaza war, when thousands of rockets were fired at Israel, as well as through “assessments of the threats we expect to face in the future.”</p>
<p>For decades, cohorts of US forces and technical advisors have been based in Israel, running joint exercises with the IDF, and also installing and operating military projects like the famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome" type="external">Iron Dome</a> missile defense array (also run out of Stuttgart, Germany) which went online in 2011.</p>
<p>The Arrow 3 missile defense system that was delivered to the Israeli Air Force on January 18, 2017 (Source: Israeli Defense Ministry)</p>
<p>It seems that this latest deployment is not only about defense, but about projecting power in the region – with neighbors Syria and Lebanon in its immediate sights. The new project will feature a new long-range missile system, the <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-israel-testing-its-arrow-3-interceptor-missile%E2%80%94-alaska-21302" type="external">Arrow 3</a>, delivered by the US to Israel in January (image, left), and the medium-range “David’s Sling” missile system, and an expansion of the short-range Iron Dome missile defense system.</p>
<p>The nearby town of Dimona is also home to Israel’s notorious nuclear reactor, and its unaccounted for nuclear warhead arsenal.</p>
<p>Journalist <a href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/dimona-israels-little-hiroshima/" type="external">Richard Silverstein</a> explains the fundamental problem with Israel’s ‘undeclared’ nuclear weapons operation at Dimona:</p>
<p>“In 1959, Israel began construction on its reactor in Dimona. Eventually, there were thousands of workers both building the plant and, once it was constructed, working within it to build the arsenal of 200 nuclear weapons Israel is reputed to possess. An excellent short overall history of the project can be <a href="http://www.armagedon.org.il/dimona_english.htm" type="external">found online.</a>”</p>
<p>“The secrecy of the nuclear programme, one interviewee calls it a “KGB state,” goes hand in hand with the Israel’s overall opacity around all manner of security issues. It’s not surprising that Israel has put its fate in the hands of a few nuclear bureaucrats like those who run Dimona, because it runs its overall military apparatus in the same way. No civilian oversight to speak of. The generals get what they want. All in the name of protecting the state. It’s a devil’s bargain.”</p>
<p>Aside from being Israel’s alleged ‘nuclear deterrent’, many also regard Dimona as <a href="http://armagedon.org.il/dimona_english.htm" type="external">a nuclear liability</a>, and a giant ‘ <a href="" type="internal">dirty bomb</a>‘ contamination risk to the region.</p>
<p>Now Israel has a US base on its soil – another perfect Casus Belli, or target. It goes without saying that if anyone so much as grazes this sacred facility, or even threatens to do anything to it, this will undoubtedly be used by the US to step-up ‘security operations’ in the region and further inflaming an already tense situation in the Middle East.</p>
<p>All by design, of course.</p>
<p>READ MORE ISRAEL NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Israel Files</a></p>
<p>SUPPORT 21WIRE –&#160;SUBSCRIBE &amp; BECOME A MEMBER @&#160; <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">21WIRE.TV</a></p> | A New Provocation: US Establishes First Permanent Military Base Inside of Israel | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/09/19/new-provocation-us-establishes-first-permanent-military-base-inside-israel/ | 2017-09-19 | 4 |
<p>Just a few weeks ago, those daring to suggest that a Working Families Party endorsement of the notoriously right-wing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in the offing were assailed by the WFP’s liberal supporters as cynics at best or GOP moles at worst.</p>
<p>But that, to their evident displeasure, is precisely what materialized last weekend.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/nyregion/working-families-party-warns-cuomo-of-a-possible-opponent-Zephyr-Teachout.html?_r=0" type="external">driving forces</a> included, most conspicuously, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who, despite his being slapped down by the governor on charter schools and in his attempt to finance universal pre–K with a millionaires tax, urged delegates to accept on faith his portrait of Cuomo&#160;as a genuine progressive blocked by Senate Republicans. (That the governor has supported and engineered a working Republican majority in Albany was left unmentioned.)</p>
<p>As a loyal Democrat, this display of blind partisanship, while plenty unappealing, was what was necessary and required from him. The same cannot be said for the other shoulder on the battering ram, the state’s major unions, who have not&#160;(or at least not yet) officially merged operations with Democratic Party.</p>
<p>However, it is probably by now best for them, and surely for us, to dispense with the fiction that there is any meaningful daylight between the two, or that any response other than “how high” will follow the demand of Democratic Party leadership to jump.</p>
<p>Just as revealing as the endorsement itself were the circumstances which framed it. Mirroring the contempt towards the WFP demonstrated repeatedly by the governor’s policies in his first term was that emanating from the party leadership directed toward the party’s Howard Dean wing. The latter, in response to the shit sandwich offered up to them, had made their displeasure known by supporting the insurgent candidacy of Park Slope law professor Zephyr Teachout and by demanding real action from Cuomo on campaign finance reform in exchange for the endorsement.</p>
<p>This provoked the wrath of party insiders who regarded he failure to wave the pom-poms for Governor 1% as tantamount to treason.&#160;A concise expression were the remarks of Mike McGuire, the political&#160;director for the Mason Tenders of New York City, who professed to be “ashamed [he] ever helped found the WFP.”</p>
<p>“To call yourself the ‘working&#160;families’ party and then draw the line in the sand over campaign finance reform is an absolute disgrace,“ McGuire announced on his Facebook page.</p>
<p>Rejecting the activists’ demand that the WFP&#160;should receive some meaningful concession in exchange for their endorsement of Cuomo, McGuire shot back, “How about a line in the sand over raising the minimum wage? Or establishing a true living wage? Or fully&#160;funding the public transportation system? Or bringing jobs and opportunity and economic development to&#160;the pockets of New York City and vast swaths of upstate New York that so desperately need them? When&#160;you can’t pay the rent or put food on the table, campaign finance reform is a rich person’s problem. The&#160;WFP leadership is now nothing more than a bunch of Park Slope limousine liberals, either literally or&#160;figuratively.”</p>
<p>Leave aside the blatant dishonesty of the implication that Cuomo has any interest in pursuing “a true living wage” or other economic policies which help “put food on the table” or “provide jobs” for upstate residents, or that the real estate moguls backing Cuomo’s campaigns have the slightest concern with those who “can’t pay the rent.” What is most glaring here is the hypocrisy of a six-figure union boss smearing as “limousine liberals” the rank-and-file activist base of the party who likely have salaries far below the six figures typical of labor leaders like him.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, McGuire will almost certainly get away with it, as the targets of his rant rarely if ever hit back. This despite their possession of&#160;a huge club to wield if they chose to use it: the indictments Robert Fitch memorably assembled in his classic 2006 exposé Solidarity for Sale.</p>
<p>As Fitch documented, union leadership salaries are achieved through concessionary contracts negotiated with industry, their well-stuffed bank accounts often derived from funds directly or indirectly stolen from local treasuries for which they escape prosecution via “get out of jail free cards” provided by “labor Democrats.”</p>
<p>Completing the circle, blank checks to the Democratic Party from near-bankrupt unions provide leadership with “seats at the table” where they collude in policies responsible for a decades-long collapse in union density now at single digits in the private sector. Doing so provides them with a reputation for “seriousness” and “pragmatism” making possible lateral moves into establishment think tanks and corporate boards.</p>
<p>The WFP deal is just one more episode in this depressing charade. And if the history offered by Fitch is not enough, there is also Eric Chester’s brilliant 2004 historical monograph True Mission: Socialism and the Labor Party Question in the US,&#160;which identifies a consistent pattern of labor unions undermining repeated attempts to form independent left parties going back more than a century,&#160;raising hopes and then dashing them by folding the efforts back into the Democratic Party&#160;—&#160;then, as now, controlled by elite corporate interests.</p>
<p>Readers of Chester’s book will discover why early socialists, including most notably Eugene Debs, vehemently opposed attempts by party moderates to form a Labor Party based in the existing unions of his day, whose leadership was as compromised and capitulationist then as New York state labor leaders showed themselves to be last weekend.</p>
<p>The current generation of leftists have either forgotten or, more likely, never learned this history.&#160;They have fetishized unions and union leadership taking for granted as the best hope&#160;of third party organizing, in the formation of a Labor Party created at the initiative of existing unions. Chester shows how this hope is a chimera: to expect what Debs called “the bourgeois unions” to act in the broad interest of the working class by challenging the two corporate parties is as unrealistic as the expectation that the expropriators will expropriate themselves.</p>
<p>By unmasking the New York union leadership as craven and unprincipled, the WFP convention debacle provided the Left what could be a teachable moment, forcing the general realization that unions are deeply rooted in the capitalist system and in the individualist ethos which supports it.</p>
<p>The Left must begin to develop fully independent organizations outside of establishment channels which are able to seriously contend with capital and erode the foundations on which its legitimacy rests.&#160;Anything less is a recipe for failure.</p> | Pulling the Plug on Working Families | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2014/06/pulling-the-plug-on-working-families/ | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>HOPATCONG, N.J. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped most charges against two New Jersey brothers stemming from an incident in which one of them wore a bunny costume and repeatedly blew an air horn inside a police station.</p>
<p>The New Jersey Herald reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2i9spps" type="external">http://bit.ly/2i9spps</a> ) the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office will not pursue charges of harassment, obstruction, and resisting arrest against Kevin Hemmerich because of insufficient evidence. Similar charges were also dismissed against Jason Hemmerich.</p>
<p>Prosecutors are still charging Kevin Hemmerich with disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>On Nov. 17, Kevin Hemmerich, accompanied by his brother, entered the Hopatcong Police Department lobby to turn himself in for an outstanding warrant. Kevin Hemmerich was dressed in a bunny costume and repeatedly blew the air horn.</p>
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<p>A police officer slapped Kevin Hemmerich after asking him why he was blowing the horn. The officer was charged with assault.</p>
<p>Information from: The New Jersey Herald (Newton, N.J.), <a href="http://www.njherald.com" type="external">http://www.njherald.com</a></p>
<p><a href="#21131514-1c26-44b9-b164-c9cd7284c324" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p> | Most charges dropped vs. man in bunny suit, air horn case | false | https://abqjournal.com/902925/police-officer-charged-with-slapping-man-dressed-as-bunny.html | 2016-12-06 | 2 |
<p>Staff Sgt. Bryan Robbins, platoon sergeant for 3rd plt., Company G., Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, calls for mortar support during a live-fire exercise. Following the conclusion of Exercise Hamel 2012, the Marines of Co. G. engaged in movement to contact drills, using what they learned from living in a woodland environment for the past three weeks. US Marine Corps <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marine_corps/7584006998/in/photostream" type="external">photo</a> by Cpl. Jonathan Wright.</p> | We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for July 18, 2012 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/were-still-war-photo-day-july-18-2012/ | 2012-07-18 | 4 |
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<p>That’s surely the feeling you got from his appearance at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday night. The Washington Post reported:</p>
<p>“Speaking first at the Al Smith dinner in New York City on Thursday night – a dinner that benefits Catholic charities – Donald Trump took the opportunity to unleash a torrent of very-not-lighthearted jokes about Hillary Clinton. Many of them didn’t even seem intended to evoke laughs so much as controversy. They were the kind of thing you’d expect at a Trump rally, in fact.</p>
<p>“They ranged from Clinton hating Catholics to Clinton being corrupt to the Clinton Foundation’s alleged misdeeds in its relief efforts in Haiti.”</p>
<p>Trump got booed. At the Al Smith dinner. (That’s like a kid getting booed in a school play.) Clinton wasn’t all that funny, but she understood what the evening was all about. She knows how to behave in polite company. Trump on Thursday didn’t or couldn’t control himself and apparently couldn’t find anyone willing to write good jokes for him. Had he shown up in swim trunks and a bathrobe at the white-tie affair, he could not have seemed more out of place. How different is that from the campaign trail — where he is ignorant of things small and large, channels anger but engenders little affection and lacks any self-awareness?</p>
<p>Clinton landed a few good lines with an especially timely zinger about his submissiveness to the Russian president, remarking that Trump was “as healthy as a horse — you know, the one Vladimir Putin rides around on.” (On Thursday came more evidence, as if any was needed, that it was the Russians who hacked Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, prompting foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan to denounce Trump’s toadying: “There is no longer any doubt that Putin is trying to help Donald Trump by weaponizing WikiLeaks. Despite all the evidence, including the conclusions of the US intelligence community, Donald Trump went on the debate stage and acted as Putin’s puppet, defending Russia and refusing to admit and condemn the Kremlin’s actions.”) But as in the debate, Clinton won points simply by showing up at the dinner and not being awful.</p>
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<p>Her best line skewering Trump may have come in the debate, when she chided Trump for using foundation money to buy a six-foot painting of himself. “I mean, who does that?!?” she exclaimed with the right mix of incredulity and disgust.</p>
<p>Her most effective lines were her serious ones, invoking the spirit of Al Smith, which wound up sounding like criticism of Trump. (She invited the audience to consider “how far we have come” from the days of anti-Catholic bigotry heaped on Smith. She continued on that “fears of division can cause us to treat each other as ‘the other,’ ” which in turn “makes it harder for us to see each other and listen to each other.” Perhaps in a pointed dig at the man who never saw a building he didn’t want to put his name on, she went on gently reminding us that “our greatest monument on this earth won’t be what we build, but the lives we touch.”</p>
<p>In other words, Trump is no Al Smith. Trump, just as he was Thursday night, for the past 18 months and for his entire 70 years, cannot help but remind us that he is a crude, mean boor. And he always will be.</p>
<p>trump-rubin-comment</p> | Donald Trump reminds us that he is a crude, mean boor | false | https://abqjournal.com/872375/donald-trump-reminds-us-that-he-is-a-crude-mean-boor.html | 2 |
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<p>Forget for the purposes of this discussion the self-evident brick and mortar considerations of learning. Obviously there are needs to address legitimate group activity and hands on learning. The open and honest public discussion needs to be about how we deliver the rest.</p>
<p>The only place where students won’t be learning online, and more importantly, the only place where they won’t learning “how to learn online” is in public schools. And, in other schools with a great deal of investment in capital spending and personnel; the spending of vast amounts of public resources and power.</p>
<p>The number one goal of education is to facilitate the development of independent lifelong learners; students who have no need for brick and mortar schools, nor for teachers, nor for administrators, nor for school boards.</p>
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<p>There are those who future lies in hiding the dead horse.</p>
<p>Online learning threatens them because they have no control over it, nor any legitimate excuse to insinuate themselves in the spending of vast power and resources.</p>
<p>A high school diploma must certify competency. It must certify real readiness for meaningful employment or further education.</p>
<p>It needn’t certify how the student came to that readiness, because it doesn’t make any difference.</p>
<p>For the rest of their lives, learners will have a choice between an expensive brick and mortar experience or an online equivalent; far more convenient and far less expensive.</p>
<p>Online learning is an idea whose time has come.</p>
<p>Deal with it.</p>
<p>CHED MACQUIGG</p>
<p>Albuquerque</p> | Online learning way of future | false | https://abqjournal.com/170692/online-learning-way-of-future.html | 2013-02-20 | 2 |
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<p>For one of the world’s major currencies, which is held as a reserve by countries around the world, that’s a huge move, matched only by the pound’s fall in the wake of dramatic events like Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union.</p>
<p>Early Friday during Asian hours, the pound tumbled from $1.2600 to as low as $1.1789 in the space of two minutes, according to financial data provider FactSet. It recovered since that cliff-like fall to trade at $1.24 later Friday. Still, that’s a level the currency hasn’t seen since 1985 and way down on where it started the week, just below $1.30.</p>
<p>The crash occurred during a “twilight period” in the markets — after the close in the U.S. and just as Asian traders were starting their day. That means the volume of trading was likely lower than usual, when relatively smaller trades can have an outsize impact.</p>
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<p>Various reasons have been cited for the drama involving one of the world’s oldest currencies. Some say a trader made a “fat finger” mistake while typing in a market order. Others say it could have been an automated trading algorithm that makes decisions based on news websites or social media, or comments by France’s president, Francois Hollande, who said Britain should pay for its decision to leave the 28-nation EU.</p>
<p>It could be combination of them all — the Bank of England is investigating.</p>
<p>“Investigations are underway but a single reason may never be identified for last night’s ‘flash crash”‘, said Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets.</p>
<p>The move triggered reminders of the “flash crash” that the Dow Jones index in New York suffered on May 6, 2010, when it dropped 1,000 or so points in a matter of minutes. Several potential causes have been cited for that crash. One involves a British financial trader operating from his parent’s home in west London — Navinder Singh Sarao, the so-called “Hound of Hounslow,” who is still fighting extradition charges to face trial in the United States for fraud and manipulating the market. Sarao denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>The difference with that Dow descent is that the pound is already in the doldrums, posting a series of new 31-year lows against the dollar this week as traders fret over the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the British departure from the EU. Although the British economy has held up better than expected in the immediate aftermath of the “leave” vote, there are great long-term uncertainties surrounding the British economy.</p>
<p>The main worry in the currency markets centers on what a clean British break from the EU, which is looking like the preferred option of new Prime Minister Theresa May, would look like.</p>
<p>May this week said she would invoke by the end of March Article 50 of the EU treaty, the mechanism by which two years of talks on Britain’s exit officially commence. She also appeared to signal that her government would prioritize controls on immigration over access to the European single market, an approach informally called a “hard Brexit.”</p>
<p>The impact of leaving Europe’s single market could be felt far and wide in Britain. London’s pre-eminent financial services companies would lose automatic access to operate in the other EU countries. And foreign firms like carmaker Nissan could halt investments or even abandon their British bases in favor of new ones within the European single market.</p>
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<p>Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank International, said the heart of the pound’s problems, regardless of fat fingers or robotic trading, is concern over this “hard Brexit” approach. She said the outlook for investment “looks likely to sour” if the country is out of the single market.</p>
<p>“Since the U.K. runs a significant current account deficit — 5.3 percent of GDP in 2015 — the pound is heavily exposed to downside risk on a drop in investment flow,” she said.</p>
<p>History shows that British governments have often changed tack due to sharp movements in the currency markets. In 1992, the British pound suffered similarly dramatic losses as it crashed out of a fixed exchange-rate system that was then operating in Europe. The government then abandoned the Exchange Rate Mechanism and ploughed a new economic path.</p>
<p>Britain has a floating currency now, so the impact on the country isn’t as acute — a drop in the pound helps some parts of the economy, like exporters. But if the pound falls much further, say toward a 1-to-1 value with the euro or the dollar, then the pressure may turn more acute on Britain’s Conservative government.</p>
<p>Friday’s temporary crash has probably added to worries over the currency and that could prompt further selling in the days and weeks ahead, regardless of what the underlying British economic data suggests.</p>
<p>“The pound pushing ‘on an open door’ looks like a pathetically weak description of a house that has lost its foundations,” said Alan Ruskin, a senior foreign exchange strategist at Deutsche Bank.</p>
<p>Ruskin added it is “far from clear that the slump is nearly over, now that the financial markets have laid out a challenge to the U.K.’s leadership on their latest ‘vision’ of Brexit.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Chan reported from Hong Kong.</p> | Robots? Fat fingers? UK pound endures one of its worst days | false | https://abqjournal.com/862541/british-pounds-6-percent-flash-crash-baffles-traders.html | 2016-10-07 | 2 |
<p>Documentarian Ami Horowitz was attacked by Muslims - presumably immigrants and/or refugees - in Sweden while producing his most recent short film investigating the status quo of rapid demographic change in the Nordic country.</p>
<p>Published to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ami.horowitz/videos/vb.100002063134387/1201025373309556/?type=2&amp;theater" type="external">Facebook</a> on Tuesday, Horowitz claims that “rape has skyrocketed over the past year” in Sweden while connecting it to “a revolutionary demographic shift that has seen the country take in” many Muslims as refugees.</p>
<p>While reporting in Rinkeby, a reportedly Islamic neighborhood in Stockholm, Horowitz captured audio while he was assaulted by the Muslim refugees and/or immigrants. His camera crew has already left after being intimidated into doing so by five men who spoke Arabic.</p>
<p>Two veteran police officers in Sweden told Horowitz that fears over being derided as “racist” prevent open dialogue about demographic data related to crime and cultural schisms resulting from modern mass immigration of Muslims. In other words, "political correctness" suffocates open discussion over such matters.</p>
<p>Swedish journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/truthandfiction" type="external">Annika Rothstein</a> told Horowitz that Sweden's multiculturalism policies contribute to social fragmentation by promoting Swedish cultural and political adjustments to accommodate Muslim immigrants and refugees rather than the promotion of minority assimilation.</p>
<p>Leftist and hipster Swedes interviewed by Horowitz towards the end of the report refuse to make any link between mass immigration of Muslims and increases in violent crime and sexual assault.</p>
<p>Watch the video below.</p>
<p>A 60 Minutes Australian news crew <a href="" type="internal">was attacked by Muslims</a> in the same community in March:</p>
<p>In 2010, an Islamic terrorist who had moved to Sweden and been afforded Swedish citizenship <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8198043/Sweden-suicide-bomber-Taimur-Abdulwahab-al-Abdaly-was-living-in-Britain.html" type="external">carried out a suicide attack</a>, killing himself and injuring two others.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | WATCH: Documentarian Attacked By Muslims In Sweden | true | https://dailywire.com/news/11624/watch-documentarian-attacked-muslims-sweden-robert-kraychik | 2016-12-14 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced criminal charges and sanctions Friday against Iranians accused in a government-sponsored hacking scheme to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and American government agencies.</p>
<p>The nine defendants, accused of working at the behest of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hacked the computer systems of about 320 universities in the United States and abroad to steal expensive science and engineering research that was then used or sold for profit, prosecutors said.</p>
<p>The hackers also are accused of breaking into the networks of dozens of government organizations, such as the Department of Labor, the United Nations and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and companies including law firms and biotechnology corporations.</p>
<p>The Justice Department said the hackers were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute, which prosecutors say contracted since at least 2013 with the Iranian government to steal scientific research from other countries.</p>
<p />
<p>“By bringing these criminal charges, we reinforce the norm that most of the civilized world accepts: nation-states should not steal intellectual property for the purpose of giving domestic industries an advantage,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in announcing the charges.</p>
<p>Also Friday, the Treasury Department targeted the Mabna Institute and 10 Iranians — the nine defendants and one charged in a separate case last year — for sanctions that will bar them from doing business in the United States.</p>
<p>The defendants are unlikely to ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the grand jury indictment — filed in federal court in Manhattan — is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from traveling without risk of arrest and put their countries on notice.</p>
<p>The strategy has been employed with past indictments accusing Iranian hackers of a digital break-in of a New York dam, Chinese military officials of large-scale hacks at energy corporations and Russians of a massive breach of Yahoo user accounts.</p>
<p>“People travel. They take vacations, they make plans with their families,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “Having your name, face and description on a ‘wanted’ poster makes moving freely much more difficult.”</p>
<p>According to the indictment, the Iranians broke into universities through relatively simple, but common means — tricking professors to click on compromised links. The spear-phishing emails purported to be from professors at one university to those at another and contained what appeared to be authentic article links.</p>
<p>But once clicked on, the links steered the professors to a malicious Internet domain that led them to believe they had been logged out of their systems and asked them to enter their log-in. The credentials were then logged and stolen by the hackers, prosecutors say.</p>
<p>From there, according to the Justice Department, the hackers stole roughly 15 billion pages of academic research and intellectual property that was then sent outside the United States for profit.</p>
<p>More than 100,000 professors worldwide were targeted with spear-phishing emails, and the information that was stolen cost U.S. universities about $3.4 billion to procure and access.</p>
<p>“Just in case you’re wondering, they’re not admiring our work,” Bowdich said. “They’re stealing it, and they’re taking credit for it, and they’re selling it to others.”</p> | U.S. Charges 9 Iranians in Massive Hacking Scheme | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-s-charges-9-iranians-in-massive-hacking-scheme/ | 2018-03-23 | 4 |
<p>Shares of Barracuda Networks Inc. (NYSE: CUDA) were down 10.7% as of 11:55 a.m. EDT Wednesday despite the company announcing reasonably solid fiscal second-quarter 2018 results.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More specifically for its second quarter ended August 31, 2017, Barracuda Networks' revenue climbed 7.3% year over year to $94.3 million, as a 12.8% decline in appliance revenue (to $18.3 million) was more than offset by a 13.6% growth in subscription revenue to $76 million. On the bottom line, that translated to adjusted net income of $9.1 million, or $0.17 per share, down from $11.4 million, or $0.21 per share in the same year-ago period.</p>
<p>By comparison, last quarter Barracuda Networks <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4086810-barracuda-networks-cuda-ceo-bj-jenkins-q1-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single" type="external">told investors Opens a New Window.</a> to expect lower revenue in the range of $92 million to $94 million, and adjusted earnings per share of between $0.16 and $0.18.</p>
<p>In addition, Barracuda Networks achieved core billings growth of 22% and gross billings of $108.5 million -- above the high end of its latest billings guidance for a range of $105 million to $108 million.</p>
<p>But it's apparent the market wanted even more; analysts' consensus estimates predicted adjusted earnings of $0.19 per share on slightly higher revenue of $94.5 million.</p>
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<p>Nonetheless, Barracuda Networks CEO BJ Jenkins remained optimistic, stating:</p>
<p>For the current fiscal third quarter, Barracuda Networks expects billings in the range of $107 million to $110 million, revenue of $92.5 million to $94.5 million, and adjusted earnings per share of between $0.17 and $0.19. Here again, however, Wall Street was more optimistic, with consensus estimates calling for fiscal Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $95.8 million.</p>
<p>In the end, while Barracuda Networks is rightly pleased with its performance in fiscal Q2, it simply didn't live up to analysts' demands. After combining that relative let-down with the company's seemingly conservative forward outlook, it's no surprise to see the stock pulling back today.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Barracuda NetworksWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bf544d66-ae9b-11e7-b7eb-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=bf544d66-ae9b-11e7-b7eb-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Barracuda Networks Inc. Stock Fell Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/11/why-barracuda-networks-inc-stock-fell-today.html | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
<p>I feel cheated. I feel betrayed. And I’m not even a Democrat.</p>
<p>Our nation hasn’t yet finished counting all the election returns, but the outlines of a future Obama Administration are already clear: Clinton at State, Geithner at Treasury, Summers to head the National Economic Council, Holder at Justice, Emmanuel as Chief of Staff, General James Jones as the likely National Security Advisor, and Robert Gates likely to stay on at Defense.</p>
<p>There not a progressive among them. Not even one. If Obama was vague about his personal politics during the primaries and general election it was for a reason: he doesn’t have any.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what I honestly expected, but I know it wasn’t this. In the history of American politics we’ve had quite a few “conservative” administrations that didn’t do much of anything save look after the interests of the powerful. We’ve had corrupt administrations, and reactionary administrations. We’ve seen the appointment of so-called centrists, alongside people so far to the right (Al Haig, James Watt, Ellen Sauerbrey, John Bolton, among many others) that they make Attila the Hun look liberal. But we’ve seldom seen anyone who even mildly represents working-class America.</p>
<p>Obama is as close to a complete outsider as has ever been elected to the White House. His personal history and cultural narrative are unique and compelling. His rhetoric is uplifting. He has been elected by the largest margin of victory in twenty years. His party comfortably controls both houses of Congress. His campaign energized millions and created an incredible network of volunteers across the country who can now be called upon for continued political action. And, beyond these things, our nation now faces economic and foreign policy crises that have even our elites worried, and looking for fresh approaches.</p>
<p>With all these advantages, if Obama can’t find it in him to name even one person from the so-called “Democratic wing” of the Democratic Party, then it isn’t because he’s a coward, and it isn’t because he’s reaching out to conservatives – it’s because he doesn’t want to.</p>
