text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p>Three Englishmen, all three from the highest circles of privilege, drew three lines and set in motion the boundaries of four vast States to come. Leading the pack was Foreign Secretary Mortimer Durand, whose hastily scrawled one-page note of 1893 gave Afghanistan its southern border with British India, and then, after 1947, with Pakistan. It is still known as the Durand Line. (George W. Bush’s point person in charge of the Afghan war, Meaghan O’Sullivan was not aware of the line and its significance).</p>
<p>The Pakistani government is confident that the Durand line is its border, although, since 1949, the Afghan loya jirga has rejected it. Afghanistan and Pakistan fought several border engagements over the Durand Line in the 1950s.&#160; Only one country voted in September 1947 to deny Pakistan admission into the United Nations – Afghanistan, largely because of the continued dispute over the Durand Line.</p>
<p>Coming after Durand, in 1914, was another Foreign Secretary Sir Henry McMahon, who drew his line to divide Tibet and China from the British Raj. McMahon, a career bootlicker, performed the old “sleight of hand” trick, fudging the words “frontier” and “border” to demarcate the line that divided the British Empire from the Chinese. To be fair, McMahon, the Tibetan delegate Lonchen Shatra and the Manchu representative Chen i-Fen (who was absent for most of the deliberations) agreed only to allow Tibet to be a buffer state; consequentially, the Qing Dynasty’s realm and Curzon’s dominion would not rub shoulders with each other.</p>
<p>The McMahon Line was fixed as the border between the British Raj and Tibet. It also reaffirmed China’s suzerainty over Tibet (nevertheless, the Qing representative refused to sign the document because of article 11, “The Government of China engages not to convert Tibet into a Chinese province. The Government of Great Britain engages not to annex Tibet, or any portion of it”). World War 1 was a hiatus. The Chinese nationalists tried to coax the Tibetans to support Tibet’s unification into China; the British were distracted by the war, and the Indians turned to Home Rule. Tibet isolated itself from the world.</p>
<p>The McMahon line, however, had its rendez-vous with history. In 1950 an earthquake struck eastern Tibet. Not long afterwards, the People’s Liberation Army entered Tibet. India went with China’s action, and the Dalai Lama reflected bitterly, “the world has grown too small for any people to live in harmless isolation.” The McMahon line was now to be a bone of contention between the two emergent Asian giants, India and China. India recognized it as the international border, but the Chinese disputed its validity. A diplomatic conflict over the border ran between the independent states of India and the People’s Republic of China from 1955 to 1962, when a shooting war began.</p>
<p>A White Paper of notes exchanged between the two countries and published in 1962 demonstrates the absurdity of much of the squabble. One dispute took place over a 1.5 square mile area that the Chinese called Wu Je and the Indians Barahoti. Accusations flew between the two parties about the violation of this land. Then, on June 18, 1955, the Indians wrote to the Chinese, “We are not aware of the exact location of Wu Je.” The Chinese said it was north of Tungun La pass, whereas the Indians said it was south of the pass. So much for the burning urgency of the matter.</p>
<p>In 1958, both sides complained about aerial intrusions, but then admitted, “As the planes were flying at a great height, it was not possible to establish their definite identity.” In 1960, Nehru made it clear that “there was such a variance in the factual state that there was no meeting ground.” And yet, in 1962, India and China went to war, destroying the decade-long attempt to create peace in the Himalayas, and to incubate the Third World platform for planetary peace. The rumpus over the border continues, with no final settlement on the horizon.</p>
<p>The third line ran between the newly formed states of India and Pakistan in 1947. It was drawn by Cyril Radcliffe, chair of the Indian Boundary Commission. Radcliffe himself had no experience of the border regions; his ambit was brief. Stunningly, the Radcliffe Line was drawn in a month, and based largely on Census data and maps. Even these were not sufficient. W. H. Auden smelled the rat:</p>
<p>“He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect, But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot, And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot, But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided, A continent for better or worse divided.”</p>
<p>The Radcliffe award divided India from Pakistan, and now India from Bangladesh. It did not go all the way into Jammu and Kashmir, which was a princely state at the time. Jammu and Kashmir came under a policy known as the “Instrument of Accession,” a device designed to make the royal families chose which side of the border to house their domain. It was a faulty mechanism, for it left no room for popular opinion.</p>
<p>In the midst of a pressure-cooker moment, with Pakistani irregulars inside Jammu and Kashmir, and with the Indian military poised to enter only if the Maharaja signed the Instrument, the monarch decided to let his realm join India. This has been a moment of dispute for the Pakistanis, and one held up as legal by the Indians. Both the Radcliffe line and the Instrument of Accession remain contested. This disagreement led India and Pakistan to fight four wars along these borders (1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999). The Line of Control set by the 1972 Simla peace agreement is the de facto border, although the conflict has not abated (and nor has this line been recognized as the de jure border).</p>
<p>Boundaries that divide the states of South Asia are all colonial inheritances. They cover vast terrains, with the most disputed areas being in the Great Ranges of Asia, the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, all along the marvelous high Himalayas. Up there in the thin air, the border makes both no sense and absolute sense. The senseless border is best illustrated on the Siachen Glacier, where the Indian and Pakistani troops patrol at 21,000 feet above sea level and at temperatures that can go below 55 degrees Celsius. In 2008, the Delhi High Court accepted the claim of a soldier that frostbite is a war-related injury. Thousands of soldiers have died as a result of high altitude pulmonary edema, acute mountain sickness, frostbite chilblains, hypothermia, snow blindness, avalanches. Seventeen army men died recently in high altitude training, when an avalanche hit an army camp. Last year Norway’s envoy to Islamabad Tor Haug suggested that the glacier be turned into a Peace Park. If the Norwegians didn’t have troops in Afghanistan the suggestion would have more credibility.</p>
<p>And of course, many die by the occasional gunshot or shell. Jawaharlal Nehru once put it quite correctly that nothing grows in Aksai Chin, a large high altitude desert that the Chinese claimed was part of Tibet, and so of China. In response, a Congress Member of Parliament quipped, “No hair grows on my head. Does it mean that the head has no value?” But value for whom, and for what project? There is a difference between the value of a territory for imperial aims, and one for the project of anti-colonial nationalism. Or at least it was on the basis of this distinction that China and Burma were able to settle their border in 1960, five years after a brief border war, and it was on this basis that the Asian and African powers at Bandung (1955) accepted the Principles of Panchsheela, or peaceful co-existence. But the ethic of anti-colonial nationalism was not strong enough to undermine the colonial legacy.</p>
<p>The value of the borders in the mountains is of course easy to see. Different states claimed various tracts because they made their vision of the border more defensible or else allowed for transport between provinces of the state (as Aksai Chin connected Xinjiang with Tibet). Equally, up in the high mountains are the headwaters of the major rivers, and to control the water is to control the possibility of livelihood. South Asia and China are equally feeling the grip of water shortages. China has begun a vast program to harness the Himalayan watershed for its growing needs, a set of projects that has brought open worries from the governments of India and Bangladesh. China plans to divert the Yalong Zangbo, and if so will impound the water bound for the countries south of the Himalayas.</p>
<p>Both India and China, as the largest and fastest growing economies, make demands on the Himalayan water, disagreement over the border will persist. There is no easy equitable way to deal with the tussle. Resource disputes can be dealt with in a manner that is conducive to mutual co-existence, if both parties see the mutual benefit derived from the process of negotiation and settlement. But the burr of the border dispute under the saddle of their mutual antagonisms does not provide a beneficial climate for sober dialogue.</p>
<p>And, apart from everything else, there is the matter of pride. During the India-China standoff over Aksai Chin and the Arunachal borders in the early 1960s, the leader of the conservative Swatantra Party told the Indian Parliament, “Not an inch of Indian soil would be yielded to China.” Things came to such a pass in China that the Communist Party criticized “Han chauvinism” or “Great Hanism.” In a flash, talk of this being a “very minor border problem” (as Nehru put it in 1958) was gone. The parties surrendered to pride and dignity.</p>
<p>The 1962 India-China war had a catastrophic impact on the region, much more than the 1947-48 India-Pakistan war. It began an arms race on the continent, with both India and China increasing their defense budgets, a provocation which then sent Pakistan into a buying spree for itself. India raised the percentage of its arms budget from an average of 2 per cent (between 1951 and 1961) to an average of 4 per cent of India’s gross product (a full quarter of the central government outlay). In China, between 1963 and 1966, the military budget increased on average by about 15 per cent, with just short of 17 per gcent of its national government expenditure on defense. Nothing compared to the US military expenditure, but it remains a drain for economies that are not structured around weaponry (the US is the largest exporter of arms, and India is its largest importer: hence the unevenness of the “military multiplier”).</p>
<p>Of course this diversion of funds starved the social side of state policy. In addition to its diversion of investment capital, the military drew on scarce human and material resources. People bore arms, they did scientific research for military purposes, and raw materials like chromium, cobalt, manganese, steel, uranium and other such materials moved from civilian to military use. By 1982, the United Nations offered the stark choice that either the world can “pursue the arms race,” or else it can “move consciously and with deliberate speed toward a more stable and balanced social and economic development.” But, the UN cautioned, “It cannot do both.” Unfortunately, China had already enhanced its massive military complex, India had followed suit, and so had Pakistan, all three with expensive nuclear programs as well.</p>
<p>Such military orientation had political and intellectual implications. In these states, the military’s draw on the finances raised the stature of the defense minister in state policy. In the Indian cabinet, the Minister of Defense is first among equals, while Pakistan’s government oscillates between direct military rule and civilian rule at the behest of the military. In China, the People’s Liberation Army is the second most powerful wing of the state (after the Communist Party). The military begins to dictate state policy, either directly or else through its control over the purse strings.</p>
<p>The habits of military power are also evident in the dominance of the Realist paradigm followed by the policy framers on all sides of the mountains: concepts such as “national interest” are narrowly framed around the issues of power dynamics that favor the status quo. Hans Morgenthau, the guru of Political Realism, wrote, “Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives.” These “objective laws,” Morgenthau writes, are not social, but governed by “human nature.”</p>
<p>If it is human nature to vie for power — which is Morgenthau’s premise — then it is right to define “national interest” as the goals of one state vis-à-vis the competing goals of another state, and so to disregard the possibility for any fundamental rapprochement. From this come only two outcomes. The first is the old Social Darwinist idea that might makes right, or that only one power can be the Great Power at one time. The second is hardly more encouraging. If a Great Power cannot emerge, then those who vie for that post come to terms with the stalemate and sue for peace (the French gave us the word détente, whose original meaning is now best extracted from the word the Russians used, razryadka, discharge of tension).</p>
<p>A “legitimate order,” as Henry Kissinger wrote in 1957, does “not make conflicts impossible, but limits their scope. Wars may occur, but they will be fought in the name of the existing structure.” In this case, the almost-Great Powers have adopted a status quo relationship to the “existing structures.” The interests and motivations of the various ruling classes in each of the states might be inflected into an adjustment. Sometimes, however, one power will cease to honor the status quo and will try to alter it, to “revise” the equation (these are revisionist powers). It is the goal of the Realists to prevent such revisions (Kissinger, who wrote his major work on the 1648 Peace of Westphalia which created the basis for the “existing structure,” is an example of a Palace Intellectual who opposes revisionism unless it is led by his own King).</p>
<p>For the dominant Realist paradigm, there is no way to change the power play, only to mitigate it. Narrow ruling class demands become human nature. Morgenthau’s disciples are found among the authors of China’s “Independent Foreign Policy of Peace,” in C. Raja Mohan’s Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India’s Foreign Policy (2004) and in Abdul Sattar’s Pakistan’s Foreign Policy (2007). Little imagination left for pathways to peace. This is the intellectual cost of the habits of militarization.</p>
<p>South Asia is no worse a neighborhood than any other. Similar structures bedevil the aspirants for peace elsewhere. The borders are colonial constructions that are now a crucial sediment in the logic of the nation-states. These colonial lines in the snow have produced the bad habits of the warfare state, as military expenditure has sunk the social democratic pretension of the states and as the institutions of war have come to command more political space than is conceivably &#160;healthy. All this has enabled the dominance of the intellectual argument of Political Realism; those who stand for peace are at a loss, chastised for being idealistic, or just plain silly. The habits of the warfare state have even smothered the basic decencies of pledging for peace. The countries of South Asia have failed to detoxify their colonial legacy, and to fully embrace the promise of Bandung. That was a grave error. All is not lost. History is yet to be made, and there are many in the countries of the region who have lost faith in the presumptions of Realism, and who want the pieties of peace to dominate the morality and policy of their states.</p>
<p>VIJAY PRASHAD is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,</a> New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>A shorter version of this essay appears in <a href="http://temi.repubblica.it/limes/pianeta-india/9767" type="external">Limes: Italian Review of Geopolitics</a> for a special issue called Planeta India.</p> | Troubles in the Mountains | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/02/09/troubles-in-the-mountains/ | 2010-02-09 | 4 |
<p>Speaking with her subservient loyalist Chris Matthews on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton rejected the insinuation that she was in any way a profiteering peddler of political power. Senator Bernie Sanders has dropped gentle hints during his campaign that Clinton is beholden to the interests of <a href="" type="internal">investment banks</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the Clinton campaign misrepresenting Sanders’s positions and portraying him as an operative of the “gun lobby,” the former first lady scoffed at what she described as a “personal” attack from the socialist senator.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of a low blow. So it would be another escalation and a breaking of [Sanders’s] pledge not to go negative,” said Clinton.</p>
<p>Gentle hints questioning Clinton’s integrity aside, Sanders has effusively praised Bill Clinton’s wife whenever asked to do so. A hallmark of Sanders’s campaign is his unwillingness to question the corruption of the Clintons, despite his own self-description as a no-hold-barred truth-telling warrior for “social justice.”</p>
<p>Portraying herself as a paragon of probity who bears the cross of goodness in the struggle against evil, Clinton suggested that criticisms directed towards her originate from wicked people opposed to her quest for goodness.</p>
<p>“Anybody who knows me knows you can’t buy me,” said Clinton, “I mean honestly, I’ve been standing up and fighting and getting knocked around for years trying to get things done that I think would improve people’s lives.”</p>
<p>Concluding the interview with one of the pillars of Clinton’s campaign - her being a female - Matthews framed her candidacy as the most recent chapter in a long continuity towards greater justice. Portraying Clinton as vanguard of women as a neo-proletariat in need of paternalistic protection from Democrats, Matthews predictably premised his question on left-wing refrains.</p>
<p>“Last question, and it’s so important this campaign, I think so, I know you think so, it has to do with history,” rambled Matthews, “It wasn’t until after the Civil War that African-American men were given the right to vote in the Fifteenth Amendment, and then women didn’t get it until after the First World War. There’s a long lag there. Obama was elected president, you might get elected president, you may well get elected president. Do you think young American women, say, young women in college, 18 to 22, 23, do they get it? How long the struggle has been, and the fact that it’s a precarious struggle that can fall back? Do they know that all the rights to choice, to equality in at workplace where they do get it, all were fought for. Do they get it? That’s my simple question, I don’t know if they do. Do you think they get it?,” asked Matthews.</p>
<p>Pleased with the question, Clinton spoke of the importance of young people supporting her campaign.</p>
