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<p>Lindsey Graham, whom the Washington Post calls “The most interesting presidential candidate you’re not paying any attention to.” (photo: Rainier Ehrhardt/AP)</p>
<p>Washington Post political writer <a href="" type="internal">Chris Cillizza</a> thinks you’re not giving Lindsey Graham an even break.</p>
<p>In a column ( <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/10/the-most-interesting-candidate-youre-not-paying-any-attention-to/" type="external">6/10/15</a>) &#160;headlined “The Most Interesting Presidential Candidate You’re Not Paying Any Attention To,” Cillizza bemoans the fact that “Graham is an asterisk—or close to it—in polling in every early state (except for his home state of South Carolina) and nationally.” Graham, he writes, is “generally regarded as a cause candidate, with that cause being to represent the most hawkish views on foreign policy and national security against attacks by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.”</p>
<p>Cillizza suggests that’s unfair to Graham, who often uses one of corporate media’s most favorite words—”bipartisanship”:</p>
<p>But if you stop and actually listen to some of what Graham is saying—particularly on the subject of bipartisanship—you realize that he’s one of the most interesting candidates in the field and one of the few who can genuinely sell himself as a change agent.</p>
<p>What is it, exactly, that we’re supposed to listen to Graham saying? Cillizza quotes him telling an audience what he said to a young voter about Social Security:</p>
<p>When I talked to that young guy there, I said, you’re going to have to work a little longer, pal. If I’m president, I’m going to ask you to work a little bit longer. What do people do between 65 and 67, they work two years longer. Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill showed us what to do.</p>
<p>Graham’s point is that President Reagan and House Speaker O’Neill worked out a bipartisan deal in the 1980s to raise the retirement age, so Democrats should support Graham’s plan to <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/news/166835-gop-senator-calls-for-raising-social-security-retirement-age" type="external">raise the retirement age to 70</a> so it will be bipartisan too.</p>
<p>Cilizza goes on to quote Graham making some pretty bland and innocuous&#160;claims—in favor of “problem-solving” and “working with Democrats,” &#160;and&#160;being willing to “do whatever is necessary to defend the nation”—and treats them as groundbreaking revelations of a new kind of politics:</p>
<p>If you believe the American people when they say they want leaders who are willing to work with one another and take positions because they believe in them not because the policies are popular, it’s hard for me to imagine a better message than that paragraph from Graham above.</p>
<p>But here’s the thing: People don’t like the idea of raising the retirement age.&#160;(They’d like it even less if it was accurately described as a cut in benefits, which is what people are actually proposing when they talk about “raising the retirement age”—see Extra!,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">12/12</a>.) &#160;When ABC and the Washington Post ( <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/social2.htm" type="external">3/10-13/11</a>)&#160;asked people about raising the retirement age from 67 to 68, 57 percent were against it. When AP/CNBC ( <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/social2.htm" type="external">11/18-22/10</a>) asked about raising it to 69, 64 percent were opposed and only 28 percent in favor.</p>
<p>Chris Cillizza (cc photo: Miller Center/Wikimedia)</p>
<p>To&#160;Beltway reporters, who are trained to focus on&#160;process, it makes sense to support a policy just because it’s billed as bipartisan—or, in the case of Graham’s Social Security cuts, something that aspires to bipartisanship. But regular&#160;people don’t like policies that they see as harming their interests simply because politicians from both parties advocate them, and they certainly don’t like policies that hurt them because a politician says he’s hoping that members of another party will join in the hurting.</p>
<p>Cillizza’s other example of Graham’s bipartisanship—actually, his only example, since Graham only wishes his proposal to cut Social Security were bipartisan—is Graham’s support for immigration reform that would give&#160;unauthorized immigrants some potential way to get citizenship. This actually is a pretty popular policy–when a CBS/New York Times poll ( <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm" type="external">4/30/15-5/3/15</a>) asked what should be done about “illegal immigrants,” 57 percent said they should be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship, while only 29 percent said that they should be required to leave. (Eleven percent said they should be allowed to stay but not apply for citizenship.)</p>
<p>That’s among all US adults, though, and the voters who are making Graham an “asterisk” are Republicans–and their views on immigration are decidedly different. Asked by CNN/ORC ( <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm" type="external">2/12-15/15</a>) to choose between “developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become legal U.S. residents” and “developing a plan for stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and for deporting those already here,” 76 percent of Republicans went with stopping/deporting. Again, people who oppose immigration reform are unlikely to switch to supporting it just because they see people from another party supporting it.</p>
<p>Cillizza concludes his column with a challenge: Are we as a country wise enough to vote for Lindsey Graham? Or as he puts it:</p>
<p>To me, though, Graham’s candidacy is a sort of campaign thought experiment: What if politics produced a candidate that had lots and lots of what the public said it wanted but in a somewhat unlikely package (a Southern-drawling lifetime politician) and without the buzz and fanfare that surrounds the so-called “top tier”?</p>
<p>Could a candidate like that possibly hope to break through?</p>
<p>It isn’t clear that Graham is really offering “lots and lots of what the public said it wanted,” though. The Republican public hasn’t said it wants immigration reform. And the public at large hasn’t said it wants cuts in Social Security benefits—or “the most hawkish views on foreign policy and national security,” for that matter.</p>
<p>Nor, really, is there much evidence that the public is clamoring for “bipartisanship” in the abstract. When asked by Gallup ( <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx" type="external">5/6-10/15</a>) to name the most important problem facing the US, just 2 percent named “unifying the country”—the closest thing to bipartisanship on the list. By contrast, 33 percent named economic problems, including “economy in general,” “unemployment/jobs,” “gap between rich and poor,” etc. When the CBS/New York Times poll ( <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti3.htm" type="external">1/11-15/09</a>) asked people what they most wanted from a newly elected Barack Obama, 2 percent said “bring bipartisanship.”</p>
<p>I expect “bipartisanship” would poll much higher if you polled among Beltway reporters. Unfortunately for Lindsey Graham, Beltway reporters don’t get that many votes.</p>
<p>Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org.</p>
<p>Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>, or via Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost" type="external">@washingtonpost</a>. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p> | WaPo Thinks if You Knew What You Wanted, You’d Want Lindsey Graham | true | http://fair.org/home/wapo-thinks-if-you-knew-what-you-wanted-youd-want-lindsey-graham/ | 2015-06-12 | 4 |
<p>U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals.</p>
<p>That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan. The report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on civilian casualties in 2010 had said the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by insurgents was the leading cause of civilian deaths, with 904.</p>
<p>Except for a relatively few women and children killed by accident, the civilians who died in the raids were all adult males who were counted as insurgents in press releases and official data released by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).</p>
<p>The data on night raids, which were given to selected news media, cover three distinct 90-day night raid campaigns from May through July 2010, early August to early November, and mid-November to mid- February. The combined totals for the three periods indicate that a minimum of 2,599 rank and file insurgents were killed and an additional 723 “leaders” killed or captured in raids. Assuming conservatively that one-third of the alleged leaders were killed, the total number of alleged insurgents killed in the raids was 2,844.</p>
<p>SOF night raids during the 10-month period totaled 6,282, according to the same ISAF data.</p>
<p>A third crucial statistic, repeated frequently by U.S and NATO officials in 2010 and 2011, is that shots were fired by SOF units in only 20 percent of night raids.</p>
<p>A U.S. military source who has been briefed on SOF operation confirmed to this writer what has been generally known among outside observers – that anytime shots are fired by SOF troops in a night raid, someone is killed.</p>
<p>If shots were fired in 20 percent of the 6,282 raids, it means that 2,844 were killed in 1,256 raids.</p>
<p>With very rare exceptions, night raids target only individuals rather than groups. They are carried out at night because they are aimed at catching the individual at home asleep and therefore taken completely by surprise.</p>
<p>Therefore, a minimum of 1,588 people (2,844 total killed minus the 1,256 targets in the lethal raids) were killed in the raids even though they weren’t targeted.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Not every one of the untargeted individuals killed in night raids was a noncombatant civilian. But the socio-cultural and physical setting of the raids guarantees that the percentage of civilians in that total is extremely high.</p>
<p>Within the Afghan compounds that are the physical targets of U.S. night raids live extended family households that normally include not only the male head of family and his wife, but his brothers, sons and cousins and their families.</p>
<p>In Afghanistan, every adult Pashtun male has a weapon in his home, and is obliged by the ancient code of conduct called “Pashtunwali” to defend his home, his family and his friends against armed intruders. In a typical extended family compound, several males have weapons.</p>
<p>As a result, the non-targeted civilians killed in night raids have invariably been either close relatives or neighbors who have come out to assist against an armed assault.</p>
<p>SOF commanders and the command and staff of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have essentially denied all civilian deaths in night raids, except for women and children, by counting all adult males killed in raids as insurgents.</p>
<p>That ISAF policy has been confirmed to this writer by a U.S. military source briefed on the operational aspects of the raids.</p>
<p>ISAF has counted adult dead in raids as insurgents even when the victims held prominent positions in the Afghan government, as was the case in the Gardez night raid of Feb. 12, 2010.</p>
<p>In that raid, two men who were shot dead in the targeted compound by an SOF unit when they came out of their dwellings with Kalashnikov rifles turned out to have been a district prosecutor and a local police chief. Nevertheless, ISAF reported in its press release on the raid that two insurgents had been killed.</p>
<p>The killing of family members and neighbors who responded to night raids with weapons was already a major issue within the U.S. mission to Afghanistan as early as 2008, according to Matthew Hoh, who was the senior U.S. civilian official in Zabul province in 2009.</p>
<p>“Pashtunwali was causing serious problems for us in the context of night raids,” Hoh told IPS. “It was raised as a key issue in our training even before I went to Afghanistan.”</p>
<p>The problem had become so prevalent by early 2010 that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal referred to it explicitly in his early 2010 directive on night raids, parts of which were released to the public by ISAF Mar. 5, 2010.</p>
<p>McChrystal noted that the Afghan adult male had been “conditioned to respond aggressively in defense of his home and his guests whenever he perceives his home or honor threatened. In a similar situation most of us would do the same.”</p>
<p>McChrystal expressed regret that these “[i]nstinctive responses by an Afghan man to defend his home and family are sometimes interpreted as insurgent acts, with tragic results.”&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Although a large proportion of those targeted in the estimated 1,256 lethal raids were undoubtedly Taliban insurgents, a very substantial proportion were civilians.</p>
<p>Some were targeted after malicious tips by tribal and personal enemies. Others fell victim to a targeting system that is overwhelmingly dependent on electronic intelligence. Phone calls to a known insurgent are regarded as a basis for adding a cell phone number to the “kill/capture list”.</p>
<p>One detainee picked up in a night raid earlier this year was told by his interrogator that it was because he had made phone calls to an insurgent, this writer learned from a friend of the detainee’s family. Hoh, who was briefed on the list, called the Joint Priority Effects List (JPEL) in 2009, told this writer that a large proportion of the targets on the list were not identifiable individuals at all, but mobile phone numbers.</p>
<p>But in the Pashtun zones of Afghanistan, contacts with Taliban commanders and other Taliban figures are nearly universal, according to Michael Semple, former deputy EU representative in Afghanistan and a leading specialist on the Afghan insurgency.</p>
<p>In addition, SOF commanders have begun consciously targeting individuals who were not believed to be insurgents but who were believed to have provided moral or material support, or to have intelligence information about them.</p>
<p>That targeting shift, acknowledged by military officials to the authors of a recent study by the Open Society Foundations and The Liaison Office, was reflected in an 82-percent increase in the number of people seized in raids and detained briefly during the August- November campaign, compared with the May-July campaign.</p>
<p>Those detainees were also counted as insurgents in the data released to the news media, despite the fact that up to 90 per cent of them were released as civilians within days or months, as IPS reported last June.</p>
<p>Some of those targeted civilians were killed in raids when they appeared to challenge the SOF intruders, adding to the 1,588 non- targeted individuals killed in the raids. However, estimating the additional toll of civilians is impossible.</p>
<p>The ISAF Public Affairs Officer for SOF issues and officials responsible for civilian casualties monitoring at the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan did not respond to requests for comment on this article.</p>
<p>Afghan human rights officials and foreign observers have suggested that fewer civilian deaths have occurred in night raids with the increasing use of the so-called “soft knock”, in which Afghan personnel are used to announce the presence of the raiding party with a loudspeaker before entry into the house.</p>
<p>The toll of civilians in more recent 90-day periods may well have been reduced in 2011 compared with a year earlier, as suggested by smaller numbers of alleged insurgents said to have been killed over the course of the three campaigns.</p>
<p>But night raids clearly remain the overwhelmingly primary – though still unacknowledged – cause of civilian deaths in the war.</p>
<p>Footnote: Official Data on Night Raids ISAF has leaked a set of statistics on insurgents killed in night raids published in major news outlets covering three 90- day campaigns of night raids. In August 2010, ISAF released figures to the Washington Post showing that 1,031 rank and file insurgents had been killed from May through July. In November 2010 the New York Times reported a total of 968 rank and file insurgents killed in the three months from Aug. 11 through Nov. 11.</p>
<p>Reuters reported on Feb. 24, 2011 that 600 people were killed during the 90 days from Nov. 18 to Feb. 18. The figure did not distinguish between rank and file and “leaders”.</p>
<p>Those three subtotals add up to 2,599 killed from May 2010 to mid-February 2011. The Washington Post and New York Times articles also reported 355 and 368 “leaders” killed or captured during the May-July and August-November periods, totaling 723.</p>
<p>An unknown proportion of that total was deliberately assassinated. Nevertheless, it is assumed in estimating the number killed in the raids that the proportion of alleged “leaders” killed to the total killed and captured in the first two campaigns was the same as the proportion of rank and file killed of the total killed and captured: 34 percent of 723, or 245.</p>
<p>The sum of the totals of 2,599 alleged insurgents and 245 alleged “leaders” assumed to have been killed in the raids comes to 2,844.</p>
<p>The total number or SOF night raids can be estimated from officially leaked subtotals of 3,000 from May through July; 1,572 from Aug. 11 to Nov. 11, and 1,710 from Nov. 18 to Feb. 18.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Those subtotals add up to 6,282 night raids for the entire 10 months.</p>
<p>Exclusively in the New Print Issue of CounterPunch</p>
<p>THE SLOW DEATH OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH&#160;– Nancy Scheper-Hughes on Clerical Sex Abuse and the Vatican. PLUS Fred Gardner on Obama’s Policy on Marijuana and the Reform Leaders’ Misleading Spin. &#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">SUBSCRIBE NOW</a></p>
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<p /> | U.S. Night Raids Killed Over 1,500 Afghan Civilians in Ten Months | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/11/03/u-s-night-raids-killed-over-1500-afghan-civilians-in-ten-months/ | 2011-11-03 | 4 |
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<p>The brighter outlook reflects growing optimism that sales will increase over the next six months. That could potentially spur growth in home construction, a key driver of the economy.</p>
<p>The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Wednesday rose this month to 59, up four points from August. The index has risen four months in a row.</p>
<p>The latest reading is the highest since reaching 61 in November 2005, before the housing bubble burst.</p>
<p>Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good, rather than poor.</p>
<p>Builders’ view of current sales conditions for single-family homes, their outlook for sales over the next six months and traffic by prospective buyers each increased in the latest survey.</p>
<p>In the Albuquerque metro area “builder confidence remains strong but still lagging compared to some of our peer western cities (Phoenix and El Paso),” said John Garica, executive vice president of HBA, the area’s homebuilders grouip.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Job growth and attracting active adults are important factors that affect both builders confidence and consumer confidence,” Garcia told the Journal. “We are expecting more new home permits by the close of the forth quarter than we had last year.”</p>
<p>The optimism comes despite a steady slowdown in U.S. sales of new homes this summer. Sales fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 in May to a rate of 412,000 in July.</p>
<p>Still, sales of new homes are running ahead of last year’s pace.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Builder confidence up, ABQ hopes to see Q4 permit jump | false | https://abqjournal.com/463635/us-homebuilder-confidence-soars-in-september.html | 2014-09-17 | 2 |
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<p>Democrats won the fight for North Carolina’s governor’s mansion this fall – but they’re now in a brawl with the Republican- controlled legislature over who actually gets to pull the levers of power.</p>
<p>This week, in the waning hours of their hold on North Carolina’s executive branch, Republicans unveiled and quickly pushed through a series of bills that would significantly curb Gov.-elect Roy Cooper’s (D) power.</p>
<p>Republicans were voting on measures Thursday that would, among other things, require the governor’s Cabinet appointments to be approved by the state Senate and effectively give Republicans control of the Board of Elections during election years. Other bills appeared designed to limit Democrats’ judicial influence by making North Carolina one of just a handful of states that holds partisan elections for its state Supreme Court justices.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It was unclear how many would ultimately be voted on, but those that made it to the floor were expected to pass. Beleaguered Gov. Pat McCrory (R) is still in charge for a few more weeks and could sign the bills into law on his way out the door, though he hasn’t said whether he will. For now, all Democrats can do is watch.</p>
<p>“American democracy may be more fragile than we realized,” longtime U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., said in a statement.</p>
<p>Cooper held a news conference Thursday where he described legislature’s efforts as “unprecedented” and urged them to “go home.”</p>
<p>“This is about thwarting the governor’s ability to move us forward,” he said, later adding: “Most people might think that this is a partisan power grab. But this is more ominous.”</p>
<p>What Democrats call a concerted power grab, Republicans frame as a constitutional check and balance. House Rules Chairman David Lewis (R) said the GOP-controlled legislature wants to “establish that we are going to continue to be a relevant party in governing this state,” the Raleigh News &amp; Observer reported.</p>
<p>Yes, he allowed, the fact they’ll have a Democratic governor next year is speeding things along. But GOP leaders maintained that the changes were long overdue.</p>
<p>“Some of the stuff we’re doing, obviously if the election results were different, we might not be moving quite as fast on, but a lot of this stuff would have been done anyway and has been talked about for quite some time,” Lewis said.</p>
<p>Adding to Democrats’ dismay is the fact many were caught by surprise. At McCrory’s request, Republican legislative leaders convened a special session this week to approve $200 million of disaster recovery aid for Hurricane Matthew and wildfires. There had been rumors for weeks that Republicans would use the time to pack the state Supreme Court with GOP appointees. That never came to fruition.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But as the special session for hurricane relief aid was coming to a close Wednesday, GOP lawmakers suddenly convened another. They wouldn’t say why until the bills that would curtail Cooper’s power dropped.</p>
<p>Urged on by Democratic lawmakers, several hundred people packed the capitol in Raleigh on Thursday to express their concern that hurricane relief was being used as a cover for partisan politics. A journalist who works for an advocacy group claimed to have been arrested as police tried to clear out protesters who were chanting from the galleries during the legislative session. Police tried to clear the galleries and arrested a number of people who refused to leave and charged them with trespassing, the Raleigh News &amp; Observer reported.</p>
<p>Things got particularly ugly during an NAACP news conference, when one of the group’s attorneys spotted the director of the state Republican Party in the crowd and welcomed him by saying: “I know this is the first meeting he’s been in in the last two or three days that wasn’t composed of all white people.”</p>
<p>The moves may have shocked Democrats – but the method has a familiar feel. The last time GOP lawmakers called a high-profile special session, in March, they ended up ramming through one of the state’s most controversial laws in recent memory, a bill limiting which public bathrooms transgender people can use and municipalities’ ability to pass anti-discrimination laws for LGBT people.</p>
<p>A national backlash to that bill helped contribute to McCrory’s upset. (He conceded earlier this month, though not before controversially calling the election into question by attempting to claim widespread voter fraud.)</p>
<p>The state legislature is indeed acting within its rights, said University of North Carolina constitutional law professor Michael Gerhardt.</p>
<p>But he said it is potentially concerning that lawmakers are powering through these changes in such a blatantly political way: A Republican legislature is convening a special session to pass bills that limit an incoming Democratic governor’s power.</p>
<p>Whatever the final outcome, what’s happening now certainly doesn’t bode well for relations between the two branches – relations that were already expected to be contentious. Cooper ousted McCrory by roughly 10,000 votes out of more than 4 million cast, and Republicans in the state legislature have a supermajority capable of vetoing Cooper anytime they want.</p>
<p>“The concern for a lot of people is we have a legislature intent on keeping the score politically,” Gerhardt said.</p>
<p>North Carolina’s politicians could be taking their cues from Washington.</p>
<p>Significant parts of President Barack Obama’s legacy have been stymied in the courts, thanks to lawsuits brought by more than two dozen GOP state attorneys general and sometimes even Congress itself.</p>
<p>“They look at what happened at the federal level and think, ‘Maybe we need to do it at the state level,’ ” Gerhardt said.</p>
<p>But, much like the situation in Washington, whether you think what’s happening in North Carolina is right or wrong probably depends on your politics, Gerhardt added: “If you’re a ‘big D Democrat,’ [this] worries you. If you’re a ‘big R Republican,’ maybe it worries you, maybe it doesn’t.”</p>
<p>ncarolina-3rdld-writethru</p> | In N.C. legislature, GOP grabs for power and ratchets drama | false | https://abqjournal.com/909473/analysis-a-coup-a-power-grab-theres-some-serious-political-drama-in-north-carolina-right-now.html | 2016-12-15 | 2 |
<p>Demonstrations broke out at Texas passed a harsh anti-abortion bill in 2013—a record-breaking year for abortion restrictions.Tamir Kalifa/AP</p>
<p />
<p>After a <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2014/01/02/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Guttmacher+%28New+from+the+Guttmacher+Institute%29" type="external">record-shattering year</a> in 2013, the pace of harsh anti-abortion bills introduced in 2014 slowed down. Elections cut short the legislative calendar in many states, and the general assemblies in Texas and North Dakota, two&#160;anti-abortion heavyweights, didn’t meet.</p>
<p>But brace yourself for 2015.</p>
<p>Next year, Republicans will control <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/statevote-2014-post-election-analysis635508614.aspx" type="external">11 more legislative chambers</a> than they did in 2014. Lawmakers in Texas and North Dakota are back in session, and there are no major elections to take up lawmakers’ time or cause them worry about war-on-women attacks.</p>
<p>In at least nine states, abortion foes forces have already begun crafting restrictions for 2015. Below, Mother Jones has compiled a list of anti-abortion bills that have been prefiled in statehouses across the country. (Did we miss one? Shoot us an <a href="" type="internal">email</a>.)</p>
<p>And this list only covers states where bills have actually been submitted. In other states, abortion foes are still scribbling away.</p>
<p>In Iowa, lawmakers are expected to <a href="http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Lawmakers-Already-Looking-Ahead-to-2015-Session-256842671.html?ref=671" type="external">consider a bill</a> that bans physicians from giving instructions on abortion-inducing drugs by webcam or phone.&#160;(Iowa has more than a dozen clinics that provide “telemedicine” procedures in which patients use medication at home and receive advice on how to do so from supervising doctors via phone calls or video chats.) Members of the state’s Board of Medicine, all of whom were appointed by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, are also trying to ban telemedicine abortions in Iowa; their efforts have been halted by a lawsuit. Arkansas Republicans want to <a href="http://arkansasnews.com/news/arkansas/more-abortion-bills-coming-next-year" type="external">ban telemedicine abortions</a> and <a href="http://arkansasnews.com/news/arkansas/more-abortion-bills-coming-next-year" type="external">stop government money</a> from going to an STI prevention program run by Planned Parenthood because of the group’s affiliation with abortion services.</p>
<p>Republicans in Wisconsin will <a href="http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/12/14/4027628/wisconsin-anti-abortion-groups.html?sp=/99/321/" type="external">push a 20-week abortion ban</a> and an audit of Planned Parenthood to investigate whether the group is overbilling Medicaid. New Hampshire general assembly records show that New Hampshire Republicans have started drafting two abortion acts, one “relative to banning abortion after viability” and the other “prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion services.” And in Ohio, the state’s Right to Life president has promised that his group will help lawmakers draft a “rather large and robust” slate of anti-abortion laws next year.</p>
<p>Missouri</p>
<p>Under <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PIMA.pdf" type="external">current Missouri law</a>, a minor who wants an abortion must have the consent of one parent or guardian. <a href="http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB81&amp;year=2015&amp;code=R" type="external">Two</a> <a href="http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB99&amp;year=2015&amp;code=R" type="external">lawmakers</a> have filed bills for the 2015 legislative session that would add new hurdles to that parental consent law.</p>
<p>South Carolina</p>
<p>Tennessee</p>
<p>Texas</p>
<p /> | The War on Reproductive Rights Will Get a Lot Uglier Next Year | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/2015-abortion-bills-state-legislatures/ | 2014-12-18 | 4 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - Cresco Ltd</p>
<p>* Says 270 units of its fourth series options were exercised to 27,000 shares of its common stock, during the period from Jan. 18 to Jan. 22</p>
<p>Source text in Japanese: <a href="https://goo.gl/NujEna" type="external">goo.gl/NujEna</a></p>
<p>Further company coverage: (Beijing Headline News)</p> Our Standards:
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<p>SAN JOSE (Reuters) - The center-left’s Carlos Alvarado Quesada decisively defeated a conservative Protestant singer in Costa Rica’s presidential runoff election on Sunday by promising to allow gay marriage, protecting the country’s reputation for tolerance.</p>
<p>A former minister and fiction writer, Quesada, 38, had 61 percent of the vote with results in from 95 percent of polling stations, a far bigger lead than predicted by opinion polls that foresaw a tight race.</p>
<p>“My commitment is to a government for everybody, in equality and liberty for a more prosperous future,” he told thousands of cheering supporters blowing horns and waving Costa Rica’s red, white and blue flag.</p>
<p>“There is much more that unites us than divides us.”</p>
<p>His rival, Alvarado Munoz, a 43-year-old former TV journalist known for religious dance songs, quickly conceded, sinking to his knees, arms raised, in front of supporters, some of them crying.</p>
<p>“We didn’t win the election,” he said, adding that he had congratulated his opponent in a telephone call and, in another sign of Costa Rica’s cordial politics, promised to help him resolve the country’s problems.</p>
<p>The election had exposed divisions in the Central American tourist destination known for laid-back beach culture and pristine rainforests, but where some rural communities remain socially conservative.</p> Carlos Alvarado Quesada, presidential candidate of the ruling Citizens' Action Party (PAC), celebrates his victory during the presidential election in San Jose, Costa Rica April 1, 2018. REUTERS /Jose Cabezas
<p>It could also reflect the mood elsewhere in Latin America, where elections are being held this year in several countries that have backed same sex unions, provoking a conservative reaction.</p>
<p>Alvarado Quesada, until recently a minister in the outgoing government, will be the youngest president in the modern history of Costa Rica when he takes office in May.</p>
<p>Also known for his student prog-rock band, he used the campaign to appeal to his country’s centrist streak. His vice presidential candidate, Epsy Campbell, will be the country’s first Afro-Costa Rican to serve in that role.</p> Slideshow (9 Images)
<p>Opponent Alvarado Munoz had vowed to restore what he called traditional values by preventing gay marriage and restricting women’s access to abortions.</p>
<p>The two men took opposing positions on a January decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an influential regional body based in San Jose.</p>
<p>Fabricio, as supporters refer to Alvarado Munoz, called the ruling an affront to sovereignty. Threatening to remove the country from the court’s jurisdiction, he shot from the margins to win the first round of voting in February.</p>
<p>Quesada, by contrast, backed the court’s ruling. In the campaign’s final debate, he called his opponent’s comments homophobic.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Clarence Fernandez</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese business sentiment worsened for the first time in two years in the three months to March, a closely watched central bank survey showed on Monday, as rising raw materials and labor costs weigh on an otherwise steady economic recovery.</p> A maintenance worker is seen atop of an airplane of Japan Airlines (JAL) at a hangar of Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan, April 2, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato
<p>A strong yen and simmering fears of a trade war, triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, could further undermine corporate morale if threats of retaliation escalate, analysts say.</p>
<p>But few analysts expect the economic recovery to falter as business confidence remains at a decade-high level and companies plan to increase capital expenditure.</p>
<p>“Yen gains since late January have eroded manufacturers’ sentiment but solid global economic fundamentals helped offset the pain. Overall, you can say that business confidence held firm,” said Yuichiro Nagai, an economist at Barclays Securities.</p>
<p>“Fears of a global trade war have had a limited impact on business sentiment so far. But depending on development of U.S. trade policy, protectionism could weigh on the outlook.”</p>
<p>An index measuring big manufacturers’ confidence fell by 2 points to plus 24 in March, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly “tankan” survey showed, roughly matching a median market forecast of plus 25.</p>
<p>Non-manufacturers’ sentiment worsened by 2 points to plus 23 against a median forecast of plus 24, deteriorating for the first time in six quarters.</p>
<p>Both big manufacturers and non-manufacturers forecast business conditions would sour three months ahead, the tankan showed, reflecting looming uncertainty over the fallout from Trump’s trade policy and a strong yen.</p>
<p>“This should not be taken as turning point for Japan’s economy although sentiment deteriorated slightly,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “Concerns are high over possible retaliation against U.S. tariffs, but the global economy remains in a gradual recovery which is good for Japan’s value-added exports.”</p>
<p>About 70 percent of companies replied to the survey by March 12, after Trump unveiled steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports but before his announcement of anti-China tariffs.</p>
<p>Big manufacturers expect the dollar to move around 109.66 yen on average during the year that began in April, much weaker than the current levels around 106 yen.</p>
<p>If the yen’s gains continue, manufacturers may be forced to cut their optimistic profit forecasts - a worry for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is pursuing growth with reflationist policies.</p> LABOR SHORTAGES
<p>Labor shortages also weighed on sentiment, as economic recovery and a dwindling working-age population push the jobless rate to a near 25-year low.</p>
<p>A tankan index measuring capacity constraints showed that companies saw the job market at its tightest since 1991.</p>
<p>“Labor shortages are having a negative impact particularly on labor-intensive service-sector firms,” said Satoshi Osanai, senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Japan Yen note is seen in this illustration photo taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo
<p>He said rising wages could stoke a “virtuous growth cycle” of consumer spending, rising prices and increased investment if companies could pass on their higher costs to generate profit. “The key to making this happen is whether consumers are willing to spend their increased earnings, but so far there’s little sign of that happening.”</p>
<p>Slow wage growth and companies’ reluctance to raise prices have kept inflation well below the Bank of Japan’s elusive 2 percent target.</p>
<p>However, the tankan showed more companies were able to pass higher costs on to consumers, a hopeful sign for the central bank.</p>
<p>A tankan index measuring how big manufacturers saw output price moves stood at plus 4, the highest level since 2008, and showing price pressures continue to rise.</p>
<p>Some firms in the construction, restaurant and hotel industries complained that labor shortages were taking a toll on their businesses, a BOJ official briefing reporters on the data said.</p>
<p>Firms in the basic materials business such as those selling steel, nonferrous metals and textiles saw sentiment hurt by rising cost of raw materials, the official said.</p>
<p>The index measuring steelmakers’ sentiment fell 9 points, the biggest drop among big manufacturers, while confidence also slumped among producers of nonferrous metals and metal products.</p>
<p>Still, big firms plan to raise their capital spending by 2.3 percent in the current financial year from April, versus the median estimate for a 0.6 percent gain, the tankan showed.</p>
<p>The tankan’s sentiment indexes are derived by subtracting the number of respondents who say conditions are poor from those who say they are good. A positive reading means optimists outnumber pessimists.</p>
<p>Reporting by Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Sam Holmes and Eric Meijer</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - China has slapped extra tariffs of up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as on wine and certain fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel, China’s finance ministry said.</p> FILE PHOTO: A labourer works on coils of steel wire at a steel wholesale market in Beijing, China, January 17, 2012. REUTERS/Soo Hoo Zheyang/File Photo
<p>The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday and match a list of potential tariffs on up to $3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23.</p> FILE PHOTO: A butcher cuts a piece of pork at a market in Beijing, China, March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
<p>China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said it was suspending its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce tariffs on 120 U.S. goods, including fruit. The tariffs on those products will be raised by an extra 15 percent.</p>
<p>Eight other products, including pork, will now be subject to additional tariffs of 25 percent, it said, with the measures effective from April 2.</p>
<p>“China’s suspension of its tariff concessions is a legitimate action adopted under WTO rules to safeguard China’s interests,” the Chinese finance ministry said.</p>
<p>China has imposed the additional tariffs amid escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, sparking fears of a full-blown trade spat between the world’s two biggest economies.</p> FILE PHOTO: Several-week-old pigs stand in a pen inside a barn at Paustian Enterprises in Walcott, Iowa, November 19, 2014. REUTERS/Daniel Acker/File Photo
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50 billion on Chinese goods intended to punish Beijing over U.S. accusations that China systematically misappropriated American intellectual property - allegations Beijing denies.</p>
<p>China has repeatedly promised to open its economy further, but many foreign companies continue to complain of unfair treatment. China warned the United States on Thursday not to open a Pandora’s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe.</p>
<p>In a statement published on Monday morning, MOFCOM said the United States had “seriously violated” the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in World Trade Organization rules, and had also damaged China’s interests.</p>
<p>“China’s suspension of some of its obligations to the United States is its legitimate right as a member of the World Trade Organization,” it said, adding that differences between the world’s two largest economies should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by David Stanway in SHANGHAI and Stella Qiu in BEIJING; Editing by Eric Meijer &amp; Shri Navaratnam</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, were among the hundreds in Pyongyang on Sunday watching South Korean K-pop singers perform in the North for the first time in more than a decade as tensions between the old rivals thaw.</p> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets South Korean K-pop singers in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 2, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters
<p>It was the first time a North Korean leader had attended a South Korean performance in the North’s capital. Kim was seen clapping in tune to some of the songs and took photographs with the performers after the show.</p>
<p>“Our dear leader comrade said his heart swelled and he was moved by the sight of his people deepen their understanding of South Korean popular culture and cheer with sincerity,” the North’s KCNA state media said.</p>
<p>The North Korean audience clapped, cheered, sang along to some of the songs and later presented the South Korean performers with bouquets.</p>
<p>“(Kim Jong Un) showed much interest during the show and asked questions about the songs and lyrics,” Culture Minister Do Jong-whan told reporters after the show.</p>
<p>Sunday’s performance coincided with the start of annual joint South Korean-U.S. military drills, which have previously been met with denunciations and missile launches by the North, and were delayed and shortened this year in order not to overshadow the Olympic detente.</p>
<p>The recent thaw in relations, which could even lead to a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in May, follows months of increased tensions after North Korea conducted missile launches and a nuclear test last year in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.</p>
<p>Sunday’s concert was held under the title “Spring is Coming” at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, performed by an elite lineup of South Korean artists including veteran vocalists Cho Yong-pil, Lee Sun-hee, rock star Yoon Do-hyun and singer Baek Ji-young, as well as K-pop girl band Red Velvet.</p> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju watch South Korean K-pop singers perform in a concert under the title "Spring is Coming" at the Pyongyang Taekwondo Hall in North Korea in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 2, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters
<p>Like the concert title, the performance had brought a “spring of peace” to the two Koreas, Kim was also cited as saying by the North’s central news agency, and expressed wishes for a “prosperous autumn”.</p>
<p>The North Korean leader’s face was slightly flushed in a group photograph with the performers distributed by North Korean state media. He was seen in another directly addressing members of Red Velvet, which commands more than 4.6 million followers on Instagram.</p>
<p>North Korean staff were spotted outside the performers’ dressing rooms using Japan-made electronic devices to serve coffee and cupcakes, including Western Lavazza and Coffee-mate products, according to a South Korean media pool report.</p> SIGNIFICANT THAW
<p>Sunday’s two-hour concert in Pyongyang, along with a separate taekwondo performance earlier in the day, came as South Korea’s engagement with North Korea has grown since Kim expressed his willingness for more contact between the two countries.</p>
<p>Athletes from North and South Korea marched under a unified peninsula flag at the opening ceremony at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February. The significant thaw in the inter-Korean relations has led them to set a date for their first summit in more than a decade on April 27.</p>
<p>The two Koreas are technically still at war after the 1950-1953 conflict ended with a ceasefire rather than a peace agreement.</p>
<p>The South Korean delegation included artists, concert staff, taekwondo demonstrators, reporters and government officials. They traveled to Pyongyang on Saturday in a reciprocal cultural visit after North Korea sent performers to the South in February, the South’s Culture Ministry said.</p>
<p>In addition to the concert, a team of South Korean taekwondo demonstrators performed on Sunday at the Pyongyang Taekwondo Hall, drawing more than 2,300 North Koreans, including Choe Hwi, chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee.</p> Slideshow (5 Images) BANNED MEDIA
<p>The images of Kim posing and laughing with the young South Korean pop stars and applauding in the stands contrasts with reports from North Korean defectors who say he has overseen a crackdown on foreign media.</p>
<p>“North Korean refugees overwhelmingly and consistently report that it has become more dangerous to consume foreign media under Kim Jong Un’s crackdowns,” Sokeel Park, the South Korea country director for refugee aid organization Liberty in North Korea, said on Twitter.</p>
<p>A 2015 survey of North Korean refugees conducted by the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors found that 77 percent of respondents said it had become more dangerous to listen to foreign radio under Kim.</p>
<p>South Korean movies were often reported to be especially taboo compared to Chinese films, according to a report by the InterMedia consultancy group, with North Koreans potentially facing prison time if caught.</p>
<p>Seohyun, an actress and vocalist with South Korean girl group Girls’ Generation, sang a North Korean pop song called “Blue Willow Tree”. She had performed with the North’s Samjiyon Orchestra in Seoul in February.</p>
<p>Cho Yong-pil, 68, sang a string of hits including “The Cafe in the Winter”, “Short Hair” and “Let’s Go on a Trip”. Cho staged a solo concert in Pyongyang in 2005 - the last concert by a South Korean artist in the North before Sunday’s performance.</p>
<p>The same South Korean singers will hold a joint concert with North Korean performers on Tuesday at the Ryukyung Chung Ju Yung Gymnasium, a joint project between the North and South named after Hyundai Group billionaire founder Chung Ju-yung, who had long advocated inter-Korean cultural and economic exchanges.</p>
<p>Kim had been planning to attend the Tuesday performance but decided to watch Sunday’s show due to “political schedules”, KCNA and South Korean officials there said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Louise Heavens, Peter Cooney and Paul Tait</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Cresco says exercise of options Costa Rica center-left easily wins presidency in vote fought on gay rights Japan's business mood sours for first time in two years, upbeat on capex China imposes additional tariffs in response to U.S. duties on steel, aluminum North Korea's Kim Jong Un, wife, watch South Korean K-pop stars perform in Pyongyang | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-cresco-says-exercise-of-options/brief-cresco-says-exercise-of-options-idUSL4N1PH2GC | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA has played a tough schedule the last two seasons, and the Bruins never had a victory over a ranked team to show for it.</p>
<p>Until now.</p>
<p>Jordin Canada scored 24 points and the 15th-ranked Bruins defeated No. 11 Oregon State 71-51 Monday night for their first win over a ranked opponent in over two years.</p>
<p>“We’ve been talking all year about earn what you want,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “These players really bought into the game plan.”</p>
<p>Canada hit all four of her 3-point attempts — a career high — in helping the Bruins (11-3, 3-0 Pac-12) end their 21-game skid against ranked opponents. The Bruins had lost their last 10 games against ranked teams at Pauley Pavilion. Their previous win at home came on Nov. 24, 2013, when they knocked off No. 10 Oklahoma 82-76.</p>
<p>Kari Korver added 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and Nirra Fields had 10 for the Bruins.</p>
<p>“It’s really fun to play as hard as we did and get the result we did,” Korver said.</p>
<p>Jamie Weisner was the only Beaver in double figures with 19 while in foul trouble. Oregon State (10-3, 1-1) had a season-high 26 turnovers that led to 23 points by the Bruins.</p>
<p>“Their pressure was really effective,” OSU coach Scott Rueck said. “They forced us into a lot of mistakes. We didn’t get comfortable offensively.”</p>
<p>UCLA held Ruth Hamblin to seven points on just four shots and five rebounds after she picked up two fouls in the first half.</p>
<p>“Ruth is one of the best post players in the country,” Close said. “We had to disrupt vision and it was having an attack mentality on offense.”</p>
<p>The Bruins led 35-27 at halftime and pulled away in the third quarter. That’s when they outscored the Beavers 24-16, helped by two 3-pointers from Canada.</p>
<p>She could see the Beavers were frustrated.</p>
<p>“You can tell by their body language, the way they’re dribbling the ball,” Canada said. “It feeds into wanting to get another stop after stop.”</p>
<p>UCLA got an 8-0 run early in the fourth to extend its lead to 67-45. Canada hit a pair of free throws to launch it and Kelli Hayes added consecutive baskets.</p>
<p>“When our guards commit to really pressuring and help with the traps, we create great offense by our defense,” Korver said.</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Oregon State: The Beavers’ three-game winning streak against the Bruins ended. ... They dropped from 10th to 11 in the Top 25 poll released Monday. The Beavers have been ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll every week since Dec. 29, 2014. ... They swept the Los Angeles schools last year and were trying to do it in consecutive years for the first time in school history.</p>
<p>UCLA: Korver has made at least one 3-pointer in 25 straight games. ... Canada has had five or more assists in 13 of 14 games this season.</p>
<p>BUSY BRUINS</p>
<p>UCLA played its fourth game in eight days, having won all of them. The Bruins have won eight of their last nine. They beat UC Riverside in their last non-conference game before beating crosstown rival USC in the teams’ Pac-12 opener.</p>
<p>INJURED SYD</p>
<p>Guard Sydney Wiese missed her fourth straight game for the Beavers because of an injury to her right hand. She is averaging 12.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Katie McWilliams started in Wiese’s place and had seven points, one assist and a team-high seven turnovers. “Katie learned a lot,” Rueck said. “With Syd on the floor, she’s seen that stuff for three years.” McWilliams was offered a scholarship by UCLA, but she chose the Beavers.</p>
<p>UP NEXT:</p>
<p>Oregon State: Hosts Oregon on Friday.</p>
<p>UCLA: Visits Southern California on Sunday to play the Trojans for the second time in 11 days.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA has played a tough schedule the last two seasons, and the Bruins never had a victory over a ranked team to show for it.</p>
<p>Until now.</p>
<p>Jordin Canada scored 24 points and the 15th-ranked Bruins defeated No. 11 Oregon State 71-51 Monday night for their first win over a ranked opponent in over two years.</p>
<p>“We’ve been talking all year about earn what you want,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “These players really bought into the game plan.”</p>
<p>Canada hit all four of her 3-point attempts — a career high — in helping the Bruins (11-3, 3-0 Pac-12) end their 21-game skid against ranked opponents. The Bruins had lost their last 10 games against ranked teams at Pauley Pavilion. Their previous win at home came on Nov. 24, 2013, when they knocked off No. 10 Oklahoma 82-76.</p>
<p>Kari Korver added 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and Nirra Fields had 10 for the Bruins.</p>
<p>“It’s really fun to play as hard as we did and get the result we did,” Korver said.</p>
<p>Jamie Weisner was the only Beaver in double figures with 19 while in foul trouble. Oregon State (10-3, 1-1) had a season-high 26 turnovers that led to 23 points by the Bruins.</p>
<p>“Their pressure was really effective,” OSU coach Scott Rueck said. “They forced us into a lot of mistakes. We didn’t get comfortable offensively.”</p>
<p>UCLA held Ruth Hamblin to seven points on just four shots and five rebounds after she picked up two fouls in the first half.</p>
<p>“Ruth is one of the best post players in the country,” Close said. “We had to disrupt vision and it was having an attack mentality on offense.”</p>
<p>The Bruins led 35-27 at halftime and pulled away in the third quarter. That’s when they outscored the Beavers 24-16, helped by two 3-pointers from Canada.</p>
<p>She could see the Beavers were frustrated.</p>
<p>“You can tell by their body language, the way they’re dribbling the ball,” Canada said. “It feeds into wanting to get another stop after stop.”</p>
<p>UCLA got an 8-0 run early in the fourth to extend its lead to 67-45. Canada hit a pair of free throws to launch it and Kelli Hayes added consecutive baskets.</p>
<p>“When our guards commit to really pressuring and help with the traps, we create great offense by our defense,” Korver said.</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Oregon State: The Beavers’ three-game winning streak against the Bruins ended. ... They dropped from 10th to 11 in the Top 25 poll released Monday. The Beavers have been ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll every week since Dec. 29, 2014. ... They swept the Los Angeles schools last year and were trying to do it in consecutive years for the first time in school history.</p>
<p>UCLA: Korver has made at least one 3-pointer in 25 straight games. ... Canada has had five or more assists in 13 of 14 games this season.</p>
<p>BUSY BRUINS</p>
<p>UCLA played its fourth game in eight days, having won all of them. The Bruins have won eight of their last nine. They beat UC Riverside in their last non-conference game before beating crosstown rival USC in the teams’ Pac-12 opener.</p>
<p>INJURED SYD</p>
<p>Guard Sydney Wiese missed her fourth straight game for the Beavers because of an injury to her right hand. She is averaging 12.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Katie McWilliams started in Wiese’s place and had seven points, one assist and a team-high seven turnovers. “Katie learned a lot,” Rueck said. “With Syd on the floor, she’s seen that stuff for three years.” McWilliams was offered a scholarship by UCLA, but she chose the Beavers.</p>
<p>UP NEXT:</p>
<p>Oregon State: Hosts Oregon on Friday.</p>
<p>UCLA: Visits Southern California on Sunday to play the Trojans for the second time in 11 days.</p> | No. 15 UCLA women knock off 11th-ranked Oregon State 71-51 | false | https://apnews.com/477ce5014840435b9eb5a2c5810b79eb | 2016-01-05 | 2 |
<p>When weightlifter Amna Al Haddad, 27, first trained at the gym near her home in the United Arab Emirates, she says people stared at her. She was a wearing a hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf.</p>
<p>“Seeing a woman wearing a hijab was very unheard of when I first started sports,” she says. “It was very unusual, and I did get a lot of rejections at first, a lot of stares, a lot of naysayers. Personally, I did not care to hear their opinion, and I did what was right for me.”</p>
<p />
<p>Courtesy of Nike</p>
<p>That was in 2011. Since that time, Haddad says she found a piece of material that worked pretty well as a head cover while she trained and competed. Up until that point, she wore a traditional, longer hijab — and it got in her way.</p>
<p>“It used to fly over my face. It was dark, you know, I could not see anything.”</p>
<p>With Haddad’s help, Nike has become the first major global manufacturer to make a hijab for Muslim athletes. The debut line of the product will be available in 2018.</p>
<p>She says the Nike version is a lot more breathable than what she and other female athletes have used before.</p>
<p>“It basically feels like you’re not wearing anything, but at the same time, you’re actually still covered, and you’re able to respect your faith and still do sports the way you like,” she says.</p>
<p>But for Haddad, the fact that a global brand is making a sports hijab is about much more than just comfort while competing.</p>
<p>“It’s a game changer not just for the brand,” she says, “but it’s also for the people because it can spread awareness and more compassion and more understanding of what the Muslim community is all about.”</p>
<p>Haddad has recently retired from weightlifting and is pursuing ways to help more Muslim women and girls engage in sports.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot more work to be done to empower women in the Arab world,” she says.</p>
<p />
<p>Courtesy of Nike</p> | What the Nike Pro Hijab is really about | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-03-10/what-nike-pro-hijab-really-about | 2017-03-10 | 3 |
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<p>New Mexico State University Carlsbad has found a way to offer its students a powerful resume boost in Carlsbad's competitive mining industries.</p>
<p>The Industrial Maintenance Technician Program, initiated this semester, works with students to train them in industrial technologies and prepare them to enter the workforce.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Instructor Richard Blankenship said that each student who completes the program can expect to become a "jack of all trades." That's something that Khushroo Ghadiali, director of marketing and publication, said is essential in preparing students to enter a professional environment where they must deal with a variety of situations.</p>
<p>Those who complete the program will receive a certificate, but the two-year program is often paired with an additional three classes to earn an associate degree.</p>
<p>Currently there are 22 students enrolled in the two cohorts, one of whom is female.</p>
<p>The program focuses on the basics of the industrial technology, including equipment troubleshooting. Courses cover everything from hydraulics to schematics and analysis, as well as a course in welding. Students can choose to specialize in electrical or mechanical work.</p>
<p>And, Blankenship said, each student is building a portfolio of skills that they can pack onto a resume for employers to consider.</p>
<p>"Someone who comes in knowing this stuff, I say now you have a document from the university to back you up," Blankenship said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"This is a great example of a private/public partnership and working to fulfill the need in the community," said Ghadiali of the program, which he said is the only one of its kind in the state.</p>
<p>Eddy County has seen a growth in the potash industry and the oil and gas fields, and the need for skilled workers to fill positions in those industries as well as support services is great.</p>
<p>An important aspect for success, according to Blankenship, is the input of students, some of whom are real-life industrial maintenance technicians.</p>
<p>"We are going to learn from our mistakes and get better," Blankenship said. "There are lots of possibilities and opportunities with this (program)."</p>
<p>He envisions the program aiding those who are interested in certification and said that employers outside the mines, such as WIPP and the city of Carlsbad, will benefit from the program's presence.</p>
<p>A joint donation by Mosaic and Intrepid Potash helped the university purchase several crucial pieces of equipment to get the program off the ground.</p>
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<p /> | NMSU offers mining certificate in Carlsbad | false | https://abqjournal.com/344936/nmsu-offers-mining-certificate-in-carlsbad.html | 2 |
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<p>SANTA FE — A Santa Fe-based New Mexico National Guard unit is preparing to deploy to the Middle East.</p>
<p>C Company of the 171st Aviation Regiment’s 1st Battalion heads first to Fort Hood, Texas, for about a month of additional training before it deploys to Kuwait for a year.</p>
<p>The company flies Blackhawk helicopters to perform medical evacuations.</p>
<p>It last deployed in 2011-2012, completing more than 1,400 missions in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | New Mexican National Guard unit preparing for deployment | false | https://abqjournal.com/535750/new-mexican-national-guard-unit-preparing-for-deployment.html | 2 |
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<p>(Reuters) – Software startup Slack Technologies Inc said it raised $250 million from SoftBank Group Corp (T:) and other investors in its latest funding round, boosting the company’s valuation to $5.1 billion.</p>
<p>The latest fund-raising, led by SoftBank through its giant Vision Fund and joined by Accel and other investors, lifted Slack’s total funds raised to $841 million, the enterprise messaging operator said in an emailed statement.</p>
<p>The fund provides resources which will help Slack to run as a cash-generating company and the raise will reduce its dependence on outside financing, Slack Chief Executive Stewart Butterfield said.</p>