<p>I’m a radical. I’m an anarchist and a pacifist, and I didn’t expect Obama to name bell hooks as Secretary of State, or make Amy Goodman his Communications Director, or install Michael Albert at Treasury. I’m not a fool. I expected him to reward his political supporters. Napolitano at DHS and Daschle at HHS are no surprise, and they may even do well in those positions. I hope so. I did expect Obama to name moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats to some positions as well. He should, if he intends to build a new movement in American politics. But not these people, and not just these people. With Henry Kissinger and Bill Kristol are endorsing Obama’s team – you know we’re in for trouble.</p>
<p>Our nation is lost, and the problem with the team Obama is putting together isn’t simply that they’ve generally supported (or at least acquiesced to) the Bush agenda for the last eight years – it’s that they have no vision, and they leave us with seemingly no direction home.</p>
<p>This election was an opportunity that is quickly being squandered. In the space of three weeks we’ve gone from change we can believe in to no change at all, and I for one feel as though I’ve been utterly betrayed.</p>
<p>Some of my friends have asked me what I really expected from Obama. I don’t know, but this is what I’d hoped for. President-elect Obama, if you should read this, pay attention because this is what I thought you were promising, and it’s why I’m so heartbroken today:</p>
<p>The Team Obama Should Have Picked</p>
<p>Secretary of State: Joseph Stiglitz</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Tony Hall</p>
<p>Secretary of the Treasury: Tom Campbell</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Gar Alperovitz</p>
<p>Secretary of Defense: Chuck Hagel</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Lawrence Korb</p>
<p>Attorney General: Gabrielle Kirk McDonald</p>
<p>Deputy Attorney General: Joel Rogers</p>
<p>Secretary of the Interior: Douglas LaFollette</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: David Baron</p>
<p>Secretary of Agriculture: Dolores Huerta</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Jill Long Thompson</p>
<p>Secretary of Commerce: Roxanne Qualls</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Michael Shuman</p>
<p>Secretary of Labor: Maria Echaveste</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: John Cavanaugh</p>
<p>Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Sidney Wolfe</p>
<p>Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Angela Glover Blackwell</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Elliott Sclar</p>
<p>Secretary of Transportation: Shelley Poticha</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Janette Sadik-Khan</p>
<p>Secretary of Energy: Claudine Schneider</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Amory Lovins</p>
<p>Secretary of Education: Angela Valenzuela</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Geoffrey Canada</p>
<p>Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Isiah Legget</p>
<p>Secretary of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano</p>
<p>Deputy Secretary: Mary Schiavo</p>
<p>Chief of Staff: David Bonior</p>
<p>National Security Advisor: Dr. Anne Cahn</p>
<p>Ambassador, United Nations: Susan Rice</p>
<p>Chair, National Economic Council: Robert Reich</p>
<p>Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service: Bill Ong Hing</p>
<p>Director, Environmental Protection Agency: Robert Kennedy, Jr.</p>
<p>First Supreme Court Nomination: Mari Matsuda</p>
<p>RAMZI KYSIA is an Arab-American writer and activist. He’s currently working with the Free Gaza Movement to break the siege of the Gaza Strip.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Team Obama Should Have Picked | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/11/24/the-team-obama-should-have-picked/ | 2008-11-24 | 4 |
<p>BEAVER, W.Va. (AP) - Officials say a corrections officer has been attacked at a West Virginia jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wvnstv.com/local-news/raleigh-county/corrections-officer-recovering-after-attack-at-southern-regional-jail/899734696" type="external">WVNS-TV</a> reports a release from the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety says the inmate, Jonathan Jackson, is facing a malicious wounding charge in the Jan. 2 attack at Southern Regional Jail.</p>
<p>The charge comes less than a week after Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency over short-staffing at jails. Justice issued an executive order Dec. 30 authorizing the use of the West Virginia National Guard to help keep watch over juvenile and adult lockups until a permanent solution is found.</p>
<p>The injured officer hasn't been identified, but the station reports he is improving.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WVNS-TV, <a href="http://www.cbs59.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.cbs59.com" type="external">http://www.cbs59.com</a></p>
<p>BEAVER, W.Va. (AP) - Officials say a corrections officer has been attacked at a West Virginia jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wvnstv.com/local-news/raleigh-county/corrections-officer-recovering-after-attack-at-southern-regional-jail/899734696" type="external">WVNS-TV</a> reports a release from the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety says the inmate, Jonathan Jackson, is facing a malicious wounding charge in the Jan. 2 attack at Southern Regional Jail.</p>
<p>The charge comes less than a week after Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency over short-staffing at jails. Justice issued an executive order Dec. 30 authorizing the use of the West Virginia National Guard to help keep watch over juvenile and adult lockups until a permanent solution is found.</p>
<p>The injured officer hasn't been identified, but the station reports he is improving.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WVNS-TV, <a href="http://www.cbs59.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.cbs59.com" type="external">http://www.cbs59.com</a></p> | Officials: Jail inmate injures corrections officer | false | https://apnews.com/b9574899bfd04f318dcf16471643448a | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>The GOP effort to repeal Obamacare isn’t dead – despite the lack of support from key Senators, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Sunday.</p>
<p>In an interview on <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/" type="external">“Fox News Sunday,”</a>&#160;Short said the White House is still “trying to win over the support of the last couple senators to get there.”</p>
<p>“No, Chris, it’s not dead,” he insisted, adding: “We need to make sure that those last couple Republicans we win over.”</p>
<p>Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/chuck-schumer-lauds-john-mccain-healthcare-bill/2017/09/22/id/815227/" type="external">has already said he won’t vote for the bill</a> being pushed by fellow Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.</p>
<p>But Short said he hopes Republicans can get the support of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, hasn’t made it known how she’ll vote, and <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/susan-collins-healthcare-bill-difficult-to-support/2017/09/24/id/815365/" type="external">Maine’s GOP Sen. Susan Collins</a> said Sunday&#160;she was leaning toward a “no.”</p> | White House: Graham-Cassidy Not Dead Yet | false | https://newsline.com/white-house-graham-cassidy-not-dead-yet/ | 2017-09-24 | 1 |
<p>The Supreme Court says one of the nation's biggest law firms is not entitled to recover $5.2 million in legal fees it incurred in the course of a bankruptcy proceeding.</p>
<p>The justices ruled Monday that Baker Botts could not collect additional fees it billed during a side dispute over whether the firm should be paid $117 million in fees earned representing Tucson-based copper-mining giant Asarco in the underlying bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas initially awarded the firm $117 million in 2011 for its work in Asarco's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. But Asarco objected and the firm spent another $5.2 million in separate litigation defending its fees. A federal appeals court ruled that "fees for defense of fees" could not be paid.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court.</p> | Supreme Court says law firm can't recover attorney fees billed in bankruptcy proceeding | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/06/15/supreme-court-says-law-firm-cant-recover-attorney-fees-billed-in-bankruptcy.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>Ricky Goodman, 42, was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on an open count of murder connected to the early morning death of Jimmy Stotts, 61.</p>
<p>Goodman is in the Curry County Adult Detention Center on a $250,000 cash only bond.</p>
<p>Magistrate Judge Duane Castleberry scheduled a pretrial conference for 9 a.m. Oct. 27, but District Attorney Andrea Reeb noted intent to file a continuance until the next day, when a grand jury could be convened.</p>
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<p>According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in magistrate court:</p>
<p>* At 12:08 a.m. Tuesday, the Clovis Police Department received a 911 call that there was a “man down,” identified as Stotts.</p>
<p>* Curry County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, a trailer on the 1800 block of East Howard. Wilma Stotts said her son, Goodman, stabbed her husband.</p>
<p>* Stotts died shortly after an ambulance arrived on scene.</p>
<p>* A man named Calvin Jaramillo, who was asked to move his truck during the event, told a deputy there was a knife in the front seat that wasn’t his. The knife, which had a reddish brown stain on the handle, was recovered in the event it was connected to the incident. Jaramillo said he lived in a garage by the trailer, and that Goodman and Jimmy Stotts had argued recently.</p>
<p>* Goodman was located about 1:40 p.m. at a house a few blocks southeast of the East Howard location and taken into custody without incident. Goodman told police there was an argument, which eventually turned physical, about using his credit card to get money for drugs.</p>
<p>Goodman, represented by Anthony Filosa of the public defender’s office, appeared via videoconference and invoked his right to remain silent during the arraignment. Castleberry instructed Goodman to avoid all contact with witnesses in the case.</p>
<p>Billy Johnson, a half-brother to Goodman, attended the arraignment to support Goodman though he could not speak with him.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Johnson said he felt the incident was an unfortunate combination of alcohol, drugs and emotional abuse, and believes his brother may have a legitimate self-defense argument.</p>
<p>“It could have went either way,” Johnson said of the fight. “I know my brother; he ain’t no killer.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2016 the Clovis News Journal (Clovis, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Clovis News Journal (Clovis, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com" type="external">www.cnjonline.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p> | One dead after fight in Clovis | false | https://abqjournal.com/872344/one-dead-after-fight-in-clovis.html | 2 |
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<p>Oprah Winfrey won’t make it official until Friday morning, but the literary world’s worst-kept secret is out: Her <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_en_ot/us_books_winfrey_franzen" type="external">64th Book Club pick</a> is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, Jonathan Franzen’s first novel in nine years and the most talked-about new book of recent weeks. On face value, it’s a selection that might catch many off guard, since Oprah famously discouraged Franzen from appearing on her show nine years ago this month after he expressed serious discomfort with the idea of her selecting <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312421273/thedaibea-20" type="external">The Corrections</a> on the grounds that it might inhibit the book from reaching a wider male audience. Scratch that surface ever so slightly and it’s all too clear that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-2" type="external">Freedom</a> was the smart and obvious move on Oprah’s part—especially if you’re a sucker for an epic narrative of the kind that Franzen writes.</p>
<p>Gallery: <a href="/content/dailybeast/galleries/2010/09/16/oprah-feuds.html" type="external">Oprah’s Famous Feuds</a></p>
<p>This time, Franzen will not flub his move. This time, he’ll appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show some days or weeks from now, ready to be grilled (à la <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Questions-for-James" type="external">James Frey</a>) or, more likely, ready for Oprah to declare why she felt <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> deserved her special attention. The hatchet, real or perceived, will be buried once and for all, and a key karmic blip in the feel-good narrative that is Oprah’s daytime talk show will be sanded over, with big ratings to boot for what’s certain to be a performance that will keep both parties in the headlines for weeks to come.</p>
<p>Oprah’s choice is all the more dramatic because it’s widely believed to be her last. After more than 25 years as a daytime network staple, her show will be going off the air in September 2011. She’s just moving to pay-TV, as half-owner (with Discovery Communications) of <a href="http://www.oprah.com/own" type="external">The Oprah Winfrey Network</a> (OWN), which launches in January and will eventually feature a new prime-time show from the current “queen of daytime.” This season is a farewell tour to the sort of mass audience Oprah cultivated during her years of timeslot and format dominance.</p>
<p>Oprah’s ratings have eroded along with the frequency of Oprah’s book picks, which trickled down from one a month during the club’s heyday to a few per year when she was telling her audience to read classic novels (like Anna Karenina) to just one—Uwem Akpan’s moving but grim short story collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316086371/thedaibea-20" type="external">Say You’re One of Them</a>—in 2009. While Akpan’s collection has sold steadily since Oprah’s anointment, it was nowhere near the huge sales of the early days or even David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which sold more than half a million copies post-Oprah. Its subject matter, too, was more in keeping with Oprah’s sensibility for Book Club 2.0: dark, depressing titles by men (18 of her last 20 picks) instead of issue-driven books by women.</p>
<p>But Oprah’s pick this time is a return to form—and, most likely, sales, too. “Now Oprah will be remembered for both supporting popular fiction and championing literature, all in the same book club pick,” said Jason Boog, publishing editor for <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/" type="external">mediabistro.com</a>. And no matter what the publishing world might hope can happen when Oprah moves on to her so-called Next Chapter on pay TV, all that counts is what’s on the minds of Americans right now—a canny and calculated rearrangement of Oprah’s brand-new network.</p>
<p>With ratings down and literary taste-making abilities curtailed, why not jump on the very crowded Jonathan Franzen bandwagon? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, after all, helped Franzen get <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/jonathan-franzen-on-the-cover-of-time-magazine/" type="external">anointed by Time</a> as our current “Great American Novelist.” <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/08/31/jonathan-franzen-freedom-backlash.html" type="external">Weeks of controversy</a> ensued thanks to the “Franzenfreude” Twitter hashtag launched by Jennifer Weiner and parallel criticism by Jodi Picoult about how The New York Times devotes more space and energy to novels by men while neglecting similar fare by women. The book has generally received rapturous reviews and its chief detractor—B.R. Meyers in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/smaller-than-life/8212/" type="external">The Atlantic</a>—sounded as convincing in his arguments as one trolling the Internet for amusement.</p>
<p>In choosing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, she’s both dared Franzen to try to reject her again and opened her arms, however cynically, to his finally appearing on her show.</p>
<p>In other words, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> is not just a throwback to the once mighty post-World War II-esque social novel in terms of content and style, it is also a reminder of how the book world used to operate and still pretends to: a top-down approach, where publishers and critics decide what the masses should read, instead of the niche-driven bottom-up approach spurred by what trusted friends recommend on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and other social media. There’s more than a whiff of fin-de-siècle about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, and so it makes perfect sense that Oprah, experiencing her own extended goodbye to traditional mainstream media, would reach out and add the proverbial cherry on top to what may be the last literary bestseller decided the old-fashioned way.</p>
<p>“Neither of these people has anything to prove, or all that much to gain,” said Kathleen Rooney, author of Reading With Oprah: The Book Club That Changed America. It’s less an opportunity for them to bury the hatchet—no doubt that happened years ago—than to clear up some unfinished business, and to have the public conversation they should have had back in 2002.”</p>
<p>For a No. 1 bestselling novel, that would be one thing. But picking <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> comes with that tortured backstory of discomfort and controversy. Franzen, with his comments, essentially rejected Oprah, a woman wholly unused to public rebuffing. But what she is used to, and traffics in expertly, is redemption and forgiveness. In choosing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, she’s both dared Franzen to try to reject her again and opened her arms, however cynically, to his finally appearing on her show.</p>
<p>Plus: <a href="" type="internal">Check out Book Beast, for more news on hot titles and authors and excerpts from the latest books</a>.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Sarah Weinman contributes to the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the New York Post and many other print and online publications, and blogs about books and the publishing industry at <a href="http://www.sarahweinman.com/" type="external">Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind</a>.</p> | Oprah’s Brilliant Book Club Pick: Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom | true | https://thedailybeast.com/oprahs-brilliant-book-club-pick-jonathan-franzens-freedom | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>Dozens of people were injured by explosions that ripped through a munitions depot in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia on Wednesday, officials said.</p>
<p>The Russian embassy in Abkhazia said the explosions shook a military arsenal in the village of Primorskoye. About 50 people were injured, 27 of whom were hospitalized. The embassy said in a Facebook statement that 19 Russian tourists were among those needing treatment at a hospital.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Tamaz Tsakhnakia, the top health official in Abkhazia, later updated the number of injured to 60, including 35 Russian tourists, according to the Interfax news agency. Tsakhnakia said that four people were listed in grave condition.</p>
<p>Russian television showed a huge cloud rising above forested mountains in the area of the blasts.</p>
<p>Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed. Moscow effectively gained complete control over the lush Black Sea province and a second breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, after a brief war with Georgia in 2008.</p>
<p>Russia has recognized both regions as independent nations, drawing international opprobrium.</p> | Explosions at arms depot in breakaway Abkhazia injure dozens | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/02/explosions-at-arms-depot-in-breakaway-abkhazia-injure-50.html | 2017-08-02 | 0 |
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<p>MILAN — The CEO of Costa Crociere is facing a public relations battle over the company’s future in Italy after former captain Francesco Schettino was handed a 16-year sentence for the deaths of 32 people in the 2012 shipwreck of the Costa Concordia.</p>
<p>Costa’s German CEO, Michael Thamm, met Friday with Italy’s transport minister to offer assurances that the Italian cruise company owned by U.S. parent Carnival has no plans to move the headquarters out of Italy.</p>
<p>Thamm was summoned to Rome after Costa announced last month the transfer of four departments with 160 people from its Genoa headquarters to Hamburg, Germany. Thamm said afterward that “Italy remains a market with huge potential.”</p>
<p>In Genoa, union members protested the announced transfers, saying they will weaken the company’s Italian identity.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Costa faces new PR battle in Italy after verdict | false | https://abqjournal.com/541088/costa-faces-new-pr-battle-in-italy-after-verdict.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is proposing a huge $54 billion surge in U.S. military spending for new aircraft, ships and fighters in his first federal budget while slashing big chunks from domestic programs and foreign aid to make the government “do more with less.”</p>
<p>The Trump blueprint, due in more detail next month, would fulfill the Republican president’s campaign pledge to boost Pentagon spending while targeting the budgets of other federal agencies. The “topline” figures emerged Monday, one day before Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress, an opportunity to re-emphasize the economic issues that were a centerpiece of his White House run.</p>
<p>Domestic programs and foreign aid would as a whole absorb a 10 percent, $54 billion cut from currently projected levels — cuts that would match the military increase. The cuts would be felt far more deeply by programs and agencies targeted by Trump and his fellow Republicans, like the Environmental Protection Agency as well as foreign aid. Veterans’ programs would be exempted, as would border security, additional law enforcement functions and some other areas.</p>
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<p>“We’re going to start spending on infrastructure big. It’s not like we have a choice — our highways, our bridges are unsafe, our tunnels,” the president told a group of governors at the White House on Monday. He added, “We’re going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people.”</p>
<p>However, Trump’s final version of the budget is sure to leave large deficits intact — or even add to them if he follows through on his campaign promise for a huge tax cut.</p>
<p>His plan faces strong opposition from Democrats, who possess the power to block it. The immediate reaction from Republicans was mixed, with prominent defense hawks like Sen. John McCain of Arizona saying it would do too little to help the Pentagon and fiscal conservatives and supporters of domestic agencies expressing caution.</p>
<p>The White House indicated that the foreign aid cuts would be particularly large.</p>
<p>Asked about those plans, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would say only, “We’ll see how it works out.”</p>
<p>A congressional showdown is inevitable later this year, and a government shutdown a real possibility.</p>
<p>White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the spike in Pentagon spending would bring the total defense budget to a record $603 billion — and that’s before including tens of billions of dollars for overseas military operations.</p>
<p>The United States already spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined, but military leaders have complained repeatedly that aircraft are aging. Congress was told recently that the average age of Air Force aircraft is 27 years, and more than half of the service’s inventory would qualify for antique vehicle license plates in Virginia.</p>
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<p>“It is a true America first budget. It will show the president is keeping his promises and will do exactly what he said he was going to do,” Mulvaney said. “It prioritizes rebuilding our military, including restoring our nuclear capabilities, protecting the nation and securing the border, enforcing the laws currently on the books, taking care of vets and increasing school choice.”</p>
<p>The border wall would cost $2.9 billion in 2018, according to draft documents for the Department of Homeland Security, which assume the agency would hire 500 new members of the Border Patrol and 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents next year. Detention beds for apprehended immigrants would receive $2 billion over current-year spending. The Transportation Security Administration ticket fee would increase by $1 to $6.60 for each one-way flight.</p>
<p>Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said, “It is clear from this budget blueprint that President Trump fully intends to break his promises to working families by taking a meat ax to programs that benefit the middle class.”</p>
<p>Mulvaney said the plan wouldn’t add to the budget deficit — currently projected to hit about $500 billion next year — but it wouldn’t reduce it, either. The administration again made clear that the government’s largest benefit programs, Social Security and Medicare, would be exempt from cuts when Trump’s full budget submission is released in May.</p>
<p>GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said the large cuts Trump envisions making to domestic programs won’t fly.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of members that have a lot of interest in a lot of these programs,” Simpson said. “There’s more to our government than just defense.”</p>
<p>But McCain said Trump’s Pentagon plans would fall short by almost $40 billion and represent just a small increase over former President Barack Obama’s recent Pentagon wish list.</p>
<p>“With a world on fire, America cannot secure peace through strength with just 3 percent more than President Obama’s budget,” said McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.</p>
<p>On Monday, tentative proposals for the 2018 budget year that begins Oct. 1 were being sent to federal agencies, which will have a chance to propose changes.</p>
<p>Before the new budget year, there’s an April 28 deadline to finish up spending bills for the current 2017 budget year, which is almost half over, and any stumble or protracted battle could risk a government shutdown then as well.</p>
<p>There’s expected to be an immediate infusion of 2017 cash for the Pentagon of $20 billion or more, and also the first wave of funding for Trump’s promised border wall and other initiatives like hiring immigration agents.</p> | Big surge for military in Trump budget, big cuts elsewhere | false | https://abqjournal.com/958137/white-house-trump-budget-will-hike-defense-spending-by-54b.html | 2017-02-27 | 2 |
<p>U.S. Bancorp ( <a href="/quote.html?stockTicker=USB" type="external">USB</a>) weighed in on Wednesday with a 5.2% rise in fourth-quarter earnings, but the regional banking giant's revenue failed to meet Wall Street's expectations.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp eased Wednesday morning in the wake of the results.</p>
<p>The No. 5 U.S. commercial bank by assets said it earned $1.42 billion, or 72 cents a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $1.35 billion, or 69 cents a share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time items, it earned 75 cents a share, matching consensus calls from analysts.</p>
<p>Revenue inched up 0.2% to $5.11 billion, narrowly trailing the Street's view of $5.16 billion.</p>
<p>U.S. Bancorp said its mortgage revenue soared 57% to $476 million, but fell by a deeper-than-expected 8.9% from the third quarter.</p>
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<p>The lender said average total loans rose 6.4% year-over-year amid a 15.7% jump in average total commercial loans.</p>
<p>Credit metrics also continues to improve as U.S. Bancorp said its net charge-offs dropped by $70 million from the third quarter.</p>
<p>"Our customers -- from individuals, to small businesses, to large corporations -- are healthy and productive, having adjusted to the current slow growth, uncertain environment in which they operate today, but they remain poised to take advantage of the recovery as it emerges," CEO Richard Davis said in a statement.</p>
<p>Shares of U.S. Bancorp dropped 0.75% to $33.03 Wednesday morning, trimming their one-year gain to 13.81%.</p>
<p /> | U.S. Bancorp Logs 5.2% Rise in 4Q Net; Revenue Trails Estimates | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/01/16/us-bancorp-logs-52-rise-in-4q-net-revenue-trails-estimates.html | 2013-01-16 | 0 |
<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. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.</p>
<p>Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.</p>
<p>Black developed the concept of "control fraud" frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae's former senior management.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. The global economic crisis is just that--global. But as we know, it's triggered by and its home begins in the United States, which is also the global manager of global capitalism. But much of this crisis is also unfolding in Europe. And certainly the crash on Monday to a large extent was triggered by lack of confidence, which seems to be the word these days, not in the American T-bill that Standard &amp; Poor's was talking about, but actual--the real lack of confidence was what's happening with the euro and Europe. And the actor at the core of all of this or center of it is the European Central Bank. It doesn't get as much attention in the popular media as perhaps it should. Now joining us to talk about the ECB is Bill Black, who just recently returned from Europe. Bill is associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He's also the author of the book The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. And he now joins us from Kansas City. Thanks, Bill.
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<p />WILLIAM K. BLACK, PROFESSOR, UMKC: Thank you.
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<p />JAY: So you're--just came back from Europe. You've been following the European crisis and the ECB. What's your take?
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<p />BLACK: Well, the ECB is trapped in a situation where, under its statutory mandate, it would have to sit back and watch the euro system collapse. And so it is managing to rise above its principles--and the law--and instead actively seek to do things which the European Central Bank was ordered not to do, which is to serve as a lender of last resort and to fight recessions. The ECB's sole statutory mandate is to fight against inflation, but that has triggered a crisis that would bring down the whole euro system.
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<p />JAY: Now, that went along with the sort of ideology--or some would suggest even dogma--that was in place with the founding of the ECB, that the issue's inflation, and even if you have to live with unemployment or even high unemployment, you still focus on inflation. So, first of all, unpack that. Why was inflation such a single-minded target?
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<p />BLACK: Ah, because the United States still can export some things. One thing we export is really stupid economic ideas. And we train much of the leadership of European central banks in our doctoral programs in economics, and then we send them off to do mischief in many parts of the world, Europe being one of the places where they became completely dominant. So the logic went: if you stop inflation, you will get highest employment you can get, and therefore you should only worry about inflation, and all will be well, because under this theo-classical economic model, economic crises really couldn't occur--they were a thing of the past. And these people went around congratulating themselves about creating the, quote, great moderation, unquote, which they said was a result of almost total central bank independence from the government (of course, it was not independent from the banks) and their new, improved, very conservative economic views. And indeed the current head of the European Central Bank, the ECB, Trichet, went to Ireland about three and a half, four years ago and said Ireland should be the model for the entire EU, all the new states should do what Ireland is doing. And that was, of course, just before what Ireland was doing, which was massively fraudulent, went right over the cliffs and caused an economic disaster.
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<p />JAY: Okay. Let's just back up a sec. When you say inflation was at the core of their economic theory--but that really meant, to them, keep wages down, didn't it? That this--they have this idea that higher wages always causes higher inflation. They don't want to ever go suggest that it might actually just mean less profits. But they were just very focused on the issue of wages, were they not?
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<p />BLACK: They were focused on inflation generally, and yes, they believed in the Phillips curve. And the Phillips curve was this thing that no one much believes in anymore that says there's a tradeoff between unemployment and inflation, and essentially there's not much you can do about it. And therefore, since inflation is everything, you just simply have to allow a lot of unemployment so that we can keep inflation very low. Now, at this juncture, even the conservatives don't much believe in that part, because we've seen that you can have very low unemployment with no inflation at all. But, yes, that was their mindset, especially 15 years ago.
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<p />JAY: So where are we now? That theory don't seem to be doing so well.
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<p />BLACK: No. And indeed, you know, the head, former chief economist of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, which shared this theo-classical dogma, recently came out with a new book. I was listening to his book talk. It was fantastic. He said, well, the problem with his old book was that none of the crises that actually happened in the world were possible under his theories. So they had a book which wasn't real good in terms of being useful, because the things that actually happened in the world couldn't happen.
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<p />JAY: That sounds like that Greenspan oops moment where there was a flaw in my theory. But, of course, that was then. Now, even Greenspan doesn't seem to want to talk about the flaw in his theory anymore. But where we're at now, the need for the ECB (and I guess that to a large extent means Germany) to actually up or pay out in terms of defending the periphery, rather than pushing the crisis even more into the periphery, they seem to be still so reluctant to actually take those kinds of steps.