<p>No mention was made of what Michelle Malkin has <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/12/the-true-generational-theft-act-price-tag-327-trillion/" type="external">described</a> as “generational theft,” placing a greater burden on the younger cohort of Americans. With federal debt currently at $19 trillion, almost all of which has already been dispensed for goods and services rendered by the government.</p>
<p>Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in a series of essays and speeches entitled “Warning To The West” that the heralding of the judgment of younger people with less experience relative to their elders is a forewarning of a society’s moral decay.</p>
<p>Read more about Clintonian corruption <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | WATCH: Clinton Actually Said 'Anybody Who Knows Me Knows You Can't Buy Me' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2967/watch-clinton-actually-said-anybody-who-knows-me-robert-kraychik | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Dear Debt Adviser, Is there a legitimate company out there I can consult to assist with increasing my credit score and deleting derogatory marks on my credit report? Thanks for your time and consideration to my question. -- Quan</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Dear Quan, If there is, I haven't found it. I know it seems strange that in our age of instant everything, some things still take months or even years to accomplish. But, in the case of credit scores, it's true. Your credit score is based on your past actions, and your past took time to create. Sometimes, it's even longer to outlive. When you're late on a bill, it stays on your credit report for a long time and there is little you can do about it. But yes, there are still some things you can do.</p>
<p>That you can "erase" bad credit is a common misconception, which some companies add to by misleading or outright false advertising. Accurate negative information such as a late bill payment, a default or a collection account can and will be reported for as long as the Fair Credit Reporting Act's, or FCRA's, reporting time frame for that particular item says it can be reported -- which in most cases is seven years.</p>
<p>Trouble begins for many consumers when they pay a company that promises to remove derogatory information from their credit reports, and the company is able to supply a credit report without the negative information. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately the reason the company is able to provide you with a report without the negative items is because of a temporary sleight of hand. The FCRA requires disputed items to be removed from a consumer's credit report until the dispute is researched and resolved. However, if during the course of the investigation on the disputed item the credit bureau learns the item is accurate, the disputed item is once again placed on the consumer's report. So, the accurate negative item may remain off the credit report only temporarily.</p>
<p>Your FICO credit score is the most commonly used score. There are others as well, but they all use basically the same information with differing scoring scales and weights. Your FICO score is calculated using information from your credit reports in the following categories.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Most negative items included in a credit report affect the "payment history" category. To improve your score if you have past-due or collection accounts, you need to add positive information to your reports each month on all your other accounts. The positive information will begin to outweigh the negative information, and your score will show improvement within the next two years. Additionally in your favor, negative information counts for less as time goes by.</p>
<p>The next largest area that can hurt your credit score is "amounts owed." If you have several revolving and installment accounts where you owe more than 50% of the credit limit or loan amount, you will lose points. To boost your score in this area, pay down your credit card accounts to less than 50% of the credit limit as quickly as possible. The further below 50% you are, the better for your score.</p>
<p>I know this can be a complex area, so if you have a specific question about your credit reports, you can drop me an email at <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected] Opens a New Window.</a> and I will let you know what I believe is the best way for you to improve your credit score.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is There a Legit Company to Fix My Credit Score? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/06/18/is-there-legit-company-to-fix-my-credit-score.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Facebook</a>, the world's largest social network, wants to get in on computer hardware as well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company that revolutionized social networking on the Internet has teamed up with some of tech hardware's biggest names -- Hewlett Packard Co, <a href="" type="internal">Dell Inc</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Advanced Micro Devices</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">Intel</a> Corp -- to launch the "open compute program" on Thursday.</p>
<p>CEO <a href="" type="internal">Mark Zuckerberg</a> said the project aims to offer specifications and designs for more power-efficient, faster and cheaper servers, shared openly with other companies.</p>
<p>Dell will build servers based on those technical specifications, while Synnex Corp will act as overall vendor for their systems. The technology will power servers in the social network's first data center, in Prineville, Oregon.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)</p> | Facebook to Share Server Designs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/04/07/facebook-share-server-designs.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>New welfare rules written by Congress and the Bush administration are taking effect, denying assistance to the poor for education and drug addiction treatment. The rules also require welfare recipients to work more hours a week, without providing additional child support subsidies.</p>
<p />
<p>:</p>
<p>"States are kind of in a low-grade panic," said Ron Haskins, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who helped to write the 1996 law and later worked on welfare in the Bush White House.</p>
<p />
<p>In a climate of such flux, most of the nearly 2 million families on welfare nationwide are not yet feeling any change. Many will soon.</p>
<p>Riordan heard about the threat to her last year of college a few weeks ago. "I feel nauseous," she said. "This is my ticket . . . out of poverty."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/06/AR2006080600879.html?nav=rss_print/asection" type="external">Link</a></p> | Bush, Congress Cut Welfare Programs | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bush-congress-cut-welfare-programs/ | 2006-08-07 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The Journal contends that criticism of the new teacher evaluation process imposed on schools via administrative rule doesn’t make sense. The governor describes anyone who questions the unworkable, nonsensical system as defending the status quo. But, with this governor, it’s clear that “my way or the highway” is the new status quo.</p>
<p>The governor had the opportunity to sign significant education reforms passed by both houses of the Legislature. These reforms were based on the successes of other countries leading in education, the experience of the practitioners in the classroom and on ethical, scientific research. These reforms were vetted by the legislative process and did not require an end run around lawmakers. These reforms were vetoed by the governor:</p>
<p>♦ A teacher evaluation bill that reformed the current system. It even included the multiple-choice tests that the governor loves so much. This reform followed the advice of all the experts who warned us to slow down and take time to do this right. But, this reasoned reform was blocked by a veto pen in favor of a fast-tracked rule that school districts know is impossible to implement.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>♦ An intervention bill that put resources into supporting beginning readers, included the parents and respected the professional judgment of the teachers.</p>
<p>♦ Two bills that would have studied the school grading scheme — a system that is being used to blame and shame schools and will soon be used to evaluate thousands of teachers.</p>
<p>The governor’s new status quo of “my way or the highway” flies in the face of compromise, as well as science and our democratic process. As she blocks real reform, she defends her plans to increase the high stakes on standardized tests.</p>
<p>High-stakes testing systems result in:</p>
<p>♦ Excessive test preparation and a narrow curriculum, a focus that undercuts the right of all students to a well-rounded, content-rich curriculum that encourages them to develop critical thinking skills.</p>
<p>♦ Maintaining a system that makes critical judgments based on limited, inaccurate evidence and which never gives teachers meaningful feedback.</p>
<p>♦ Incentives for schools to keep out and push out students who score poorly on tests.</p>
<p>♦ Deflecting attention from critical issues such as the higher rates of childhood poverty and homelessness.</p>
<p>According to a United Nations report on child welfare, the United States ranks 26th of the 29 countries studied, followed only by Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, three of the poorest countries in the survey. New Mexico is 49th in childhood poverty rates in the U.S.</p>
<p>What did the governor do? She vetoed the minimum wage increase and pushed tax law that rewards the largest corporations at the expense of middle- and low-income workers and local small business. She apparently wants to maintain the status quo for struggling families.</p>
<p>The countries that have actually succeeded with school reform began by first addressing the general well-being of children. They have minimized or eliminated the use of high-stakes tests, put emphasis on writing, analyzing and applying what has been learned. Finally, the successful countries have put educational decisions in the hands of the practitioners, the teachers.</p>
<p>What does the governor propose instead? She touts the same, corporate-driven reforms that have failed in Florida, Texas, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. In fact, a recent study found that the increased use of high-stakes, multiple-choice tests for student assessment and teacher evaluation, the closing of schools and the creation of more charter schools were not found to improve education. In fact, the actual results included an increased achievement gap between affluent and at-risk students and a massive loss of experienced teachers.</p>
<p>While corporate reformers make up sound bites, students and teachers have to live with the real consequences of these recycled failed “reforms.” And the teachers, together with children and their families, will continue to do the real work of trying to make viable the system that the governor and the PED are so intent on damaging.</p> | Martinez’s ideas damage education | false | https://abqjournal.com/192336/martinezs-ideas-damage-education.html | 2013-04-25 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>So Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Mark Begich deserve credit for advancing specific legislation to change the law. The main change they’re advocating, though, is unlikely to make people any happier with the law – and could cause new problems.</p>
<p>The senators want to give customers buying insurance on the Obamacare exchanges a new option with low premiums and high deductibles. It would be called a “copper” plan, in contrast to higher-premium, lower-deductible plans already on the exchange (platinum, gold, silver and bronze).</p>
<p>Health insurance companies love this idea, insisting that adding copper plans would simultaneously increase coverage rates and reduce taxpayer subsidies. But there are reasons for skepticism.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Obamacare’s regulations limit how insurers can compete for business. They can’t provide cheaper plans by opting out of covering any of the things that the law considers “essential.” The main ways they can cut premiums are by offering narrower networks and increasing out-of-pocket costs. The high deductibles in Obamacare plans have already generated a lot of criticism. Last year, CBS News reported that the average individual deductible in a bronze plan was “a whopping $5,081 per year.” Copper plans would have even higher deductibles than bronze ones.</p>
<p>This trade-off should appeal to a small number of people who foresee themselves being pretty healthy. Their low premiums would entitle them to the preventive care that Obamacare requires all insurance plans to cover but, in the event of a major problem, would leave them with big bills to pay. This is more or less the opposite of the way insurance should work.</p>
<p>A pro-copper plan study put out by the insurance industry assumes that some people who were uninsured will buy the new product: hence the coverage increase. And it assumes that some people who bought higher-premium plans will migrate: hence the lower average premium and taxpayer subsidy.</p>
<p>That migration could, however, make the exchanges less stable by reducing the amount of money that healthy people are putting into them through their premiums. And what do you want to bet that, as people confront the deductible sticker shock, politicians decide that taxpayers need to pick up more of the costs?</p>
<p>This fix, meanwhile, wouldn’t address a lot of what people find objectionable about Obamacare. The individual mandate would remain coercive, a lot of people would still find themselves losing their existing coverage and the law would still reduce employment levels.</p>
<p>An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll earlier this month found that only 36 percent of the public favors Obamacare. So you can understand why Warner and Begich – both of whom voted for the law and are up for re-election next month – would want to say that they’re trying to reform it.</p>
<p>Too bad the tiny cosmetic change they’ve opted for could actually make things worse.</p>
<p>Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a senior editor for National Review.</p>
<p />
<p /> | It may be broken, but a fix might make it worse | false | https://abqjournal.com/486658/but-a-fix-might-make-it-worse.html | 2 |
|
<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — Ronaldinho, “the ever-smiling magician” of Barcelona, as described by his former club, has ended his professional career.</p>
<p>Roberto Assis, the brother and agent of the 2005 Ballon d’Or winner, announced Tuesday that the 37-year-old wants to play a series of farewell matches from August — and then focus on his already busy life off the pitch.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho played his last professional match in 2015 for Brazilian club Fluminense.</p>
<p>“Ronnie’s professional career is over. He wants to be a football ambassador, do charity, and work with his friends in music from now on,” Assis told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Assis hopes to schedule some farewell matches for Ronaldinho after the World Cup in Russia, which ends July 15. The initial plan is to play games in Brazil, Europe and Asia and to also get Brazil’s national team involved, Assis said.</p>
<p>Last July, Ronaldinho said on the sidelines of a friendly in Chechnya that was he was “too old” to return to action. He repeated that to a Brazilian TV in November, but did not rule out reconsidering.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho’s decorated career also includes one World Cup title (2002), one Champions League victory (2006) and two Spanish league titles with Barcelona, and two FIFA world player of the year awards (2004 and 2005).</p>
<p>He played 101 matches and scored 35 goals for Brazil from 1997 to 2013.</p>
<p>“We pay tribute to this ace that shone using the yellow shirt,” Brazil’s football confederation posted on Twitter. “Thanks for all the magic, Ronaldinho.”</p>
<p>At the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldinho played second fiddle to midfielder Rivaldo and striker Ronaldo, but he was instrumental in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over England, with an assist and scoring a remarkable free kick goal from long range.</p>
<p>Four years later, with Brazil as heavy favorites for the title and Ronaldinho considered the best player in the world, he failed to deliver. Brazil was knocked out in the quarterfinals by France.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho started his professional career at Gremio in southern Brazil in 1998. He left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2001 and was signed by Barcelona two seasons later.</p>
<p>At the Camp Nou, Ronaldinho was an integral member of a squad that took Barca back to the limelight. He played 207 games and gave 94 goals and 61 assists to the team.</p>
<p>However, after a series of club trophies, Ronaldinho’s career took a downturn. He was often accused by Brazilian and Spanish media of lacking professionalism, despite his mentoring of a then youthful Lionel Messi.</p>
<p>His former club paid tribute to the Brazilian star, tweeting: “Camp Nou’s ever-smiling magician. Thanks for everything!”</p>
<p>In 2008, with Messi then leading the Catalan team, Ronaldinho left for AC Milan. Despite being part of a squad that won Serie A in 2011, he failed to reach his previous heights as a player.</p>
<p>AC Milan also praised Ronaldinho. “The man who enchanted San Siro and every football fan,” the Italian club said in a Twitter post. “Ronaldinho retires after illuminating pitches all over the world with his magic.”</p>
<p>When returning home became a real option, Ronaldinho frustrated Gremio’s efforts to re-sign him and joined Flamengo instead.</p>
<p>Disappointing performances in Rio de Janeiro took him to Atletico Mineiro, a club that then was more often fighting against relegation than for titles.</p>
<p>Yet a more mature Ronaldinho took Atletico to a different level.</p>
<p>In his last great run, Ronaldinho carried Atletico with his superb passes and dazzling dribbles to second place in the 2012 Brazilian Championship.</p>
<p>A year later, he was the key to his club lifting its first Copa Libertadores, South America’s most prestigious club trophy, but his hopes of playing at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil were dashed.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho left to play for Mexico’s Queretaro in 2014-15, but was mostly on the bench.</p>
<p>He played his last seven matches as a professional for Fluminense, though his performances were a far cry from his best days in Spain.</p>
<p>“In football there is not much to explain,” Ronaldinho e recently said in an interview with Brazilian TV. “Either you’re there or you’re not. I want to be remembered for the time I was there.”</p>