<p>In July, sources had told Reuters that Slack was raising $250 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank.</p>
<p>The company in the past has raised money from venture firms including GGV Capital, Spark Capital and Thrive Capital, among others.</p>
<p>Slack’s sizeable funding round reflects the trend of a growing number of $100 million-plus checks pouring into technology startups. In the second quarter this year, there were 34 venture capital deals of $100 million or more, nearly triple the 12 such transactions in the first quarter, according to data firm PitchBook Inc.</p>
<p>These large rounds have helped drive an uptick in startup funding since the end of last year, with venture capitalists investing $15.7 billion in companies during the second quarter this year, a 27 percent increase from the first quarter and making for the strongest quarter in a year, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Bloomberg and Financial Times previously reported the funding deal.</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> | Slack valued at $5.1 billion after new funding led by SoftBank | false | https://newsline.com/slack-valued-at-5-1-billion-after-new-funding-led-by-softbank/ | 2017-09-18 | 1 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Pulling no punches, and sparing no consequences to US/China relations, the Xinhua news agency fired plenty of barbs at the current American administration, and signaled that they are growing even more displeased with the possibility of not receiving interest payments on the debt tokens they hold.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/513431/20131013/china-debt-ceiling-shutdown-xinhua-de-emericanised.htm" type="external">IBTIMES:</a></p>
<p>“China’s official news agency has called for the creation of a “de-Americanised world”, saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dysfunctional government.</p>
<p>Heaping criticism and caustic ridicule on Washington, the Xinhua news agency called the US a civilian slayer, prisoner torturer and meddler in others’ affairs, and said the ‘Pax Americana’ was a failure on all fronts.”</p>
<p>China is a far more serious threat to the United States than Russia ever thought of being. They are a nation with a serious population problem, totaling&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China" type="external">close to 1.35 billion</a>&#160;at last count. As our nation’s largest debt holder, they stand to receive the most damage by an&#160;American government&#160;default, and some suggest they are already planning&#160; <a href="http://freepatriot.org/2013/10/09/china-preparing-american-invasion-due-default/" type="external">an invasion on U.S. soil</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/513431/20131013/china-debt-ceiling-shutdown-xinhua-de-emericanised.htm" type="external">IBTIMES</a>:</p>
<p>“As US politicians of both&#160;political parties&#160;are still shuffling&#160;back and forth&#160;between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world,” the editorial said.”</p>
<p>More and more we are seeing&#160; <a href="http://www.republicmagazine.com/news/g-20-summit.html" type="external">significant international powers</a>, as well as small members of theinternational community,&#160; <a href="http://www.republicmagazine.com/news/obama-backed-out-of-syria.html" type="external">taking a very different approach</a>&#160;to how they view America. We are no longer being give credit as a World Super Power.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/513431/20131013/china-debt-ceiling-shutdown-xinhua-de-emericanised.htm" type="external">IBTIMES</a>:</p>
<p>“According to US Treasury Department data, China is the biggest foreign owner of US Treasuries at $1.28 trillion as of July. Besides, China also holds close to $3.5 trillion of dollar-denominated assets.</p>
<p>A US debt default and consequent credit downgrade would significantly erode the value of China’s holdings.</p>
<p>As the first step in creating a de-Americanised world, all nations must try to shape an international system that respects the sovereignty of all nations and ensures the US keeps out of the domestic affairs of others, Xinhua said.</p>
<p>It also called for an end to the use of the US dollar as the international reserve currency, a step that would ensure the international community could maintain a safe distance from the side-effects of domestic political turmoil in the United States.”</p>
<p>Surviving the upcoming collapse of&#160; <a href="http://survivalist.com/financial-fitness/" type="external">the American economy</a>&#160;might be the least of our worries, learning Mandarin by next March is going to be a little harder to swallow.</p> | China talking shit again, getting a little anxious that they might not receive their interest payment on the money we owe them on time, and are calling for the collapse of the US dollar, to be replaced with the Chinese yuan as the international standard reserve currency. Who the hell do these little bastards think they are? The train that is driving their prosperity is the American consumer market. Lose that and China reverts back to being a third-world rice exporter. So, go ahead, China, shoot yourself in the foot. In fact, I would like to hasten your demise and call for an immediate import tariff of, oh, say 100%. Maybe then you will understand where your newfound wealth is coming from.. THE MOST VALUABLE THING ON THE PLANET EARTH IS THE AMERICAN CONSUMER MARKET!…. | true | https://powderedwigsociety.com/china-talking-shit-again-getting-a-little-anxious-that-they-might-not-receive-their-interest-payment-on-the-money-we-owe-them-on-time-and-are-calling-for-the-collapse-of-the-us-dollar-to-be-replace/ | 2013-10-15 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Whether newspaper endorsements sway readers’ presidential preferences is debatable and hard to prove, but such endorsements often provide measured rationales for supporting one candidate. This year, that’s particularly true for editorial boards that endorsed George Bush in 2000 and now share their reason for switching sides.</p>
<p>As Editor and Publisher <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000684275" type="external">noted Monday</a>, Kerry leads Bush in endorsements 128-105, with the pro-Kerry papers read by approximately six million more people than the pro-Bush publications. But what’s most telling is the profound disappointment expressed by those papers that backed Bush last time and have now sided with Kerry.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions04/101204_opinions_endorse.shtml" type="external">Albequerque Tribune endorsement</a> opens with a few paragraphs praising Kerry for his understanding of “the gray, the nuance” in the world, before detailing the failures of a president the paper favored four years ago:</p>
<p />
<p>“We urge independent and undecided voters in particular to double-check what Bush says against what he has done. Bush continues to insult American intelligence with his:</p>
<p>“Mistaken and unreal views of the war in Iraq, with its mounting costs in American and Iraqi lives, money and good will.</p>
<p>“Failure to focus U.S. military might on pursuing our real enemy, the terrorists.</p>
<p>“Willingness to compromise American freedoms, in contrast to a resistance to develop and implement safeguards to protect our people, borders, ports and infrastructure from future terror attacks.</p>
<p>“Unabashed flip-flop of the conservative fiscal ideal, turning a balanced federal budget — indeed, a huge surplus — into the largest deficit in U.S. history.</p>
<p>“Unrelenting attack on 30 years of environmental promise to benefit political friends in the fossil fuel and utility industries.”</p>
<p>The normally Republican-leaning Chicago Sun-Times <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits24x.html" type="external">expressed similar sentiments</a>, detailing how Bush’s post-Sept. 11 actions caused a “change in outlook” within the editorial board:</p>
<p />
<p>“[Bush] missed a historic opportunity to ask Americans, unified by the attack, to sacrifice and build a greater, stronger, better nation. Instead he told the country we were at war, but a war that would demand nothing of us except that we keep shopping. And he took us into Iraq…</p>
<p>“The president’s handling of the past year in Iraq — his dismissal of those who warned him about the difficulty of reorganizing the country, his neglect of deep problems that are costing American lives there — made us doubt his ability to bring our involvement there to a successful conclusion. And we became concerned by the secrecy of his subordinates such as Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft, coupled with an unnecessary disregard for some of our most cherished civil liberties.”</p>
<p>In Memphis, the Commercial Appeal <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/todays_editorial/article/0,1426,MCA_537_3276706,00.html" type="external">expressed some concerns</a> with both John Kerry and John Edwards, and questioned the feasibility of their domestic agenda. But the editorial board found Bush’s foreign policy enough of a reason to reverse its endorsement this year:</p>
<p />
<p>“This recommendation comes because of deeper concerns about where George W. Bush will take this country over the next four years.</p>
<p>“We recognize that many of our readers will profoundly disagree. But we believe that President Bush, who once promised to be a uniter, was given a mandate to lead a united country when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and he has not used it wisely.</p>
<p>“Whatever his shortcomings, Sen. Kerry, we believe, has a chance to restore the traditional, cooperative approach toward foreign policy that has served America well since the Eisenhower administration. We need more allies in the war on terror and to help us protect the homeland.”</p>
<p>In Florida, that swing state of swing states, the Orlando Sentinel also <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edped124102404oct24,1,5854545.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines" type="external">switched from Bush</a> despite its support for his brother and its long pro-Republican tradition (Lyndon Johnson had been the last Democrat endorsed for president by the Sentinel).</p>
<p />
<p>“Four years ago, we expressed confidence that Mr. Bush would replace the Clinton-Gore approach of frequent military intervention for one of selective involvement ‘using strict tests to evaluate U.S. national interests.’ To the president’s credit, the war in Afghanistan met those tests. But today, U.S. forces also are fighting and dying in a war of choice in Iraq — one that was launched to disarm a dictator who did not have weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea have worsened…</p>
<p>“Four years ago, we also called on Mr. Bush to pay down the nation’s multitrillion-dollar debt before cutting taxes or increasing spending. Yet since then, he has pushed through massive tax cuts, and the national debt has risen from $5.8 trillion to $7.4 trillion. Discretionary spending — not including defense and homeland security — has risen 16 percent over three years. The president has not vetoed a single spending bill…</p>
<p>“Four years ago, we called it a ‘disgrace’ that 43 million Americans lacked health insurance. That number has risen under Mr. Bush to 45 million. Yet the plan he now touts on the campaign trail would reduce the ranks of the uninsured by less than 20 percent, and he has not offered a way to pay for it…</p>
<p>“Indeed, Mr. Bush has abandoned the core values we thought we shared with him — keeping the nation strong while ensuring that its government is limited, accountable and fiscally responsible. We trust Mr. Kerry not to make the mistakes Mr. Bush has.”</p>
<p>While these are among the highest-profile papers to support Kerry after backing Bush in 2000, they are hardly alone. Others include The (Portland) Oregonian, the Seattle Times, Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, Oakland Tribune, (Boulder, Colo.) Daily Camera, (Chicago) Daily Herald, Quad City Times of Davenport, Iowa, the (Boise) Idaho Statesman, The Flint Journal and the Billings (Mont.) Gazette, among others.</p>
<p>Whether these endorsements will make any difference is unclear. What is clear, however, is their addition to the chorus of those dissatisfied with their choice of George W. Bush, reflecting the problem of violated expectations that could well end his presidency.</p>
<p /> | Paper Ballots | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/10/paper-ballots/ | 2004-10-26 | 4 |
<p>Signalling an impossible impasse, the joint panel tasked with drafting a new ombudsman law to root out India's ubiquitous corruption problems submitted two competing drafts for consideration at an upcoming all-party meeting, <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/lokpal-bill-we-cant-have-parallel-govt-says-sibal/articleshow/8946071.cms" type="external">the Economic Times reported</a>.</p>
<p>The drafting panel, which included representatives from non-government organizations and outside legal experts at the behest of anti-corruption protesters led by Anna Hazare, could not come to an agreement about whether the prime minister and supreme court judges should have to answer to the ombudsman while serving in office.</p>
<p>Addressing the media after the last meeting of the draft panel, Kapil Sibal, a top minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet, said that the draft bills might be subject to a much wider consultation process, including all political parties as well as state governments, the paper said.</p>
<p>Sibal said the government was happy with the progress made, even though some differences remained. The key differences that remained were over the inclusion of the prime minister, Supreme Court and lower bureaucracy under the ombudsman's monitoring powers. The government opposes giving the ombudsman power over all three, arguing that including the PM might prevent the government from functioning and including the Supreme Court would subvert its constitutional powers. As far as the bureaucracy, the&#160;government favors the inclusion of officers of grade A and above.</p> | India ombudsman update: Impasse continues over monitoring PM | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-06-22/india-ombudsman-update-impasse-continues-over-monitoring-pm | 2011-06-22 | 3 |
<p>A state court in Philadelphia, PA, on Tuesday handed down a verdict ordering Bayer AG (BAYN.XE) and Johnson &amp; Johnson (JNJ), the makers of the blood thinner Xarelto, to pay $27.8 million after their failure to warn of the drug's internal bleeding risks, says Reuters.</p>
<p>--The verdict awarded $1.8 million in compensatory damages and $26 million in punitive damages, says Reuters, citing the plaintiff's lawyer. Both Bayer and Johnson &amp; Johnson said they would appeal the verdict.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>--Xarelto is Bayer's best-selling drug, according to Reuters, contributing 2.9 billion euros ($3.41 billion) in revenue to the company in 2016.</p>
<p>--This is Bayer and Johnson &amp; Johnson's first Xarelto-related trial loss, having been cleared of liability in three previous federal trials, notes Reuters. Tuesday's case was the first of some 1,400 Xarelto cases pending in the Philadelphia court and there are more than 18,500 Xarelto cases pending in federal court.</p>
<p>Full story: http://reut.rs/2jkFavX</p>
<p>Write to Barcelona editors at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>December 06, 2017 06:31 ET (11:31 GMT)</p> | Bayer, Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $27.8 Million in Xarelto Lawsuit -Reuters | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/12/06/bayer-johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-27-8-million-in-xarelto-lawsuit-reuters.html | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
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<p>DETROIT — U.S. safety regulators have closed an investigation into steering problems in more than 500,000 Ford full-size cars without seeking a recall.</p>
<p>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating problems in the 2004 through 2007 Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis and Marauder cars in July. The agency was looking into complaints that a heat shield could rust, dislodge and cause the steering shaft to jam.</p>
<p>Investigators reviewed 18 complaints about the problem and found that it occurred infrequently, only in 1.6 vehicles per 100,000. The agency says one report of a rollover crash on a highway entrance ramp could not be verified.</p>
<p>The agency also says six of the complaints came from one state police agency which fixed the problems and hasn’t had any further trouble.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | US closes Ford steering probe without recall | false | https://abqjournal.com/501499/us-closes-ford-steering-probe-without-recall.html | 2 |
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<p>Arizona State’s Brock Osweiler is sacked by Boise State’s Billy Winn (90) in 2011. Osweiler, listed at 6-8, now backs up Peyton Manning in Denver. He and Eldorado’s Zach Gentry are among the few trying to dispel the notion that tall QBs can’t play. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)</p>
<p>In this, the Year of the QB in New Mexico prep football, we’ve overlooked someone, Logan coach Kene Terry says.</p>
<p>Wyatt Strand, a 6-2, 185-pound senior, led the nation in total yards (3,237) through eight, 8-man games with the Longhorns. That total put him No. 1 in the country, according to MaxPreps.com.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />He had thrown for 1,718 yards and rushed for 1,468 before Friday, and has been averaging just over 404 yards a game. In a 60-0 win over Mescalero Apache, he added 235 passing yards and 162 rushing yards.</p>
<p>Terry had a little fun with Strand last week when he told him that he was leading the country.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“He said, ‘Coach, don’t tell me that!’ ” Terry said with a laugh. “He’s a real humble kid.”</p>
<p>Strand is getting some attention from Eastern New Mexico, but it’s not known how serious the interest is, Terry said.</p>
<p>“He just carries our team,” Terry said. “Not just by yardage. He’s the backbone of the team. And he’s a great kid.”</p>
<p>WEEK 9 THOUGHTS: Sandia coach Kevin Barker makes an interesting point when he says: “We’re four of the top eight, I really believe that.”</p>
<p>He is referring to the quartet in his district, including his group, La Cueva, Eldorado and Manzano.</p>
<p>Next week, I’ll offer my thoughts on Class 6A and how I believe the teams will be seeded 1-12.</p>
<p>Me? I wouldn’t be opposed to seeding all four of those teams in the top eight. As of today, I’d seed them all ahead of the champions from District 4 and District 5, but I suspect one of the four – Manzano, as it stands right now, and that’s assuming the Monarchs get into the postseason – ends up somewhere between 9-12 and on the road for a first-round game.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>(If you want to see my top five teams right now, check out my Twitter account, @JamesDYodice.)</p>
<p>Speaking of District 4 … well, it was quite a topsy-turvy Friday night as Clovis (3-5) and Carlsbad (1-7) won league openers.</p>
<p>The Wildcats buried 5-2 Alamogordo 35-0, and previously winless Carlsbad smoked Hobbs 25-14. These two games turn that league on its ear and adds an extra element to the final two weeks of the season.</p>
<p>In hindsight, Carlsbad’s victory shouldn’t be all that surprising; remember, the Cavemen nearly upset Goddard three weeks ago, and have been playing much better of late. Carlsbad lost its starting quarterback before the season and, for most of the first half of the season, the Cavemen were in a tailspin.</p>
<p>It did get me thinking, though, about what would happen if Clovis (or Carlsbad, for that matter) manages to win this district. It could turn District 4 into a one-bid league and could open the door for a team from another district – Cibola would be the most likely candidate, in my mind – to sneak into the playoffs, depending how the final two weeks play out in District 4.</p>
<p>Next week, it’s Clovis at Carlsbad and Hobbs at Alamogordo.</p>
<p>FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: We’ve had some conversations around our office about how there’s never truly been a great, tall NFL quarterback, and whether Eldorado’s Zach Gentry might someday break the mold.</p>
<p>Gentry, at 6-feet-7 and 240 pounds, is hoping to dispel the notion that men his height can’t have a sustained career at the highest level.</p>
<p>We are, of course, a long, long way from that hypothetical. He’s got a demanding college career ahead of him at the University of Texas first.</p>
<p>But just as an FYI, from what I can gather, the tallest QB in NFL history is Mark McGwire’s younger brother, Dan McGwire, who played in Seattle (1991-94) and with Miami in 1995.</p>
<p>McGwire was listed at 6-8. Interestingly, Denver’s current backup to Peyton Manning is Brock Osweiler, who is 240 pounds like Gentry and also is listed at 6-8, per the team’s website.</p>
<p>In February 2012, Osweiler, asked about the dearth of (successful) tall QBs in the NFL, gave this quote to the News Tribune of Tacoma: “I didn’t pay too much attention to it because I feel like I’m my own style of quarterback. I don’t feel like there’s ever been a quarterback that’s 6-7, 240 pounds that had the athleticism I do and can make every throw on the football field.”</p>
<p>Baltimore’s Super Bowl-winning QB, Joe Flacco, is 6-6. So is Tampa Bay’s Mike Glennon. Manning is listed at 6-5. Only a handful of quarterbacks in NFL history are listed at 6-7 or taller, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.</p>
<p>BITS AND PIECES: St. Michael’s shredded visiting Hope Christian 48-7 on Saturday afternoon. Huskies QB Caleb Meyer-Hagen did all he could, running for 101 yards, throwing for 107 yards, and giving Hope three kickoff or punt returns of over 60 yards.</p>
<p>… A Santa Fe Indian School P.S.: The Braves beat Crownpoint 28-22 in overtime Friday to improve to 5-3 this season. It ensures SFIS will finish with a winning record for the first time since 2006, coach Eric Brock said.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
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<p /> | Commentary: Logan QB puts up big numbers | false | https://abqjournal.com/486453/logan-qb-puts-up-big-numbers.html | 2 |
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<p>If history is any guide, this year there will be more eligible voters who refuse to cast a ballot in the presidential election than there will be who vote for the eventual winner. In the 2008 presidential election, voter turnout was as high as it had been in a generation, yet still only about 60% of eligible voters cast a ballot. In that election, just under 70 million individuals voted for Barack Obama and nearly 60 million cast a ballot for John McCain, but roughly 80 million eligible voters opted not to vote at all. Given the relative lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic and Republican party candidates, observers predict that voter turnout will once again sink into the mid-50% range in this year’s elections.</p>
<p>Though they constitute a large subsection of the electorate, there are few regular studies of the American non-voter. The major parties often seem more likely to engage in efforts to suppress voter turnout than significantly increase it, while many polling and media organizations focus almost exclusively on registered and likely voters in their surveys of public opinion. However, a <a href="http://www.suffolk.edu/research/53411.html" type="external">new survey</a> by Suffolk University and USA Today may help to shed some light on the thinking of the tens of millions of Americans who opt not to vote.</p>
<p>“There is a huge block of Americans who are never asked their opinions because they are immediately screened out once they’ve indicated that they are not registered or unlikely to vote,” says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, who refers to this bloc of the electorate as the “Other America”.</p>
<p>The nationwide survey of 800 eligible voters was conducted earlier this month. Of those polled, 44% stated that they were not likely to vote, while 52% stated that whether they would vote was basically a 50/50 toss up. Of these unlikely voters, 31% are not registered to vote, while 30% said they were registered Democrats, 17% said they were Independents and 14% said they were Republicans.</p>
<p>Participants offered many different reasons as to why they are not registered to vote and why they are unlikely to vote at all even if they are registered. Among those who are not registered to vote, 26% said it was because they have no time or are too busy to register, while 12% said it was because their vote won’t matter, and 10% said they “just don’t want to.” Those who are registered but unlikely to vote offered a similar array of reasons for their decision: 14% said they may in fact end up casting a ballot, 13% said it was their right not to vote, 12% said it was because their vote doesn’t count or matter, and another 12% said it was because they don’t like either major party candidate.</p>
<p>Interestingly, though not surprisingly, there are significant levels of support for third party alternatives to the Republicans and Democrats among unlikely voters. Just 32% of these individuals stated that the major parties do a good job of representing the American public, while 26% said that a third party is necessary and 27% said that multiple parties are necessary. Extrapolating to the population of unlikely voters, that comes out to roughly 42 million people who believe that a third party or a multiparty system is necessary in the United States. Furthermore, unlikely voters are much more likely to say they would support a third party candidate for president than likely voters. Among those not registered to vote, 23% said they would support a third party candidate over Obama or Romney, while among registered unlikely voters 18% said they would support a third party candidate over Obama or Romney.</p>
<p>The low opinion of the Republican and Democratic parties appears to play a major roll in turning off would-be voters from the political process: 54% said they do not pay very close attention to politics because the system is so corrupt, while 59% said that they do not pay very close attention to politics because “nothing ever gets done” and the system is based on “a bunch of empty promises.”</p>
<p>Given this distaste for the Democrats and Republicans combined with an openness to third party alternatives, it is no wonder that the major parties do not put much effort into increasing the rates of voter turnout. What do you think it would take to significantly increase voter participation in the United States?</p> | Why Don’t Americans Vote? The Great Depression of Voter Turnout | false | https://ivn.us/2012/08/20/the-great-depression-of-voter-turnout-and-two-party-politics/ | 2012-08-20 | 2 |
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<p>LAS VEGAS — After five days of scouring the life of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock and chasing 1,000 leads, investigators confessed Friday they still don’t know what drove him to mass murder, and they announced plans to put up billboards appealing for the public’s help.</p>
<p>In their effort to find any hint of his motive, investigators were looking into whether he was with a prostitute days before the shooting, scrutinizing cruises he took and trying to make sense of a cryptic note with numbers jotted on it found in his hotel room, a federal official said.</p>
<p>So far, examinations of Paddock’s politics, finances, any possible radicalization and his social behavior — typical investigative avenues that have helped uncover the motive in past shootings — have turned up little.</p>
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<p>“We still do not have a clear motive or reason why,” Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said. “We have looked at literally everything.”</p>
<p>The FBI announced that billboards would go up around the city asking anyone with information to phone 800-CALL-FBI.</p>
<p>“If you know something, say something,” said Aaron Rouse, agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office. “We will not stop until we have the truth.”</p>
<p>Paddock, a reclusive 64-year-old high-stakes gambler, rained bullets on the crowd at a country music festival Sunday night from his 32nd-floor hotel suite, killing 58 and wounding hundreds before taking his own life.</p>
<p>McMahill said investigators had reviewed voluminous video from the casino and don’t think Paddock had an accomplice in the shooting, but they want to know if anyone knew about his plot beforehand.</p>
<p>Investigators believe Paddock hired a prostitute in the days leading up to the shooting and were interviewing other call girls for information, a U.S. official briefed by federal law enforcement officials said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>The official also disclosed that Paddock took at least a dozen cruises abroad in the last few years, most of them with his girlfriend, Marilou Danley. At least one sailed to the Middle East.</p>
<p>It is unusual to have so few hints of a motive five days after a mass shooting. In previous mass killings or terrorist attacks, killers left notes, social media postings and information on a computer — or even phoned police.</p>
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<p>“The lack of a social media footprint is likely intentional,” said Erroll Southers, director of homegrown violent extremism studies at the University of Southern California. “We’re so used to, in the first 24 to 48 hours, being able to review social media posts. If they don’t leave us a note behind or a manifesto behind, and we’re not seeing that, that’s what’s making this longer.”</p>
<p>What officers have found is that Paddock planned his attack meticulously.</p>
<p>He requested an upper-floor room overlooking the festival, stockpiled 23 guns, a dozen of them modified to fire continuously like an automatic weapon, and set up cameras inside and outside his room to watch for approaching officers.</p>
<p>In a possible sign he was contemplating massacres at other sites, he also booked rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in August and the Life Is Beautiful show near the Vegas Strip in late September, according to authorities reconstructing his movements leading up to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.</p>
<p>His arsenal also included tracer rounds that can improve a shooter’s firing accuracy in the dark, a law enforcement official told AP. It wasn’t clear whether Paddock fired any of the illuminated bullets during the high-rise massacre.</p>
<p>Paddock bought 1,000 rounds of the .308-caliber and .223-caliber tracer ammunition from a private buyer he met at a Phoenix gun show, a law enforcement official not authorized to comment on the investigation said on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Tracer rounds illuminate their path so a gunman can home in on targets at night. But they can also give away the shooter’s position.</p>
<p>Video shot of the pandemonium that erupted when Paddock started strafing the festival showed a muzzle flash from his room at the Mandalay Bay resort, but bullets weren’t visible in the night sky.</p>
<p>Investigators are looking into Paddock’s mental health and any medications he was on, McMahill said.</p>
<p>His girlfriend, Danley, told FBI agents Wednesday that she had not noticed any changes in his mental state or indications he could become violent, the federal official said.</p>
<p>Paddock sent Danley on a trip to her native Philippines before the attack, and she was unaware of his plans and devastated when she learned of the carnage while overseas, she said in a statement.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano and Josh Hoffner in Las Vegas; Brian Melley in Los Angeles; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; and Don Babwin and Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For complete coverage of the Las Vegas shooting, click here: https://apnews.com/tag/LasVegasmassshooting.</p> | Stymied police seek help in uncovering Vegas gunman’s motive | false | https://abqjournal.com/1074262/thousands-mourn-slain-officer-as-las-vegas-probe-goes-on.html | 2017-10-06 | 2 |
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A proposal to increase funding for early childhood education in New Mexico by distributing more money from a multibillion dollar state sovereign wealth fund has cleared its first legislative hurdle.</p>
<p>A panel of House lawmakers on Monday recommended approval of the constitutional amendment by a 7-6 vote with only Democrats in support.</p>
<p>The initiative would increase annual distributions from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to roughly 6 percent of assets, from the current 5 percent rate.</p>
<p>Supporters of the measure say preschool programs desperately need more money now to expand sufficiently. The administration of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking more general fund spending for public schools and early childhood education and opposes greater investment withdrawals.</p>
<p>Approval by the Legislature would set up statewide vote in November on the issue.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A proposal to increase funding for early childhood education in New Mexico by distributing more money from a multibillion dollar state sovereign wealth fund has cleared its first legislative hurdle.</p>
<p>A panel of House lawmakers on Monday recommended approval of the constitutional amendment by a 7-6 vote with only Democrats in support.</p>
<p>The initiative would increase annual distributions from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to roughly 6 percent of assets, from the current 5 percent rate.</p>
<p>Supporters of the measure say preschool programs desperately need more money now to expand sufficiently. The administration of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking more general fund spending for public schools and early childhood education and opposes greater investment withdrawals.</p>
<p>Approval by the Legislature would set up statewide vote in November on the issue.</p> | New Mexico weighs whether to save or spend now on education | false | https://apnews.com/16b79babdd9f4a76a07e67ddd87dfe8a | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>Breitbart.com executive chairman Steve Bannon says that there’s still time for Republican senators to avoid being targeted for electoral extinction in a primary. All it will cost them is their dignity.</p>
<p>At this weekend’s Values Voter&#160;Summit, Bannon reinforced the GOP’s current state as a cult of personality and proposed using the willingness of GOP senators to publicly praise President Donald Trump and condemn his critics as a litmus test for determining whether the Breitbart boss &#160;would support Republican primary candidates.</p>
<p>In his Saturday morning speech, Bannon called out Sens. John Barasso (R-WY), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Dean Heller (R-NV) by name, questioning why they had not criticized retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) &#160;after Corker <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/08/us/politics/trump-corker.html" type="external">said</a> this week that Trump’s erratic behavior and reckless foreign policy puts the U.S. “on the path to World War III.” (Corker added that all but a handful of senators agreed with him.)</p>
<p>Since leaving his post as White House chief strategist and <a href="" type="internal">returning</a> to Breitbart in August, Bannon has <a href="" type="internal">sought to position himself</a> as the head of a supposedly anti-establishment, pro-Trump right-wing movement targeting insufficiently loyal members of the Republican Party.</p>
<p>Bannon’s plan apparently includes directing <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/10/bannon-gop-primaries-mcconnell-trump-242522" type="external">political spending</a> from his longtime patrons, Breitbart part-owners Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, along with the editorial support of Breitbart itself, to take down GOP members of Congress whom Bannon considers insufficiently loyal to the president.</p>
<p>Bannon and Breitbart took <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/steve-bannon-roy-moore-alabama-senate-race" type="external">largely undeserved</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/breitbart-news-takes-total-credit-for-roy-moore-victory.html" type="external">credit</a> for the results of last month’s Alabama primary election, in which extremist Judge Roy Moore defeated incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), who was endorsed by both Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Strange’s weakness, in turn,&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/us/politics/republican-senate-alabama-mcconnell.html" type="external">set off fears</a> from establishment Republicans that their base could revolt and purge incumbents, and coincided with Corker’s announcement that he will not seek reelection.</p>
<p>Speaking this morning before the conservative activists of the Values Voter&#160;Summit, a convention overseen by an organization that the Southern Policy Law Center (SPLC) &#160; <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/values-voter-summit-whose-values" type="external">calls</a> an anti-gay “hate group,” Bannon made clear that even Republican senators who vote for the president’s agenda will still be targeted for elimination if they are unwilling to publicly support the president.</p>
<p>After noting that some critics ask why he’s targeting “all these guys that vote the right way,” Bannon pointed to Corker’s recent comments, saying, “You know, as Bob Corker has trashed the commander-in-chief of our armed forces while we have young men and women in harm’s way, when he said he’s leading him on a path to World War III, that he is not stable, that people have to keep him moderated, that it’s an adult center and they took the morning shift off, while some U.S. senator in a position of that authority for the first time in the history of the Republic has mocked and ridiculed a commander-in-chief when we have kids in the field.”</p>
<p>Bannon attacked Barrasso, Fischer, and Heller for not publicly “condemn[ing]” Corker’s remarks, adding, “And let me give a warning to you, nobody can run and hide on this one. These folks are coming for you. The day of taking a few nice conservative votes and hiding is over.”</p>
<p>Bannon’s claim that it is inappropriate to criticize "the commander-in-chief of our armed forces while we have young men and women in harm’s way” is absurdly hypocritical given his support for Trump, who <a href="" type="internal">spent weeks publicly</a> pushing birther conspiracy theories against President Barack Obama while U.S. forces were deployed in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The notion that no senator had ever criticized a president with troops in the field is obviously false; the idea that no one should is frighteningly authoritarian.</p>
<p>Bannon returned to his critique later in the speech, saying that “there’s time for a mea culpa” from GOP senators concerned they will face competitive primaries. But what they need to do, Bannon claimed, is to publicly “condemn Senator Corker.”</p>
<p>A <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/862729407202566145" type="external">key aspect</a> of Trump’s presidency has been his constant, public humiliations of those who try to work with him. He demands <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/915604029136424960" type="external">public</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/905771752483119104" type="external">affirmations</a> of his greatness from <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/874310999351996416" type="external">appointees</a>, regularly <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/908415734379839488" type="external">berates</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/878603180744953856" type="external">his</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/904031756155748352" type="external">staff</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/898638865065418752" type="external">undercuts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/887756802728841216" type="external">those</a> who <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/896041906165227520" type="external">support</a> him, and <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/917033546539261952" type="external">trashes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/917738333161345024" type="external">everyone</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/895625858391523328" type="external">Twitter</a>. Just last week, in the wake of a report that he had privately called the president a “moron,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came before the press to <a href="https://newrepublic.com/minutes/145177/rex-tillerson-just-called-president-smart-not-deny-called-moron" type="external">deliver a statement</a> praising Trump that resembled a hostage video.</p>
<p>If GOP senators had hoped to avoid the Tillerson treatment by virtue of the fact that they represent a coequal branch of government, Bannon is making clear that he has no intention of allowing them that thin reed of self-respect. They will be required to praise the president’s intellect and temperament and decry those who make the obviously true statement that the president is unfit for office. Their first loyalty must be to Trump</p>
<p>If they don’t like that new reality as members of Trump’s cheering section, Bannon is letting them know: they can quit like Corker did.</p> | Bannon decries ridicule of Trump, demands personal loyalty of all GOP senators | true | https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/14/bannon-decries-ridicule-trump-demands-personal-loyalty-all-gop-senators/218224 | 2017-10-14 | 4 |
<p>Hollywood portrayals of the North Pole — from Disney’s Santa’s Workshop to Will Ferrell’s shockingly orientalist Elf — have been keen to describe life in the company town as one of merriment and spiritual harmony, filled with hot chocolate, rustic craftsmanship, and impromptu singing.</p>
<p>But workers there tell a different story — that of long hours, dangerous speedups, and endless surveillance.</p>
<p>It was no surprise then that on the morning of December&#160;9, the elves who create and deliver “gifts” for children throughout the imperialist world shutdown all twenty of Santa Claus’s production sites.</p>
<p>They could not bear another Christmas in the cold, damp, diseased quarters, while the fruits of their labor made Mr. Claus and a small clique of industrialists extraordinarily wealthy.</p>
<p>Saint Nicholas is the worst of both worlds — a clerical warlord who employs advanced industrial techniques to exploit a terrorized workforce. Sure, he doesn’t produce for the market, but his “presents” are paid back a thousand times over by National Endowment for Democracy grants, political support from the&#160; <a href="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55e442699dd7cc14008b6f55/donald-trump-caused-a-spectacle-and-shook-hands-with-a-man-dressed-as-santa-claus-during-a-golf-tournament.jpg" type="external">Trump administration</a>, and <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/275359/holiday-cookies-for-santa/@center/307035/santas-workshop" type="external">warm cookies</a>.</p>
<p>Santa’s “gift economy” is as much of a sham as Uber’s “sharing economy.”</p>
<p>Over the past week, strikes have turned to occupations and hostage taking. Reindeer security forces —&#160;led by former ’90s R&amp;B star Blitzen — have led a brutal counter-offensive that’s seen four workers hospitalized. In the following days, production&#160;resumed at a dozen factories.</p>
<p>Solidarity is the only thing that can loosen Santa’s grip on power. We invite you to join Jacobin’s war on Christmas by boycotting traditional presents in favor of a <a href="" type="internal">tax-deductible donation</a> to Jacobin Foundation, Ltd.</p>
<p>Gift subscriptions —&#160; <a href="" type="internal">including lifetime ones</a>&#160;— are also&#160; <a href="" type="internal">available</a>.</p>
<p>With your help we’ll not only end North Pole serfdom, but fund&#160;Jacobin’s award-winning*&#160; <a href="" type="internal">online work</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">special projects</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/series_collections/112-jacobin" type="external">book series</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">investigative journalism</a>, beautiful&#160; <a href="" type="internal">print magazine</a>, and network of over one hundred&#160; <a href="" type="internal">reading groups</a>.</p>
<p>Smash Santa,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">help your favorite magazine</a>.</p>
<p>* we haven’t actually won any awards.</p> | Join Our War on Christmas | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2014/12/our-war-on-christmas/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>On March 26 at Tingley Coliseum, the Gladiators (4-4) won 70-24 in the team's most one-sided league victory in its two-year history. The Marshals (1-7) have dropped their past six games since beating defending champion Sioux City 27-26.</p>
<p>With four games remaining, Duke City stands half a game behind the Amarillo Venom (4-3) for the third and final playoff spot in the CIF's Southern Division, with Dodge City in second at 6-2. The Gladiators and Venom have two more meetings this season, including next week in Texas, followed two weeks later by a match at Tingley.</p>
<p>"Our motto this week is that this is Week 1 of the tournament," Gladiators coach Dominic Bramante said Thursday. "Right now our goal is to get the No. 3 seed. So we're not overlooking Mesquite."</p>
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<p>In the meantime, Bramante has been on the prowl for another quarterback after starter Bryan Randall broke his left arm two weeks ago. Randall's replacement, Taylor Genuser, threw five interceptions last week in a 56-34 loss to the front-running Texas Revolution. A week earlier, against the same team, Genuser had five TD throws and no interceptions.</p>
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<p>"I've stopped looking for another quarterback this week, but i'll start again next week," Bramante said. "Quality quarterbacks don't grow on trees, especially this time of year."</p>
<p>Genuser, who will get his third start, surely will be looking for receiver Dello Davis, the most productive pass catcher in the league. Of his league-high 22 TDs, 19 have been on receptions. All last season, no one in the league had more than 17.</p>
<p>Also, recent acquisition Cody Nuzzo has been perfect on 13 PAT tries since joining the team two weeks ago. That might not sound like much, but over the past two seasons other Gladiators kickers have failed on 18 of 89 attempts for a 79.7 percent success rate.</p>
<p>NEW MEXICO STARS: The New Mexico Stars (2-1) of the American Indoor Football league are scheduled to play host to the Texas Stealth (1-4) in a nonleague game at the Santa Ana Star Center tonight.</p>
<p>Last week, the Stars won 90-6 at home against a semipro team out of Santa Fe - the Capital City Warriors - that was a last-minute replacement for the Austin Cobras, who bailed late on their scheduled trip to Rio Rancho.</p>
<p>Stealth director of operations Jordan Dunn said Wednesday his team was heading to Albuqeurque Friday with a full complement of players. The Stealth already has made a trip to the metro area this year, facing Duke City at Tingley in an exhibition game March 5. The Gladiators won 46-36.</p>
<p>On the postseason front, the Stars were informed by the AIF this week they still are in a playoff race in what is now a two-team Western Division after six teams disbanded since this winter. Only the Corpus Christi Fury (2-0) remains. It was the Fury that gave New Mexico its sole league loss, 59-53 in Texas on April 3.</p>
<p>New Mexico co-owner Tracy Duran said the playoff scenario is still sketchy, but that when the Stars face the visiting Fury on May 15, they would have to win by more than six points to stay alive. If Stars win by seven or more, Duran said, the Stars would play host to the Fury again, at an undetermined date, with the winner advancing to the playoffs.</p>
<p>Yet there's still another postseason scenario, Duran said. The Stars have formed an unofficial alliance with a handful of Texas teams in the North American Indoor League along with one from Mexico (Tampico Lagartos) and are considering a postseason tournament of some sort to declare a champion. That, of course, depends on New Mexico's AIF playoff situation.</p>
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<p /> | Indoor football: Gladiators hit the road to face Mesquite | false | https://abqjournal.com/769972/gladiators-hit-the-road-to-face-mesquite.html | 2 |
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<p>President Donald Trump on how the U.S. may leave the NAFTA trade agreement.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has set a collision course with the auto industry as it launches renegotiations of the 23-year-old NAFTA trade pact this week, aiming to shrink a growing trade deficit with Mexico and tighten the rules of origin for cars and parts.</p>
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<p>More than any other industry, autos have been the focus of U.S. President Donald Trump's anger over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he blames for taking car factories and jobs away from America to low-wage Mexico.</p>
<p>The United States had a $74 billion trade deficit with Mexico in autos and auto parts last year, the dominant component of an overall $64 billion U.S. deficit, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.</p>
<p>"The Trump administration has framed their NAFTA negotiating objectives around reducing the trade deficit with Mexico," said Caroline Freund, a senior trade fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "If they don't touch autos, there's no way of getting at what they want."</p>
<p>Among tools that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer may seek to boost auto employment in the U.S. is strengthening the rules of origin to shut out more parts from Asia, and possibly an unprecedented U.S.-specific content requirement for Mexican vehicles.</p>
<p>Lighthizer's negotiating objectives for NAFTA seek to "ensure the rules of origin incentivize the sourcing of goods and materials from the United States and North America," which has raised concerns among auto industry executives and trade groups that he will seek a deal that guarantees a certain percentage of production for the United States.</p>
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<p>The industry is opposed to such a carve-out or to increasing the percentage of a vehicle's value that must come from the region above the current 62.5 percent - already the highest of any global trade bloc.</p>
<p>They say this would raise costs and disrupt a complex supply chain that sees parts crisscrossing NAFTA borders and has made North American car production competitive with Asia and Europe.</p>
<p>"Our members feel very strongly that rules of origin are not the tools to use to reshore jobs into the U.S.," said Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs for the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, a trade group representing auto parts makers.</p>
<p>Wilson and other industry advocates say a better way to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs is through policies aimed at expanding vehicle exports.</p>
<p>But if U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gets his way, it would be harder to reach the 62.5 percent content threshold because the "tracing list" of parts that count towards that goal would be modernized. He argues the current rules are too loose and allow a tariff-free "back door" for Chinese auto parts.</p>
<p>Parts that did not exist when the 300-plus page list was devised in the early 1990s, largely electronics sourced from Asia such as console touch screens or hybrid-drive controllers, do not count against reaching the threshold. If they are put on the list, companies would have to source them from North America or pay tariffs on them.</p>
<p>If the content requirements become too onerous, automakers will simply skip compliance "and they'll just end up paying the duty," said Charles Uthus, vice president for international policy at the American Automotive Policy Council, a lobbying group for Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU).</p>
<p>Foregoing all NAFTA tariff-free access benefits - something that could happen if Trump is dissatisfied with the negotiations and decides to scrap the trade pact - would raise costs by about $4 billion-5 billion a year, Ulthus added. Ford plans about $7 billion in total capital spending this year.</p>
<p>Among the other contentious NAFTA issues that U.S., Canadian and Mexican negotiators will tackle starting on Wednesday in Washington is the future of a mechanism for resolving trade disputes.</p>
<p>The United States wants to eliminate a so-called "Chapter 19" provision, arguing that it fails to combat unfair subsidies of some Mexican and Canadian goods. Mexico and Canada have vowed to keep the provision.</p>
<p>Negotiators are expected to pursue new NAFTA chapters governing digital trade, and tightening environmental and labor standards, changes previously agreed by the three countries as part of the now-defunct 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership.</p>
<p>U.S. negotiators will also seek a provision to deter currency manipulation, aiming to set a precedent for future trade negotiations, such as a revised U.S.-North Korean deal or a bilateral pact with Japan.</p>
<p>The negotiations face an extremely tight timeline, with officials saying they want to complete negotiations by early next year to avoid ratification difficulties posed by elections in Mexico in July 2018 and in the U.S. in November 2018.</p>
<p>Freund, a trade economist for more than a decade at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said the negotiators should focus on a few key areas.</p>
<p>"If you really want to do a full-blown modernization of NAFTA, it's going to take a lot more than six months," she said. "Ultimately I think they're going to get bogged down in all these details and pick two to three things and have a smaller agenda."</p> | Trump's NAFTA autos goals to collide with industry as talks start | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/14/trumps-nafta-autos-goals-to-collide-with-industry-as-talks-start.html | 2017-08-14 | 0 |
<p>We continue to receive queries about claims and theories advanced by "birthers," who wish to believe that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the USA or that he somehow gave up his citizenship and thus is not qualified to hold the office he occupies. One is a claim, first advanced last year, that his trip to Pakistan in 1981 proves he must not have been a U.S. citizen because Americans were not permitted to travel there at the time.</p>
<p>This one is not quite as transparent as the <a href="" type="internal">April Fools’ Day hoax</a> that took in many of these deniers of Obama’s birthplace bona fides. That one was a fabricated Associated Press story about Obama’s student records from Occidental College. But the Pakistan theory is just as false. The truth, easily proven, is that American citizens traveled freely to Pakistan in 1981.</p>
<p>Obama did go to Pakistan that year when he was 20 years old with a college friend, after first seeing his mother and half-sister in Indonesia. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10obama.html" type="external">That much is true</a>. When he mentioned the 1981 trip during a campaign appearance last year, it came as news, because he had not previously written of it in his books.</p>
<p>Some then speculated, or claimed outright, that Obama must have gotten into Pakistan using an Indonesian passport obtained while his mother was married to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian man whom she had divorced the previous year. Under this theory, the young Obama had somehow become an Indonesian citizen. "Birthers" claimed that the Pakistan trip constituted indirect proof of Obama’s supposed Indonesian citizenship. Philadelphia lawyer Phil Berg even <a href="http://www.obamacrimes.info/103008US%20Supreme%20Court%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari.pdf" type="external">told the U.S. Supreme Court</a> last year, before it refused to hear his case challenging Obama’s qualification to be president, that Pakistan "was on the State Department’s travel ban list for U.S. Citizens."</p>
<p>But that claim is quite false. There was no such ban. Americans traveled there without incident, as shown by a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/14/travel/lahore-a-survivor-with-a-bittersweet-history.html?scp=1&amp;sq=lahore%20travel%201981&amp;st=cse" type="external">travel piece that appeared in the New York Times in 1981</a>, dated June 14. Barbara Crossette, an assistant news editor of the Times, told her mostly American readers they could travel to Lahore, Pakistan, by air, rail or road, adding: "Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports."</p>
<p>Her article prompted <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/travel/l-lahore-243000.html?sec=&amp;spon=&amp;scp=3&amp;sq=lahore%20travel%201981&amp;st=cse" type="external">a letter to the Times</a>from the U.S. consul general in Lahore saying he would "welcome an influx of Americans" to Lahore. He cautioned only that in addition to getting a visa for Pakistan, American visitors also should be careful to line up an Indian visa for the return trip if they planned to travel overland. The letter is dated Aug. 23, 1981.</p>
<p>Also, a travel advisory from the State Department dated Aug. 17, 1981 notes that Americans traveling to Pakistan require a 30-day visa, and that any staying longer must check in with Pakistan’s Foreigner Registration Office. A <a href="http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/travel/cis/southasia/TA_Pakistan1981.pdf" type="external">digital copy of the advisory</a> is archived at the Electronic Research Collection, a partnership between the State Department and the Federal Depository Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.</p>
<p>For those who missed it earlier, high-resolution images of Obama’s birth certificate are displayed as supporting documents to our article " <a href="" type="internal">Born in the U.S.A.</a>" The document meets the U.S. State Department’s requirements for proving U.S. citizenship. That, along with a 1961 newspaper announcement of his birth and statements last year by state officials in Hawaii, remove for us any doubt that Obama is indeed a natural-born citizen.</p>
<p>The "birthers" aren’t buying it. They, however, so far have produced what we judge to be zero credible evidence that Obama was born elsewhere, or that he later gave up U.S. citizenship. The false claim about a 1981 travel ban is typical of what’s been offered along those lines.</p> | More “Birther” Nonsense: Obama’s 1981 Pakistan Trip | false | https://factcheck.org/2009/06/more-birther-nonsense-obamas-1981-pakistan-trip/ | 2009-06-05 | 2 |
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<p>So what are they -- these brash ‘activist investors’ who have been making headlines all over Wall Street these days?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Are they the corporate raiders of 1980s infamy who arbitrarily closed factories and slashed jobs in an effort to quickly and temporarily lift a company’s stock price while lining their own pockets?</p>
<p>Or are they thoughtful corporate strategists who put tactical pressure on often-clubby executives and sleepy boards to try and initiate much-needed change while extracting long-term value from companies not quite living up to shareholders’ expectations?</p>
<p>Perhaps these activists are a little bit of both.</p>
<p>To that point, Daniel Loeb, who runs the hedge fund Third Point, recently staged a public takedown of Warren Buffett at the SALT Conference in May. The high-profile fund manager tweaked the legendary Oracle of Omaha for criticizing activist investors when, as Loeb pointed out, “he (Buffett) was the first activist."</p>
<p>The comments illustrate the shifting perception and definition of the contemporary activist investor.</p>
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<p>The 1980s version, immortalized by the iconic Gordon Gekko character in Oliver Stone’s 'Wall Street', made no secret of what really motivates activists: Money.</p>
<p>“Greed is good,” Gekko proclaimed in the film.</p>
<p>That’s the version of activists Buffett and others have criticized.</p>
<p>Yet, as Loeb pointed out in May, Buffett is an activist. Albeit a kinder and gentler one who ostensibly places the long-term health of a company and its employees at the center of any strategic corporate plan. That’s the image contemporary activists like Loeb would like to promote.</p>
<p>A Change in Image</p>
<p>Loeb and contemporaries like Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Management and David Einhorn at Greenlight Capital, are members of the newer breed of activist investor. They're eager to tout long-term goals as a priority rather than short-term profits. Wall Street war horse Carl Icahn, a veteran of the 1980s takeover heyday, has also softened his image.</p>
<p>In a recent interview on the program 'Wall Street Week,' Icahn decried short-term investors who use the media to pump up the value of a stock they own and then dump it after the company's shares move higher.</p>
<p>“Despicable,” he said. “It makes me angry.”</p>
<p>In recent years, activist investors have had some surprising successes, though, contributing CEO ousters at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Proctor &amp; Gamble (NYSE:PG), and demanding that tech stalwarts eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) divide their operations to better extract value for shareholders. They’ve also targeted blue-chip companies -including Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), one of the oldest U.S. banks, and the venerable chemical maker DuPont (NYSE:DD).</p>
<p>“There’s been a dramatic change in how activist investors are perceived,” &#160;Damien Park, managing partner at Hedge Fund Solutions, which advises companies and investors on activist investing said.</p>