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<p />BLACK: Yeah. Here's what's happening. And this one, many economists actually got it pretty right a long time back, when Europe was thinking of creating the euro and the economists said, this is a dumb idea because you're not really forming a union like the United States of America where, if there's a big, you know, hurricane, Katrina, then you use federal funds to bail out the states to the tune of, if necessary, hundreds of billions of dollars. But you are putting everybody in a straitjacket of the euro was going to have the same value everywhere. And what economists warned was: what happens when you have the first really big recession? And what happens if that recession, like most recessions, isn't uniform but is more concentrated in the weaker states? Then you're going to have a system where you have no ability to respond to the recession. So what do you do? How do you get out of a recession, or especially a really bad one? Well, the first thing you do is devalue your currency. But if you're a member of the euro, you can't do that. The second thing you think about doing is to run a budget deficit, because the reason you have a great recession is that private demand is insufficient. And so what you do is add governmental demand, and then you recover more quickly. But the growth and stability pact of the EU--which is an oxymoron, because it really stands for anti-growth and disaster--says you can't run anything more than a trivial budget deficit, even when you find yourself in a recession. And a third thing you might do is have a really easy monetary policy. But if you're the periphery, there's only one monetary policy for the EU. It's set by the ECB. And Germany and France completely dominate what the ECB will do, which is to say, if you're in the periphery and there's a big recession, you are in a world of hurt, because Germany and France are going to run the EU and the ECB in the way they want, and that means throwing you to the wolves where you have no ability to recover.
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<p />JAY: And let's talk a bit about the wolves. There was a money manager on TV in the last day or two. He used the term sovereign raiders, which I thought was pretty good. What's he talking about? And he's talking about the next raid being Belgian.
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<p />BLACK: Yeah. So what I've just described is that all the nations that joined the euro gave up their fiscal sovereignty, indeed, their economic sovereignty. But they still have an Achilles heel, and that's their sovereign debt. In other words, the debt issued by the national government, or indeed in many cases they're state governments [incompr.] federal system, because that debt you're still on the hook for. And unlike the euro, which of course has one price, that debt is going to get set in a marketplace that is subject to speculative attack. And that means massive volumes of shorting can occur, and they can attack anybody's debt that they want, and they can move from one target to another and whipsaw them.
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<p />JAY: And what's the objective of the attack? What do they get out of it?
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<p />BLACK: Make money. They're betting that the interest rates will increase for that country's debt--in other words, the debt will fall in value. And if you're shorting it, that means you make money when that happens. So if you can generate a crisis and a feeling of crisis, that's perfect. And as I say, these kind of rolling--if you think of World War I with rolling barrages of artillery that are sequenced carefully to permit your attack to go forward, that's somewhat analogous to how they're going to do these things. Now, that means that you become completely untenable if you're Greece or whatever, because you can't pay those kind of interest expenses and you no longer have a sovereign currency which allows you to pay. So the United States is nothing like Greece. And indeed Warren Mosler's famous line is, because we're afraid of becoming the next Greece, we're becoming the next Japan.
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<p />JAY: So they get you in this vice. On one side, you pay higher interest rates. And then, because you can't really sustain that, they get [you to] start a privatization of state-owned assets. As we know in Greece, they're even going after some islands. But that's happening in all of these countries.
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<p />BLACK: Right. So you create a budgetary crisis because the debt becomes so expensive. Again, if you were a nation like the United States, it wouldn't be a crisis. You would be paying it off in your own currency. But that's no longer true of any nation that's part of the euro system.
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<p />JAY: And then you have a situation like Iceland, who has a referendum, and they say, well, screw the banks; we ain't paying. Is that an alternative?
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<p />BLACK: That's right, indeed. One of the reasons I was brought over to Ireland--we had an economics festival, and we brought, deliberately, experts from Iceland and from Argentina to explain to the Irish there were real alternatives. So the periphery is not all one uniform group. Ireland ran a budgetary surplus. What happened in Ireland is the government went insane. The banks, the big four or five banks in Ireland, were engaged in massive growth and lots of accounting fraud, and they got into huge trouble. And this finally was triggered, but not caused, by Lehman Brothers' collapse. And so the Irish government, without consulting the population, without consulting experts, without consulting the opposition, decided to give virtually a blanket guarantee of all the debts of the Irish banks. Now, the Irish banks, of course, their deal was, we will pay you to the extent we can pay you, and if we don't have enough money, you get $0.12 on the dollar. The Irish banks borrowed enormous amounts of money to fund their growth from European banks, particularly German banks. And that's why Germany holds its nose and ultimately votes in favor of the bailouts, 'cause these bailouts are not really of Ireland or Greece; these are really bailouts of European, huge banks, particularly German banks. And so, if you don't do the bailout, bank after bank fails or has to be bailed out, and then you have to pay the political cost of bailing out your bank. If it sounds like you're bailing out Ireland, you pay some political cost, but it's actually less.
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<p />JAY: And, of course, then you can feed the right-wing nationalist forces in Germany and blame it all on Irish workers and Greek workers and Spanish workers. But the reality is it's a bailing out, as you said, of German banks. Thanks very much for joining us, Bill.
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<p />BLACK: Thank you.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End of Transcript
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | European Central Bank and the "Sovereign Raiders" | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D7147 | 2011-08-11 | 4 |
<p>PULLMAN, Wash. — Luke Falk threw for 478 yards and five touchdowns, and No. 18 Washington State rolled to a 45-7 victory over Nevada on Saturday.</p>
<p>Thirteen players caught a pass for the Cougars (4-0). Falk, who was 36 for 47, was replaced by backup Tyler Hilinski in the fourth quarter once a 45-0 lead was built.</p>
<p>Senior running back Jamal Morrow rushed for a game-high 73 yards and also caught four passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.</p>
<p>Nevada (0-4) struggled to move the ball. Blake Wright recorded a team-best 37 yards on five carries while Wyatt Demps caught six passes for 39 yards.</p>
<p>Falk began with four consecutive incomplete passes and a sack, but was able to shake it off and direct the Cougars to a quick lead.</p>
<p>He connected with Tavares Martin Jr. for 52 yards on Washington State’s second drive, setting up a 12-yard swing pass to Morrow for a 7-0 advantage. That opened the floodgates on an overmatched Nevada defense, as Washington State scored touchdowns on five consecutive drives.</p>
<p>The Wolf Pack offense faced similar woes. Starting quarterback Kaymen Cureton faced consistent pressure from the front line as he was sacked four times in the first quarter. Nevada managed 15 yards of offense in the opening period.</p>
<p>Nevada switched to quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/David_Cornwell/" type="external">David Cornwell</a> during the second quarter. Cornwell threw for 33 yards in the first half and guided the Wolfpack across midfield for the first time midway through the second quarter.</p>
<p>Nevada’s most promising drive of the first half ended like its others, however, as Cornwell was intercepted by safety Jalen Thompson. Falk then maneuvered the Cougars down the field on another scoring drive, ending with a 6-yard touchdown reception by freshman receiver Jamire Calvin.</p>
<p>The Wolf Pack held Washington State to 10 second-half points. Nevada forced two turnovers in the second half, including an interception by defensive back Nephi Sewell at the Washington State 8-yard line.</p>
<p>Two plays later, Cornwell returned the favor with his third interception of the day, to Thompson. The Wolf Pack finally broke through with 1:56 remaining as Maliek Broady ran it in from the 3-yard line.</p>
<p>NOTES: Washington State QB Luke Falk threw his 100th career touchdown pass in the first half to move into third all-time in Pac-12 history ahead of USC’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt_Leinart/" type="external">Matt Leinart</a>. … Nevada QB David Cornwell, a transfer from Alabama, completed his first pass of the season in the first half. … Cougars CB Jalen Thompson recorded two interceptions, giving him three this season. … Washington State WR Tavares Martin Jr. recorded his second straight 100-yard receiving game and third of his career. … Washington State outgained Nevada 560-151. … The Cougars end a five-game homestand to start the season Friday night against No. 5 USC.</p> | No. 18 Washington State routs Nevada behind Luke Falk | false | https://newsline.com/no-18-washington-state-routs-nevada-behind-luke-falk/ | 2017-09-23 | 1 |
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR, JOURNALIST: In New York, Occupy Wall Street is continuing to shift its focus away from occupying parks and squares to other actions, such as occupying homes. In Brooklyn, New York, an occupation of a vacant home has entered its second month. Twenty-seven-year-old father of two Alfredo Carrasquillo has been in and out of homeless shelters for nearly ten years.
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<p />ALDREDO CARRASQUILLO, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER, VOCAL-NY: When I was going through the shelter with my kids and their mother, and we decided we didn't want to go through that no more. And that's why I winded up couch hopping, because I didn't want to go through that experience anymore.
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<p />NOOR: But after getting the support of community and church groups and Occupy Wall Street's Occupy Our Homes campaign, Carrasquillo spearheaded an effort to find a new home for his family.
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<p />CARRASQUILLO: So you—please come inside.
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<p />NOOR: Carrasquillo moved into a vacant home in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood, which has experienced high rates of unemployment, foreclosures, and abandoned homes. Teams of Occupy Wall Street protesters have joined Carrasquillo in shifts to defend the occupation around the clock. They're also working alongside him to fix up the house and make it hospitable for his wife and children.
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<p />CARRASQUILLO: So I felt it was my duty and obligation to stand up as a young man of color from these communities to lead by example to show that there's nothing ashamed with admitting that the system is wrong and is not allowing you to progress and be productive and own your own property and become a productive citizen in society.
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<p />NOOR: In December, activists carried out a nationwide day of action to reclaim foreclosed homes from bailed-out banks and move homeless families into them. Although Carrasquillo is risking arrest, he hopes he'll gain a permanent home for his wife and children, who are 5 and 9 years old. He's in negotiations with Bank of America and the former owner to gain legal ownership of the property
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<p />CARRASQUILLO: I came to this point where I jumped on this opportunity, and I wanted to make it a national movement to help all the families that are homeless and dealing with the situation I had to deal with.
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<p />NOOR: Some neighborhood residents are expressing support for Carrasquillo and the efforts to fight back against corporate lending practices. Longtime Brooklyn resident Doyle Coleman lives three doors down.
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<p />DOYLE COLEMAN, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: It's something me and the family welcomes, and also members of the community, because any time you have vacant property that's an eyesore with no upkeep, nobody to maintain it, nobody to take care about it, it brings the value of other people's property down.
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<p />NOOR: Occupy Our Homes is a shift of focus for activists in New York. Organizer Elliot Tarver says they're now organizing actions around the needs of local communities.
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<p />ELIOT TARVER, OCCUPY ORGANIZER: It's moved past just being symbolic, which is really what sleeping in Zucatti Park was, to taking things like homes and doing actions that create lasting change and that affect people rather than just spread a message, which is also important.
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<p />NOOR: Tarver says Occupy Wall Street should not only build relationships with local communities, but put community members and organizations at the forefront of the movement.
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<p />TARVER: But I think the concept of bringing together these different constituencies around an issue like housing or like student debt or whatever is a really important way to work and to kind of bridge gaps between the people who've been doing this organizing for years and years and years and this new movement which now has a ton of momentum behind it and a lot of resources. And so I think tightening up those working relationships is going to be a really important thing on the agenda in the next couple of months.
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<p />NOOR: A recent study by the Center for Responsible Lending examining home loans received between 2004 and 2008 found one in four borrowers in low-income areas have been foreclosed on or risk foreclosure. More than 3.5 million people could still lose their homes to foreclosure, on top of the 2.7 million who already have. To reverse this trend, activists, including the group Take Back the Land, are vowing to expand eviction defenses and occupations across the country. Similar actions are underway in Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle.
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<p />IRA RHEINGOLD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSUMER ADVOCATES: What the Occupy movement really is simply pointing to and showing is that we have all these homeless people, we have all these houses that are vacant. we need to do something about it.
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<p />NOOR: Ira Rheingold, Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, says activists are succeeding in popularizing the idea of housing as a human right.
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<p />RHEINGOLD: Ultimately will it move the policy debate? I think that's the most important thing, so that we actually have policies in place that promote people staying in their homes and finding decent housing for families who are homeless, which we really have failed to do in this country at this point.
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<p />NOOR: Reporting for The Real News and FSRN, this is Jaisal Noor in New York.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Movement to Occupy Vacant Houses Spreads | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D767%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D7792 | 2012-01-10 | 4 |
<p>This is the law:</p>
<p>The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, its leaders and its members, are responsible for the way our land was governed in the years 1948-1989 and in particular for the systematic destruction of the traditional values of European civilization, for the conscious violations of human rights and freedoms, for the moral and economic decline accompanied by judicial crimes and terror against dissenters, for substituting a command economy for a market one, for the destruction of the traditional principles of the laws of ownership, for the misuse of education, training, science and culture for political and ideological goals, for the reckless destruction of nature.</p>
<p>So reads the preamble of the "Law Concerning the Illegitimacy of the Communist Regime" passed on July 9, 1993 by the parliament of the Czech Republic, one of the two rump states that emerged from the second dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.</p>
<p /> | Political Correctness in Prague | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/political-correctness-in-prague | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GS.N" type="external">GS.N</a>) expects more M&amp;A deals in digital payments this year and on Thursday identified Wirecard ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WDIG.DE" type="external">WDIG.DE</a>) and Ingenico ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INGC.PA" type="external">INGC.PA</a>) as potential targets.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign is displayed in the reception of the Sydney offices of Goldman Sachs in Australia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
<p>“We expect the payments industry to continue to benefit from a number of secular technology drivers: the shift to electronic payments from cash and an even faster shift to online payments,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GS.N" type="external">Goldman Sachs Group Inc</a> 255.92 GS.N New York Stock Exchange -3.67 (-1.41%) GS.N WDIG.DE INGC.PA PYPL.O
<p>Recent deals have included Vantiv’s VNTV.N takeover of Worldpay WPG.L and Hellman &amp; Friedman’s Nets NETS.CO bid.</p>
<p>Last month, Morgan Stanley analysts said the tax reform in the U.S. could make more funds available for payments companies such as Paypal Holdings ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PYPL.O" type="external">PYPL.O</a>).</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley said new European rules on online payments, the Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2), could also be another catalyst that triggers mergers and acquisitions in the sector.</p>
<p>PSD2, which started last week, allows retailers and consumers to bypass banks by authorizing payments directly from personal accounts, aiming to cut costs and increase choice by widening the range of firms offering financial services.</p>
<p>Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Gdynia; editing by Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(This version of the April 13th story corrects title of Scott Morris as senior fellow of Center for Global Development)</p>
<p>By David Lawder</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is expected to support a $13 billion capital increase for the World Bank in a deal that will reform the development bank’s lending rules and increase China’s shareholding, three people close to the matter said on Friday.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to lend his support for the plan at next week’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings, the sources said. But the deal will need an endorsement from the World Bank’s shareholders and approval from its board of directors.</p>
<p>“Barring unforeseen challenges, there will be a capital increase,” one of the sources told Reuters.</p>
<p>U.S. backing for the capital increase was first reported by the Financial Times.</p>
<p>The Trump administration was initially skeptical of the World Bank’s long-running effort to boost its capital, proposing major cuts to multilateral development banks last year.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Malpass has long criticized multilateral development banks for contributing to the build-up of debt in poor countries, and has chided the World Bank’s lending to higher income countries such as China, saying they should “graduate” to non-concessional loans.</p>
<p>“When the World Bank does not graduate these countries, less funding is available to reach countries with greater development needs and there is an excess burden placed on shareholder capital,” Malpass, who heads international affairs at the Treasury, said in congressional testimony last year.</p>
<p>The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been formally announced, said it would include reforms that would raise financing costs for higher-income countries.</p>
<p>Scott Morris, a former Treasury official who now is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said the capital increase deal is a victory for World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, an Obama administration nominee who has cultivated a relationship with the Trump administration, launching a women’s empowerment fund in cooperation with President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.</p>
<p>Morris said the increase in shareholding for China “reflects reality of the global economy” with China’s growing economic clout. But it is unclear how Mnuchin will characterize the shift given Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Chinese goods over China’s intellectual property practices, he added.</p>
<p>Under terms of the deal, according to the sources familiar with it, China’s shareholding in the World Bank would rise to about six percent from 4.68 percent currently. China would still be in third place behind the United States and Japan.</p>
<p>About $7.5 billion of the capital increase would go to the World Bank’s main concessional lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with $5.5 billion going to the International Finance Corp, the group’s private sector lending arm.</p>
<p>A U.S. Treasury spokesman declined to comment, while a World Bank spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services on Saturday recommended investors vote against the re-election of five Equifax Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EFX.N" type="external">EFX.N</a>) directors who served on the company’s audit and technology committees prior to a 2017 data breach.</p> Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell
<p>The Atlanta-based consumer credit company last fall said hackers had stolen personally identifiable information of U.S., British and Canadian consumers, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license and credit card numbers. Over time, Equifax has increased the number affected to more than 147 million people.</p>
<p>ISS said in a report to shareholders sent to Reuters by a spokesman that the company’s reputation and shareholder value had been damaged by the extent of the breach and the company’s slow response to it, placing a cloud over the company.</p>
<p>In response, it recommended against voting for directors Mark L. Feidler, G. Thomas Hough, John A. McKinley, Elane B. Stock and Mark B. Templeton, who served on the two committees with relevant oversight duties. It recommended votes in support of the remaining five director candidates at the company, including Siri S. Marshall, head of the governance committee.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EFX.N" type="external">Equifax Inc</a> 116.0 EFX.N New York Stock Exchange -0.91 (-0.78%) EFX.N
<p>An Equifax spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the recommendations.</p>
<p>Equifax has said breach-related costs could reach $439 million through year-end, potentially making it the most costly U.S. hack yet disclosed. The company has lost 19 percent of its market value since the massive cybertheft was disclosed. Its shares traded at $116 on Friday. [L2N1QK1Q1]</p>
<p>The credit reporting company is facing 100s of lawsuits by consumers, financial institutions and even the city of Chicago relating to the cybersecurity breach. The company disputes the claims and has said it intends to defend against them.</p>
<p>ISS also recommended “cautionary support” for the company’s say-on-pay resolution, noting the compensation committee’s decision to not pay annual incentives, steps to adjust incentive metrics and strengthen clawback provisions. However, it said there are ongoing questions about former Chief Executive Richard F. Smith’s pay and “the issue warrants continued monitoring.”</p>
<p>It also recommended a vote in favor of a shareholder resolution seeking a report on political contributions by the company, saying holders would benefit from more disclosure of the company’s political spending, payments to trade groups, its management of related risks.</p>
<p>The company’s annual general meeting is scheduled for May 3.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Alistair Bell</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell, who built WPP into the world’s biggest advertising agency through 33 years of dealmaking, quit on Saturday after an allegation of personal misconduct.</p>
<p>The departure of the CEO who built a two-man outfit into one of Britain’s biggest companies with 200,000 staff in 112 countries leaves WPP without a boss at a pivotal time for the industry and when the group is under great strain.</p>
<p>WPP stunned the market last week when it said it had appointed lawyers to investigate alleged misconduct by Sorrell. He denied the allegations but in a letter to WPP staff published late on Saturday he said the “current disruption” was “putting too much unnecessary pressure on the business”.</p>
<p>He said he had decided that “in your interest, in the interest of our clients, in the interest of all shareowners, both big and small, and in the interest of all our other stakeholders, it is best for me to step aside”.</p>
<p>Chairman Roberto Quarta will become executive chairman until a new chief executive is found, while Mark Read, a WPP digital executive, and Andrew Scott, chief operating officer, Europe, have been appointed as joint chief operating officers.</p>
<p>Read, who previously sat on WPP’s main board, is well regarded in the industry while Scott was involved in its acquisition strategy and was not involved with clients.</p>
<p>The company will consider internal and external candidates for the top job in a process that could take several months.</p>
<p>“Obviously I am sad to leave WPP after 33 years,” Sorrell said in a statement. “It has been a passion, focus and source of energy for so long. However, I believe it is in the best interests of the business if I step down now.”</p>
<p>WPP said the investigation, which regarded financial impropriety, had concluded. It made no further comment but repeated a previous statement that the allegation did not involve amounts that were material to the company.</p>
<p>A source close to Sorrell said he had been unhappy with how the investigation was handled, leaving him uncertain whether he could work with the board again.</p>
<p>Analysts have speculated that the sprawling group, which was being restructured after a year of lower spending from some clients, could now sell off some assets if led by different management.</p> PASSION AND FOCUS
<p>The longest-serving CEO on the FTSE 100 blue chip index, Sorrell built WPP into one of Britain’s biggest companies by three decades of relentless dealmaking. He is one of the most high profile, and best paid, executives in the country.</p>
<p>In his time the group expanded to own top creative agencies including J. Walter Thompson and Young &amp; Rubicam, as well as media planners and buyers, market-research firms and public relations groups such as Finsbury.</p>
<p>Present in 112 countries, WPP serves clients including Ford, Unilever, P&amp;G and a string of major corporations around the world.</p>
<p>It largely outperformed its peers Omnicom, Publicis and IPG in the years that followed the financial crisis as the group pitched aggressively for new work. But it has been hit in the last 18 months by a downturn in spending from consumer goods groups Unilever and P&amp;G, and the loss of some big accounts.</p> FILE PHOTO: Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
<p>The migration of advertising online and the encroachment into market research of consultancies such as Accenture have compounded the pressures. Its shares are down around 30 percent this year.</p>
<p>The company said Sorrell would be available to assist with the transition, and the man synonymous with the British marketing group told the staff they would come through this difficult time.</p>
<p>“As a founder, I can say that WPP is not just a matter of life or death, it was, is and will be more important than that,” Sorrell said. “Good fortune and Godspeed to all of you. Now back to the future.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Two multi-billion dollar takeovers of semiconductor makers are being stalled by Chinese regulatory reviews amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>Qualcomm Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">QCOM.O</a>) proposed $44 billion purchase of Dutch chip maker NXP Semiconductors NV ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NXPI.O" type="external">NXPI.O</a>) could be at risk due to the delayed review. China is the only country that has not yet signed off on the deal, or on Toshiba Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6502.T" type="external">6502.T</a>) planned $19 billion sale of its chip unit to a Bain Capital consortium, according to the newspaper.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Qualcomm’s merger agreement with NXP was extended for a second time in January, giving the two until to April 25, although the parties could decide to extend the deadline.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">Qualcomm Inc</a> 55.73 QCOM.O Nasdaq +0.53 (+0.96%) QCOM.O NXPI.O 6502.T
<p>China’s Vice President, Wang Qishan, last month assured Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf that the review would not be affected by politics, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Qualcomm and Toshiba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>In a move to force China to lower its $375 billion trade surplus with the U.S., the Trump administration this month unveiled tariffs representing about $50 billion on Chinese technology, transport and medical products, drawing an immediate threat of retaliatory action from Beijing.</p>
<p>At the same time, China pledged to further open the country’s economy and lower import tariffs on certain products, moves it said were unrelated to the trade spat.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Diane Craft</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Goldman predicts rise in payments M&A in 2018 U.S. to back $13 billion World Bank capital increase: sources Proxy adviser ISS recommends against five Equifax directors over cyberbreach Martin Sorrell quits as head of world's biggest ad group WPP China slows review of chip company mergers amid trade tensions: WSJ | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-payments-m-a-goldmansachs/goldman-predicts-rise-in-payments-ma-in-2018-idUSKBN1F715P | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>More than 70 years after the end of World War II, Adolf Hitler’s writings are suddenly popular again — and German state prosecutors are considering legal action to keep them in check. Not since the Nazi era has the dictator's book 'Mein Kampf' been so freely available in Germany.</p>
<p>The debate over ‘Mein Kampf’ goes back decades, but this year marked a big shift in its history. Until the end of 2015, the Bavarian government held the book’s copyright. But this year, it entered the public domain.</p>
<p>Publishers responded with several new editions, starting with an annotated version released by historians in Munich. This month, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale gave away free copies of their own annotated edition. Both editions were criticized by some Jewish groups, but because they were academic in nature, they aimed to put Hitler's destructive and hateful ideas in context. Il Giornale's editor said he hoped the book would allow readers to “study what is evil to avoid its return.”</p>
<p>So far, there's one edition that is decidedly not academic. It's essentially the same text that Hitler released in 1925, printed by a right-wing publisher called Der Schelm. The name translates to “Prankster,” but its anti-Semitic titles (including “Zionism, Enemy of the State” and Henry Ford's “International Jew”) are anything but a joke. It's this edition that has prompted state prosecutors to consider a lawsuit, based on the allegation that the book could incite violence.</p>
<p>Still, when I reported on Hitler's legacy in advance of the new editions last year, I was surprised to find relatively little anxiety around the dictator's writings. A friend who regularly attends German anti-fascist demonstrations told me that considering the book's availability online, new editions weren't likely to change anything. A historian who fled Nazi Germany as a boy — and who <a href="" type="internal">discovered Hitler's second book</a>&#160;— told me that it was about time a new German edition came out.</p>
<p>Maybe we shouldn't worry about whether 'Mein Kampf' is being read, but rather how 'Mein Kampf' is being read. Some news stories have suggested that the popularity of 'Mein Kampf' could signal that German politics are lurching to the right. This may be true in the case of the right-wing publisher Der Schelm.</p>
<p>But for historians and the public, Hitler's writings are source texts. They can help us understand the origins of the most destructive war in history. Instead of causing atrocity, responsible new editions of Hitler's writings can help us prevent it.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Hitler’s a bestselling author in Germany again. Why? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-06-18/hitler-s-bestselling-author-germany-again-why | 2016-06-18 | 3 |
<p>One of the world’s most-loved candy bars is getting an ethical makeover – at least in Britain. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk bar will become certified as fair trade by the summer. That means that cocoa farmers in Africa will earn a guaranteed minimum price for their harvest.</p>
<p>"The World" reporter Laura Lynch filed this report from London.</p>
<p>It may not be Britain’s nor the world’s most luxurious chocolate bar, but Dairy Milk has been outselling its competitors in the candy shops for more than a century. A nice treat for the masses, but it’s the end result of backbreaking work for farmers who harvest the cocoa beans.</p>
<p>Usu Menz, a farmer in Ghana, calls it hard work with no guarantee of a profit. "And it costs a lot of money. Sometimes you may get the money you spent in the year, sometimes we don’t get. But we have been born into it so we can’t escape from it. So we take it like that"</p>
<p>The chocolate industry has been suffering the bitter aftertaste of growing criticism that it doesn’t pay farmers fairly, that children work as virtual slaves on some farms. Today, Cadbury announced a bold move to try to clean up its image. It’s dipping into the world of ethical chocolate by guaranteeing Dairy Milk in Britain and Ireland will be made with fair trade cocoa from Ghana.</p>