<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — Ronaldinho, “the ever-smiling magician” of Barcelona, as described by his former club, has ended his professional career.</p>
<p>Roberto Assis, the brother and agent of the 2005 Ballon d’Or winner, announced Tuesday that the 37-year-old wants to play a series of farewell matches from August — and then focus on his already busy life off the pitch.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho played his last professional match in 2015 for Brazilian club Fluminense.</p>
<p>“Ronnie’s professional career is over. He wants to be a football ambassador, do charity, and work with his friends in music from now on,” Assis told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Assis hopes to schedule some farewell matches for Ronaldinho after the World Cup in Russia, which ends July 15. The initial plan is to play games in Brazil, Europe and Asia and to also get Brazil’s national team involved, Assis said.</p>
<p>Last July, Ronaldinho said on the sidelines of a friendly in Chechnya that was he was “too old” to return to action. He repeated that to a Brazilian TV in November, but did not rule out reconsidering.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho’s decorated career also includes one World Cup title (2002), one Champions League victory (2006) and two Spanish league titles with Barcelona, and two FIFA world player of the year awards (2004 and 2005).</p>
<p>He played 101 matches and scored 35 goals for Brazil from 1997 to 2013.</p>
<p>“We pay tribute to this ace that shone using the yellow shirt,” Brazil’s football confederation posted on Twitter. “Thanks for all the magic, Ronaldinho.”</p>
<p>At the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldinho played second fiddle to midfielder Rivaldo and striker Ronaldo, but he was instrumental in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over England, with an assist and scoring a remarkable free kick goal from long range.</p>
<p>Four years later, with Brazil as heavy favorites for the title and Ronaldinho considered the best player in the world, he failed to deliver. Brazil was knocked out in the quarterfinals by France.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho started his professional career at Gremio in southern Brazil in 1998. He left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2001 and was signed by Barcelona two seasons later.</p>
<p>At the Camp Nou, Ronaldinho was an integral member of a squad that took Barca back to the limelight. He played 207 games and gave 94 goals and 61 assists to the team.</p>
<p>However, after a series of club trophies, Ronaldinho’s career took a downturn. He was often accused by Brazilian and Spanish media of lacking professionalism, despite his mentoring of a then youthful Lionel Messi.</p>
<p>His former club paid tribute to the Brazilian star, tweeting: “Camp Nou’s ever-smiling magician. Thanks for everything!”</p>
<p>In 2008, with Messi then leading the Catalan team, Ronaldinho left for AC Milan. Despite being part of a squad that won Serie A in 2011, he failed to reach his previous heights as a player.</p>
<p>AC Milan also praised Ronaldinho. “The man who enchanted San Siro and every football fan,” the Italian club said in a Twitter post. “Ronaldinho retires after illuminating pitches all over the world with his magic.”</p>
<p>When returning home became a real option, Ronaldinho frustrated Gremio’s efforts to re-sign him and joined Flamengo instead.</p>
<p>Disappointing performances in Rio de Janeiro took him to Atletico Mineiro, a club that then was more often fighting against relegation than for titles.</p>
<p>Yet a more mature Ronaldinho took Atletico to a different level.</p>
<p>In his last great run, Ronaldinho carried Atletico with his superb passes and dazzling dribbles to second place in the 2012 Brazilian Championship.</p>
<p>A year later, he was the key to his club lifting its first Copa Libertadores, South America’s most prestigious club trophy, but his hopes of playing at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil were dashed.</p>
<p>Ronaldinho left to play for Mexico’s Queretaro in 2014-15, but was mostly on the bench.</p>
<p>He played his last seven matches as a professional for Fluminense, though his performances were a far cry from his best days in Spain.</p>
<p>“In football there is not much to explain,” Ronaldinho e recently said in an interview with Brazilian TV. “Either you’re there or you’re not. I want to be remembered for the time I was there.”</p> | Agent says former World Cup winner Ronaldinho has retired | false | https://apnews.com/53be8593e54947639b895da45a1cf870 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>As someone who has personally helped rescue feral cats and has dealt directly with the hard-working and dedicated people who do this work, I take great offense to her claims.</p>
<p>Now I will be the first to admit I wish we could do more with that program but, I still think what they do with the resources they have is pretty amazing and it should not go unnoticed here.</p>
<p>There are many people and professionals that give tremendously of their time and money to make this work with the small budget they have. Also, feral cat programs just like this have been successful in other cities around the country, and it is long overdue that we did something.</p>
<p>I guess Marci seems to have forgotten that we used to do nothing for feral cats, outside of a handful of kind-hearted souls that take care of these animals, in this city. I wish we could find homes for all these feral cats but, sadly, it’s just not possible.</p>
<p>It’s up to us as citizens to help out. Whether it’s just leaving some food out for these feral cats or building winter shelters for them. They really don’t make very good pets once they have been feral for a while anyway; its sad, but that’s the truth.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This is a very humane way to do this, if you really understand cats and their needs, and people are willing to help out. I for one am glad that they are doing something, and having seen the people who work for it, in action with my own eyes, I know this program has its heart in the right place. It’s not perfect but we have to start somewhere.</p>
<p>Please, Marci, if you truly love animals you will drop this lawsuit and not waste the city’s time and money. If you truly love animals, dedicate some of your time and money you intended to spend on this lawsuit on helping the program improve.</p>
<p>EVAN MOORE</p>
<p>Albuquerque</p>
<p /> | Feral cat program deserves help, not a lawsuit | false | https://abqjournal.com/325170/feral-cat-program-deserves-help-not-a-lawsuit.html | 2 |
|
<p>As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11, when the US mainland was attacked by an act of terrorism and suffered the loss of nearly 3,000 innocent lives, the tens of millions of European and American citizens of Middle Eastern ancestry have been devastatingly caught between “a rock and a hard place. In quest for a better life and democracy, these immigrants left their homelands for the West seeking freedom and equal opportunity for themselves and their children. These immigrants, as exemplified, for instance, by the prominent presence of nearly one million Americans of Iranian heritage in the US, are among the most law-abiding, most educated, and most affluent citizens, contributing immensely toward the US economy (in education, research and development, business and manufacturing, arts and civic service) and the advancement of the quality of life for the nation as a whole.</p>
<p>Mostly from the middle and upper classes, many have left their country of origin for fear of religious, ethnic, social, or political persecutions; it is so painfully ironic that they now experience similar mistreatment in their new homeland. While they cannot return to their old countries of origin, they also feel looked down upon and with suspicion by neighbors and colleagues, but particularly by government agents in the US. In one word, their “wine has turned to sour vinegar again. The “Patriot Act and its extensions and extrapolations, and the government programs such as wiretapping of communications as implemented by the National Security Agency, interrogations and imprisonments, etc., have further exacerbated their predicaments. Their US-born European counterparts, whose ancestors arrived just a few generations earlier, feel justified as they look down at their more recent compatriots with suspicion, discriminatory practices, intimidation, and even threats.</p>
<p>As painful as it is, it must be put on record that US-born children of Middle Eastern ancestry are bullied by, not only by their peers, but also by their teachers in schools, while their admissions into colleges and professional schools and professional opportunities are increasingly jeopardized. It is painful to privately hear the stories in these immigrant communities of a systematic pattern of discrimination for jobs or promotions, simply because some in position of power feel these applicants are “different and so guilty by association, at least. The federal leadership of all three branches of government, with heads in the sands whispers, “see no evil, and hear no evil. Even though none of the millions of US citizens of Middle Eastern origin directly or indirectly have been implicated in terrorist activities against our nation, the collective punishment by ethno-religious stereotyping has been sufficient to try such populations in the court of public opinion.</p>
<p>The nearly three million Iranians in Diaspora, particularly those in the US have had to face the unpleasant day-to-day feeling of being watched, interrogated, and discriminated. Deja vue all over again. Many Iranian, albeit Middle Eastern Americans now feel they have a much deeper, more sympathetic empathy with the Japanese American interments, and the persecutions of the German Jews leading to the holocaust in the forty,s.</p>
<p>The dilemma is practically the same, if not worse, among Americans with Arab, North African, and Indo-Pakistani heritage. This has in turn led to a self-imposed conscious decision of lowering one,s aspirations, and retreating from a social environment in the society at large in despair. Ironically, the fear and apprehension from both the old and the new countries of origin lingers on. Notwithstanding the repressive system of government in Iran, for instance, there has not been a single terrorist activity against the West by an Iranian national in Europe or in the US although it is said opponents to the regime in exile have been on occasion assassinated by mercenary culprits overseas.</p>
<p>Immigrants, due perhaps to their cultural values and inherent fear of authorities, unless it involves serious hate crimes such as homicides or suicides, would not voluntarily report discrimination, harassment, and outright face to face insults. So, such ordeals are only discussed among their innermost circles. Job related discriminations especially in middle to upper level positions, from industry to government, are prevalent. Given the high level of educational achievements of Iranian-Americans, there are a large number of applicants who have been manifestly qualified for GS-15 and SES executive government positions. Nonetheless, presumably because they could not receive top security clearances due to unspecified reasons beyond their control or knowledge, or due to their country of origin and perceived ethno-religious associations, they have been denied the honor of serving their new country. This is evident from a rather disproportionate number of university professors in the nation who have hardly gone beyond the faculty rank; they are almost non-existent in government ranks. In many other instances, such citizens would simply shy away from submitting applications for such “sensitive positions, as they can predict the disproportionate rejections rate. Business owners in these communities are also adversely impacted.</p>
<p>The US administration, along with its ideological allies such as the UK government, justifies the erosion of domestic civil and human rights at home on the basis that this is an essential element of battling terrorism. However, every indication leads one to reluctantly accept the fact that the new so-called, “the war on terrorism, under the banner “spreading US democracy, has now been institutionalized to replace the fifty years of cold war era confrontation with the former Soviet Union. This has in turn overcome the temporary strategy of the early 90,s, when the military industrial complex found itself in a precarious state of survival. Besides, it is incumbent upon an open society to be capable of securing itself, while safeguarding the constitutional and civil rights of its citizens.</p>
<p>The rapidly growing US military budget and that of homeland security fast approaching 600 billion dollars, the estimated cost of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan tallied thus far at nearly 500 billions and estimated to exceed two trillion dollars, has, in essence, mortgaged every American,s life for the next few generations. It necessarily dictates a dramatic decrease in budget allocations for health, social services and education, which we have started to experience this fiscal year. This is just some of the factual data to remain gravely concerned about. The line between the citizens, prime interests and those of the Anglo-American oil conglomerate is increasingly convoluted, but the public continues to pick up the invoice with no choice.</p>
<p>Above all, the US and the global community are increasingly alarmed by the high cost of human lives in the Middle East that has so far led to the loss of life of 2400 young American soldiers and over 17000 injured, not to mention that over tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have perished. Despite the quagmire of Iraq, the US administration and its allies have already begun beating the drum for yet another unilateral war against Iran, once again, under the pretext of [nuclear] weapons of mass destruction. This has again been perpetrated without having ever presented an iota of documented fact and evidence for such a nuclear weapon production scheme exists in Iran. In the true spirit of the American ideals, the commitment to Non-Proliferation Treaty and nuclear demilitarization by all countries of South and Southwest Asia, and North Africa, is the first step toward a truly sustainable geo-political stability, but that seems to be dodged at every turn.</p>
<p>One can not argue with the fact that the current Islamic government in Iran that has been in place since 1979, when the Shah,s monarchy was overthrown by the revolutionary forces, is indeed a repressive regime against its own population of 70 million. Violation of human rights (torture, imprisonment and executions), sham democracy, vote rigging, corruption and lack of transparency, cronyism, nepotism, and waste of material and human resources leading to brain and capital drain from Iran, have increased steadily since 1979. In view of these ironies, the Iranian people have searched for subdued innovative ways to confront the reactionary establishment. Paradoxically, the current US administration,s misguided confrontational military and “smart economic sanction threats against the Iranian regime will only be counter-productive in that it radicalizes the regime further resorting to desperate extreme means necessary for its own survival. By the same token, the aspiration of the Iranian people for justice and freedom, that has continued since 1906, when the first modern constitutional monarchy war installed, will once again be stopped. Those who do not learn from history repeat the same mistake. Back in 1953, a US coup led to the overthrow of the only elected Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, and the reinstatement of the escaped Shah as the absolute monarch, thereby violating the ratified 1906 constitution. Iranians did not remember this fact when they overthrew the Shah which led to the establishment of current regime, otherwise they would have better safeguarded the incipient democracy dearly.</p>
<p>The potential US military intervention in Iran spreads more hatred against the United States nation in the Middle East, would lead to additional thousands of Americans and allied forces losing their lives, and expenditures amounting to yet another few trillion dollars to be covered by US tax payers, not to mention the possible loss of hundreds of thousands of Iranian civilians and the loss of the ideals of justice, freedom, and democracy, here and abroad. A self-sustaining democracy has as its prerequisite socio-economic independence. Otherwise, it will be more destructive to all parties concerned. Let us bear in mind that despite their modest slow progress, religious reformation and societal modernization adapted to indigenous cultures have been in the works in the Middle East, especially in Iran, for at least one hundred years. Western interventions are only impeding such natural processes in the region.</p>
<p>President Bush uttered it so eloquently in his State of the Union address recently, when he said, “We are a nation addicted to oil. And yet, his rhetoric on envisaging the promotion of alternative renewable energy resources came short of substantiating his “addiction diagnosis, with an optimal prescription to remedy the disease. In retrospect, he was most probably leading the nation to capitulate to an all out exploitation of fossil fuels in our ecologically sensitive lands, leading to an environmental and human catastrophe of “biblical magnitude. The US alone with 5% of the world population uses 30% of the annual energy and natural resources production. A comprehensive, nationally driven commitment to the development and expeditious substitution of fossil fuels with sustainable energy resources (solar, wind, hydrogen, geothermal, fuel cells) to relieve ourselves of suicidal dependence on foreign oil is, therefore, more urgent than ever in order to avoid the unprecedented global annihilation of humanity.</p>
<p>PIROUZ AZADI, a life-long American of Persian heritage, is a professor in New York, USA. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | You Are a Prime Suspect | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/02/22/you-are-a-prime-suspect/ | 2006-02-22 | 4 |
<p>Finally, the mainstream media has done it. It's caught the openly conservative Washington Free Beacon being openly conservative. Through CNN's fine journalism, we've now learned that the WFB digital managing editor—who has posted a number of times on the site that he is a Donald Trump fan—has contributed "more than $500" ($544.25 to be exact) to Trump's campaign, apparently by purchasing a trumpload of Make America Great Again hats.</p>
<p>Politico, which <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/journalists-open-wallets-for-obama-and-romney-083250?o=0" type="external">says</a> it has a strict policy against donating to campaigns, reports on <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2015/10/free-beacon-trump-donation-was-to-buy-hats-214876" type="external">the hat controversy</a>:</p>