<p>In the past, Park said, many within this investor niche were perceived as “short-term investors looking to plunder and move on.”</p>
<p>Lifting the Stigma</p>
<p>In the post-2008 financial crisis era the role of the financial activist has changed because regulations overseeing corporate governance have forced changes in boardrooms across the U.S.</p>
<p>“There’s a whole new world around corporate governance that has arisen since 2008 and there’s a feeling that activist investors should be more engaged with the long-term vision of the company,” Park said.</p>
<p>He added the activist investors of today generally try to engage with the executives and boards of companies they target for change in an effort to resolve issues amicably.</p>
<p>Obviously, that’s not always the case – see Ackman’s battle royale with Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) and Trian Fund Management's recent <a href="" type="internal">unsuccessful effort to break up DuPont</a>.</p>
<p>“If it can be resolved amicably, or settled, it will certainly be more beneficial to the business,”Park said.</p>
<p>Further, he said overall, both activists and the companies they target are getting better -- and the classic pump-and-dump stigma isn't really real anymore.</p>
<p>That said, there are clearly concerns that activist investors can have a damaging impact on the long-term health of a company, and consequently the long-term health of the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>Last month, Larry Fink, CEO of investment giant BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), gave voice to this sentiment in an open letter to the corporate and investment community in which he issued a clarion call for taking the long-term view.</p>
<p>In the letter, Fink specifically cites “the proliferation of activist shareholders seeking immediate returns” for putting “acute pressure” on companies to meet short-term financial goals at the expense of building long-term value.”</p>
<p>Jay Lorsch, a professor at the Harvard Business School who has studied activist investing for decades, said despite changes in perception he remains skeptical that most activist investors are interested in anything but making a profit.</p>
<p>Exceptions to the Rule</p>
<p>Lorsch said the track records of most activist investors are weak in terms of creating long-term value.</p>
<p>“Maybe these guys have had success in making money, but&#160; they haven’t had success in turning the company around or enhancing long-term value,” he said.</p>
<p>Lorsch cited two activist investors who have impressed him with their long-term vision: Jeffrey Ubben at ValueAct Capital in San Francisco and Ralph Whitworth at Relational Investors in San Diego.</p>
<p>ValueAct’s succinctly describes its mission on its website.</p>
<p>“ValueAct Capital is typically one of the largest independent shareholders at each of its core investments. The goal in each investment is to work constructively with management and/or the company's board to implement a strategy or strategies that maximize returns for all shareholders," the mission reads.</p>
<p>In other words, the firm seeks to work amicably with the companies it targets to implement long-term change.</p>
<p>Lorsch said ValueAct and Relational Investors are, in his view, exceptions to the general rule that most activist investors remain focused on short-term gains.</p>
<p>“I think the worst of these guys are in it to make money for themselves and their funds,” he said. “They call themselves activists but their goals are the same. I think they’re just another transformation of the corporate raiders of the 1980s. In the end, I don’t really think they’re good for America.”</p> | Long-Term Reformers or Corporate Raiders: Today's Activist Investors | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/05/28/long-term-reformers-or-corporate-raiders-today-activist-investors.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) tumbled 13% Friday morning as the daily deals leader’s below-consensus guidance spooked investors and overshadowed a solid earnings beat.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While Groupon reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that trumped estimates, the company warned acquisition costs will lead to worse-than-expected earnings during the first quarter.</p>
<p>Declaring Groupon is “not a good deal,” Royal Bank of Canada’s (NYSE:RY) RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to “underperform” from “sector perform.” The firm also slashed its price target to $7 from $11.</p>
<p>RBC analyst Mark Mahaney cited the disappointing outlook, weaker-than-expected North American and international billings and the company’s “excessively ambitious” goal of becoming the “starting point for (all) mobile commerce.”</p>
<p>“We may be overly pessimistic on the company’s ability to succeed in this transition -- but we also believe that even if it does succeed, the required duration of this transition makes buying GRPN shares now a risky deal,” Mahaney wrote in a note to clients on Friday.</p>
<p>Mahaney also noted that the goods and travel markets that Groupon is targeting are “extremely competitive with well-entrenched competitors” such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE).</p>
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<p>Analysts at Evercore (NYSE:EVR) trimmed their price target to $8 from $10 and maintained an “equal weight” rating. Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) kept its “buy” rating on Groupon, but lowered its price target to $12 from $16.</p>
<p>Shares of Chicago-based Groupon tumbled 13.12% to $8.93 in premarket trading Friday morning, putting them on track to extend their 2014 slump of 12.7%. However, Groupon entered the day up more than 77% over the past 12 months.</p>
<p>Reporting after Thursday’s closing bell, the daily deals site logged a non-GAAP profit of 4 cents per share, besting forecasts from analysts for 2 cents.</p>
<p>Revenues also exceeded estimates, jumping 20% to $768.4 million, compared with the Street’s view of $718 million. Gross billings increased 5% globally to $1.6 billion.</p>
<p>However, Groupon’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortization came in at $72 million, missing forecasts for $76.2 million.</p>
<p>The company also said it sees a first-quarter non-GAAP loss of 2 cents to 4 cents on revenue of $710 million to $760 million, compared with the Street's view for a profit of 6 cents on sales of $668.7 million.</p>
<p>Groupon cited the one-time costs tied to the integration of its recent acquisitions, including Ticket Monster owner LivingSocial Korea, which it acquired for $100 million in cash and $163 million in stock in January.</p>
<p>The daily deals company also said last month it completed its $43 million all-cash buyout of online flash fashion retailer Ideeli.</p> | Tepid Outlook Sparks 13% Selloff for Groupon | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/02/21/tepid-outlook-sparks-13-selloff-for-groupon.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>For tourists interested in democracy, the best attraction in Washington, DC, from April 23-26 will be the World Bank at 1818 H St. NW.</p>
<p>It’s not what is inside the building that is worth the stop those days, but the three people who will be across the street on a symbolic hunger strike “to commemorate the forgotten people in the Bank’s 60-year history, those whose right to development has been violated by the very institution that claims to listen to the voices of the poor.”</p>
<p>The action, which will coincide with the Bank’s and International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings, is at odds with the Bank’s campaign to cast itself as the new champion of the downtrodden. “The global imbalance between rich and poor countries must be urgently addressed if the world is to prosper into the 21st century,” reads the news release.</p>
<p>Beyond the slick statements of Bank officials, we should look to the experience of the people who deal directly with the Bank. As Indian activist Medha Patkar put it in an interview this fall: “The existing development process is skewed; in the name of development, it leaves a large majority of our population out of the real benefits of this growth model.” Instead of promoting a more democratic system, “institutions like the World Bank undermine the process of community participation within the country,” Patkar said. ( <a href="" type="external">Read the whole interview</a>)</p>
<p>Angana Chatterji (anthropology professor, California Institute of Integral Studies), Dana Clark (president, International Accountability Project, Berkeley, CA) and Dickson Mundia (founder, Basilwizi Trust, Zimbabwe) hope their strike will inject some reality into the Bank’s publicity campaign by highlighting the devastating effects on people evicted from their lands and homes as a result of projects financed by the Bank.</p>
<p>Their statement, excepted below, deserves close study and consideration by those engaged in the global-justice and anti-empire movements in the United States. For the full version, with the list of demands and a place to endorse, go to: <a href="http://www.aidindia.org/wbfast/" type="external">http://www.aidindia.org/wbfast/</a></p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Why Are We Fasting?</p>
<p>We are here to commemorate the forgotten people in the Bank’s 60-year history, those whose right to development has been violated by the very institution that claims to listen to the voices of the poor. We are bearing witness to situations across the globe where the Bank’s lending has violated its mandate and its policy framework, and we are undertaking a fast to call attention to this aspect of the Bank’s legacy. We stand in solidarity with those who have suffered devastating impacts after having been evicted from their lands and their homes to make way for Bank-financed projects.</p>
<p>We are here to call on the Bank to abandon its indifference to the plight of people who are suffering from the effects of these failures, and instead to respect the rights of project-affected people, and to support the right to development for those marginalized and impoverished communities that have borne the brunt of 60 years of lending dangerously.</p>
<p>Over the past sixty years, the Bank has supported projects that, in the name of development, have led to the displacement of tens of millions of people. Nobody knows exactly how many people have been displaced by Bank projects over time, because the Bank has been negligent in keeping track. However, the reality is that World Bank-financed dam projects alone have displaced ten million people over the years. The World Bank’s own research has shown that most people who are involuntarily resettled do not easily regain their previous standard of living, much less benefit from the project and have their standard of living improved, as called for by Bank policy.</p>
<p>We are gravely concerned by the role played by the World Bank in funding and legitimizing many projects that have come to represent a legacy of implementation difficulties, of underestimated and under-resourced externalities and costs, costs which are borne by those least able to bear them. The Kariba dam in Zimbabwe and Zambia, built during a time of British colonial occupation in the 1950s, has been an enduring source of misery for 50 years for the Tonga people. The Singrauli coal-fired plants in India, financed by the Bank from the mid-70s to the early 90s, have wreaked havoc on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The Yacyreta dam in Paraguay and Argentina, financed in the 1980s and early 1990s by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, has been the subject of multiple inspection panel claims and yet problems still persist and effective remedial measures remain elusive.</p>
<p>We recognize that in the past two decades, there have been significant shifts in the World Bank’s commitment to sustainable development, in particular the development of a set of environmental and social policies and the creation of the groundbreaking Inspection Panel. We commend this attention to the empowerment of the people affected by World Bank lending and the increased awareness of social and environmental risks associated with World Bank lending.</p>
<p>We are also aware of an unfortunate recent trend that has manifested itself: the World Bank’s shifts to minimize its obligations and shift more of the burdens and risks onto local people and borrowing governments. This tendency is reflected in the recent exercises in reformulating Bank operational policies. Many organizations have engaged in dialogue with the Bank over the years regarding revisions to its policy framework – including policies on involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples – only to be frustrated by the Bank’s practice of weakening policies and resisting calls for the policies to be improved and brought into line with existing and emerging standards of international law. This frustration is similarly reflected in the press conference being held this week by participants in the World Commission on Dams, Structural Adjustment Review Initiative, and the Extractive Industries Review; in each case, the Bank is seeking to avoid recommendations developed as part of multi-stakeholder processes.</p>
<p>We are particularly concerned about project supervision issues. Although the Bank has apparently been paying more attention to due diligence at the design stage ever since the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, there is still much to be desired in the Bank’s approach to project supervision and project implementation. In 2001, the World Bank significantly weakened the language of its project supervision policy; the revision was done without public input.</p>
<p>In correspondence last month regarding the threat of an increase in the height of Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river without adequate rehabilitation and in violation of the terms of the loan agreement, the country director for India confirmed that the Bank as a rule does not supervise projects beyond the disbursement of funds by the bank to the borrower. We note that when the Bank was forced to withdraw from Sardar Sarovar in 1993, the Bank’s General Counsel clarified that the terms of the loan agreement continue to apply to a project until it is repaid. The Sardar Sarovar Project loan has not been repaid and is therefore still legally binding. Nonetheless, Bank Management is taking a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to project supervision – at least with respect to the environmental and social loan conditionalities. This approach makes a mockery of the terms of the involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples, and other policies that are supposed to mitigate the longer-term impacts of Bank-financed projects. By failing to ensure that funds are being used in accordance with the purpose and conditions of the loan, the Bank is abrogating its responsibilities as a lender, and its mandate of poverty alleviation.</p>
<p>We are acting in solidarity with people affected by Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada river, where the World Bank has willfully ignored publicly reported accounts of policy violations, and remained silent when the Indian government authorized yet another increase in the height of the dam. The Bank shares complicity in last month’s decision to increase the dam height to 110 meters, as a result of which thousands of people – mostly indigenous or tribal people – will face an onslaught of miseries this year.</p>
<p>The Bank’s silent acceptance of forcible displacement without adequate resettlement and rehabilitation is in violation of its own policy framework, and in violation of basic principles of international law. Its determination to continue displacing people and ignoring the consequences is reflected in its renewed emphasis on high-risk infrastructure, including potential support for the Omkareshwar dam upstream of Sardar Sarovar, a dam project that would displace 50,000 people.</p>
<p>We are aware that many projects in the Bank’s portfolio are out of compliance with the loan agreements and Bank policies – including projects like Sardar Sarovar that are not actionable through the Panel process. In addition, we are troubled that those problems that have been identified by local people and confirmed by the Inspection Panel have not been adequately remedied. We stand in solidarity with communities affected by these accountability gaps.</p>
<p>We are concerned that lessons of the past do not seem to be affecting plans for the future. A recent report by International Rivers Network, “The World Bank at 60: A Case of Institutional Amnesia?” documents the Bank’s return to a strategy of financing high-risk and unsound infrastructure projects, and emphasis on a government and corporate focused approach to development that systematically marginalizes civil society in decision-making. Where is the Bank’s commitment to addressing critical problems and implementing effective remedial measures? These problems must not be ignored, as they play out, harshly impacting people and the environment.</p>
<p>To remedy some of these problems, we call on the Bank to ensure, at a minimum, that projects that it has supported are brought into compliance with its own policies and loan covenants. We call in particular for full compliance with the terms of the resettlement policy for all communities that have been displaced by a Bank-financed project. The Bank must ensure that people who have suffered displacement by its projects are able to regain and improve their standard of living. The Bank should dedicate new resources and create institutional capacity to address implementation failures and assist the borrowers and affected communities to come to terms with legacy issues. We call on the World Bank to take responsibility for ensuring the development effectiveness of its lending and the accomplishment of a rights-respecting and rights-enhancing approach to development.</p>
<p>—————————-</p>
<p>Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor of Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies. Since 1984, Dr. Chatterji has been conducting advocacy and policy research with postcolonial social movements toward enabling participatory democracy for social and ecological justice.</p>
<p>Dana Clark, President, International Accountability Project, Berkeley, CA. Ms. Clark is a human rights and environmental lawyer that has recently edited a book assessing the efficacy of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel.</p>
<p>Dickson Mundia, Founder, Basilwizi Trust, Kariba Dam (Zimbabwe) oustee. Mr. Mundia is a lawyer campaigning for compensation for the Tonga people, displaced by the World Bank funded Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>ROBERT JENSEN is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of “ <a href="http://www.citylights.com/CLpubRE.html#citizens" type="external">Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity</a>.” He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Hunger Strike Remembers Victims of World Bank | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/04/22/hunger-strike-remembers-victims-of-world-bank/ | 2004-04-22 | 4 |
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<p>“I honestly played with players – I’m not going to name names; of course I’m not – I wanted them to smoke,” the five-time NBA all-star and current ESPN commentator said Friday night. “They played better like that. Big-time anxiety, a lot of things can be affected – [marijuana] brought ’em down a bit. It helped them focus in a little bit on the game plan. I needed them to do that. I would rather them do that than, sometimes, drink.”</p>
<p>The topic came up in conjunction with a conversation about recent comments made by Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and New York Knicks President Phil Jackson, who both admitted to using the drug while recovering from back surgery.</p>
<p>Right now, using marijuana, even for medicinal purposes, is strictly prohibited by the NBA. First-time offenders must complete a treatment program, second-time offenders are fined $25,000, third-time offenders are suspended five games and any subsequent violations entail a 10-game suspension or more.</p>
<p>On Friday, Billups said league executives and players need to address the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes because “there’s a lot of science behind it.”</p>
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<p>Research and anecdotal evidence alike have shown that marijuana can help manage a variety of ailments, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and even nausea and appetite issues connected to cancer and HIV-positive patients. But because of marijuana’s classification as a “Schedule I” drug, the strictest of the government’s five classifications, the studies aren’t nearly as robust as those for other pain medications that can be prescribed legally by a doctor in all 50 states.</p>
<p>That may change, however, as the drug becomes less stigmatized in the eyes of the law. Marijuana is now legal either for recreational use or for medical purposes in 26 states plus the District of Columbia.</p>
<p>“Obviously, you’re always going to be able to regulate things. Alcohol’s legal, but you can’t do it while you’re driving,” Billups said. “When you’re talking about protecting your investment, protecting these players, medicinal marijuana, if that’s something that can help out with your franchise, with your organization, with your players, [then] that’s something, that’s a discussion that needs to happen.”</p>
<p>bkn-marijuana</p> | Chauncey Billups says some players who smoked pot before games ‘played better’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/907708/chauncey-billups-says-some-players-who-smoked-pot-before-games-played-better.html | 2 |
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<p>N. gonorrhoeae is the bacterial causative agent of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. (Image public domain)</p>
<p>BETHESDA, Md. — A new study has found that using saliva as a lubricant for anal sex among men who have sex with men leads to an increased risk for rectal gonorrhea.</p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26941362" type="external">conducted</a> by staff at the National Institutes of Health found that 4.3 percent of the 1,312 men surveyed had rectal gonorrhea. Using a partner’s saliva for lubricant was a common practice — 68.5 percent of men surveyed reported having done it. Researchers said rectal gonorrhea associated with the practice was attributable in nearly half (48.9 percent) of those cases.</p>
<p>“Saliva use as a lubricant for anal sex is a common sexual practice in MSM,” researchers wrote. “It may play an important role in gonorrhea transmission. Almost half of rectal gonorrhea cases may be eliminated if MSM stopped using partner’s saliva for anal sex.”</p>
<p>Other anal sexual practices common among the men surveyed including receptive rimming (70.5 percent) and receptive fingering or “penis dipping” (84.3 percent).</p>
<p>The study is online at <a href="http://ncbinlm.nih.gov/" type="external">ncbinlm.nih.gov</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">gonorrhea</a> <a href="" type="internal">MSM</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Institutes of Health</a> <a href="" type="internal">STD</a> <a href="" type="internal">STI</a></p> | Gonorrhea rates linked to saliva use as lube | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/03/18/gonorrhea-rates-linked-to-saliva-use-as-lube/ | 3 |
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<p>President Trump's administration has reportedly accused the UNHRC of being biased against Israel, as a result the administration is questioning its usefulness while President Donald Trump is considering withdrawing the United States from the UN Human Rights Council.</p>
<p>Reports from Press TV indicate that the final decision as to whether the US will leave the council is expected to be made by the president himself, the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the new US ambassador to UN, Nikki Haley.</p>
<p>One of the former State Department official familiar with the discussions said that there has been a series of requests from the secretary of state's office that suggests that Trump is questioning the importance of the US being part of the Human Rights Council. The Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently questioned the effectiveness of the UNHRC in a meeting with State Department officials. The UNHRC is a 47-seat inter-governmental body that is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights around the globe.</p>
<p>The UNHRC has been accused by supporters of Israel of being biased towards the regime by pushing critical resolutions and issuing contemptuous statements. The body was established back in 2006 to replace the UN Human Rights Commission.</p>
<p>The council angered Israeli politicians after condemning the lenient prison sentence that was handed down to an Israeli soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a wounded Palestinian. The soldier who goes by the name Sergeant Elor Azaria was sentenced to only 18 months in prison this week for shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif point-blank in the head.</p>
<p>The incident prompted UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani to say that she was deeply concerned at the lenient sentence that was given by the Tel Aviv Military Court earlier this week to an Israeli soldier who was convicted of unlawfully killing a wounded Palestinian in an apparent extrajudicial execution of a man who was not a threat.</p>
<p>President George W. Bush's administration refused to join the UNHRC after it was created, he was skeptic that it wouldn't make much difference from the previous commission. However, Obama decide to join the council as he hoped to influence it from the inside.</p>
<p>The relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama was dysfunctional as it hit an all-time low in December when he chose not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Isarel settlement construction on Palestinian land.</p>
<p>The Israel Prime Minister has pledged that he is looking to working with President Trump, who is very skeptic about the UN. This comes as the new US ambassador voiced Trump administration's interest in shielding Israel at the global arena.</p>
<p>SOURCE: <a href="http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/02/26/512110/US-mulls-quitting-UN-Human-Rights-Council" type="external">presstv.com/Detail/2017/02/26/512110/US-mulls-quitting-UN-Human-Rights-Council</a></p> | President Trump Is Considering Quitting UN Human Rights Council | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1508-President-Trump-Is-Considering-Quitting-UN-Human-Rights-Council | 2017-02-27 | 0 |
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<p>How did this happen? Luis Fortuno, former governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, who served as president of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (PNP), which advocates for the island to become a U.S. state, believes he knows.</p>
<p>Fortuno was elected in 2009. In a telephone interview from his Washington law office, he tells me that during his one term he cut government expenses by $2 billion and the island’s bond rating went up. “We refinanced the debt on better terms” and by the time he left office in 2013, “we had brought down the budget every year and lowered corporate taxes. People believed they could take risks again.”</p>
<p>In the 2012 election, Fortuno lost to Democrat Alejandro Garcia Padilla by a narrow – 0.6 percent – margin. Fortuno blames the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for contributing to his opponent’s campaign. “They invested heavily against me,” he says. Padilla renewed the spending policies of the past and, though he left office earlier this year, the damage was done.</p>
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<p>According to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, most of Fortuno’s cuts in public expenditures were never implemented by his successor. The island’s Office of Management and Budget reported that one year following legislation that called for spending reductions, 31 government agencies had, instead, increased spending.</p>
<p>As the Journal noted, under Fortuno “Puerto Rico implemented tax reform and permit reform, legislated a world-leading public-private partnership (P3) act, reduced government expenses and paid its suppliers. …”</p>
<p>In light of such success, why would voters return control of the island to a party that was responsible for its fiscal downturn? Sometimes ideology beats success and common sense. Fortuno says it didn’t help that “61 percent of eligible voters failed to vote.”</p>
<p>A referendum on the status of Puerto Rico was held in Puerto Rico on June 11. Three options were open to voters: remain with the commonwealth, independence or statehood. Statehood won.</p>
<p>Would a Republican Congress and a Republican president ever back statehood for a territory that seems overwhelmingly Democratic and possibly add two senators and one voting House member to that party’s total in Washington?</p>
<p>Fortuno doesn’t believe it is a given that Democrats would win those seats. He draws a distinction between the mostly liberal Puerto Ricans who have left the island for places like New York City and those who remain. He says current residents “are social and economic conservatives,” suggesting Republicans could pick up seats.</p>
<p>Perhaps, but the U.S. taxpayer would also have to pick up Puerto Rico’s huge debt, and with our debt at $20 trillion, it is doubtful Congress, at least under a Republican majority, would be willing to add more red ink.</p>
<p>Perhaps those economic and social conservatives Fortuno says remain on the island might come to their senses and elect someone who represents his views, which were beginning to bear fruit, before a bare majority panicked and returned to the failed policies of the past.</p>
<p>Email: [email protected]. Copyright, Tribune Content Agency LLC.</p>
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<p /> | Statehood unlikely as Puerto Rico drowns in debt | false | https://abqjournal.com/1024170/statehood-unlikely-as-puerto-rico-drowns-in-debt.html | 2 |
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<p>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday became <a href="" type="internal">the latest Republican</a> to admit the GOP is trying to ram through massive tax cuts for the rich to satisfy its wealthy donors, telling a journalist that if the party’s tax push fails, “the financial contributions will stop.”</p>
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<p>David Sirota, reporter with the&#160;International Business Times, responded by&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/928644319740694528" type="external">noting</a>&#160;that it is both “laudably honest for Graham to admit this” and “a repulsive glimpse of how politicians see so many public policies as private financial transactions between them and their donors.”</p>
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<p>Graham’s remarks came as Senate Republicans prepared to unveil their tax legislation which, like the House version,&#160; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-bill-unwrap-tax-cuts-end-local-deduction-51033148" type="external">would deliver massive tax cuts</a>&#160;to wealthy individuals and large corporations.</p>
<p>As&#160;Common Dreams&#160; <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/07/youre-not-supposed-say-out-loud-gop-lawmaker-admits-pushing-tax-scam-please-his-rich" type="external">reported</a>&#160;Tuesday, Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) has made a similar comment recently, complaining that his donors are pressuring him to pass tax cuts or “don’t ever call me again.”</p>
<p>Critics had the same&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffspross/status/928644648821841920" type="external">response</a>&#160;to Graham as they did to Collins: “Dude, you’re not supposed to actually admit that out loud.”</p>
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<p /> | Lindsey Graham: Contributions to GOP Will Stop if Tax Bill Fails | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/lindsey-graham-financial-contributions-will-stop-gop-tax-bill-fails/ | 2017-11-09 | 4 |
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<p>Free-trade globalization has produced some exceedingly strange phenomena: China, the last socialist power, is glad to provide slave labor to multinationals; a firm in India fills the tax forms of an American corporation that produces vodka in Peru and then sells it to Polish immigrants who are constructing a British-financed building in Madrid; an enterprise which specializes in biotechnology tries to copyright the DNA of an isolated tribe from the Amazon, and George Bush has become the worst Mexican president ever.</p>
<p>Globalization tends to blur or erase all economic, geographic, and cultural boundaries, leaving high technology to coexist with primitive forms of exploitation: Taiwan sells watches to the Swiss; Brazil exports technology to Germany; and all evidence suggests that George Bush has stolen his ruling style from old-fashioned Mexican politicians.</p>
<p>Mexican political culture has very defined features and the President of the United States has absorbed them all: The classical Mexican political boss usually inherits his power from his father. The typical Mexican cacique has a love for guns as well as an inclination toward violence and cruelty; he despises legality and intellectual activity, has a personal history of alcoholism and dissipation, lies systematically, and declares himself a faithful servant of God. (Did we miss anything?)</p>
<p>According to Mexican tradition, politicians always reach their positions thanks to a fraudulent electoral process and then surround themselves with a clique which uses its power to conduct “business” on a staggering scale while in office. The Florida electoral thievery and Halliburton’s Iraq contract are classic examples of Mexican corruption.</p>
<p>Based on a complex pyramid of political bosses, a totalitarian presidential regime flourished in Mexico. It was organized around a political party whose name remains a monument to paradox: the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI). Names aside, the PRI model was so efficient (for the PRI, of course) that the party was able to hold power for more than seventy years. The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa called it “the perfect dictatorship.”</p>
<p>This dictatorship was a mark of shame for all Mexicans. Only Mexico’s political cartoonists were able to benefit from it. The profuse manifestations of cynicism and obsequiousness it produced were a delight for us. In the Mexican court, dialogues like the following were not uncommon and completely irresistible:</p>
<p>The President asks: “What time is it?”</p>
<p>His minister replies: “Whatever time you say, Mister President.</p>
<p>Our presidents were almighty creatures, the voices of God on Earth. Not to be with them was to be against them. After them came the final flood or the atomic apocalypse.</p>
<p>In order to maintain its political control, this regime needed to restrain civil rights and limit freedom of the press. While others fell silent, Mexican political bosses, lacking any kind of legal or moral counterweight, spoke with an enviable freedom and without moral scruples, unbounded by reality. They used to say things like: “In the state of Guerrero, the only ones who complain are the poor,” referring of course to 98% of the population; or “I can’t say yes or no, but quite the opposite.”</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, George Bush had these wise men in mind when he insisted that the French weren’t able to understand the United States because they didn’t have a word for “entrepreneur.” Having learned such turns of phrase and so much more from Mexican politicians, he has now scaled the heights of Mexican political achievement, becoming the most notorious cacique of modern times, and he’s done this, without paying his predecessors a cent in royalties.</p>
<p>The creation of “free trade democracies” throughout Latin America has been one of the major political triumphs of globalization. It has been said that the election to the presidency of Vicente Fox, a free-trade globalizer if there ever was one, marked the beginning of a new era for Mexico. This put the fear of God into Mexican caricaturists who dreaded the possibility that the fall of the PRI might mean the end of our professional paradise. We shouldn’t have worried. Fox has held onto all the old vices of our former political bosses — except their authority. What he’s added to Mexico’s presidency has been a touch of marketing and plenty of unintentional humor. He’s been like a genetic experiment in which the DNA of an old-style Mexican president has been cloned with Dan Quayle and Jerry Lewis. Free-trade democrats love to find new ways of reducing the size and power of the state. Fox has proved an exemplar when it comes to this. Never has a Mexican government been so weak; never have Washington’s decisions carried such unprecedented weight in Mexican life.</p>
<p>Globalization favors chaos theory: a butterfly flaps its wings in the jungle and a hurricane is formed in the Caribbean; in Saudi Arabia, a baby is born with a silver spoon in its mouth, and two towers fall in Manhattan. An American politician acts like a Mexican cacique and war explodes on the other side of the planet.</p>
<p>The only visible advantage Mexican politicians ever offered the rest of us was their limited ability to damage the world. George Bush has overcome this obstacle. After all, he has access to the sort of technology and to an arsenal that Mexico’s local tyrants could only dream of. When he says he’s blessed, it’s because we’re damned.</p>
<p>Under the nuclear umbrella of his free-trade empire and incipient world government, his clique of petty political bosses can dictate the economic agendas of dozens of third-world countries. In recent years, the priorities of the Mexican economy have been defined by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Wall Street, and Washington; they establish our oil quota, the levels of our external debt payments, and the minimum wages we can offer. Vincente Fox acts as what he’s always been: a Coca Cola CEO, a multinational middleman, while the true president of Mexico is George Bush, that cacique of caciques.</p>
<p>According to Mexican tradition, politicians are judged depending on how they take care of their people and how they make them prosper… and by such standards, George Bush is the worst Mexican President ever.</p>
<p>We are told that American democracy still works, but if so, it’s the only aspect of the U.S. that’s not globalized; which means millions of citizens around the world won’t have the right to vote in this election, even though their futures too are at stake. For Mexicans this a particularly bitter pill to swallow. After all, shouldn’t we have a right to express our opinions on the last cacique?</p>
<p>Rafael Barajas (El Fisgón), political cartoonist for the Mexican daily La Jornada, is also the cofounder of two satirical magazines, a children’s book illustrator, a winner of Mexico’s National Journalism Prize, and the author of La Historia de un País en Caricatura, a book on the history of nineteenth century Mexican political cartoons. He has been dubbed the “dean of Mexico’s vigorous corps of political cartoonists” by the New York Times. His comic-book history of capitalism, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805073957/nationbooks08" type="external">How to Succeed at Globalization, A Primer for the Roadside Vendor</a>, has just been published in English.</p>
<p>Copyright C2004 El Fisgón</p>
<p>This piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">Tomdispatch.com</a>.</p>
<p /> | George Bush, The Worst Mexican President Ever | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/10/george-bush-worst-mexican-president-ever/ | 2004-10-13 | 4 |
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<p>“We like Cameron’s combination as a player with his size, energy and physicality,” said Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman on the team’s website. “He is a hard worker who will only get better with time.”</p>
<p>Bairstow on Sunday told the Journal he would wait until the team’s announcement to comment on the contract. He left Sunday night for his home in Brisbane, Australia.</p>
<p>Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Journal has confirmed the contract is for three years with the first year being fully guaranteed and year two of the contract being 50 percent guaranteed. The NBA’s rookie minimum salary for the 2014-15 season is $507,000.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Various media reports, none citing specific sources, have reported Bairstow’s deal is for three years, a rarity for a second round pick.</p>
<p>Last week, before the deal was finalized, Bulls assistant general manager Randy Brown told the Journal how much the organization thought of Bairstow.&#160; Forman, in a post-draft news conference, praised the Aussie’s work ethic and physical style of play.</p>
<p>“We like Cam. I know my boss, Gar Forman, had the opportunity to trade our second round pick and he said absolutely not because we had our eyes set on Cameron,” Brown told the Journal. “Physical guy. Doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He’s going to put himself in position to be on our team next year because he’s a worker. He’s very low maintenance. We like guys who appreciate the opportunity to wear a Bulls uniform and he’s one of those guys.”</p>
<p>The Bulls in the past week have added to an already crowded frontcourt led by Joakim Noah new players Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. Bairstow said Sunday he realizes that affects his playing time opportunity, but he also looks forward to learning from those players and emphasized he has felt good about his fit with the Bulls since he was drafted by them in June.</p>
<p>Later this week, Bairstow will join the Australian Boomers national team later this week in a training camp preparing for the FIBA World Cup championships that start in late August. Bairstow is one of 17 players invited to the camp, which will eventually cut the team to 12 for the final FIBA roster.</p>
<p>Should he make the team, the World Cup runs through mid-September and training camp for the Bulls begins in late September.</p>
<p>While Bairstow played the center position predominantly during the recent NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nev., he is still considered primarily a power forward by the organization, he told the Journal on Sunday. His play at the center position in summer league was due to a recent trade with the Dallas Mavericks of Greg Smith, who had practiced at the center position with Bairstow at the power forward spot for much of the team’s pre-summer league camp.</p>
<p>Still, Bairstow <a href="" type="internal">averaged 10.2 points and 7.0 rebounds</a> while starting all five games for the Bulls.</p>
<p>Bairstow is not the first Aussie big man on the Bulls roster. Former Lobo Luc Longley won three championships with the Bulls in the 1990s and is now an assistant coach for the Boomers.</p>
<p>The Bulls roster also includes former Lobo Tony Snell, a first round pick of the organizations in 2013. Snell and Bairstow were each a part of UNM’s 2010 recruiting class.</p>
<p>Snell was named Sunday to the All NBA Summer League First Team after averaging 20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in five games.</p>
<p>Check back later and in Tuesday’s Journal for more on this story.</p>
<p>LOBO LINKS: <a href="" type="internal">Geoff Grammer’s blog</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Schedule/Results</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Roster</a></p> | Chicago Bulls sign former Lobo Cameron Bairstow | false | https://abqjournal.com/432883/chicago-bulls-sign-former-lobos-cameron-bairstow.html | 2 |
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<p>By Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Bouazza Ben Bouazza in Tunis Friday, 21 January 2011</p>
<p>The Tunisian army fired a barrage of warning shots in the capital yesterday as demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the longtime ruling party, from which ministers were quitting in a desperate attempt to keep their jobs.</p>
<p>Protesters climbed over the RCD party offices in central Tunis and dismantled the sign bearing its name.</p>
<p>Demonstrators have criticised the country's new unity government for being mostly made up of old-guard politicians from the RCD, which was founded by ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after 23 years in power. Outside the gates of the party headquarters in Tunis, the army fired rounds into the air, scattering some protesters in the noisy but peaceful crowd. The building was being protected by an army tank in addition to numerous trucks and troops.</p>
<p>While police repeatedly shot at protesters, killing several, in the weeks leading up to Ben Ali's ousting, the army has been playing more of a peacekeeping role since it was brought in to try to restore order last week.</p>
<p>Soldiers were called in to protect strategic sites and public buildings, and have been manning checkpoints around the capital, but there have been no reports of them shooting at unarmed civilians since Ben Ali left.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether the army could emerge in a leadership role in this still unstable country. The crowd of protesters swelled to 1,500 people yesterday, many chanting: "The people want the government down!" Others waved baguettes to symbolize the need to end food shortages.</p>
<p>One father, Ahmad al-Ouni, brought his children, aged eight and four, to the demonstration with a backpack of snacks and juice. "I want them to smell their free country and to see the new Tunis without fear," al-Ouni said while his children used coloured pens to draw Tunisian flags on pieces of paper.</p>
<p>Another demonstrator said the protests will continue until all ministers and members of parliament with links to the RCD are removed from power. "This revolution cannot be stolen from us, we will not tire from demonstrating and we will come out everyday if we have to," said Mohsen Kaabi, 55, a former military officer.</p>
<p>The caretaker government is now struggling to calm this moderate Muslim nation on the Mediterranean Sea, popular among European tourists and seen as an ally in the West's fight against terrorism.</p> | Warning shots fired as Tunisia's ruling party picketed | true | https://leftvoice.org/Warning-shots-fired-as-Tunisia-s-ruling-party-picketed | 2011-01-21 | 4 |
<p>BEIJING, China - A minor earthquake shook buildings in Beijing this morning but there were no immediate reports of damage.</p>
<p>The epicenter of the quake was recorded near Tangshan, a city north of the Chinese capital that in 1976 suffered one of the worst earthquake disasters in history.</p>
<p><a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usb000a0y2.php#details" type="external">According to the US Geological Survey</a>, the epicenter of the magnitude 4.7 quake, which struck at 10:22 a.m. Monday, was 29 miles east of Tangshan, in Hebei province. &#160;</p>
<p>The China Earthquake Network Center put the quake at magnitude 4.8,&#160; <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-05/28/content_15401634.htm" type="external">according to state-run Xinhua news agency</a>.</p>
<p>More than 240,000 people died in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake" type="external">1976 Tangshan earthquake</a>.</p>
<p>Beijing, which has a population of more than 20 million, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/world/asia/05quake.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">is considered a high-risk area</a> for earthquakes.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/120524/political-exiles-chen-guangcheng-tiananmen-protests" type="external">China's exiles warn Chen Guangcheng of hard road ahead</a></p> | Earthquake near Tangshan, China, also felt in Beijing | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-28/earthquake-near-tangshan-china-also-felt-beijing | 2012-05-28 | 3 |
<p>Astronomers recently discovered a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0917/Boffins-discover-colossal-black-hole-within-tiny-dwarf-galaxy" type="external">supermassive black hole in the tiniest known galaxy</a>, leading to the belief that black holes are not as uncommon as once thought.</p>
<p>University of Utah researchers, led by astronomer Anil Seth, found the black hole in M60-UCD1, the most compact dwarf galaxy known. M60-UCD1 is about 50 million light-years from Earth and circles around M60, one of the Milky Way’s largest galaxies.</p>
<p>Seth and his team discovered the black hole with the Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Mauna Kea on Hawaii and confirmed the sighting using the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA.</p>
<p>The astronomers investigated M60-UCD1, the brightest ultra-compact dwarf galaxy currently known, using the Gemini North 8-meter optical-and-infrared telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano and NASA’s&#160; <a href="http://www.space.com/15235-hubble-space-telescope-latest-photos.html" type="external">Hubble Space Telescope</a>. M60-UCD1 lies about 54 million light-years away from Earth. The dwarf galaxy orbits M60, one of the largest galaxies near the Milky Way, at a distance of only about 22,000 light-years from the larger galaxy’s center, “closer than the sun is to the center of the Milky Way,” Seth said.</p>
<p>The supermassive black hole at the center of M60-UCD1 has a mass of approximately 21 million suns. It was a discovery that the team didn’t expect to find, as black holes were not previously thought to occur in ultra-compact galaxies. These compact galaxies often hold the densest amount of stars.</p>
<p>Seth and his team proposed that the movement of stars in other ultra-compact galaxies could indicate supermassive black holes at the center as well. The discovery that these dwarf galaxies hold black holes could vastly increase the number of known supermassive black holes in the universe.</p>
<p>The University of Utah researchers are investigating whether other super-compact dwarf galaxies could hold additonal black holes. They published their research in the journal Nature in the Sept. 18 issue.</p>
<p /> | Supermassive black hole discovered in center of dwarf galaxy | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/09/19/supermassive-black-hole-discovered-in-center-of-dwarf-galaxy/ | 2014-09-19 | 3 |
<p>More bad press for the diamond jubilee riverboat pageant after it was revealed that one of the guests on board the Royal Barge is a convicted sex offender.</p>
<p>Harbinder Singh Rana, invited as a guest of Prince Charles, has served time in prison for a series of attacks on women. During his time on the barge, Rana came into close proximity with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.</p>
<p>During his trial in 1986, a jury heard how he tricked his way into his victims' homes by posing as a doctor before subjecting them to internal examinations. He was sentenced to four years after being convicted of five counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of attempted assault.</p>
<p>Confronted by the <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sex-attacker-on-queens-barge-security-865854" type="external">Daily Mirror</a> yesterday, Rana, who has met Charles several times through a British Sikh charity he is involved with, said, "The fact that the Prince of Wales invited me clearly shows what I have done for the community since then.?</p>
<p>A spokesman for Clarence House said: "The office of Prince Charles was unaware of his previous convictions."</p> | Sex Offender Was On Board Queen's Boat | true | https://thedailybeast.com/sex-offender-was-on-board-queens-boat | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The job hunt isn’t easy. Talk about an understatement, right?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But, seriously, in today's tough job market, even the most innocuous things can make or break your chances of nabbing that plum gig. Don't believe us? Check out what these two HR experts had to say about the eight biggest interview mistakes people make.</p>
<p>But there are a few easy things that you can do to improve your job search, like avoiding these six self-sabotaging moves. Case in point: Ever heard of the 60-second mistake? Neither had we!</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #1: You’re Not Making Friends at Your Dream Company</p>
<p>“The most common way to get hired is through an employee referral,” says John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University who also runs a human resources consulting business. Translation: It’s not enough to just hear about a job through a friend or a friend of a friend—you actually need to drop a current employee’s name during the interview process or have that person push your resume in front of the hiring manager.</p>
<p>If you don’t know anyone (or, preferably, more than one person) at the companies that you’d love to work for, it’s time to put yourself out there. But ditch the old-school give-out-your-business-card-at-crowded-networking-events tact, and instead be strategic about building a few relationships at places where you want to land, like attending a talk or panel that someone from the company is participating in.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #2: You’re Too Quick to Hit “Apply” to a Job Posting</p>
<p>You swear that you’re being diligent about your job search, poring over postings on a daily basis and studying the descriptions carefully by looking for keywords that strike a chord with your interests and experience.</p>
<p>Well, we’ve got news for you: Your so-called diligence is really a breeze-through rush read. According to a new study conducted by TheLadders, most people spend less than 60 seconds reviewing a job posting before deciding to apply or pass. And, in this case, speed does not equal efficiency, because when job seekers fire off applications too quickly, hiring managers get inundated with candidates who aren’t a good fit, almost guaranteeing that most folks only receive that dreaded “why am I not hearing back from anyone?” radio silence nonreply.</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #3: You Still Believe That You’ll Find Your Next Gig in a Job Posting</p>
<p>This advice comes from Dorie Clark, a strategy consultant who studies hiring trends and practices. We all know that the good jobs are often the ones that don't get advertised—and Clark believes that this principle applies to more than just hearing about a great gig through word-of-mouth before it lands on Idealist or on one of the other free-for-all sites. According to Clark, “The people with the most interesting careers literally invented jobs that didn’t previously exist.”</p>
<p>In her new book, "Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future," Clark tells the story of Joanne Chang, a Boston-based restaurateur who spent years working as a management consultant before deciding to pursue a dream career as a professional chef. Her approach to making it happen: Chang started a letter-writing campaign to every top chef in the city—and quickly landed a made-for-her gig with the city’s renowned culinary guru Lydia Shire.</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #4: You Don’t Have a Blog or Other Online Work Presence</p>
<p>Sullivan warns that too many job seekers make the mistake of not bringing their résumé to life—i.e., to demonstrate your ideas, your charisma, your you-ness. The best way to sell yourself is to sell your work, and the best way to sell your work is to, well, show it.</p>
<p>In order to be competitive in today’s marketplace, says Sullivan, you must, must create an online outlet for your expertise. So if one of your key strengths is being “solution-oriented,” get creative about how you’ve put that skill to the test. Write a blog post or record a podcast on, say, "The Top Five Problems in Every Workplace and How to Solve Them."</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #5: You Don’t Have an Elevator Speech</p>
<p>“You think it’s obvious how perfectly your skills apply to that awesome position,” says Clark. But to the hiring manger, it may not be so “obvious,” so you have to connect the dots for them. But as you’re telling the story (in a cover letter or during an interview), make sure it’s concise, comprehensive and compelling. Clark and Sullivan call this an elevator pitch.</p>
<p>“Explain exactly how you will apply your skills and previous experience in a new gig,” says Clark. “Most people get flustered when trying to explain who they are and what they do," adds Sullivan, so a polished “this is me” speech can go a long way in keeping you top of mind with the right people. Write it out, test it out on friends and record yourself practicing it. You should be able to recite your elevator speech with the same confidence that you spout off your Social Security number and address.</p>
<p>Self-Sabotage #6: You’re Overshooting Your Salary Expectations</p>
<p>Carolyn Leadbeater, an executive recruiter at the New York–based firm Quantum, says that quoting a too-high salary range is the number-one way that job seekers take themselves out of the running for potential positions. Her advice: When you ask for 60K on an application (knowing that you’d be happy with 50K), keep in mind that you’re basically negotiating for a job that you haven’t been offered. Besides, she says, “when you give a little bit of a lower number up front, no one will expect you to keep to it exactly.” So do your research and suss out realistic salary ranges for what the average person makes in that position, as opposed to what you want to make.</p> | 6 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Job Hunt | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/02/6-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-job-hunt.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>Here’s some intense&#160;debate.</p>
<p>Yesterday afternoon, Stuart J. Hooper ran into the Russian Street Preacher, Brother Mikhail, on the campus of the University of New Mexico.</p>
<p>Brother Mikhail was giving somewhat of an explosive sermon outside of the student union building, and sat down with Stuart to discuss his philosophy, thoughts on President Trump and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Check out everything that happened right here:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>READ MORE TRUMP&#160;NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Trump&#160;Files</a></p>
<p>SUPPORT 21WIRE –&#160;SUBSCRIBE &amp; BECOME A MEMBER @ <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">21WIRE.TV</a></p> | Russian Street Preacher vs. American Students | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/23/russian-street-preacher-i-love-donald-trump/ | 2017-03-23 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">Stop thinking about Roy Moore</a> for a few minutes, will you, and turn your attention to Capitol Hill. The House is planning on voting on tax policy—I shall not write the word “reform” after the word “tax” in this grim and deceitful context—Thursday. If House GOP leaders are planning to schedule a vote, that means they think they have 218 votes. And let this sink in: They have not held one single hearing on this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/02/us/politics/document-Read-the-G-O-P-Tax-Bill.html" type="external">429-page bill</a>, the most sweeping tax overhaul in three decades.</p>
<p>The simultaneous shamefulness and shame-less-ness of this is staggering. You want to cry over something? Read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/23/business/tax-reform-act-1986-measure-came-together-tax-bill-for-textbooks.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">this New York Times story</a> from 1986. It’s a chronology of how the big tax bill of that year got done. You know how long it took?</p>
<p>There are two ways to answer the question. President Ronald Reagan first called for major tax changes in his State of the Union address in 1984. The law finally passed in late September 1986. So that’s one answer: two-and-a-half years. But it was late May 1985 when Reagan formally introduced a bill. So that’s probably a fairer answer: 16 months.</p>
<p>What happened after Reagan offered the bill was that the respective committees did their jobs. The House Ways and Means Committee held hearings for months and took testimony from 450 witnesses. The Senate Finance Committee held a full month of hearings. Then both committees spent months drafting bills. There were several points at which the whole effort looked like it was going to die, because that’s what the legislative process does sometimes to a complicated bill. It took a ton of dialogue and compromise, and 16 long months, to get it done.</p>
<p>This year? The House GOP unveiled its bill this month. Nov. 2. And now they want to pass it on the 16th. This is not because the current House leadership is so much more efficient than the 1980s version. No, it’s obviously because they want to pass this bill before people wake up to the act of thievery that it is. Sixteen months versus 14 days says everything you need to know about a) how our norms of governance have broken down and b) how one side, the side that largely drove that breakdown, is now trying to take advantage of it.</p>
<p>Can they be stopped? Honestly, I’m not sure. Democrats don’t have the votes, of course. So as with the attempted Obamacare repeal, some Republicans will have to vote with the Democrats. In the House, some will—Republican members from the high-tax states of California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois will face heavy pressure to vote <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/republicans-v-local-government-article-1.3530879" type="external">because the bill reduces the ability to deduct state and local taxes</a> (the House bill lowers the deduction; the Senate bill eliminates it entirely). There are 34 Republicans from those states, though not all are highly vulnerable. Paul Ryan can afford to lose 22 Republicans and still get the 218 votes needed to pass the bill. People I’ve spoken to mostly think at this point, the Republicans will get their 218. We’ll start finding out today. If you hear them start making noises about delaying the vote, you’ll know they smell trouble.</p>