<p>Michael Nkonu is with the organization that awards the fair-trade seal of approval. "And Cadbury, joining us from the mainstream actually means that we are going to expand the range and include many farmers. Over 50,000 new farmers are going to come on board. And we think that’s going to improve livelihood. If you multiply that by six, of the family size, that is a lot for many farmers in Ghana."</p>
<p>Those farmers are now guaranteed a minimum price for their cocoa plus a premium of $150 dollars per metric ton. Cadbury says this is only the beginning. Fair trade credentials may not be a critical selling point in the United States chocolate industry, but fair trade coffee is gaining market share, so the company plans to certify more of its products as fair trade and to sell them across the Atlantic in the months and years to come.</p>
<p>PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">More "The World."</a></p> | Cadbury pledges fair trade chocolate bar | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-03-09/cadbury-pledges-fair-trade-chocolate-bar | 2009-03-09 | 3 |
<p>House Speaker John Boehner&#160;announced his resignation last week. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key).</p>
<p>House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)’s announcement that is resigning was hailed by social conservatives and LGBT advocates alike, although there’s little indication things would change dramatically with another Republican in charge.</p>
<p>Boehner, who’s served in the U.S. House since 1991 just before the “Gingrich Revolution,” said last week he would resign as speaker and give up his House seat at the end of October amid a stand-off in Congress threatening a shutdown of the U.S. government over continued federal funding of&#160;Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>On the same day he announced his resignation, Boehner said the House would vote on a continuing resolution to keep the U.S. government open with funds at the same level as last year, which means, for the time being, Planned Parenthood would continue to receive government money.</p>
<p>As speaker, Boehner has a dismal record&#160;on LGBT rights, although there have been occasions when he’s broken with far-right Republicans on LGBT issues.</p>
<p>Boehner doesn’t have a ranking in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual scorecard because of his position as speaker, but he received a rating of “0” during the time he was minority leader. In the earlier days before he was in leadership, Boehner, an opponent of same-sex marriage, voted in favor of U.S. constitutional amendments that would have banned it throughout the country.</p>
<p>Hilary Rosen, a D.C.-based Democratic activist and lesbian, criticized Boehner on LGBT rights and said she doesn’t see things improving after he’s gone.</p>
<p>“John Boehner has had personal friends and staff members who are gay,” Rosen said. “Yet he never once stuck his neck out to help for fear of his reputation in the caucus.&#160;I can’t imagine there will be any difference for LGBT policy until a broader group of Republican Americans start demanding that their party leadership stop kowtowing to the right wing. It will happen eventually if the community keeps pushing.”</p>
<p>Rosen didn’t respond to a follow-up email asking her to identify Boehner’s friends and staffers who are gay.</p>
<p>One key issue that emerged&#160;during&#160;his four-and-a-half years as House speaker was the U.S. House’s prolonged and ultimately unsuccessful defense in court of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited the federal government from recognizing lawful same-sex marriages.</p>
<p>After former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced in February 2011 the Justice Department would no longer defend DOMA in court, Boehner <a href="" type="internal">convened a meeting</a>of the five-member Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which voted on a 3-2 party-line basis to take up defense of the anti-gay law.</p>
<p>BLAG hired Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under the George W. Bush administration as lead attorney to defend DOMA. By the time the litigation ran its course all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices ruled 5-4 to strike down DOMA, the cost of defending the law totaled an estimated $2.3 million.</p>
<p>In January 2013, when the Washington Blade asked Boehner whether he supported the continued raising of the cost cap to defend DOMA, which at the time reached $3 million, he&#160;replied, “ <a href="" type="internal">If the Justice Department is not going to enforce the law of the land, the Congress will</a>.”</p>
<p>At the same time BLAG was defending DOMA in court, the House under Boehner voted on at least three occasions to approve amendments on the floor reaffirming the anti-gay law. Just after the Supreme Court agreed to review DOMA, the House at the start of the 113th Congress by a 228-196 vote <a href="" type="internal">approved governing rules</a> making clear BLAG has authority to speak for the House before the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>But Boehner’s supporters say he advanced at least one pro-LGBT measure. In 2013, under pressure from Democrats and women’s rights advocates, Boehner allowed a <a href="" type="internal">Senate-passed LGBT-inclusive version of the Violence Against Women Act</a> to come to the floor, which passed by a 286-138 vote.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the first time a Republican-controlled chamber of Congress passed LGBT-inclusive legislation. During the 109th Congress, the House passed an LGBT-inclusive version of hate crimes protections as part of a broader bill. But reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act did mark the first time a pro-LGBT bill passed under Boehner.</p>
<p>Speaking to LGBT reporters this week, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz <a href="" type="internal">identified VAWA as one thing</a> Boehner achieved for the LGBT community, saying, “He deserves credit for not continuing to block it.”</p>
<p>In his later years as speaker, Boehner’s views on LGBT issues became more mixed. That was best exemplified by&#160;his decision to meet with the LGBT Equality Caucus in early 2014, which was <a href="" type="internal">first reported by the Blade</a>.</p>
<p>Not even President Obama has met with the LGBT Equality Caucus, making Boehner’s meeting with the openly LGB members of&#160;the group a historic moment for the LGBT movement.</p>
<p>But according to Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who was present during the closed-door meeting, Boehner took the opportunity to say there was “no way” the House would bring up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which at the time had passed the Senate under its Democratic majority.</p>
<p>Boehner <a href="" type="internal">made his opposition to ENDA clear</a> when the Blade asked him during a news conference shortly after the Senate passed the bill whether he would bring it up for a vote.</p>
<p>“Listen, I understand people have differing opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions,” Boehner said. “But as someone who’s worked in the employment law area for all my years in the State House and all my years here, I see no basis or no need for this legislation.”</p>
<p>Although Boehner continues to oppose same-sex marriage, he made efforts to stay out of litigation seeking marriage rights for gay couples when it came to the Supreme Court, unlike his actions with DOMA.</p>
<p>Asked by the Blade in February during a news conference whether House Republicans would participate in the litigation, Boehner indicated he expected his caucus to accept the decision from justices.</p>
<p>“ <a href="" type="internal">I don’t expect that we’re going to weigh in on this</a>,” Boehner said. “The court will make its decision and that’s why they’re there, to be the highest court in the land.”</p>
<p>When congressional Republicans made public their friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage, Boehner’s signature wasn’t among <a href="" type="internal">the six U.S. senators and 51 U.S. House members who signed it</a>. (However, he later <a href="" type="internal">clarified</a> on NBC’s “Meet the Press” he thinks marriage should be left to the states, not the courts, and he would have signed the brief had it been presented to him.)</p>
<p>After the Supreme Court ruled on marriage, Boehner made no effort to bring to the floor a measure to address the ruling even though the Republican caucus has&#160;its greatest majority since the Truman administration. He’s been <a href="" type="internal">non-committal</a> on the First Amendment Defense Act, religious freedom legislation seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination, although social conservatives have clamored for a vote.</p>
<p>Gregory Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, commended Boehner for his tenure as speaker, saying he was saddled with managing an ideologically fractured majority, but “did it well.”</p>
<p>“Additionally, both Boehner and McCarthy gave tremendous support to openly gay Republicans running for Congress,” Angelo said. “This was especially evident in the 2014 election cycle where House Leadership campaigned and fundraised for Carl DeMaio and Richard Tisei — and admonished House Republicans like Randy Forbes who tried to stop leadership from growing their ranks with gay Republicans.”</p>
<p>Angelo also credited Boehner with helping Log Cabin navigate potential allies in efforts to pass ENDA “before Democrats squashed it.”</p>
<p>After LGBT groups dropped support from ENDA last year over the breadth of the legislation’s religious exemption, it’s true Democrats sought to advance a version of the bill with a narrower carve-out, although Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) supported the Senate-passed bill and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was <a href="" type="internal">better than nothing.</a></p>
<p>It remains to be seen who’ll replace Boehner as presiding officer of the U.S. House after his departure, but the presumption is after the upcoming election it’ll be the No. 2 lawmaker in the Republican caucus: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).</p>
<p>McCarthy has scored a “0” on the Human Rights Campaign’s most recent congressional scorecard. McCarthy, an opponent of same-sex marriage, began his tenure in the U.S. House in 2007 — too late for him to have voted on the Federal Marriage Amendment in either 2004 or 2006.</p>
<p>But McCarthy was one of the three members of BLAG who voted in favor of the House defending DOMA in court. The California Republican voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2007.</p>
<p>If elected, social conservatives who feel emboldened by Boehner’s resignation are likely to press McCarthy for a vote on the First Amendment Defense Act, while at the same time LGBT rights supporters decry the absence of movement on the Equality Act. McCarthy’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether he’d be open to allowing either of those measures to move forward.</p>
<p>Angelo declined to comment on a&#160;prospective McCarthy speakership because he said the leadership election “is still very fluid,” although Angelo maintained both Boehner and McCarthy always had an open door to Log Cabin.</p>
<p>David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, said McCarthy shares Boehner’s poor record on LGBT issues, but added that supporting LGBT rights is in the best interest of whomever leads the U.S. House.</p>
<p>“The next speaker comes to power in an environment where super majorities of the American people, and a majority of Republicans, stand on the side of equality,” Stacy said. “Time will tell, but I hope the next speaker will begin to reflect this emerging national consensus.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">David Stacy</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hillary Rosen</a> <a href="" type="internal">Human Rights Campaign</a> <a href="" type="internal">John Boehner</a></p> | Will next speaker continue Boehner’s anti-LGBT ways? | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/09/30/will-next-speaker-continue-boehners-anti-lgbt-ways/ | 3 |
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<p>Refiner Marathon Petroleum reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as low crude costs and strong gasoline demand pushed up margins.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>U.S. refiners have been pumping out strong profits as a plunge in crude prices widened crack spreads - the difference between the prices of crude oil and refined products.</p>
<p>Marathon Petroleum, which was spun off from Marathon Oil Corp, said the crack spread increased to $6.65 per barrel in the fourth quarter from $5.43 per barrel a year ago.</p>
<p>The fall in oil prices, however, has resulted in a challenging environment for master limited partnerships (MLP), Chief Executive Gary Heminger said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Marathon's MLP, which bought natural gas processor MarkWest Energy Partners last year, cut its 2016 distribution growth target to 12-15 percent from 25 percent on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Tax-advantaged MLPs, which hold energy infrastructure assets, have come under pressure in recent months as the oil price slump weighs on cash flows.</p>
<p>Marathon Petroleum earned 79 cents per share, excluding an inventory writedown of $370 million, above analysts' average estimate of 69 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S</p>
<p>Net income attributable to the company slumped 77 percent to $187 million, or 35 cents per share, from a year earlier.</p>
<p>Revenue and other income fell nearly 30 percent to $15.61 billion, missing the average estimate of $16.35 billion.</p>
<p>Up to Tuesday's close of $40.27, Marathon shares had fallen 14.3 percent in the last 12 months.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri and Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Marathon Petroleum Profit Falls 77% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/03/marathon-petroleum-profit-falls-77.html | 2016-02-03 | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />SANTA FE, N.M. — Immigrant rights groups filed a Freedom of Information Act court action in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to compel the release of documents regarding the use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained at the family detention center in Artesia, N.M.</p>
<p>The groups, in a news release, said the government has not publicly released critical information about the procedures governing its operations at the facility, despite the potentially life-threatening consequences for the women and children detained there.</p>
<p>The release of these policies and procedures is particularly urgent given that the government has opened another family detention center in Karnes, Texas and has announced plans to open a 2,400-bed family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.</p>
<p>The American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel, the National Immigration Law Center and Jenner &amp; Block LLP, brought the lawsuit.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Groups file FOIA suit over Artesia detention center | false | https://abqjournal.com/483721/groups-file-foia-suit-over-artesia-detention-center.html | 2 |
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<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - China Gezhouba Group Co Ltd:</p>
<p>* SAYS IT EXPECTS 2017 NET PROFIT TO RISE 25-35 PERCENT Y/Y VERSUS 3.4 BILLION YUAN ($532.46 million) YEAR AGO Source text in Chinese: <a href="http://bit.ly/2n7OG6B" type="external">bit.ly/2n7OG6B</a> Further company coverage: ($1 = 6.3855 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - The serial bomber whose deadly attacks terrorized Austin, Texas, for weeks left a 25-minute video “confession” on a cell phone found after he blew himself up on Wednesday as officers closed in to make an arrest, police said.</p>
<p>Mark Conditt, 23, an unemployed man from the suburb of Pflugerville, detailed how he made all seven bombs that have been accounted for - five that exploded, one that was recovered before it went off and a seventh that he detonated as officers rushed his vehicle early on Wednesday.</p>
<p>But the video failed to reveal a coherent motive for the attacks spread over the past three weeks, police said.</p>
<p>“He does not at all mention anything about terrorism, nor does he mention anything about hate, but instead it is the outcry of a very challenged young man, talking about challenges in his personal life,” Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters.</p>
<p>“I would classify this as a confession,” Manley said.</p>
<p>Conditt, who had never before been in trouble with the law, killed two people and wounded five with a campaign of violence that began on March 2, authorities said.</p>
<p>Based on their search of the suspect’s home and his video statement, authorities said they felt confident that there were no other bombs and that the public was safe from further harm.</p>
<p>FBI special agent Christopher Combs said investigators believe the suspect would have continued his attacks had he not been apprehended.</p>
<p>Police recovered a “target list” of addresses for future bombings, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing U.S. Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.</p>
<p>Even so, the video gave no explanation for the individuals and addresses singled out as recipients of the bombs that were planted or shipped, Manley said.</p>
<p>Police previously said they had considered the possibility that the attacks were racially motivated, noting that the first several victims, including the two who died, were either African-American or Hispanic.</p>
<p>Conditt likely recorded the video between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Tuesday. According to Manley, Conditt said he believed police “were getting very close to him,” and he was right. Authorities filed a criminal complaint and issued an arrest warrant around that time.</p>
<p>By Wednesday morning, police had tracked Conditt to a hotel and were waiting for the arrival of tactical units and equipment before they planned to make an arrest, Manley said. But then Conditt drove away.</p>
<p>Police followed and decided to stop him before he got on the highway. Just as officers approached the vehicle, the explosion went off, Manley said. There was also some police shooting.</p> Texas blast suspect Mark Anthony Conditt is seen in this undated handout photo released by Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, U.S. March 21, 2018. Austin Community College/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“This can never be called a happy ending, but it’s a damn good one for the people of this community, the people of the state of Texas,” Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore told reporters.</p>
<p>Residents in Austin, a city of 1 million people and a liberal enclave of university students and tech companies, voiced relief that the hunt for the serial bomber was over.</p>
<p>“I am going to be leery and extra careful tomorrow at work, but I feel relieved now,” said Jesus Borjon, 44, an employee of parcel delivery firm UPS, who lives in Pflugerville.</p>
<p>Austin was hosting thousands of out-of-town visitors for its annual South by Southwest festival of music, film and technology when the first bombings occurred.</p> Slideshow (24 Images) TRAIL OF CLUES
<p>The trail of clues leading hundreds of investigators to the serial bomber ranged from store receipts and fragments of booby-trapped packages to surveillance video of the suspect in a hat and wig.</p>
<p>Experts scoured the suspect’s home for further evidence on Wednesday, removing explosive materials and bomb components.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t call it a bomb-making factory, but there’s definitely components consistent with what we’ve seen in all these other devices,” Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of Houston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told reporters.</p>
<p>Investigators evacuated a four-block radius around Conditt’s house while they searched the home, which Conditt shared with two roommates who had been detained for questioning. Conditt moved in a year ago after leaving his parents’ home about a mile (1.6 km) away, public records showed.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-texas-blast-fedex/fbi-reminds-couriers-on-suspicious-package-protocols-after-texas-bombings-idUSKBN1GX2AR" type="external">FBI reminds couriers on suspicious package protocols after Texas bombings</a>
<p>One law enforcement official involved in the investigation but speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that some of the materials found in remnants of the bombs were traced back to where they had been sold.</p>
<p>The source also said investigators, once they had identified Conditt as a potential suspect, obtained a warrant to monitor his Google search history.</p>
<p>Surveillance video showed the suspect in a hat and a blond wig, as he prepared to ship one of two booby-trapped packages he was known to have sent through FedEx Corp’s delivery service, according to the source.</p>
<p>He used the alias “Kelly Killmore” to ship those packages, ABC News reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.</p>
<p>Conditt, who was home-schooled, described himself as a conservative but said he was not politically inclined, according to blog posts he wrote as part of a U.S. politics class at Austin Community College. He attended from 2010 to 2012 and had no record of any disciplinary actions, the school said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Mark Hosenball in Washington, Jonathan Allen and Gina Cherelus in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Peter Cooney &amp; Simon Cameron-Moore</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar slipped on Thursday after the Federal Reserve did not signal a faster pace of rate hikes this year while worries about a coming announcement on tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump dented Asian shares.</p> U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in this photo illustration taken February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/Illustration
<p>MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.1 percent, erasing earlier gains of up to 0.7 pct, which were led by South Korea <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.KS11" type="external">.KS11</a> and Taiwan <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.TWII" type="external">.TWII</a> hitting six-week highs. Japan's Nikkei <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.N225" type="external">.N225</a> gained 0.4 percent.</p>
<p>Wall Street stock indexes ended the day lower, with the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> losing 0.18 percent and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> 0.26 percent.</p>
<p>The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and forecast two more hikes for 2018 in its first policy meeting under Chairman Jerome Powell.</p>
<p>Given that some investors had expected it to project three more rate hikes, the guidance was perceived by some as less hawkish than anticipated, a positive factor for risk assets in general, though analysts noted the Fed was upbeat on the economy overall.</p>
<p>Fed policymakers notched up rate projections for 2019 and 2020 and also raised the estimated longer-term “neutral” interest rate a touch, suggesting the current tightening cycle could go on longer than previously thought.</p>
<p>“They also forecast three hikes next year and two more in 2020 and clearly revised up the growth forecast as well,” said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.</p>
<p>“So the picture looks different when you look at longer-term projections. That explains the complicated reaction by markets. The prospects of continued rate hikes may cap shares,” he added.</p>
<p>The yield on two-year U.S. notes yield slipped back to 2.299 percent US2YT=RR from 9 1/2-year high of 2.366 percent hit on Wednesday while the 10-year yield dipped to 2.872 percent US10YT=RR after an initial spike to 2.936 percent.</p>
<p>That pushed the U.S. dollar lower in the currency market, with the dollar index .DXY =USD testing this month’s low after suffering its biggest fall in two months on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The euro <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=EUR&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">EUR=</a> gained 0.2 percent to $1.2363, extending its recovery from a near three-week low of $1.2240 touched earlier in the week.</p>
<p>The dollar shed 0.4 percent to 105.66 yen <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=JPY&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">JPY=</a>, turning down on the week to edge closer to its 16-month low of 105.24 on March 2.</p>
<p>The British pound hit a 1 1/2-month high of $1.4171, building on Wednesday’s one-percent gains.</p> A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
<p>Strong UK wage data published on Wednesday cemented expectations that the Bank of England will likely signal a May rate hike later in the day at a monetary policy meeting.</p>
<p>Bucking the trend, the Hong Kong dollar <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=HKD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">HKD=D4</a> hit a 33-year low of 7.8469 per U.S. dollar, inching closer to the lower end of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's targeted trading band of 7.75-7.85.</p>
<p>But most market participants do not see this bout of weakness as a threat or attack on Hong Kong’s dollar peg, unlike instances in the past.</p>
<p>With the Fed meeting over, investors are watching Trump, who is due to sign a memo on imposing tariffs on Chinese imports at 1630 GMT on Thursday.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.KS11" type="external">Korea Exchange</a> 2505.57 .KS11 Korea Stock Exchange +20.60 (+0.83%) .KS11 .TWII .N225 .SPX .IXIC
<p>Concerns about a trade war between the world’s two largest economies have kept many investors on guard.</p>
<p>U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday the tariffs would target China’s high-technology sector and could also include restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States.</p>
<p>Investors worry such a move could trigger countermeasures by China, possibly causing a vicious cycle of escalating retaliation.</p>
<p>Shares on China's exchanges were lower, the with Shanghai Composite Index <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SSEC" type="external">.SSEC</a> slipping 0.8 percent to two-week lows.</p>
<p>“China’s equity market is relatively domestic. We estimate that on average more than 80 percent of revenues are generated in China while only a marginal share comes from the U.S. Still, there would be first-order casualties if trade tensions escalated. In the front line would be firms with significant exposure to the US, mostly in the tech and consumer</p>
<p>sectors,” wrote analysts at Societe Generale.</p>
<p>In the energy market, oil prices stood near six-week highs and closed in on a 3-year peak set in late January, helped by a surprise decline in U.S. inventories, strong compliance on OPEC production cuts, and persistent concerns on the nuclear pact with Iran.</p>
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose to as high as $65.74 per barrel CLc1, not far from its January peak of $66.66, having gained almost five percent so far this week.</p>
<p>In contrast, copper fell to three-month low of $6,702 per tonne CMCU3 the previous day before bouncing back to $6,817.</p>
<p>Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Eric Meijer and Richard Borsuk</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump defended his congratulations to Vladimir Putin on the Russian president’s disputed re-election victory on Wednesday, saying he wants Putin’s help in solving crises from North Korea to Syria and beyond.</p> White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sits at the end of the table as U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sit down to a working lunch with their delegations at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
<p>Trump drew fire from Republicans and Democrats alike for telling reporters on Tuesday that he had congratulated Putin on his re-election and that the two leaders had made tentative plans to meet in the “not too distant future.”</p>
<p>The Washington Post reported that Trump, in his briefing papers to prepare for the phone call with Putin on Tuesday, was specifically warned “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” the Russian president. White House officials did not dispute the report, but said whoever leaked it could be subject to dismissal.</p>
<p>A Trump confidant who asked not to be named said Trump was angry about the leak, and a White House official said John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, was “frustrated and deeply disappointed.”</p>
<p>In a pair of tweets on his call with Putin, Trump said U.S. news organizations “wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing.”</p>
<p>“They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race,” Trump said.</p>
<p>Trump’s congratulations to Putin, which came shortly after he joined Britain in blaming Russia for a poison nerve gas attack against a former Russian spy in southern England, has revived criticism that Trump has been too tolerant of the Russian leader.</p>
<p>Trump is under investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on whether he or his aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election that Trump won. Trump calls the probe a political witch hunt.</p>
<p>Trump’s overture to Putin has drawn heavy fire by critics who called Sunday’s election rigged.</p>
<p>Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said there was a “lack of credibility in tallying the result.” Senator John McCain, a longtime Putin critic, was even blunter, saying: “An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.”</p>
<p>Administration officials said it was unclear if the president had seen the briefing memo that was leaked to the Post.</p>
<p>“If this story is accurate, that means someone leaked the president’s briefing papers. Leaking such information is a fireable offense and likely illegal,” said a senior White House official, who requested anonymity.</p>
<p>Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he did not like Trump’s congratulations to Putin but thought the leak was worse.</p>
<p>“If you don’t like the guy, quit. But to be this duplicitous and continue to leak things out, it’s dangerous,” Rubio told reporters.</p>
<p>White House officials have said that Trump is less trusting of Putin because of Russian activities in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Last week, after initially equivocating about the chemical attack on the former Russian double agent in Salisbury, England, the White House joined a statement by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in which they said they “abhor the attack” and blamed it on Moscow.</p>
<p>Moscow has denied any involvement in the poisoning.</p>
<p>The issue came up on Wednesday in a telephone call between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, who is scheduled to visit the White House in late April, according to a White House statement.</p>
<p>“The presidents reiterated their solidarity with the United Kingdom in the wake of Russia’s use of chemical weapons against private citizens on British soil and agreed on the need to take action to hold Russia accountable,” it said.</p> Related Video
<p>But the poisoning incident did not appear to come up in Trump’s call with Putin.</p>
<p>“I don’t believe that was discussed in today’s call,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The leak incident was likely to revive questions about whether Trump would embark on more turnover in his senior staff after the departure of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.</p>
<p>Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, is widely seen as likely to leave at some point, and Kelly himself is said by Trump confidants to have tested the nerves of the president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TEMPE, Ariz./SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in Arizona on Wednesday released a short video of a fatal collision between an Uber self-driving vehicle and a pedestrian, as investigators probe the accident that has put new focus on the safety of autonomous vehicles.</p>
<p>The video, taken from inside the Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicle that Uber has used for testing, shows the vehicle driving along a dark road when an image of a woman walking a bicycle across the road suddenly appears in the headlights.</p>
<p>The woman, Elaine Herzberg, 49, later died from her injuries.</p>
<p>Police have released few details about the accident that occurred on Sunday night in Tempe, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, while the SUV was driving in autonomous mode. Uber suspended its self-driving testing in North America after the incident and federal safety regulators are conducting their own probe.</p>
<p>Fall-out from the accident could stall the development and testing of self-driving vehicles, which are designed to perform far better than human drivers and sharply reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities that occur each year.</p>
<p>The video shows the vehicle traveling in the right-hand lane of a divided four-lane roadway. The vehicle’s headlights illuminate a woman directly in front of it who is crossing the SUV’s lane with her bike. The woman appears to be jaywalking as she is not in a crosswalk.</p>
<p>A photo released by safety regulators on Tuesday showed that the impact occurred on the right side of the vehicle.</p>
<p>The footage also shows a view of the vehicle’s interior and the driver at the wheel. The driver appears to be looking down, and not at the road, for two periods of about five seconds each. Just before the video stops, the driver looks upward toward the road and suddenly looks shocked.</p>
<p>“The video is disturbing and heartbreaking to watch, and our thoughts continue to be with Elaine’s loved ones,” Uber said in a statement. “Our cars remain grounded, and we’re assisting local, state and federal authorities in any way we can.”</p>
<p>The video is likely to be a key part of investigations of Uber’s self-driving car technology and whether it was ready for testing on public roads.</p>
<p>Although the exact specifics of Uber’s technology are not known, self-driving cars typically use a combination of sensors, including radar and light-based Lidar, to identify objects around the vehicle, including potential obstacles coming into range. While cameras do not perform well in the dark, radar and Lidar can work at night.</p>
<p>One question on regulators’ minds will be why the sensors did not pick up on the presence of Herzberg, who would ostensibly have already crossed three lanes of traffic before arriving in the path of the Uber vehicle.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>One self-driving car expert, Bryant Walker Smith, said his first impression was of “outrage” viewing the video.</p>
<p>“Although this video isn’t the full picture, it strongly suggests a failure by Uber’s automated driving system and a lack of due care by Uber’s driver (and by the victim),” said Smith, a professor of law at the University of South Carolina.</p>
<p>Another autonomous driving expert agreed with Smith’s assessment.</p>
<p>“The sensors should have detected the pedestrian in this case; the cameras were likely useless but both the radars and the Lidar must have picked up the pedestrian,” said Raj Rajkumar, a professor at Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1094.0 GOOGL.O Nasdaq -1.80 (-0.16%) GOOGL.O GM.N
<p>“Though no information is available, one would have to conclude based on this video alone, that there are problems in the Uber vehicle software that need to be rectified,” he said.</p>
<p>Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its systems.</p> OVERSIGHT?