<p>The Washington Free Beacon says that a filing with the Federal Election Commission showing that their digital managing editor gave more than $500 to Donald Trump's presidential campaign was actually from purchasing Trump merchandise for staff.</p>
<p>CNN reported on Thursday that Andrew Stiles has given $544.25 to Trump's presidential campaign, later noting in the story that it appears to be for hats. Stiles' occupation, which all campaign donors are asked to provide, is listed as "#1 TRUMP FAN."</p>
<p>Politico found the Free Beacon's editor, Matthew Continetti, to be less outraged than they were about the whole incident. Continetti confirmed in a statement that, yeah, Stiles has in fact turned out to be a yuge TRUMP FAN.</p>
<p>"As Andrew has said, he made what he thought was a charitable donation to the cause of making America great again, a cause that he cares about deeply," said Continetti. "Additionally, Mr. Stiles has disclosed in numerous online postings on our site that he was in fact a Trump campaign donor. In August, Mr. Stiles also presented our staff with really incredible Make America Great Again hats, and by the way, they do look fantastic, they look so good your head will spin."</p>
<p>Here's further proof of the mass hat purchase:</p>
<p>Do you see a trend in our editorial meeting? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakeAmericaGreatAgain?src=hash" type="external">#MakeAmericaGreatAgain</a> <a href="https://t.co/ReSOgjpYxU" type="external">pic.twitter.com/ReSOgjpYxU</a></p>
<p>But not to worry, Continetti assured the media that his team would look into the issue. "Because Mr. Stiles refuses to admit to an honest mistake and to apologize for his contribution, we have launched an internal investigation into standards and practices that will be led by our ombudsman Biff Diddle. We also would like to assure the other Republican campaigns that Mr. Stiles will not be moderating any future debates," Continetti said. <a href="http://freebeacon.com/author/biff-diddle/" type="external">Biff Diddle</a> is the pseudonym for the site's parody writer, <a href="http://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2013-man-of-the-year-biff-diddle/" type="external">winner</a> of the site's 2013 Man of the Year Award.</p>
<p>As for the media and political bias, there's certainly some real stories out there, including that <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/survey-7-percent-of-reporters-identify-as-republican-188053" type="external">only 7%</a> of journalists identify themselves as Republicans, while about 26% identify as Democrats and 50% as Independents (which many undoubtedly list simply to create the illusion of objectivity). In 2012, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/journalists-open-wallets-for-obama-and-romney-083250?o=0" type="external">many journalists</a> donated to the Obama campaign, including ESPN's Stuart Scott, WSJ's Paul Levy, Bloomberg's Edmund Lee, and the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, while some (presumably part of the 7%) donated to Romney's Victory Fund.</p>
<p>Some of the recent media bias controversies to emerge involve—surprise!—the Clinton foundation, including George Stephanopolous turning out to be a massive donor (to the tune of $75,000), something he failed to disclose when grilling Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer in an interview. Among the other Leading up to the first Democratic presidential primary debate this week, reports surfaced that moderator Anderson Cooper is listed along with a dozen or so other high-profile journalists (including Tom Brokaw and Matt Lauer) as a " <a href="" type="internal">notable past member</a>" of the Clinton Global Initiative.</p> | Leftist Media Enraged After Right-Wing Media Outlet Buys Trump Hats | true | https://dailywire.com/news/457/leftist-media-enraged-after-right-wing-media-james-barrett | 2015-10-16 | 0 |
<p>I’m a non-hunter and an environmentalist who grew up in Montana, where both these traits earn some pretty annoying attitude from many people. So Nikolas Kozloff’s CounterPunch article “ <a href="" type="internal">Palin, Hunting and the American Psyche</a>” resonated with me, and I appreciated your skewering of these lame politicians’ –- Romney and Clinton for example — posturing as wannabe hunters. Even so, I have a few critical comments.</p>
<p>Kozloff appeared to have a very negative view of hunting in general, though there are a number of separate but related issues bundled together in his article, so forgive me if I misread him. Among the bundled issues: hunting, which could be broken down further into food hunting versus recreational trophy and ‘varmint’ hunting; government ‘animal control’ programs; animal testing; and pathetic posing by politicians.</p>
<p>1) It’s a bad idea to lump all of these issues together. E.g. I see no moral equivalence between hunting for food (arguably morally superior to feedlot beef) and shooting gophers for entertainment, or government-sponsored slaughter of predator species because of outdated notions and administrative inertia. And just because there are a lot of idiots and jerks that hunt, or pretend they do when an election rolls around, doesn’t mean all hunters are idiots or jerks. Not that Kozloff says they are, but it might be taken as implied.</p>
<p>2) Kozloff writes, “with the entrance of Sarah Palin into the presidential race the country has the opportunity of holding a long overdue debate about hunting and animal rights in wider U.S. society.” Attacking hunting in general strikes me as igniting yet another ‘culture war’ that distracts us from burning, and more appropriately political, issues.</p>
<p>It may be that Americans and the human species as a whole need to evolve culturally toward vegetarianism. It’s certainly more healthy physically than the typical American diet, and probably spiritually as well. And it’s undoubtedly more environmentally benign. But such evolution would be better served by persuasion than political coercion. Humans have been hunting and eating meat for tens of thousands of years at a minimum. It’s not likely to change quickly.</p>
<p>For many hunters (if not most), hunting is a passion and their favorite activity. You’ll not only never get anywhere by attacking them for this, you’ll drive them into opposing political camps. Progressive politics has all but flatlined in the US; progressives would do well to focus on finding allies on crucial, winnable fights. ‘Hunting’ as a general issue is a fight that is neither crucial nor winnable.</p>
<p>Is it worth alienating millions of hunters, and millions more of their families and friends? It may be that if this issue is left alone, that many hunters may fall in the progressive camp (or be brought about) on issues that, brainwashing aside, are in their interest, such as decreasing the influence of the rich on our politics; restoring some semblance of civil liberties and constitutionality; demilitarizing and deimperializing the US; providing universal healthcare; etc. Heck, they might even be brought around on more narrowly focused wildlife issues like predator control and recreational ‘varmint’ killing, if they’re not demonized for all hunting, period.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, ‘animal rights activists’ and ‘environmentalists’ sometimes diverge in curious ways. For instance, I have heard that animal rights activists have opposed efforts to eliminate (i.e. kill) introduced foxes from Pacific Ocean islands, presumably because it is cruel to the foxes involved. Many environmentalists support these initiatives because the foxes are not native to the islands and may threaten nesting seabirds with extinction. The environmentalist takes the view that extinction is a far greater problem than the death of a few individuals of a non-native species not threatened by extinction. Live-trapping the foxes might be preferable from the standpoint of humane treatment of animals, but it may be so much more costly and difficult that it renders it financially or technically unfeasible.</p>
<p>Likewise, in highly human-altered, predator-deficient ecosystems some environmentalists consider hunting to be beneficial. E.g., without any predation pressure deer may overpopulate and overgraze forest understory plants, destroying the nesting habitat of songbirds (some of them endangered). Yes, restoration of a healthy ecosystem with predators would be preferable, but in some parts of the U.S. that may be pie-in-the-sky, at least in the short term.</p>
<p>GRADY HARPER can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Should Hunting Really be High on Our Priority List? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/09/06/should-hunting-really-be-high-on-our-priority-list/ | 2008-09-06 | 4 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Lotto America</p>
<p>09-13-26-38-48, Star Ball: 7, ASB: 3</p>
<p>(nine, thirteen, twenty-six, thirty-eight, forty-eight; Star Ball: seven; ASB: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $17.58 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>07-21-23-33-39, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-one, twenty-three, thirty-three, thirty-nine; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>2-9-6</p>
<p>(two, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-0</p>
<p>(six, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-5-5-3</p>
<p>(eight, five, five, three)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>9-4-3-2</p>
<p>(nine, four, three, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p>
<p>WPT</p>
<p>QC-KH-5S-8S-10S</p>
<p>(QC, KH, 5S, 8S, 10S)</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Lotto America</p>
<p>09-13-26-38-48, Star Ball: 7, ASB: 3</p>
<p>(nine, thirteen, twenty-six, thirty-eight, forty-eight; Star Ball: seven; ASB: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $17.58 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>07-21-23-33-39, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-one, twenty-three, thirty-three, thirty-nine; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>2-9-6</p>
<p>(two, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-0</p>
<p>(six, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-5-5-3</p>
<p>(eight, five, five, three)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>9-4-3-2</p>
<p>(nine, four, three, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p>
<p>WPT</p>
<p>QC-KH-5S-8S-10S</p>
<p>(QC, KH, 5S, 8S, 10S)</p> | ME Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/217272cabeda4141b7a30a16c9927147 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s decision Tuesday to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.</p>
<p>On Twitter last week, Assange’s anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks posted, “If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case.”</p>
<p>Obama’s move will test the promise. The president commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence, freeing her in May, nearly three decades early. Manning has acknowledged leaking a trove of diplomatic cables and national security documents to WikiLeaks in 2010.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In a statement, Assange called Manning “a hero, whose bravery should be applauded.”</p>
<p>Assange went on to demand that the U.S. government “should immediately end its war on whistleblowers and publishers, such as WikiLeaks and myself,” but he made no mention of the Twitter pledge. His lawyer said he has been pressing the Justice Department for updates on an investigation concerning WikiLeaks.</p>
<p>Assange has been holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he remains wanted on an allegation of rape, fearing he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves the embassy.</p>
<p>The Justice Department has never announced any indictment of Assange, and it’s not clear that any charges have been brought under seal.</p>
<p>The department, in refusing to turn over investigative documents sought by Manning under the Freedom of Information Act, has acknowledged that the FBI is continuing to investigate the publication of national security information on WikiLeaks arising from Manning’s disclosures.</p>
<p>“That investigation concerns potential violations of federal criminal laws, in the form of serious threats to the national security, and the investigation continues today,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing last year. “From the terms of her request, it is clear that Manning seeks to obtain documents concerning that investigation.</p>
<p>Separately, the FBI is also investigating Russian meddling through hacking in the U.S. presidential election. Hacked emails from top Democratic officials and Hillary Clinton campaign officials were posted on WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the presidential race.</p>
<p>With the commutation coming just days before Obama leaves office, any decision on whether to charge or seek to extradite Assange will now fall to the Trump administration.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In a statement Tuesday, a lawyer for Assange did not address whether Assange intended to come to the U.S.</p>
<p>“For many months, I have asked the DOJ to clarify Mr. Assange’s status. I hope it will soon,” Assange’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in the statement. “The Department of Justice should not pursue any charges against Mr. Assange based on his publication of truthful information and should close its criminal investigation of him immediately.”</p>
<p>Another Assange lawyer, Melinda Taylor, suggested he wouldn’t go back on his word. “Everything that he has said he’s standing by,” she said in a brief telephone conversation with The Associated Press.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Danika Kirka and Raphael Satter contributed from London.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP</a></p> | With clemency for Manning, attention turns to WikiLeaks head | false | https://abqjournal.com/929750/with-clemency-for-manning-attention-turns-to-wikileaks-head.html | 2017-01-17 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LAS VEGAS — The iconic Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas is changing hands.</p>
<p>Its new owners, Golden Entertainment Inc., announced Monday that the fixture on the Vegas Strip skyline is one of four properties they’re buying from American Casino &amp; Entertainment Properties.</p>
<p>The $850 million deal also includes Arizona Charlie’s Decatur and Arizona Charlie’s Boulder in Las Vegas, as well as Aquarius Casino Resort in Laughlin.</p>
<p>Golden will pay $781 million cash and about 4 million shares of its stock to American’s owner, a real estate private equity fund managed by Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>Golden Entertainment owns PT’s Pub in Las Vegas as well as casinos in Pahrump, Nevada, Montana and Maryland.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Iconic Stratosphere casino in Las Vegas changes hands | false | https://abqjournal.com/1016679/iconic-stratosphere-casino-in-las-vegas-changes-hands.html | 2 |
|
Cook County Board Commissioner Proposes Hearing On Police Oversight Sheriff Offers Help in Probing Suburban Police Shootings Every Police Shooting In Suburban Cook County That We Tracked The Revolving Door: Troubled Officers Get Frequent Career Chances Deadly Force Policies Ignored In Suburban Chicago Failed Oversight Follows Suburban Police Shootings 113 Suburban Cop Shootings, Zero Discipline Taking Cover: How Cops Escape Discipline for Shootings in Suburban Chicago | false | https://bettergov.org/team/jared-rutecki | 2018-02-07 | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>BILLINGS, Mont. — An inquest has been scheduled for next month in the shooting death of a Wyoming man by a Montana police officer following a standoff in a hotel lobby, Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said Monday.</p>
<p>Kyle Killough, 32, of Gillette, was killed in Billings by Officer David Raschkow on Oct. 27. Authorities say Killough was shot three times when he refused to drop a handgun following 25 minutes of negotiations and then turned toward officers with the weapon.</p>
<p>It was the seventh fatal shooting since 2012 by law enforcement in Montana’s largest city, which has about 110,000 people.</p>
<p>In five of the cases, autopsies found methamphetamine in the victim’s bodies. Another involved a man who had just escaped from prison.</p>
<p>Killough’s mother, Jan Urioste, said Monday that she suspects her son had been using illegal drugs and had stopped taking medications for mental illness.</p>
<p>Urioste, who lives in New Mexico, reiterated her earlier statements that she does not blame officers for shooting her son. She also praised the sheriff’s office and prosecutors for sharing information with her during the investigation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Twito declined comment on whether any drugs were found in the Killough’s system.</p>
<p>Pathologist Robert Kutzman is anticipated to testify about the toxicology results from Killough’s autopsy during the March 29 inquest, Twito said.</p>
<p>Coroner’s inquests are required under Montana law whenever law enforcement is involved in a fatal shooting or someone dies in law enforcement custody.</p>
<p>Citizen juries hear testimony and then make a recommendation on whether criminal charges are warranted. A final decision is up to prosecutors.</p>
<p>Deputy county attorneys Ed Zink and Julie Patten will conduct the proceeding, Twito said. It’s expected to last one day.</p> | Inquest scheduled in shooting of man by Montana police | false | https://abqjournal.com/958206/inquest-scheduled-in-shooting-of-man-by-montana-police.html | 2017-02-27 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/" type="external">Wonderlane Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Beginning investors often make mistakes, but there's no reason you need to make them. Instead, you can avoid learning lessons the hard way by getting guidance from those who've come before you. Below, three Motley Fool contributors share their views on the single thing they wish they had known when they first got started with investing.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a>: The thing I wish I had known when I first started investing was that investors don't have to settle for high-cost methods of investing. My first investments involved mutual funds that carried sales loads and stocks purchased through a full-service broker that charged hundreds of dollars to make trades. At the time, that means that only 90% to 95% of the money I was investing actually went toward my investment, putting me in a hole that took years to climb out of. Although the Internet hadn't yet arrived to make discount brokerage firms as ubiquitous as they are today, even back then, there were choices that would have reduced my upfront investing costs.</p>
<p>The only upside to the high-cost investing options available back then was that it encouraged me to take a long-term mind-set about making investments. However, even if low trading commissions or the lack of fees on no-load mutual funds don't necessarily punish you for trading more frequently, there's still good reason to think long term with your investments.</p>