<p>But if they pass it, action moves to the Senate. Five senators are thought to be possible “no” votes: Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nebraska, Bob Corker of Tennessee, John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona, and, for his own separate reasons, Rand Paul of Kentucky.</p>
<p>And now, let’s go ahead and think about Roy Moore for a minute. Mitch McConnell is desperate to get this passed before the Alabama special election between Moore and Democrat Doug Jones on Dec. 12.</p>
<p>Why? Because if Moore remains the GOP candidate, both possible outcomes are awful for McConnell. If Jones wins, wavering Republicans run for the hills—they’ll be terrified of what it portends for 2018 that a Democrat was able to win a Senate election in Alabama. And if Moore wins, that’s even worse, because then the Republicans will have welcomed a pedophile to the United States Senate, and the Republicans will be about as popular as, well, pedophilia.</p>
<p>So the job of the Democrats, and the liberal-leaning grassroots groups trying to whip up opposition to this effort, is straightforward: Make this tax bill as unpopular as Obamacare repeal.</p>
<p>It’s not there yet. It’s not popular. Have a look at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/01/on-the-eve-of-tax-cut-bill-few-americans-actually-want-it/" type="external">these</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/poll-trump-tax-reform/index.html" type="external">three</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-poll/fewer-than-a-third-of-americans-back-trump-tax-plan-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN1CT2TD" type="external">polls</a>, for example. Support for the Republican efforts is around 30 percent. But Obamacare repeal was below 20 percent. And the job between now and the time of the Senate vote is to move the bill down 10 points. At 30 percent, it can probably still pass—that’s a critical mass of conservatives. But at 20, it probably can’t pass.</p>
<p>Americans for Tax Fairness and American Bridge, among other groups, are trying. Americans for Tax Fairness is emphasizing the unpopular cuts for corporations and the wealthy, the possible elimination of state and local deductions, and the fact that these tax cuts will be paid for by things like $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. American Bridge is focusing on the smaller but morally abominable changes like the elimination of the tax deduction for <a href="http://time.com/5017111/gop-tax-plan-teacher-tax-credit/" type="external">teachers who buy school supplies</a>. Imagine that one! This, while the budget would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html" type="external">cut $10 billion</a> from various public education programs. Says American Bridge’s Andrew Bates: “Trump and House Republicans wrote their tax scam behind closed doors because they wanted to stop the public from knowing the truth, but these numbers aren’t disputable: this plan breaks their promises, raises taxes on 1 in 2 middle class Americans, and kills tax benefits that hardworking families need—all to cut taxes for the richest Americans, hedge fund managers, and the biggest corporations.”</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>They’re being outspent by the other side. Liberal funders aren’t greeting this with the urgency they attached to Obamacare repeal. Well, it’s urgent all right, and they’d better. If Republicans pass this, they’ll have a win; they’ll appear to people who don’t know any better as if they’re functional. The negative impacts of this mess won’t become apparent for years. Between now and next November, all people will see is that the GOP delivered on a promise. It will help them make the case that they deserve to keep their majorities.</p>
<p>But if it fails, and if Doug Jones wins into the bargain, the logic of a 2018 bloodbath will be in place. The House may pass this monstrosity in 14 days, but it’s the job of Democrats to make them pay for years.</p> | Can the Democrats Stop This Tax ‘Reform’ Scam? | true | https://thedailybeast.com/can-the-democrats-stop-this-tax-reform-scam | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
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<p>NOW THIS IS MY IDEA OF PLAYING TWO: Let’s pause and offer an early thanks — to La Cueva and Eldorado, to Albuquerque Public Schools and to the New Mexico Activities Association.</p>
<p>Not only do we get La Cueva-Eldorado on Friday in the quarterfinals at Wilson Stadium for a main course, we get Sandia-Mayfield for dessert.</p>
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<p>Wilson will host an extremely rare playoff doubleheader Friday, with the Bears and Eagles kicking off at 2 p.m. and the Trojans and Matadors taking the field at 7 p.m. Should be great fun.</p>
<p>If Black Friday is shopping nirvana for women, this twin bill ought to be the same for local prep football fans.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Black Friday allows for some flexibility in terms of scheduling, since students are not in school and most working-class folk have the day off, too.</p>
<p>Incidentally, this will be the first playoff game between La Cueva and Eldorado since 2006. Oddly enough, Sandia and Mayfield last met in the 2006 playoffs.</p>
<p>DOWN TO THE WIRE: Three of the four 5A first-rounders weren’t decided until almost the very end. Eldorado — again! — was knee deep in the craziness, winning 28-26 at Cleveland.</p>
<p>The Eagles have absorbed two one-point losses this year, a five-point loss and two by eight points.</p>
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<p>They’ve won their last two by a combined five points. There are several metro-area teams who’ve frequently lived on the edge this season — Rio Rancho and Volcano Vista spring immediately to mind — but none can quite measure up to the wild swings of Eldorado’s perpetual seesaw.</p>
<p>This week, we almost saw the No. 11 seed (Eldorado) and No. 12 seed (Manzano) both advance to the quarterfinals, which would have blown up a few brackets, including mine, although I somehow managed to go 4-for-4 picking the 5A games in the first round.</p>
<p>HAWK-EYES: Three weeks ago, Volcano Vista needed two stops against Rio Rancho and the Hawks would have upset the Rams. Instead, Rio Rancho picked up a first down on a third-and-32, scored with 21 seconds to go and the Rams shocked Volcano 37-34.</p>
<p>It was almost fitting that the Hawks did something eerily similar Friday against Valley. The Hawks faced a ridiculous first-and-35 from midfield with less than 2 minutes to go, needing a touchdown and PAT or else their season would have ended.</p>
<p>“That’s a monster situation,” Volcano quarterback Reid Hendricks said. “If you don’t challenge yourself, then how do you know how good you are?”</p>
<p>So what happened? Volcano gets a first down and scores with 20 seconds to go in its thrilling 28-27 victory over the tough-luck Vikings.</p>
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<p>And who’s next for the Hawks? Rio Rancho, naturally.</p>
<p>Volcano Vista has been involved in last-minute thrillers in four of the past five weeks. Very Eldorado-esque.</p>
<p>LOOK OUT NEXT YEAR: With Valley returning 19 of 22 starters, the Vikings surely are going to be a contender in 2013.</p>
<p>“I think we proved that we’re not just some team from a poor district,” Valley coach Enrico Marcelli said — and he was right. “We can play with anybody in the state.”</p>
<p>Kudos to the Vikings, who improved from 2-8 to 7-4. But, Marcelli did err, in my estimation, when he opted to try to convert a fourth down from the Volcano Vista 40 late in Friday’s game.</p>
<p>I get the thinking: You make the first down, you probably can run out the clock.</p>
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<p>But it was the wrong call from that spot of the field. If Valley had forced the Hawks to go 90 yards instead of 60, Volcano Vista may very well have run out of time.</p>
<p>ATRISCO HERITAGE P.S.: The Jaguars closed an outstanding season Friday, losing 47-21 at Clovis. Senior quarterback Nate Goode rushed for 162 yards on 21 carries for upstart AHA.</p>
<p>“We had a tough time with (Goode),” Clovis coach Eric Roanhaus said. “He’s a heck of a player. We chased him all over Leon Williams Stadium. Sometimes we caught him; sometimes we didn’t.”</p>
<p>Atrisco completed its first season of 5A football at 8-3.</p>
<p>“This was a good experience to build on,” AHA coach Patrick Johnson said. “I think it’s another building block for us. Like they say, in the playoffs, things get ratcheted up another notch and now they know what that means.”</p>
<p>ACADEMY, HOPE MOVE ON: I should know better than to count out Albuquerque Academy and its crafty head coach, Kevin Carroll. A week after scoring just eight points against Socorro, the Chargers raced out to a 28-0 lead Friday and beat the Warriors 34-24. Academy goes to No. 2 Silver in the quarterfinals.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Hope thrashed Taos as the Huskies avenged a regular-season loss to the Tigers. Hope ran back a fumble return on the game’s third play. Hope is at No. 1 St. Michael’s next week. — This article appeared on page D11 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | A Black Friday Treat | false | https://abqjournal.com/238236/a-black-friday-treat.html | 2 |
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<p>In the Autumn of 1948, after some eight months of continuous fighting, I was promoted to the lofty rank of corporal. After taking part in a crash course for squad leaders, I was allowed to choose my new soldiers – new immigrants from Poland or Morocco.</p>
<p>(Everybody wanted Bulgarians, but the Bulgarians were already taken. They were known to be excellent fighters, disciplined and stoical.)</p>
<p>I chose the Moroccans. I also got two Tunisians and five Turks, altogether 15 men. All of them had just arrived by ship and not one spoke Hebrew. So how does one explain to them that a hand grenade has a high course of flight and a sharp angle of descent?</p>
<p>Fortunately one of them knew some Hebrew, so he translated into French, one of the Turks understood some French, and translated into Turkish, and so we got along.</p>
<p>It was not easy. There were a lot of psychological problems. But I decided to adapt myself as much as possible. For example: one day we got an order to go to the sea shore and fill a truck with sand, in order to enlarge our camp with more tents.</p>
<p>When we arrived on the beach, none of my soldiers moved. “We have come to this country to fight, not to work!” their spokesman explained.</p>
<p>I was nonplussed. What to do? The course had not prepared me for such a situation. Then I had an idea. I said: “You are quite right. So please sit under that tree and enjoy the shade!”</p>
<p>I took a spade and started to dig. I heard them whisper. Then one of them got up and took a spade. Then another. In the end we all worked happily.</p>
<p>Unhappily, we were an exception. Most Ashkenazis (Jews of European descent) who had been born in the country, or immigrated years before, thought that they had done their part and suffered enough, and that now it was up to the new Oriental immigrants to do theirs. Cultural difference were huge, but nobody paid much attention to them.</p>
<p>Soon after that scene, we were allowed leave for a few hours in Tel Aviv. When I got on the truck, I noticed that some of my men did not get on. “Are you crazy?” I cried. “Leave in Tel Aviv is paradise!”</p>
<p>“Not for us,” they replied. “The girls in Tel Aviv won’t go out with us. They call us Morroccan-Knives.” There had indeed been a few cases of hot-headed Moroccans who had felt insulted and attacked people with knives.</p>
<p>My attitude towards “my Moroccans” paid off. When I was severely wounded, four of them brought me out, under heavy enemy fire. They granted me 70 more years of life (so far).</p>
<p>A few years later, when I was already the Chief Editor of a news magazine, I published a series of investigative articles under the title “They Fuck the Blacks”. It contained revelations about the discrimination against the Oriental immigrants (nicknamed “blacks”, though they are brown). It aroused a storm of anger throughout the country. The very suggestion of discrimination was vehemently denied.</p>
<p>At the end of the 1950s, a minor incident in the Wadi Salib quarter of Haifa triggered major disturbances by Oriental Jews. All the press took the side of the police, my magazine was the only one which justified the rebels.</p>
<p>I bring up all this ancient history because it has suddenly become very topical.</p>
<p>A TV series by an Oriental filmmaker is whipping up a storm in Israel. It is called “Salah, This is The Land of Israel”, and claims to describe the experiences of his grandparents when they arrived in Israel in the early 1950s. Salah is an Arab first name.</p>
<p>They wanted to settle in Jerusalem, the only place in the country whose name they knew. Instead they were taken to a remote spot in the desert, thrown from the trucks, and left there to vegetate in tents, without work except for a few days per month of “emergency work”, digging holes for trees.</p>
<p>According to the filmmaker, David Deri, it was a gigantic “conspiracy” (his word) by the Ashkenazis to have the Oriental Jews come here, to throw them into the desert and leave them there, prey to hunger and deprivation.</p>
<p>Deri is not making things up. He quotes extensively from secret official protocols in which the operation was discussed at length and explained as a national necessity in order to fill the empty areas (from which the Arabs had previously been expelled).</p>
<p>All the facts are right. Yet the overall picture is wrong. Deri did not try to describe this chapter in history objectively. He produced a propaganda piece.</p>
<p>Let me cite again my personal experiences.</p>
<p>I was born in Germany to wealthy parents. When the Nazis assumed power, in 1933, my father immediately decided to leave Germany and go to Palestine.</p>
<p>No one received us with flowers. We were left to fend for ourselves. We brought with us a large sum of money. My father was not used to the commercial customs then prevailing in the country, and we lost all our money within a year.</p>
<p>Both my parents, who had never done any physical work in Germany, started to work very hard, 10-12 hours a day. Seeing this, I left elementary school after 7 classes and started to work at the age of 14, as did my brother and sisters. Not one of us complained. The happenings in Germany reminded us every day what we had escaped.</p>
<p>The lot of new immigrants is hard, and has always been so everywhere. We were intent on building “our” country. The immigrants who came from East and West after World War II were expected to do the same.</p>
<p>Much later I became friendly with one of the main organizers of the “absorption” of the immigrants in he 1950s, Lova Eliav. He told me how the immigrants, Eastern and Western, were brought to the empty Lakhish region, and when they refused to get off the trucks, the driver was told to operate the mechanism and literally pour the people onto the ground. He was not ashamed of it – for him it was a part of building the country.</p>
<p>Lova, by the way, was one of the country’s great idealists. At an advanced age he himself went into the desert, near the Egyptian border, to live with the young people for whom he built a new village far from everywhere.</p>
<p>Deri discovered that police spies had infiltrated “Oriental” groups. That made me laugh out loud. Because it was an open secret that for many years the secret service had spied on every move of my editorial staff, especially mine.</p>
<p>Deri is not troubled by the fact that during those years the Communists were treated much worse, not to mention the Arab citizens, who suffered daily oppression under “military rule”.</p>
<p>All in all, Deri did not actually falsify or invent anything. But he takes everything out of context. It is as if somebody took a painting of Michelangelo and removed one color – say red. It’s still basically the same painting, but it’s not the same.</p>
<p>David Deri was born 43 years ago in Yeruham, one of those villages created by Lova Eliav and his colleagues in the middle of nowhere, south of Be’er Sheva.</p>
<p>Today, Yeruham is still one of the poorer townships. But it has advanced a lot. Politically it is, of course, solidly Likud.</p>
<p>Deri makes no attempt to paint a “balanced” picture. On the contrary, he quite openly tries to incite the Oriental Jews against the Ashkenazis.</p>
<p>I don’t know his political outlook. But in today’s reality, the film serves the incitement campaign of Binyamin Netanyahu against the imaginary “leftist Ashkenazi elite”, which includes the media, the universities, the police and the courts (and me as well, of course).</p>
<p>By the way, Deri himself is the best evidence of how in two or three generations those poor Moroccans who were thrown into the desert are forming a new elite.</p> | The Great Conspiracy | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/03/12/the-great-conspiracy/ | 2018-03-12 | 4 |
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<p>A policeman guards in front of the Blue Mosque at the historic Sultanahmet district after an explosion in Istanbul on Tuesday. An explosion in a historic district of Istanbul popular with tourists killed 10 people and injured 15 others Tuesday morning, the Istanbul governor's office said. (Lefteris Pitarakis/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>ISTANBUL - A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the heart of Istanbul's historic district on Tuesday, killing 10 foreigners - most of them German tourists - and wounding 15 other people in the latest in a string of attacks by the Islamic extremists targeting Westerners.</p>
<p>The blast, just steps from the historic Blue Mosque and a former Byzantine church in the city's storied Sultanahmet district, was the first by IS to target Turkey's vital tourism sector, although IS militants have struck with deadly effect elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the bomber was a member of IS and pledged to battle the militant group until it no longer "remains a threat" to Turkey or the world.</p>
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<p>Davutoglu described the assailant as a "foreign national," and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said he was a Syrian citizen born in 1988. However, the private Dogan news agency said the bomber was Saudi-born. Kurtulmus said the attacker was believed to have recently entered Turkey from Syria and was not among a list of potential bombers wanted by Turkey.</p>
<p>"Turkey won't backtrack in its struggle against Daesh by even one step," Davutoglu said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. "This terror organization, the assailants and all of their connections will be found and they will receive the punishments they deserve."</p>
<p>Eight Germans were among the dead and nine others were wounded, some seriously, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin. The nationalities of the two others killed in the blast were not immediately released, but both were foreigners. The wounded also included citizens of Norway, Peru, South Korea and Turkey.</p>
<p>Turkey's state-run news agency said Davutoglu held a telephone conversation with German chancellor Angela Merkel to express his condolences.</p>
<p>"I strongly condemn the terror incident that occurred in Istanbul, at the Sultanahmet Square, and which has been assessed as being an attack by a Syria-rooted suicide bomber," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.</p>
<p>Merkel pledged Germany would continue its fight against terrorism.</p>
<p>"Today Istanbul was the target, before Paris, Copenhagen, Tunis, and so many other areas," she told reporters in Berlin. "International terror changes the places of its attacks but its goal is always the same - it is our free life, in free society. The terrorists are the enemies of all free people, indeed, the enemies of all humanity, whether in Syria or Turkey, in France or Germany."</p>
<p>The impact of Tuesday's attack, while not as deadly as two others last year, was particularly far-reaching because it struck at Turkey's $30 billion tourism industry, which has already suffered from a steep decline in Russian visitors since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November.</p>
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<p>Its apparent links to Syria also threatened to have implications in a country that is already dealing with more than 2 million Syrian refugees and a wave of migrants from Syria and other countries pouring across Turkey to Europe.</p>
<p>"By striking in the heart of Istanbul's old city, which has many - tourists, but few Turks, (IS) is targeting Turkey's lucrative tourism industry," said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute.</p>
<p>Cagaptay said that by targeting Germans, Islamic extremists also seemed to be aiming to heighten an anti-refugee backlash in Europe and deepen the anti-Islam sentiment there.</p>
<p>"This attack will, unfortunately, drive further backlash against German Chancellor Merkel's pro-Syrian refugee policy," Cagaptay said in e-mailed comments.</p>
<p>The explosion, which could be heard in several neighborhoods, was at a park that is home to a landmark obelisk some 25 yards (meters) from the Blue Mosque. Nearby monuments include the Ottoman-era Topkapi Palace and the former Byzantine church of Haghia Sophia, now a museum.</p>
<p>Berlin travel agent Lebenslust Touristik said that "many people" that it had booked on a tour were among the dead and wounded. Overall there were 33 people on the tour, the agency said, adding that it was working closely with the German Foreign Ministry to help the victims and their families.</p>
<p>Among the wounded was Jostein Nielsen, a 59-year-old Salvation Army officer from Norway who was sightseeing with his wife when the bomb went off, striking him in the knee with shrapnel.</p>
<p>"I first heard a bang that I think is what detonated the bomb," Nielsen told Norway's TV2, speaking from his hospital bed. "After that came the real bang. - There were human remains all over the place."</p>
<p>Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office, told NTV television he saw several people on the ground following the blast.</p>
<p>"It was difficult to say who was alive or dead," Koroglu said. "Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion."</p>
<p>Halil Ibrahim Peltek, a shopkeeper near the area of the blast told The Associated Press it had "an earthquake effect."</p>
<p>"There was panic because the explosion was violent," he said.</p>
<p>The Islamic State group has repeatedly threatened Western targets, with its first major attacks claimed a year ago in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a kosher supermarket.</p>
<p>Two attacks last year targeting a major museum and beach resort in Tunisia left scores dead, nearly all Western tourists. IS also claimed the downing of a Russian jetliner carrying Russian tourists from the Eygptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that killed all 224 on board.</p>
<p>In the case of Tunisia and Egypt, the response of many Western governments was to issue safety warnings for citizens considering travel to the countries, which rely heavily on tourism revenues. Turkey is equally reliant on tourism, and Istanbul has been among the world's most visited cities.</p>
<p>Last year, Turkey agreed to take a more active role in the U.S.-led battle against the IS group. It has opened it bases to U.S. aircraft to launch air raids on the extremist group in Syria and has carried out a limited number of strikes on the group itself.</p>
<p>It has also moved to tighten security along its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria in a bid to stem the flow of militants.</p>
<p>In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby condemned Tuesday's attack and pledged to work with Turkey to combat the Islamic State group. "The United States reaffirms our strong commitment to work with Turkey, a NATO ally and valued member" of the coalition fighting IS "to combat the shared threat of terrorism," Kirby said in a statement.</p>
<p>The attack comes at a time of heightened violence between Turkey's security forces and militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party, or PKK, in the country's mostly Kurdish southeast.</p>
<p>Turkey suffered two major bombing attacks last year, both blamed on the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>More than 30 people were killed in a suicide attack in the town of Suruc, near Turkey's border with Syria, in July. In October, two suicide bombs exploded outside Ankara's main train station as people gathered for a peace rally, killing more than 100 in Turkey's deadliest-ever attack. .</p>
<p>Last month, Turkish authorities arrested two suspected IS militants they said were planning suicide bombings during New Year's celebrations in the capital, Ankara.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Lefteris Pitarakis in Istanbul, David Rising, Frank Jordans, Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lori Hinnant in Paris, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.</p> | Suicide bomber kills 10, wounds 15 in Istanbul tourist area | false | https://abqjournal.com/704713/suicide-bomber-kills-10-wounds-15-in-istanbul-tourist-area.html | 2016-01-12 | 2 |
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<p>file photo</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES — Inside a filth-strewn residence on Picacho Avenue, Robynne Cox lived in constant fear of her boyfriend, Manuel Tellez-Edmond, who, according to a criminal complaint, confined Cox to the home under extreme physical and verbal abuse, and used drugs in the presence of their 11-month-old son, who had only been bathed four times in his life and later tested positive for methamphetamine.</p>
<p>But Cox, 21, eventually overcame her fear and reported her boyfriend to Las Cruces police, who arrested Tellez-Edmond, 18, on Jan. 12.</p>
<p>Tellez-Edmond was indicted Thursday by a Doña Ana County grand jury on six counts that include first-degree kidnapping; child abuse; aggravated assault against a household member with a deadly weapon; aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon; trafficking; and possession of drug paraphernalia.</p>
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<p>Tellez-Edmond’s mother, Margaret Edmond, 57, who also lived in the home, was arrested and charged late last month with one count of intentional child abuse. She has not been indicted.</p>
<p>Court documents filed in Magistrate Court depict Tellez-Edmond as a highly abusive and controlling individual, who repeatedly threatened Cox’s life, got her hooked on methamphetamine and neglected their son.</p>
<p>According to the court documents, Cox told police that the most recent abuse incident occurred on Jan. 10, two days before Tellez-Edmond was arrested.</p>
<p>After making numerous unknown accusations, Tellez-Edmond allegedly “threw her (Cox) on the ground and bit her on the back and then pulled her hair to turn (her) face to him and bit her twice on the chin,” the court documents state.</p>
<p>Next, Cox alleged that Tellez-Edmond loaded a handgun and pointed it at her eye, threatening to kill her, according to the indictment and court documents.</p>
<p>Tellez-Edmond then allegedly struck Cox on the head with the handgun, one of two found in the home along with two rifles and four “airsoft guns,” the court documents state.</p>
<p>The criminal complaint also notes that Cox had several bite marks on her chin and back, as well as bruises her biceps, hands and wrists, at the time she gave a statement to authorities.</p>
<p>According to the affidavit, Cox, who said she wasn’t allowed to leave the home unless it was for work and had her cell phone monitored by Tellez-Edmond, initially told a supervisor about the incident. She then went to police and reported Tellez-Edmond.</p>
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<p>Because Tellez-Edmond had numerous firearms and was possibly under the influence of methamphetamine, police used its SWAT team to serve an arrest warrant. Tellez-Edmond exited the home without incident and was taken into custody.</p>
<p>Home conditions</p>
<p>Inside the home, detectives found more than 15 animals, mostly dogs, as well as a strong odor of urine and defecation, which covered floors throughout the home, according to the court documents.</p>
<p>Electricity was functional in only a portion of the home and there was no means of heating water, police reported. Detectives reportedly also found 5.8 grams of methamphetamine as well as drug paraphernalia commonly used to distribute methamphetamine.</p>
<p>A crib was found in a room belonging to Margaret Edmond, who said she was the baby’s primary caregiver, the court documents state.</p>
<p>Investigators also discovered a digital video recorder and cameras strategically placed within the home, police reported.</p>
<p>Baby’s plight</p>
<p>One of the cameras depicted activities at the infant’s crib and seemed to indicate that the young boy was removed from the crib for only 30 minutes to an hour a day, indicating the young boy had no contact with Tellez-Edmond and minimal daily contact with Cox and Edmond.</p>
<p>The video evidence purports to shows that the most regular contact the baby had was with the family’s pit bull terrier, which would lick the child’s face on occasion and appeared to keep the boy company, according to police.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, Tellez-Edmond “smoked and snorted” and sold methamphetamine in front of his infant son.</p>
<p>“After being removed from the home,” the indictment says, “a drug test was preformed on the child and he tested positive for methamphetamine.”</p>
<p>Tellez-Edmond admitted to police that he had not allowed Cox or his son to bathe in more than a month, according to the court documents. Police later learned the infant had only been bathed four times in almost a year.</p>
<p>He also told police that he has “anger problems” and has been “self-medicating with methamphetamine,” according to the court documents.</p>
<p>Tellez-Edmond remains jailed at the Doña Ana County Detention Center on a $40,000 bond. Edmond, who admitted to police that she was afraid of her son, also remains jailed on a $10,000 bond.</p>
<p>An arraignment for Tellez-Edmond has been scheduled for 8 a.m. Feb. 9 before Judge Lisa Schultz in 3rd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>Carlos Andres López can be reached at 575-541-5354.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2015 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC</p>
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<p>FBN’s Rich Edson breaks down the latest report from the Labor Department.</p>
<p>The most troubling aspect of the August jobs report released earlier Friday could well be the revelation that 368,000 potential employees simply gave up looking for work.</p>
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<p>Put into perspective, the number of people who decided last month that there’s no point even looking for a job was nearly four times larger than the 96,000 people who actually found jobs.</p>
<p>“That’s a large number. That’s the biggest story for this month,” said Cliff Waldman, an economist for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), a public policy and economics research organization in Arlington, Va. “It shows there’s a very, very sizable level of frustration among the labor force and it’s a very disturbing trend."</p>
<p>Ironically, removing such a large number of people from the workforce helped push the U.S. unemployment rate down to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, but no one is interpreting that as good news.</p>
<p>The Labor Department, which compiles and releases unemployment figures, didn’t indicate how many of that 368,000 figure were regarded as long-term unemployed, which the government defines as those out of work for 27 weeks or more. But it’s a safe bet a significant number of them were.</p>
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<p>The number of long-term unemployed in the U.S., those who haven’t been able to find steady work for over six months, held steady from July into August at a whopping five million people. In all, 12.5 million people were out of work in the U.S. last month.</p>
<p>The government also reported Friday that the labor force participation rate came in at 63.5%, the lowest figure since September of 1981.</p>
<p>Skittish Would-be Entrepreneurs Curbing Hiring</p>
<p>Waldman said reams of economic data show that a significant number of would-be entrepreneurs, frightened by fragile financial markets and uncertain about the direction of U.S. economic policy, are holding off on their plans to start their own businesses.</p>
<p>If those businesses aren’t opened there’s no need to hire new employees.</p>
<p>“Most new jobs come from new businesses,” said Waldman. “That’s not happening and it’s especially disturbing because there are so many people on the sidelines wondering what to do.”</p>
<p>Usually, when unemployment rises, by necessity it creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to go out and start their own businesses. Rather than sitting on their couches waiting for their next unemployment check, historically many Americans will instead look for a way to make money on their own. When they succeed they hire more people to help them.</p>
<p>But, increasingly, that’s not happening now. “We should be seeing a lot more of this but we’re not,” said Waldman.</p>
<p>Blame it on the deep level of frustration and uncertainty that pervades U.S. labor markets right now. Frustration because U.S. tax policy doesn’t encourage entrepreneurs, and uncertainty because of the looming "fiscal cliff" come January if Congress can’t reach an agreement on debt reduction, government spending and tax policy.</p>
<p>Waldman said tax-policy reform needs to focus on making it easier for entrepreneurs to get up and running so they can expand and hire. “Entrepreneurship should be very much a part of current economic policy,” he said.</p>
<p>Another factor holding back hiring is employer uncertainty tied to dramatic budget cuts and tax increases scheduled to take affect early next year if Congress and the president fail to reach an agreement on a compromise.</p>
<p>If no compromise is reached and billions of dollars are slashed across-the-board from the U.S. budget at the same time taxes go up for millions of Americans, the impact could be devastating.</p>
<p>“If that happens there will be a recession in 2013, and not a small one,” said Waldman.</p>
<p>Hardly surprising then that would-be entrepreneurs are reluctant to put their life savings on the line right now in an effort to start a new business.</p> | Jobs Report: 368,000 Americans Gave Up Hope | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/09/07/job-report-many-americans-giving-up-hope.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>The Supreme Court took a big step this week in extending corporate power in the electoral arena.&#160; In a 5-4 decision, the court struck down limits on interest groups wishing to directly fund campaign ads in the run-up to national elections.&#160; Previous rules – including the 2002 bi-partisan campaign reform act – prohibited corporations from directly funding campaign ads in Congressional races, either in favor of, or against individual candidates.&#160; Those rules have been struck down in this new decision.&#160; Previously, rules regulating spending merely required that corporate interests channel their money through formal mediums; corporations were required to filter spending through political action committees (PACs), and were still able to spend unlimited amounts on “issue ads,” although not on ads attacking specific candidates.&#160; In this sense, the Supreme Court’s ruling should not be seen as a milestone so much as one of many recent rulings seeking to strengthen corporate power.&#160; Buckley v. Valeo (1976) represents one of the earlier efforts to expand the voice of corporations, as the Supreme Court ruled that spending money on campaign contributions was a constitutionally protected form of free speech.&#160; The Supreme Court also struck down a portion of the 2002 bi-partisan campaign reform act in 2007, which prohibited corporations and unions from financing political ads during the two months before general elections and the month before primaries.</p>
<p>The rationale for easing campaign finance laws was provided in a majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, proclaiming that “speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people…Political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it, whether by design or inadvertently.”&#160; Undergirding the court’s rationale is the assumption that money does not pervert the electoral process, but is in fact vital to it.&#160; Philosophically, campaign spending is seen as nothing more than a form of political expression – to be wielded by any group or individual who wishes to lobby for or against candidates running for office.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to reject the notion that campaign money is a form of free speech that nurtures democracy.&#160; One particular danger from the Supreme Court’s actions is the increased probability that businesses will stifle progressive change.&#160; Officials who enthusiastically support corporate power may be rewarded by massive increases in spending on issue and candidate ads that benefit them during re-election, while candidates who support progressive reform will be the subject of an organized business onslaught that is without financial restrictions.</p>
<p>The complexities of campaign finance already strongly favored business interests prior to this ruling.&#160; It’s difficult to see how reducing restrictions on lobbying will not further tip the scales in favor of business.&#160; Consider some of the following evidence regarding the entrenchment of corporate electoral power:</p>
<p>– Business elites already exercise the power of the purse over campaign contributions, in addition to dominating the interest group process more generally.&#160; The vast majority of campaign contributions in the 2008 election – 71 percent – came from business PACs and individuals associated with business, contrasted with just 2.7 percent of contributions from labor PACs and those associated with labor.&#160; This pattern is longstanding: 75 percent of all contributions also came from business in the 2000 election, with just 5.5 percent from labor.&#160; Privileged actors including business, trade and professional associations – which combine to form the heart of the capitalist economy – account for approximately 74 percent of the competing sides of public policy conflicts in Washington, as compared to citizens groups, unions, and all other interest groups, which make up just 10 percent of all actors. <a href="#_edn1" type="external" /></p>
<p>– Business is in the best position to benefit from escalating campaign costs.&#160; Incumbents are increasingly forced to raise small fortunes to win or remain in office.&#160; While the average winner of a Senate election spent $5.2 million in 1998, that had increased to $8.5 million by 2008 (a 63 percent increase).&#160; Similarly, the average House winner spent $650,000 in 1998, and $1.37 million in 2008 (a 110 percent increase).&#160; Scholarly studies of Congress find a strong positive relationship between campaign contributions from interest groups and legislators’ voting on bills benefitting those groups.&#160; While this relationship is not consistent for public policy issues that are of high salience and strongly contested, the relationship holds for low visibility issues – which account for the vast majority of bills passed. <a href="#_edn2" type="external" /></p>
<p>– Campaign Contributions and spending are most common among those of extreme wealth, not the common person.&#160; Consider that the 2008 election was the most expensive in U.S. history, with $5.3 billion raised by all candidates (compared to $4 billion in 2004).&#160; In a time when money increasingly dominates elections, those who provide contributions will exercise a major advantage in aiding their preferred candidates.&#160; In the 2002 election cycle, the richest .1 percent of Americans dominated this process, providing 80 percent of all campaign contributions.&#160; Business power is dispersed across both parties; in the 2008 election, business gave 54 percent of their donations to Democrats, and 46 percent to Republicans.&#160; The most dominant of all contributors to both parties – those who are in the best position to gain from the recent ruling – include the finance, insurance, real estate, and health care industries.</p>
<p>– Business interests give disproportionately more to incumbents, helping the current office holders in both parties to solidify their monopoly power and limit democratic competition.&#160; In the 1990s, it was common for incumbents in contested elections to receive 83 to 93 percent of the total contributions for their races.&#160; Business dominated elections in the U.S. are extremely uncompetitive because of the dominance of incumbents. &#160;On average, 86 percent of Senate incumbents were re-elected in the six Congressional elections from 1998 to 2008, while an average of 96 percent of House incumbents were re-elected. “Congressional stagnation” has become a serious problem, considering that the primary requisite for democratic elections is competitiveness.&#160; As of 2002, only 39 of the 435 races in the House were won with less than 55 percent of the vote.&#160; Essentially, this means that just 9 percent of House races were competitive, meaning they had an electoral margin of victory of less than ten percent.&#160; This problem continues today, with just 11 percent of elections being competitive in 2008 and with the incumbency re-election rate at 94 percent for the House and 83 percent for the Senate.</p>
<p>What are we to take from all these statistics?&#160; To summarize: elections are already extremely expensive and becoming more so.&#160; Business and other privileged actors dominate the electoral process, as they are the main actors in Washington and the primary financial supporters for elections.&#160; Finally, elections are largely uncompetitive with corporate financed incumbents monopolizing campaign contributions in order to appeal to the largest number of voters.</p>
<p>Most scholars refuse to take issue with corporate dominated elections.&#160; The dominant view in political science is that American elections are generally democratic affairs that allow voters to connect with officials in pursuit of the common good.&#160; If elections are uncompetitive, these academics often argue, it’s because the public is already so happy with its leaders and the benefits they provide in the form of constituency service and representation.&#160; There’s little reason to take these assumptions seriously in light of the widespread distrust of all levels of government among the public.&#160; According to the American National Election Study of 2004, 56 percent of Americans said “the government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves” rather than “for the benefit of all the people.”&#160; By late 2008 the Program on International Policy Attitudes reported that 80 percent of Americans felt government was run by “a few big interests.”&#160; The same study found that 80 percent of Americans felt that “the public should have greater influence on government” than they currently do.</p>
<p>Public distrust of government exists at all institutional levels.&#160; Looking at the Executive branch, former President Bush enjoyed among the lowest public approval rating in the history of modern polling.&#160; According to the Gallup polling group, Barack Obama is unimpressively teetering at the 50 percent approval mark as of January 2010.&#160; Approval of the Supreme Court is not very encouraging either, as support for the institution also hovers around 50 percent.&#160; Congress is the most unpopular of federal institutions, currently enjoying an approval rating of 23 percent, with 63 percent public disapproval according to the latest CBS poll.</p>
<p>Congressional unpopularity is at its lowest point since the late 1970s when support reached just 19 percent, according to Gallup.&#160; According to the Center on Congress, 90 percent of Americans think that Congress “listens more to the lobbyists” than to “the voters back home.”&#160; Regarding job performance, 74 percent give Congress a “D” or “F” in “holding its members to high ethical standards.”&#160; Even the job approval ratings of individual members of Congress (which are traditionally cited by scholars as evidence that the public likes its leaders) are fairly unimpressive.&#160; CBS polling from the last two years finds that between 43 to 51 percent of respondents gave their individual member of Congress a positive job approval rating.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court majority operates according to the assumption that government should be as limited as possible in regulating the activities of private actors in the political arena.&#160; But there’s no reason to think that corporations should enjoy special “rights” to dominate the electoral process.&#160; Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights even mention corporations, as their rights were largely created at the turn of the twentieth century by the national courts and by states seeking to grant corporations the status of immortal “personhood.”&#160; This tradition continues today, as the recent Supreme Court ruling demonstrates.</p>
<p>What systematically eludes the court’s majority is the reality that economic and political inequality are inseparable.&#160; The U.S. is the wealthiest, but one of the most unequal first world countries.&#160; Increasing economic inequality, Frederick Solt finds, “increases the relative power of the wealthy to shape politics.”&#160; More specifically, “higher levels of income inequality powerfully depress political interest, the frequency of political discussion, and participation in elections among all but the most affluent citizens, providing compelling evidence that greater economic inequality yields greater political inequality.” <a href="#_edn3" type="external" /></p>
<p>In the arena of political advertising, the Supreme Court’s empowerment of corporate interest groups poses an additional problem.&#160; Relaxation of the rules governing campaign ads allows business groups to increase their efforts to manipulate voters’ opinions.&#160; Voters often react strongly to political advertising. <a href="#_edn4" type="external" /> &#160;At a time when the public is increasingly dealigned from the political parties and elections are candidate centered, campaign messages can exert a strong influence on “floating voters” – or those who refuse to consistently vote for one party over another. <a href="#_edn5" type="external" />&#160; Political rhetoric from candidates influences what issues voters think are most important. <a href="#_edn6" type="external" />&#160; Increased media exposure for incumbents also translates into a greater electoral advantage over challengers. <a href="#_edn7" type="external" />&#160; This is in part because incumbents benefit from more extensive media coverage throughout their term, as well as during elections (as a result of incumbents’ increased prominence among journalists and their ability to saturate voters with paid advertisements).&#160; Perhaps most problematically, negative ads from third party groups (such as those deregulated by the Supreme Court) are very effective in depressing voter turnout. <a href="#_edn8" type="external" />&#160; This reality is all the more disturbing in the light of the possibility that corporate elites will increase their use of negative ads when challenging progressive officials who seek to change the status quo.</p>
<p>Gallup reports that 55 percent of Americans think that the “same rules [should] apply to corporations, unions, and individuals” for campaign advertising.&#160; Their opinions might radically change if they were aware of the electoral trends discussed here.&#160; When I teach American Government, my students typically enter the course with little knowledge of politics and elections.&#160; Students become far more critical, however, after a review of the facets of the election business discussed above.&#160; Most Americans know little about the problems confronting our electoral system.&#160; Sadly, their ignorance is likely to continue in light of a Supreme Court ruling that emboldens privileged actors who operate behind the electoral scenes.</p>
<p>ANTHONY DiMAGGIO teaches American and Global Politics at Illinois State University.&#160; He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Mass Media, Mass Propaganda</a> (2008) and the forthcoming <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1583671994/counterpunchmaga" type="external">When Media Goes to War</a> (2010).&#160; He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, David C. Kimball, and Beth L. Leech, Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, who Loses, and Why (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; For more on the relationship between roll call voting and campaign contributions on low-salient issues, see: Robert M. Stein and Kenneth N. Bickers, Perpetuating the Pork Barrel: Policy Subsystems and American Democracy (New York: Cambridge, 1995). For more on the inconsistent relationship between roll call voting and campaign contributions on highly salient issues, see: Frank R. Baumgartner, et. al., Lobbying and Policy Change, 2009; and Frank R. Baumgartner and Beth L. Leech, Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Frederick Solt, “Economic Inequality and Political Engagement,” American Journal of Political Science, 52 (1), 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Milton Lodge, Marco R. Steenbergen and Shawn Brau, “The Responsive Voter: Campaign Information and the Dynamics of Candidate Evaluation,” American Political Science Review, 89 (2), 1995.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Martin P. Wattenberg, The Decline of American Political Parties: 1952-1996 (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People’s Choice: How the Voter Makes up his Mind in a Presidential Campaign (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948); Richard W. Boyd, “Electoral Change and the Floating Voter: the Reagan Elections, Political Behavior, 8 (3), 1986.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Danny Hayes, “Does the Messenger Matter? Candidate-Media Agenda Convergence and its Effects on Voter Issue Salience,” Political Research Quarterly, 61 (1) 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Christopher Kenny and Michael McBurnett, “Up Close and Personal: Campaign Contact and Candidate Spending in U.S. House Election,” Political Research Quarterly, 50 (1) 1997.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" type="external" />&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Joseph W. Boesch and Shinya Wakao, “When the Messenger Matters More than the Message: The Influence of Candidate and Third Party Ads in the 2008 Presidential Election,” Working Paper, 2009, http://cess.nyu.edu/ExpPoliSci-Con-2-09/Papers/conference%20paper-nyu-Final-Jboesch.pdf; Richard G. Niemi and Herbert F. Weisberg, eds. Controversies in Voting Behavior (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2001); Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate (New York: Free Press, 1995).</p> | Supremely Swindled | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/25/supremely-swindled/ | 2010-01-25 | 4 |
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<p>Research In Motion shares (NASDAQ:RIMM) sank in trading after the bell, as the company missed the Street’s expectations and sales of its BlackBerry 7 smartphones came in at the low end of its guidance.</p>
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<p>The troubled firm, which has watched its shares plunge 76% in the past year, also announced a management shakeup as the company’s former co-CEO Jim Balsillie resigned from its board, and current CTO Software David Yach and COO Global Operations also resigned. RIM said it plans to hire a single COO to run its operations.</p>
<p>Research In Motion has its hopes for a turnaround pinned on its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system, which is not expected to hit the market until October. &#160;Consequently, the Street was looking to the company’s guidance more than fourth-quarter results to see how it expects to perform ahead of the launch of BlackBerry 10.</p>
<p>The company said because it expects there to be pressure on revenue and earnings throughout fiscal 2013, it will “no longer provide specific quantitative guidance.” RIM cited weakness in its domestic smartphone business, as well as the focus on growing its subscriber base through sales of its BlackBerry 7 handsets, ahead of the launch of BlackBerry 10. Analysts were looking for first-quarter earnings of 66 cents a share on revenue of $4.25 billion.&#160; The Street expects the company to ship 11.2 million smartphones in the first quarter.</p>
<p>In the fiscal fourth quarter, the company nearly missed its own guidance for BlackBerry sales; the company said BlackBerry shipments fell 21%, compared to the third quarter, to 11.1 million.&#160; That number falls near the low end of the company’s guidance, as RIM had forecast that it would ship between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerry handsets in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>RIM weighed in with a fourth-quarter net loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with last year’s fourth-quarter profit of $934 million, or $1.79 a share. On an adjusted basis, after excluding pre-tax charges, the company reported profit of $418 million, or 80 cents a share.</p>
<p>Revenue fell to $4.19 billion, down from year-ago sales of $5.56 billion.&#160; Adjusted gross margin widened sequentially to 33.4%, up from 27.3% in the third quarter; however, that was still narrower than the company’s gross margin of 44.2% one year ago.</p>
<p>The results missed expectations; analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted adjusted earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of $4.54 billion.</p>
<p>“I have confirmed that the Company has substantial strengths that can be further leveraged to improve our financial performance, including RIM's global network infrastructure, a strong enterprise offering and a large and growing base of more than 77 million subscribers,” said new CEO Thorsten Heins, in his first quarterly report for the company.&#160; Heins reiterated the company’s focus on the BlackBerry 10 platform, and service offerings such as BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.&#160; He said the company is looking to implement “increased management accountability and process discipline.”</p>
<p>Shares of RIM rose 6 cents, half of one percent, in Thursday’s session, closing at $13.73.&#160; The stock rallied 2.77% on company’s results.&#160; Shares are down more than 5% since the beginning of the year and have plummeted nearly 80% in the past 12 months.&#160; When electronic trading after hours resumed, shares were down more than 7%.</p>
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<p>Introduction by Tom Engelhardt</p>
<p>Just turning on the debate tonight, I felt like I had been consigned to some circle of Hell. A completely circumscribed hour and a half in the company of the two people I’d probably least like to hear from at present. Rather than watch and twitch, my wife, who can’t sit still for championship basketball either, repaired to the kitchen, one ear cocked, to make chocolate chip cookies for our son — a security (blanket) mom. I just sat on the couch, feeling as if the area around my feet, as around Kerry’s, had been taped in. (“At no time during these debates,” read one of the rules agreed to between the two opposing camps, “shall either candidate move from their designated area behind their respective podiums.”)</p>
<p>One irony did strike me as I watched a rare only half-controlled Bush performance where he did not look like his usual relaxed, folksy self: The Republicans love to denounce Hollywood, but they have proved the most fabulous purveyors of fiction and seductive imagery in our recent political history. Reagan may have been our official actor-president, but George has been much underestimated for his ability to act out both the roles of “George Bush” and of the President. Even the debate agreement document itself, all 32 pages of it, had the detail of a Hollywood agent’s contract with a big studio — and Bush family consigliere James Baker was that agent.</p>
<p>Normally surrounded by blanketing “security,” the President’s campaign road events — with their carefully reserved tickets, their choreographed chants and softball questions, their air of private theatrical performances only open to invited (or paying) guests — have all the easy, repetitive smoothness of a Little Mermaid-like stage show at Disneyland. Far more than in any other campaign of our lifetime, the Bush campaign, until tonight, has really been a fabulously successful cartoon version of politics, buffered from any reality whatsoever. Unscripted realities have generally been kept well out of sight in blocked off protest zones and when anyone has crashed the campaign’s space — anyone, that is, wearing the wrong t-shirt or protesting in any way — that person has almost instantly been airbrushed away. Who else has ever created such a self-enclosed political universe, so — as everyone likes to say — “on message”? (And imagine that, at any given moment, there are not one but two performances taking place — the second being a carefully coded set of signs and signals for the President’s fundamentalist Christian audience.)</p>
<p>And what about the President himself with that wonderful walk of his — not on display at the debate this evening — slightly bow-legged as if he had just dismounted from a horse before striding on stage, the shoulders curved forward, the head held just in front of the body, the hands hanging at (but off) his sides as if he were indeed a mythic cowboy, a gunslinger ready to draw. (Never mind that, just out of sight, the outlaws have taken over the sheriff’s office and are performing their own version of A Fistful of Dollars.)</p>
<p>Of course, this country’s greatest and most seductive export has always been imagery (and the fictions that went with it): whether films from the Hollywood production line, TV shows that have sometimes turned much of the world into the equivalent of couch potatoes, or ad mini-dramas that travel the planet as our ambassadors, outdoing every other form of alluring fiction.</p>
<p>As it happens, the Bush administration’s skills have been dazzling and attractive only domestically. As a Hollywood extravaganza, their campaign would be an instant failure because there would be no foreign box office. But if your goal is power at home and the world be damned, then the George machine has been a remarkably effective image producer, given the minimalist materials at hand. (Think Iraq, the price of a barrel of oil, jobs in America, or the economy generally.) Whether or not that was changed by the first debate I don’t know, but it’s enough to drive you bonkers. His “ranch” in Crawford isn’t actually a ranch; his “Texas” youth happened mostly in the East; his “military service” wasn’t really military service; his “success” in business was a sham; little that he said in his last debates against Al Gore bore any relation to the policies he’s since pursued (remember his humility about “nation-building efforts” back then); his Iraq, of course, isn’t Iraq; his version of war, learned in the movie theaters of his childhood, bears no relation to war; and so on into some clean, well-lighted nightmare of the soul.</p>
<p>The flamboyant enemies he’s preferred — Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and now Abu Musad al-Zarqawi — have themselves been fascinated by our image-making skills and have been into making their own images and fictions in imitation of the Hollywood that turned out Predator, Alien, and any number of catastrophe films.</p>
<p>Perhaps you need to be a professor of religion as Ira Chernus is to nose out the deeper fictions that the President (and to a more modest extent his opponent) are intent on feeding us. Below Chernus suggests the very American story, a powerful mix of imagery and fictions, that’s underlies the President’s campaign; that is — with a bow to Iraq — the Ur-fiction of this election season.</p>
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<p>The Story Behind the Debate By Ira Chernus</p>
<p>The first Bush-Kerry debate made the Democrat’s dilemma all too clear. Kerry wants to focus on pocketbook issues, promising every American a chance to achieve or retain a comfortable middle class standard of living. In a debate restricted to foreign policy, he could only criticize the President and say, “Somehow, I’ll do better.”</p>
<p>Bush was content to focus on foreign affairs, as long as he could stick to the big picture and avoid talking about realities on the Iraqi ground. With the economy still sputtering and Iraq engulfed in violence, he has little to offer except the big picture — a grand story of America’s global mission.</p>
<p>Among voters who decide mainly based on issues, Kerry has the lead in this election. Voters who decide mainly based on the candidates’ “character” favor Bush, the story-teller. Right now, the contest is too close to call. Never underestimate the power of a grand story.</p>
<p>For most of human history, most people have lived in abject poverty. They survived, in part, on stories. They told stories to interpret their suffering or to distract themselves from their suffering, to participate vicariously in magnificent events and give meaning to an existence that might otherwise seem meaningless. In most cultures, the truly powerful stories — myths, legends, or sacred narratives — were religious ones.</p>
<p>In the United States, where we have no religious myths that we all share, the history of the nation has become our most powerful shared myth. Like all religious stories, the most popular versions of American history are a mixture of fact, fantasy, and wish-fulfillment. Judging from the first debate, it’s not clear that Kerry and his campaign strategists understand the power of this potent brew. The Bush campaign understands it all too well.</p>