<p>The video is likely to renew calls for more oversight in a nascent industry that lacks standardized testing or safety definitions. Lawmakers have had to juggle the need to encourage innovations that promise to dramatically improve safety on roads with current public safety concerns.</p>
<p>Companies including Uber, Alphabet’s Waymo ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and General Motors’s Cruise Automation ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) have been testing their self-driving technology in Arizona, which has welcomed the industry with a lighter regulatory touch than in states like California, for example.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Arizona transportation officials said they saw no immediate need to tighten rules on the testing of self-driving cars in the state.</p>
<p>Although some within the self-driving industry have suggested agreeing testing and safety standards for autonomous technology, there has been no concerted effort to do so.</p>
<p>Timothy Carone, an associate teaching professor at Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business whose research specialties include artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, said the question is whether Uber did enough testing before sending robot cars out onto streets alongside humans.</p>
<p>“Did they jump the gun?” he said. “If their testing is found to be inefficient, that cannot be allowed to happen again because these systems have to be ready for road tests.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Paul Lienert and Nick Carey in Detroit; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Peter Cooney and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-China Gezhouba Expects 2017 Net Profit To Rise 25-35 Percent Y/Y Texas serial bomber made video confession before blowing himself up: police Dollar on defensive after Fed, trade worries hit shares Trump defends congratulatory phone call to Putin Arizona police release video of fatal collision with Uber self-driving SUV | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-china-gezhouba-expects-2017-net-pr/brief-china-gezhouba-expects-2017-net-profit-to-rise-25-35-percent-y-y-idUSH9N1PH00M | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The two Koreas' rare high-profile talks Tuesday took place at the jointly controlled area inside the world's most heavily fortified border — the same place where North Korean soldiers recently sprayed bullets at a colleague who was making a daring dash for freedom.</p>
<p>The defecting soldier was hit five times, but he survived and is now recovering in South Korea. The dramatic video of his defection, released by the American-led U.N. command, showed again why the area, called Panmunjom, is known as one of the scariest places on Earth.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Panmunjom captured international headlines again when a group of high-level North Korean officials walked across concrete slabs that make up a military demarcation line for their first formal talks with South Korea in more than two years.</p>
<p>A look at Panmunjom, whose mystique makes the place not only a potential flash point, but also a venue for talks and a tourist site:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO-MAN'S LAND</p>
<p>Panmunjom sits inside the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide Demilitarized Zone, a buffer created at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Once an obscure farming village, it was where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed.</p>
<p>No civilians live there, and a cluster of blue huts form a Joint Security Area overseen by North Korea and the U.N. Command.</p>
<p>The 248-kilometer (154-mile) -long DMZ is guarded on both sides by mines, razor-wire fences, tank traps and combat-ready troops. But Panmunjom is the only DMZ location where North and South Korean troops stand only several meters (feet) away from each other. North Korean soldiers wearing lapel pins with the portraits of late North Korean leaders use binoculars to monitor the South, while tall South Korean troops wearing aviator sunglasses stand motionless like statues.</p>
<p>This unique scene makes it a popular tourist spot, drawing curious visitors to both sides of the village.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>PAST BLOODSHED</p>
<p>The most notorious incident at Panmunjom happened in the summer of 1976, when two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers.</p>
<p>The U.S. officers had been sent out to trim a 12-meter (40-foot) tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint. The attack prompted Washington to fly nuclear-capable B-52 bombers toward the DMZ to intimidate North Korea. Then-North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un, expressed regret over the incident before animosities eased.</p>
<p>In 1984, North Korean and U.N. Command soldiers traded gunfire after a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the truce village. The incident left three North Korean soldiers and one South Korean soldier dead.</p>
<p>The rival Koreas have had similar violent confrontations along other parts of the DMZ in the past. No deadly clashes have occurred in recent years, but a 2015 land mine blast that maimed two South Korean soldiers pushed the Koreas to the brink of an armed conflict. South Korea blames North Korea for the explosion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>VENUE FOR TALKS</p>
<p>Military officials from North Korea and the U.N. Command used to meet at Panmunjom to oversee the armistice. In recent years, it has been used for occasional talks between the two Koreas.</p>
<p>Tuesday's talks were held at Peace House, a Seoul-run conference hall in the southern half of the village. The facility has equipment that can feed real-time closed-circuit TV footage of the talks to South Korean leaders in Seoul. It also allows North Korean leaders in Pyongyang to listen to the talks, according to South Korean officials.</p>
<p>North Korea operates another conference room, called "Panmungak," on the northern side of Panmunjom.</p>
<p>Before Tuesday's meeting, the most recent high-profile gathering in Panmunjom was in August 2015, when negotiators for the rivals met for nearly 40 hours and reached a deal that allowed them to pull back from a military standoff triggered by the land mine explosion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>U.S. PRESIDENTIAL VISITS</p>
<p>U.S. presidents and other top officials have often traveled to Panmunjom and other areas of the DMZ at times of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. They have peered through binoculars across the border and vowed to boost the U.S. military alliance with South Korea.</p>
<p>In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom when the North Korean nuclear crisis first flared. In 2002, President George W. Bush visited the DMZ a few weeks after he labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil."</p>
<p>In 2012, ahead of a planned North Korean long-range rocket launch, President Barack Obama visited a front-line U.S. military camp just south of the DMZ and told American troops they are protectors of "freedom's frontier." Obama's trip came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Panmunjom.</p>
<p>In November 2017, President Donald Trump planned to visit the DMZ to underscore his stance against North Korea's nuclear program when he came to South Korea as part of an Asian tour, but his plans were thwarted by heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing at the border area.</p>
<p>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The two Koreas' rare high-profile talks Tuesday took place at the jointly controlled area inside the world's most heavily fortified border — the same place where North Korean soldiers recently sprayed bullets at a colleague who was making a daring dash for freedom.</p>
<p>The defecting soldier was hit five times, but he survived and is now recovering in South Korea. The dramatic video of his defection, released by the American-led U.N. command, showed again why the area, called Panmunjom, is known as one of the scariest places on Earth.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Panmunjom captured international headlines again when a group of high-level North Korean officials walked across concrete slabs that make up a military demarcation line for their first formal talks with South Korea in more than two years.</p>
<p>A look at Panmunjom, whose mystique makes the place not only a potential flash point, but also a venue for talks and a tourist site:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO-MAN'S LAND</p>
<p>Panmunjom sits inside the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide Demilitarized Zone, a buffer created at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Once an obscure farming village, it was where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed.</p>
<p>No civilians live there, and a cluster of blue huts form a Joint Security Area overseen by North Korea and the U.N. Command.</p>
<p>The 248-kilometer (154-mile) -long DMZ is guarded on both sides by mines, razor-wire fences, tank traps and combat-ready troops. But Panmunjom is the only DMZ location where North and South Korean troops stand only several meters (feet) away from each other. North Korean soldiers wearing lapel pins with the portraits of late North Korean leaders use binoculars to monitor the South, while tall South Korean troops wearing aviator sunglasses stand motionless like statues.</p>
<p>This unique scene makes it a popular tourist spot, drawing curious visitors to both sides of the village.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>PAST BLOODSHED</p>
<p>The most notorious incident at Panmunjom happened in the summer of 1976, when two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers.</p>
<p>The U.S. officers had been sent out to trim a 12-meter (40-foot) tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint. The attack prompted Washington to fly nuclear-capable B-52 bombers toward the DMZ to intimidate North Korea. Then-North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current ruler Kim Jong Un, expressed regret over the incident before animosities eased.</p>
<p>In 1984, North Korean and U.N. Command soldiers traded gunfire after a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the truce village. The incident left three North Korean soldiers and one South Korean soldier dead.</p>
<p>The rival Koreas have had similar violent confrontations along other parts of the DMZ in the past. No deadly clashes have occurred in recent years, but a 2015 land mine blast that maimed two South Korean soldiers pushed the Koreas to the brink of an armed conflict. South Korea blames North Korea for the explosion.</p>
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<p>VENUE FOR TALKS</p>
<p>Military officials from North Korea and the U.N. Command used to meet at Panmunjom to oversee the armistice. In recent years, it has been used for occasional talks between the two Koreas.</p>
<p>Tuesday's talks were held at Peace House, a Seoul-run conference hall in the southern half of the village. The facility has equipment that can feed real-time closed-circuit TV footage of the talks to South Korean leaders in Seoul. It also allows North Korean leaders in Pyongyang to listen to the talks, according to South Korean officials.</p>
<p>North Korea operates another conference room, called "Panmungak," on the northern side of Panmunjom.</p>
<p>Before Tuesday's meeting, the most recent high-profile gathering in Panmunjom was in August 2015, when negotiators for the rivals met for nearly 40 hours and reached a deal that allowed them to pull back from a military standoff triggered by the land mine explosion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>U.S. PRESIDENTIAL VISITS</p>
<p>U.S. presidents and other top officials have often traveled to Panmunjom and other areas of the DMZ at times of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. They have peered through binoculars across the border and vowed to boost the U.S. military alliance with South Korea.</p>
<p>In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom when the North Korean nuclear crisis first flared. In 2002, President George W. Bush visited the DMZ a few weeks after he labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil."</p>
<p>In 2012, ahead of a planned North Korean long-range rocket launch, President Barack Obama visited a front-line U.S. military camp just south of the DMZ and told American troops they are protectors of "freedom's frontier." Obama's trip came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Panmunjom.</p>
<p>In November 2017, President Donald Trump planned to visit the DMZ to underscore his stance against North Korea's nuclear program when he came to South Korea as part of an Asian tour, but his plans were thwarted by heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing at the border area.</p> | Venue for Korea talks is potential flash point inside border | false | https://apnews.com/amp/46745d83c6774aef80b6bd4ee9990d1c | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>The Latest on the legal proceedings against a Texas-based oil pipeline (all times local):</p>
<p>3:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A federal judge did not immediately rule on a request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop a four-state oil pipeline under construction near their reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.</p>
<p>The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge James Boasberg listened to arguments Wednesday in Washington, D.C. He says he will rule on the case by Sept. 9.</p>
<p>The hearing comes amid protests over the pipeline that would cross the Missouri River near the reservation.</p>
<p>The tribe fears the pipeline will impact drinking water and disturb sacred sites. The company had planned to complete the pipeline, which goes from North Dakota to Illinois, this year.</p>
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<p>12:45 p.m.</p>
<p>A federal judge in Washington, D.C., is considering a request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for a temporary injunction against an oil pipeline under construction near their reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.</p>
<p>Tribal officials are challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' decision last month to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge James Boasberg will hear the case Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>The hearing, which comes amid growing protests over the pipeline that would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation, attracted dozens of protesters, including actress Susan Sarandon. She says the pipeline creates a "dangerous situation" that threatens the tribe's drinking water.</p>
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<p>10:45 a.m.</p>
<p>The Iowa Utilities Board has ordered a Texas company to refrain from building a pipeline on 15 landowners' properties until Monday to give the board time to review legal issues involving a lawsuit.</p>
<p>The board issued an order Wednesday requiring Dakota Access to provide detailed information about the progress of construction in Iowa and the cost the company will incur if it is required to work around the parcels.</p>
<p>The landowners' lawsuit challenges the board's authority to allow eminent domain for a privately owned pipeline project. That suit has not come before a court yet, and the board will hear arguments Thursday on the landowners' motion to halt construction until that happens.</p>
<p>The $3.8 billion pipeline will pass through Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota, and has been met with weeks of protests in North Dakota.</p> | The Latest: Judge to rule on pipeline injunction by Sept. 9 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/24/latest-judge-to-rule-on-pipeline-injunction-by-sept.html | 2016-08-24 | 0 |
<p>A <a href="" type="internal">Dec. 30 Missoulian guest colum</a>n&#160;contended that bison herds in Yellowstone needed to be reduced because of alleged overgrazing. Implicitly the authors were condoning the continued slaughter of Yellowstone’s genetically unique wild bison to “save” Yellowstone.</p>
<p>The debate about native wildlife grazing influences in Yellowstone, particularly elk, and the “need” for artificial reduction (termed management) has been argued for decades, particularly by those trained in livestock management. The traditional range management approach ignores many unique factors about wild ungulates and their influence on the landscape.</p>
<p>Domestic livestock are concentrated on public lands in the summer months when plants are actively growing. The negative consequences of livestock grazing are well documented and include reduction in seed production, loss of vigor and selective removal of perennial plants.</p>
<p>Damage to riparian areas by bank breakage and soil compaction, social displacement of native ungulates like elk as well as the forage competition with native wildlife from butterflies to elk are also other livestock-induced impacts.</p>
<p>By contrast, overall wildlife numbers are much lower than domestic livestock and are widely distributed during the summer, reducing ecological impacts.</p>
<p>Elk, bison and other native ungulates are only concentrated at lower elevations in the winter months, when plants are dormant. In addition, soils are frozen, so compaction and bank breakage are lessened, all of which helps to reduce the browsing/grazing impacts associated with native wildlife.</p>
<p>Though park willow and aspen were often hedged (short), they persisted despite heavy browsing pressure because they could put out leaves in the summer months and grow without significant browse pressure, maintaining seed and energy production. Interpreting bison and elk influences without considering seasonality of use is a mistake.</p>
<p>There is another temporal aspect to the entire debate of wildlife numbers as well. Wildlife populations fluctuate over decades in response to long-term climatic conditions, predators and other influences.</p>
<p>The presence of wolves, combined with other factors like changing migration patterns, drought, harsh winters and wildfires, has led to an overall reduction in elk influence on plant communities.</p>
<p>For decades, I have hiked weeks at a time in Yellowstone’s backcountry, leading trips as a commercial guide, as well as for my own enjoyment. Even during the 1980s and 1990s, when many asserted there were “too many” elk in Yellowstone, I could go days and sometimes a week or more in the backcountry without seeing more than a few elk at a time and an occasional small herd.</p>
<p>Nearly all early references to wildlife in the Yellowstone region by trappers, miners and military expeditions were recorded in the summer months when wildlife is widely distributed. Even on the Great Plains, wildlife was patchy in distribution, and expeditions could go weeks and months without seeing a single bison herd.</p>
<p>When the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled up the Missouri River in Montana in 1804, they noted an abundance of bison. Yet, on their return trek, the Corps of Discovery split at Lolo, Montana. William Clark traveled hundreds of miles in bison habitat, including down the Upper Missouri tributaries to Three Forks, through the Gallatin Valley where Bozeman is located, over Trail Creek by Livingston, and down the Yellowstone River nearly to the present-day Billings area before he encountered a bison herd.</p>
<p>There is no logical reason why bison and elk would not migrate up into the mountains to take advantage of nutritious summer forage. Bison remains have been recorded in many mountain locations, including at elevations of over 10,000 feet in Colorado and elsewhere. However, in winter, they would move to lower elevations.</p>
<p>The major problem for Yellowstone’s bison is that the traditional migration routes are blocked by hunters and Department of Livestock agents who corral bison for slaughter.</p>
<p>If there are too many bison for the northern range, it is an entirely artificial problem created by the livestock industry. Until we free up bison to move to other public lands outside of the park, one cannot assert that reductions are necessary.</p> | Yellowstone’s Bison Should be Allowed to Roam, Not Slaughtered | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/05/yellowstones-bison-should-be-allowed-to-roam-not-slaughtered/ | 2017-01-05 | 4 |
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<p>The incident happened in Ludington Library in Pennsylvania, according to <a href="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Man-Defecates-in-Stairwell-Twice-Police-366466771.html" type="external">NBC News</a>. The man went into the stairwell, and dropped a load. Twice. In an effort to identify the suspect, the Lower Merion Police department posted the video on Facebook. They have taken the video off their Facebook Page, but you can watch it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckt0N9Q3WLI" type="external">here</a> if you are so inclined.</p>
<p>The suspect has been identified, but the Police department hasn't commented on whether or not he was arrested or charged with a crime.</p>
<p>When you think about it, the man has received a much worse sentence than jail. He will live in infamy in a YouTube video where anyone and everyone can watch him getting ready to drop a load in a library stairwell.</p>
<p>When he applies for a job or goes to the grocery store, he is known as the man who went in a stairwell, his private moment shared with anyone who viewed the police officers' post or has a YouTube account. His family and friends most likely saw it. How do you look anyone in the eye after that?</p>
<p>There is a lesson here, my friends. If you are in a public place, anything you do could end up online, and once its there, its there. Just ask the man who pooped in the stairway.</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
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<p /> | Police: Man Caught Defecating In Stairwell - Twice! | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/01/28/police-man-caught-defecating-in-stairwell-twice/ | 2016-01-28 | 4 |
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<p>After all, they are the ones shelling out $50 million to rebuild the Interstate 25/Paseo del Norte interchange.</p>
<p>It's not a surprise to New Mexico taxpayers that the state highway fund isn't in great shape, either.</p>
<p>After all, they are the ones shelling out around $30 million a year from the state road-work kitty to pay debt service on the $1 billion Rail Runner Express that runs from Santa Fe to Belen, without a whole lot of passengers.</p>
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<p>Yet it must be a surprise to state and federal lawmakers, who to date have refused to do anything beyond using fiscal bubble gum and tape to maintain one of governments' core responsibilities: infrastructure. Congress and the Legislature have yet to pump recurring dollars into the funds via increases in the gasoline or other taxes.</p>
<p>Here's a tip: It doesn't matter how much gasoline costs if the roads and bridges are undrivable.</p>
<p>Last session HB 74, sponsored by Rep. Roberto Gonzales, D-Taos, would have raised the state's gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon for 10 years to specifically fund 10 road projects.</p>
<p>It didn't make it out of committee.</p>
<p>That, despite the Legislature having to pump tens of millions into the state road fund every year to supplement the $380 million in revenue that can't begin to keep up with annual road maintenance needs.</p>
<p>And despite a Washington, D.C.-based national transportation research organization, TRIP, revealing that "23 percent of (New Mexico's) major locally and state maintained urban roads are in poor condition, and approximately one in six of New Mexico's locally and state maintained bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete."</p>
<p>This week U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is on a multistate bus tour - the irony - trying to drive public support for President Obama's plan to get $302 billion from corporate tax revisions to shore up the federal highway fund.</p>
<p>That fund is scheduled to go broke Sept. 30 and put payments for state highway projects in jeopardy - presumably including the feds? $8 million share of Paseo.</p>
<p>The federal highway fund (like Medicare) has been teetering on insolvency and required what have become routine scavenger hunts for funding as fuel taxes fail to keep pace with transportation needs.</p>
<p>While avoiding tax increases is nice, building and maintaining roads is one of the core duties of government.</p>
<p>Federal and state lawmakers need to finally get their eyes on the roads their constituents depend on. And fund them.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: Lawmakers must turn these road funds around | false | https://abqjournal.com/385823/lawmakers-must-turn-these-road-funds-around.html | 2 |
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<p>The Bank of Japan's monetary easing last month should support economic growth and help end deflation, but more easing may be needed to hit the bank's 1 percent inflation target, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>In its semi-annual World Economic Outlook, the IMF also trimmed its growth forecasts for the world's third-largest economy citing factors affecting Asian economies in general -- weaker demand for exports and a slowdown in China.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Compared with its July forecast update, the IMF cut this year's growth estimate for Japan to about 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent and next year's to 1.2 percent from 1.5 percent.</p>
<p>Relatively robust growth this year followed by a slowdown in 2013 reflected the temporary effect of rebuilding from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and a manufacturing rebound from Thai floods late last year, the IMF said.</p>
<p>"The easing of monetary policy announced in September should help support economic growth and exit from deflation," the Fund said in its report. "Further easing of monetary policy may, however, be needed for inflation accelerating toward the Bank of Japan's goal of 1 percent."</p>
<p>The BOJ set the inflation target in February to assure markets of its determination to end deflation that has weighed on consumption and business investment for a decade. It followed through by boosting purchases of government bonds and other assets -- its main policy tool -- three times this year. The last easing was announced in September.</p>
<p>The central bank paused at its meeting last week, but left the door open to more stimulus, possibly as soon as on October 30 when its policy board meets again and is expected to admit that it remains far from reaching its inflation target.</p>
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<p>The IMF forecast that while consumer prices would stabilize this year after a 0.3 percent drop in 2011, mild deflation would resume in 2013 with a 0.2 percent decline.</p>
<p>The Fund also praised the recent approval of a gradual doubling of the consumption tax rate to 10 percent by 2015 as an important step, but reiterated that further consolidation was needed to bring Japan's public debt back on a sustainable path.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Neil Fullick)</p> | IMF trims Japan GDP outlook, says may need more easing to hit CPI goal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/10/08/imf-trims-japan-gdp-outlook-says-may-need-more-easing-to-hit-cpi-goal.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In theory, there are no givens when it comes to investing in the stock market. If there were, we would all be rich and retired on the beach by now.</p>
<p>But the closest thing the stock market does have to a "certainty" is that market valuations, as a whole, tend to increase over time. Since 1950, based on <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/01/18/the-only-chart-that-matters-during-a-stock-market.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">data aggregated by Yardeni Research Opens a New Window.</a>, there have been 35 corrections of at least 10% when rounded to the nearest integer. In each and every instance since 1950 the stock market has rallied -- within weeks, months, or in rarer cases, years -- to completely erase any trace of a downturn. This means any notable sell-offs in the global stock market, such as what happened following the Brexit vote, tend to be a good time to long-term investors to pick up stocks "on the cheap."</p>
<p>However, blindly buying assets that are perceived to be trading at "a good value" could be a mistake. Value traps, which are assets that look appealing based on a combination of metrics that could include price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio, or cash flow can be portfolio wreckers. If you aren't digging deep enough to understand why assets are priced the way they are, you could be missing the big picture.</p>
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<p>Here are three of (what I perceive to be) the biggest investing value traps you'll want to avoid.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury bonds are considered to be among the safest investments in the world since they're backed by the full faith of the United States government.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>But interest on today's bonds is a far cry from what your parents and grandparents were able to garner. A precipitously long period of near record-low interest rates, as well as three rounds of quantitative easing that saw the Federal Reserve buying long-term U.S. Treasuries in an effort to keep interest rates down (remember, bond prices and bond yields are inverse to one another, so buying bonds pushes bond prices higher and yields lower) have the 30-year U.S. T-bond at a yield of just 2.24% through July 1, 2016.</p>
<p>On one hand, income-seeking investors might be eager to lock up a 2.24% yield given the recent stock market volatility. Then again, if we dig deeper we can see just how egregious a value trap the 30-year T-bond has become. The nominal inflation rate over the past 100 years has been north of 3%, meaning over 30 years there's a decent chance the 2.24% return could lose purchasing power to inflation. Furthermore, you'd need to hold for a full 30 years to realize the benefits of a long-term T-bond. Selling early, especially if yields rise, would result in your receiving far less of your principal back than you put in.</p>
<p>Yes, a long-term Treasury bond provides you with a guaranteed nominal return, but it's a dangerous value trap that could wind up costing you real money relative to inflation.</p>
<p>As a whole, the European banking sector appears downright cheap. Following the Brexit-related swoon, there are a bounty of EU-based banks trading at single-digit forward P/E ratios that could make investors drool. These include Deutsche Bank , at just 7.3 times forward earnings, and Banco Santander at 8.5 times next year's profit forecast.</p>
<p>But the European Union is a veritable mess following Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation organization, which means there aren't any near-term catalysts to suggest that things are going to get better for these aforementioned banks, or the sector as a whole, any time soon.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>For example, Deutsche Bank is undergoing a complete revamp of its operations, with 2016 marking its peak year of restructuring. It's eliminating jobs in order to cut costs and attempting to simplify its business by selling off some aspects of its investment banking business. Recently, following the release of the 2016 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) by the Federal Reserve, Deutsche Bank was announced as one of two banks out of 32 that didn't pass the stress test. In other words, the Fed views Deutsche Bank as being undercapitalized.</p>
<p>For Spain's Banco Santander, the other bank that failed to pass the Fed's stress test, the big issue has been the ongoing underperformance of the Spanish economy. The loss of the U.K. from the EU exposes countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece, which have weaker economies and higher debt levels. These countries have become reliant on the stability of the EU to prop them up. Without Britain, there's once again uncertainty surrounding the possibility that Spain's economy could sink, which would have an adverse impact on Banco Santander.</p>
<p>What's more, Brexit probably crushes any chances lending rates had of heading higher. The German 10-year Bund currently has a negative yield, which requires German banks to pay the European Central Bank to hold cash! With no interest rate hikes on the horizon, interest-based income is likely to be stagnant for EU banks as a whole.</p>
<p>European banks look to be anything but a value right now.</p>
<p>The last investing value trap to avoid is being suckered in by companies with low current P/E ratios or high dividend yields that have recently reported an investment-thesis-altering event. Two cases in point that come to mind are Staples and Valeant Pharmaceuticals .</p>
<p>On the surface, office supply superstore Staples looks like an income or value investor's dream stock. It's trading at less than 10 times next year's profit expectations, and it's paying out a 5.6% yield, which is more than twice the current rate of inflation (and the interest on the 30-year T-bond).</p>
<p>Image source: Mike Mozart via Flickr.</p>
<p>But there's a reason Staples is valued so cheaply. In May, a federal judge officially blocked the merger between Staples and Office Depot that would have better allowed the two to compete against e-commerce giants like Amazon.com, which are undercutting traditional office supply stores on price and providing convenience to consumers who can shop from home. Without this cost-saving merger with Office Depot, Staples has reverted to plan B, which is to essentially close a bunch of stores, lay off workers, and continue to try to build up its direct-to-consumer sales. While cutting costs can help it maintain margins, fewer stores mean less revenue and less profits. That could call its generous dividend into question at some point down the road. With no clear growth catalysts, Staples looks like a potential portfolio wrecker.</p>