<p>That's a silver lining from lessons I learned the hard way, but embracing the positives of low-cost investing methods like discount brokers and no-load mutual funds can add a lot to your eventual nest egg at the end of the day.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFVelvetHammer/info.aspx" type="external">Jason Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFVelvetHammer/info.aspx" type="external">Hall Opens a New Window.</a>: I wish I really, truly understood this one, simple piece of information: Investing even small amounts of money early can be worth much, much more than investing larger amounts later in life.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Case in point: The U.S. stock market has increased around 10% per year on average. There are better and worse years, but over the long term, this 10% rate of return has been a relatively consistent average. What's 10% per year worth? Over time, a whole lot. If I'd managed to invest $5,000 by age 25, and put that $5 grand in a low-cost index fund that tracks theS&amp;P 500, by age 45, that $5,000 would be worth more than $33,000.Or to look at it another way, your $5,000 would double in value after about eight years of average market returns.</p>
<p>Here's the bottom line: Whether you're only 25, already 45, or even well past that age, you still have years ahead of you that you'll need to save for. Take advantage of the value of the time remaining and start investing now. Don't keep putting it off.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSelena/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Selena Maranjian Opens a New Window.</a>: I wish I'd known to be more patient. When I began investing, I didn't realize how little I really knew about it, so I made a host of rookie mistakes, such as impatiently jumping in and out of stocks. My funds were limited, of course, so if I were fully invested and happened to read about some exciting stock, I would sell out of some older holding in order to buy into the new one. If any holding didn't perform well in short order -- and many didn't -- I was ready to sell it.</p>
<p>That's very wrong-headed thinking. One particularly pleasant thing you'll learn as you become a savvier investor is that doing very well doesn't require frequent trading and finding lots of unknown little companies about to skyrocket. You can build wealth by simply investing regularly in an expensive, broad-market index fund -- for many years. For example, if you sock away $8,000 per year in an S&amp;P 500 index fund and it grows by an annual average of 8% over 25 years, you'll end up with $631,000 -- a rather hefty sum. If it averages 10% annually, which is close to the long-term average growth rate of the stock market, it will top $865,000. (Stock market returns are never guaranteed, so it's best to hope for the best returns but to prepare for below-average ones.)</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/31/1-thing-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-first-started-investi.aspx" type="external">1 Thing I Wish I Knew When I First Started Investing Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 1 Thing I Wish I Knew When I First Started Investing | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/31/1-thing-wish-knew-when-first-started-investing.html | 2016-03-31 | 0 |
<p>Downtown Bloomington, Indiana with its upscale restaurants, bustling bars and East Coast-style boutiques and nail salons – all brimming with the rich and their progeny – has always advanced a false image of the Southern Indiana town so many describe with utopian superlatives. The elite do indeed do well here. The state’s richest man lived and died here. Indiana University professors, on average, knock down $128,400 a year, according to the <a href="http://www.ibj.com/iu-professors-top-purdue-s-in-pay-after-freeze-ends/PARAMS/article/33724" type="external">American Association of University Professors</a>. A handful of wealthy speculators, developers and their professional support networks have enriched themselves turning the city into a playground for the rich.</p>
<p>But for the rest, the latest 2012 <a href="http://datacenter.kidscount.org/" type="external">Kids Count Data Book</a> from the Annie E. Casey Foundation presents a more accurate image of IU’s allegedly idyllic hometown. Nearly three in 10 Monroe County children in 2011 were poor enough to receive free lunches in the county’s two school systems, according to the annual report. Another 7 percent qualified for reduced-price lunches.</p>
<p>The 18.1 percent of Monroe County children the Kids Count report found living in poverty in 2010 rose from 17.3 percent in 2006. And while that figure is nearly 4 percent less than the national average of 22 percent, the local trend line reflects those of the state and nation – up.</p>
<p>“In 2000, the official child poverty rate, which is a conservative measure of economic hardship, was 17 percent,” Casey Foundation President and CEO Patrick McCarthy wrote in the report’s foreword. “From 2000 to 2010, the number of children living in poverty jumped from 12.2 million to 15.7 million, an increase of nearly 30 percent.”</p>
<p>The three categories that registered the sharpest increases over time are:</p>
<p>* Children living in high-poverty areas – up 22 percent,</p>
<p>* Children whose parents lack secure employment – up 22 percent, and</p>
<p>*Children living in poverty – up 16 percent.</p>
<p>The price these children and society will pay for their descent into indigence will be high and long-lasting, McCarthy and the Casey report authors warn.</p>
<p>“Growing up in poverty is strongly associated with bad outcomes for children,” they say. “On almost every measure, children who experience chronic or deep poverty, especially when they are young, face tougher developmental and social barriers to success.”</p>
<p>And the impacts are not limited to those who spend all of their early years in poverty, the report authors continue. “Even brief experiences of poverty in early childhood can have lasting effects on health, education, employment and earning power.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The Casey Foundation does in fact use a conservative measure of economic hardship in its Kids Count Data Books, specifically the official federal poverty measure, a politically produced farce that fails on all levels.</p>
<p>“This statistic measures only the cash income available to families, without accounting for many safety net supports that a family might receive, such as federal tax credits, child care and housing vouchers, and food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps),” the report says. “The official measure also fails to adequately reflect the ways in which costs – like housing and child care – vary from region to region and have changed dramatically over the past half-century.”</p>
<p>Researchers have, in fact, quantified basic living expenses in specific localities and found that the federal measure of $23,050 for a family of four meets only about half its basic needs, the report continues.</p>
<p>“Families need an income of roughly twice the federal poverty level to cover basic expenses for housing, food, transportation, health care and child care,” the Kids Count report says. “In 2010, 44 percent (32.2 million) of U.S. children lived in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.”</p>
<p>And the number of Americans who live in poverty is approaching levels not seen since the Great Depression, according to a July 2 <a href="" type="internal">Associated Press story</a>. In advance of new Census data on poverty due this fall, the news service surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, partisan and nonpartisan, and found a broad consensus that the official poverty rate will climb as high as 15.7 percent, up from 15.1 percent from 2010.</p>
<p>“Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor,” the story said. “More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out.”</p>
<p>Poverty is also spreading into the suburbs, the article said. “Voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The Casey report summarizes “overall child well-being” by analyzing federal and state data in 16 categories that measure economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Six poverty-related measures, found in the first and last categories, include:</p>
<p>* &#160;Children living in poverty,</p>
<p>* Children whose parents lack secure employment,</p>
<p>* Children living in households with a high housing cost burden,</p>
<p>* Teens not in school and not working,</p>
<p>*Children in single-parent families, and</p>
<p>* Children living in high-poverty areas.</p>
<p>Indiana ranked No. 31 among the 50 states for overall child well-being. One of 12 states identified as the Midwest, Indiana is 11th, just one position above Michigan.</p>
<p>The bottom 17 states in the overall measurement are located in the Southeast, Southwest and Appalachia. “With the exception of California, the 17 lowest ranked states in terms of child well-being are located in these regions,” the report says.</p>
<p>The top four states for overall child well-being are in the Northeast – New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The New York Times thrust Bloomington into the national poverty narrative with a story in late 2011 that identified the city as the third poorest of its size in the country. The Times based its ranking on Census data, which fail to take into account skewing caused by the city’s dominant student population, most of whom report little to no income.</p>
<p>In-depth stories in both the <a href="" type="internal">Bloomington Herald-Times</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Indiana Daily Student</a> dispensed with the notion that the city rivals Reading, Pa., and Michael Moore’s hometown of Flint, Mich., in terms of families living in grinding despair. Data from <a href="http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Bloomington-Indiana.html" type="external">City-Data.com</a> show the vast majority of the 39.9 percent of Bloomington residents Census data say live below the poverty line are in the 18-24 age range.</p>
<p>IU students, however, do not skew the community’s free lunch data. Between 2000 and 2011, the percentage of Bloomington school kids qualifying for free lunches grew from 17.6 percent 29.2 percent, the Casey report says.</p>
<p>Neither do IU students populate the sidewalks, parks, alleys, shelters, libraries, food pantries and other places where the homeless and hungry congregate in growing numbers.</p>
<p>Steven Higgs can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | Child Poverty in America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/08/01/child-poverty-in-america/ | 2012-08-01 | 4 |
<p>The past couple months have likely made homebuilders and their investors anxious. The damage and ensuing repairs from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria are likely going to have an impact on new housing starts in the prior quarter. That may have been the case -- housing starts were down to their lowest in 18 months -- but it didn't have much of an impact on NVR's (NYSE: NVR) most recent earnings report.</p>
<p>Despite the challenges this quarter posed, the company continued to post higher revenue and better than expected earnings per share. Here's a quick look at NVR's most recent results.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>There were some concerns that this quarter might have been a slightly tougher one for NVR and other home builders because of all the Hurricane activity in the Southeast. Based on the company's results, though, that doesn't seem to be the case. One reason it didn't impact NVR that much is because the company doesn't have a presence in Texas and its Southeast division -- which includes the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Florida -- represented only 19% of total new orders in 2017. This has been one of NVR's fastest growing regions, though, so we might see a blip in the coming quarters from slower building rates in Florida.</p>
<p>Operationally, the company saw progress pretty much across the board. New orders, settlements, and backlog all increased while new order cancellation rates dropped&#160;500&#160;basis points to 13%. The only real negative was a slight decline in new order price from $392,800 in 2016 to $382,800. That isn't too much of a concern, though, as management stated that it is shifting its product mix toward lower priced markets and lower-priced products. A large part of that move is to entice first time buyers.</p>
<p>Even with the slight decline in home prices, the company was able to boost its gross margin to 19.9%, which was <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/25/nvrs-second-quarter-earnings-get-a-boost-from-amer.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">up from 19.5% in the prior quarter Opens a New Window.</a>. On top of that, it kept SG&amp;A costs to just 5.8% of total revenue, one of the best marks in the business.</p>
<p>Management also repurchased about $70 million in shares this past quarter, which gives the company about $70 million remaining under its current buyback authorization. It was considerably lower than the prior quarter, but there was also a significant cash build this past quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The one thing that is a little concerning with these share repurchases is that they aren't making much of a dent in the overall share count. Sure, basic shares outstanding declined, but total diluted shares increased compared to this time last year, which means that management is paying itself with more shares and not leading to better per share numbers for all investors. Perhaps the extra cash on the books will be put toward another share repurchase program, but this is something shareholders should probably watch.</p>
<p>NVR has had an excellent 2017. So far, shares are up 82%, and there are few signs that things are slowing down. Unemployment is low, interest rates are low, and the economy is growing at a steady pace. Those create a great recipe to get home buyers interested in a new purchase, especially with a large group of buyers coming into the market for their first homes.</p>
<p>It also helps that the company is doing all of this while having more cash on hand than total debt outstanding, so there is <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/18/3-top-housing-stocks.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">little fear that the company will be in trouble Opens a New Window.</a> if the market were to make an abrupt turn because of hurricane-related construction. The one thing that is a little concerning is the growing share count from management equity awards. While it isn't anything of great concern, it does make those share repurchases look less appealing.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NVRWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d850118f-a4d9-4620-83bb-4ee8b197919e&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and NVR wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d850118f-a4d9-4620-83bb-4ee8b197919e&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Tyler Crowe Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of NVR. 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=b0324680-b4e0-11e7-8b39-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Housing Starts Are Down, but NVR's Results Continue to Improve | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/20/housing-starts-are-down-but-nvrs-results-continue-to-improve.html | 2017-10-20 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That’s the advice of a Legislative Finance Committee report for reducing the number of high school dropouts – and potentially saving the state millions of dollars.</p>
<p>The report says that if 2,600 students who otherwise might drop out of school were to graduate instead, the state could save $700 million over the life of each graduating class with students getting better jobs, needing fewer social services and staying out of jail.</p>
<p>In 2013, 7,185 New Mexico students in grades seven through 12 dropped out and about 3,000 were Albuquerque Public Schools students.</p>
<p>Truancy is a big piece of the dropout picture. The report says programs that combine attendance monitoring and counseling, as well as vocational training and college-orientated programs, can be effective. It recommends state lawmakers appropriate additional money for school districts to hire truancy counselors.</p>
<p>APS recently announced it is expanding its Truancy Prevention Program from 12 schools to 23 and is hiring eight counselors to work with families. The Las Cruces school district greatly expanded programs that give students options for staying the course, including accelerated credit programs, night school at all high schools, attendance support and a last-resort truancy school.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The report suggested that the best programs be applied statewide and recommended creation of a financial incentive in the funding formula to reward schools that graduate more students and more students who don’t need remedial classes in college.</p>
<p>These are well-thought recommendations that pinpoint where money can be applied effectively. And that’s a better approach than just throwing it into a pot and hoping some of it goes to keeping students in school.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: Targeting truancy is key | false | https://abqjournal.com/469487/targeting-truancy-is-key.html | 2 |
|
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Ah, the perennially despised lobbyist: always a convenient whipping boy, and just vague enough of a term not to incite specific rancor. For many years, politicians have blamed the nameless, faceless “lobbyists” for corruption and stagnancy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.caivn.org/ballot-measure/proposition-15" type="external">Proposition 15</a>, if voted into law, would sanction a repeal on the statewide ban of public funding for political campaigns. According to the <a href="http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/15/" type="external">Office of the Secretary of State</a>, Proposition 15 would begin to fund public campaigns through additional taxation.</p>
<p>No, this measure does not call for an increase in the individual income tax.&#160; It places the burden squarely on the shoulders of “lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers” (While “voluntary contributions” will be welcomed, the Secretary of State’s office admits that the bulk of the funds would indeed come from lobbyists).&#160;</p>
<p>By taxing lobbyists, lobbying groups and lobbying-affiliated organizations at about $350 per year, supporters of the measure hope to roll in about $6 million over a four-year period. The millions of dollars would be bundled as grant money, to be set aside for Secretary of State candidates in 2014 and 2018.&#160; Candidates showing healthy fundraising skills could choose to stop fundraising at a certain point, and have their funds matched by funds from the state coffers, under the understanding that no more private funds could be brought in.</p>