<p>Throughout the debate, Bush stuck doggedly to his script, re-telling the most popular American myths. Millions of us, watching his performance, were not sure whether to laugh or cry. But millions more undoubtedly took him absolutely seriously and cheered. For many, he has become the hero and the very embodiment of the meaning of America.</p>
<p>Issues fall by the wayside whenever Bush’s heroic character takes center stage – which is just what the Republicans want. Former Clinton White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, writing in the British Guardian, sees Bush presenting himself as the Lone Ranger, “the rescuer and avenger, an isolate caught in a moral landscape between civilization and wilderness… an unassuming natural man, in touch with the primitive, who has lived among them, putting him beyond the rigid hierarchies of the town. Because of his intimate knowledge he can use the methods of the savages against them.”</p>
<p>This is the Republicans’ new version of old-fashioned isolationism. A real Western hero needs no allies. He doesn’t ask permission from the UN, or a bunch of Europeans, or anyone else. Like the Lone Ranger, he knows evil when he sees it, and whenever he sees it he destroys it — all by himself, and by any means necessary.</p>
<p>The frontier myth is all about saving the innocent. Bush is most adept at playing both the innocent one and the savior of the innocent, tapping into that ancient image of America as a place of pure innocence, a Garden of Eden, where everyone is Adam or Eve.</p>
<p>Any hint that we may have done anything to provoke anyone’s hatred is met with howls of outrage. They hate us because they are so wholly evil and we are so wholly good. We must eradicate them because we have a God-given duty to save the innocent from the ravages of evil. End of story.</p>
<p>In post-9/11 America, it’s easy to believe that evil just springs up on its own, like the spawn of the devil. It’s just as easy to believe that the threat of evil will remain an inescapable fact of life. You don’t have to be Christian to believe in a secular version of original sin. You just have to accept the common view that today’s “terrorists” are but the latest in an endless line of evildoers, stretching back to the Communists, the Nazis, and beyond. We are doomed, it seems, to have the enemy always at the gates, intent on destroying our innocent land.</p>
<p>In the shadow of that fear, it may feel good to hear a Texan who walks with a swagger assure us he will gun down the evildoers. The desperation with which people cling to Bush’s now threadbare and twice-told tale only betrays increasingly deep-seated American doubts that evildoers will ever be vanquished.</p>
<p>To help still those doubts, the story must be about more than just saving our own lives and fortunes. It must reassure us that we are not selfish in doing so, that our fight is motivated by nobler motives. Overlaid upon that myth of a savage west and a cowboy savior, we need another myth that fits better our global desires. We must believe that whatever we do abroad is all about protecting good people everywhere, protecting civilization itself.</p>
<p>In the American story, the essence of civilization is individual freedom. The hero kills the bad guys, not merely to preserve the freedom the innocent already have, but to push back the frontier — to bring liberty to people who have never tasted its delicious fruits.</p>
<p>This is the story that Bush tells so successfully. Like all great stories, it is built on an utterly simple plot: Americans, propelled by fate into mortal conflict, are willing to endure every hardship to secure the inevitable triumph of the highest ideals. Innocent Americans, through no choice of their own, are regularly forced to go to war against savage enemies who would take away human liberty.</p>
<p>Kerry used the debate to keep hammering away at the immense disconnect between Iraqi fact and Bush fiction. But it may not be enough to turn the race around. Bush’s storytelling succeeds so well precisely because he, his writers, and his campaign staff find it so easy to ignore that disconnect. They seem to be perfectly comfortable in a realm of pure fiction – which only makes their fiction all the more convincing, especially to the millions who are victimized by Bush-style policies but may vote for him nevertheless.</p>
<p>This is Kerry’s dilemma. He must reach those millions and convince them to put their own practical interests ahead of the appeal of the great American story. But their practical interests have been betrayed so consistently, for so long, by so many politicians, that they have no reason to believe in the promise of middle-class comfort and security Kerry offers.</p>
<p>Besides, the American dream seems a rather paltry and selfish ideal when stripped from its larger context of national greatness. Kerry asks us all to step into the booth on Election Day as individuals, trying to make the best possible life for ourselves and our families. Bush asks us to step into that booth as citizens of God’s chosen nation, with a mission to let freedom ring.</p>
<p>The two dreams — comfort for each and liberty for all — grew up together in this nation, intertwined. The link between them was free enterprise or, put another way, the liberty not only to vote but to make as much money as your talents and energies would allow. And that liberty, so the story says, is given to each of us by God. In return for that gift, we need only accept God’s inscrutable charge to us, as Americans, to bring his liberty to every corner of the globe. John Kerry is offering only one slice of that story. George W. Bush is serving up the whole pie, uncut.</p>
<p>Bush is merely the latest in a long line of U.S. leaders who have told this story, but he may be the first who has turned it into official public policy. His National Security Strategy of 2002 asserts that representative democracy and a free enterprise economy are necessary for anyone anywhere to live a decent civilized life; and it dedicates the U.S. to making sure everyone everywhere can enjoy the God-given right to live in a democratic capitalist society. It states plainly that our nation will never be secure until that goal is reached.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this story assumes that everyone who is not our ally is a threat and therefore an enemy. It commits the United States to violent efforts to defeat all those enemies, violent efforts that are sure to turn potential allies into real enemies of U.S. government policy. Sooner or later, that will surely turn more American citizens into targets for future rounds of attacks.</p>
<p>The great American myth says that we will be insecure until everyone is on our side. That belief, acted out in policy, is a sure recipe for tragedy as well as eternal insecurity because it traps us in an endless cycle of fear, war, more fear, and more war. Anyone who doubts this has not been watching the news from Iraq.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, millions of Americans who are poor, or sick, or out of work, or working two jobs to make ends meet instinctively respond to the irresistible appeal of their national myth. Many gave up long ago (even if only unconsciously) on the personal success and fulfillment that has, until recently, been the focus of Kerry’s campaign. So they are drawn all the more to the vicarious success and fulfillment that Bush offers. He takes them out of themselves and their personal suffering. He makes them a permanent part of events fraught with eternal value and transcendent significance. He lets them believe that they have a central role in God’s plan for all humankind.</p>
<p>If John F. Kerry wants to know how a Democrat can ride the great American story into the White House, he can look back to the last JFK from Massachusetts. John Kennedy understood that average Americans wanted to be part of a great story. They wanted to ask what they could do for their country. But Kennedy had the good luck to run for president at the height of a unique era of widespread prosperity.</p>
<p>Now, while millions still turn to the story’s satisfactions, there are other millions who do not find enough solace in vicarious greatness. They want to know what their country can do for them. They put economic fact ahead of mythic fiction. That is why the race this year is so close and is likely to stay close through all three debates and to election night. The outcome may tell us a lot about the fate of the great American story in the 21st century.</p>
<p>Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570755477/nationbooks08" type="external">American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea</a>. He is a regular contributor to <a href="http://www.commondreams.org" type="external">www.commondreams.org</a> and a commentator on public radio station KGNU in Boulder.</p>
<p>Copyright C2004 Ira Chernus</p>
<p>This piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">Tomdispatch.com</a>.</p>
<p /> | Presidential Fiction: The Story Behind the Debate | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/10/presidential-fiction-story-behind-debate/ | 2004-10-01 | 4 |
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<p>“I have to have a new car every year and a half to two years,” says Rodham, of Virginia Beach, Va., who says he pays cash for his cars. “After I retired 10 years ago, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I went out and bought new cars.”</p>
<p>For generations, car buying declined as consumers entered their golden years. Now, boomers are refusing to follow their parents’ lead and go quietly into the car buying night.</p>
<p>The 55-to-64-year-old age group, the oldest of the boomers, has become the cohort most likely to buy a new car, according to a new study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. Graying boomers replaced the 35-to-44-year-old age group, who were most likely to buy four years ago.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p />
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<p>WHERE: X yx xy yx yx yxy x</p>
<p>HOW MUCH: X yx xy yx yx yxy x</p>
<p>The findings show there are plenty of miles left in boomers’ automotive passions and pocketbooks. They also suggest the billions the auto industry spends to try to woo the elusive Generation Y, the children of the boomers, would generate a higher return on investment if targeted at older drivers.</p>
<p>“You shouldn’t be chasing the younger people, you should be looking at the older people,” says Michael Sivak, author of the study.</p>
<p>And the recession is extending the working years and peak earnings period of the 76 million Americans who were born from 1946 through 1964.</p>
<p>“People’s nest eggs were decreased, including their retirement portfolios, by the recession,” says Lacey Plache, chief economist for auto researcher Edmunds.com “We can expect these people to be in the work force longer and, as a result, buying cars longer.”</p>
<p>Car culture</p>
<p>There’s also a strong psychological reason: Their cars define them.</p>
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<p>“The car was a phenomenon of the 20th century,” says John Wolkonowicz, a Boston-based automotive historian and ex-Ford planner. “For people who grew up and lived in the 20th century, the car was freedom, it was status, it was an extension of you, a visible expression of you and your personality. A 20-year-old doesn’t see the car the same way.”</p>
<p>That helps explain why consumers ages 55 to 64 had the highest rate of vehicle purchases in 2011, while the youngest age groups had the lowest rate. Even consumers 75 and above bought cars at a higher rate than 25-to-34-year-olds and 18- to-24-year-olds, the Michigan study found.</p>
<p>Automakers have spent billions to produce youth vehicles, which end up selling better to boomers. A decade ago, Honda fielded the boxy Element sport-utility vehicle with clamshell doors and rubber floors that could be hosed out by on-the-go young people. Instead, boomers bought the car until it was discontinued in 2011.</p>
<p>“One of the dirty little secrets of the auto industry is all these cars are positioned in advertising and public relations as something a 25-year-old will buy,” says John Morel, a market researcher for Honda. “But your propensity to buy a car at 25 is roughly a quarter of what it is at age 65. By definition, very few cars sell in high volume to 20-somethings.”</p>
<p>Toyota’s Scion line aimed at Gen Y also has sputtered. Scion sales fell 9.3 percent in July after a 25 percent plunge in June and are down 1.8 percent for the year at 41,261, according to researcher Autodata.</p>
<p>But it still has a devoted follower in Michael Leek, 60, a city planner in Shakopee, Minn. He drives a “Cherry Coke” red Scion tC that he upgraded with gray pinstripes, a lowered suspension and a growling, chrome-tipped exhaust.</p>
<p>“City planners ought not to like cars as much as I do and guys who are 60 should be getting over it, but I haven’t,” Leek says. “I look in the mirror every day and I’m pretty sure I don’t look like I’m 30 or 20. That’s not a problem. It’s really whether I enjoy driving the car and like how it looks when I walk up to it and when I walk away from it. And I do.”</p>
<p>Targeted sales</p>
<p>Now Toyota is embracing its boomer buyers with a model targeted at them, the Venza sport wagon that’s easier for aging drivers to climb into than a high-riding sport-utility vehicle.</p>
<p>Toyota introduced the Venza with TV commercials that “made fun of the millennials” for believing they remained the “center of the universe” after they left the nest, says Bob Zeinstra, the automaker’s national ad and strategic planning manager.</p>
<p>Venza sales rose 11 percent last year to 43,095 models. Deliveries this year through July totaled 23,498, the same as the year-earlier period.</p>
<p>General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had a troubled history with boomers, who migrated to Japanese and German models over poor quality from Detroit. Now the revived U.S. automakers field some of its best cars in a generation, such as GM’s Chevrolet Impala sedan and Ford’s Fusion family car.</p>
<p>This year, Ford has sold 23 percent of its models to 55- to-64-year-olds, outpacing the total auto industry, which sold 22.2 percent of its vehicles to that group, according to Amy Marentic, Ford marketing manager, who cites data from researcher R.L. Polk &amp; Co.</p>
<p>Automakers are rewriting the playbook on marketing to senior citizens. No longer will retirees buy the big, boulevard cruiser and drive it into the grave.</p>
<p>Rodham, who retired after a military career, is already plotting his next purchase. He’s thinking of trading in the 420-horsepower Mustang GT for a $50,000 Ford F-150 pickup.</p>
<p>“I’m 63 and I can’t handle 420 horsepower,” Rodham says. “You have to be very careful not to get a speeding ticket with that car and I just cleared up all the points on my record.”</p> | Automakers turning efforts to boomer buyers | false | https://abqjournal.com/511139/automakers-turning-efforts-to-boomer-buyers.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department watchdog who detailed Internal Revenue Service mistreatment of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status says he has no evidence the IRS also mishandled progressive groups’ applications.</p>
<p>In a letter to Congress, the inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, acknowledged that the term “Progressives” appeared on a list of terms used by IRS screeners from 2010 to 2012 to look for applicants with potential problems that would merit close scrutiny. But he said there was no evidence the IRS set aside progressive groups’ applications because they appeared on that list, which was aimed at finding groups that may have engaged in political activity — which could affect whether they were granted tax-exempt status.</p>
<p>George said his investigators have “multiple sources of information corroborating,” including interviews with IRS employees, emails and other documents, that tea party groups’ applications were set aside for close examinations. But he added, “We found no indication in any of these other materials that “Progressives” was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention.”</p>
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<p>George’s explanation did not satisfy Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.</p>
<p>At a hearing of that panel today at which IRS chief Danny Werfel was testifying, Levin said he wanted that committee to have George testify at a future session. Levin and other Democrats say George’s report last month revealing IRS mistreatment of tea party groups unfairly focused on conservatives and omitted mention of progressives.</p>
<p>“Our committee, in its oversight role, has an obligation to fully understand the manner in which the inspector general conducted his audit, and at what direction,” Levin said.</p>
<p>The congressman, to whom George sent his letter, said that applications from progressive groups were sent to a different group of screeners within the IRS and that George failed to investigate that.</p>
<p>Under questioning from Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., Werfel said his own investigation of his agency’s behavior had produced no evidence to contradict George’s finding that progressive groups’ applications were not set aside so their political activities could be examined. But he later said there was “a diversity of political labels” among the groups whose applications were set aside for further review.</p>
<p>Some progressive groups seeking tax-exempt status have complained about facing lengthy delays and detailed questions from the IRS.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether progressive groups faced the same extent of mistreatment as conservative organizations. Dozens of them ran into delays exceeding a year, and many received scores of detailed questions that officials have since said were overly intrusive, including demands for information about their donors.</p>
<p>The back-and-forth came as Werfel answered questions from Congress for the first time since revelations that progressives joined the tea party on a list of groups whose applications for tax-exempt status drew extra scrutiny.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Camp criticized a report that Werfel issued this Monday, six weeks after President Barack Obama named him to head the troubled agency.</p>
<p>Werfel wrote that he found mismanagement but no purposeful wrongdoing at the IRS in a report that also pointed to the officials who have been replaced and other changes he has made. Camp said that conclusion was “incomplete” because Werfel did not interview several former top IRS officials, including former commissioner Douglas Shulman.</p>
<p>Democrats seem determined to shift the focus to this week’s disclosure that the term “Progressive” was also on the agency’s watch lists.</p>
<p>IRS regulations allow tax-exempt social welfare organizations to engage in some political activity but it cannot be their primary mission. The agency must decide whether each applicant’s activities meet those vague guidelines.</p>
<p>The IRS has been under withering fire since May 10, when an agency official acknowledged that it had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt designations for tough examinations. Until then, IRS officials had insisted that conservatives had not been singled out for such treatment.</p>
<p>Some Republicans have suggested that the focus on conservative groups came from the White House or other Obama allies.</p>
<p>There has been no evidence of that so far. Instead, according to investigators and testimony from IRS workers to congressional committees, workers in the agency’s Cincinnati office that handled tax-exempt applications developed the lists to help them find groups that merited additional scrutiny.</p>
<p>Obama and members of both parties in Congress have said such targeting is inexcusable. At least five top officials, including former acting Commissioner Steven Miller, have been removed.</p> | Watchdog: IRS didn’t target progressives | false | https://abqjournal.com/215275/watchdog-irs-didnt-target-progressives.html | 2013-06-27 | 2 |
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<p>…military contractors. Yep, the acceptance of the modern-day rent-a-soldier (never call them mercenaries; they hate that!) has finally filtered through the culture, right down to the realm of children’s books. Hot off the press, you can now encourage your kids to join the ever-thickening ranks of the private military industry with the purchase of a new book. Targeting the 9-to-12 year-old set (and written at a fifth grade reading level), Jared Meyer’s <a href="http://www.rosenpublishing.com/showtitle.cfm?id=PK000194241" type="external">Working in a War Zone: Military Contractors</a> includes 64 pages of text, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ChH4Yu5GzgAC&amp;printsec=copyright&amp;dq=%22working+in+a+war+zone%22#PPP1,M1" type="external">accompanied by full color photographs</a> of contractors doing their thing. (Meyer, a self-described author, consultant, and speaker—see his personal website <a href="http://jaredmeyer.com/index" type="external">here</a>—has also penned such sundry titles as Frequently Asked Questions About Being an Immigrant Teen and Occupation Nation: How to Treat Your Health Like It’s a Full-Time Job). According to the book’s promotional blurb on its publisher’s website:</p>
<p>People rarely think about the workers who provide products and services to the military and rebuild war-torn areas. The people who do these jobs, military contractors, have as important and exciting a career as anyone else in the military. This book brings readers right into the thick of the action. A variety of military contractor careers are profiled and brought to life. Readers learn about the daily dangers experienced by these professionals, and the importance of the work they accomplish.</p>
<p>And hey, if you like this one, there’s more! Rosen Publishing’s “Extreme Careers” series includes other jobs that would surely be a great fit for your 10-year old, including hostage rescue, disaster relief, frontline combat, and homeland security, among others.</p>
<p>Consider it a sign of the times.</p>
<p /> | Mothers, Don’t Let Your Sons Grow Up To Be… | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/01/mothers-dont-let-your-sons-grow-be/ | 2008-01-09 | 4 |
<p>Faced with Saddam Hussein, the former teenage hit man from Tikrit, our government appears to feel the need to talk as tough as any Tikriti. Ari Fleischer, speaking from the White House briefing room, calls for “one bullet” to take care of the Iraqi leader; George Bush talks blithely of “taking him out”; and Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, recently, according to Ha’aretz, assured a visiting Israeli lawmaker: “We’ll be rid of the bastard soon enough, and in his place we’ll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you.”</p>
<p>Such violent sentiments are not necessarily a reaction to Hussein’s well-documented cruelty. We can, after all, be understanding about such foibles among our friends. The gassing of the Kurds was greeted with barely more than a bleat of protest from Washington, as was his earlier use of chemical weapons in the war with Iran, but we were allies then. It took Hussein’s apparent bid for control of the world oil market by invading Kuwait to turn him into “Hitler,” capable, as was faithfully reported in the propaganda buildup to the last Gulf War, of tossing Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. That myth, dreamed up by the PR firm Hill and Knowlton, was exposed soon after it had served its purpose. Others, such as the notion that Hussein is both ready and able to unleash some super-weapon on the United States, have proved more enduring.</p>
<p>Now more than ever, myth looms larger than reality when it comes to Iraq, which may be why Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan has suggested that the dispute be settled in an OK Corral shootout between Bush and Hussein, flanked by their respective veeps and umpired by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.</p>
<p>In the prologue to “ <a href="" type="internal">Saddam: King of Terror</a>,” Con Coughlin strikes a no less mythic note, citing as part of the indictment against the Iraqi leader his links to Osama bin Laden and an alleged meeting in Prague between hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer, a story now effectively discredited by the Czech intelligence service that spread it in the first place. Once past the obligatory threat-mongering, however, Coughlin, a British journalist well-versed in Middle Eastern affairs, deploys more credible sources, especially the reminiscences of former Baathists who once worked closely with Hussein, to present an engrossing account of how this semi-educated peasant boy advanced to power through the bloodstained shoals of Iraqi revolutionary politics.</p>
<p>While accounts of his subject’s brutality and ruthlessness are familiar, though no less chilling for that, Coughlin reminds us that Hussein did not achieve his eminence through terror alone. Not only was he extremely skillful politically — steadily accumulating power through the 1970s while maintaining a low profile in the shadow of his cousin, President Ahmad Hassan Bakr — he also displayed considerable constructive talents as an administrator.</p>
<p>Iraqi leaders, for example, had long chafed at the control of the country’s oil resources by the cartel of foreign oil corporations that made up the Iraq Petroleum Co. Efforts by various regimes to alter this colonial relationship by taking over those oilfields that the IPC refused to develop had proved fruitless: Among other disciplinary measures, the international oil companies simply refused to supply oil to any country that bought oil directly from the Iraqi government rather than from the IPC.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1971, Hussein (then deputy to Bakr but already the key power in the country), advised by the gifted oil minister Murtada Hadithi, took the initiative in outmaneuvering the cartel. After first securing the Soviet Union as a great-power sponsor (despite a career built on persecuting Communists), he induced the French to break ranks with the consortium by promising them lucrative contracts and discounted oil prices. The scheme worked, finally allowing Iraq unfettered access to its own fabulous oil riches. It was, says Coughlin, “the single most revolutionary event to take place in Iraq since its establishment” — one which has doubtless not been forgotten or forgiven by the oil companies — generating a tidal wave of cash, which the Baath used “to turn the country into a modern state, and to raise the living standards of ordinary Iraqis.”</p>
<p>Carrying out this vast undertaking required skilled assistance. Hussein has always drawn a distinction between “those who are loyal” and “those who are expert,” the former being those very few trusted individuals — first and foremost his immediate family — through whom he maintains his grip on power. When it comes to experts, however, Hussein always displayed an eager eye for, as one former apparatchik recalls, “young people with good qualifications who were intelligent and courageous.” Even today, anyone who encounters his officials — such as oil minister Amer Rashid; Amir Sadi, chief negotiator on the weapon inspection issue; or Foreign Minister Naji Sabri — can see that Hussein is served by an impressively accomplished team. Of course, as the charming Sabri could explain, competence does not guarantee a long life in Hussein’s Baghdad. His cousin was Hadithi, the former oil minister who later became ambassador to Moscow. Hadithi was summoned home soon after Hussein took supreme power in 1979 and executed (perhaps because the newly enthroned leader did not want anyone around sharing credit for the oil coup). Sabri’s brother was killed as well, and rumor has it that Sabri himself was on the list until an attentive Hussein struck it off with the words “not him, he can be useful.”</p>
<p>Kenneth M. Pollack’s purpose in “ <a href="" type="internal">The Threatening Storm</a>” is less to tell a well-rounded story than to argue the case, as declared in his subtitle, for invading Iraq, displacing Hussein and building a new Iraq. Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council staffer in the Clinton administration, argues that such action is imperative because Hussein is not only a bloodthirsty tyrant but a really stupid one to boot, prone to irrational gambles such as the attack on the Kurds in 1974 as well as the attacks on Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. Such reckless adventurism, Pollack insists, is a threat to us because Hussein is on the point of acquiring nuclear weapons. Therefore, he and every aspect of his regime must be eliminated as quickly as possible. This martial intervention will ultimately reverse anti-Americanism in the Arab world once the U.S. has built a “strong, prosperous, and inclusive new Iraqi state.”</p>
<p>Because so much of the “debate” over war with Iraq has barely risen above the level of sloganeering, Pollack’s considered, empirical style and intellectually rigorous tone is likely to strike a chord with many undecided observers. Each stage in his argument comes buttressed with well-footnoted facts and sources (albeit secondary and mostly non-Iraqi). Still, this is probably the best presentation of their case that the war party can hope for, especially because Pollack takes a hardheaded approach to various postulated alternatives to a full-scale land invasion, such as a bombing campaign a la Kosovo or a sponsored assault by the Iraqi opposition with U.S. air support, along the lines of the recent Afghan campaign. He is surely right in deriding these latter notions, although I think he has been a little naive about the opposition-based variant, which was most likely crafted by the opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi with the express design of drawing the United States into a full-scale land war with Iraq.</p>
<p>As with any work of advocacy, facts and viewpoints inconvenient to the basic thesis sometimes get short shrift. His muddled account of Hussein’s dealings with the Kurds in the mid-’70s — actually a masterful display of cunning by “Mr. Deputy” that crushed the threat of Kurdish separatism for a generation — may be due to simple ignorance. However, though he glosses over or fails to mention them, he must surely be aware of the various covert U.S. interventions in Iraqi affairs, including the CIA-supported 1963 coup that first put Hussein’s Baath Party in power, or the Carter administration’s encouraging support for Hussein’s attack on Iran in 1980. He does concedes that the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, might have led Hussein to believe he had a green light to attack Kuwait, but he discounts the significance of the encounter.</p>
<p>Similarly, Pollack refers delicately to Israel’s “purported” nuclear arsenal. This might be dismissed as a mere quibble, save that the argument of his book — the case for invading Iraq and occupying Iraq — rests on the assumption that a dangerously reckless Hussein is about to have the bomb, with no “purported” about it. It is this threat alone — biological and chemical weapons are not, he persuasively suggests, instruments of mass destruction because they are ineffective or at least unpredictable — that justifies war.</p>
<p>In late 1998, when the last United Nations weapon inspection mission ended in debacle and a rain of American bombs, the inspectors concerned with the Iraqi nuclear program were fully satisfied that the program was dead and buried. One U.S. official supervising the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the institution charged with Iraqi nuclear disarmament, said to me at the time, “The United States pushes the IAEA to find little discrepancies in Iraq’s nuclear accounting so that the file can be kept open, but short of lobotomizing or killing all the Iraqi nuclear scientists, the Iraqi nuclear program is finished. We have closed down all their nuclear facilities and activities.” And in its October 1998 report to the U.N., the IAEA itself stated, “There are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance.”</p>
<p>Such assessments do not find favor with Pollack, who regards Hussein’s acquisition of nuclear weapons as “probably inevitable.” His major source for this conclusion appears to be an exiled Iraqi nuclear physicist, Khidhir Hamza, who is described without qualification as “the former head of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.” Hamza, who defected in 1994, claims that Hussein will most likely be in possession of three nuclear weapons by 2005 (though occasionally he amends that to “a bomb” within “months”). This individual is furthermore a key source for the suggestion that Hussein planned to fire a nuclear warhead, should he have had one available in time, at Tel Aviv during the Gulf War, thus inviting retaliatory immolation from Israel. If true, this certainly bolsters the case for Hussein’s being impermissibly reckless.</p>
<p>However, not everyone takes Hamza at his own estimation as “ <a href="" type="internal">Saddam’s bombmaker</a>.” In his forceful debunking of the Iraqi threat, former senior weapon inspector Scott Ritter states flatly in “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893956385/counterpunchmaga" type="external">War on Iraq</a>,” that Hamza “wasn’t a designer and he certainly wasn’t head of the program…. [He] is not who he says he is.” David Albright, a Washington-based expert on nuclear proliferation who helped give Hamza initial credibility, recently claimed that Hamza exaggerated his own importance in the Iraqi program and recycled information he had picked up from the press, including specious revelations about biological and chemical weapons, as his own firsthand knowledge. Despite such reservations, Hamza still finds a respectful hearing among journalists and Congress, despite the lack of confirmation from other sources. It is telling that, while the United States detected a North Korean uranium enrichment program in its early stages, the administration has been unable, despite huge effort, to uncover hard evidence — which it would quite certainly broadcast — of any similar Iraqi activity.</p>
<p>Ritter, meanwhile, a hero among the hawks, is now vilified, when he is not ignored, because of his assertions, backed up by detailed information from his days as a star weapon inspector, that the former U.N. inspection effort effectively destroyed all Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction as well as his means for constructing them. The very fact of Ritter’s relative obscurity nowadays, compared to people with more palatable messages, such as Hamza, points to the lack of any real debate on the official justifications for the proposed invasion.</p>
<p>But then, who needs justifications? In December 1989, the U.S. attacked Panama on the flimsiest of pretexts and overthrew its government, killing more than 300 Panamanians in the process. The invasion was officially code-named “Operation Just Cause.” But, inside the Pentagon, cynics dubbed it “Operation Just Because.” As a former defense official said to me recently, “we invaded Panama just because it was there and we could.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the same will be said of Iraq.</p>
<p>ANDREW COCKBURN is the co-author of “ <a href="" type="internal">Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein</a>.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Iraq Operation Just Because 2? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/11/04/iraq-operation-just-because-2/ | 2002-11-04 | 4 |
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<p>The restrictions begin April 1 and will continue through the end of October. They prohibiting watering with sprinklers and other automated spray systems between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.</p>
<p>Officials say hand water will still be allowed.</p>
<p>A first violation will result in a warning for customers with smaller meters, but a second one will cost $25. A fifth violation comes with a $100 fine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The fines are higher for customers with larger meters.</p>
<p>The city has also set up a water waste hotline for residents to call if they see violations.</p>
<p>Many New Mexico communities have imposed watering restrictions as the state continues to wrestle with drought.</p> | Rio Rancho to begin watering restrictions | false | https://abqjournal.com/368531/rio-rancho-to-begin-watering-restrictions.html | 2 |
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<p>Rod Parsley, a fundamentalist pastor who John&#160;McCain praised as a “ <a href="/politics/2008/03/mccains-spiritual-guide-destroy-islam" type="external">spiritual guide</a>” during the 2008 presidential campaign, is in big trouble—demonic trouble. Parsley <a href="/politics/2008/05/mccains-pastor-problem-video" type="external">has claimed</a> that Islam is “the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world,” and argued that the historic mission of America is to see “this false religion destroyed.” (You can watch a video highlighting those comments <a href="/politics/2008/05/mccains-pastor-problem-video" type="external">here</a>. After weeks of controversy, McCain finally <a href="/mojo/2008/05/finally-mccain-repudiates-rev-parsley-his-anti-islam-moral-compass" type="external">repudiated Parsley</a> in May 2008.) But it’s not Islam that’s causing Parsley problems these days. It’s Satan himself. The Columbus Dispatch <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/16/rod-parsley-asks-for-donations.html?sid=101" type="external">reports</a> that Parsley is saying his ministry is under a “demonically inspired financial attack.” Here’s the clip from his television program, “Breakthrough”:</p>
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<p>The proximate cause of Parsley’s trouble, it seems, is a $3 million deficit for the fourth quarter and a $3.1 million legal settlement over a 2006 incident in which a two-year-old child in a Parsley-affiliated daycare center was spanked so hard that his “buttocks and legs were covered with welts and abrasions”:</p>
<p>The boy, then 2, said he was spanked with a “knife” by a substitute teacher. His parents, Michael and Lacey Faieta, believe it was a ruler…. The Faietas said Parsley refused to meet personally with them and that the church did not apologize or take accountability for the beating…. Mr. Faieta said he and his wife were “disgusted” and “saddened” by Parsley’s words.</p>
<p>The devil works in mysterious ways.</p>
<p>(h/t <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/parsley-pleads-money-will-you-help-me-take-back-what-devil-stole" type="external">Right Wing Watch</a>)</p>
<p /> | Satan Stole Right-Wing Pastor’s Money | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/devil-stole-right-wing-pastors-money/ | 2009-12-21 | 4 |
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<p>A person in possession of multiple pornographic images and videos of children can be convicted of only one count of possessing pornographic material - meaning that those who sexually exploit children face a far lower penalty than what their crimes warrant.</p>
<p>To fix this problem, I sponsored HB 440 along with Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, and Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque. Attorney General Hector Balderas also supported this bill wholeheartedly.</p>
<p>To us, fixing this loophole was common sense - people who sexually exploit children need to face the stiffest penalties.</p>
<p>This bipartisan legislation passed the New Mexico State House unanimously because Republicans and Democrats alike saw how important this issue was. However, as with many pieces of legislation, the New Mexico State Senate did not take up this legislation.</p>
<p>As of a mother of two kids, I always try to look out for what's best for them, and what I can do to keep them safe. I wish other lawmakers in Santa Fe took this issue as seriously as my House colleagues and I do.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Make no mistake; many people are upset about the Senate's failure to resolve this issue. New Mexico's Attorney General, a Democrat, also expressed disapproval that this bill could not make it out of the Senate. He too understood the dangers of this loophole and the need for lawmakers to fix it.</p>
<p>I was surprised to read two letters to the editor written in defense of the Senate's inaction on this issue and I found it appalling that anyone would defend predators who would sexually exploit children.</p>
<p>While we certainly need to continue to prosecute those who produce the child pornography, those who download and distribute pornographic images of children should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as well.</p>
<p>HB 440 would have closed this dangerous loophole.</p>
<p /> | Senate failed to fix child porn issue | false | https://abqjournal.com/587933/senate-failed-to-fix-child-porn-issue.html | 2 |
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<p>Shares of manufacturing and transportation companies rose after strong earnings from two bellwether manufacturers. Caterpillar shares surged to record highs after the maker of construction and mining machinery posted earnings far in excess of Wall Street targets and said it expects continued strength in North American energy and Chinese construction markets. Shares of 3M rallied after the industrial conglomerate said a shift in focus to newer technologies bolstered quarterly profit. A 3M executive said investments in business lines associated with semiconductors, data centers, automotive electrification and energy grids had paid off.</p>
<p>-Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 24, 2017 16:48 ET (20:48 GMT)</p> | Industrials Climb After Caterpillar, 3M Earnings - Industrials Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/24/industrials-climb-after-caterpillar-3m-earnings-industrials-roundup.html | 2017-10-24 | 0 |
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<p>Now that the dueling party conventions are over — with their crafted speeches, not-so-veiled digs at opponents, odd celebrity appearances (Clint Eastwood’s empty chair vs. Scarlett Johansson?) and lone balloon drop — it’s time to get down to what really matters.</p>
<p>How will you vote come Nov. 6?</p>
<p>And don’t fret if you’re still not registered. People eligible to vote in New Mexico can register until Oct. 9. There are many places where one may pick up a registration form, including a county clerk’s office, libraries, MVD offices, post offices and political party headquarters. So there’s no excuse.</p>
<p>Choosing our president and the legislators who will represent us from Washington to Santa Fe is a decision that should not be made lightly. And with six weeks to go until Election Day, it doesn’t have to be.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It is important that Americans drill down through the rhetoric to see not only where candidates stand on issues but what they plan to do about them. It’s facile to say the economy and unemployment must be strengthened and reduced, respectively. That energy independence must be achieved. How a candidate plans to actually make those things more than a sound bite is what Americans have been waiting for.</p>
<p>For years.</p>
<p>They deserve answers from their candidates. And they owe it to themselves to do their homework to try to get 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> | Editorial: Voters Need Answers; Can Candidates Deliver? | false | https://abqjournal.com/129557/voters-need-answers-can-candidates-deliver.html | 2012-09-09 | 2 |
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<p>The storm was expected to dump most of its precipitation east of the state’s central mountain chain, said Kerry Jones of the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office, with a wind pattern that could leave Albuquerque out of the heavy snowfall action.</p>
<p>The Weather Service issued travel warnings for Interstate 25 from the La Bajada-Santa Fe area to the Colorado border, and on Interstate 40 from Albuquerque to the Texas border. But in Albuquerque itself, the impacts on morning commutes tomorrow were expected to be minor, according to the Weather Service.</p>
<p>By mid-afternoon, two to four inches of snow had already fallen in some mountain locations, with more likely overnight, according to the Weather Service. Areas on the eastern side of the mountains and northeast across the plains as far as Clayton could see eight inches to a foot of snow, according to the Weather Service.</p>
<p>But areas of the northern mountains from Chama to the west and north, which are critical for the region’s water supply, were only forecast to get one to four inches of snow.</p>
<p>The scramble faced by meteorologists Wednesday in determining where the snow would hit hardest illustrates the difficulties in forecasting New Mexico snow, said Kerry Jones of the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>They could easily see the storm coming, and it was big. But the actually snow in a storm like this falls in narrow bands. “It almost looks like tiger stripes,” Jones explained.</p>
<p>The bands’ width varies, but they are typically anywhere from 30 to 50 miles wide. If you happen to live underneath a band, you can get one to two inches of snow an hour. “You can get four inches lickety split,” Jones said. If the band sits, or moves slowly, the snow can pile up in a hurry, while areas just outside the band get little snow.</p>
<p>One December snow dumped 11 inches of snow in Estancia, Jones recalled, while he had less than an inch at his house in east mountains, just 20 miles away. The same snow band reached across the mountains to Valencia County, leaving a good snowfall in its wake, while nearby Albuquerque got almost nothing.</p>
<p>Because the storms are big enough, the forecasters can see tell when there are good chances of snow falling somewhere along the state’s major interstate corridors. But the actual numbers at any given spot are always a dice roll because of the unpredictable nature of precisely where within the storm the bands will end up.</p> | Storm building across New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/529726/storm-building-across-new-mexico.html | 2 |
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<p>Late Monday morning, a Senate stenographer collapsed on the Senate floor as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.Ky.) concluded his opening floor remarks.</p>
<p>McConnell exclaimed, "Oh, my goodness," following the lady's fainting.</p>
<p>Senate officials report that the woman received medical care.</p>
<p>Watch the video below; the stenographer can be seen near the bottom-right of C-SPAN's Senate camera's point-of-view.</p> | WATCH: Senate Stenographer Collapses In Front Of McConnell | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14409/watch-senate-stenographer-collapses-front-daily-wire | 2017-03-14 | 0 |
<p>Aug. 23 (UPI) — Ordinary North Koreans are paying the price of Pyongyang’s weapons development and low-ranking soldiers may be going without food.</p>
<p>Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese journalist and founder of Asia Press, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/23/north-koreans-fear-more-sanctions-as-drought-pushes-millions-towards-malnutrition" type="external">The Guardian</a> the state might be having trouble feeding its troops.</p>
<p>The problem is surfacing at a time when U.N. agencies are warning a drought that hit crops this summer has left North Korea unable to properly feed its people, according to the report.</p>
<p>“For one thing, there are too many soldiers to feed,” Ishimaru said. “And corruption is rife, so that by the time senior military officers have taken their share of food provisions to sell for profit on the private market, there is next to nothing left for ordinary soldiers.”</p>
<p>Ishimaru also said he saw “clearly undernourished” soldiers do their laundry along the Yalu River at the China border.</p>
<p>“The drought, combined with sanctions, will take the North Korean economy in a dangerous direction by next spring. This is a time of real hardship for ordinary people.”</p>
<p>North Korea is one of <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/08/04/North-Korea-at-high-risk-for-humanitarian-crisis/7411501851304/?utm_source=sec&amp;utm_campaign=sl&amp;utm_medium=3" type="external">the world’s top</a> 30 countries at risk of experiencing a humanitarian crisis, according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the coordinator of humanitarian assistance affiliated with the United Nations.</p>
<p>North Korea is at high risk of “hazard and exposure,” which assesses the risk of catastrophe resulting from natural disasters like floods, droughts and typhoons, as well as the possibility of outbreaks of violence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kim_Jong_Un/" type="external">Kim Jong Un</a>‘s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development is also taking a toll on the people.</p>
<p>A source in North Korea told Daily NK local citizens were “disillusioned by the Kim Jong Un regime, which spends more money on developing missiles than improving their livelihoods.”</p>
<p>Negative sentiments regarding weapons development is rising as anti-U.S. sentiments are on the decline, according to the report.</p> | North Korea soldiers go without food after drought hits crops | false | https://newsline.com/north-korea-soldiers-go-without-food-after-drought-hits-crops/ | 2017-08-23 | 1 |
<p>A Boy Scouts of America committee on July 27, 2015, voted to repeal the organization’s long-standing ban on openly gay leaders and employees. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>Members of Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board on Monday voted to end the organization’s ban on openly gay adults from holding leadership positions.</p>
<p>The body by a 45-12 vote margin approved a resolution on the issue the Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee <a href="" type="internal">unanimously backed</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>The new policy, which takes effect immediately, would allow openly gay adults to become scoutmasters and unit leaders within the Boy Scouts of America. It will also allow gay people who were previously removed from leadership positions because of their sexual orientation to reapply for them.</p>
<p>The Boy Scouts of America under the new policy will continue to allow religious chartered organizations to choose leaders based on their beliefs.</p>
<p>“For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us,” said Boy Scouts of America President Robert Gates in a video that announced the vote. “Now is time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of scouting to be a force of good in a community and in the lives of its youth members.”</p>
<p>Zach Wahls, executive director of Scouts for Equality, an organization that supports the new policy, in a statement described the vote as “the beginning of a new chapter for the” organization.</p>
<p>“As of this vote, the Boy Scouts of America is an organization that is looking forward, not back,” he said.</p>
<p>Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett on her Twitter account said the Boy Scouts of America “took a big step in including LGBT leaders.” Jon Davidson of Lambda Legal also applauded the organization for allowing gay leaders within it.</p>
<p>“Today’s vote by the National Executive Committee to end the organization’s decades-long policy of excluding openly gay and bisexual adults from membership in Scouting marks yet another milestone in the march toward LGBT equality in our nation,” he said.</p>
<p>Wahls and other advocates nevertheless continue to express concerns over the new policy’s religious exemption.</p>
<p>“Today’s vote by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay, lesbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a welcome step toward erasing a stain on this important organization,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin. “But including an exemption for troops sponsored by religious organizations undermines and diminishes the historic nature of today’s decision. Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period.”</p>
<p>Davidson largely echoed Griffin.</p>
<p>“The change will not free the BSA of sexual orientation discrimination altogether,” he said, noting religious organizations have chartered roughly 70 percent of local Boy Scouts of America troops. “Nonetheless, this (new policy) is another repudiation of antigay discrimination by the Boy Scouts and another key moment for gay rights as openly gay and bisexual adults will be able to participate in Scouting, even if not in every troop or den.”</p>
<p>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in a statement criticized the new policy.</p>
<p>“The century-long association with scouting will need to be examined,” it said. “The church has always welcomed all boys to its Scouting units regardless of sexual orientation. However, the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America.”</p>
<p>Rev. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c4795353c1904ca1ab56691cb0a356e6/boy-scout-leaders-vote-ending-blanket-ban-gay-adults" type="external">the Associated Press</a> the new policy for force his organization to further distance itself from the Boy Scouts of America.</p>
<p>“In recent years I have seen a definite cooling on the part of Baptist churches toward the Scouts,” said Moore. “This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze.”</p>
<p>Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry earlier this month told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that <a href="" type="internal">the organization is “better off” without gay scoutmasters.</a> Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who, like Perry, is seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, said after declaring his candidacy for the White House that he feels the long-standing regulation <a href="" type="internal">“protected children.”</a></p>
<p>The American Family Association, a Mississippi-based anti-LGBT organization, on Monday said the new policy “means men who are attracted to males are now welcome on campouts in intimate proximity to boys.” It also urged those within the Boy Scouts of America who oppose its new policy to resign.</p>
<p>“Your dropped membership will send a strong message that your values are steadfast, faithful and unchangeable,” said the American Family Association in a letter to its supporters.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 ruled in Dale v. Boy Scouts that the organization’s previous policy was constitutional.</p>
<p>The Boy Scouts of America in 2013 began admitting openly gay scouts, but its ban on adult leaders remained in place.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Boy Scouts of America</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chad Griffin</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">Human Rights Campaign</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rick Perry</a> <a href="" type="internal">Scott Walker</a> <a href="" type="internal">Scouts for Equality</a> <a href="" type="internal">Zach Wahls</a></p> | Boy Scouts to allow gay leaders | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/07/27/boy-scouts-to-allow-gay-leaders/ | 3 |
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<p>COLUMBUS — A cell phone video circulating on social media shows Columbus police kicking and punching a suspect during an arrest inside an east side neighborhood market.</p>
<p>Court records show police charged 31-year-old Timothy Davis with resisting police. Davis has a criminal history that includes multiple charges of resisting arrest and assault and there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest.</p>
<p>The criminal complaint says Davis “tensed up to fight” after being told he was under arrest. “Officer grabbed a hold of Mr. Davis and he pulled away. He then took an officer to the ground, fighting and biting officers.”</p>
<p>The video, taken by a bystander, shows officers trying to restrain Davis. Officers repeatedly tell Davis to put his hands behind his back and to stop resisting. The officers can be seen repeatedly punching and kicking Davis.</p>
<p>Police Spokesman Sgt. Dean Worthington says the level of force used depends on what the behavior of the suspect is at the time. “We are allowed to punch and we are allowed to kick,” Worthington said. “That’s part of our use of force continuum and it all depends on what the behavior of the suspect is at the time. Certainly, we don’t want to go out there and punch citizens of our city but we have the authority, we have the responsibility to arrest people and sometimes arrests can be ugly.”</p>
<p>Some of the reaction on social media has been to call for a boycott of the store suggesting the store owner bears some responsibility for what happened. But owner Jehad Elzaben says he’d never seen Davis before and that the incident, good or bad, had nothing to do with the store. “Like a customer saying, why I don’t stop the police. We cannot stop the police, this is the police. Anybody have a problem with the police go to police station and let them know.”</p>
<p>Sgt. Worthington said the incident will be reviewed by police internal affairs to determine whether or not the use of force was within police policy.</p>
<p>Raw and Uncut video,</p>
<p>Commentary by Jon Masters,</p> | Cell Phone Video Shows Columbus Police Officers Brutally Kicking and Punching Suspect | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/news/cell-phone-video-shows-columbus-police-officers-brutally-kicking-and-punching-suspect/ | 2017-09-12 | 3 |
<p>Every time I hear the words, “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws”, I am reminded of just how far along the road to idiocy we have traveled. That statement is as asinine a truism as ever left a politician’s lips, almost akin to telling someone that just because they are wearing their shirt doesn’t mean they should forget their pants. But, given our recent proclivity in tolerating official pap, this fresh accretion to the daily public discourse should occasion no surprise. In any case, enough emotion and vested interest are seeped into the immigration debate that one needs to make an effort to rescue the basic issues, which are, in fact, quite straightforward.</p>
<p>That the US is a nation of immigrants is largely true, but not in the sense the argument is usually deployed. After all, the US is hardly unique for being peopled by men and women from other lands: the Sri Lankan Tamils came from South India, the majority Sinhalese themselves came from northern India. England was settled by people from what are now Germany and France. In America itself, the native Americans came from Asia. South East Asia is full of people of Chinese descent. Arabs, Afghans, Persians, Greeks, all settled in India over the centuries.</p>
<p>This simplistic formula, wielded often as a clinching argument for not worrying overly about immigration, ignores the difference between immigration and migration. We have to remember that ‘Immigration’, as different from ‘migration’, presupposes a process, and a set of laws. The days when you could migrate anywhere as you pleased are long gone. Once there are international boundaries, you can only migrate within your own borders.</p>
<p>This difference is what nation states are all about. It is the law that prescribes procedures according to which people may enter, stay, gain citizenship, etc. So, to say it correctly, we are a nation of immigrants because we are a nation of laws. The laws under gird, and are thus more basic than, immigration. We can have a country without immigration, but not one without laws. And while it does happen that a person or two might unintentionally stray across a border every now and then, no one seriously argues that 12 million people were vagrants who absentmindedly found themselves on the other side of the border one morning.</p>
<p>There are three ways in which one can be inside a country legally — as a guest, as an immigrant, or as a citizen. In all these cases the country (supposedly) knows you are there. Anyone who is in the country by some other means is by definition illegal (technically, at least). Whether the person is hard-working or lazy, thrifty or profligate, has family values or not, none of this is germane (Graham Greene was not allowed into this country, for heaven’s sake, forbidden by some law!).</p>
<p>When the law is weak, argue the facts, when the facts are weak, argue the law, as every young attorney is told. The law being unambiguous (you cannot work in the USA without an authorization), the opponents of immigration reform seek refuge in that oldest of American pablum’s — pragmatism. We have to recognize the fact that 12 million people are here illegally, they say in awe. And they contribute to the economy, they are vital to so many industries, they add, reverently. This is like telling a traffic cop that he should ignore your driving without a license because you are on your way to an important meeting. America was known for its uniform respect for the law, but this is one more casualty of our decline.</p>
<p>But all of us are complicit, my friend protests, confessing frankly that he had never asked the guy who painted his home if his two helpers were, er, legal. Let us say we are. Well? I was once told that the pizza business in some states was controlled entirely by the mafia. Since I like pizza, should I now oppose the FBI going after the mafia? How far does this ridiculous line of argument go?</p>
<p>It is a tedious task. So was tackling the depression, or fighting the cold war, all daunting enterprises. So are activities like elections, courtroom trials and preserving the rights of the accused. Do we jettison these too? If the number of 12 million seems staggering, do remember that we have over 100 million automobile drivers in this country, all of whom are issued driving licenses, and conform to a traffic system whose logistical sophistication is the envy of the world. Let us not underestimate ourselves, nor overstate the problem. What is needed is political awareness, and a will to sovereignty.</p>
<p>For, have no doubt, a country that cannot enforce its borders is a country no longer. A blind acquiescence of the concept of immigration anytime, anywhere, without suitable forethought, is a far more pernicious threat than the downing of the World Trade Center. Illegal migration is a direct challenge to a nation’s sovereignty, pure and simple. To throw epithets like racist, fascist, heartless, etc. at all those who hold this view, is no different than President Bush (representing the mother of all illegal squatting — the vagrant in the White House) condemning those who protest his warrant less wiretapping felony as soft on terrorism. One cannot in good faith support the enforcement of some laws and not others, especially if one is doing so in the noble cause of reducing the cost of one’s consumer instincts.</p>