<p>Something similar could be said for drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which is trading at a forward P/E of 2.6 -- and no, that's not a misprint. Its price/earnings to growth ratio of 0.4 and low forward P/E would imply to investors that Valeant could be an incredible bargain. Dig below the surface, however, and you'll see otherwise.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Valeant's business model from a year ago has essentially been blown up compared to what it is now. There are multiple probes looking into the company's drug-pricing practices, which could affect its pricing power, and Valeant is swimming in $31.3 billion in debt without access to additional lines of credit. Valeant's primary mode of growth had been to acquire new products or companies with the use of debt, but with its business model under a regulatory microscope, it's been unable to keep the M&amp;A engine running. Now, with its profit forecasts falling and its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization)dangerously close to breaching debt covenants, it has little choice but to turn to asset sales. Mind you, it's no secret that Valeant is in trouble, so don't expect these asset sales to produce anywhere near a fair market value.</p>
<p>Long story short, companies with thesis-altering events can be dangerous value traps.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/06/3-gigantic-investing-value-traps-youd-be-wise-to-a.aspx" type="external">3 Gigantic Investing Value Traps You'd Be Wise to Avoid Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. 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> | 3 Gigantic Investing Value Traps You'd Be Wise to Avoid | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/06/3-gigantic-investing-value-traps-youd-be-wise-to-avoid.html | 2016-07-06 | 0 |
<p>MORRISTOWN, NJ – A suspended Rockaway Township police officer who has been accused of sexually assaulting two teen girls was indicted this week on charges of sexual assault, child endangerment, official misconduct and possession of child pornography, authorities said.</p>
<p>Wilfredo Guzman, 40, of Rockaway Township, allegedly engaged in acts of sexual penetration with a girl who was between the ages of 16 and 17, and a 15-year-old girl on various dates in 2014 and 2015, Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp said in a news release.</p>
<p>Guzman is also accused of giving the girl’s alcohol and prescription drugs, the prosecutor said.</p>
<p>The acts of official misconduct, Knapp said, relate to actions taken by Guzman while he was employed as a police officer.</p>
<p>Guzman, according to indictments reviewed by the Daily Record, allegedly had on-duty sex with the girls in his patrol car, at a motel and at a police substation at the Rockaway Townsquare mall.</p>
<p>Guzman was charged in April with having off-duty sex with the girls and later released from jail subject to electronic monitoring after receiving a no-contact order with the alleged victims.</p>
<p>Guzman, a Rockaway Township police officer since 2003, was receiving an annual salary of $111,980, according to public records. He’s currently suspended without pay.</p> | Grand Jury Indicts Rockaway Township Police Officer Accused of On-Duty Sex With 2 Teens in Patrol Car | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/police-news/grand-jury-indicts-rockaway-township-police-officer-accused-duty-sex-2-teens-patrol-car/ | 2017-11-06 | 3 |
<p>“You’ll get worms.”</p>
<p>My mother’s words ring in my ears every time I see another plate of one of Belgium’s most popular dishes leave the kitchen.</p>
<p>It’s the&#160;filet américain. No, it’s not steak. It’s a mass of raw ground beef. Depending on the establishment and the recipe, it can look not unlike the small, pink brick of the cellophane-wrapped stuff you get from an American supermarket. Many Belgians prefer a version that looks more like a hamburger. Either way, it comes studded with raw onions, little pickles and capers. Sometimes, just for added risk, they put a raw egg on top.&#160; <a href="http://www.lamariejoseph.be/en/recipe" type="external">It’s usually served with an array of condiments: salt, pepper, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and mayonnaise</a>. You “mix and match” as you’d like.</p>
<p>It can also come “prepared,” which means it’s been whipped into a sticky paste with some of ingredients listed above already added to it. This not only sits well on a plate, but also makes the&#160;filet&#160;a moveable feast. Slap it on a baguette and&#160; <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061124142450AAAHYBB" type="external">you’ve got a sandwich known as the Martino</a>. (It’s always fun to watch Americans order this, thinking it’s a Belgian version of an Italian sub).</p>
<p>Now, those who suffer from “pink slime” fears are already balking at this. I feel your intestinal pain.</p>
<p>But you can’t underestimate this dish’s popularity here in Belgium. And yes,&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filet_americain#Regional_variations" type="external">I’m fully aware that raw meat is happily eaten in many places around the world</a>, whether it’s&#160;steak tartare&#160;in France, or&#160;kitfo, its spicy Ethiopian cousin.</p>
<p>The&#160;filet, however, holds a special place in the Belgian stomach. Pearl-laden octogenarians daintily slide it onto forks in five star restaurants. Postmen slip into one of Brussels’ famed “brown cafes” for a quick&#160;filet&#160;(and a&#160;Leffe blonde, bien sûr) between deliveries. Youthful office workers glide out of sandwich shops toting their Martinos. Roofers and plumbers pull homemade&#160;américainbaguettes out of their packs during their regular smoke breaks.</p>
<p>As I type this in my favorite Brussels cafe, the guy next to me is having it as a mid-morning snack. On toast.&#160;And, in case you wondered, the answer is yes. Many restaurants offer the&#160;petit filet américain&#160;for kids (“You’ll get worms!”).</p>
<p>It cuts across Belgium’s linguistic and cultural divides like a knife through, well, raw ground beef. The Dutch-speaking Flemish love it. The French-speaking Walloons scarf it up. Officially bilingual Brussels is awash with plates of pink cow flesh. I haven’t studied the dish’s history in depth, but I’m sure if you go back far enough, you’ll find a fight about whether the Flemings or the Walloons “invented” it. Maybe it helps that&#160;the other beloved staple of pan-Belgian cuisine,&#160;frites, is the preferred side dish.</p>
<p>I’m exaggerating a bit, of course. I’m sure that not all Belgians like it. I’ve even heard about one old man in East Flanders who has actually gone on the record as “hating it.” I bet he secretly craves it, though. I’ll just bet.</p>
<p>This American has eyed the&#160;américain&#160;with mild trepidation, but not for the reasons you might think. Look, I can live with a culinary roll-of-the-dice. I’ve eaten haggis in Scotland. I’ve cringed through fresh liver and paprika stew only an hour after watching the pig get it in the neck in an Hungarian farmyard. I once had a very dubious-looking (but thoroughly delicious) lamb sandwich at a dusty Turkish bus stop. The locals actually cheered.</p>
<p>True, those examples were cooked, more or less.</p>
<p>But it’s not the raw aspect that has kept me from the&#160;filet américain. It’s not the fear of parasites. The taste and texture of a pasty wad of uncooked meat doesn’t trouble me either. It comes with Worcestershire sauce, after all. Add pearl onions and pickles for a bit of crunch, and a cold beer to wash it down. Delicious. I’ll just bet.</p>
<p>No, the fact is that I’m afraid I’ll&#160;like&#160;it. A lot. Probably too much.</p>
<p>And if you start down that&#160;américain&#160;road, there is no return. Try it once, and soon you’re asking for it regularly at lunch, along with half a liter of red wine. And then you’re having coffee after, along with a&#160;digestif. Your afternoon productivity, what’s left of it, starts to slump. Like a good Belgian, you simply shrug your shoulders.</p>
<p>A month later, you’re seeking out the places that serve the&#160;américain&#160;with the raw egg. On purpose.</p>
<p>“Why not?” becomes not just a motto for lunch, but for everything.</p>
<p>Six months go by, and you’re slipping out after you’ve finished a plate for a few quick drags on an unfiltered Lucky Strike. You try to go grow a handlebar mustache. You smile quietly to yourself while mocking the pretentious restaurant that serves a raw tuna version of the dish. “Poseurs,” you snort under your breath, thinking you’re now a local.</p>
<p>A year passes, and you realize you’re trying to make the illusion a reality. After a quick Martino, you’re happily standing in a four-hour line at the local town hall, petitioning desperately for Belgian citizenship. Why? Because you know that once you get back to the United States, it’s going to be hard to explain to your friends at the barbecue why you don’t want your hamburger grilled. At all. And when you ask for the raw egg, the hosts will politely ask you to leave.</p>
<p>But worst of all is this: at some point, you’ll have to explain to your mom, in person, why you’re suddenly (and blatantly) ignoring one of those solid pieces of homespun advice that’s ensured you’ve lived past 40. The horror.</p>
<p>No, I’ve seen the ending of this story, and this is it: one bite of&#160;américain, and I’ll eventually end up in a Belgian hospital, clutching my stomach with one hand and my phone in the other hand.</p>
<p>“Yep, Mom…I got worms,” I’ll say through clenched teeth.</p>
<p>And the worst part is that I know I won’t be wondering how long until I can get “Medevaced” out of here. Instead, I’ll be counting the minutes until lunch is served.</p> | Would you like a taste of this 'Américain' Dream? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-31/would-you-taste-am-ricain-dream | 2012-05-31 | 3 |
<p>James Berglie/Zuma</p>
<p />
<p>Following a time-honored Washington tradition of dumping required but embarrassing information on a Friday night before a major holiday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally released the details of his wife’s income from her year or so working for the tea party group Liberty Central, which fought President Obama’s health care reform law. His <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/56480093/27005-2010A-Report" type="external">new financial disclosure form</a> indicates that his wife, Virginia, who served as Liberty Central’s president and CEO, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started.</p>
<p>The disclosure was apparently prompted in part by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who had been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/27/anthony-weiner-clarence-thomas_n_868295.html" type="external">needling Thomas (including on Twitter)</a> for months to disclose how much money his wife earned from Liberty Central. That’s because challenges to Obama’s health care reform law are likely to end up before the Supreme Court sooner rather than later, and if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the bill, the justice has an enormous conflict of interest in hearing any legal challenge. Thomas had failed to disclose Virginia’s income on his financial disclosure forms for 20 years; under pressure from Weiner and others, he had recently amended old disclosures to reflect hundreds of thousands of dollars she had earned working for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that also opposed Obama’s health care plan.</p>
<p>But, up until now, Thomas had not revealed how much money his wife made from her <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/politics/09thomas.html?scp=3&amp;sq=ginni%20thomas&amp;st=cse" type="external">controversial Liberty Central</a> work. When Virginia Thomas decided to take a high-profile role in the organization, she was immediately criticized because of the potential that her job might compromise her husband’s independence on the bench. Eventually, she was <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/clarence-thomass-wife-to-step-down-from-tea-party-group/?scp=12&amp;sq=ginni%20thomas&amp;st=cse" type="external">forced to step down</a> (a move also apparently prompted by her <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20thomas.html" type="external">bizarre October phone call to Anita Hill</a>, the woman who’d accused her husband of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing). When she left the organization, she created a new consulting firm, Liberty Consulting, which also did anti-health care reform lobbying. Justice Thomas finally released the details of her compensation Friday night, but the disclosure, and Weiner’s triumphant press release announcing the move, were largely overshadowed by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/nyregion/for-rep-anthony-weiner-twitter-has-double-edge.html?src=tptw" type="external">Weinergate.</a></p>
<p>Over the weekend, Weiner’s Twitter account was allegedly hacked and Tweeted a photo of a near-naked man to a college student. Conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/28/breitbart-publishes-risque-photo-claims-its-anthony-weiners-wiener/" type="external">published the photo</a> on his site, Big Government, and the feeding frenzy was furious enough to ensure that Thomas’ news barely saw the light of day. Still, if and when health care reform makes its way to the Supreme Court, Thomas will have a much harder time making his conflict of interest go away.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Will Clarence Thomas Recuse Himself on Health Care Reform? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/clarence-thomas-health-care-reform-weiner/ | 2011-05-31 | 4 |
<p>SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s internet finance association on Wednesday urged its members not to take part in any centralized virtual currency trading or provide services involving cryptocurrency trading due to the financial and social risks.</p>
<p>China has been cracking down on fundraising through launches of token-based digital currencies, targeting initial coin offerings in a market that has ballooned this year.</p>
<p>“We urge all our members to exercise self-regulation and strictly abide by laws by not participating in any centralized trading or provide services for this type of trading,” the National Internet Finance Association of China said in a notice on its website www.nifa.org.cn</p>
<p>The state-backed association is set up by the central bank and has members such as banks, brokerages, funds and consumer finance companies.</p>
<p>China’s largest bitcoin exchanges, such as OkCoin and Huobi platforms, are awaiting government clarification following media reports that Beijing is planning to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges.</p>
<p>Investors in China contributed up to 2.6 billion yuan ($394 million) worth of cryptocurrencies through ICOs in January-June, according to a state-run media report citing data from the National Committee of Experts on Internet Financial Security Technology.</p>
<p>The value of cryptocurrencies has jumped, and authorities are wary of a potential bubble forming.</p>
<p />
<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's internet finance body urges members not to deal in cryptocurrencies | false | https://newsline.com/china039s-internet-finance-body-urges-members-not-to-deal-in-cryptocurrencies/ | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
<p>Many turn to the S&amp;P 500 to gain core market investment exposure, but an exchange traded fund that tracks an equal-weight S&amp;P 500 indexing methodology may be a better bet. At the year end of 2016, the S&amp;P 500 Equal Weight Index generated alpha or outperformance of 284 basis points compared to the traditional cap-weighted… <a href="http://www.etftrends.com/2017/02/this-etf-play-could-be-a-better-way-to-access-sp-500/" type="external">Click to read more at ETFtrends.com. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | This ETF Play Could Be a Better Way to Access S&P 500 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/16/this-etf-play-could-be-better-way-to-access-s-p-500.html | 2017-02-16 | 0 |
<p>“Because they don’t treat me like a human being.”</p>
<p>This Black Friday will be a special one for Walmart as employees from the store plan to strike&#160;on retail’s busiest day. Check this video out to find out why–and why we should support them.</p>
<p />
<p>Warning: Whatever you do, do NOT read the comments. I’m still kicking myself for it. <a href="http://lybio.net/our-walmart-why-are-we-standing-up-to-live-better/nonprofits-activism/" type="external">Transcript here</a>.</p>
<p>This strike follows a cluster of other Walmart strikes across the country over things like unsafe working conditions,&#160;sexual harassment, excessive hours, and low pay. Learn more after the jump.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/walmarts_black_friday_showdown/" type="external">Natasha Lennard reports</a>:</p>
<p>“Employees at 1,000 Walmart stores across the country are planning to strike on Black Friday. The holiday period industrial action comes in the wake of a string of strikes by Walmart workers in several states and involving employees throughout the retailer’s supply chain. As&#160; <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/171222/alleging-new-wave-retaliation-walmart-warehouse-workers-will-strike-day-early#" type="external">Josh Eidelson noted&#160;</a>at the Nation, “seafood workers [went on strike] in June, [followed] by warehouse workers in September, and by 160 retail workers in twelve states last month.”</p>
<p>“Black Friday,” wrote Eidelson, “workers have pledged — barring concessions from the company — will bring their biggest disruptions yet.” Walmart employees across the country have a host of grievances including unsafe and unsanitary working conditions,&#160;sexual harassment, excessive hours,&#160; <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/14/walmart-unable-to-substantiate-forced-labor-claims-at-seafood-supplier.html" type="external">forced labor</a>&#160;and low pay.&#160; <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/11/19/leaked-document-reveals-walmarts-meager-compensation-structure/" type="external">Ned Resnikoff at MSNBC flagged</a>&#160;a leaked internal document (first obtained by HuffPo) that revealed that base pay &#160;at Walmart’s Sam’s Place stores can be as low as $8 an hour (or $16,000 per year), with wage increases in increments as low as 20 or 40 cents per hour. To put this in context,&#160; <a href="http://gawker.com/5962195/where-to-find-your-wal+mart-black-friday-protests" type="external">Gawker</a>&#160;recently highlighted&#160; <a href="http://www.demos.org/publication/retails-hidden-potential-how-raising-wages-would-benefit-workers-industry-and-overall-ec" type="external">a Demos study</a>&#160;that says that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.</p>
<p>Then, when Walmart announced plans to open stores on 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving day — to extend the Black Friday shopping extravaganza in over 1,000 locations — more workers threatened to join the picket lines and strikes&#160; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-black-friday-approaches-strikes-and-protests-by-walmart-workers-supporters-spread-2012-11-20" type="external">kicked off early</a>&#160;in some areas.”</p>
<p>Please stand in solidarity with Walmart workers this Friday–and every day.</p> | Stand with Walmart workers this Black Friday | true | http://feministing.com/2012/11/21/stand-with-walmart-workers-this-black-friday/ | 4 |
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<p>Some American Airlines flight attendants say they're getting a rash from new uniforms made of wool.</p>
<p>The employees' union says it received complaints from 500 workers. American said Friday that just 14 flight attendants had reported reactions.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>American says it will provide uniforms made from cotton or synthetic material to employees who can't wear the wool ones.</p>
<p>About 80,000 employees got new uniforms on Sept. 20, including 25,000 flight attendants.</p>
<p>The airline says it hired an independent lab to test the outfits for fit, wear and allergic reactions.</p> | Some American Airlines workers say uniforms are causing rash | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/30/some-american-airlines-workers-say-uniforms-are-causing-rash.html | 2016-09-30 | 0 |
<p>A couple suspected of killing and eating dozens of victims in Krasnodar is but the latest in a string of cannibalism cases over the past decades in Russia. Fueled by mental illness, desperation and perverse fantasy, it doesn’t detract from the shocking cruelty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404476-russian-cannibals-couple-detained/" type="external">Selfies with human remains: Russian ‘cannibal couple’ detained after gruesome find</a></p>
<p>Sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Karina Buduchyan’s loved 19-year-old goth Maksim Glavatskikh but her feelings went unrequited.</p>
<p>On January 19, 2009 she thought everything could change when Maksim, described as charismatic and sociable, invited her to his apartment where he was partying with friends. When she arrived, Maksim ushered most of the guests out. Karina went to the bathroom, filled the tub with hot water, undressed and got inside.</p>
<p>Soon after, Glavatskikh joined her. He then sneezed three times – a prearranged signal <a href="https://www.gazeta.ru/social/2010/05/05/3362880.shtml" type="external">according</a> to prosecutors – and his friend Yuri Mozhnov burst in. Together they held Karina’s head underwater until she drowned.</p>
<p>The goths, who police said had planned the murder long in advance, then fried several cuts of her meat with onions and potatoes and ate it.</p>
<p>When they woke up from their stupor the following day, they stole Karina’s phone and cash, dismembered her, and disposed of her body close to their home.</p>
<p>Glavatskikh, who got married and formed a band in jail,&#160; <a href="https://life.ru/t/life78/991466/ghot-liudoied_maksim_ghlavatskikh_uspiel_zhienitsia_i_sobrat_svoiu_rok-ghruppu_v_kolonii" type="external">died</a>&#160;in prison in 2017 in what authorities said was a suicide.</p>
<p>“My girlfriend kicked me out – said that I was a wuss, not a wolf. I’ll show her,” says a line in the diary of Aleksandr Bychkov who killed at least nine people.</p>
<p>“He used to go on and on about the Fuhrer, but we didn’t have sex, as he couldn’t,” replied the girlfriend to a question in a later interview.</p>
<p>As he went on his killing spree between 2009 and 2012, Bychkov dubbed himself Rambo, wore only black and drew a swastika on his arm.</p>
<p>A lonely and preposterous figure, he was also the product of a broken family – an absent father, a hard-drinking mother who took up with a succession of men while sending her small children out to the market stall to sell herbs and a brother who was disabled after an attempted robbery.</p>
<p>Despising what he believed to be a moral weakness, Bychkov’s victims were reminiscent of his mother’s companions – hard-drinking and often homeless. Like the infamous Chessboard Killer Aleksandr Pichushkin, Bychkov would get his victims drunk, then bludgeon them to death.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404550-russian-cannibal-couple-video/" type="external">READ MORE: First images from Russian ‘cannibal couple’ apartment (VIDEO, PHOTO)</a></p>
<p>Bychkov told the police that unlike Pichushkin he also ate their organs – particularly the heart and liver, which he cooked with a cabbage broth at home. Though the decomposed bodies of his buried victims made it hard to tell the truth from the over-compensating bravado.</p>
<p>Arrested for the petty crime of stealing knives from a garden center in January 2012, Bychkov immediately confessed his crimes to the police. The 29-year-old from central Russia is currently <a href="http://www.mk.ru/incident/2012/03/29/687104-zverinyiy-oskal-kannibalizma.html" type="external">serving</a> a life sentence.</p>
<p>With four criminal convictions behind him, Sergey Gavrilov did not have a steady job and shared a flat with his mother Lyubov.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404632-cannibal-couple-shopkeeper-interview/" type="external" /></p>
<p>On January 11, 2009, she received her pension – equivalent to a few hundred dollars – and customarily her son demanded that she share.</p>
<p>According to court documents, when she refused, he hit her on the head with a brick, strangled her with a wire, and then laid her body out in the cold on the balcony.</p>
<p>27-year-old Sergey spent her pension on vodka and slot machines in two days.</p>
<p>A month later, as other relatives became concerned, a police inspector came to the flat, only to find Lyubov’s body still in the same spot on the frost covered balcony, but with slices of meat carved from her legs.</p>
<p>“Following a conversation with the accused, it became obvious that he had no means of sustenance, and for a period of a month he survived by feeding on the body of his relative,” said a police spokesperson.</p>
<p>Gavrilov was <a href="http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=319487" type="external">sentenced</a> to 14 years in jail.</p>
<p>In a case that could be considered one of the most repulsive in criminal history even without the cannibalism element, violent schizophrenic Aleksandr Spesivtsev kidnapped, raped and tortured some adults, but mostly children of both sexes, in an ordinary housing block apartment he shared with his mother and sister in Novokuznetsk until he was caught in 1996.</p>
<p>Not only did his mother aid him in disposing the bodies by throwing them in the river at night, but she actively lured the last three victims to the apartment, asking them to help her with shopping bags.</p>
<p>First, the Siberian Ripper killed one of the three teenage girls and then he ordered the other two to strip the meat from her bones which he fed to them in a soup he also ate himself.</p>
<p>Spesivtsev, 26 at the time, was&#160; <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404705-russia-cannibals-torture-victims/captured" type="external">captured</a>&#160;by chance, following a water pipe accident in his neighborhood after which he suspiciously refused to open the door. By this time only one of the last victims, Olya, was alive, and she gave the testimony that helped convict the cannibal, before dying from the injuries she sustained.</p>
<p>Spesivtsev initially admitted to killing 19 people, including six boys he recruited to&#160;“burgle”&#160;his own house, but later withdrew his confession, leaving just four proven cases. Police found 82 sets of clothes belonging to other people in a stack in his house. They also found Polaroids of multiple naked and tortured children whose disappearances have not resulted in prosecutions.</p>
<p>Spesivtsev is currently in a high-security psychiatric facility. His mother has been out of jail since 2008, and lives in the countryside with her daughter.</p> | Forcing victims eat each other, feeding on mother’s body: Russia’s most gruesome cannibalism cases | false | https://newsline.com/forcing-victims-eat-each-other-feeding-on-mothers-body-russias-most-gruesome-cannibalism-cases/ | 2017-09-26 | 1 |
<p />
<p>RUSH: The second big story is how the Democrats… Remember we talked about it yesterday. Democrats were gonna take that special election in Kansas. This guy Estes? He was going down. Ron Estes was going down. This is the Mike Pompeo seat. There’s a special election ’cause Trump sent Mike Pompeo to CIA and there’s a special election to replace. The media yesterday was all about, “See? Democrats are gonna win this seat proving that Trump is hated and despised and everybody wants him to go, and his agenda has been pronounced a failure!”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Except Estes won.</p>
<p>So they’re ignoring that story.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: This special election in Kansas. I can’t tell you, you look at the news headlines in the days leading up to the special election yesterday, and virtually every one of them, every headline was a dream of Democrat victory of varying kinds, landslide narrowly. It was gonna be the first big dent in the Trump agenda, and they knew it was gonna happen because they know even in flyover country Trump is now hated. They had all kinds of things invested in the Democrat winning, and it didn’t happen.</p>
<p>What did happen is that Ron Estes won by, what was it, six point, eight points or something like that? And so the Democrat line is, “Well, yes, he won, but it was close. There’s nothing positive for Trump to take away.” Really? Nothing positive to take away? Based on your expectations, based on what you set up, that Trump was gonna lose and be humiliated, his agenda was gonna be stopped on a dime because of this election. The guy wins by 6.8%, and you say it’s too narrow a victory to draw any conclusions from?</p> | Trump Wins Again! Democrats Lose Kansas Special Election | true | https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/04/12/trump-wins-again-democrats-lose-kansas-special-election/ | 2017-04-12 | 0 |
<p>KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal with Ukraine's main opposition leaders on Friday brokered to end the deadly violence that <a href="" type="internal">put the country on the brink of civil war.</a></p>
<p>He agreed to early elections and to surrender some of his powers after 77 people were killed as a geopolitical tug-of-war over whether Ukraine should embrace the West or Russia turned violent this week. (The agreement can be read in full by clicking <a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/140221-UKR_Erklaerung.pdf" type="external">here</a>.)</p>
<p>Yanukovych said he offered the concessions to "restore peace and to avoid further victims of the stand-off" and addressed his statement to "compatriots."</p>
<p>The deal states that:</p>
<p>The agreement was signed by the three main opposition leaders, including <a href="" type="internal">former boxing star Vitali Klitschko</a>. However, it was almost immediately rejected by the extremist Right Sector party, which has been blamed for much of the civilian violence since protests in Kiev's Independence Square began in November.</p>
<p>"We are inclined to consider Yanukovych’s statement as another whitewash," Right Sector said in a statement. "National revolution continues."</p>
<p>The agreement came after overnight negotiations with opposition leaders, European Union ministers and Russia.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://twitter.com/varlamov/status/436884403331944449" type="external">photographs of the document</a> showed that the signature of Vladimir Lukin, special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was missing. Reuters confirmed that Lukin did not sign the deal and said there was no immediate explanation for his absence.</p>
<p>One of the European foreign ministers who helped broker the deal, Poland's Radosław Sikorski, said the agreement was a "good compromise."</p>
<p>Sikorski was earlier <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-02-21/polish-minister-tells-protest-leader-you-will-all-be-dead/" type="external">filmed by Britain's ITV News</a> telling an opposition leader: "If you don't support this [deal] you'll have martial law, you'll have the army. You will all be dead."</p>
<p>A Reuters journalist who attended the signing said Yanukovich did not smile during a ceremony that lasted several minutes.</p>
<p>Earlier, opposition leaders traveled from the parliament building to the protest camp at Independence Square to discuss the situation with demonstrators.</p>
<p>Although the large crowd remained peaceful many protesters spent much of Friday <a href="" type="internal">"reinforcing barricades,"</a> according to <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/" type="external">GlobalPost</a> journalist Christopher Miller.</p>
<p>Their support was reinforced by dozens of officers from the western city of Lviv who arrived in Kiev and declared themselves on the side of the opposition. Lviv itself was the scene of protest on Thursday as <a href="" type="internal">hundreds of demonstrators stormed police stations and interior ministry buildings.</a></p>
<p>The interior ministry also said that some protesters had fired at police in a street near Independence Square. The report could not be verified by NBC News.</p>
<p>Inside the parliament the mood among lawmakers was also tense, with a scuffle in Thursday's session followed up by a failure by some politicians to observe a minute's silence for the dead on Friday morning.</p>
<p>Thursday saw protesters armed with makeshift riot shields, helmets and Molotov cocktails resume their bloody battle with riot police for control of Independence Square - known as the Maidan.</p>
<p>Parts of the city were turned into an urban battleground with burning barricades and fierce battles resuming between security forces and civilians. Video appeared to show police snipers firing at unarmed protesters.</p>
<p>At least 77 people have been killed this week - including more than 13 police officers - and 577 others were injured. Thursday was <a href="" type="internal">Ukraine's bloodiest day</a> since the country emerged from the Soviet Union in 1991.</p>
<p>Protests kicked off in November after Yanukovych shelved an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. Russia then announced a $15 billion bailout for Ukraine, whose economy is in tatters.</p>
<p>The demonstrations began peacefully but <a href="" type="internal">have increasingly involved extremists</a> — including many aligned with the far right — who have clashed with riot police.</p>
<p>Moscow has branded clashes between anti-government protesters and Ukrainian security forces <a href="" type="internal">as an "attempted coup."</a></p>
<p>Maria Stromova reported from Moscow. Jason Cumming and Alexander Smith reported from London. Alex Furman, Peter Jeary and Albina Kovalyova of NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.</p> | Ukraine President Backs Down, Signs Peace Pact with Protesters | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/ukraine-president-backs-down-signs-peace-pact-protesters-n35171 | 2014-02-22 | 3 |
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<p>Image source: Zoe's Kitchen.</p>
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<p>There's anew executive tasked with getting the word out when it comes toZoe's Kitchen (NYSE: ZOES). The fast-casual chain specializing inMediterranean cuisine announced on Monday afternoon thatCasey Shilling has been tapped to serve as its new chief marketing officer.Shilling comes fromThe Container Store (NYSE: TCS), another consumer-facing concept that is presently out of favor on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Shilling spent most of her nearly two decades at The Container Store as an executive marketer, and while the home goods retailer has struggled during the latter stage of her tenure as vice president of marketing and public relations, the concept's woes are clearly well beyond her domain.</p>