<p>Such groups as the League of Women Voters and <a href="http://www.yesfairelections.org/" type="external">Californians for Fair Elections</a> support Proposition 15. The latter declares that the “outrageous” amount of money in politics is responsible for too much corruption, and the enactment of Proposition 15 would “Change the way we finance election campaigns so politicians stay focused on the job we sent them to do!”</p>
<p>While such a statement makes for nice wishful thinking, when a door closes, a window opens.&#160; If lobbyists are fined and shunned, some alternate pressure will continue to be exerted on politicians, albeit under a new name, not to mention the questionable constitutionality of such a levy.</p>
<p>Groups such as <a href="http://stopprop15.com/" type="external">Stop Prop 15</a> are staunchly opposed to the measure, calling Proposition 15 a tax-raising trick that “Does not stop the influence of special interest money.” Stop Prop 15 also points to two recent public campaign financing efforts which were defeated over the last decade, adding the opinion that “Taxpayer financing of political campaigns is a bad idea.” One of the messages of Stop Prop 15 is that the proposition is not an actual reform, and today, with a tanking state economy, “Giving taxpayer money to politicians to fund their campaigns” isn’t a pressing need for California.</p>
<p>While Stop Prop 15 emphasizes the repeated public rejection of public state campaign funding, the state legislature does not appear to have received the memo. Ironically, in a <a href="http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/pdf/english/15-title-summ-analysis.pdf" type="external">2008 vote</a> on the proposition, members of both the California State Assembly and State Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of the measure. This is particularly interesting, as politicians are notoriously the partners and targets of special interest groups which lobby government officials on their behalf.</p>
<p>While many lobbying groups are vilified as narrow-minded groups only looking out for themselves, many lobbying groups represent the will of millions of American voters. Lobbyists, loved or hated, are another check in the democratic system.&#160; Sometimes by exerting pressure on politicians and presenting a re-election challenge, government officials think twice before taking a particular course of action.</p>
<p>Of course, on the other hand, lobbyists have also been connected to backroom deals, sticky money exchanges, and intense pushes for personal desires.</p>
<p>And still, a disturbing question arises: why exactly should lobbyists have to pay for public funding for candidates they may&#160; not support, but may in fact be actively working to defeat?</p>
<p>There really is no good reason behind this mechanism, other than the fact that lobbyists make easy victims, and state officials would be happy to place the blame on anyone but themselves.&#160; Does anyone else long for the days of President Truman and his “The buck stops here” mantra?</p>
<p>Reform for the sake of public betterment is a positive thing in many cases; however, simply cloaking desire under the guise of “reform” does not a reform make.</p> | Lobbyists become easy targets for campaign finance reform in California | false | https://ivn.us/2010/04/19/lobbyists-become-easy-targets-campaign-finance-reform-california/ | 2010-04-19 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Much was made of the Mayan 2012 calendar’s alleged Doomsday prophecies, but the recent discovery of a significantly more ancient version of the calendar has dispelled the myths about any Mayan prediction of the end of the world or some mysterious transformation. Yet three little-known signs have emerged that may spell trouble ahead for a humanity in flux as the Earth changes and dangerous solar eruptions intensify. Three unsettling signs of impending doom have emerged from different corners of the globe: the congested streets of Moscow, the misty environs of a half-forgotten temple in the mystical land of Nepal, and another Mayan warning: accidental damage to a mystical stone skull once owned by notorious Nazi, Heinrich Himmler.</p>
<p />
<p>Moscow’s green clouds</p>
<p>Doomsday fears arose almost as soon as the eerie green clouds appeared over Moscow. Emergency service lines and communication was snarled as the weird clouds hung over the sky. Thousands of Muscovites gaped up at the strange sight in fear.</p>
<p />
<p>Twitter messages flew across the Russian Federation and many interpreted the clouds as a harbinger of approaching Doomsday. <a href="http://rt.com/news/green-clouds-moscow-aliens-050/" type="external">Russian Times reports</a> one popular Twitter user told his followers that “It might as well be the beginning of the Apocalypse!”</p>
<p>Authorities dismissed the Doomsday talk explaining that the green clouds were caused by unusually high amounts of airborne pollen.</p>
<p />
<p>Many Russians, however, don’t believe the official story and sneer at the pollen explanation. Some recall ancient Russian writings warning that green clouds appear before major disasters. Others related recent stories of famous Russian religious icons weeping. The icons, they claim, are weeping over the approaching end of humanity.</p>
<p />
<p>The Gaurati Bhimeshwor Temple in Nepal</p>
<p>Nepal Doomsday diety also warns humanity</p>
<p>Another weeping religious idol has believers flocking to witness the miracle.</p>
<p>An ancient statue of the revered Hindu god, Bhimeshwor, a centuries-old idol, broke out in a sheen of sweat. A local priest noticed the diety’s warning. The idol is located inside an ancient shrine in the Dolakha district of Nepal.</p>
<p>The idol has sent Doomsday warnings in the past. Bhimeshwor sweat heavily in 1934 prior to a huge earthquake that killed more than 8,000, destroyed farmland, and left more than 20 percent of the people homeless.</p>
<p />
<p>A monk at the Bhimeshwor Temple in Nepal</p>
<p>In 1953 the king of Nepal died suddenly as the god sweated away.</p>
<p>Catastrophe struck again when the idol sweated in 1989; another major earthquake slammed the country.</p>
<p>During 2001, the idol again predicted disaster. It sweated for days before disaster struck the royal house and violent murder struck the nation’s monarchy causing political turmoil as the government collapsed.</p>
<p />
<p>Sweating statue of Hindu god Bhimeshwor in Nepal</p>
<p>In 2004 and again in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552225/Pilgrims-rush-to-see-sweating-statue-in-Nepal.html" type="external">2007 the god broadcast warning</a>s to the people portending more natural disasters that soon followed in the form of horrific storms, earthquakes and strange ball lightning that caused whole villages to explode into raging flames.</p>
<p>Now the ‘Doomsday Diety” is sweating again, and that has devoted followers of Bhimeshwor also sweating.</p>
<p />
<p>Damaged magical Mayan skull portends doom</p>
<p>What happens when Nazi occultism meets Mayan mysticism? The world may come to an end.</p>
<p>That’s what the popular UK newspaper <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142456/German-dropped-Mayan-skull-owned-Himmler-blame-world-ends-21-12-12.html" type="external">Daily Mail</a> is reporting after an alleged magical Mayan skull carved from volcanic rock was accidentally dropped and chipped in a laboratory.</p>
<p>The legendary skull, that some claim exhibits fantastic powers, was stolen from a Tibetan lamasery during the 1930s and carried back to Himmler by crack S.S. agents. Himmler had the feared S.S. scour the world for ancient artifacts said to possess unworldly powers. He sought to use magic to assure the victory of the Third Reich.</p>
<p />
<p>The 1,000-year old Mayan skull is claimed to act as a powerful talisman protecting Mankind from the apocalypse.</p>
<p>Now, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142456/German-dropped-Mayan-skull-owned-Himmler-blame-world-ends-21-12-12.html" type="external">Daily Mail reports</a>, the damaged skull may have lost its powers just as humanity may need its protection during these most desperate hours.</p>
<p>“Suddenly it crashed to the floor. A big piece broke off the chin. It’s really tragic,” Thomas Ritter, an historian who owns the skull, told a German newspaper, according to the Daily Mail.</p>
<p>Ritter said the Mayan skull was entrusted to him for safekeeping by a British family. They inherited the skull from a relative who was present at the arrest of Himmler in the closing days of World War Two.</p>
<p>The worried historian told the German newspaper he hoped the terrible accident with the skull would not “anger the Gods.”</p>
<p>Hopefully the Mayan gods will not be angered, but perhaps it’s too late and they are already incensed sending ominous green clouds over Moscow, making Nepalese dieties sweat, and causing massive Earth changes that threaten to devastate entire continents.</p>
<p>Science has discovered that more than 99 percent of all life on Earth that ever swam, crawled, walked, or flew is now extinct.</p>
<p>It can and will happen again.</p>
<p><a href="/" type="external">We encourage you to Share our Reports, Analyses, Breaking News and Videos. Simply Click your Favorite Social Media Button and Share.</a></p> | 3 Weird Signs Of Impending Disaster | true | http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2130/633/3_Weird_Signs_Of_Impending_Disaster.html | 2012-05-13 | 0 |
<p>An <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/its-not-okay-to-be-homophobic-canberra-contractor-sacked-for-vote-no-facebook-post/news-story/4ed027f47b5810e87036450054a8b6dd" type="external">Australian party company is under fire</a> after its owner, Madlin Sims, sacked one of her employees over the employee's opposition to Australia's upcoming same-sex marriage referendum.</p>
<p>Sims posted on Facebook Monday that she'd fired one of her contractors after she'd expressed a contrary view to her own about legalizing same sex marriage. Likening her political position to "racism," and calling her argument "hate speech," Sims claims she booted the employee on the spot because "it's not okay to be homophobic."</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/its-not-okay-to-be-homophobic-canberra-contractor-sacked-for-vote-no-facebook-post/news-story/4ed027f47b5810e87036450054a8b6dd" type="external">According to a follow up interview Sims gave to News.com.au</a>, the firing stemmed from a Facebook post the employee had put up, publicising her view that the same sex marriage referendum would turn problematic. Sims and her brother apparently approached the employee and asked her to take the post down. When she refused, they booted her.</p>
<p>"Today I fired a staff member who made it public knowledge that they feel 'it's okay to vote no.' Advertising your desire to vote no for SSM is, in my eyes, hate speech," Sims posted. "Voting no is homophobic. Advertising your homophobia is hate speech. As a business owner I can't have somebody who publicly represents my business posting hate speech online."</p>
<p>“It’s not okay to vote no. It’s not okay to be homophobic," she went on. "This isn’t a matter of opinion or even religion. It’s a matter of the love and livelihood of real human beings. Freedom of speech is there for a reason and so are consequences. Vote against homophobia. Vote for equality. Vote yes.”</p>
<p>After making the initial post — and after the post went viral and sparked fierce online debate — Sims returned to "clarify" her remarks and ended up making her situation worse, claiming that she'd known for some time about her employee's contrary views, and simply could no longer tolerate her intolerance.</p>
<p>"FYI this wasn't a 'you're voting no, you're fired' situation. There were prior conversations had. As a business that works with children of all kinds, we have a responsibility to working with vulnerable people and having someone who is out &amp; proud about their beliefs (of which are statistically proven to have horrible effects on young members of the gay community) is a risk for the wellbeing of the children we work with," she updated.</p>
<p>Sims told a newspaper in Australia that she's received a "torrent" of abuse for her actions, but defended firing her contractor, saying it was all done in a polite and respectful manner (except, of course, the whole putting-it-on-Facebook part).</p>
<p>Sims also claims that she didn't fire the employee because of her views on same sex marriage, but because the employee refused to keep those views under wraps. You can believe what you want, apparently, but you aren't allowed to be public with your viewpoint around Ms. Sims if you want to keep your job.</p>
<p>It's not clear, at the moment, whether the fired employee has a case against Ms. Sims for discrimination.</p>
<p>Australia isn't due to vote on whether to legalize same sex marriage until later this year. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has mailed out a postal survey to Australian citizens to guage their support for the measure, and those results won't be available until November 15. On the whole, Australians appear to be split on the issue, with support for same sex marriage actually declining by about five points in recent weeks.</p> | SACKED: Australian Company Fires Employee Over Opposition To Same Sex Marriage | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21260/sacked-australian-company-fires-employee-over-emily-zanotti | 2017-09-19 | 0 |
<p>Editor's note: 7 Deadly Stories is a GlobalPost series on the main drivers of the global economy, all of which are facing severe challenges at once. Will the U.S. economy relapse? Is Europe finished? Will China, Inc. crash? Can Japan recover from disaster? How will the Middle East emerge from the ashes? How did the world become awash in debt? What is the true cost of climate change? These are the stories that are pushing the world economy, once again, to the brink.</p>
<p>TOKYO, Japan - When the U.S. sneezes, so the cliche goes, the rest of the world catches a cold.</p>
<p>But in Japan's case that is not strictly true: long before the U.S. debt ceiling debacle threatened to wreak havoc on the global economy, the world's third-largest economy was already ailing, though not yet terminally ill.</p>
<p>The March 11 triple catastrophe could not have come at a worse time for Japan's economy. Even before the waves began crashing ashore and the first nuclear reactor went into meltdown, Japan was debating how to reduce the highest debt in the industrialized world - twice the size of its $5 trillion economy - and pay for soaring health and social security costs.</p>
<p>More from Seven Deadly Stories: <a href="www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/110729/7-deadly-stories-us-economy-debt-ceiling-house-senate" type="external">The U.S. economic engine sputters</a></p>
<p>The tsunami reconstruction bill alone will come to an estimated 17 trillion yen, according to the Cabinet Office - and that does not include the costs incurred by the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. While the affected region accounts for just 4 percent of Japan's GDP, the damage disrupted supply lines to Sony, Toyota and a host of other manufacturers.</p>
<p>That the repercussions of Mar. 11 were felt well beyond Japan's shores served as a reminder of its place at the heart of the global economy, despite two decades of stagnation and its eclipse, last year, by China.</p>
<p>Japan is being buffeted on several fronts: high commodity prices, a weak recovery in the U.S. compounded by the debt-ceiling debacle, and the mighty yen.</p>
<p>After it strengthened on speculation that Japanese multinationals would repatriate yen from foreign markets to cover the cost of earthquake damage, the yen's rise shows no signs of slowing.</p>
<p>That has added to the difficulties facing exporters, despite mounting a quick recovery from disruption to supply lines and, for the most part, sticking to their full-year forecasts. The U.S. debt crisis and turmoil in Europe has driven the dollar below 77 yen in recent days, a level not seen since the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.</p>
<p>More from Seven Deadly Stories:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/110801/7-deadly-stories-the-cost-climate-change-global-economy" type="external">The cost of global climate change</a></p>
<p>The finance minister, Yoshihiko Noda, has given his strongest indication yet that financial authorities may intervene to weaken the yen amid concern about pressure on corporate earnings and a less resilient Nikkei average.</p>
<p>The currency is rising "too much," he said. "Our stance is clear. We will take decisive action against excessive exchange rate volatility."</p>
<p>There are causes for optimism. Household spending and industrial output rose in June, with manufacturers expecting the latter to return to pre-quake levels over the next two months. Retail sales also rose year-on-year for the first time since the earthquake.</p>
<p />
<p>This all lends weight to the Bank of Japan's view that the economy is in recovery and will start growing later this year.</p>
<p>But the warning signs remain.</p>
<p>Consumption and prices are stagnant, signaling that Japan's battle with deflation is far from over, and export-led growth could yet be derailed by the strong yen, as well as by debt crises in the U.S. and the euro zone.</p>
<p>Despite Japan's woes, the optimists appear - for now at least - to be in the ascendance. There is a view that the Mar. 11 catastrophe should be seen as the catalyst Japan needed to reassess its economic priorities, away from growth and towards more dynamism via private and foreign investment, as well as the creation of new "green" jobs Japan will need if, as the prime minister, Naoto Kan, has suggested, it breaks free of its dependence on nuclear power.</p>
<p>Then again, the government has barely begun to address structural problems that had dampened the prospects for growth well before the tsunami: its enormous public debt, the lack of progress on tax reform and the extra demands placed on its resources by its growing elderly population.&#160;</p>
<p>And having been stunned into respectful silence by the disaster, it won't be long before Japan's economic partners begin broaching uncomfortable subjects.</p>
<p>They will expect some movement on free trade. Before March, Japan's participation in a planned free trade pact covering the Asia-Pacific region had been frustrated by opposition from farmers and their allies in Nagatacho, the country's political nerve center.</p>
<p>Despite Kan's apparent enthusiasm for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Japan's participation in the region's most ambitious multilateral trade deal to date is still in doubt.</p>
<p>And so is his future as Japan's leader. Foreign observers have looked on with a mixture of amusement and horror at the political sideshow that has accompanied what Kan describes as Japan's worst crisis since the end of World War II.</p>
<p>Only the foolhardy would wish to speculate on the timing of his departure, or the identity of his successor. But it is safe to say that the wider world craves a period of stability before it can be convinced of Japan's sense of urgency about its recovery.</p>