<p>These basic premises should be form the basis upon which other considerations of pragmatism, personal stories, and compassion, may apply. To confuse the main issues of sovereignty and the rule of law with any subsidiary logic would be an act of imbecility as monumental as the many others we’ve committed in the past quarter century.</p>
<p>NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN can be reached at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>His blog is at <a href="http://njn-blogogram.blogspot.com/" type="external">http://njn-blogogram.blogspot.com</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Immigrants, Migrants and Vagrants | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/04/06/immigrants-migrants-and-vagrants/ | 2006-04-06 | 4 |
<p>Gold dipped below an earlier two-month high on Friday as the dollar firmed, but the metal was still heading for its biggest weekly gain in a month as investors continued to cover short positions and on strong physical appetite from China.</p>
<p>Traders added that the crossing of a technical resistance level was also adding to buying, although the move upwards seen in the past week looked to have lost some momentum.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"After such a strong move up there is always the risk of a retracement... however after gold broke through its resistance at $1,350 last night things are looking somewhat more encouraging," Heraeus trader Alexander Zumpfe said.</p>
<p>"Expect initial resistance around the 100-day moving average at $1,375, which is slightly above today's intraday high."</p>
<p>Spot gold reached a two-month high of $1,372.51 an ounce earlier in the session but was at $1,360.01 an ounce, down 0.4 percent by 0944 GMT. It has risen around 3.5 percent so far this week, having gained for the last six sessions out of eight.</p>
<p>U.S. gold futures for December lost 0.1 percent to $1,360.40 an ounce.</p>
<p>Gold found technical support once prices crossed $1,350 on Thursday, traders said, as well as some safe-haven demand on escalating tensions in Egypt.</p>
<p>It had lost more than one percent after strong U.S. jobs data on Thursday indicated the Federal Reserve could soon start tapering its $85 billion monthly bond purchases.</p>
<p>An early end to the Fed's quantitative easing programme could hurt assets such as gold that had been boosted by central bank liquidity and a low interest rates environment, which encourages investors to put money into non-interest-bearing assets. The Fed's next policy meeting is on Sept. 17-18, while the July FOMC minutes will be released next Wednesday.</p>
<p>The dollar rose 0.1 percent, drawing support from a rise in U.S. Treasury yields around their highest in two years, hit on Thursday.</p>
<p>Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, fell just 0.3 tonnes to 912.92 tonnes on Thursday. Rare inflows were seen in the fund twice over the past six sessions but holdings remain at four-year lows.</p>
<p>CHINA BUYING</p>
<p>Shanghai gold futures rose 2 percent on Friday, with premiums to London spot prices up about $3 overnight to $24, indicating strong demand ahead of the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect demand to start returning in India in coming weeks, ahead of the winter wedding season and festival celebrations and despite government's imports restrictions.</p>
<p>"We expect to see increasing gold purchases by the manufacturing trade for stocks ahead of Christmas and harvest festivals," SP Angel said in a note.</p>
<p>Silver rose to its highest in almost three months at $23.15 an ounce, before trading down 0.6 percent to $22.81. The metal was heading for its best week since late October 2011, with gains of around 11 percent.</p>
<p>Platinum fell 0.4 percent to $1,515.50 an ounce and palladium dropped 0.5 percent to $755.08 an ounce.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Jan Harvey in London and A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore; editing by Keiron Henderson)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Gold Prices Drift Higher | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/07/16/gold-prices-drift-higher.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>To watch Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans blatantly try to re-write history is quite remarkable. Especially considering that with a simple Google search, anyone can easily debunk their ridiculous attempts to push some fabricated version of fairly recent history.</p>
<p>Take for instance Trump and the GOP’s rhetoric about the Iraq War, Libya and ISIS. To listen to them, they’re quick to tell everyone how everything is President Obama’s fault.</p>
<p>If you listen to Trump, he’ll say he opposed the Iraq War, didn’t support a regime change in Libya&#160;and President Obama’s decision not to leave American troops in Iraq was a mistake that’s directly responsible for ISIS rising to power. Even most of the Republican party puts the blame for ISIS right at the feet of this president.</p>
<p>Of course, they’re all full of crap.</p>
<p>But you don’t have to believe me. I don’t need to “spin” anything to debunk Trump and his party’s propaganda — I can just use their own words and actions.</p>
<p>Let’s start with Trump’s claims that he’s always been against the war in Iraq.</p>
<p>Here are <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/22/donald-trump/trump-still-wrong-his-claim-opposed-iraq-war-ahead/" type="external">his words</a> from <a href="" type="external">September 11, 2002</a>&#160;when he was asked by Howard Stern if he thinks we should go into Iraq:</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess so.&#160;I wish the first time it was done correctly.</p>
<p>So, no, he hasn’t always opposed the war in Iraq because when he was asked if he supported the idea Bush had been pushing around that time to go to war, he said he agreed with it, just that he wished it had been done right the first time.</p>
<p>Then Trump has frequently said that he opposed the removal of Gaddafi from power in Libya. Once again,&#160;his own words&#160;completely debunk his lie:</p>
<p>I can’t believe what our country is doing. Gaddafi in Libya is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is, and we’re sitting around we have soldiers all over the Middle East, and we’re not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage and that’s what it is: It’s a carnage.</p>
<p>You talk about things that have happened in history; this could be one of the worst. Now we should go in, we should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically, stop him from doing it, and save these lives. This is absolutely nuts. We don’t want to get involved and you’re gonna end up with something like you’ve never seen before.</p>
<p>But we have to go&#160;in to save these lives; these people are being slaughtered like animals. It’s horrible what’s going on; it has to be stopped. We should do on a humanitarian basis, immediately go into Libya, knock this guy out very quickly, very surgically, very effectively, and save the lives.</p>
<p>For the record, those are comments&#160; <a href="" type="internal">he made on his own blog&#160;in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>I can’t forget <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9tSstkZa7M" type="external">this interview</a> he did with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in 2007 where he said we needed to immediately pull American troops out of Iraq:</p>
<p>You know how they get out? They get out. That’s how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They’re in a civil war over there, Wolf. There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war.</p>
<p>Then there’s <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-cites-iraq-withdrawal-he-passionately-supported-to-say?utm_term=.ylbQ36Wqd#.rbRONDrdP" type="external">this interview</a> he gave to British&#160;GQ&#160;in 2008 where he said he’d “get out of Iraq right now” and said he wished Sen. John McCain would have pushed to “get us out of Iraq faster.”</p>
<p>As&#160;a quick recap, Donald Trump:</p>
<p>Yet, to listen to him talk now, he seems to act as if he didn’t say any of that. Not only does he deny supporting the Iraq War or saying we should remove&#160;Gaddafi from power, he cites American troops leaving Iraq as the reason why ISIS exists —&#160;when he was advocating for removing troops before Barack Obama was even elected.</p>
<p>But even when it comes to the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, <a href="" type="internal">that wasn’t President Obama’s fault</a>, either. All he did was enforce a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that George W. Bush signed in 2008.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me? <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081214-2.html" type="external">Here’s the proof</a>&#160;from Bush’s own presidential archives.</p>
<p>However, if that’s not enough evidence to prove that it was Bush, not Obama, who ultimately set the date when American troops would leave Iraq, here are former <a href="" type="internal">Vice President Dick Cheney’s own words</a> he said during an interview with Face the Nation&#160;where he called&#160;the SOFA a sign that the war in Iraq had been successful:</p>
<p>We’ve entered in to a strategic framework agreement with the Iraqis that calls for, ultimately, the U.S. completion of the assignment and the withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. All of those things I think, by anybody’s standard, would be evidence of significant success.</p>
<p>Again, to do a quick recap about the removal of U.S. forces from Iraq, we have:</p>
<p>Yet, these are the same people and members of the same party who now say that pulling troops out of Iraq, which facilitated the growth of ISIS in Iraq, is entirely the fault of President Obama.</p>
<p>Oh, and don’t even give me the whole, “Well, Obama could have kept troops there anyway” nonsense. While this&#160;was&#160;a possibility, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/may/18/jeb-bush/obama-refused-sign-plan-place-leave-10000-troops-i/" type="external">the truth is</a>, the Iraqi government didn’t want us there and never agreed to change the terms of the original SOFA to allow Americans troops to remain in the country.</p>
<p>Then there’s also the indisputable fact that ISIS began in 2004 — before Bush had begun his second term as president.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: I don’t have to twist words, distort facts or do much of anything other than use the&#160;exact words and actions&#160;of people like Bush, Cheney and Trump to prove that all this anti-Obama rhetoric concerning Iraq and the rise of ISIS is nothing but pure fiction based on Republicans trying to re-write history. Meanwhile, I can literally do nothing more than&#160;quote Donald Trump&#160;verbatim&#160;to prove that, not only did he support both the Iraq War&#160;and&#160;removing Gaddafi from power in Libya, he was a staunch advocate for removing U.S. troops from Iraq — which he now attacks President Obama and Hillary Clinton for happening.</p>
<p>I absolutely cannot wait to see the messages and comments I’ll certainly get from Republicans trying to claim what I’ve said here isn’t true.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out the videos of these various comments below.</p>
<p>Trump’s Howard Stern Interview in 2002:</p>
<p>iframe&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Trump&amp;amp;amp;#8217;s 2007 interview with CNN&amp;amp;amp;#8217;s Wolf Blitzer about removing troops from Iraq:&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U9tSstkZa7M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;amp;gt;</p>
<p>Dick Cheney calling Bush’s SOFA agreement a sign of “significant success” in Iraq:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">10 Ridiculous Republican Facts That Are So Absurd They Seem Like They're Made Up</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump Embarrassed as Top Surrogate Completely Contradicts His Claim</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Jon Stewart Hammers Republican Hypocrites for Attacking President Obama on ISIS (Video)</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Here’s the Truth About ISIS and the Iraq War that Trump & His Supporters Don’t Want to See | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/truth-about-isis-iraq-war-trump-supporters-dont-want-see/ | 2016-08-22 | 4 |
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<p>A Jeep Liberty driven by 36-year-old Kathy Douglas of Kane crossed the center line at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday and hit an approaching Pontiac Bonneville in the Allegheny National Forest, killing her daughter and nephew as well as four people in the sedan, state police said.</p>
<p>The four occupants of the car, all residents of nearby St. Marys, died in the crash: the driver, Gary Beimel, 62, and passengers David Cuneo, 54, Elaine Beimel, 55, and Florence Donachy, 81.</p>
<p>Douglas’ 6-year-old nephew, Jarrett Costanzo, and 12-year-old daughter, Olivia Douglas, were killed. Douglas and her 10-year-old son were seriously injured. The injured boy was flown to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>A nursing supervisor said Douglas was in critical condition Sunday afternoon.</p>
<p>The investigating officer said he believes Douglas was at fault and will face some sort of charges.</p>
<p>“I have no idea yet, but the investigation is continuing,” he said Sunday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Police said Douglas and Gary Beimel were wearing seatbelts, but at least three of the deceased were not.</p>
<p>McKean County Coroner Michael Cahill said all six were declared dead at the scene of the wreck, and all died from blunt force trauma injuries. No autopsies were planned.</p>
<p>Police said both vehicles were severely damaged, and U.S. Route 219 was closed in both directions for more than six hours.</p>
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<p /> | Head-on crash kills six, including 2 kids, in Pa. | false | https://abqjournal.com/256610/headon-crash-kills-six-including-2-kids-in-pa.html | 2013-09-02 | 2 |
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<p>Colleges say security was the top concern, citing advisories about hazardous travel from the U.S. State Department and from insurance companies that cover students for health, accidents, security and even the cost of evacuation.</p>
<p>“On the one hand, we want to introduce students to the dimensions of conflict,” said Yehuda Lukacs, director of the Center for Global Education at George Mason University in Virginia. “But this was too much because their safety and security were challenged.”</p>
<p>It’s not the first time colleges have withdrawn – at least temporarily – from overseas study programs because of conflict. Just recently, the University of Massachusetts Amherst suspended programs in war-torn Syria, and St. Lawrence University in New York called off its program in Kenya for fall, citing a State Department travel advisory.</p>
<p>But the United States’ close ties with Israel, along with the distance of many of the programs from the central areas of conflict, are leaving colleges far from unified.</p>
<p>Suhaib Khan, a George Mason senior who worked in Ramallah in the West Bank in a program helping to promote Palestinian businesses, said he was “incredibly disappointed” that he was forced to leave prematurely. He arrived June 6 and left July 9, about a month early.</p>
<p>“As an adult, I could have made my own decisions,” said Khan, 21.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>George Mason was one of at least seven schools nationwide to suspend a summer study program that operates in Israel or the West Bank.</p>
<p>Others include Claremont McKenna College in California, UMass Amherst, the University of Iowa, Trinity College in Hartford, Michigan State and Penn State.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst and New York University have also halted fall semester programs.</p>
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<p /> | Some U.S. colleges halt studies in Israel | false | https://abqjournal.com/450283/some-us-colleges-halt-studies-in-israel.html | 2 |
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<p>New Orleans Times-PicayuneHeidi Ross began collecting police briefs from <a href="http://bozemandailychronicle.com/" type="external">The Bozeman Daily Chronicle</a> in 2000. "She was so taken with the jocularity and peculiar aspects of some of the police reports that she decided to make a 365-page tear-off calendar for family and friends as a Christmas gift," writes Angus Lind. "Little did she know what a hit this would be."</p> | Writer turns newspaper's police reports into a calendar | false | https://poynter.org/news/writer-turns-newspapers-police-reports-calendar | 2003-12-10 | 2 |
<p>Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney speaks at a town hall event in New Hampshire on November 3.&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mittromney/6312566574/sizes/z/in/photostream/"&gt;Mitt Romney&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>On November 3, at <a href="http://newhampshireprimary.blogspot.com/2011/11/mitt-romney-on-solyndra-at-exeter-town.html" type="external">a town hall event in Exeter, New Hampshire</a>, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney laid out his plan to make the federal government “smaller, simpler, smarter.” As president, Romney would slash spending, root out waste, and balance the federal budget—to do otherwise, he said, would push the country to the brink of collapse. “If we keep spending like we’re spending, and borrowing like we’re borrowing, at some point we could face what Greece faces,” he warned. Behind Romney as he spoke hung a bright blue banner: “CUT THE SPENDING.”</p>
<p>Not long ago, however, he took a much different view of federal spending. Far from decrying Washington’s spendthrift ways, Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, sought to position his state to hoover up every federal dollar it could—and to use that money to help solve a state budget crisis.</p>
<p>According to memos, emails, and other records now housed in the state archives, the Romney administration made the pursuit of federal funding a top priority, establishing a federal grants office to scour for opportunities and bolstering its presence in DC by retaining a powerful lobbying shop for help. Internal documents show the administration bemoaning its low ranking in an annual “pork list” detailing which states brought home the most federal bacon, and aggressively planning to boost that ranking. Which they did: Between 2003, when Romney took office, and 2006, Massachusetts climbed as high as nine spots in the pork rankings.</p>
<p>That Romney once coveted the spending he now denounces reinforces his image as a politician whose positions change with the political headwinds, say political scientists. It could also further alienate him from a Republican Party that has swung further to the right and from die-hard conservative voters who, in large numbers, support governors known for rejecting Washington’s money. “It plays into the theme that both Republicans and the Obama White House are using against Mitt Romney: the flip-flopping,” says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “It’s the hypocrisy angle to the flip-flop charge.”</p>
<p>Romney’s federal spending flip-flop dates back to his first presidential run in 2008, when he railed against the same earmarks he pursued as governor. “As President, I pledge to use every available method to eliminate wasteful earmarks in the federal budget,” he <a href="http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/releases/2008/ccagw-presidential.html" type="external">said</a> in a December 21, 2007, press release. “Change in Washington begins when we change the culture that allows earmarks, pet projects and wasteful spending to thrive in the place of being good fiscal stewards of the taxpayers’ money.” (A Romney spokeswoman didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.)</p>
<p>As a candidate, Romney <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2011/11/mitt-romney-delivers-remarks-fiscal-policy" type="external">often</a> boasts of closing a $3 billion budget deficit without borrowing money or raising taxes. Never does he mention his push to rake in federal dollars, which began near the start of his governorship. On May 8, 2003, four months after he took office, he <a href="http://myclob.pbworks.com/w/page/21956081/05-08-2003" type="external">unveiled his “Tapping Our Potential” (TOP) plan</a> to a crowd at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Reeling in more money from Washington was front and center in his plan to jump-start Massachusetts’ economy.</p>
<p>Romney’s federal spending strategy caught the eye of at least one high-powered lobbyist. In a letter to Romney after the Chamber speech, Deirdre Phillips, the top lobbyist for FleetBoston Financial, wrote, “I was particularly struck when you talked about going after funding from Washington.” Phillips urged Romney to team up with FleetBoston and other Boston companies who could “carry your message” in Washington. (Phillips, now executive director of the Autism Consortium, wrote in an email that her letter “speaks for itself.”)&#160;</p>
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<p>A few weeks later, the Romney administration rolled out a new “federal grants advocacy center” devoted to securing more federal money. According to an internal memo sent by Gayl Mileszko, a Romney aide, to top agency heads and the governor’s office, the new center would ramp Massachusetts’ share of federal grant money doled out each year. Running the new center would be the director of Massachusetts’ DC office, <a href="http://www.mckennalong.com/professionals-1235.html" type="external">Frank Micciche</a>, now a lobbyist at the McKenna Long &amp; Aldridge law firm. (Mileszko and Micciche both declined to comment.)</p>
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<p>A July 1, 2003, planning email from Mileszko stressed Romney’s “personal interest and commitment” to bringing in more federal grants. On July 2, 2003, Cindy Gillespie, then Romney’s chief of legislative and intergovernmental affairs, penned a memo titled “Objective: Increase Federal Funds to Massachusetts.” The first sentence reads, “A major priority of our Administration is to ensure that Massachusetts receives the maximum amount of dollars available from the federal government.” Gillespie goes on to say that Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey would coordinate with cabinet secretaries on the announcements and promotion of new federal funds received by the state.</p>
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<p>A gaping budget deficit wasn’t the lone driver behind the state’s campaign for more federal money. A list of talking points, dated August 25, 2003, shows that Romney aides believed the state wasn’t getting its “fair share” of Washington’s largesse. The document cites a list compiled by the good-government group Citizens Against Government Waste, outlining how much <a href="http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/pork-barrel_legislation" type="external">“pork-barrel” spending</a> states received in 2003, when Massachusetts ranked 48th of 51, with an average of $16.65 per resident. (The national average was $34.33.) Indeed, the state had ranked near last place for a decade. “Status quo is not working,” the memo reads. “The Commonwealth must be more aggressive in securing and retaining more federal dollars.”</p>
<p>The memo makes clear that Romney played a key role in this effort, which his staffers said would ease the state’s “financial burden.” The memo says, “As the state’s lead salesman, the Governor is committed to pursuing increased funding opportunities in Washington, DC, based on the prioritized needs of agencies.”</p>
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<p>In August 2003, the Romney administration enlisted Cassidy &amp; Associates, a powerful DC lobbying firm, to help the state rake in more federal money. (The state had hired Cassidy in December 2002 for help on other issues.) However, an August 21 fax from Romney adviser Tom Lawler urged the administration to dump Cassidy after the firm failed to fulfill its contract. (A spokesman for Cassidy &amp; Associates did not respond to a request for comment.)</p>
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<p>Romney’s push paid off. Massachusetts jumped from 48th on Citizens Against Government Waste’s 2003 pork list to 39th in 2004, with federal appropriations increasing from $107.8 million to $120.8 million. Massachusetts held onto 39th again in 2005, bringing in $150.4 million from Washington. In 2006, the state dropped to 46th on the pork list, with its annual haul totaling $116.8 million. (CAGW didn’t release a pork list in 2007, the year Romney left office, because 9 of 11 appropriations bills failed to pass Congress due to a moratorium on earmarks.)</p>
<p>By contrast, Texas ranked lower on CAGW’s pork list under Romney’s presidential rival Gov. Rick Perry than Massachusetts during Romney’s tenure as governor. Indeed, in 2005, Texas ranked dead last in states reeling in federal money. On the other hand, Utah, under then-governor and current GOP contender Jon Huntsman, ranked higher than Massachusetts in 2005 and 2006.</p>
<p>Larry Sabato says Romney’s government spending flip-flop could hurt him more in the fight for the nomination than in the general election. After all, polls show that Republicans favor hard-line conservative governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Florida’s Rick Scott, both of whom rejected federal transportation funds. “This is a very conservative Republican Party, and they sense a real opportunity to win and they want a true believer,” Sabato says. “That’s why there’s such resistance to Romney.”</p>
<p>Andy Smith, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, doubts that Romney’s past zeal for loading up on federal dollars will hurt his standing in New Hampshire. Romney, Smith says, enjoys wide support among the state’s voters, and notes that politicians chasing on pork barrel spending isn’t a problem unique to Romney. “In New Hampshire, his personal favorability ratings and the sense of inevitability is going to be very hard to overcome in the last six weeks,” Smith says. “It’s another one of those things where Romney’s got problems, but so does pretty much everyone who’s had to balance budgets.”</p>
<p>Iowa State University political scientist David Peterson also questions whether Romney’s record on federal spending will harm his chances in Iowa’s upcoming caucus. “Iowans already know he’s shifted his stance on just about everything,” he says.</p> | Internal Documents Reveal Mitt Romney’s Pork Barrel Past | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/mitt-romney-republican-washington-spending-flip-flop/ | 2011-11-30 | 4 |
<p>ATHENS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday backed Germany’s proposal for a European Monetary Fund (EMF) but stressed the ultimate goal should remain a euro zone budget.</p>
<p>“We should head toward a European Monetary Fund but this should in no way be mixed up with a (euro zone) budget,” Macron said during a visit to Athens.</p>
<p>Macron praised Greece’s austerity reforms and reiterated his call for an easing of the Greek debt burden.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Macron says euro zone budget, finance minister must remain goal of integration | false | https://newsline.com/macron-says-euro-zone-budget-finance-minister-must-remain-goal-of-integration/ | 2017-09-07 | 1 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Specialops.jpg" type="external" />Militants Post Images of Mass Killing in Iraq Obama Defends Deal To Release Bowe Bergdahl Hot New App Makes it Easy to Share Secrets WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. is urgently deploying several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq and considering sending an additional contingent of special forces [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/more-us-troops-iraq-special-forces-considered-225039144--politics.html" type="external">Click here to view original web page at news.yahoo.com</a></p>
<p /> | US Considering Sending Special Forces To Iraq | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/more-us-troops-to-iraq-special-forces-considered/ | 0 |
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<p>More Californians — but slightly fewer Americans — would support the Golden State’s withdrawal from the Union, according to a new poll feeding attention around a nascent movement to achieve a lawful, peaceful secession.</p>
<p>“About 32 percent of Californians want to create their own country, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found, including many Democrats who are frustrated with the election of President Trump,” the Hill <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/315804-more-californians-than-ever-want-state-to-secede-from-us" type="external">reported</a>. “Pollsters surveyed 500 Californians between Dec. 6 and Jan. 19. Nationally, 22 percent of respondents favor secession, they found” — a figure, like the California number, sure to have included some people with federalist or libertarian interests in seeing a discussion over the state’s status change.</p>
<p>“Still, half of Californians opposed the idea,” the Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-poll-shows-support-for-california-1485281419-htmlstory.html" type="external">reported</a>, “though Democrats were more inclined to support it than Republicans. The survey found that 60 percent of Republicans gave the idea of peacefully seceding&#160;a thumbs down compared with&#160;48 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents.”</p>
<p>In 2014, 24 percent of respondents nationwide were found to be amenable to California secession. But in-state, the new percentage represented a big jump. “The 32 percent support rate is sharply higher than the last time the poll asked Californians about secession, in 2014, when one-in-five or 20 percent favored it around the time Scotland held its independence referendum and voted to remain in the United Kingdom,” Newsmax <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/california-poll-secession-trump/2017/01/23/id/770029/" type="external">noted</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Although peaceful secession has long been confined to the realm of political fantasy, California’s&#160;perceived increased deviation from broader political trends nationwide has helped ensure the scheme a prominent place in the popular imagination and the press. “Even though California is the most populous state in the union and has the sixth-largest economy in the world, secession would be, realistically speaking, very difficult,” as the San Francisco Chronicle <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Reuters-poll-says-1-in-3-Californians-calexit-10879933.php" type="external">noted</a>. “Two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of U.S. states (at least 38) would need to approve of the creation of an amendment that would allow for the legality of the state’s withdrawal.” But California Democrats, leery of losing ground on several fronts, have taken advantage of the state’s big popular vote margin in favor of Hillary Clinton to promise a continuation of their hallmark policies.&#160;</p>
<p>“It may not be ‘Calexit’&#160;— the name of a decidedly quixotic campaign for California to withdraw from the union — but it is turning into what is, for all intents and purposes, a slow-motion secession,” the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/california-strikes-a-bold-pose-as-vanguard-of-the-resistance.html" type="external">suggested</a>. “California is becoming to Mr. Trump what Texas —&#160;which is as Republican as California is Democratic&#160;— was to President Obama: a sea of defiance and a potential source of unending legal and legislative challenges.” On the other hand,&#160;“it will be difficult for California to promote the kind of spending program[s] lawmakers want to make up for cuts in Washington, particularly on health care,” the Times observed, complicating the rosy picture summoned by secessionist leaders of a prosperous march to the beat of the state’s own drum.&#160;</p>
<p>For members of Yes California, the quixotic group working hardest&#160;toward secession, the increased popularity of a break with the union came as welcome&#160;news that seemed to square with their expectations. “We always thought that if we just connected with the people who thought about this, but didn’t tell their friends and family because they would be seen as kooky and weird, that the quiet population would become vocal,” as Marcus Evans, vice president of Yes California, <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article116250838.html" type="external">told</a> the Sacramento Bee.&#160;</p>
<p>Nevertheless, growing support could be largely symbolic — a familiar way of expressing dissatisfaction with national politics. “California isn’t the only state which has flirted with&#160;abandoning the U.S.,” as HotAir <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/24/one-third-of-californians-support-calexit/" type="external">pointed</a> out. “Prior to the election, Public Policy Polling, which often asks gag questions intended to embarrass Republicans, found that 40 percent of Texans would consider secession if Clinton won the election.”</p> | More Californians would support CA secession | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2017/01/27/californians-support-ca-secession/ | 2018-01-20 | 3 |
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
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<p>message</p>
<p>captcha</p>
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<p>Once widely dispersed throughout the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinus) has seen steady declines in 87 percent of its historic range. These specimens were gathered in the 20th century for the University of Vermont's Thompson Natural History collection. &#160; (Photo: Ryan Mercer/Free Press)</p>
<p>As in other parts of North America, beekeepers in New York have been experiencing unsustainable losses of honeybee colonies. According to the Bee Informed Partnership survey, in 2014 and 2015, annual colony losses in the state reached 54 percent. And though losses were lower in preceding years, they consistently exceeded the economic threshold of 15 percent loss. At great expense, New York beekeepers have been able to recoup their winter and summer losses, but for declining native bee species the prospects are less rosy. For example, the rusty-patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), once common in New York and the Northeast, is now a candidate for the endangered species act.</p>
<p>A growing worldwide body of scientific evidence implicates <a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/programs/bee-protective-pollinators-and-pesticides/chemicals-implicated" type="external">neonicotinoids</a> as a major contributor to the decline of honeybee and wild bee populations. As reported in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ( <a href="http://www.tfsp.info/worldwide-integrated-assessment/" type="external">IUCN) Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, 2015</a>, this is due to a combination of neonicotinoid’s acute toxicity, sub-lethal, intergenerational, neurotoxic and immune system effects; their systemic behavior in plants and their persistence in soil and water. This relatively new family of insecticides is now believed to be the most commonly used global pesticide.</p>
<p>Unlike Europe and Ontario, Canada, the United States has not acted to restrict the use of neonicotinoids. However, the federal government has specifically urged states to create <a href="http://pollinatorstewardship.org" type="external">pollinator protection plans</a>. Some states are working on such plans and a few have been implemented. But on August 6, at the first meeting of the <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-taskforce-develop-pollinator-protection-plan-protect-new-yorks" type="external">New York State’s Pollinator Task Force</a>, commercial beekeeper Jim Doan was flabbergasted to learn that state officials had appointed two representatives of the national pesticide industry to the 12-member panel. “It’s very difficult for a beekeeper to think he can get a fair shake,” says Doan.</p>
<p>Consequently, I decided to see for myself and attended the Task Force meetings on September 11 and October 1, and <a href="http://www.agriculture.ny.gov/webcasting.html" type="external">listened to the recording</a> of the August 6 meeting.</p>
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<p>Measured here in tons of active ingredient per year, the amount of neonicotinoid insecticides shipped and used internationally has been surging since the early 1990s. (Graph: <a href="http://www.tfsp.info/assets/WIA_2015.pdf" type="external">The Task Force on Systemic Pesticides</a>)</p>
<p>The New York state Task Force was set in motion by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who said in an April 23 announcement, “Pollinators are crucial to the health of New York’s environment, as well as the strength of our agricultural economy.” He added, “By developing a statewide action plan, we are expanding our efforts to protect these species and our unparalleled natural resources, and making an important step forward in our commitment to New York’s ecological and economic future.”</p>
<p>Cuomo directed the state departments of agriculture and markets ( <a href="http://www.agriculture.ny.gov" type="external">NYSDAM</a>) and environmental conservation ( <a href="http://www.dec.ny.gov" type="external">NYSDEC</a>) to develop a state pollinator protection plan with the involvement of stakeholders and research institutions.</p>
<p>By July, stakeholders were receiving invitations to serve on the state Task Force, which was comprised of 12 “advisors” from the private and NGO sectors with officials from NYSDAM and NYSDEC serving as co-chairs. In addition, Cornell Integrated Pest Management program director Jennifer Grant sat with Task Force members and played an advisory role, though not as a member.</p>
<p>In terms of its personnel, three groups represent pesticide interests on the Task Force: <a href="http://www.croplifeamerica.org" type="external">CropLife America</a> and Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment ( <a href="http://www.pestfacts.org/about/" type="external">RISE</a>) are the pesticide industry’s agricultural and non-agricultural trade groups respectively. Both are headquartered at the same Washington D.C. office. The NYS Agribusiness Association is the third agrochemical group. Dan Digiacomandrea, a technical sales specialist at Bayer CropScience, one of two makers of neonicotinoids, attended one meeting as that group’s alternate.</p>
<p>Agriculture also got three seats, with appointees from the state farm bureau, state vegetable growers association and the fruit sector. The state vegetable growers consistently sent an alternate, Rick Zimmerman. His resume includes many years as a Farm Bureau lobbyist followed by a career as NYSDAM deputy commissioner. Today he heads up the Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance. The state turf and landscape association has a seat, too.</p>
<p>Three NGOs were appointed to the Task Force: The Nature Conservancy, Audubon New York and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Member Erin Crotty, who is executive director at Audubon New York, previously served as DEC commissioner under Republican Governor Pataki. NRDC, which has sued EPA on neonicotinoids, was represented by one of two alternating attorneys at each meeting. Like the aforementioned industry representatives, no one from these organizations appeared to have any specific expertise on pollinators. The representatives rom the Nature Conservancy and Audubon New York proposed ways to increase pollinator habitat but did not indicate concerns about pesticides.</p>
<p>Beekeepers were apportioned two seats. With 12 hives, hobby beekeeper Stephen Wilson has chaired the <a href="http://www.eshpa.org/events/2015/6/8/apiary-industry-advisory-committee-meeting" type="external">Apiary Industry Advisory Committee</a> for over 15 years. The other representative was <a href="http://www.eshpa.org" type="external">Empire State Honey Producers Association</a> president Mark Berninghausen, a small commercial migratory beekeeper from St. Lawrence County. This group has about 100 members out of the 3,000 or 4,000 beekeepers in the state.</p>
<p>The state has also been accepting public comments (though this was apparently not publicized and no deadline has been announced). These comments must be submitted to the governor’s office, not to the Task Force directly (initially NYSDAM was accepting them). As of this writing, these comments have not been shared with task force members.</p>
<p>Given the make-up of New York’s Pollinator Task Force—one-quarter pesticide industry, one-third agriculture and turf care industries—and the political allegiances of the two convening agencies, the complex issue of pesticides was therefore always likely to be handled with kid gloves.</p>
<p>At the kickoff meeting task force advisors had a chance to lay out their positions on what the state should do to protect bees. The second meeting focused on research needs and the third dealt with habitat enhancement and best management practices (BMPs).</p>
<p>Presentations took up much of the second and third meetings. For example, a series of managers from six state agencies described their land management practices and initiatives to provide habitat in respect to bees.</p>
<p>A highpoint was the talk by Cornell’s new honeybee extension entomologist, Emma Mullen. A Canadian who just moved to the United States, Mullen had been part of the team of scientists that worked on <a href="http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/pollinator/meeting-reg.htm" type="external">Ontario’s Pollinator Health Protection Plan</a>. Particularly illuminating was her explanation of the province’s new program to decrease the corn and soybean acreage planted with neonicotinoid-treated seeds 80 percent by 2017. She also outlined current Cornell research on bees.</p>
<p>NYSDAM commissioner Richard Ball, a vegetable grower, chaired the meetings and NYSDEC deputy commissioner Eugene Leff played a supporting role. Leff, whose resume includes pesticide regulation, previously presided over another stakeholder task force charged with dealing with an equally polarizing issue: preventing pesticide pollution of Long Island’s groundwater. As with the pollinator task force, pesticide and agricultural interests were well represented on Long Island. (The 126-page strategy document that came out of that task force’s work indicates that these interest groups succeeded in delaying any restrictions on suspect pesticides.)</p>
<p>To frame the initial Pollinator Task Force discussion, Commissioner Ball reiterated what has come to seem like the official national dogma on bee decline—there is no single cause and we must consider multiple areas of concern. While the list of pollinator threats varies, the USDA, EPA and institutions such as Cornell University cite factors such as habitat loss, pests and pathogens, pesticides, genetics and/or climate change when they state that view.</p>
<p>Indeed, the most notable feature of the meetings was the overall reluctance to delve into the problem of pesticides except in so far as they induce immediate bee kills. Only two members of the 12-member task force (beekeeper Stephen Wilson and a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney) urged any limitations on the use of neonicotinoids.</p>
<p>A number of additional aspects of these meetings support the idea that the Task Force exists primarily for appearance’s sake. First, no one appeared to be taking official notes and no minutes were made available, despite advisor Stephen Wilson’s request for minutes at the second meeting. (Recordings are posted on NYSDAM’s <a href="http://www.agriculture.ny.gov" type="external">website</a>.) Second, no one wrote down ideas on a whiteboard or easel to capture them as they came up. Third, Task Force discussions were freewheeling, unstructured and all over the map.</p>
<p>The state’s short timeline, which called for the state to circulate the NYS Pollinator Protection Action Plan Recommendations to task force members on October 19 followed by a 7-day comment period, also challenges the notion of a deliberative process informed by science. The whole process, from the first of three Task Force meetings to the submission of priority recommendations to the governor, is scheduled to take only three months. (As of October 28, a beekeeper on the Task Force reported that he hadn’t received anything from the state yet.)</p>
<p>Yet the meeting agendas presume that in an hour or two of meetings these advisors will contribute content to the pollinator plan, generate a meaningful research agenda and cobble together BMPs to protect bees.</p>
<p>The idea that all this can happen fails to pass the laugh test. Thus, in the final portion of the third meeting, Task Force advisors were asked to consider a series of BMPs listed on a handout prepared in advance (presumably by NYSDAM or DEC) but not distributed until the actual meeting. Task Force members had not gotten through the first item on the list when time ran out.</p>
<p>Discussion of specific BMPs was overshadowed by the contentious issue of whether beekeepers should be required to register all honeybee hives with the state and disclose their locations. BMPs listed on the handout pertained to such things as beekeepers’ care for their colonies and control of mites and other parasites/diseases, landowners and state agencies enhancing pollinator habitat and forage, the correct and judicious use of pesticides and of Integrated Pest Management, and the roles of beekeepers, landowners and pesticide applicators in protecting honeybees from pesticides.</p>
<p>Perhaps there was no real need to carefully craft a plan because the conclusions appeared to have been pre-ordained. In his closing comments at the third meeting, DEC deputy commissioner Leff referred back to the governor’s blueprint for the state pollinator plan. In particular, Leff highlighted the BMPs designed to reduce pesticide exposure to managed pollinators through better communication among beekeepers and farmers. Leff stressed the need for landowners and pesticide applicators to know where hives are located and how to contact beekeepers before they spray.</p>
<p>Of course, Beekeepers would have to be ready to move their hives. Some beekeepers fear that New York’s plan will follow North Dakota’s template—transferring the burden of protecting honeybee colonies from pesticides onto the beekeepers. This is at odds with the historical assignment of such responsibility to pesticide applicators. In fact, pesticide labels carry legal weight in prohibiting pesticides considered acutely toxic to bees from being applied when flowers are in bloom or bees are present.</p>
<p>Leff’s proposal to shift responsibility is radical, but it is not new; it’s essential elements are contained in the guidance for <a href="http://www.nasda.org/File.aspx?id=34760" type="external">State Managed Pollinator Protection Plans</a>, a June 2015 document produced by the State The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act&#160;(FIFRA) Issues Research and Evaluation Group. ( <a href="http://aapco.org/" type="external">SFIREG</a> is a committee of the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials. SFIREG used to have the document on its website, but has since removed it.) Among the six “critical elements” it identified for pollinator plans are methods for growers to know if managed pollinators are located near where pesticides are used and for contacting beekeepers prior to applying pesticides.</p>
<p>Thus it seems that pesticides are sometimes acknowledged to be causing at least part of the decline in pollinators, but the approach proposed by Leff and SFIREG ignores much of what is known—that systemic insecticides like neonicotinoids can harm bees months after application, for example via the planting of treated seeds, and that insecticides are not the only agrichemicals that harm bees. For example, a <a href="http://www.boerenlandvogels.nl/sites/default/files/Effects%20of%20Glyphosate%20on%20Honey%20Bee%20Navigation.pdf" type="external">new study</a> has found that exposure to low levels of glyphosate impairs honeybee navigation. And of course, warning beekeepers of impending pesticide applications does nothing to protect native pollinators (though ostensibly these plans are intended to protect them too).</p>
<p>As the meeting was ending, I was able to pose a practical question: “How easy is it for beekeepers to move their hives when they get a call that pesticides will be applied?” Roberta Glatz, an older woman who serves on the state Apiary Industry Advisory Committee, replied from the audience.</p>
<p>She said that beekeepers aren’t necessarily where their bees are. “They may be in North Carolina raising queens.” She outlined other concerns as well. There are limited places where you can put your bees, and it takes a lot of negotiation to put in a bee yard. Logistics also come into play. Mud can impede access. Hives are heavy and usually have to be moved in the middle of the night when the bees are home. (And beekeepers often have day jobs, another beekeeper told me once the meeting ended.)</p>
<p>So while even the beekeepers of New York are having a hard time getting a fair shake in a protection plan for their own bees, in terms of pesticides it seems that Bombus affinis and other native bees should expect even less of one.</p>
<p>(A version of this article appeared on <a href="http://www.independentsciencenews.org/" type="external">independentsciencenews.org</a>.)</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_RAITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_RAITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p> | Pesticide Industry Joins New York’s Pollinator Task Force—Bad News for Bees | true | http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/18644/Bees-and-neonicotinoids | 2015-12-05 | 4 |
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<p>The New Mexico Game Commission on Thursday approved changes in state rules to temporarily ban trapping throughout the Gila and Apache national forests in southwestern New Mexico. That will allow wildlife managers time to study the risks of trapping and snaring to the Mexican gray wolf.</p>
<p>The prohibition will begin Nov. 1 and last at least six months while the state Game and Fish Department assesses whether some methods of trapping would pose less risk for the wolves.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The changes follow an executive order issued last summer by Gov. Bill Richardson that called for a temporary ban on trapping on the New Mexico side of an area where Mexican gray wolves have been reintroduced along the New Mexico-Arizona border.</p>
<p>Richardson’s executive order noted that traps do not differentiate between wolves and the animals for which traps were set.</p>
<p>His order said there have been six confirmed and three probable Mexican gray wolves trapped in New Mexico’s portion of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the past eight years. Five wolves were injured by the traps, two severely enough to require leg amputations.</p>
<p>Injuries can harm wolves’ ability to catch prey and could increase the risk of wolves preying on livestock instead of faster elk and deer, the order said.</p>
<p>Environmentalists applauded the commission’s decision to adopt the trapping ban, calling it a milestone for wolves in the Southwest.</p>
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<p>Thursday, 28 October 2010 11:21</p>
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<p>The New Mexico Game Commission has approved changes to state rules to temporarily ban trapping throughout the Gila and Apache national forests in southwestern New Mexico.</p>
<p>The commission approved the changes during a meeting Thursday in Mescalero. Commissioners are also considering proposals for increasing the hunting limits for bears and cougars.</p>
<p>The trapping prohibition will remain in place for at least six months while state wildlife managers assess the risks of trapping to the Mexican gray wolf and whether some methods of trapping could still be allowed.</p>
<p>Last summer, Gov. Bill Richardson ordered a temporary ban on trapping in the area where wolves have been reintroduced.</p>
<p>Environmentalists applauded the commission’s decision, calling it a milestone for wolves in the Southwest.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | UPDATED: State Game Commission Extends Trapping Ban in Wolf Area | false | https://abqjournal.com/10003/updated-state-game-commission-extends-trapping-ban-in-wolf-area.html | 2 |
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<p>Celebrity sightings in The Land of Enchantment are very common.</p>
<p>This has a lot to do with the booming film industry.</p>
<p>Academy Award winner Benicio del Toro stopped by to get a famous Laguna Burger and Route 66 Casino Hotel posted about it on its Facebook page.</p>
<p>Del Toro is currently filming “Soldado” in N.M. The film is the follow-up to “Sicario.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | ICYMI: Del Toro living like a local | false | https://abqjournal.com/898248/icymi-del-toro-living-like-a-local.html | 2016-11-29 | 2 |
<p>The General Henry Knox Museum is <a href="http://www.generalknoxmuseum.org/press.html" type="external">honoring</a> a representative of Al-Jazeera, the channel associated with various terrorist organizations, on July 28 on the stage of The Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine. The museum says that an intimate Gala dinner and reception will follow at 7:30 p.m. at Camden National Bank’s historic Spear Block location in Rockland.</p>
<p>Knox played a significant role in the American war for independence from Britain and was close to General George Washington.</p>
<p>The idea of an American museum devoted to patriotism honoring a representative of a foreign-funded channel, described by Middle East experts such as Walid Phares as “Jihad television,” is not going down well in Maine and across the country. The most visible public face of Al-Jazeera Arabic is the anti-Semitic cleric, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who approved suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and American military personnel in Iraq.</p>
<p>“Oh Allah” he preached in January 2009 to millions of Al-Jazeera listeners, “count their numbers [the Jews], and kill them down to the very last one.”</p>
<p>Dr. Judea Pearl said he once thought that Al-Jazeera could be a force for good in the world but came to believe otherwise, based on its track record in promoting anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda. He has also warned of the expanding influence of Al-Jazeera English. “Even if Al-Jazeera English waters down its sister network’s alarmist content, it should still be seen as a potential threat,” he says. “It will bestow respectability upon the practices of its Arabic language network in Qatar, which continues, among other things, to broadcast Sheik Qaradawi’s teachings, frequently, consistently and prominently.” Dr. Pearl’s son, journalist Daniel Pearl, was murdered by Al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>The grass-roots organization, <a href="http://actforamerica.org/" type="external">Act for America</a>, headed by Brigitte Gabriel, is mobilizing to oppose the appearance of Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera, at the event in Maine.</p>
<p>Gabriel is the author of two New York Times best sellers, Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America, and They Must Be Stopped: Why we must defeat radical Islam and how we can do it. The recent Act for America conference in Washington, D.C. attracted hundreds of activists and featured speeches by such figures as Rep. Allen West, one of the most forceful advocates of resistance to the global jihad.</p>
<p>An Act for America chapter leader in Maine, who didn’t want her name used publicly for fear of retribution from radical Muslims in the area, told Accuracy in Media that the event with Abderrahim Foukara is an outrageous affront to the mission of the museum itself. “General Knox was an American revolutionary war hero,” she said. “Al-Jazeera is an anti-American propaganda channel that has served as a mouthpiece for Arab/Muslim terrorist organizations killing Americans in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera has the blood of countless American soldiers on its hands.”</p>
<p>She noted evidence, publicized by Accuracy in Media in a special report, of Al-Jazeera’s ties to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. “These are terrorist organizations that target Americans and Israelis for death for opposing the global Jihad. Under no circumstances should an American museum devoted to an American revolutionary war hero and General be honoring a representative of this terror channel.”</p>
<p>Local activists want the board and trustees of the museum to cancel the appearance and offer a public explanation and apology for how this occurred.</p>
<p>AIM, which has campaigned against acceptance of Al-Jazeera, has argued that, in addition to serving as a mouthpiece for terrorist organizations, the channel has been shown to play a role in radicalizing Muslims abroad to make Americans into terrorist targets. Through Al-Jazeera English, the version of the channel being pushed for increased carriage in U.S. media markets, it could further stir up and inflame the Arabs and Muslims inside the U.S.</p>
<p>Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera scheduled to speak in Maine, <a href="../../../../../aim-column/how-al-jazeera-kills-americans/" type="external">has said</a>, “To be honest, I don’t know what objective journalism means.”</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/05/123671.htm" type="external">interview</a> with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Foukara argued that the U.S. should engage in talks with Hamas, the terror organization committed to the destruction of Israel. Hamas representatives have appeared at several conferences sponsored by Al-Jazeera in Doha, the capital of Qatar.</p>
<p>Although the channel has been portrayed as independent and reliable, the coverage by Al-Jazeera of the so-called “Arab Spring” has not been directed at corruption by the authoritarian monarchy in Qatar, which owns and funds the channel. Cables released by WikiLeaks demonstrate that U.S. officials consider the channel to be a foreign policy instrument of Qatar. There is no freedom of the press in the country, and a blogger in Qatar demanding accountability from the ruling elite was recently whisked away from security forces and has not been heard from since.</p>
<p>“If the government of Qatar funds Al-Jazeera with hundreds of millions of dollars annually, obviously it’s not a charity,” Foukara acknowledged in an interview.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, a press release from the General Henry Knox Museum calls Foukara a Moroccan transplant to the United States who is “well-versed in the history of the founding of his adopted country, and is able to weave that historical perspective into modern foreign relations.”</p>
<p>The museum <a href="../../../AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.Outlook/01TWX7VK/Henry%20Knox:%20Self-made%20Man,%20Patriot%20and%20Entrepreneur" type="external">describes</a> Henry Knox as a “Self-made Man, Patriot and Entrepreneur.”&#160; It says, “Throughout most of the war he was by Washington’s side, and eventually rose to Major-General. Following the war he was Washington’s choice for the first Secretary at War. They remained life-long friends.” Knox retired to the mid-coast area of Maine in 1795 to promote the settlement and economic development of the District of Maine.</p>
<p>It is not clear to local members of the Act for America chapter why the museum has decided to bestow the prestige of General Knox’s legacy on a representative of an Arab-government funded channel implicated in the murder of Americans. They are seeking answers from museum staff and members of the board.</p>
<p>The board of the museum is chaired by Gregory A. Dufour, president and chief executive officer of Camden National Corporation and <a href="https://www.camdennational.com/" type="external">Camden National Bank</a> in Rockport, Maine.</p>
<p>Maine Senator Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has warned of “radicalized extremists working to do us harm from within our borders” and stated that “I am alarmed at the growth of homegrown terrorist plots.”</p>
<p>She added, “Between May 2009 and November 2010, there were arrests made in 22 ‘homegrown’ plots by American citizens or legal permanent residents. By comparison, in the more than seven years from September 11, 2001, through May 2009, there were 21 such plots.”</p>
<p>AIM has argued that what is needed is a congressional inquiry into whether Al-Jazeera, through its exposure to some Americans through the Internet and YouTube and some cable systems, is playing a role in this carnage.</p> | American Revolutionary War Museum to Honor Al-Jazeera | true | http://aim.org/aim-column/american-revolutionary-war-museum-to-honor-al-jazeera/ | 2011-06-29 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have created a hair-thin implant that can drip medications deep into the brain by remote control and with pinpoint precision.</p>
<p>Tested only in animals so far, if the device pans out it could mark a new approach to treating brain diseases — potentially reducing side effects by targeting only the hard-to-reach circuits that need care.</p>
<p>“You could deliver things right to where you want, no matter the disease,” said Robert Langer, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose biomedical engineering team reported the research Wednesday.</p>
<p>Stronger and safer treatments are needed for brain disorders ranging from depression to Parkinson’s. Simply getting medications inside the brain, past what’s called the blood-brain barrier, is a hurdle. It’s even harder to reach its deepest structures.</p>