<p>The Container Store faltered shortly after its 2013 IPO. The once-fast-growing chain best known for its soft goods and elfa closet organizers failed to keep pace with online competitors and growing real-world rivals. It seemed to be turning things around with three quarters of marginally positive comps to close out fiscal 2015, but that regressed to a 1.4% slide in its most recent quarter. In short, The Container Store has been a disaster for investors. The stock has shed more than two-thirds of its value since going public at $18 nearly three years ago.</p>
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<p>Shilling is walking into a slightly better situation at Zoe's Kitchen. Comps remain positive at the eatery, and heady expansion is resulting in double-digit top-line growth. The unique fast casual saw revenue climb 22% in its latest quarter, backed by new openings and a 4% ascent in comparable-restaurant sales. Zoe's Kitchen is also trading well ahead of the $15 price it went public at two years ago, a far cry from The Container Store's status as a busted IPO.</p>
<p>However, the market <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/08/24/3-reasons-why-zoes-kitchen-stock-will-bounce-back.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">didn't warm up to its latest results Opens a New Window.</a>. Earnings met Wall Street's profit target of $0.06 a share, but this was the first time in its brief tenure as a public company that it merely met expectations. Zoe's Kitchen also tweaked its guidance lower, calling for slightly slower top-line growth and comps for the entire year.</p>
<p>The market's reaction has been brutal. The stock has surrendered 42% of its value since announcing its results in late August. Investors had bid up Zoe's Kitchen following its IPO, euphoric at the prospects of finding a new darling in fast casual. Given its unique concept, strong streak of stellar results, and small base of what is now still just 183 locations, it was easy to see why the stock was bid up. Now that the chain has proven modest with more pedestrian growth with analysts catching up to its prospects, it's understandable that the valuation has been dramatically adjusted.</p>
<p>Shilling is walking into a situation with a stock that is presently broken, but it's only a matter of Mr. Market's valuation adjustment. It's an easier fix than The Container Store, where the battered stock is at the mercy of a turnaround that may or may not happen. Zoe's Kitchen needs more than just a CMO. It needs to justify its valuation, and ideally for investors, the valuation that it used to command. Zoe's Kitchen can get there by getting back where it used to be, raising its guidance and blowing through analyst forecasts again.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Zoe's Kitchen. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Zoe's Kitchen. The Motley Fool owns shares of The Container Store Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Zoe's Kitchen Needs More Than a New CMO | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/11/zoe-kitchen-needs-more-than-new-cmo.html | 2016-10-11 | 0 |
<p>Even before Ted Cruz suspended his campaign a few weeks ago, speculation has been mounting about a potential Supreme Court bid for the brilliant legal scholar. But when asked Friday about the possibility of being a justice, Cruz demurred. "That is not a desire of my heart," he said.</p>
<p>"Frankly, all the times I've interviewed you, I've never asked if you have any aspirations or felt called if asked to serve on the Supreme Court,” <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/14/radio-host-asks-cruz-if-hed-consider-serving-on-supreme-court-and-gets-this-answer-back/" type="external">said</a> WBAP-AM host <a href="http://www.wbap.com/chris-salcedo/" type="external">Chris Salcedo</a> in an interview with Cruz Friday. "I mean, I know you have the sharp intelligence to handle the job. But is it even something you even consider?"</p>
<p>"You know, Chris, I’ll tell you. That is not a desire of my heart," answered Cruz, adding, "I have had several opportunities in the past to go to the bench, and I certainly deeply respect the job the justices do. But I think our country is in crisis. And I think we need a strong conservative president who will appoint not just one, but two, three, four, five Supreme Court justices who are principled constitutionalists."</p>
<p>"That is not a desire of my heart."</p>
<p>Sen. Ted Cruz</p>
<p>Cruz went on to argue that he could be far more impactful as a president than as a justice, citing the need to repeal Obamacare, defend religious freedom, and protect our allies, particularly Israel.</p>
<p>"I believe that I can do a great deal more good fighting across the political spectrum because we also need leadership to repeal every word of Obamacare, to pass a flat-tax and abolish the IRS, to protect religious liberty and stop the federal government form violating our First Amendment rights and to stand with our friends and allies, especially the nation of Israel," said Cruz.</p>
<p>So what are the chances Cruz is actually offered a justice bid? Even if presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump wins, it's certainly not a lock that he'd name Cruz. When asked about that possibility recently, Trump was not enthusiastic about the idea, saying, he'd have to "think about it," but following up the comment by criticizing Cruz's "tough temperament."</p>
<p>"I don't know, I'd have to think about it," Trump <a href="" type="internal">said</a> when asked about selecting Cruz. Responding to the interviewer's suggestion that it could "unite" the party, Trump said, "There's a whole question of uniting and there's a whole question as to temperament. He's certainly a smart guy, but there's also a temperament issue. ... He's got a tough temperament for what we're talking about. I mean, you have to be a very, very smart, rational person, in my opinion ... to be a justice of any kind. You need the proper temperament, and that would be a question that I have."</p>
<p>Before winning the Texas senate seat in 2012, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas (the youngest solicitor general in the nation), where he argued on behalf of the state before the Supreme Court. Here's an excerpt from his Senate <a href="http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=about_senator" type="external">bio sketch</a> highlighting his legal experience:</p>
<p>Before being elected, Ted received national acclaim as the Solicitor General of Texas, the State's chief lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court. Serving under Attorney General Greg Abbott, Ted was the nation’s youngest Solicitor General, the longest serving Solicitor General in Texas, and the first Hispanic Solicitor General of Texas. In private practice in Houston, Ted spent five years as a partner at one of the nation’s largest law firms, where he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national Appellate Litigation practice. Ted has authored more than 80 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and argued 43 oral arguments, including nine before the U.S. Supreme Court. During Ted’s service as Solicitor General, Texas achieved an unprecedented series of landmark national victories, including successfully defending: • U.S. sovereignty against the UN and the World Court in Medellin v. Texas; • The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms; • The constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument; • The constitutionality of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance; • The constitutionality of the Texas Sexually Violent Predator Civil Commitment law; and • The Texas congressional redistricting plan.</p>
<p>Partial transcript via <a href="" type="external">TheBlaze</a>.</p> | Ted Cruz Was Asked If He'd Accept A Supreme Court Nomination. Here's His Response. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5784/ted-cruz-was-asked-if-hed-accept-supreme-court-james-barrett | 2016-05-17 | 0 |
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<p>At age 80, she lost her third battle with cancer.</p>
<p>Her ashes are interred in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.</p>
<p>She was a loving wife and wonderful friend, talented and admired. She will be greatly missed.</p>
<p>Born July 23, 1933, she was raised in Kansas.</p>
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<p>She retired after 36 years with Boeing as a technical illustrator and a supervisory engineering draftsman. Jackie was self-employed in graphic arts in Taos in the past.</p>
<p>She had several hobbies, including creating metal and beaded jewelry. She enjoyed a myriad activities, and after moving back to New Mexico in 2000, she and her husband were active in the Rio Grande Jazz Society.</p>
<p>Jackie is survived by her husband of 18 years, Eugene "Bones" Hutchinson, and brother, Marvin Clary.</p>
<p>No services are planned.</p> | OBITUARY: Jacqueline E. Hutchinson | false | https://abqjournal.com/349881/jacqueline-e-hutchinson.html | 2 |
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<p>BOSTON — The former head of a Massachusetts pharmacy was acquitted Wednesday of murder allegations but convicted of racketeering and other crimes in a meningitis outbreak that was traced to fungus-contaminated drugs and killed 64 people across the country.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Barry Cadden, 50, ran the business in an “extraordinarily dangerous” way by disregarding unsanitary conditions to boost production and make more money.</p>
<p>Cadden, president and co-founder of the now-closed New England Compounding Center, was charged with 25 counts of second-degree murder, conspiracy and other offenses under federal racketeering law.</p>
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<p>After five days of deliberations, the jury refused to hold Cadden responsible for the deaths and cleared him on the murder counts. He was found guilty of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud and could get a long prison term at sentencing June 21.</p>
<p>The 2012 outbreak of fungal meningitis and other infections in 20 states was traced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contaminated injections of medical steroids, given mostly to people with back pain. In addition to those who died, 700 people fell ill. Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee were hit hardest.</p>
<p>Joan Peay, 76, of Nashville, Tennessee, suffered two bouts of meningitis after receiving a shot for back pain. She wept upon learning the verdict.</p>
<p>“He killed people and he’s getting away with murder. I am furious,” she said. She said that she got so sick from meningitis “I didn’t care if I died,” and that she still suffers from hearing loss, memory problems, a stiff neck and low energy.</p>
<p>Alfred Rye, 77, of Maybee, Michigan, said: “I wish I could give him the same shot he gave me. I think they should pay for their crime.”</p>
<p>Rye fell ill after getting an injection in his lower back 4½ years ago. He said he continues to suffer from a loss of balance and other ill effects.</p>
<p>“Life has been totally hell,” he said.</p>
<p>The racketeering charge and the 52 counts of fraud carry up to 20 years in prison each, but federal sentencing guidelines typically call for far less than the maximum.</p>
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<p>Companies charged with selling contaminated drugs often reach settlements with the federal government and agree to pay large fines. The case against the New England Compounding Center stands apart because of the large number of deaths and serious illnesses and because of evidence that Cadden was aware of the unsanitary conditions, said Eric Christofferson, a former federal prosecutor in Boston.</p>
<p>The scandal threw a spotlight on compounding pharmacies, which differ from ordinary drugstores in that they custom-mix medications and supply them directly to hospitals and doctors. In 2013, in reaction to the outbreak, Congress increased federal oversight of such pharmacies.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutor Amanda Strachan told the jury during the two-month trial that the deaths and illnesses happened because Cadden “decided to put profits before patients.”</p>
<p>NECC used expired ingredients and falsified logs to make it look as if the so-called clean rooms had been disinfected, prosecutors said. After the outbreak, regulators found multiple potential sources of contamination, including standing water and mold and bacteria in the air and on workers’ gloved fingertips.</p>
<p>Cadden’s lawyer, Bruce Singal, told the jury Cadden was not responsible for the deaths and pointed the finger at Glenn Chin, a supervisory pharmacist who ran the clean rooms where drugs were made. Chin has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.</p>
<p>After the verdict, Singal said it was a “disgrace” that prosecutors brought murder allegations against Cadden.</p>
<p>“We’re very pleased that the jury acquitted Barry on all 25 of the murder charges and that he can now go home and tell his children that he’s not a murderer,” Singal said. “At the same time, it is Barry’s fervent wish … that people still remember the victims of this terrible public health outbreak.”</p>
<p>NECC filed for bankruptcy after getting hit with hundreds of lawsuits. NECC and several related companies reached a $200 million settlement with victims and their families.</p>
<p>The son of Kentucky Judge Eddie C. Lovelace, who died after receiving injections to treat neck and back pain, said the outcome had shaken his family’s faith in the medical and legal systems.</p>
<p>“Dad always ensured that the defendants were treated justly and fairly. He did that in life, and in death, I feel like he wasn’t afforded either justice or fairness,” Chris Lovelace said.</p>
<p>“As of today, criminally no one has been held responsible or held accountable for my father’s death,” he added. “The only mistake, if you want to call it a mistake, that my father made was he sought out relief from back pain from the medical profession and the consequence of that decision for him was death.”</p>
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<p>Associated Press writers Chris Ehrmann in Lansing, Michigan; Sheila Burke in Nashville, Tennessee; and Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky, contributed to this report.</p> | Ex-pharmacy exec convicted in deadly meningitis outbreak | false | https://abqjournal.com/973976/ex-pharmacy-exec-acquitted-of-murder-in-meningitis-outbreak.html | 2017-03-22 | 2 |
<p>(National Monitor) – Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is the butt of more late-night jokes than almost all Democrats combined since the party nominating conventions, according to a new study of political humor by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University. Even former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who admitted this year to fathering a child out of wedlock with his family’s former maid, was made fun of less than Mr. Romney and President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>“Romney is leading in the humor race, but being the biggest joke is a race nobody wants to win,” CMPA President Dr. Robert Lichter said in a statement.</p>
<p>The CMPA looked at the targets of all jokes about political figures from August 27 to October 3, 2012, in the opening monologues of the highest rated late-night comedians. The center analyzed the opening monologues of Jay Leno, “The Tonight Show,” David Letterman, “Late Show,” Craig Ferguson, “Late Late Show,” and Jimmy Fallon, “Late Night.”</p>
<p>According to the study, Governor Romney was the butt of 148 jokes on late-night talk show monologues, which is more than twice as many as President Obama. The president was the target of 62 late-night jokes. The CMPA notes that the Republican presidential nominee was targeted nearly five times more than Mr. Obama on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Mr. Letterman told 44 jokes about Mr. Romney and 9 about Mr. Obama.</p>
<p>The CMPA counted 290 jokes about Republicans and 138 jokes about Democrats. According to the study, President Obama finished fourth with 243 jokes in the 2008 presidential election. His opponents, Arizona Senator John McCain and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had a combined total of&#160; 1,224 jokes told about them.</p>
<p>Despite the disparity between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to late-night jokes, New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie is receiving praise from a number of comedians for the way he’s helping his state deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. On their first night back in front of the cameras, The Los Angeles Times reports that Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show,” and Stephen Colbert, ”The Colbert Report,” praised the performance of Governor Christie.</p>
<p>Governor Christie “kicked crazy ass during the storm,” Mr. Stewart said, adding that, “it’s amazing how, once you remove political and partisan gamesmanship from a situation, performance improves dramatically.” Of course, praise can sometimes come at the expense of the one it’s directed at. “It’s not just the hurricane that’s hurting Romney. He has to deal with another threat that can be seen from space, Chris Christie,” Mr. Colbert said.</p>
<p>Does this survey suggest that the media has a liberal bias or have Republicans given late-night comedians more material than Democrats? Sound off in the comments section. http://natmonitor.com/2012/11/02/study-mitt-romney-the-butt-of-more-jokes-than-almost-all-democrats-combined-video/</p> | Study: Romney the butt of more jokes than almost all Democrats combined | true | http://teaparty.org/study-romney-the-butt-of-more-jokes-than-almost-all-democrats-combined-15228/ | 0 |
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<p>Although Democrats don’t have the votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature to stop the bill from going to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who made such a ban a priority, they vowed to fight it at every step, promising hours of emotionally charged debate on Wednesday before the Texas House votes.</p>
<p>Under the bill, the state could withhold funding from local governments for acting as sanctuary cities, even as the Trump administration’s efforts to do so nationally have hit roadblocks. Other Republican-controlled states have pushed for similar polices in recent years, just as more liberal ones have done the opposite. But Texas would be the first in which police chiefs and sheriffs could be jailed for not helping enforce immigration law. They could also lose their jobs.</p>
<p>The bill is needed to “keep the public safe and remove bad people from the street,” said Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth.</p>
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<p>“The bill does not target or discriminate against illegal immigrants. This bill specifically targets criminals who happen to be here illegally,” Geren said.</p>
<p>The term “sanctuary cities” has no legal definition, but Republicans want local police to help federal authorities as part of a larger effort to crack down on criminal suspects who are in the U.S. illegally.</p>
<p>The Texas House bill originally would have allowed local law enforcement officers to inquire about federal immigration status if someone is arrested. A version passed by the state Senate in March would also allow immigration inquiries of anyone who is detained, including during traffic stops.</p>
<p>A tea party-backed amendment, approved 81-64 Wednesday night, applies that same standard to the House version. A Democratic effort to keep it from including children was defeated.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump is trying to withhold federal funding for sanctuary cities, but on Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction preventing him from doing so.</p>
<p>Texas doesn’t currently have any sanctuary cities, but that hasn’t stopped Abbott and Republican legislative leaders from pushing aggressively for a ban.</p>
<p>Sally Hernandez, the sheriff of Travis County, which includes liberal Austin, enraged conservatives by refusing to honor federal requests to hold suspects for possible deportation if the suspects weren’t arrested for immigration offenses or serious crimes such as murder. But Hernandez softened her policy after Abbott cut funding to the county, saying decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis, and she’s said she will conform to the state’s ban if it becomes law.</p>
<p>Fierce resistance has come from Texas Democrats and immigrants’ rights organizations, as well as from some in law enforcement and top business lobbies. Opponents say it opens the door to discrimination and intimidation. Many sheriffs and police chiefs in heavily Democratic areas warn that it would make their jobs harder if immigrant communities — including crime victims and witnesses — become afraid of the police.</p>
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<p>“This is a show me your papers law. This is what everybody’s afraid of,” said Rep. Cesar Blanco, a Democrat from the border city of El Paso.</p>
<p>Though House Democrats don’t have the votes to block the bill, they planned to file enough challenges to force hours of debate.</p>
<p>“I have seen the fear of children who worry their parents are going to be deported,” said state Rep. Victoria Neave, of Dallas, who has staged a four-day fast to protest the bill.</p>
<p>Abbott has made the issue one of his “emergency” items of the Texas legislative session, and Republicans have it on course to become state law regardless of what happens to Trump’s federal order.</p>
<p>House passage Wednesday wouldn’t get it there yet. The state Senate previously passed a similar but different version and the two sides must compromise before sending a bill to Abbott. Similar efforts have collapsed in recent years.</p>
<p>___</p> | Texas poised to pass ‘sanctuary city’ ban with jail penalty | false | https://abqjournal.com/994046/texas-poised-to-pass-sanctuary-city-ban-with-jail-penalty.html | 2017-04-26 | 2 |
<p>(What your group is saying is that Afghanistan is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenge, and a lack of confidence from the Afghan people about the future of their country. is the US losing the war in Afghanistan?) The insurgents aren't losing, they're winning. (Could the US be doing more?) the whole purpose of our report is to give recommendations and how to improve the coordination and funding of the civilian element and to turn these tables around. (What has the reaction been?) We heard from the government witnesses that some of our conclusions they accepted, others they rejected. The senators on both sides of the aisle were accepting. (Why is the effort failing?) For multiple reasons. One is we haven't been able to get a civilian coordinator to pull together international programs. We need a US coordinator. We need new strategy. (The President of Afghanistan has already turned down one coordinator. Is the President of Afghanistan helping or hurting?) He's the centerpiece. For motivations that had to do with local politics, he turned down the coordinator and he probably would've turned down any strong international-oriented leader. We think that's a tragedy. (The US is sending more than 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan. You say we need a NATO effort. How many more NATO troops and from where?) Generally, the US has made an effort and NATO has been asked to match it. (The bottom line of your report is that Afghanistan is being overshadowed by Iraq and the US should shift resources. Which does the US have more stake in?) There's not an answer to that question. Iraq has been a much larger drain on resources and we need additional resources in Afghanistan. (In terms of the presidential race, Afghanistan is not much of an issue). This is a hidden conflict in a conflict state and we need to give attention to it.</p> | Reports paint a grim future for Afghanistan | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-01-31/reports-paint-grim-future-afghanistan | 2008-01-31 | 3 |
<p>As President Obama prepares to sit down with his successor, Donald Trump, in a White House meeting on Thursday that seemed improbable even a few weeks ago, an important question looms.</p>
<p>Will the real estate mogul, once in office, seek to dismantle completely the achievements of the first black president?</p>
<p>Trump ran a campaign premised on the idea that Obama is an ineffective president, while the incumbent appeared at events all over the country to plead with voters not to elect Trump.</p>
<p>Now, Obama’s team is not exactly sure what will happen to its work over the past eight years.</p>
<p>“There are a lot of questions that are, of course, raised about what impact the outcome of the election will have on the policies that this administration has prioritized over the last eight years,” Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday. “And I think it's going to be a difficult — again, less than 12 hours after the outcome of the election is known— it's difficult to offer a lot of precision in answering those questions today.”</p>
<p>Here’s a closer look at what Obama has done and how Trump might seek to reverse it:</p>
<p>Republicans will have the majority in the House and Senate, as well as the presidency. The most powerful tool for Democrats to stop the GOP will be the filibuster, since Republicans don’t have 60 seats in the Senate.</p>
<p>But the filibuster could be a limited impediment.</p>
<p>In 2010, Democrats used a Senate procedure known as reconciliation to pass some key changes to Obamacare and a reform to the nation’s system for college student loans. Bills adopted through reconciliation need only 51 votes, not 60.</p>
<p>Now, Republicans could follow that example. With a narrow Senate majority, the GOP could radically overhaul Obama’s signature health care law.</p>
<p>Trump, House Republicans and Senate Republicans all <a href="https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/HCReformPaper.pdf" type="external">campaigned</a>on repealing Obamacare.</p>
<p>But the term “repeal” is imprecise, as Congress generally does not simply void existing legislation. And Republicans are wary of getting rid of some of the more popular provisions of the law, such as allowing people to stay on their parents’ health insurance up to age 26.</p>
<p>Republicans are likely to target three parts of Obamacare for major changes. The law essentially guarantees Medicaid coverage for all low-income Americans, as long as their states accept federal funding. Republicans want to turn this individualized funding into a block grant for each state.</p>
<p>Secondly, they want to get rid of the requirement that all Americans purchase an insurance plan.</p>
<p>Third, Republicans want to eliminate requirements spelled out in the Affordable Care Act about what all health care plans must offer.</p>
<p>“No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to,” according to the healthcare plan Trump has on his campaign website.</p>
<p>Estimates suggest more than 20 million Americans have obtained insurance through Obamacare since its inception. But that number is likely to decrease if Americans are not required to purchase coverage. And some states are likely to create rules, like in the pre-ACA world, that limit Medicaid eligibility.</p>
<p>Reconciliation is generally used on budget bills, so it’s not clear the GOP can gut or eliminate the Dodd-Frank legislation that regulates Wall Street through that process. But even if Democrats block a repeal of Dodd-Frank, Trump could simply refuse to implement its regulations.</p>
<p>Obama used his executive authority in 2012 to exempt from deportation of young people whose parents are undocumented immigrants and brought them to the United States as children.</p>
<p>Trump has pledged to <a href="" type="internal">get rid of this policy</a> as president, which he could do simply by using his executive power. It’s not clear if he would urge the deportation of these young people, or simply not grant them specific protection against deportation as Obama has.</p>
<p>Trump, like congressional Republicans, strongly opposed the deal Obama reached in 2015 to lift most sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit its nuclear program.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">World Weighs In on Trump Victory, Tells America: 'Good Luck'</a></p>
<p>Trump has suggested he will push to re-impose sanctions on Iran. If such sanctions were instituted again, Iran would likely stop submitting to inspections of its nuclear facilities, in effect voiding the agreement.</p>
<p>Obama has made <a href="" type="internal">climate change</a> one of his signature issues as president. But congressional Republicans have opposed his entire agenda on the issue, leaving the president to reach agreements with other nations and executive actions. Trump said little about climate change throughout the campaign.</p>
<p>Trump could end U.S. participation in the so-called Paris Agreement, by which nearly 200 countries have agreed to work to hold temperature gains below 2 °C. He could also roll back rules the president has adopted to limit emissions by power plants.</p>
<p>Obama reestablished U.S. relations with Cuba, softening trade restrictions and opening an embassy there.</p>
<p>Congressional Republicans strongly opposed this move, and Trump has suggested he could <a href="" type="internal">rethink this policy</a> as well.</p>
<p>“But all of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done with executive order, which means the next president can reverse them. And that is what I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands,” the real estate mogul said in a speech in September.</p>
<p>Republicans stalled Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, which would have a created a Democratic majority on the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Now, Trump can fill that seat, a huge coup for the GOP. If a Trump pick is confirmed, the nation’s highest court will again have five seats held by appointee of Republican presidents.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Trump's Win Will Restore Conservative Supreme Court Majority</a></p>
<p>President Obama has struggled to get Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal with a dozen Pacific rim countries, before he leaves office. That deal and the relationship with those Asian nations are a key aspect of a policy push and alliance the president has fostered for years.</p>
<p>Congress is unlikely to act on the deal. Trump, who has deeply criticized trade deals crafted under Democratic presidents, has urged a withdrawal.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that President Obama will meet his goal of closing the detention facility at <a href="" type="internal">Guantanamo Bay</a> before leaving office.</p>
<p>The controversial push was roundly criticized by many Republicans in Congress who do not want any detainees transferred to American soil. International law experts say there are also difficulties in finding a host country for a number of detainees eligible for transfer.</p>
<p>Trump opposes closes Guantanamo and in August said he'd be <a href="" type="internal">"fine"</a>with holding military tribunals for Americans accused of terrorism at the detention facility.</p>
<p /> | How Trump Could Erase Key Parts of Obama’s Legacy | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-election-day/how-trump-could-erase-key-parts-obama-s-legacy-n681791 | 2016-11-10 | 3 |
<p>The Hill newspaper <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/203731-business-groups-republicans-launch-onslaught-on-president-over-keystone-" type="external">reports</a> that business groups are stepping up the pressure on the Obama administration to approve the Keystone pipeline to carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas:</p>
<p>“U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue plans to highlight the pipeline in his closely watched annual speech Thursday on the state of American business.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>‘Keystone — and energy as a whole — will be a major element of Tom’s speech tomorrow,’ a spokesman for the business group said Wednesday.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Separately, Business Roundtable President John Engler, a former GOP governor of Michigan, will hold a news conference Thursday touting what advocates call the jobs and energy security benefits of the project.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>This week’s actions are part of a wider GOP and industry blitz in favor of Keystone. Republicans are using the pipeline as an election-season political weapon against President Obama, arguing he can create jobs and help the economy by approving it.”</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Having already studied the project for years, the Obama White House has postponed a final decision until 2013 - ie, until after the election - in order to escape an awkward dilemma: offend environmentalists who oppose the pipeline or offend unionists who favor the pipeline.</p>
<p>The stated grounds of environmental opposition to the Keystone project? The pipeline’s route passes through Nebraska, and local activists fret that the pipeline might crack, spill, and poison local aquifers. The impression is left that this project would despoil a virginal natural landscape.</p>
<p>Let’s do a reality check.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Here’s the map of the existing <a href="http://www.theodora.com/pipelines/united_states_pipelines_map.jpg" type="external">network</a> of (major) oil pipelines in the United States.</p>
<p>As you’ll see, Nebraska is already criss-crossed by pipelines—just as you would expect from a state so near the geographic center of the country.</p>
<p>Here’s the natural gas pipeline <a href="http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/dependstates_map.html" type="external">network</a>:</p>
<p>To look at these maps is to see instantly the speciousness of the stated objection to Keystone. The real motive is opposition to anything that might increase oil use in the United States—combined with a cowardly refusal by environmental groups to propose the one policy that might actually achieve that end: significant energy taxation.</p>