<p>Looking further ahead, Japan's policymakers will have to answer some awkward questions.</p>
<p>Is a rise in the sales tax the best way to finance debt and pay for social security? Is the country equipped to address competition from China and South Korea? With labor shortages looming, can it afford to dismiss calls to relax its immigration laws? Is it doing enough to harness the potential of women and young people, long undervalued at an incalculable cost to the country's dynamism?</p>
<p>The rest of the word is willing it to succeed, as Edward Chancellor said in a recent commentary for GMO, a global investment management firm based in Boston: "All that's needed is the will ... the world's admiration for the Japanese people has been rekindled by their stoic response to the most recent national catastrophe. If this spirit and sense of unity were directed toward Japan's economic revival, a third lost decade would surely be averted."</p>
<p>More from Seven Deadly Stories: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/110801/china-economy-crash-inflation-debt-growth" type="external">crash landing for China?</a></p> | 7 Deadly Stories: Can the Japanese economy recover after three disasters? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-02/7-deadly-stories-can-japanese-economy-recover-after-three-disasters | 2011-08-02 | 3 |
<p>This time last year, Suleiman Jamous was busy ensuring that hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas of Darfur received the basic foodstuffs they needed to survive. As the humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M), a rebel group fighting the Sudanese government, Jamous was in charge of working out the logistics of aid deliveries to far-flung villages all across Darfur. It was his job to try to alleviate the dire humanitarian consequences of the Sudanese government’s scorched-earth campaign in Darfur.</p>
<p>A tall, gaunt man with a trimmed grey beard, Jamous is one of the few elder statesmen in what is otherwise a very young, politically-inexperienced rebel movement. Fluent in English, and with a historical perspective and political acumen that are rare among the rebels, he was a valued contact for journalists and NGO representatives visiting the region. Slovenian human rights envoy Tomo Kriznar, who traveled through Darfur last year, said that Jamous “inspired me more then any other Darfurian.”</p>
<p>Jamous is now caught in a strange sort of indefinite detention. For the past six months he’s lived in a UN hospital in Kadugli — a town in Kordofan, western Sudan — where he’s both a guest of the United Nations and a hostage of the Sudanese government.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>A UN helicopter brought Jamous to the hospital last June, after UN officials helped extract him from another difficult situation. Darfur rebel leader Minni Minawi, who met with President Bush last summer, had detained Jamous in May after Jamous opposed the peace agreement that Minawi had signed. (Because the agreement contained little in the way of enforcement guarantees, most rebel commanders opposed it; it is now considered a dead letter.)</p>
<p>After negotiating Jamous’ release UN officials wanted to bring him to the UN hospital in the neighboring state of Kordofan. Jamous was more than a little reluctant to leave Darfur, but the officials assured him that he would stay at the hospital for only a few days, to rest and recover.</p>
<p>The UN’s plans went drastically wrong. When the government of Sudan discovered that the UN had transported Jamous in a UN helicopter, it retaliated by partially suspending the UN’s operations in Darfur for several days. The trip was a “flagrant violation” of Sudan’s sovereignty, a government spokesman declared.</p>
<p>So Jamous now finds that his brief stay in the hospital has stretched out for many months. The UN cannot move Jamous without the Sudanese government’s permission, and the government has no interest at all in granting that permission.</p>
<p>Though his air-conditioned hospital room does not look like a cell, it functions as one. “I must be very dangerous,” Jamous told me sardonically, “they keep an armed guard posted outside my room.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Jamous is not a military man, but he may indeed be dangerous. He has strong ideas about justice in a country whose political leadership ignores the concept, and he’s been politically active since his student days at Khartoum Polytechnic.</p>
<p>Although he once made a good living in Khartoum as a wholesale trader, he risked it all by opposing the government. “I was one of the authors of the Black Book,” he told me, a political manifesto that directly challenged the legitimacy of Sudan’s ruling elite.</p>
<p>The Black Book — al kitab al aswad in Arabic — shook the country’s political establishment when it was published anonymously in 2000. Calling itself “an exposé of the injustices visited on Sudan by successive governments since independence,” the document described, in meticulous detail, how the country’s northern Arab tribes had for decades monopolized political power and economic resources. Its passionate denunciation of ethnic favoritism and corruption was bolstered by comprehensive statistics. Using information gathered covertly by people with access to confidential government data, it revealed how Arabs from the northern region benefited from government largess while the inhabitants of other regions — notably Darfur — were systematically denied their proportionate share of power and wealth.</p>
<p>“The Black Book laid the theoretical groundwork for our struggle,” Jamous explained, pointing out that all of its authors were Darfurians. The SLM/A’s founding manifesto would later echo the pamphlet’s themes of justice and equality for all of Sudan’s citizens, stressing the need for the redistribution of resources to the country’s marginalized areas.</p>
<p>By the time the Black Book was released — with copies appearing mysteriously one day in Khartoum’s mosques, buses, railway stations and other public places, and even on the president’s desk — Jamous was in the custody of Sudan’s security services. Between 2000 and 2003, he was arrested and detained four times, spending most of that period in prison.</p>
<p>When Jamous was released for the fourth time, in October 2003, war had already broken out in Darfur. Evading the plainclothes security agents who were monitoring his movements, he slipped out of Khartoum and went straight to Darfur. He chose to join the SLM/A, he said, because he simply could not stand aside as the African population was erased from his native region.</p>
<p>“We have two options,” he explained, “either fight to survive, or grab our hands and sit until we are killed. So we are fighting for survival.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>In Darfur, Jamous wore a Thuraya satellite phone around his neck, and it rang constantly. Representatives from the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and countless UN agencies called him around the clock to discuss timing and logistics. His days were spent traveling from one village to the next, ensuring that local populations did not starve.</p>
<p>Since Jamous was removed from the region the humanitarian situation has worsened considerably. Over the summer, 12 humanitarian workers were killed in Darfur, and the delivery of humanitarian aid slowed. In recent months, the access of humanitarian organizations to civilians in Darfur has sunk to its lowest level since 2004.</p>
<p>Jamous’s absence also left a gap in the rebel movement’s political leadership. Having participated in the sixth round of the Abuja negotiation process, he was, according to several international observers, key to the progress made during that round. Struggling against the rebel tendency to split on tribal and factional lines, he encouraged commanders to remain united.</p>
<p>Right now in Darfur, prospects for a negotiated political solution seem remote. But there are some two million people displaced inside and outside the region, and international observers fear that the situation is worsening. Everyone knows that the peace process will have to restart again soon.</p>
<p>Jamous, whose daughter and granddaughter live in the United States, would like to come here to represent the rebel movement and promote peace negotiations. With his rich field experience, sophisticated political understanding, and fluency in English, he is uniquely situated to make a difference. Jan Pronk, the former UN special representative for Sudan, says that because Jamous has the confidence of so many rebel commanders, he could “play an important role in establishing a more sustainable cease-fire and peace agreement, respected on the ground.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>The Sudanese government is happy to have Jamous out of the action, and it is not clear what the United Nations is doing to get him released. But as the months drag on, his situation at the UN hospital in Kadugli is becoming increasingly untenable.</p>
<p>On September 19, Jamous learned from a retired Sudanese official that the government of Sudan is considering trying to capture him. In mid-November, another informed source told Jamous that the government had asked the Egyptians, which have troops in Kadugli, to arrest him and hand him over.</p>
<p>On December 2, Jamous was examined by Egyptian doctors in the hospital in Kadugli because of pain in his abdomen. The doctors believe that there is something abnormal in his digestive system, but they do not have the necessary equipment in Kadugli to conduct the tests that he needs.</p>
<p>It will take strong outside pressure to get Jamous released, so that he can receive the necessary medical tests and seek asylum abroad. His first preference is to relocate to the United States, but he is willing to go anywhere that is safe.</p>
<p>When asked what his first priorities would be if he left Kadugli for the United States, Jamous was silent for a moment, considering the possibilities. “I’d like to spend time with my family — my daughter, and my granddaughter who I’ve never seen,” he finally said. “But I have a lot of work to do.”</p>
<p>RECOMMENDED ACTION: please send appeals as quickly as possible:</p>
<p>· condemning the prolonged confinement of Suleiman Jamous in the UN hospital in Kadugli, Kordofan;</p>
<p>· calling on the United States to negotiate with the Sudanese government to allow Suleiman Jamous to leave Sudan for medical treatment and to seek asylum.</p>
<p>Appeals should be sent to:</p>
<p>Andrew Natsios, US Special Envoy to Sudan, c/o Assistant, Marlene Garcia: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> Fax: 202-647-0912 (c/o Marlene Garcia)</p>
<p>JEN MARLOWE is a Seattle-based activist, author and filmmaker. Together with Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro, she is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival</a>(Nation Books, 2006). The three visited Darfur in 2004, shooting footage that they made into a 2005 documentary film, <a href="http://www.darfurdiaries.org/" type="external">Darfur Diaries: Message From Home</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Trapped in Darfur | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/01/22/trapped-in-darfur/ | 2007-01-22 | 4 |
<p>President Donald Trump on Saturday praised first lady Melania Trump on her first solo trip abroad, calling her “a truly great representative for our country.”</p>
<p>Here is Trump’s post:</p>
<p>Very proud of our incredible First Lady ( <a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS" type="external">@FLOTUS</a>.) She is a truly great representative for our country! <a href="https://t.co/yFv0WIjgby" type="external">pic.twitter.com/yFv0WIjgby</a></p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911700914997792769" type="external">September 23, 2017</a></p>
<p>Melania Trump on Saturday l <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Melania-Trump/2017/09/23/id/815302/" type="external">ed a U.S. delegation</a> to Toronto for the Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded service members.</p>
<p>She met with Britain’s Prince Harry, who founded the competition, and with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.</p>
<p>Trump also spoke at a reception for the nearly 100 American athletes participating in the weeklong Olympic-style event — and she attended the opening ceremony.</p>
<p>Other members of the U.S. delegation include Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, professional golfer Nancy Lopez and entertainer Wayne Newton.</p>
<p>Prince Harry established the Invictus Games in 2014 for sick and wounded service members worldwide.</p>
<p>More than 550 individuals from 17 countries are expected to participate in 12 sports during the coming week, from cycling to wheelchair tennis to sitting volleyball.</p> | Trump Praises First Lady Melania: 'Truly Great Representative' for US | false | https://newsline.com/trump-praises-first-lady-melania-truly-great-representative-for-us/ | 2017-09-23 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>The latest on developments in financial markets (All times local):</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Stock indexes ended mostly lower on Wall Street in a quiet day of trading ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Technology companies and banks finished broadly lower Wednesday, though Apple managed to gain 1 percent.</p>
<p>Energy companies rose as oil prices jumped on reports OPEC might extend production cuts. Newfield Exploration gained 1.6 percent.</p>
<p>Farm equipment maker Deere rose 4.3 percent after reporting a strong quarter.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index fell almost 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,597.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 64 points, or 0.3 percent, to 23,526. The Nasdaq added 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,867.</p>
<p>More stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.32 percent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Major stock indexes are mostly lower on Wall Street in quiet trading ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.</p>
<p>Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP both fell sharply Wednesday, and Rockwell Automation fell 1.3 percent after rejecting another offer from Emerson Electric.</p>
<p>Energy stocks rose as the price of oil turned higher. Newfield Exploration gained 2.2 percent. Oil rose 1.9 percent on reports that OPEC might extend its production cuts.</p>
<p>Farm equipment maker Deere rose 4.1 percent after reporting a strong quarter.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,597.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 55 points, or 0.2 percent, to 23,535. The Nasdaq composite added 2 points to 6,864.</p>
<p>More stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:35 a.m.</p>
<p>Energy stocks are leading indexes slightly higher in early trading as the price of oil turns higher.</p>
<p>Newfield Exploration was up 1.6 percent shortly after the opening bell Wednesday.</p>
<p>U.S. crude oil rose 1.6 percent as reports circulated that OPEC might extend its production cuts.</p>
<p>In earnings news, farm equipment maker Deere rose 3.5 percent after reporting a strong quarter.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index was up a fraction of a point at 2,599.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average was little changed at 23,580. The Nasdaq composite added 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,866.</p> | Markets Right Now: Indexes end mostly lower in quiet trade | false | https://abqjournal.com/1096371/markets-right-now-energy-stocks-lead-indexes-higher.html | 2017-11-22 | 2 |
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee wildlife officials are seeking public comments on regulations for the 2018-19 hunting season.</p>
<p>The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says it's an opportunity for Tennesseans to offer ideas and share concerns about hunting regulations with the agency's staff.</p>
<p>The agency says the comment period is open through Feb. 15.</p>
<p>It says public comments will be considered by the agency's staff and may be presented as proposals for regulation changes.</p>
<p>Comments may be submitted by mail to: 2018-19 Hunting Season Comments, TWRA, Wildlife and Forestry Division, P.O. Box 40747, Nashville, TN 37204 or emailed to [email protected]. Please include "Hunting Season Comments" on the subject line of emailed submissions</p>
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee wildlife officials are seeking public comments on regulations for the 2018-19 hunting season.</p>
<p>The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says it's an opportunity for Tennesseans to offer ideas and share concerns about hunting regulations with the agency's staff.</p>
<p>The agency says the comment period is open through Feb. 15.</p>
<p>It says public comments will be considered by the agency's staff and may be presented as proposals for regulation changes.</p>
<p>Comments may be submitted by mail to: 2018-19 Hunting Season Comments, TWRA, Wildlife and Forestry Division, P.O. Box 40747, Nashville, TN 37204 or emailed to [email protected]. Please include "Hunting Season Comments" on the subject line of emailed submissions</p> | Tennessee officials seek comments on hunting regulations | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fe66677c900a4fe99cefaf47b96cc710 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>June 22, 2013</p>
<p>By Chris Reed</p>
<p>When CalWatchdog last weighed in on San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, it was to point out the hagiographic qualities of an often-fawning&#160; <a href="" type="internal">L.A. Times profile of the chronic bully</a> and then to detail a subsequent scandal that showed the former 20-year Democratic congressman simply <a href="" type="internal">believed he was above the law</a> — that, to paraphrase Richard Nixon, if a mayor wanted to do something, then it was therefore legal.</p>
<p>But the hair-trigger anger that has gotten Filner into trouble <a href="http://voiceofsandiego.org/2012/07/30/the-politics-of-bob-filners-personality/" type="external">over and over again</a> in his years in the public eye now threatens a core element of his personal/political narrative: his heroism as a <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Freedom-Riders-Portraits/20" type="external">Freedom Rider</a> in the early 1960s South.</p>
<p>It seems the mayor doesn’t care for one of the highest-ranking African-Americans at San Diego City Hall: Andrew Jones, the number two man in the City Attorney’s Office. As detailed by Scott Lewis of the <a href="http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/06/21/the-mayors-very-bad-week-source-confirms-but-filner-denies-departure-of-top-aide/" type="external">Voice of San Diego</a>, Filner went out of his way to humiliate Jones — <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/15/filner-budget-fans-critics-city-attorney-cuts/2/" type="external">again</a> — this week, part of his worst week in his six months as mayor. The U-T San Diego has the <a href="http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/20/bob-filner-removes-attorney-meeting-police-detail/" type="external">specifics</a>:</p>