<p>Pills and IV drugs that make it inside trigger side effects as they wash over entire regions of the brain. So doctors have tried inserting tubes into the brain to pump drugs closer to their targets, but that risks infection and still isn’t accurate enough. The most targeted success to date is a cancer treatment, a wafer placed on the site of a surgically removed brain tumor that oozes out chemotherapy.</p>
<p>The MIT team’s next-generation approach: a customizable deep-brain implant that can deliver varying doses of more than one drug on demand.</p>
<p>The researchers constructed two ultra-thin medication tubes and slid them into a stainless steel needle that’s about the diameter of a human hair. That needle, built as long as needed to reach the right spot, gets inserted through a hole in the skull into the desired brain circuitry.</p>
<p>An electrode on the tip provides feedback, monitoring how the electrical activity of targeted neurons change as the medication is delivered.</p>
<p>The needle is hooked to two small, programmable pumps that hold the medications. The plan: Thread the pumps somewhere under the skin for a fully implantable system, dubbed MiNDS for miniaturized neural drug delivery system. The pumps can be refilled with an injection, and if more than two drugs are needed, additional reservoirs could be added like in a printer ink cartridge, Langer said.</p>
<p>Lab rats gave MiNDS its first test.</p>
<p>Researchers implanted the needle into a movement-related brain region that Parkinson’s disease damages. To mimic that disease, the implant dripped out a chemical that made the rats move abnormally, including repeatedly turning clockwise. Next, the researchers turned off that chemical and infused saline through the system’s second channel, ending the Parkinson’s-like behavior, MIT lead author Canan Dagdeviren reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.</p>
<p>Another experiment in a monkey showed delivering that same chemical into a different region altered how the targeted brain cells fire.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of therapeutic potential for this,” said Tracy Cui, a bioengineering professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She wasn’t involved with the MIT study but also is developing this kind of technology.</p>
<p>Numerous groups are working on implants to deliver neurologic drugs in different ways, Cui noted. While additional testing is needed before such a system could be tried in people, she said these kinds of tools are important for research thanks to the feedback showing how neurons react to different compounds.</p>
<p>The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health; MIT has applied for a patent.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have created a hair-thin implant that can drip medications deep into the brain by remote control and with pinpoint precision.</p>
<p>Tested only in animals so far, if the device pans out it could mark a new approach to treating brain diseases — potentially reducing side effects by targeting only the hard-to-reach circuits that need care.</p>
<p>“You could deliver things right to where you want, no matter the disease,” said Robert Langer, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose biomedical engineering team reported the research Wednesday.</p>
<p>Stronger and safer treatments are needed for brain disorders ranging from depression to Parkinson’s. Simply getting medications inside the brain, past what’s called the blood-brain barrier, is a hurdle. It’s even harder to reach its deepest structures.</p>
<p>Pills and IV drugs that make it inside trigger side effects as they wash over entire regions of the brain. So doctors have tried inserting tubes into the brain to pump drugs closer to their targets, but that risks infection and still isn’t accurate enough. The most targeted success to date is a cancer treatment, a wafer placed on the site of a surgically removed brain tumor that oozes out chemotherapy.</p>
<p>The MIT team’s next-generation approach: a customizable deep-brain implant that can deliver varying doses of more than one drug on demand.</p>
<p>The researchers constructed two ultra-thin medication tubes and slid them into a stainless steel needle that’s about the diameter of a human hair. That needle, built as long as needed to reach the right spot, gets inserted through a hole in the skull into the desired brain circuitry.</p>
<p>An electrode on the tip provides feedback, monitoring how the electrical activity of targeted neurons change as the medication is delivered.</p>
<p>The needle is hooked to two small, programmable pumps that hold the medications. The plan: Thread the pumps somewhere under the skin for a fully implantable system, dubbed MiNDS for miniaturized neural drug delivery system. The pumps can be refilled with an injection, and if more than two drugs are needed, additional reservoirs could be added like in a printer ink cartridge, Langer said.</p>
<p>Lab rats gave MiNDS its first test.</p>
<p>Researchers implanted the needle into a movement-related brain region that Parkinson’s disease damages. To mimic that disease, the implant dripped out a chemical that made the rats move abnormally, including repeatedly turning clockwise. Next, the researchers turned off that chemical and infused saline through the system’s second channel, ending the Parkinson’s-like behavior, MIT lead author Canan Dagdeviren reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.</p>
<p>Another experiment in a monkey showed delivering that same chemical into a different region altered how the targeted brain cells fire.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of therapeutic potential for this,” said Tracy Cui, a bioengineering professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She wasn’t involved with the MIT study but also is developing this kind of technology.</p>
<p>Numerous groups are working on implants to deliver neurologic drugs in different ways, Cui noted. While additional testing is needed before such a system could be tried in people, she said these kinds of tools are important for research thanks to the feedback showing how neurons react to different compounds.</p>
<p>The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health; MIT has applied for a patent.</p> | Tiny implant opens way to deliver drugs deep into the brain | false | https://apnews.com/9760860d3d9a42598e09c4c3e6783122 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., should be investigated for continuing to employ a former House IT aide who was arrested on bank-fraud charges last Tuesday, a conservative anti-corruption watchdog group wrote in a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics Monday, <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/conservative-watchdog-group-calls-for-investigation-of-wasserman-schultz/2332130" type="external">according to the Tampa Bay Times.</a></p>
<p>“It appears that Rep. Wasserman Schultz permitted an employee to remain on the House payroll in violation of House Ethics Rules,” Matthew Whitaker of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust wrote in the letter. “After Awan was barred from accessing the House computer system, Wasserman Schultz continued to pay Awan with taxpayer funds for IT consulting –&#160;a position that he could not reasonably be able to perform.”</p>
<p>Wasserman Schultz fired Imran Awan on Tuesday after his arrest, but said she saw no reason to terminate Awan until there was credible evidence to do so. A criminal complaint against Awan alleges he and his wife conspired to secure a fraudulent loan. The 37-year-old had been employed by the House of Representatives as an IT specialist since 2004. He started <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/smashed-hard-drives-computers-criminals-Debbie-Wasserman-Schultz/2017/07/26/id/804018/" type="external">working on a contractual basis</a> for more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers soon after.</p>
<p>Awan, 37, and four other IT staffers were accused of theft in February. They were employed by more than two dozen Democrats in Congress, but Wasserman Schultz was the only lawmaker who kept him on. Awan pleaded not guilty to the bank-fraud charges and was <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/wasserman-schultz-aide-released-supervision/2017/07/26/id/803837/" type="external">released into a high-intensity supervision</a> program.</p> | Watchdog Calls for Ethics Probe of Rep. Wasserman Schultz | false | https://newsline.com/watchdog-calls-for-ethics-probe-of-rep-wasserman-schultz/ | 2017-07-31 | 1 |
<p>The ESV Study Bible has been named the “Christian Book of the Year” by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, marking the first time the honor has been given to a study Bible.</p>
<p>The Bible, which is in the English Standard Version, includes study notes from evangelical Christian scholars and other reference materials.Published by Crossway, it also won in the best Bible category.</p>
<p>The honoring of the study Bible follows two previous first-time wins of other products. In 2008, the Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible became the first audio product to win; in 2007, Karen Kingsbury became the first woman and the first novelist to win, for her book, Ever After.</p>
<p>The award was announced March 19 at the kick-off for the 2009 Christian Book Expo in Dallas. The Christian Book Awards, which previously were known as the Gold Medallion Book Awards, were established in 1978 to recognize Christian books for excellent content, design and literary quality.</p>
<p>The other winners are:</p>
<p>— Bible Reference &amp; Study: Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry &amp; Writings, edited by Tremper Longman III and Peter Enns (InterVarsity Press).</p>
<p>— Children &amp; Youth: For Young Men Only by Jeff Feldhahn and Eric Rice with Shaunti Feldhahn (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)</p>
<p>— Christian Life: Spectacular Sins by John Piper (Crossway Books &amp; Bibles)</p>
<p>— Fiction: The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)</p>
<p>— Inspiration &amp; Gift: Holiness Day by Day by Jerry Bridges (NavPress).</p> | BOOK NOTES: Study Bible wins Christian Book of the Year award | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/booknotesstudybiblewinschristianbookoftheyearaward/ | 3 |
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<p>The Wages of Collaboration</p>
<p>The indictments involving a Fiat Chrysler exec and a UAW official should confirm long-held suspicions that the “team concept” and cooperation between union and company has led to bad contracts, and sapping the fighting spirit of the members. Charges have been laid against Al Iacobelli, former VP of Fiat Chrysler, and Monica Morgan, wife of former UAW VP General Holiefield. (Holiefield himself was not indicted because he died in 2015.) Charges may be laid against further company and union officials.</p>
<p>Despite Fiat Chrysler and UAW claims, this is not the result of a few corrupt individuals – it is the inevitable consequence of decades of a culture of class collaboration.</p>
<p>The problem is union leaders who start to identify more with corporate executives than with the workers, and who see union office as a path to self-enrichment.</p>
<p>This also raises questions about the 2016 negotiations between GM and Unifor, representing Canadian GM workers – since Iacobelli was a leading member of the GM management team. (GM had hired Iacobelli after he ‘left’ Fiat Chrysler).</p>
<p>“Fat, dumb and happy”</p>
<p>Iacobelli and Holiefield conspired over at least 6 years to both enrich themselves, and also, to pay off other top UAW reps, in what was described as an effort to keep the union reps “fat, dumb and happy”. The brazen theft involved diverting funds from the negotiated National Training Center (NTC) to pay for such things as a Ferrari Spider ($350,000) and 2 solid-gold Mont Blanc pens ($37,500 each) for Iacobelli, and paying off the mortgage on the house owned by Morgan and Holiefield ($262,219). But the most important lesson to learn is that the source of the corruption was the culture of labour-management cooperation, or “team-concept” that has spread like a cancer through the North American labour movement.</p>
<p>Jointly-administered slush fund.</p>
<p>Fiat Chrysler contributed between $13 million and $31 million per year to the NTC, a joint company-union program that was supposed to provide education and training for union members. Corrupt practices were made easier because the fund was designed to serve as a slush fund, jointly administered by Iacobelli and Holiefield with no oversight. Funds were siphoned off directly to pay for air travel and lavish hotel suites including a four-night stay for Holiefield (at $3,100 per night) in the Beverly Hills Hotel in California. Credit cards were issued to senior UAW negotiators, as described in this <a href="" type="internal">Detroit Free Press</a> account on July 27:</p>
<p>Starting in 2012, Iacobelli saw to it that Holiefield and other senior UAW officials obtained National Training Center credit cards. He directed Durden [a Fiat Chrysler Financial Analyst] to obtain the cards. The financial analyst obliged. And the union officials were encouraged to use them for personal expense. According to the indictment, Durden reported that he, Iacobelli and others at FCA “had created a liberal spending policy for the NTC-issued credit cards as part of their effort to keep the senior members of the UAW Chrysler Department ‘fat, dumb and happy.’ ” The cards were used liberally. The indictment alleges Holiefield made more than $200,000 in personal purchases on his credit card, including jewelry, furniture, designer clothing and other items. Iacobelli authorized the charges. Durden collected Holiefield’s credit card statements, instructing members of the NTC accounting staff “not to open, examine or review the NTC credit card statements.”</p>
<p>Phony children’s charity</p>
<p>Even more distasteful was the fact that Holiefield created a fake children’s charity, the “Leave the Lights on Foundation”. Iacobelli funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NTC through the foundation to Holiefield and Monica Morgan. Companies owned by Morgan received money from the foundation and from the NTC, including getting the contract to provide T-shirts, mugs and other items to the NTC without submitting a quote or a bid. Most of that money went to Morgan and Holiefield’s lavish personal expenses. In the words of Fiat Chrysler’s financial analyst Durden, the payments were “an investment in relationship building” with Holiefield.</p>
<p>Two-tier wages and brutal 10-hour shifts</p>
<p>What did Fiat Chrysler get in return for this investment? As reported by David Barkholz in the <a href="" type="internal">Automotive News</a> June 9, 2015:</p>
<p>FCA negotiated the best contract of the Detroit 3. FCA’s overall labor costs since the four-year UAW contract was signed in the fall 2011 have nudged up less than 1 percent per year. Consequently, FCA enjoys nearly a $10 an hour labor cost advantage over Ford and GM.</p>
<p>In addition, Fiat Chrysler gained the union’s support in implementing a brutal Alternative Work Schedule (AWS) of regular 10-hour days with no overtime pay. The AWS is also known as the 3-2-120 schedule because three crews work two shifts for 120 hours a week. For example, at the Jefferson North Assembly plant in Detroit, the “A” crew works 10 hours a day on day shift from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The “B” crew works 10 hours on night shift 6 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. The “C” crew works 10 hours on the night shift Monday and Tuesday and 10 hours on the day shift Friday and Saturday.</p>
<p>Both Fiat Chrysler and the UAW now claim that the corruption was just the acts of individuals. They both say the “didn’t know”. But Holiefield and the other UAW reps at Fiat Chrysler were not acting on their own in capitulating to management demands. The concessions they made were part of the overall strategy of concession bargaining followed by the UAW leadership for many years. In 2007 the UAW had agreed to allow the auto companies to hire second tier workers at half the regular rate with inferior benefits and no pensions. Even before that, the UAW leadership had argued that workers had common interests with the corporations, and that they had to help keep the companies “healthy” and profitable by implementing “team concept”. The UAW had agreed to joint programs and joint funds back in the early 1980’s. Since management still made the decisions, this so-called “team concept” just meant the union became tied in to enforcing those decisions. It was just a capitulation to the corporations, who always strive to maximize their profits, pay workers the least they can get away with, and speed up the work until it is destroying the health of the workers. What is desperately needed are union leaders that understand that <a href="https://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml" type="external">“the working class and the employing class have nothing in common”</a> – and that their role is to fight for the working class.</p>
<p>CAW/Unifor leaders also cozy up to corporate execs</p>
<p>Instead of fighters, we have union officials who would rather rub shoulders with corporate executives and their political lapdogs than associate with the workers. This has been the case with the autoworkers in Canada as well. Former Canadian Auto Workers President, Buzz Hargrove swooned when he got a pat on the head from Magna head Frank Stronach – and gave him the infamous <a href="" type="internal">no-strike agreement</a> in return. This was a pattern with Buzz – he liked to chum around with corporate execs, like ONEX head Gerry Schwartz. After Buzz was taken on a tour of Israel at Schwartz’s expense, he turned into an <a href="http://www.taylor-report.com/articles/index.php?id=25" type="external">apologist for the Israeli onslaught</a> on Gaza. Later, Buzz delighted in putting a union jacket on then Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.</p>
<p>In 2013 the CAW merged with the CEP and formed Unifor. The current Unifor president, Jerry Dias is following the same political path as Hargrove. He is smitten with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and supports the Ontario Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne. Last year at a General Motors photo op announcement in Oshawa, attended by Trudeau and Wynne, Jerry refused to sit with members of the union local (Unifor Local 222) because he wanted to be as close as possible to the GM executives and Trudeau (see <a href="https://www.unifor.org/en/whats-new/news/general-motors-canada-job-creation-a-positive-step" type="external">picture</a>). A few months later, at the Oshawa ratification meeting for the new GM contract, Jerry was being questioned by a member of Unifor Local 222 who was calmly asking a reasonable question. His response was “You’re a f-ing idiot”.</p>
<p>Is Al Jerry’s Pal?</p>
<p>Most disturbingly – listen to Jerry’s response to the charges of fraud against Al Iacobelli:</p>
<p>“Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the union that negotiated with Iacobelli for Canadian autoworker contracts, said he always viewed him as a professional labor executive.</p>
<p>“ <a href="" type="internal">I’ve probably known Al for 15 years</a>. … This is right out of left field. I never would have expected it,” Dias said. “I’m in shock, to say the least.”</p>
<p>Could Jerry really have been totally unaware of the corrupt dealings between Iacobelli and UAW reps? He says he was “shocked” – Unifor members would like to know if he was also angry and working to prevent similar events here. There was widespread opposition to the 2016 contracts between Unifor and the auto companies. Many members were angry that new hires on the assembly line start at $15 per hour less than longer-term workers, and won’t get equal pay for more than 10 years. They also get an inferior pension. The ratification votes at all three companies were the lowest in the history of the Canadian union. Did Jerry’s demonstrated chumminess with corporate leaders and Liberal politicians influence what was negotiated?</p>
<p>UAW and Fiat Chrysler Cover-ups</p>
<p>After Iacobelli was indicted, Fiat Chrysler said they had fired him when they became aware of his fraud. But at the time Iacobelli left, they were happy to leave the impression that he had retired. Similarly, the UAW allowed Holiefield to serve out his term of office and retire with a pension in 2014, even though there had persistent complaints about Holiefield’s corruption for years. Even the indictment mentions that the then UAW President had cautioned Holiefield and Iacobelli over their financial dealings in 2011. Both the corporation and the union preferred to cover things up to preserve their public image.</p>
<p>Now that the indictments have come down, both the company and the union swear that the corruption had no influence on negotiations between the two. If you believe that, you must believe that Brian Mulroney had provided nothing in return for the three envelopes containing $300,000 in cash that Karlheinz Schreiber handed him in hotel rooms.</p>
<p>But the biggest thing that the UAW leadership and Fiat Chrysler want to cover up, is that their dedication to “labor-management cooperation” is to the benefit of the corporation and is against the interests of the union members. If the union had a culture of uncompromising struggle against the corporate elite, the union official that wanted to rub shoulders with executives and flaunt a lavish lifestyle would have stuck out like a sore thumb.</p>
<p>This article was originally published by the <a href="http://www.solinet.ca" type="external">Unifor Solidarity Network.</a></p> | Fiat Chrysler/UAW Corruption Case Shows How Labor-Management Cooperation Profits the Companies | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/25/fiat-chrysleruaw-corruption-case-shows-how-labor-management-cooperation-profits-the-companies/ | 2017-08-25 | 4 |
<p>So Vice President Biden won’t be going to Tampa after all. Team Obama planned to dispatch him there to make sure the Dems and their talking points receive exposure during the Republican Convention. But the Obama campaign has <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-25/biden-cancels-tampa-visit-during-republican-convention.html" type="external">cancelled</a> the trip due to Tropical Storm Issac.</p>
<p>Traditionally, presidential campaigns have stepped aside while the opposing party holds its national convention. This courtesy allows each party four days in which to make its case to the American people with a minimum of outside noise.</p>
<p>No one should be surprised that the Democrats decided to abandon this tradition. The decision represents yet another instance in which Obama’s Chicago-style approach has reduced the level of political civility.</p>
<p>However, it is surprising that Obama would send the Vice President of the United States on this dubious mission of diversion and disruption. One would expect that task to fall to a comedic figure, a man of limited gravitas but a large capacity to entertain, instead of . . . .</p>
<p>Oh. Never mind.</p> | A suitable mission for Joe Biden | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/08/a-suitable-mission-for-joe-biden.php | 2012-08-26 | 0 |
<p>As if we needed more evidence of Enron’s misconduct, the L.A. Times just reported the recent unearthing of more taped telephone conversations of glib Enron electricity traders conspiring to shut down perfectly running power plants the day rolling black outs were scheduled throughout California.</p>
<p>Back on those cold, grey electricity-bereft days while some corporations were merrily plotting the financial and electrical ruin of the men, women, and children across California, still others were busy parading their indifference. Literally.</p>
<p>The following was written in the midst of such gauche, and increasingly typical, corporate behavior.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>I had not been inspired by a commercial since that night in 1976 when I was convinced my life would be unutterably revolutionized if only I had a can of Psssssst!©, the instant aerosol spray shampoo. I was overdue.</p>
<p>Enter the “Save a Watt” ad. It’s the one that pleads with Californians to use electricity as sparingly as possible to help with the current energy crisis. “We can all make it through this together,” says the encouraging voiceover. Somehow something in that corny commercial got to me and I found myself filled with a sense of community and purpose. “Yes. We can make it through this together,” I thought. So hand in hand with my fellow Californians, I vowed to do my part; whatever it took. And I began working out my strategy. But then, boom: directly after this ad, came one from Disney for its “Electricland Parade.”</p>
<p>As I was resolving to wash my dinner dishes in the shower with me to save a measly watt, Disney was putting on an ELECTRICAL PARADE – an electrical parade with 10-foot tall, light bulb-covered dwarfs, gigantic electric princesses, and a jumbo-sized Mickey Mouse with the gleam of all the state’s electricity in his eye. This while we are afflicted with insufferable blackouts that jam intersections and all but stop iron lung machines.</p>
<p>My sixty seconds of altruism and self-sacrifice left me after that Disney ad, and I found myself relegated to a previous existence whose only inspiration had been the promise of “Spray, Brush and Go!</p>
<p>It really is a perfectly constructed metaphor. I couldn’t have scripted it any better. A giant corporation parading its power ­ literally parading electrical power – while at the very same time the little guy is asked, again litereally, to disempower himself. Perfect.</p>
<p>In protest, I had an idea to start a “Waste a Watt” campaign. Much like any respectable two year old with only one viable way to dissent against oppressive parental authority, I was going to throw a tantrum – an electrical tantrum. My plan was to use as many electrical appliances as often as I could. I’d have my dehumidifier running right next to my neighbor’s borrowed humidifier. I’d play the stereo, the TV, the DVD player, run streaming videos on my computer, thoroughly puree every item in my refrigerator, run all my heaters, duct tape all my light switches in the “on” position, herd the dust bunnies around my apartment with my hair dryer for amusement and continually run my “white noise” machine until the appliances, my little high voltage militia, would finally succumb to battle fatigue and be forced to withdraw their cords.</p>
<p>I ultimately decided against this because when I use my heater, my stereo and my blender at the same time; I blow a fuse. And no matter how you look at it, using two appliances just isn’t an electrical tantrum. I also realized if I managed to pull it off, I’d be out something like an extra $500 a month in increased electric bills. And let’s face it, that’s just sticking it to nobody but me. But most of all, it is a preposterous idea ­ almost as outrageous as the insult of Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s parade is to all Californians.</p>
<p>I think Michael and the folks at Disney must have lost their minds with such a gauche juxtaposition. Maybe it’s just me. Is it? Did you not notice it? Maybe I’m looking at it too negatively. Maybe giving parents the opportunity to bring their kids to the Electricland Parade, paying top dollar to see what electricity looks like is really a public service.</p>
<p>/”Look, honey. See those big bright dots all over Cruella de Ville that make her light up like that? No sweetheart, I do not think she looks like grandma after a few grown-up drinks. Anyway, if we had some of that special juice called “e-lec-tric-ity” to go into our dark light bulbs they would glow just like that, too.”</p>
<p>“Could we see at night to say our prayers if we had some of it, Mommy?”</p>
<p>“We sure could!”</p>
<p>“Wow! Just imagine! It’s all so beautiful. We are so lucky to be here to see this!”</p>
<p>/It’s like bringing famine victims to a hotdog eating contest to help keep their minds off their wienerless lives.</p>
<p>Then there are those “Power Down” commercials, reminding us of how many of our appliances really need not be on full power, which I agree with ­ except for the part about the heat. San Francisco mysteriously manages to be the coldest city on planet Earth year-round even when the temperature reads 59 degrees. Living in a city in the Northern Hemisphere where you can see your breath on the 4th of July requires robust, unswerving, everlasting heaters. But robust heat produces robust electric bills.</p>
<p>In the wake of these skyrocketing bills, I’ve begun exploring alternative heat sources. I don’t have a fireplace, but last night I built a crackling fire of tampons in my biggest frying pan that I balanced on an oven mitt on my living room floor. My neighbor and I huddled around it, hoping like hell we weren’t inhaling some sort of Toxic Shock Syndrome-producing microfibers airborne in the tampon smoke.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I have slated for the frying pan: a large calculator that refuses to compute the number five, an inexplicable stack of Toy Story 2 Dixie cups, a wad of cat hair retrieved from my atop my neighbor’s trash, and 53 pencils without erasers that I’ve always known deep in my heart I was saving for a good reason. My boyfriend finds it tiresome to have to keep an ever-watchful eye on his valuables. He has recently announced that he is unsure if he can continue to remain committed to a person who has begun to think about objects, people, and pets solely in terms of their combustibility.</p>
<p>“Whadya got in the bag,” I’ll ask when he comes over. “A burritobut it’s my dinnerI haven’t eaten all day.” “What do you think the max burn time is on beans and guacamole?” And later in bed, “Are you gonna use those toenail clippings?</p>
<p>But, it doesn’t have to be this way, the haves and the have-nots, the luminous and the lumi-nots, because I have a plan. Michael could take the whole Electricland gang on tour and parade up and down neighborhood streets, sharing his light with us Blackouters. More efficiently, perhaps, he could disperse the dwarfs to various California cities – I guess technically it could only be to seven – but he could also send around some random mermaids and the entire gigantic, glowing cast of Rolie Polie Olie: An Easter Egg-Stravaganza. And if he threw in all 101 Dalmatians, cities and towns across this great state could all share in a moment’s illumination.</p>
<p>Little Johnny in Fresno waiting expectantly by the window will finally be able to do a sentence or two of his homework from his very first school reader as Tinkerbell glitters by his unlit house. This while his plug-in Mickey Nightlight and Beauty and the Beast Electric Alarm clock, bereft of life-giving current, lay unresponsive in the shadows.</p>
<p>And while I think this is truly an inspired plan limited only by the number of Disney characters and battery packs and extension cords; better yet, why not get rid of the parade altogether and save I can’t even imagine how many gazillions of watts? That’ll free up a bunch of current so Johnny and the rest of us can get some of it the old-fashioned way through outlets and sockets. Whadya say, Michael? C’mon. Let’s both do our part, huh? I’ll tell you what; I’ll save a watt, if you off a dwarf.</p>
<p>*The word “dwarf” solely references the Disney cartoon characters and is in no way meant to suggest or disparage any group of people.</p>
<p>CAROL NORRIS is a freelance writer, psychotherapist and activist with <a href="http://www.codepinkalert.org/" type="external">CODEPINK</a>. She can be contacted via her blog: <a href="http://carolnorris.blogs.com/" type="external">http://carolnorris.blogs.com</a></p> | Revisiting California’s Rolling Blackouts | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/02/12/revisiting-california-s-rolling-blackouts/ | 2005-02-12 | 4 |
<p>By Roy Strom and Matt Daily</p>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Companies are pouring their cash stockpiles into buying back their own shares, betting on a <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> rebound rather than investing in new operations or bumping up dividends.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>And though investors cheered the moves during the market's recovery rally on Thursday, the strategy may not ultimately pay off for shareholders as buybacks are often a sign companies see few good opportunities to expand through building an additional factory, buying equipment or acquiring another company.</p>
<p>Buybacks, while boosting earnings per share, can deny shareholders a dividend increase, which would allow them to decide how to spend or invest the excess cash a business is throwing off.</p>
<p>And when executives take the less-optimistic road it is a bad sign for a faltering economic recovery and for job creation. The U.S. unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent even as corporate earnings growth has been strong and plenty of cash has been built up on balance sheets.</p>
<p>Buybacks are "a way to deploy capital without really being locked into anything," said Rob Leiphart, analyst at Birinyi Associates.</p>
<p>The 2008 global credit crisis prompted companies to hoard cash, a strategy they are sticking with now as the economy struggles and markets are in turmoil. <a href="" type="internal">Federal Reserve</a> data showed cash and short-term investments swelled to $1.91 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 8 percent from the previous year and 45 percent from 2009.</p>
<p>As of August 11, U.S. companies had bought back $305.2 billion in shares so far this year, eclipsing the $300.7 billion total for all of 2010 and two-and-a-half times the 2009 amount.</p>
<p>While buybacks may sound nice to shareholders, Leiphart said studies have shown there is no correlation between those announcements and stock price performance.</p>
<p>Investors who buy shares based on company buyback announcements often have no idea when or even if those repurchases will take place, or if the companies will make the buybacks at prices that will pay off down the road.</p>
<p>"Some of these companies are making announcements for which they do not actually intend to do the buyback. It's simply a psychological support to their stock," said Henry Schacht, CEO of Schacht Value Investors.</p>
<p>And companies historically have not been the best judges of whether their shares are undervalued, buying often when they are close to their peak and failing to buy when shares are about to recover after sliding.</p>
<p>For example, buybacks reached a record level of $634 billion in 2007, the same year the S&amp;P 500 peaked and began its 18-month dive.</p>
<p>"Do they see around corners? Do they know when the black swan is going to fly? No more than you or me," said Charles Biderman, CEO of Trim Tabs Research.</p>
<p>BUYBACK BANDWAGON</p>
<p>Buybacks can also be one strategy for companies trying to get investor focus switched away from bad news.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Internet company <a href="" type="internal">AOL</a> announced a $250 million buyback of its shares, which had slumped 32 percent since it released quarterly earnings on Tuesday. By late Friday morning the shares had recovered some of those losses to be at $11.75 against a year low of $10.06 on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"I believe the stock is undervalued, and I think our operational results will be the fastest way for us to bring the value of the stock up," AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong told analysts earlier this week.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch's <a href="" type="internal">News Corp</a> , which is still enmeshed in the U.K. hacking scandal, said it would speed up a $5 billion buyback of its shares, which had shed 20 percent in a month as the company scrapped a planned takeover as it came under scrutiny for a phone-hacking scandal.</p>
<p>Those companies joined Covidien Plc , Kohl's , <a href="" type="internal">Loews</a> , Disney , General Growth , <a href="" type="internal">Pfizer</a> , Visa , Ingersoll Rand , <a href="" type="internal">Home Depot</a> , <a href="" type="internal">Best Buy</a> , Hartford Financial , <a href="" type="internal">CF Industries</a> , <a href="" type="internal">Capital One</a> , <a href="" type="internal">Sunoco</a> , Fidelity National , <a href="" type="internal">Illinois Tool Works</a> , Quebecor and TiVo Inc ,which have all recently targeted their own shares.</p>
<p>For some companies, the attraction of a buyback can even trump acquisitions. Last week, payment processor <a href="" type="internal">Fidelity National Information Services</a>' dropped plans to buy British software company Misys . Instead, it used the cash to buy back shares.</p>
<p>Still, companies are keen to show they aren't passing up good investments to grow their businesses.</p>
<p>Fertilizer company CF Industries says its plans to scoop up $1.5 billion of its shares will not stop it from buying up other companies or growing its operations.</p>
<p>"We don't believe these actions will hamper our ability to consider other opportunities to increase shareholder value through investment or acquisition when they arise," CF CEO Steve Wilson said this week.</p>
<p>SOAK UP THE FLOAT</p>
<p>Analysts warn that investors should be especially wary of companies that use buybacks simply to soak up extra shares that have entered the market through their employee compensation programs.</p>
<p>Those companies use buybacks to reward employees at the expense of shareholders, since the growing number of shares dilutes earnings per share for existing shareholders.</p>
<p>"They don't want you to see a growth in shares outstanding, because when you see this share creep, it is a horrible kind of inflation. That's a hole that's been cut in the shareholder's pocket," Schacht said.</p>
<p>Schacht cited Loews Corp as a good example of a company that has put its cash to good use buying its own shares.</p>
<p>"We've dramatically outperformed the market, and I would say a significant contributing factor to that outperformance is we bought in shares," Jim Tisch, CEO of Loews told Reuters.</p>
<p>Tisch said he decides himself whether the company should be in the market buying share based on the stock price and his analysis on Loew's value.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba and Ernest Scheyder, Writing by Matt Daily. Editing by Martin Howell)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Insight: Companies on buyback binge but at whose expense? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/08/12/insight-companies-on-buyback-binge-but-at-whose-expense.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>President Nicolas Maduro ordered troops to arrest several managers of the electronics chain Daka for raising prices and extorting the Venezuelan people. Soldiers then occupied 5 Daka locations, which led to looting at the company’s store in the city of Valencia.</p>
<p>But Maduro exclaimed that the true looters were the Daka “bourgeois parasites” for inflating products to “1,000 percent of cost.” According to <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/11/venezuela-troops-seize-shops-over-high-prices-201311105052572435.html" type="external">Al-Jazeera English</a>:</p>
<p>Maduro, who accuses rich businessmen and right-wing political foes backed by the US of waging an economic war against him, said the occupation of Daka was simply the “tip of the iceberg” in a nationwide drive against speculators.</p>
<p>“We’re going to comb the whole nation in the next few days. This robbery of the people has to stop,” Maduro said. “You’ve not seen anything.”</p>
<p />
<p>He showed particular astonishment at a washing-machine on sale for 54,000 bolivars – $8,571 at the official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars to the US dollar.</p>
<p>Maduro’s move against Daka, after weeks of warnings of a pre-Christmas push against private businesses to keep prices down, recalled the sweeping takeovers during the 14-year government of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.</p>
<p>Soldiers organised hundreds of people into queues at Daka’s store in Caracas, then called them in one by one.</p>
<p>“Inflation’s killing us. I’m not sure if this was the right way, but something had to be done,” said Carlos Rangel, 37, who was among the shoppers. “I think it’s right to make people sell things at fair prices.”</p>
<p>Venezuela’s annual rate of inflation is now 54 percent, the highest since Chavez came to power in 1999. Critics of the government say that is due to economic mismanagement rather than unscrupulous retailers.</p>
<p>Opponents insist, however, that the obscenely high prices are due to an artificially low official rate of 6.3 bolivars per U.S. dollar. Since only a limited amount of American currency is sold in Venezuela, one businessman says he is forced to pay almost triple the exchange rate in the black market and thus, can’t afford to sell products at a lower price and incur a loss.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi</a></p> | Venezuelan Soldiers Force 'Bourgeois Parasites' to Slash Prices | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/venezuelan-soldiers-force-bourgeois-parasites-to-slash-prices/ | 2013-11-12 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Medicare is a critical safety net for tens of millions of seniors, and with 76 million baby boomers turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day, navigating this complex program successfully is critical. Make a wrong turn along the way and you could get slapped with steep, lifelong penalties. Here are five tips to help you get the most out of Medicare.</p>
<p>The most important tip of all is to sign up for Medicare as soon as you're eligible. If you don't, you could get stung by a big penalty.</p>
<p>You can sign up for Medicare as early as three months before the month you turn 65 and as late as three months after. Fail to sign up during that period and Medicare Part B premiums could go up by 10% for every full 12-month period you miss.</p>
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<p>Tax revenue picks up most of the tab for Medicare Part B, however, recipients are responsible for premiums that equal about 25% of Part B's costs, or more if you're a high income earner.</p>
<p>Fail to sign up on time for Part D prescription drug coverage and you could end up paying more in premiums for that insurance, too.</p>
<p>After your initial enrollment period, if you go without Part D for any continuous period of 63 days or more, then you could pay a penalty equal to 1% of the base monthly premium times the number of full months you didn't have coverage. Since the penalty is calculated off of premiums likely to increase annually, you could end up paying a bigger penalty every year because of your delay.</p>
<p>Fortunately, signing up for Medicare is easy. If you're already receiving Social Security, you'll be signed up automatically. If you need to sign up on your own, you can do so online <a href="https://secure.ssa.gov/iClaim/rib" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Medicare Part B and Part D premiums are based on income reported to the IRS two years ago. If income is above specific limits, then premiums can be substantially higher than they would be otherwise.</p>
<p>For example, the standard Part B premium in 2016 is $121.80. However, if you're single and earned between $85,000 and $107,000 two years ago, you would pay the standard premium plus a $48.70 income premium adjustment. Part D plan premiums are also adjusted upward based on income limits. Therefore, before you consider an investment or opportunity that could increase your income, you might want to make sure it doesn't nudge you into the next income limit range.</p>
<p>Seniors should also know that life changes that reduce income could allow you to get an exception to the income surcharge. So, if you're income has dropped because you've stopped working and that's reduced your income below a limit, it can pay off to appeal a high income premium adjustment.</p>
<p>The following chart highlights the income tiers and current income surcharges associated with them.</p>
<p>Image source: Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services.</p>
<p>If you're eligible for Medicare and you're currently getting your insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, or Obamacare, you still need to enroll in Medicare.</p>
<p>People become ineligible for Obamacare subsidies once they qualify for Medicare and delaying enrollment in Medicare because of Obamacare can trigger Part B and Part D penalties. You can keep your Obamacare plan in addition to Medicare, but you'll be responsible for its full cost and that cost may be more expensive than other supplemental insurance options, such as Medigap.</p>
<p>Image source: Pictures of Money via Flickr.</p>
<p>Medicare Advantage plans and Part D plans are sold by private insurers that adjust their premiums annually to account for healthcare cost increases, such as doctor fees and drug prices. As a result, a plan that was a bargain when you signed up last year may not be a good deal next year.</p>
<p>Fortunately, you can switch Medicare Advantage and Part D plans every year between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7. That makes this a perfect time to carefully consider any changes in your healthcare in the past year and the premiums your insurer is planning to charge you next year.</p>
<p>When evaluating plans, make sure to spend plenty of time determining how much each plan will pay toward your medicines.The amount Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollees pay for their medicine depends a lot on where insurers place those medicines in their drug formulary. Those formularies typically include tiers, with low tiers requiring little patient cost-sharing and high tiers including a lot of cost-sharing. Since drugs can move up or down in tiers every year, it's important to double-check before signing up for a plan to make sure you won't get any unwelcome surprises at the pharmacy when the new coverage kicks in.</p>
<p>Medicare Part A and Part B cover many healthcare expenses, but they don't cover everything. In 2016, Part A recipients pay a $1,288 deductible for each benefit period and after 60 days in the hospital, they start sharing in the costs to the tune of $322 per day. After 90 days, their share doubles to $644 per day for each lifetime reserve day (up to 60 lifetime reserve days). After that, they can be on the hook for all their hospital charges.</p>
<p>In addition to monthly premiums, Part B also charges a $166 deductible per year and after that, patients pay 20% coinsurance for any care they receive that's covered by it.</p>
<p>Furthermore, neither Part A or Part B limits how much money you might spend in any given year. Therefore, if you fall ill, your costs in any one year could be disastrous to your financial security.</p>
<p>In order to help insulate yourself against these potential expenses, you might want to considersigning up for Medigap insurance. Medigap plans pick up where original Medicare leaves off by paying a percentage of otherwise uncovered care. Medigap plans can cost hundreds of dollars per month and they can't be used with Medicare Advantage plans, but recipients of Part A and Part B could enjoy greater peace of mind by enrolling in them.</p>
<p>The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://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> | 5 Tips for Avoiding Common Medicare Missteps | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/18/5-tips-for-avoiding-common-medicare-missteps.html | 2016-09-18 | 0 |
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<p>Adam Armstrong of Pure Raw Juice savors a sip of his charcoal lemonade on Nov. 7 in Baltimore, Md. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)</p>
<p>BALTIMORE — One of the most requested drinks at Pure Raw Juice in Federal Hill is black lemonade, a concoction of freshly squeezed lemon juice, agave, water and charcoal.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s right — charcoal.</p>
<p>Doctors have used the black powder in emergency rooms for years to treat drug overdoses and poisonings. Some pediatricians even tell parents to keep a bottle in their medicine cabinets in case their kids accidentally ingest toilet bowel cleaner or bug spray. And now the ingredient is becoming more mainstream and promoted by some for regular use, with applications that include whitening teeth and zapping acne away.</p>
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<p>Adam Armstrong, the general manager at Pure Raw Juice, recommends it to customers who have stomach troubles.</p>
<p>“It is a super-scrub for the digestive tract and food digestive system,” Armstrong said. “There are a lot of people who have digestive issues.”</p>
<p>But despite the growing popularity of charcoal, some doctors warn against taking it regularly, and the Food and Drug Administration has approved it as a drug only for limited use as an over-the-counter poison treatment.</p>
<p>The agency regulates dietary supplements, the way charcoal is sold in many stores, but it treats them like foods rather than medications. The manufacturers of supplements don’t have to show their products are safe or effective before selling them on the market.</p>
<p>“Consumers should be mindful of products that claim to prevent, treat, or cure diseases or other health conditions, but are not proven safe and effective for those uses,” FDA spokeswoman Andrea Fischer said in an email. “Relying on unproven products or treatments can be dangerous, and may cause harmful delays in getting the proper diagnosis and appropriate treatments.”</p>
<p>None of the major medical associations, including the American Dental Association or the American Academy of Dermatology, has endorsed it for dental or skin needs. The dermatologist group said it does not endorse products.</p>
<p>Still, many people swear by its claims to draw toxins out of the body to reduce stomach bloat, clear up skin and take stains off of teeth. Bottles of charcoal-filled capsules or bags of the black powder can be found at stores, like retailer GNC and Mom’s Organic Market, that specialize in supplements.</p>
<p>Several products were featured at the Natural Products Expo East held in Baltimore in September. And black lemonade is also a popular menu item at Plantbar Powered by Zia’s at Belvedere Square .</p>
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<p>Celeste Corsaro, Plantbar managing partner and holistic health coach, said the drink is popular with people looking to detox and calm digestive problems. She has also created a deodorant with charcoal that she hopes to launch soon.</p>
<p>The kind of charcoal lauded by some for its health benefits isn’t that found at the summer cookout. Typical charcoal is made from coal, wood, coconut and other materials. The type purported to provide health benefits is similar but made especially for medical use. It’s heated in the presence of a gas that activates the charcoal so that drugs and toxins can bind to it, helping to get rid of substances in the body.</p>
<p>Dr. Miriam Alexander, medical director for employee health and wellness at LifeBridge Health, said that if charcoal is taking toxins out of the body, it could be taking nutrients as well. She also pointed out there are few scientific studies to back up the health claims, outside of the way hospitals use it for poisonings. The studies available are not strong, she said.</p>
<p>“I feel like, as a consumer, I want to always check that there is good-quality evidence that it is something that will help me and not harm me,” Alexander said. “Just because something makes sense, or seems logical, if it has not been demonstrated that it works I would be wary.”</p>
<p>That’s not to say activated charcoal doesn’t work, she said. There is just no evidence to back up claims that it does.</p>
<p>Chris D’Adamo, director of research at the Center for Integrative Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, thinks charcoal can be OK in some cases and even keeps some in his home. He suggested not taking it within a couple hours of eating or taking medication because it could deplete nutrients and drug effectiveness. He also said people can take it on occasion for ailments such as an upset stomach, but not on a daily basis.</p>
<p>“If I were somebody with some form of gastrointestinal distress, I would stop eating the foods causing it — or find out what is causing the issue,” he said.</p>
<p>MOM’s Organic Market at the Rotunda in Baltimore has seen an uptick in people asking for products with charcoal, said wellness manager William Crowther. The store stocks it in capsule form and has some facial masks and scrubs with the ingredient. They are looking for a good-quality powder to sell and plan to stock a charcoal toothpaste in the near future.</p>
<p>Crowther recommends people use it when they drink too much alcohol or eat something not so healthy. He said combining it with coconut oil makes a good face mask.</p>
<p>“It will just gather all the bad stuff and get it out of you,” Crowther said.</p>
<p>Jessica Arman of Texas created Magic Mud toothpaste when looking for something to remedy her daughter’s weak enamel seal. The enamel wasn’t protecting the inner core of her daughter’s teeth, making them very sensitive. After using the toothpaste three times, the sensitivity problems subsided, she said. The toothpaste is in dental offices across the country and was recently featured at the Natural Products Expo East.</p>
<p>Some holistic dentists also use charcoal for tooth whitening, said Roberta Glasser, executive director of the Holistic Dental Association.</p>
<p>Arman also uses charcoal in her own life for pimples, canker sores and other health issues.</p>
<p>“Personally, I have charcoal in my medicine cabinet in every bathroom,” she said.</p>
<p>At Pure Raw Juice recently, Armstrong poured charcoal from a plastic bag into a mixer with agave and lemon juice. He then poured in a gallon of water before turning on the mixer. He said the juice is grainy at first until all the charcoal is absorbed into the liquid.</p>
<p>People are often thrown off by the color of the lemonade at first, but Armstrong said you can’t taste the charcoal.</p>
<p>He said people shouldn’t drink the juice everyday, but that it can be used from time to time to detox the body. Armstrong and others warned that people should drink lots of water with the charcoal because it flushes out the system and could lead to dehydration.</p>
<p>“It will move stuff right out of you,” Armstrong said.</p> | Charcoal lemonade? Safety of trendy remedy questioned | false | https://abqjournal.com/897460/as-charcoal-remedies-rise-in-popularity-in-baltimore-questions-about-its-safety-effectiveness.html | 2 |
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<p>MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Culture Ministry banned a satirical film about Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s death from movie theaters Tuesday following criticism from communists and others that the British-French production made a mockery of Russian history.</p>
<p>The Culture Ministry declared it was rescinding the permit that would have allowed Scottish writer-director Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” to be shown in Russian theaters. The film, starring Steve Buscemi and Jason Isaacs, premiered in Britain in October and was scheduled to open in Russia Thursday.</p>
<p>The ministry’s move reflects an admiration many in Russia still have for Stalin despite the dictator’s brutal purges that killed millions, as well as the government’s nervousness about the country’s history.</p>
<p>“Many elderly people, and not only them, will see it as an insulting derision of the Soviet past, of the country that defeated Nazism, of the Soviet army and ordinary people, and, what is the most appalling, even of the victims of Stalinism,” Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said in a statement.</p>
<p>He argued that while “we have no censorship” and “we aren’t afraid of a critical view of our history ... there is a moral boundary between a critical analysis of history and a mockery of it.”</p>
<p>Medinsky said the ministry would conduct an additional legal study of the film, but its fate seems to be pre-determined after revoking the license.</p>
<p>The withdrawal of the certificate for the movie’s release came after some Russian lawmakers and other public figures watched the movie and urged the ministry to keep it out of theaters.</p>
<p>“This is a vicious and absolutely inappropriate ‘comedy’ that smears the memory of our people who defeated Nazism,” a group of Russian cultural figures said in a letter to the Culture Ministry that was carried by Russian news agencies. “The release of the film on the eve of celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad spits in the face of all those who died there.”</p>
<p>Communist lawmaker Elena Drapeko denounced the film as a “provocation, an attempt to convince us that our country is horrible, people are idiots and our rulers are fools.”</p>
<p>Vladislav Kononov, the executive director of the Russian Military-Historical Society, called the movie “disgusting.”</p>
<p>“It’s an abomination and filth,” Kononov told state-funded RT television. “All the characters are portrayed as idiots. They could have been tyrants, but they weren’t idiots. It’s how the West sees our people.”</p>
<p>The ban was a top trending subject on Russian Twitter, with some liberal figures deriding the move.</p>
<p>“They would have placed Charlie Chaplin under house arrest here,” tweeted Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio.</p>
<p>Opinion polls show that Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953, remains widely revered in Russia, where many credit him with leading the country to victory in World War II and making it a nuclear superpower.</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has taken a cautious stance on Stalin’s role in Russia’s history, denouncing the purges but also emphasizing Soviet-era achievements.</p>
<p>Many Russians have been dismayed in recent years by government-sponsored school textbooks that painted Stalin in a largely positive light. Old Soviet national anthem lyrics praising Stalin were restored during a Moscow subway station’s reconstruction.</p>
<p>Last fall, the Russian Military-Historical Society, an organization founded by Putin and led by his culture minister, unveiled a bust of Stalin as part of an “alley of rulers” in a park outside its Moscow offices.</p>
<p>Kremlin critics have denounced such actions as attempts to whitewash Stalin’s image and part of Putin’s rollback on democracy.</p>
<p>MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Culture Ministry banned a satirical film about Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s death from movie theaters Tuesday following criticism from communists and others that the British-French production made a mockery of Russian history.</p>
<p>The Culture Ministry declared it was rescinding the permit that would have allowed Scottish writer-director Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” to be shown in Russian theaters. The film, starring Steve Buscemi and Jason Isaacs, premiered in Britain in October and was scheduled to open in Russia Thursday.</p>
<p>The ministry’s move reflects an admiration many in Russia still have for Stalin despite the dictator’s brutal purges that killed millions, as well as the government’s nervousness about the country’s history.</p>
<p>“Many elderly people, and not only them, will see it as an insulting derision of the Soviet past, of the country that defeated Nazism, of the Soviet army and ordinary people, and, what is the most appalling, even of the victims of Stalinism,” Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said in a statement.</p>
<p>He argued that while “we have no censorship” and “we aren’t afraid of a critical view of our history ... there is a moral boundary between a critical analysis of history and a mockery of it.”</p>
<p>Medinsky said the ministry would conduct an additional legal study of the film, but its fate seems to be pre-determined after revoking the license.</p>
<p>The withdrawal of the certificate for the movie’s release came after some Russian lawmakers and other public figures watched the movie and urged the ministry to keep it out of theaters.</p>
<p>“This is a vicious and absolutely inappropriate ‘comedy’ that smears the memory of our people who defeated Nazism,” a group of Russian cultural figures said in a letter to the Culture Ministry that was carried by Russian news agencies. “The release of the film on the eve of celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad spits in the face of all those who died there.”</p>
<p>Communist lawmaker Elena Drapeko denounced the film as a “provocation, an attempt to convince us that our country is horrible, people are idiots and our rulers are fools.”</p>
<p>Vladislav Kononov, the executive director of the Russian Military-Historical Society, called the movie “disgusting.”</p>
<p>“It’s an abomination and filth,” Kononov told state-funded RT television. “All the characters are portrayed as idiots. They could have been tyrants, but they weren’t idiots. It’s how the West sees our people.”</p>
<p>The ban was a top trending subject on Russian Twitter, with some liberal figures deriding the move.</p>
<p>“They would have placed Charlie Chaplin under house arrest here,” tweeted Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio.</p>
<p>Opinion polls show that Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953, remains widely revered in Russia, where many credit him with leading the country to victory in World War II and making it a nuclear superpower.</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has taken a cautious stance on Stalin’s role in Russia’s history, denouncing the purges but also emphasizing Soviet-era achievements.</p>
<p>Many Russians have been dismayed in recent years by government-sponsored school textbooks that painted Stalin in a largely positive light. Old Soviet national anthem lyrics praising Stalin were restored during a Moscow subway station’s reconstruction.</p>
<p>Last fall, the Russian Military-Historical Society, an organization founded by Putin and led by his culture minister, unveiled a bust of Stalin as part of an “alley of rulers” in a park outside its Moscow offices.</p>
<p>Kremlin critics have denounced such actions as attempts to whitewash Stalin’s image and part of Putin’s rollback on democracy.</p> | Russia revokes permit for satire about Stalin’s death | false | https://apnews.com/2a52868f1449405385a3fa7338c7560c | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico has been selected to receive a $3.7 million federal grant to help school districts turn around persistently low achieving schools.</p>