<p>Environmental groups are caught in a big lie: they want people to believe that green technology will lower the cost of energy. That’s pretty self-evidently false. That original falsehood tangles environmentalists in a whole series of knock-on falsehoods, including the falsehood that they only object to Keystone because of the route—rather than the truth that they oppose all new sources of oil altogether.</p> | Why Environmentalists Actually Oppose Keystone XL—David Frum | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-environmentalists-actually-oppose-keystone-xldavid-frum | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the New Jersey Lottery's "Pick 4" game were:</p>
<p>0-3-4-9, Fireball:</p>
<p>(zero, three, four, nine; Fireball: zero)</p>
<p>TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the New Jersey Lottery's "Pick 4" game were:</p>
<p>0-3-4-9, Fireball:</p>
<p>(zero, three, four, nine; Fireball: zero)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/92b758e0cfa049de805973b9c9e4c49f | 2018-01-14 | 2 |
<p>Oct. 5 (UPI) — NASA TV is streaming the first of three October spacewalks on Thursday morning. <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public" type="external">Coverage</a> began at 6:30 a.m. EDT, but the spacewalk didn’t commence until 8:05 a.m.</p>
<p>“Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 8:05 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about 6.5 hours,” <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/" type="external">NASA announced</a>.</p>
<p>The first of the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/briefing-nasa-television-coverage-set-for-upcoming-us-spacewalks" type="external">three spacewalks</a> is being carried out by Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei, both NASA astronauts.</p>
<p>Bresnik will lead all three of the scheduled spacewalks. The second spacewalk is scheduled for Oct. 10, and the third for Oct. 18.</p>
<p>Bresnik and Vande Hei are working to replace one of the two Latching End Effectors on Canadarm2, the space station’s robotic arm. The effectors serve as a grappling mechanism, allowing the space stations arm to receive and manipulate visiting cargo vehicles and payloads. The effectors, or LEEs, also field and transmit telemetry data to the rest of the Mobile Base System, or MBS. Canadarm2 is anchored to the MBS and can be moved along the base’s truss by the LEEs.</p>
<p>Last month, one of the effector’s mechanical latches stalled. The malfunction hasn’t impacted any operations, but it needs to be replaced. A spare LEE is located along the side of the station’s truss.</p>
<p>On the second and third spacewalks, astronauts will lubricate the new effector and replace several cameras.</p>
<p>The trio of spacewalks will be Bresnik’s third, fourth and fifth, while Vande Hei will experience his first two spacewalks.</p> | Watch live: NASA streams first of three October spacewalks | false | https://newsline.com/watch-live-nasa-streams-first-of-three-october-spacewalks/ | 2017-10-05 | 1 |
<p>On the first day of school at Clemente High, about 120 more students show up than expected. It’s an early victory and a good start to the year for second-year principal Marcey Sorensen.</p>
<p>“We hope word is getting out that it’s a good place to be,” she says. More students have returned from last year, as well.</p>
<p>Reporters swarm inside and outside, as do members of the football team—all waiting for their chance to meet CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, who is there for a live radio broadcast and bell-ringing to kick off the year. Volunteers from the national service organization City Year let out loud cheers every time someone walks in the door.</p>
<p>The first day has typical bumps—students left unattended in a homeroom because of a no-show teacher, and the perpetually dysfunctional escalators that stop when too many students ride on them. “We’ve had construction on our escalators for two years now,” Sorensen notes.</p>
<p>Despite these distractions, she keeps her finger on the school’s pulse, ducking into dozens of classrooms to watch teachers at work and introducing herself to students—selling them on her agenda of principal as part-friend, part-mentor, part-parent.</p>
<p>“We will be all up in your business,” Sorensen announces to each class. “I want to know what your grades are, what your attendance is, who you’re dating,” as well as their academic and social-emotional struggles.</p>
<p>To freshmen, Sorensen stresses the unpleasant consequences if they don’t buckle down this year. “You will be constantly playing catch-up. Fifty-four percent of my seniors [last year] were missing credits. There were kids going to night school, every night of the week, and Saturday school.”</p>
<p>Sorensen is one of a new breed of principals to come from one of the district’s preferred training programs. Under a three-year, $10 million initiative, CPS is banking on these programs to turn out “change-agent” leaders who can transform failing schools.</p>
<p>With Sorensen only in her second year, it’s too early to tell what will happen at Clemente. So far, the school’s climate is better, with discipline infractions down steeply since last year. ACT scores and scores on the Prairie State exam fell, but other indicators that are key to improvement down the road are up: The freshman on-track rate is up, to nearly 93 percent from 59 percent at the end of the previous year. The dropout rate is down, and attendance jumped nearly 10 percentage points to almost 79 percent.</p>
<p>Sorensen “really knows what good instruction and good teachers look like,” says Peter Martinez, the director of principal coaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Sorensen has been a doctoral student in the Urban Education Leadership program since 2007. “She concentrates on building strong personal and professional relationships based on very high expectations. What enables her to relate is her great sense of humor.”</p>
<p>In the auditorium, Brizard awkwardly bops around to the increasingly loud hip-hop music from the radio DJs. As Sorensen heads in, she tells students to sit down. She hugs one, a student she knows well. “How are you doing, Dianna?” she asks. “Horrible,” the girl replies. “I had to come to school.”</p>
<p>With a characteristic mixture of sympathy and challenge, Sorensen sighs. “Oh, Dianna, you’re such a drama queen,” she says affectionately. “You had to come to school…Dios mio.”</p>
<p>On the wall of her office hangs evidence of Sorensen’s tough-cookie attitude mixed with humor. It’s a cartoon caricature of her, with a speech bubble saying, “Want Prom?”</p>
<p>“It’s a joke,” Sorensen explains. She asks students if they want to have a prom dance at all when they “get very opinionated about where it should be, and what it should be like.”</p>
<p>At an orientation for 9th- and 11th-graders before school began, Sorensen knew it was her chance to tell parents and students exactly how high the stakes will be at Clemente this year. She sent the message loud and clear.&#160;</p>
<p>“How many parents in this crowd want their students to sit on their couch two or four years from now?” she asks, smiling. Parents chuckle. “It is our job to take your children on a 4-year educational journey, so at the end of it they have college options and choices.”</p>
<p>Freshmen were put on notice about the challenge awaiting them. “We are going to push you to the very edge of what you are capable of, give you a hug, and then push you some more,” Sorensen says. Juniors get a pep talk about the importance of the ACT. Members of the school’s care team of social-emotional and counseling specialists introduce themselves, and Sorensen explains how the group will help students through teenage angst as well as the life challenges that they and their families face.&#160;</p>
<p>Troublemakers get a warning from her.&#160; “If I was in your business last year, I am going to be in your business again this year—Kaylanee, for real!”</p>
<p>Sorensen came to Clemente from another troubled high school across town, Tilden, where she was interim principal for a year. Prior to that, she was principal at New Millennium School of Health, the highest-performing of four small schools on the Bowen Campus (it later expanded to take in all of Bowen’s students when the other three schools were closed). Sorensen’s career began at Leif Ericson Scholastic Academy, where she taught 7th- and 8th-grade social science for a year. Then she moved to Chicago Vocational Career Academy, where she worked for nearly 10 years as a teacher and curriculum coordinator before becoming a social science coach.</p>
<p>At Tilden, Sorensen’s first goal was to improve the school’s climate and social-emotional programs and institute supports for struggling students. With only a year’s time, she acknowledges that academics didn’t improve. The year after Sorensen left, CPS decided to turn around Tilden, and this year the school got a new principal and new staff.</p>
<p>Michelle Porter, a history teacher at Tilden who kept her job through the turnaround, recalls Sorensen as “very student-centered.” Attendance incentives were offered, and after-school tutoring became mandatory for struggling students. Teachers were required to attend new grade-level team meetings, in addition to the existing academic department meetings, to give them more opportunity to talk about how students were doing.</p>
<p>Sorensen also emphasized accountability. Not everyone was comfortable with the transparency of weekly reports, staff meetings and spreadsheets of data that revealed publicly “if things had been turned in,” Porter says. Plus, Sorensen didn’t sugar-coat anything when she spoke.</p>
<p>“Sometimes she did not have a filter,” Porter says. “She was very abrupt, and in her conversations very frank, and in her speech. Some teachers were not used to that. Marcey was Marcey, all the time.”</p>
<p>At Clemente, Sorensen has the support of the local school council as well as the promise of investment from the district: Clemente is slated to become an International Baccalaureate school, a change that will bring staff development and training over several years from the well-regarded program based in Geneva, Switzerland.</p>
<p>But Sorensen’s hiring has sparked controversy. In her first year, she rated 13 teachers as unsatisfactory. Of those, she fired nine through the E-3 process, which requires that principals provide some remediation before a firing.</p>
<p>Another 22 teachers lost their jobs over the summer due to declining enrollment. And since the school had lost positions, Sorensen wanted teachers who could teach more than one subject, so she redefined the jobs of the entire social science department: Everyone would now have to hold at least two certifications. Those who didn’t were out.</p>
<p>Amid a contentious season of union contract negotiations, the layoffs unleashed a storm.&#160; Some of the laid-off teachers showed up at Board of Education meetings to complain and filed union grievances. The situation is particularly touchy because of union anger over layoffs, across the district, of veteran teachers, often through similar re-defining of positions.</p>
<p>At a summer local school council meeting, Sorensen thanks members for their support during the controversy and says that parents and community groups have told her they were contacted by outsiders in an effort to get them to “denounce” her.</p>
<p>“Every community organization that has contacted me has said, ‘We have your back,’” Sorensen notes. “I want to say thank you, publicly, to the parents.”</p>
<p>Judy Vazquez, chair of the local school council, tells Sorensen that parents are behind her. “We appreciate being part of the loop,” Vazquez says. “The upgrading [of the teaching force] is to benefit the kids and the community.”</p>
<p>Sorensen says she always knew she would be an educator. Her mother and aunt were teachers. But, perhaps because she had her own ideas about how classes should be run, she wasn’t a model student.</p>
<p>“I would sit in high school classes and tell teachers, ‘This is dumb. This isn’t working,’” Sorensen says. Some teachers thought she had a behavior disorder.</p>
<p>Sorensen grew up in middle-class suburban Park Ridge and Morton Grove, worlds away from the area around Clemente. The school is located in West Town, a community that is now rapidly gentrifying; most students come from neighboring Humboldt Park, a predominantly Latino, lower-income neighborhood.</p>
<p>As the child of a single mom, Sorensen says she “saw the disparity between the haves and the have-nots pretty early.” She viewed education as an equalizer, a way to help students “get in the game, so that they’re not disenfranchised anymore,” she says.</p>
<p>After high school, Sorensen had to start out at a community college, something that Vazquez says helps her relate to the obstacles that Clemente students face. “We were looking for someone who understood the kids and the community, someone who knew how hard it was for kids to get that 2.5 GPA, someone who was passionate about educating all the kids, including the special ed kids,” Vazquez says. “As parents, I think we hit the Lotto.”</p>
<p>Many of the changes Sorensen has made—such as the prospective IB program, an initiative of Mayor Rahm Emanuel—were requested first by the Humboldt Park Community Advisory Council. The neighborhood-based advisory councils were part of a school-improvement process that began several years ago under former CEO Ron Huberman, but the councils’ ideas were largely ignored by the new administration.</p>
<p>Sorensen says that at the council’s suggestion, she has also launched dual-enrollment courses, a legal clinic, and programs to get students to enroll at Northeastern Ilinois University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Columbia College.</p>
<p>Vazquez sees other tangible evidence of improvement: Teachers who “weren’t there for the right reasons” are gone, the school is being run better and students are getting the help they need, such as testing for special education and bringing in parents for conferences when needed.</p>
<p>“Those are the little things that weren’t being done before,” Vazquez says.</p>
<p>Sorensen is more circumspect about the school’s progress. “We still struggle with teacher capacity and willingess on some levels, but it is much reduced this year,” she says.</p>
<p>Julio Urrutia, deputy director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, says that, unlike the former principal, Sorensen has gotten community groups to feel invested in what’s happening at the school. “This is a community that is very well-organized, in terms of [groups] that provide different services. Marcey has been able to tap that in some effective ways,” Urrutia says. “[Principals] are a gate-keeper, so they can let you in or keep you out.”</p>
<p>One example: As part of a Cultural Center program that helped students apply to college, Sorensen had Clemente’s counselors follow up individually with students who were supposed to be headed to college; 26 students had been accepted at Northeastern Illinois University, but none had registered.</p>
<p>Home visits and phone calls got 22 students to commit to bus trips and a six-session “boot camp” at the university, where they will get additional instructions on how to register. If any of them don’t show up, “we’ll go back out to their houses and do some more stalking,” Sorensen says.</p>
<p>Sorensen won over community groups not only by welcoming them into the building, but also by making social-emotional learning a priority, starting anger management and trauma groups as well as peace circles. That focus first took root at Tilden, where, Sorensen recalls, “the kids were like sponges. They were thirsty for attention, for guidance, care, and structure.”</p>
<p>At Clemente, social-emotional learning intersects with another focus of Sorensen’s: reliance on data.</p>
<p>Porter says that, unlike some other principals, Sorensen is comfortable with new ways of thinking and recognizes that “education has become more data-driven. The data should be used not only to make the teaching better, but also the experiences of the students.”</p>
<p>Clemente now has a custom-designed database, called Students Performance Tracking System, where teachers report attendance, low grades, such as D’s and F’s on assignments, and disciplinary issues, as well as strategies being tried to resolve the problems. Even brief interventions are to be entered in the system so administrators and teachers get “real-time” data about how students are doing—so they can intervene—and what is working—so they keep doing what is successful). The school is working on making sure peace circles and restorative justice interventions get logged in the system.</p>
<p>“You have all been trained. You will all be leading circles,” Assistant Principal Tina Menendez told school administrators. “The difference this year is, you do a circle, you have to put it in SPTS—even if it’s a conference between two [students].”</p>
<p>Administrators, teachers and the care team follow-up with students to resolve whatever might be causing problems. “Equity is not every kid getting the same thing,” says Sorensen, who credits the UIC program with teaching the importance of individualized support for students. “It’s every kid getting what they need.”</p>
<p>Teachers and administrators are “first-responders” when students show signs of being in trouble, Sorensen tells staff members gathered to review data in early July.&#160; “You may not know how to handle it, but you should get that kid services or support through a referral.”</p>
<p>That idea represents a “paradigm shift,” she acknowledges later—one that some people are struggling to accept as part of their job.</p>
<p>At another summer session, a team of administrators and counselors go over disciplinary data that show the rate of low-level offenses has decreased by 65 percent. But offenses at Level 4 through 6—which generally call for suspensions—have increased by 10 percent.</p>
<p>Staff members discuss what worked and what didn’t with the new system, and note that the increase in less-serious fights points to a need for more conflict resolution sessions.</p>
<p>The team also notices that students who are coming back from a suspension are not getting help to re-acclimate to school. One team member suggests having someone on duty during 1st period every day to help kids transition back into the school setting.</p>
<p>The data suggest that teachers are recognizing their role as “first responders,” with the care team getting referrals for nearly 300 students. Of those, 83 were screened and sent to anger management or trauma coping groups, and 85 percent of teachers said the support helped improve students’ behavior.&#160;</p>
<p>But, on the other hand, the data show that a third of staff members got no feedback on a specific referral they made, and some clinicians didn’t have time or willingness to screen students.</p>
<p>Sorensen sees a red flag in the fact that students who were in a trauma group had better attendance and behavior, but showed no improvement in grades. “How are we giving out grades?” she says. “Is it possible a student is coming to class and just not learning?”</p>
<p>To her, the possibility should be unthinkable.</p>
<p>“Kids should grow in terms of academic achievement if they are present and displaying a willingess to learn,” Sorensen says. It’s a philosophy that doesn’t always sit well with teachers, who have to deal with students who don’t turn in homework and frequently seem not to care.</p>
<p>But, Sorensen explains, “If there is no willingess on a students’ part, then we have to begin to dig in on the why—not just allow them to continue to experience failure.”</p>
<p>Finding teachers who buy in to her philosophy has been Sorensen’s greatest struggle. In late July, she says that she will be sprinting all the way to the start of the year to accomplish this.</p>
<p>“We have quite a few positions to fill. We have interviewed quite a few people, and we are not finding quality candidates,” she says. “This is what is keeping me up at night.”&#160; Since she’s a UIC graduate student, Sorensen at one point contacted university professors to ask if they could send any high-quality candidates her way.</p>
<p>In interviews with prospective teachers, Sorensen, her assistant principals, and department chairs share the responsibility of rating them and the practice lessons they teach summer school students.&#160; But many of the teachers had little or no experience, and those with experience often did not fully develop their teaching skills. As a result, the quality of candidates is thin. Even UIC couldn’t help with candidates, she notes.</p>
<p>“There is a huge disconnect between teacher education programs and what teaching looks like on the ground,” she says. One week, Sorensen and her panel interview prospective science teachers and give many candidates bad reviews.</p>
<p>By the start of the school year, Sorensen had put dozens of hours into finding exactly the right teachers—people who are on board with her ideas—who are willing to push each other to do better, have high expectations, and make sure students get whatever it is that they need—and are also able to teach engaging lessons and have content knowledge down pat. Just under half of the teachers she hired were veterans, including teachers who lost their jobs because of turnarounds and other teachers from a mix of high schools across the city.</p>
<p>Sorensen, who believes in investing in teacher development, plans to use federal School Improvement Grant money to pay teachers extra to stay after school for lesson planning and training.</p>
<p>Sorensen wants to develop an atmosphere where faculty members are up-front about teaching practice. “That is the thing that revolutionizes and changes schools, when adults can sit and talk about practice and have it not be personal,” Sorensen says.</p>
<p>Doing so will be a massive change for Clemente because, Sorensen says, teachers had not gotten substantive feedback on their performance for years. “There was so much change that had to happen, from every corner, from every nook and cranny of this building,” Sorensen says. One example: When she first arrived at Clemente, more than 400 students were not on track to graduate. Some students were 21 and no longer entitled to be enrolled in a public high school, but had only three credits.</p>
<p>Asking teachers about the situation, Sorensen says, “felt to some people like I was blaming them. The information itself made people uncomfortable.”</p>
<p>Sorensen is up-front about her own personal challenges, including the need to have clear expectations, give staff the support needed to meet those expectations, and work harder to develop trust.</p>
<p>“Because if there is no trust, people can’t have the honest dialogue to improve.”</p>
<p>Tell us what you think. Leave a comment below, or email <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | Turning the page | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/turning-page/ | 2012-10-23 | 3 |
<p>When Jewish voices of conscience speak out on Israel, there is an astonishing gap between the problem described and the response proposed. The Jewish left and its allies begin with the most ringing denunciations. These trail off into the most timid of recommendations.</p>
<p>Many critics of Israel consider it a pariah state.(*) Many think it racist. Many think it guilty of brutal atrocities against the Palestinian people, and display an almost prurient interest in those atrocities. Many mainstream sources outside the US–the BBC, The Guardian, the CBC– carry harrowing reports of Israeli excesses, and have done so for quite a while. We hear that Israeli officers, when they attack Palestinian refugee camps, study the German assault on the Warsaw Ghetto. We hear horror after horror. Jewish and Israeli activists do not hesitate to draw parallels with Nazi Germany. (see <a href="http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id121.htm" type="external">Norman Finkelstein.</a>)</p>
<p>Sounds really terrible, doesn’t it? What should we do about it? Very little, it seems, and so it has seemed for years.</p>
<p>In 1988, the Jewish Committee on the Middle East released a statement which explicity declared that “…Israel itself has become a pariah state within [t]he world community.” The statement is still proudly posted on their web site. It attributed to Israel “a racialist ideology”. It claimed that “Events taking place today are all too reminiscent of the pogroms from which our own forefathers fled two and three generations ago”. ( <a href="http://www.middleeast.org/archives/jcome1.htm" type="external">http://www.middleeast.org/archives/jcome1.htm</a>)</p>
<p>These are people who perceive some really serious outrages– war crimes, human rights violations, a violent racial crusade. These are people whose self-produced documentary is called, “We Dare to Speak–Voices of American Jews.” What do they recommend? “The unprecedented amounts of economic aid should be cut back over the next two to three years to much small[er] levels. Furthermore, the considerable military and intelligence assistance should also be radically reduced.”</p>
<p>Do you read what I read? Doesn’t that say that economic and military aid to this pariah state should be continued? Hmm. So is that how we’re supposed to respond to a state which conducts “killings, beatings, curfews, expulsions and house arrests — all against unarmed Palestinians living in areas Israel has occupied for 20 years”? Seems like the vicious Jewish pariah retains privileges which many virtuous states could only dream of. But this statement was good enough for Noam Chomsky, so I guess it should be good enough for me.</p>
<p>Well, have things changed since 1988? Sure, they’ve grown much worse. So, let’s see, how has the response evolved?</p>
<p>It hasn’t. On one prominent dissident site, Not In My Name, is run by a Jewish organization anxious above all, it seems, not to be tainted by Israeli crimes. It recommends “A suspension of all US military aid to Israel until Israel ends its occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.” ( <a href="http://www.nimn.org/" type="external">“Common Ground”</a>). So I guess economic aid will continue. More on this suspension of military aid later.</p>
<p>Then there’s the ad taken in the New York Times on March 17, 2002, by <a href="http://www.jvao.org/" type="external">Jewish Voices Against the Occupation</a>. It calls for the U.S. Government:</p>
<p>to suspend military aid to Israel, which is used to maintain the occupation, until Israel withdraws completely from the occupied territories; -to reduce economic aid to Israel by the amount spent on maintaining the settlements until all are evacuated…</p>
<p>OK, still some economic aid, and the military aid will come right back when Israel gets out of the occupied territories: in other words, it gets truckloads of new toys, automatically, any time it cares to withdraw. It’s all like that: no one, so far as I can see, asks for more.</p>
<p>So we have a country denounced for the most serious human rights violations, whose leader is accused of war crimes, a pariah state, whose doings are almost unbearable simply to watch on TV, much less suffer. Everyone seems to agree that such a state deserves economic aid. Military aid is merely suspended: as soon as Israel leaves the scene of the crime, we are to make sure it has lost none of its killing abilities.</p>
<p>Forget for a moment whether this response is proportionate to the crimes it is supposed to address. Let’s just ask what the reponse is supposed to achieve. That’s hardly worth asking about the economic aid, since it will continue, albeit at a reduced level. What then about this bold, soberly considered demand to suspend military aid?</p>
<p>It turns out, at least according to Andrew Cordesman, a senior analyst at the <a href="" type="internal">Center for Strategic and International Studies</a> in Washington, that Israel could fight for “two years” before needing US help. In other words, even instant cessation of all military aid would do nothing whatsoever to prevent the Israelis from doing anything whatever they liked to the Palestinians. Israel is estimated to possess between 200 and 500 nuclear warheads, with cruise missles that have hit targets 950 miles away. Does this sound like a country that will feel pressure from a “suspension” of military aid? Even if the cupboard were bare, it could sell a few of those warheads and buy just about anything it liked.</p>
<p>Jewish activists know this. Left-wingers know this. They also understand what is normally done to contain a pariah state.</p>
<p>Normally, all aid is cut off. There is an arms and trade embargo. All transfers of funds are frozen. Foreign bank accounts are seized. Air links and most diplomatic ties are cut. Cultural and scientific exchanges are terminated. To make all this stick, the pariah state must be surrounded by obviously superior military forces. There is a crash program to bolster its neighbors’ defense capabilities; a US-led coalition sends many thousands of troops; naval forces are deployed; intelligence and counterintelligence efforts accelerated. Such a state is quietly given to undertand that, should it ever use nuclear weapons, it can expect retaliation in kind. This of course would be a very moderate response, nothing like what happened to Serbia or Iraq. But simply to contain Israel–not to attack it–would require an initiative orders of magnitude greater than the buildup to the Gulf War.</p>
<p>In short, all these people who weep for the Palestinians, all these activists who put their bodies on the line, all the eminent figures and eloquent writers who condemn Israel’s vile actions–none of these people actually request, let alone demand, any remotely serious action against Israel. And there are only ugly explanations for this bizarre behaviour. Are Jews still better than Palestinians? Did the Nazi era confer on them an unlimited licence to plunder and murder? Is being Jewish so sacred, so wise, so humanitarian, so warm and cuddly that a Jewish state couldn’t “really” do much harm, or deserve more than a good scolding? The possibilities are as limited as they are depressing.</p>
<p>One thing is clear: when crimes of this magnitude are committed by your people, in your name, bleating does not absolve you of responsibility. You must at the very, very least–even if you “do” nothing–advocate something that will stop the crimes. By that standard, as far as I know, not even Chomsky’s hands are clean.</p>
<p>Certainly the world has more important things to worry about than that Jews purge themselves of hypocrisy. But for the sake of the Palestinians, I hope the Jewish left can bring itself to do so.</p>
<p>Michael Neumann is a professor of philosophy at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>* For example: ‘Israel has turned into a “pariah state” under prime minister Ariel Sharon and his ways of dealing with terrorism are “unacceptable”, J <a href="" type="internal">ewish senior Labour MP Gerald Kaufman has claimed.</a>‘</p>
<p>“What could Israel do to cease being a pariah state, if its Washington masters permitted it?” ( <a href="cestabrookisrael.html" type="external">C.G. Estabrook, CounterPunch, December 5, 2001</a>).</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Uri Avnery:</a> ‘”Closure”, “siege” and all the other devices for the protection of the settlers are turning us into a pariah state in the eyes of the world.’</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bleats of Dissent | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/04/27/bleats-of-dissent/ | 2002-04-27 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, had faced a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey. Badalamenti pleaded guilty in October to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence.</p>
<p>The 62-year-old also has to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine.</p>
<p>Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP’s cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP’s blown-out Macondo well.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The judge said that the sentence of probation is “very reasonable in this case.”</p>
<p>“I still feel that you’re a very honorable man,” he told Badalamenti. “I have no doubt that you’ve learned from this mistake.”</p>
<p>Badalamenti apologized to his family and friends for causing them “undue stress”</p>
<p>“I am truly sorry for what I did,” he said.</p>
<p>Halliburton cut its own deal with the Justice Department and pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge related to Badalamenti’s conduct. The company agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and make a $55 million contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, but the latter payment wasn’t a condition of the deal.</p>
<p>Tai Park, one of Badalamenti’s lawyers, said in October that guidelines calculated by prosecutors call for Badalamenti to receive a sentence ranging from probation to six months in prison. Zainey, however, isn’t bound by the sentencing guidelines.</p>
<p>Four current or former BP employees also have been charged in federal court with spill-related crimes.</p>
<p>On Dec. 18, a jury convicted former BP drilling engineer Kurt Mix of trying to obstruct a federal probe of the spill. Prosecutors said Mix was trying to destroy evidence when he deleted a string of text messages to and from a BP supervisor.</p>
<p>Mix faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is set for March 26.</p>
<p>BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges stemming from the deaths of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon. Prosecutors claim Kaluza and Vidrine botched a key safety test and disregarded abnormally high pressure readings that were glaring signs of trouble before the April 2010 blowout of BP’s Macondo well triggered a deadly explosion.</p>
<p>Former BP executive David Rainey was charged with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from BP’s well before the company sealed it.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Badalamenti instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data from separate runs of computer simulations on centralizers, which are used to keep the casing centered in the wellbore. The data could have supported BP’s decision to use six centralizers instead of 21 on the Macondo project, but prosecutors said the number of centralizers had little effect on the outcome of the simulations.</p>
<p>Halliburton notified the Justice Department about the deletion of the data, which couldn’t be recovered.</p> | Halliburton manager gets probation in Gulf spill | false | https://abqjournal.com/340352/judge-to-sentence-halliburton-manager-in-oil-spill.html | 2 |
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