<p>The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education's School Improvement Grant Program. It was announced Monday by U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Democrat says recent studies about the well-being of children show New Mexico ranks at the bottom in several categories, and turning around schools is an important step toward providing kids with a brighter future.</p>
<p>Through the program, state educational agencies award separate grants to school districts that demonstrate the greatest need and the strongest commitment to providing adequate resources to substantially raise student achievement.</p>
<p>Lujan says New Mexico is one of seven states chosen to receive the school improvement funding.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | NM gets federal funds to boost school achievement | false | https://abqjournal.com/344114/nm-gets-federal-funds-to-boost-school-achievement.html | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Post Holdings, the company behind Fruity Pebbles, Honey Bunches of Oats and other cereals, said Tuesday that it is buying the maker of British breakfast brand Weetabix as it seeks to expand overseas.</p>
<p>It is paying 1.4 billion pounds, or about $1.8 billion, to buy Weetabix from its owners, Shanghai-based Bright Food Group and Baring Private Equity Asia.</p>
<p>Besides its namesake cereal, Weetabix also makes Alpen, Barbara’s Puffins and other cereals.</p>
<p>St. Louis-based Post Holdings Inc. said that the deal will allow it to grow its U.S. brands internationally and expand Weetabix in North America. Weetabix, a rectangular wheat biscuit that breaks apart when it absorbs milk, is little known in the U.S. but is the second-biggest ready-to-eat cereal brand in the U.K., according to market research company Euromonitor.</p>
<p>The deal is expected to close by September.</p>
<p>Shares of Post Holdings Inc. fell 86 cents to $87 in morning trading.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Fruity Pebbles owner Post Holdings to buy Weetabix | false | https://abqjournal.com/989473/fruity-pebbles-owner-post-holdings-to-buy-weetabix.html | 2 |
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<p>U.S. consumer prices barely rose in July as declining energy costs partially offset increases in food and rents, which could give the Federal Reserve ammunition to keep interest rates low for a while.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Labor Department said on Tuesday its Consumer Price Index edged up 0.1 percent last month after increasing 0.3 percent in June. In the 12 months through July, the CPI increased 2.0 percent after advancing 2.1 percent in June.</p>
<p>Inflation pushed up a bit from March through June, but labor market slack, marked by tepid wage growth, is keeping a lid on price pressures. That could add to the view that the U.S. central bank will be in no hurry to raise its benchmark interest rate.</p>
<p>The Fed targets 2 percent inflation and it tracks an index that is running even lower than the CPI.</p>
<p>The Fed last month said the risk of inflation running persistently below its target had diminished somewhat. It has kept its overnight lending rate near zero since December 2008 while nursing the economy back to health.</p>
<p>Last month's gain in consumer prices was in line with economists' expectations.</p>
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<p>Energy prices fell broadly after rising in each of the last three months. Gasoline prices fell 0.3 percent last month after surging 3.3 percent in June. Food prices increased 0.4 percent after rising 0.1 percent in June. A drought in California is driving up food prices.</p>
<p>Stripping out food and energy prices, the so-called core CPI ticked up 0.1 percent after a similar gain in June. In the 12 months through July, the core CPI increased 1.9 percent after rising by the same margin in June.</p>
<p>The core CPI was held back by declining prices for used trucks and a plunge in airline fares. There was a moderate increase in the cost of prescription medication. Rents rose 0.3 percent in July and prices for new motor vehicles rebounded 0.3 percent.</p> | Consumer Prices Tick Higher in July | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2014/08/19/consumer-prices-tick-higher-in-july.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Earlier this month, someone posted an image to <a href="https://imgur.com/gallery/Z05ir" type="external">Imgur</a> showing the face of convicted rapist Brock Turner next to a description of “rape” in a criminology textbook with the following caption:</p>
<p>My friend found this in a textbook</p>
<p>“He may have been able to get out of prison time but in my Criminal Justice 101 textbook, Brock Turner is the definition of rape, so he’s got that goin for him.” — Friend’s comment</p>
<p>Via Imgur</p>
<p>As the image gained traction on social media, some wondered if it was authentic. But as <a href="http://www.snopes.com/textbook-brock-turner-criminology-example/?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social" type="external">Snopes.com</a> points out, the Imgur user also posted the name the textbook (Intro to Criminal Justice, 2nd Ed.) and its ISBN number. Snopes looked into it and was able to confirm that the image is indeed real.</p>
<p>“We looked over two digital copies of this textbook, one from&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rtCfDQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PR10&amp;dq=Introduction+to+Criminal+Justice,+2nd+edition.+ISBN:+9781506347721&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi-u7Sl75_WAhUOK1AKHY8hAQMQ6AEINTAC#v=onepage&amp;q=brock%20turner&amp;f=false" type="external">Google Books&#160;</a>and the other from&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Criminal-Justice-Systems-Diversity/dp/150634772X/?fref=gc&amp;dti=441333919315986" type="external">Amazon</a>, and can confirm that this is a genuine page from a genuine textbook was written by University of Colorado, Denver&#160; <a href="http://archive.is/iK6Sg" type="external">professor</a>&#160;Callie Marie Rennison,” Dan Evon of Snopes writes.</p>
<p>The textbook’s author&#160;Callie Marie Rennison said that she’s trying to change the dialogue about crime victims and its perpetrators.</p>
<p>“I’m honored that I can continue to be a part of that change,” she said, according to Snopes. “A major recent way I’ve worked toward that is found in our (with Mary Dodge) Sage textbook&#160;Introduction to Criminal Justice: Systems, Diversity and Change. Existing criminal justice books have focused on three elements: cops, courts and corrections. They speak little about victims, reflecting how they have effectively been in the shadows of our criminal justice system. In our book, victims are front and center with equal emphasis as cops, courts and corrections. This is the way it should be.”</p>
<p>Turner, who was a student at Stanford when the incident took place, <a href="http://gazettereview.com/2017/01/happened-stanford-rapist-brock-turner-news-updates/" type="external">sexually assaulted</a> a woman who was drunk and unconscious.&#160;On January 18th 2015, two Swedish graduate students stumbled upon Turner in a dark area behind a dumpster where he was on top of the woman. The men confronted Turner, who attempted to flee. The men were able to chase him down and hold him until campus police arrived on the scene.</p>
<p>Featured image via Imgur</p> | Brock Turner is now the literal textbook definition of ‘rape’ | true | http://deadstate.org/brock-turner-is-now-the-literal-textbook-definition-of-rape/ | 2017-09-12 | 4 |
<p>Intercept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ICPT), a biotech focused on liver diseases, fell 21% as of 3:26 p.m. EDT Thursday. The fall is traceable to a safety announcement released&#160; <a href="https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm576656.htm" type="external">by the FDA Opens a New Window.</a> that warns of an increased risk of "serious liver injury and death" when Intercept's liver disease drug Ocaliva is dosed incorrectly.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The announcement was made in response to 19 patient deaths that have been reported by users of the Ocaliva&#160;since the drug was first approved for sale in May 2016. In addition, 11 other cases of serious liver injury have also been reported.</p>
<p>This announcement follows a letter that was sent out by Intercept's Chief Medical Officer&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/12/heres-why-intercept-pharmaceuticals-is-tumbling-to.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=52809bea-9f00-11e7-b332-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">last week Opens a New Window.</a> that urged providers to stick to the drug's approved dosing scheduled.</p>
<p>Given the renewed concerns surrounding&#160;Ocaliva -- which is Intercept's only marketed drug -- it is easy to understand why shares are being slammed on Thursday.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Intercept's management team did its best to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/13/is-the-sell-off-of-intercept-pharmaceuticals-stock.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=52809bea-9f00-11e7-b332-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">calm investor's nerves Opens a New Window.</a> last week at an important investor&#160;conference following the release of their own letter, but Thursday's update certainly raises new concerns about&#160;Ocaliva's safety profile. In response, it is possible that providers might be much more tepid with their use of the drug moving forward, which, if true, could put a dent in Intercept's growth trajectory.</p>
<p>It's a possibility that Thursday's move will prove to be an overreaction, but given the high number of patient deaths and liver injuries, I think the smart play is to watch this story unfold from the safety of the sidelines.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Intercept PharmaceuticalsWhen 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 September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=52809bea-9f00-11e7-b332-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Feroldi 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=52809bea-9f00-11e7-b332-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Intercept Pharmaceuticals Is Tumbling Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/21/why-intercept-pharmaceuticals-is-tumbling-today.html | 2017-09-21 | 0 |
<p>HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) - The Oakland Raiders came one step closer to securing the land the team needs for its new headquarters and practice facility near Las Vegas - and at a steep discount.</p>
<p>Officials in suburban Henderson approved a resolution Tuesday that allows the city to move forward with a direct sale of 55 acres (22 hectares) to the Raiders for more than $6 million - half the land's appraised value. The city is using a Nevada law that allows for no-bid sales at under-market prices when they are considered to be in the public interest.</p>
<p>"This is an opportunity to take the city of Henderson to a new level," Assistant City Manager Greg Blackburn said during the city council meeting ahead of the resolution vote. "It's hard to put a dollar value to what this does to help us for the future."</p>
<p>The Raiders have promised that the venue will create an estimated 250 full-time jobs not counting players. The team will spend about $75 million to build the complex.</p>
<p>The team wants to kick off its 2020 season at a 65,000-seat domed stadium built partially with taxpayers' money across the freeway from the Las Vegas Strip. The team in May paid $77.5 million for the 62-acre (25-hectare) site and hosted a glitzy groundbreaking ceremony in November.</p>
<p>Guests of hotels and other lodging facilities in the Las Vegas area are contributing $750 million to the project through a room tax increase. The Raiders and the NFL are expected to contribute $500 million to the project, while the team has also secured a $600 million bank loan for construction.</p>
<p>Henderson's city council must vote again next month to give final approval to the offer.</p>
<p>Henderson officials said the city will benefit from property taxes collected on the land and additional spending from visitors and team clients. City staff said similar projects have created an estimated $210 million tax impact over a decade after the venues are fully built.</p>
<p>Not all residents were supportive of the city's decision.</p>
<p>"The Raiders have been Gypsies over the years, starting in Oakland, then moving to El Segundo (LA) for a few years, then back to Oakland and now Las Vegas. Where to next?" Henderson resident Adrian Woodhouse wrote the city council in an email.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, commissioners in Clark County approved a development agreement with the team that spells out public safety and infrastructure improvements that the Raiders will pay for in and around the stadium.</p>
<p>The agreement calls for widening sidewalks, improving roadways, installing and modifying traffic signals, and building any needed pedestrian bridges.</p>
<p>The team agreed to install about $1.4 million worth of public safety equipment at the stadium and an emergency operations center. The development agreement did not include a finalized plan for the thousands of county-mandated parking spaces.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that officials in Henderson, Nevada, approved the resolution Tuesday.</p>
<p>HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) - The Oakland Raiders came one step closer to securing the land the team needs for its new headquarters and practice facility near Las Vegas - and at a steep discount.</p>
<p>Officials in suburban Henderson approved a resolution Tuesday that allows the city to move forward with a direct sale of 55 acres (22 hectares) to the Raiders for more than $6 million - half the land's appraised value. The city is using a Nevada law that allows for no-bid sales at under-market prices when they are considered to be in the public interest.</p>
<p>"This is an opportunity to take the city of Henderson to a new level," Assistant City Manager Greg Blackburn said during the city council meeting ahead of the resolution vote. "It's hard to put a dollar value to what this does to help us for the future."</p>
<p>The Raiders have promised that the venue will create an estimated 250 full-time jobs not counting players. The team will spend about $75 million to build the complex.</p>
<p>The team wants to kick off its 2020 season at a 65,000-seat domed stadium built partially with taxpayers' money across the freeway from the Las Vegas Strip. The team in May paid $77.5 million for the 62-acre (25-hectare) site and hosted a glitzy groundbreaking ceremony in November.</p>
<p>Guests of hotels and other lodging facilities in the Las Vegas area are contributing $750 million to the project through a room tax increase. The Raiders and the NFL are expected to contribute $500 million to the project, while the team has also secured a $600 million bank loan for construction.</p>
<p>Henderson's city council must vote again next month to give final approval to the offer.</p>
<p>Henderson officials said the city will benefit from property taxes collected on the land and additional spending from visitors and team clients. City staff said similar projects have created an estimated $210 million tax impact over a decade after the venues are fully built.</p>
<p>Not all residents were supportive of the city's decision.</p>
<p>"The Raiders have been Gypsies over the years, starting in Oakland, then moving to El Segundo (LA) for a few years, then back to Oakland and now Las Vegas. Where to next?" Henderson resident Adrian Woodhouse wrote the city council in an email.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, commissioners in Clark County approved a development agreement with the team that spells out public safety and infrastructure improvements that the Raiders will pay for in and around the stadium.</p>
<p>The agreement calls for widening sidewalks, improving roadways, installing and modifying traffic signals, and building any needed pedestrian bridges.</p>
<p>The team agreed to install about $1.4 million worth of public safety equipment at the stadium and an emergency operations center. The development agreement did not include a finalized plan for the thousands of county-mandated parking spaces.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that officials in Henderson, Nevada, approved the resolution Tuesday.</p> | Raiders headquarters land deal offered by city near Vegas | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2081cb4148c2437da56a12bd5d198a9b | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>You can see the insides of a tiny quail in its egg, slice by virtual slice, in an amazing video that took top honors in the third annual Nikon Small World in Motion competition.</p>
<p>Portuguese biologist <a href="http://www.gabygmartins.info/" type="external">Gabriel Martins</a> of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia won first place for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ED0djh59o" type="external">3-D reconstruction of a whole quail embryo</a> after 10 days of gestation. The embryo measures less than an inch (23 millimeters) long.</p>
<p>The video takes advantage of a technique known as optical tomography — which is like a CT scan, but in optical wavelengths rather than X-rays. This virtual quail reconstruction is assembled from more than 1,000 microscope images. It's groundbreaking enough to be discussed in the journal <a href="http://database.oxfordjournals.org/content/2014/bau028.long" type="external">Database</a>.</p>
<p>Nikon recognizes amazing photomicrography through its annual Small World competition for still photos as well as the Small World in Motion competition for videos. The three top winners in the video contest were awarded a total of $6,000 in credits toward Nikon products.</p>
<p>Michael Weber of Germany's <a href="http://www.mpi-cbg.de/research/research-groups/jan-huisken/lab-members.html" type="external">Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics</a> won second prize for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lYRcc-7ODc" type="external">13-second view of the beating heart</a> of a 2-day-old zebrafish embryo. The heart is only 250 micrometers wide — a bit bigger than the diameter of a human hair — but under the microscope, you can watch individual blood cells coursing through the chambers and adjacent vessels.</p>
<p>The 3-D color-coded view was captured using light sheet fluorescence microscopy.</p>
<p>Third prize went to <a href="http://janelia.org/people/scientist/lin-shao" type="external">Lin Shao</a> of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Virginia. Nikon says <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK8MBENQ_LM" type="external">Shao's video</a> provides the very first 3-D view of the inner details of mitochondria inside a living cell — in this case, a HeLa cancer cell. The HeLa cell line, and the family behind it, was the subject of an award-winning book titled <a href="http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/" type="external">"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."</a></p>
<p>Now Shao's take on the HeLa cell is an award-winner as well. He used structured illuminated microscopy with a wide-field microscope, doubling the normal resolution of a conventional microscope.</p>
<p>Nikon said another 10 entries would be recognized with honorable mentions over the course of 2014. For more about Small World in Motion and Nikon's other award-winners, check out the <a href="http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/" type="external">Small World website</a>.</p>
<p>For still more science made visible, feast your eyes on the latest selections from the <a href="" type="internal">International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge</a> as well as the <a href="" type="internal">Olympus BioScapes</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Nikon Small World</a>, <a href="" type="internal">FEI</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Art of Science</a> competitions.</p> | Virtual Baby Quail Tops Nikon Contest’s Video Menu | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/science-news/virtual-baby-quail-tops-nikon-contests-video-menu-n88111 | 2014-04-24 | 3 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - M-Mode Bhd:</p>
<p>* QTRLY REVENUE 24.5‍​ MILLION RGT; QTRLY NET PROFIT 1.7‍​ MILLION RGT Source text :( <a href="http://bit.ly/2rssv0s" type="external">bit.ly/2rssv0s</a>) Further company coverage: ([email protected])</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - The European Commission pressed Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) on Monday over whether EU citizens’ data were among those improperly harvested by a British political consultancy, after the U.S. regulator said it was investigating the firm’s privacy practices.</p> A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen in front of the logo of the European Union in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 15, 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
<p>That piled yet more pressure on a firm that has lost more than $100 billion in market value in the last 10 days.</p>
<p>Facebook shares fell more than 5 percent on Monday after the U.S. consumer protection regulator made public its investigation of how the social network allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>Facebook executives have apologized after reports emerged that Cambridge Analytica had used personal data to target U.S. voters.</p>
<p>“Have any data of EU citizens been affected by the recent scandal?” EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova wrote in a letter to Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, seen by Reuters. “If this is the case, how do you intend to inform the authorities and users about it?”</p>
<p>Jourova said that statements by Facebook executives had not alleviated her concerns.</p>
<p>“This is particularly disappointing given our efforts to build a relationship based on trust with you and your colleagues ... this trust is now diminished.”</p>
<p>A Facebook spokeswoman said the company remained strongly committed to protecting people’s information and appreciated “the opportunity to explain what we know and will respond to the questions that the Commissioner has asked”.</p>
<p>Jourova asked Sandberg whether she was certain that a similar situation could “not be repeated today” and if she thought stricter rules were needed for platforms “like those that exist for traditional media”.</p>
<p>“As Mark Zuckerberg said this week, we are working hard to tackle past abuse, prevent future abuse and give people more prominent controls,” the Facebook spokeswoman said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 160.06 FB.O Nasdaq +0.67 (+0.42%) FB.O
<p>Germany’s justice minister called for stricter rules for Facebook after meeting with company executives on Monday who said around 1 percent of 300,000 users of a personality quiz whose results were later fed into Cambridge Analytica’s voter-targeting algorithms were in Europe.</p>
<p>Jourova said she wanted a reply to her letter within two weeks.</p>
<p>The Cambridge Analytica scandal emerged only a few months before a landmark EU data protection law comes into force under which companies found to be in breach could be fined up to 4 percent of global turnover.</p>
<p>Any eventual sanctions for Facebook will fall under the current privacy regulations, and so would be much lower.</p>
<p>Britain’s data watchdog is taking the lead in investigating Facebook and Cambridge Analytica from the European side, and Jourova said she expected the social network to cooperate fully with European data protection authorities.</p>
<p>Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Andrew Roche and David Evans</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leading U.S. consumer protection regulator and attorneys representing 37 states stepped up pressure on Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) on Monday to explain how the social network allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy.</p>
<p>The U.S. Federal Trade Commission took the unusual step of announcing that it had opened an investigation into the company - which it generally only does in cases of great public interest - citing media reports that raise what it called “substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.”</p>
<p>On the same day, a bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys wrote to Facebook, demanding to know more about the company’s role in the manipulation of users’ data by the consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, which used it to target U.S. and British voters in close-run elections.</p>
<p>“These revelations raise many serious questions concerning Facebook’s policies and practices, and the processes in place to ensure they are followed,” the letter said. “We need to know that users can trust Facebook. With the information we have now, our trust has been broken.”</p>
<p>Facebook shares fell as much as 6.5 percent, briefly dipping below $150 for the first time since July 2017, before recovering the day’s losses to close up 0.4 percent at $160.06.</p>
<p>The shares are still down 13 percent since March 16, when Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been improperly channeled to Cambridge Analytica. The company has lost more than $70 billion in market value since then.</p>
<p>The recovery in Facebook’s stock on Monday may have been due to investors taking advantage of the lower stock price and the belief that the latest regulatory scrutiny may not ultimately hurt the company’s relative long-term growth prospects, Wall Street analysts said.</p>
<p>The FTC investigation is looking at more than whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent order it reached with the FTC over its privacy practices, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters.</p>
<p>If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine it thousands of dollars a day per violation, which could add up to billions of dollars.</p>
<p>“We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said in a statement on Monday. “We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have.”</p> ALL APOLOGIES
<p>Lawmakers in the United States and Europe continue to pressure Facebook and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain the company’s privacy practices.</p>
<p>The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday it had invited Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Twitter Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Senate Commerce Committee have already formally asked Zuckerberg to appear at a congressional hearing.</p>
<p>“Facebook’s failure to protect confidential user information likely violated specific legally binding commitments, but also basic norms and standards,” said U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.</p>
<p>In Europe, the European Union Justice Commissioner asked Facebook if the company is “absolutely certain” that the Cambridge Analytica incident could not be repeated.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg apologized last week for the mistakes the company had made and he promised to restrict developers’ access to user information as part of a plan to protect privacy. He also said sorry in full-page advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 160.06 FB.O Nasdaq +0.67 (+0.42%) FB.O GOOGL.O TWTR.N CBKG.DE
<p>“The was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” Zuckerberg said in the ads. “We are now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”</p> ‘FUTURE REGULATION’
<p>His apologies have failed to quell discontent. Germany’s justice minister said Facebook’s promises were not enough.</p>
<p>“In future we will have to regulate companies like Facebook much more strictly,” Katarina Barley said after talks to which she summoned Facebook executives including European public affairs chief Richard Allan.</p>
<p>Advertisers and users are also unhappy.</p>
<p>U.S. auto parts retailer Pep Boys suspended all advertising on Facebook on Monday while wireless speaker maker Sonos said in a blog post it will remove advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Alphabet’s YouTube for one week.</p>
<p>Internet company Mozilla Corp, Germany’s second-largest bank Commerzbank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CBKG.DE" type="external">CBKG.DE</a>) and British advertising group ISBA all suspended advertising on Facebook last week.</p>
<p>Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States and Germany cast doubt over the trust people have in Facebook.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-facebook-congress/facebook-ceo-among-those-invited-to-testify-at-u-s-senate-hearing-idUSKBN1H22E1" type="external">Facebook CEO among those invited to testify at U.S. Senate hearing</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-eu-lette/eu-presses-facebook-on-sharing-of-user-data-idUSKBN1H22DM" type="external">EU presses Facebook on sharing of user data</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-germany/facebook-must-face-tighter-rules-tougher-penalties-german-minister-idUSKBN1H21WK" type="external">Facebook must face tighter rules, tougher penalties: German minister</a>
<p>Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germany’s largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 percent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Following are diplomatic measures announced against Russia by the United States, Canada, several EU countries and Ukraine in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent with military-grade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury.</p>
<p>BRITAIN - Expelled 23 Russians alleged to have worked as spies under diplomatic cover. Promised to freeze any Russian state assets that “may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.</p>
<p>UNITED STATES - Expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia’s mission to U.N. headquarters in New York. Closing Russian consulate in Seattle.</p>
<p>CANADA - Expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover. Denying three applications for Russian diplomatic staff.</p>
<p>UKRAINE - Expelling 13 Russian diplomats</p>
<p>FRANCE - Expelling four diplomats</p>
<p>GERMANY - Expelling four diplomats</p>
<p>POLAND - Expelling four diplomats</p>
<p>LITHUANIA - Expelling three diplomats</p>
<p>CZECH REPUBLIC - Expelling three diplomats</p>
<p>ITALY - Expelling two diplomats</p>
<p>NETHERLANDS - Expelling two diplomats</p>
<p>SPAIN - Expelling two diplomats</p>
<p>ALBANIA - Expelling two diplomats</p>
<p>DENMARK - Expelling two diplomats</p>
<p>HUNGARY - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>MACEDONIA - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>SWEDEN - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>NORWAY - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>LATVIA - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>ESTONIA - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>FINLAND - Expelling one diplomat</p>
<p>ROMANIA - Expelling one diplomat</p> Related Video
<p>CROATIA - Expelling one diplomat</p> RUSSIAN RESPONSE:
<p>BRITAIN - Russia has expelled 23 British diplomats and closed the British consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council cultural body.</p>
<p>OTHERS - Moscow will expel at least 60 staff from U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia, RIA news agency quoted Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov as saying.</p>
<p>RIA also quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry source as saying: “The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn.”</p>
<p>Compiled by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Gareth Jones</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats announced on Monday showed that the use of nerve toxin on a former Russian spy on English soil had brought to a head international frustrations with Moscow.</p> FILE PHOTO: Britain's Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, arrives at the BBC to appear on the Andrew Marr Show, in central London, Britain March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
<p>In an interview with Britain’s public broadcaster the BBC, Johnson said Britain and its allies had no quarrel with the Russian people, only with President Vladimir Putin’s administration.</p>
<p>The United States said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, and Canada and 20 European states including France, Germany and Ukraine together expelled over 50 more, to punish the Kremlin for the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, accepting Britain’s analysis that Moscow was to blame.</p>
<p>“The reason they got it was because they suddenly realized that this could happen in their own towns, in their own cities,” Johnson said. “They suddenly could see that this was a new kind of threat and that Russia was behaving in a particularly reckless way, and particularly contemptuous of civilized norms.”</p>
<p>Britain had already expelled 23 Russian diplomats in response to the attack, saying it had been carried out using Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union. Moscow has rejected the accusation, saying it amounts to “banditry” on Britain’s part.</p>
<p>“For many other governments, what happened in Salisbury sort of crystallized their own frustrations, their own disappointments with the way the Russian state has been behaving,” Johnson said in the interview.</p>
<p>He rejected the suggestion that the measures were leading towards a new and dangerous Cold War with Moscow.</p>
<p>“It’s very, very important to stress that our quarrel is not with the people of Russia, not with Russian culture, civilization ... Our quarrel is exclusively with the Kremlin and the current administration ...</p>
<p>“The objective of this global collective action is for the world to signal that the doubts and fears about that Kremlin action have crystallized,” Johnson said.</p>
<p>“Russia is a great, great country, but it doesn’t have to be great in this way, and what the world is saying to Russia today is that particular style of behavior, ... these endless provocations — we’ve had enough of them.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Catherine Evans</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-M-Mode Bhd Says Qtrly Net Profit 1.7 Mln RGT EU presses Facebook on sharing of user data U.S. regulator, state attorneys look for answers from Facebook Diplomatic moves against Russia after nerve gas attack Britain's Johnson: expulsions show international frustration with Russia | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-m-mode-bhd-says-qtrly-net-profit-1/brief-m-mode-bhd-says-qtrly-net-profit-17-mln-rgt-idUSFWN1PI0CZ | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>AMSTERDAM (AP) — Ajax has hired Erik ten Hag from Utrecht to coach the 33-time Dutch champions.</p>
<p>The 47-year-old Ten Hag signed a 2 ½-year contract to replace Marcel Keizer, who was fired last week after Ajax was eliminated from the Dutch Cup.</p>
<p>Ajax entered the winter break second in the Dutch league, five points behind PSV Eindhoven, and doesn't play again until Jan. 21 against Feyenoord.</p>
<p>Ten Hag played for FC Twente, De Graafschap, RKC Waalwijk and Utrecht.</p>
<p>He began his coaching career at the Twente academy in 2002 and served as assistant at PSV from 2009 to 2012 before leading Go Ahead Eagles into the Eredivisie. He moved to Germany in 2013 to coach Bayern Munich's reserve team but returned to the Netherlands two years later.</p>
<p>After being hired by Utrecht, Ten Hag finished fifth in his first season and went one better the following campaign.</p>
<p>AMSTERDAM (AP) — Ajax has hired Erik ten Hag from Utrecht to coach the 33-time Dutch champions.</p>
<p>The 47-year-old Ten Hag signed a 2 ½-year contract to replace Marcel Keizer, who was fired last week after Ajax was eliminated from the Dutch Cup.</p>
<p>Ajax entered the winter break second in the Dutch league, five points behind PSV Eindhoven, and doesn't play again until Jan. 21 against Feyenoord.</p>
<p>Ten Hag played for FC Twente, De Graafschap, RKC Waalwijk and Utrecht.</p>
<p>He began his coaching career at the Twente academy in 2002 and served as assistant at PSV from 2009 to 2012 before leading Go Ahead Eagles into the Eredivisie. He moved to Germany in 2013 to coach Bayern Munich's reserve team but returned to the Netherlands two years later.</p>
<p>After being hired by Utrecht, Ten Hag finished fifth in his first season and went one better the following campaign.</p> | Ajax hires Erik ten Hag as coach of 33-time Dutch champions | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2f52050f298d4193b9b507faa9d78807 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>My exposé last week, “ <a href="" type="internal">The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?</a>”&#160;has ignited a long-overdue debate on how to stop Monsanto’s earth killing, market-monopolizing, climate-destabilizing rampage. Should we basically resign ourselves to the fact that the Biotech Bully of St. Louis controls the dynamics of the marketplace and public policy? Should we seek some kind of practical compromise or “coexistence” between organics and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? Should we focus our efforts on crop pollution compensation and “controlled deregulation” of genetically engineered (GE) crops, rather than campaign for an outright ban, or mandatory labeling and safety-testing? Should we prepare ourselves for a future farm landscape where the U.S.’s 23 million acres of alfalfa, the nation’s fourth largest crop, (93% of which are currently not sprayed with toxic herbicides), including organic alfalfa, are sprayed with Roundup and/or genetically polluted with Monsanto’s mutant genes?</p>
<p>Or should we stand up and say Hell No to Monsanto and the Obama Administration? Should we stop all the talk about coexistence between organics and GMOs; unite Millions Against Monsanto &lt; <a href="http://www.millionsagainstmonsanto.org/" type="external">http://www.millionsagainstmonsanto.org</a>&gt; ,&#160; mobilize like never before at the grassroots; put enormous pressure on the nation’s grocers to truthfully label the thousands of so-called conventional or “natural” foods containing or produced with GMOs; and then slowly but surely drive GMOs from the market?</p>
<p>Of course “coexistence” and “controlled deregulation” are now irrelevant in regard to Monsanto’s herbicide-resistant alfalfa.&#160; Just after my essay was posted last week, the White House gave marching orders to the USDA to allow Monsanto and its Minions to plant GE Roundup-resistance alfalfa on millions of acres, from sea to shining sea, with no restrictions whatsoever.</p>
<p>Bill Tomson and Scott Kilman of the Wall Street Journal reported &#160;that Vilsack’s rejection of a compromise proposal – partial deregulation, which was vehemently opposed by biotech companies and only tepidly accepted by non-GE interests – was the result of an Obama administration review of “burdensome” regulations.”</p>
<p>“Sources familiar with the negotiations at USDA, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Food Safety News they believe the White House asked Vilsack to drop proposed regulations so the administration would appear more friendly to big business.”&#160;&#160; – Helena Bottemiller, Food Safety News.</p>
<p>This post-holiday gift to Monsanto from the White House is ominous. After the deliberate contamination of 20 million acres of U.S. alfalfa, we can then expect Monsanto and corporate agribusiness (hopefully not joined by “pragmatists” in the organic industry) to call for allowing GMOs to be allowed under the National Organic Standards. But of course let us hope we get another temporary reprieve from the same federal judge in California who halted the planting of GE alfalfa previously, since the USDA has still failed to demonstrate in their current Environmental Impact Statement that Monsanto’s alfalfa is safe for the environment.</p>
<p>Organic Infighting</p>
<p>Whole Foods and others spent a lot of time this week on their blogs and on the Internet attacking me and the Organic Consumers Association for supposedly mischaracterizing their position on “coexistence” with Monsanto. In an internal company memorandum, marked “For Internal Use Only – Do Not Distribute” January 30, 2011, Whole Foods execs basically told their employees that the OCA is spreading lies to “uniformed consumers” in exchange for money and publicity. Quoting directly from the WFM company memo:</p>
<p>“Why is the OCA spreading misinformation? That’s a hard question for us to answer. Perhaps because we don’t share their narrow view of what it means to support organics, or perhaps because we do not support them with donations. Either way, it’s a shame that an organization that claims to “campaign for health, justice and sustainability” can’t simply tell the truth. This just confuses consumers. Despite all their noise, no industry leaders listen to the OCA – but uninformed consumers might. Their fear-mongering tactics, combined with the OCA’s lack of transparency about its funding sources, underscore the fact that it is neither credible nor trustworthy. We can only assume their activities are intended for further fund-raising. “</p>
<p>After bashing the OCA, Whole Foods then goes on to admit that WFM stores are filled with conventional and “natural” products that are contaminated with GMOs (they neglect to mention to their staff that these conventional and “natural” products make up approximately 2/3 of WFM’s total sales). Again quoting directly:</p>
<p>“The reality is that no grocery store in the United States, no matter what size or type of business, can claim they are GE-free. While we have been and will continue to be staunch supporters of non-GE foods, we are not going to mislead our customers with an inaccurate claim (and you should question anyone who does). Here’s why: the pervasive planting of GE crops in the U.S. and their subsequent use in our national food supply.&#160; 93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton, and 93% of canola seed planted in the U.S. in 2010 were genetically engineered. Since these crops are commonly present in a wide variety of foods, a GE-free store is currently not possible in the U.S. (unless the store sells only organic foods.)”</p>
<p>But of course we are not asking WFM to lie to or “mislead” their customers, to claim that all their products are GMO-free, or to sell only organically certified foods. On the contrary, we are simply asking them to abandon the “business as usual” industry practice of remaining silent on the scope and degree of contamination in the billions of dollars of non-organic food they are selling to unwitting consumers every year. What we are asking is that WFM ethically lead the way – in what is now a very unethical marketplace – by admitting publicly (not just in an internal memo) that a major portion of the non-organic foods they are selling (especially processed foods and animal products) are contaminated with GMOs. Then we want them to take the next step and announce that they will start labeling these GMO and/or CAFO foods truthfully, meanwhile pressuring their non-organic food suppliers to either reformulate products with non-GMO ingredients or start making the transition to organic.</p>
<p>Let us hope that WFM eventually does the right thing. It’s unlikely WFM will adopt Truth-in-Labeling unless they get a massive amount of pressure from their customers, workers, and natural food competitors. But if we can build a grassroots Movement strong enough to convince WFM and other natural food stores to adopt Truth-in-Labeling practices, there will be enormous pressure in the marketplace for other larger supermarket chains to follow suit. However, if WFM and other grocery stores refuse to voluntarily label GMO and CAFO products, OCA is prepared to mobilize nationwide to press for mandatory labeling ordinances at the city, county, and state level.</p>
<p>To sign up as a grassroots coordinator for OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling Campaign go to: <a href="http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/" type="external">http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/</a></p>
<p>Beyond Organic Infighting</p>
<p>The good news this week is that WFM, Organic Valley, Stonyfield, the National Coop Grocers Association and the Organic Trade Association have been making strong statements about fighting against GMOs . In a lengthy telephone conversation two days ago with Organic Valley CEO George Sieman, George told me how angry he was at me and the OCA, but he also said that Organic Valley was going to step up the fight against Monsanto. I said I was glad to hear this. I told him that OCA was going to do the same. I told him that our <a href="http://www.millionsagainstmonsanto.org" type="external">Millions Against Monsanto Truth-in-Labeling</a> campaign is already attracting thousands of volunteers all across the USA and that we weren’t going to give up until grocery stores, natural food stores, and coops start labeling conventional and “natural” products containing GMOs or coming from CAFOs.</p>
<p>We’ll certainly see Organic Valley and the rest of the organic industry’s pledge to fight GMOs put to the test in the near future, when the USDA unleashes genetically engineered sugar beets for nationwide planting. But given the need for a United Front, OCA would like to stress that Whole Foods Market is not the enemy. Wal-Mart and Monsanto are the enemy. Stonyfield Farm is not the enemy. The Biotechnology Industry Association, Archer Daniels Midland, and Cargill are the enemy. Organic Valley is not the enemy. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, Kraft and Dean Foods are the enemy. OCA wants the organic community to unite our forces, cut the bullshit about “coexistence,” and move forward with an aggressive campaign to drive GMOs and CAFOs off the market.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s Minions: The White House, Congress, and the Mass Media</p>
<p>The United States is rapidly devolving into what can only be described as a Monsanto Nation. Despite Barack Obama (and Hillary Clinton’s) campaign operatives in 2008 publicly stating that Obama supported mandatory labels for GMOs, we haven’t heard a word from the White House on this topic since Inauguration Day. Michele Obama broke ground for an organic garden at the White House in early 2009, but after protests from the pesticide and biotech industry, the forbidden “O” (Organic) word was dropped from White House PR.&#160; Since day one, the Obama Administration has mouthed biotech propaganda, claiming, with no scientific justification whatsoever, that biotech crops can feed the world and enable farmers to increase production in the new era of climate change and extreme weather.</p>
<p>Like Obama’s campaign promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; like his promises to bring out-of-control banksters and oil companies under control; like his promises to drastically reduce greenhouse gas pollution and create millions of green jobs; Obama has not come though on his 2008 campaign promise to label GMOs. His unilateral approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa, overruling the federal courts, scientists, and the organic community, offers the final proof: don’t hold your breath for this man to do anything that might offend Monsanto or Corporate America.</p>
<p>Obama’s Administration, like the Bush and Clinton Administrations before him, has become a literal “revolving door” for Monsanto operatives. President Obama stated on the campaign trail in 2007-2008 that agribusiness cannot be trusted with the regulatory powers of government.</p>
<p>But, starting with his choice for USDA Secretary, the pro-biotech former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, President Obama has let Monsanto and the biotech industry know they’ll have plenty of friends and supporters within his administration. President Obama has taken his team of food and farming leaders directly from the biotech companies and their lobbying, research, and philanthropic arms:</p>
<p>Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods. Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Islam Siddiqui, Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, is now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative. Rajiv Shah former agricultural-development director for the pro-biotech Gates Foundation (a frequent Monsanto partner), served as Obama’s USDA Under-Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist and is now head of USAID. Elena Kagan, who, as President Obama’s Solicitor General, took Monsanto’s side against organic farmers in the Roundup Ready alfalfa case, is now on the Supreme Court. Ramona Romero, corporate counsel to DuPont, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as General Counsel for the USDA.</p>
<p>Of course, America’s indentured Congress is no better than the White House when it comes to promoting sane and sustainable public policy. According to Food and Water Watch, Monsanto and the biotech industry have spent more than half a billion dollars ($547 million) lobbying Congress since 1999. Big Biotech’s lobby expenditures have accelerated since Obama’s election in 2008. In 2009 alone Monsanto and the biotech lobby spent $71 million. Last year Monsanto’s Minions included over a dozen lobbying firms, as well as their own in-house lobbyists.</p>
<p>America’s bought-and-sold mass media have likewise joined the ranks of Monsanto’s Minions. Do a Google search on a topic like citizens’ rights to know whether our food has been genetically engineered or not, or on the hazards of GMOs and their companion pesticide Roundup, and you’ll find very little in the mass media. However, do a Google search on the supposed benefits of Monsanto’s GMOs, and you’ll find more articles in the daily press than you would ever want to read.</p>
<p>Although Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) recently introduced a bill in Congress calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing for GMOs, don’t hold your breath for Congress to take a stand for truth-in-labeling and consumers’ right to know what’s in their food. In a decade of Congressional lobbying, the OCA has never seen more than 24 out of 435 Congressional Representatives co-sponsor one of Kucinich’s GMO labeling bills. Especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the outrageous “Citizens United” case gave big corporations like Monsanto the right to spend unlimited amounts of money (and remain anonymous, as they do so) to buy elections, our chances of passing federal GMO labeling laws against the wishes of Monsanto and Food Inc. are all but non-existent. Keep in mind that one of the decisive Supreme Court swing votes in the “Citizen’s United’ case was cast by the infamous Justice Clarence Thomas, former General Counsel for Monsanto.</p>
<p>To maneuver around Monsanto’s Minions in Washington we need to shift our focus and go local. We’ve got to concentrate our forces where our leverage and power lie, in the marketplace, at the retail level; pressuring retail food stores to voluntarily label their products; while on the legislative front we must organize a broad coalition to pass mandatory GMO (and CAFO) labeling laws, at the city, county, and state levels. And while we’re doing this we need to join forces with the growing national movement to get corporate money out of politics and the media and to take away the fictitious “corporate personhood” (i.e. the legal right of corporations to have all the rights of human citizens, without the responsibility, obligations, and liability of real persons) of Monsanto and the corporate elite.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s Minions: Frankenfarmers in the Fields</p>
<p>The unfortunate bottom line is that most of the North American farmers who have planted Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant or Bt-spliced crops (soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets, or alfalfa) are either brain-washed, intimidated (Monsanto has often contaminated non-GMO farmers crops and then threatened to sue them for “intellectual property violations” if they didn’t sign a contract to buy GMO seeds and sign a confidentiality contract to never talk to the media), or ethically challenged. These “commodity farmers,” who receive billions of dollars a year in taxpayer subsidies to plant their Frankencrops and spray their toxic chemicals and fertilizers, don’t seem to give a damn about the human health hazards of chemical, energy, and GMO-intensive agriculture; the cruelty, disease and filth of Factory Farms or CAFOs; or the damage they are causing to the soil, water, and climate. Likewise they have expressed little or no concern over the fact that they are polluting the land and the crops of organic and non-GMO farmers.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these Frankenfarmers, Monsanto’s Minions, have now been allowed to plant GMO crops on 150 million acres, approximately one-third of all USA cropland. With GE alfalfa they’ll be planting millions of acres more.</p>
<p>The time has come to move beyond polite debate with America’s Frankenfarmers, and their powerful front groups such as the American Farm Bureau, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “Coexistence” is a joke when you are dealing with indentured Minions whose only ethical guideline is making money. When I asked a French organic farmer a few years ago what he thought about the idea of coexistence with GE crops and farmers, he laughed. “If my neighbor dared to plant Monsanto’s GM crops, I’d hop on my tractor and plow them up.” Thousands of European farmers and organic activists have indeed uprooted test plots of GMOs over the past decade. Unfortunately if you get caught destroying Frankencrops in the USA, you’ll likely be branded a terrorist and sent to prison.</p>
<p>Apart from direct action, it’s time to start suing, not just Monsanto and the other biotech bullies, but the Frankenfarmers themselves. Attorneys have pointed out to me that the legal precedent of “Toxic Trespass” is firmly established in American case law. If a farmer carelessly or deliberately sprays pesticides or herbicides on his or her property, and this toxic chemical strays or “trespasses” and causes damage to a neighbor’s property, the injured party can sue the “toxic trespasser” and collect significant damages. It’s time for America’s organic and non-GMO farmers to get off their knees and fight, both in the courts and in the court of public opinion. The Biotech Empire of Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta will collapse if its Frankenfarmers are threatened with billions of dollars in toxic trespass damages.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s Minions: Retail Grocery Stores, Factory Farms, Restaurants, and Garden Supply Stores</p>
<p>It’s important to understand where GMOs are sold or consumed, and who’s selling them. Twenty-five percent of GMOs end up in non-labeled, non-organic processed food, the so-called conventional or “natural” foods sold in grocery stores or restaurants; while the remaining 75% are forced-fed to animals on non-organic farms, feedlots, or CAFOs; or else sold internationally, often without the informed consent of overseas consumers. This means we need to identify and boycott, not only so-called conventional or “natural” foods containing soy, soy lecithin, corn, corn sweetener, canola, cottonseed oil, and sugar beet sweetener, but all non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs that come from factory farms or CAFOs. Once Truth-in-Labeling practices are implemented it will be relatively easy for consumers to identify and avoid products that are labeled “May Contain GMOs” or “CAFO.”</p>
<p>Although most of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide sales are directly to farmers, a considerable amount of Roundup is sold in garden supply stores, supplying backyard gardeners, landscapers, and golf courses. Municipal and state governments also spray Roundup in parks and along roadways, while the DEA sprays large amounts of Roundup in rural villages in Colombia and the Andes, part of the insane and murderous War on Drugs.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s Minions: Consumers</p>
<p>Millions of health, climate, and environmental-minded consumers are starting to realize that we must vote with our consumer food dollars if we want health, justice, and sustainability. Unfortunately, millions of others are still mindlessly consuming and over consuming processed foods, junk foods, and cheap, contaminated meat and animal products. The only guaranteed way to avoid GMOs completely is to buy organic foods or to grow your own, and stay away from restaurants (unless they are organic) and fast food outlets. Otherwise, if you are contemplating the purchase of a conventional or “natural” food check the ingredients panel carefully. Avoid all non-organic products that contain soy, soy lecithin, corn, corn sweetener, canola, cottonseed oil, and sugar beet sweetener.</p>
<p>Millions Against Monsanto</p>
<p>We must draw hope from the fact that Monsanto is not invincible. After 16 years of non-stop biotech bullying and force-feeding Genetically Engineered or Modified (GE or GM) crops to farm animals and “Frankenfoods” to unwitting consumers, Monsanto has a big problem, or rather several big problems. A growing number of published scientific studies indicate that GE foods pose serious human health threats.&#160; Federal judges are finally starting to acknowledge what organic farmers and consumers have said all along: uncontrollable and unpredictable GMO crops such as alfalfa and sugar beets spread their mutant genes onto organic farms and into non-GMO varieties and plant relatives, and should be halted.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s Roundup, the agro-toxic companion herbicide for millions of acres of GM soybeans, corn, cotton, alfalfa, canola, and sugar beets, is losing market share. Its overuse has spawned a new generation of superweeds that can only be killed with super-toxic herbicides such as 2,4, D and paraquat. Moreover, patented “Roundup Ready” crops require massive amounts of climate destabilizing nitrate fertilizer. Compounding Monsanto’s damage to the environment and climate, rampant Roundup use is literally killing the soil, destroying essential soil microorganisms, degrading the living soil’s ability to capture and sequester CO2, and spreading deadly plant diseases.</p>
<p>In just one year, Monsanto has moved from being Forbes’ “Company of the Year” to the Worst Stock of the Year. The Biotech Bully of St. Louis has become one of the most hated corporations on Earth .</p>
<p>The biotech bullies and the Farm Bureau have joined hands with the Obama Administration to force controversial Fankencrops like alfalfa onto the market. But as African-American revolutionary Huey Newton pointed out in the late 1960’s, “The Power of the People is greater than the Man’s technology.” Join us as we take on Monsanto and their Minions. Our life and our children’s “right to a future” depend upon the outcome of this monumental battle.</p>
<p>Please sign up now as a volunteer grassroots coordinator for OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling Campaign: <a href="http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/" type="external">http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/</a></p>
<p>RONNIE CUMMINS is the International Director of the <a href="http://www.organicconsumers.org" type="external">Organic Consumers Association</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Monsanto Nation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/04/monsanto-nation/ | 2011-02-04 | 4 |
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<p>PRAGUE — A Czech court ruled Tuesday that a Russian man who faces charges of hacking computers at American companies can be extradited either to the United States or Russia — and the suspect immediately appealed his possible extradition to the United States.</p>
<p>Czech authorities arrested Yevgeniy Nikulin in Prague in cooperation with the FBI in October after Interpol issued an international warrant. He is accused of stealing information from LinkedIn, Dropbox and other companies.</p>
<p>Moscow also wants him extradited on a separate charge of internet theft in 2009. Russian officials had previously said they were working to prevent his extradition to the U.S.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The 29-year-old has denied wrongdoing.</p>
<p>“I’m innocent,” Nikulin said through a translator at the hearing Tuesday. “I haven’t done anything illegal. I have nothing to do with that.”</p>
<p>Judge Jaroslav Pytloun said it wasn’t his place to determine the suspect’s guilt or innocence and ruled Tuesday that the extradition requests from both countries met the necessary legal conditions.</p>
<p>“Our goal is to assess whether the extradition requests from the two countries meet necessary conditions,” the judge said. “The legal conditions are clearly fulfilled.”</p>
<p>Nikulin appealed his extradition to the United States. He has three days to decide if he will agree to being extradited to Russia. Justice Minister Robert Pelikan will have the final say on where Nikulin goes after Prague’s High Court decides his appeal.</p>
<p>Nikulin’s defense lawyers have said the U.S. charges were based on one FBI agent, and suggested the U.S. was seeking him for political reasons — to use him as a pawn in the investigation into alleged Russian hacking in the U.S. election.</p>
<p>He claimed in the courtroom that he was twice approached by U.S. authorities — in November and in February — in the absence of his previous lawyer. He said they urged him to falsely testify that he was cooperating in the hacking attack on the Democratic National Committee ordered by Russian authorities. He said U.S. authorities would, in exchange, give him money and a life in the United States.</p>
<p>“I rejected doing it,” Nikulin said.</p>
<p>The U.S. has accused Russia of coordinating the theft and disclosure of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other institutions and individuals in the U.S. to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Russia has vigorously denied that.</p>
<p>There was no indication that Nikulin’s case was connected to the DNC hacking accusation.</p> | Court: Russian hacker can be extradited to US or Russia | false | https://abqjournal.com/1010419/court-russian-hacker-can-be-extradited-to-us-or-russia.html | 2017-05-30 | 2 |
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