<p>“San Diego Mayor Bob Filner used his tax-funded bodyguard to remove the No. 2 official in the City Attorney’s Office from a closed meeting this week, a move which the City Council president witnessed and called ‘wrong’ and another council member described as ‘inexcusable behavior.’</p>
<p>“The mayor appeared to zero in on City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s lieutenant, Andrew Jones, soon after Filner arrived late to the meeting, where several lawsuits the city is involved in were to be discussed.</p>
<p>“’What is Mr. Jones doing up here?’ Filner asked.”</p>
<p>“Filner repeatedly cut off Jones in the meeting, accusing him of leaking confidential information from previous closed sessions, according to a transcript of the public portions of Tuesday’s closed meeting obtained using the California Public Records Act.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, Filner used his police detail to force Jones’ removal. ‘Mr. Sergeant, please remove this gentleman,’ Filner said.</p>
<p>“Jones said he has never leaked confidential information and was at the meeting to act as City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s surrogate, assuring the city officials present were following the law. Goldsmith was not at the meeting.</p>
<p>“When Jones attempted to ask a question, according to the transcript, Filner said, ‘I will have you removed if you don’t sit down.’</p>
<p>“Jones replied, ‘You can try.’</p>
<p>“Filner then left the room and returned with police, the transcript indicates.</p>
<p>“’There’s no discussion, Mr. Jones,’ Filner said. ‘Will the sergeants please remove him? He’s disruptive of this meeting.’</p>
<p>“Jones left the meeting after being told to do so by a police officer. …</p>
<p>“’I was shocked. It was baffling to me,’ [Jones said]. ‘For him to remove me, wow, to treat me like that. If you read the transcripts, you can see I was just trying to get a question answered.'”</p>
<p>The problem for my fellow San Diegans is that Filner is not a headstrong young pol who might see the light if he got a talking-to by a senior mentor. He’s a 70-year-old bully who has gotten away with his horrible behavior for years, one who thinks that he’s always right and so his ends justify his means.</p>
<p>So does he ever change? Nope. But we could soon see a series of “have you no shame?” moments where politicians of his own party, starting with San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria, call him out. Filner is that obnoxious.</p> | San Diego mayor continues descent into psycho-bully self-parody | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/06/22/san-diego-mayor-continues-descent-into-psycho-bully-self-parody/ | 2018-06-20 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg0hc1y7JQk" type="external">Clinton</a>: “If you’re an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial. I mean, it makes us — we look like a joke, right? You can’t win the nomination of one of the major parties in our country if you admit that the scientists are right? That disqualifies you from doing it? You could really help us there. It’s really tragic because we need a debate in America, and in every country, between people who are a little bit to the right and people who are a little bit to the left about what the best way is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. What is the most economical way to do it? What will get more done quicker? There are all these things that in any other country would occupy a lot of space on the ideological spectrum from right to left, and we can’t have this conversation because you’ve got to deny it?”</p>
<p>John Wihbey has a <a href="http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/10/how-president-clinton-explainer-in-chief-frames-climate-change/" type="external">good collection</a> of Clinton quotes on climate at The Yale Forum on Climate Change &amp; The Media, in his piece, “How President Clinton, ‘Explainer-in-Chief,’ Frames Climate Change.”</p>
<p>The quote above is from last year’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg0hc1y7JQk" type="external">Clinton Global Initiative</a> (9–21–11). Here’s another, from a talk at the <a href="http://soundcloud.com/lsepodcasts/a-conversation-with-president" type="external">London School of Economics</a> (7–12–12):</p>
<p>“My strategy on [engaging deniers] is very simple. Some people who are climate skeptics are climate skeptics because it’s in their interest to be. They just want to preserve the old energy economy, and there’s not much I can do about that. But what I am trying to do, literally all the time, is to prove that saving the planet is better economics than burning it up. Not 10 or 20 or 50 years from now — [but] now. There are a lot of climate skeptics but their reasons are being chipped away…. There are a lot of people who have a different view. Their view is, ‘Look, this may be good, this may be bad. But God almighty the world is coming apart at the seams economically and we’ve got other fish to fry. We have to deal with other things.’ [For] those people, you must prove it is good economics to change the way we produce and pursue energy…. So what I do to try to overcome the climate skeptics is to figure out how to solve the financing problems, because fundamentally all the financing problems look alike. Whether you’re dealing with clean energy or energy efficiency, the costs are all up-front and the savings are all in the back….”</p>
<p>No question Clinton has the arithmetic right:</p>
<p>One final quote, also from LSE this year:</p>
<p>“Every now and then I’ll give a speech on this&#160;… but I try not to give many speeches on this energy stuff, the environment. I just try to do one project after another. I figure if we just keep lining ’em up and pushing ’em down, and lining ’em up and pushing ’em down, at some point denial will no longer be an effective strategy. And that’s what I recommend to you: Do something, no matter how small it is.”</p>
<p>Hear! Hear!</p> | Bill Clinton’s Message: ‘Saving The Planet Is Better Economics Than Burning It Up’ | true | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/17/1038041/bill-clintons-message-saving-the-planet-is-better-economics-than-burning-it-up/ | 2012-10-18 | 4 |
<p>I went to the Library of Congress National Book Festival Saturday at the Washington, D.C. Convention.</p>
<p>There were more than 100 authors there, speaking about their books and signing them — including the wildly popular children’s book <a href="" type="internal">Ghosts</a>by Raina Telgemeier.</p>
<p>More than 100,000 people attended the one day event.</p>
<p>But not one of the books dealt with corporate power, corporate control over the society, corporate crime and violence.</p>
<p>There have been so many great books written in recent months about the topic.</p>
<p>Matt Taibbi’s <a href="" type="internal">The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap</a>.</p>
<p>Bradley Birkenfeld’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1626343713/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Lucifer’s Banker: The Untold Story of How I Destroyed Swiss Bank Secrecy</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Why Not Jail?: Industrial Catastrophes, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction</a> by Rena Steinzer.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal</a> by Eugene Soltes.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations</a> by Brandon Garrett.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Capital Offenses: Business Crime and Punishment in America’s Corporate Age</a> by Samuel Buell.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think</a>&#160;by Ralph Nader.</p>
<p>The list goes on.</p>
<p>I’m walking through the giant DC Convention center, asking myself — why?</p>
<p>Why not one book on corporate power, corporate crime and corporate control?</p>
<p>I go downstairs to the massive ground level where the authors go to sign books.</p>
<p>And there, I see the answer.</p>
<p>It’s the children book’s area.</p>
<p>There, scores of children are sitting on the floor next to stuffed horses, listening to authors read books like&#160;Froggy Plays Soccer, Nellie Saves the Day and Too Many Tamales.</p>
<p>Behind them, a giant replica of a Wells Fargo bank.</p>
<p>Next to that — the famed Wells Fargo Stagecoach.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo being one of the main corporate sponsors of the Library of Congress National Book Festival.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo — the bank that pressured thousands of its employees to meet aggressive sales targets.</p>
<p>And a result, those employees went out and opened as many as two million unauthorized accounts, in some cases forging signatures — and were subsequently dismissed.</p>
<p>As Senator Elizabeth Warren put it this week to Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf — “If one of your tellers took a handful of $20 bills out of the cash drawer, they probably would be looking at criminal charges for theft.”</p>
<p>“They could end up in prison,” Warren said. “But you squeezed your employees to the breaking point so they would cheat customers and you could drive up the value of your stock and put hundreds of millions of dollars in your own pocket. And when it all blew up, you kept your job, you kept your multimillion dollar bonuses and you went on television to blame thousands of $12 an hour employees who were just trying to meet cross-sell quotas that made you rich. This is about accountability. You should resign. You should give back the money that you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This just isn’t right.”</p>
<p>No books on corporate crime and corporate power at the Library of Congress Book Festival?</p>
<p>Maybe because Wells Fargo is sponsoring the event?</p>
<p>Maybe because Wells Fargo is reading books to children at the event?</p>
<p>The Library of Congress might say — hey, all this just went public after we set everything up with Wells Fargo.</p>
<p>Not so.</p>
<p>While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went public with its case against Wells Fargo on September 8, 2016, the <a href="" type="internal">Los Angeles Times ran an expose</a>reporting the problem three years ago in December 2013.</p>
<p>Corporate crime.</p>
<p>Corporate power.</p>
<p>Corporate control.</p>
<p>Off the table.</p> | Wells Fargo and the Library of Congress’ National Book Festival | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/26/wells-fargo-and-the-library-of-congress-national-book-festival/ | 2016-09-26 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut in “Better Call Saul,” which is filmed in Albuquerque. The two actors received Emmy nominations on Thursday. (Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)</p>
<p>“Better Call Saul” is shining bright to the tune of nine Emmy nominations.</p>
<p>The AMC drama – based at Albuquerque Studios – wrapped up its third season in June with an average of 1.6 million viewers.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the series, along with Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, picked up nominations in lead and supporting actor, respectively. It is Odenkirk's third straight nomination for his role as Saul Goodman.</p>
<p>HBO's “Westworld” and NBC's “Saturday Night Live” led all nominations with 22 each.</p>
<p>“Better Call Saul” is a spin-off from the ratings juggernaut and pop culture giant “Breaking Bad.”</p>
<p>“Better Call Saul” is set in 2002 and follows Jimmy McGill six years before his appearance on “Breaking Bad” as Goodman, Walter White's slimy lawyer.</p>
<p>Odenkirk has played the role for a number of years and says a role like Goodman doesn't come around often.</p>
<p>“It's really a unique journey and not something we see in today's world,” he said.</p>
<p>Banks also picked up his second straight nomination for his role as Mike Ehrmantraut, and the series was recognized in the best drama category.</p>
<p>Creator and writer Vince Gilligan picked up a directing nomination for the series.</p>
<p>The other nominations are for outstanding music supervision, writing for a drama series, sound mixing and two nominations for single-camera picture editing.</p>
<p>During the series' three seasons, it has become a critics' darling and amassed 23 Emmy Award nominations. It has also been renewed for a fourth season.</p>
<p>AMC also picked up a nomination for short form comedy or drama series for the “Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training” online video.</p>
<p>“The Film Office would like to congratulate 'Better Call Saul' for their well-deserved Emmy nominations,” said Nick Maniatis, New Mexico Film Office director. “We acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the New Mexican crew, vendors and actors that have contributed their talents to make the series Emmy worthy. It's a great reflection on our healthy New Mexico film industry.”</p>
<p>Missing from this year's nominations is Emmy favorite – and Santa Fe resident George R.R. Martin's – “Game of Thrones.” The previous Emmy winner didn't qualify for nominations because it didn't air between June 2016 and May 31, 2017.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Executive Producer Vince Gilligan, right, sets up a scene for a “Better Call Saul” episode. Gilligan received an Emmy nomination for directing. (Michele K. Short/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 'Saul' is good with 9 Emmy nominations | false | https://abqjournal.com/1032760/saul-is-golden-with-nine-emmy-nominations.html | 2017-07-13 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A proposal on this year’s general election ballot would boost the minimum wage in Albuquerque by a dollar – to $8.50 an hour – and establish automatic increases in the future to keep up with inflation.</p>
<p>Supporters and opponents have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their message out amid the din of an already-noisy campaign season. Both sides cite the state of the economy in their arguments.</p>
<p>David Edwards, owner of New Mexico Tea Co. in Albuquerque, said the increase would give minimum wage earners more money to spend on his products and other items.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I feel that raising the minimum wage would boost Albuquerque’s economy on the whole, and a boosted economy helps my business,” Edwards said in an interview Monday.</p>
<p>Steve Paternoster, owner of Scalo Northern Italian Grill, said the timing of the proposed increase is “critically bad.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know of any business really anywhere that’s sitting on a mound of cash,” he said. “Right now, everybody’s trying to hang on.”</p>
<p>The minimum wage proposal was brought forth through a rarely used provision in the City Charter for voter initiatives. Supporters gathered thousands of petition signatures this summer to force the city to hold an election on the issue.</p>
<p>The City Council refused to act on the proposal, and after much legal wrangling, the state Supreme Court ordered it onto the ballot. The legal fight may not be over.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The petitions circulated by supporters – and the language that appears on the ballot – contain faulty wording that makes it appear as if certain employers would pay themselves, rather than their employees, the minimum wage.</p>
<p>Supporters say no one is likely to be confused because the overall meaning is clear. Opponents say it’s a critical error that changes the meaning of what is proposed.</p>
<p>Here’s how it’s supposed to work:</p>
<p>♦ The minimum would increase automatically in future years. The proposal calls for annual cost-of-living adjustments to the basic minimum wage each Jan. 1, based on percentage increases in the Consumer Price Index.</p>
<p>♦ Employees who get tips also would get a boost. They now receive a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour, plus tips. The proposal would increase the minimum for tipped employees to $3.83, starting Jan. 1, and the rate would climb to 60 percent of whatever the main minimum wage is the following year, or $5.10 if the wage is still $8.50. Opponents of the bill say tips already push the average pay up to $12 an hour.</p>
<p>Both sides have financial resources at their disposal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In filings to the city clerk, the Committee to Keep Albuquerque Working reported more than $179,000 in contributions, about $171,000 of which came from the New Mexico Restaurant Association.</p>
<p>On the other side, a committee called Raise the Wage reported about $115,000 in contributions. The Olé Education Fund – a community group that pushed to get the proposal on the ballot – contributed more than $69,000, and union groups chipped in with $33,000.</p>
<p>Who benefits?</p>
<p>Paternoster said the minimum wage isn’t really intended for someone raising a family. Business owners want their employees to be successful and happy, he said, and the minimum wage is intended for teenagers and people just getting started.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anybody begrudges anybody else having a better standard of living, but it should be done on merit,” Paternoster said. “It should be done because it makes sense at the time.”</p>
<p>He also raised questions about the proposal’s call for tying future increases to the Consumer Price Index. That could lead to double-digit increases, depending on how the economy performs and how the federal government deals with deficits and debt.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Edwards, meanwhile, said it isn’t just teenagers who make the minimum wage. He pointed to a New Mexico Voices for Children report in support of the proposal, which cited Census data and said 90 percent of minimum-wage earners are 20 and older and 81 percent work more than 20 hours a week.</p>
<p>That report also estimated about 21,000 people make right at the minimum in Albuquerque and 19,000 more would see increases because of the “spillover” effect.</p>
<p>“Those people aren’t going to get a raise unless action is taken,” Edwards said.</p>
<p>Unemployment in Albuquerque was 6.3 percent in August, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics information posted to Google’s Public Data website.</p>
<p>As for the timing, Edwards said he doubts business groups would support an increase any other time.</p>
<p>“I don’t feel the minimum wage is at all approaching close to acceptable for what you should pay people,” he said. — This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Minimum Wage Fight Gears Up | false | https://abqjournal.com/140702/minimum-wage-fight-gears-up.html | 2012-10-23 | 2 |
<p>California is attempting to be the first state in the nation to kill wild game hunting.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />By prohibiting the use of all lead ammunition for hunting in California, coupled with the federal government’s attempt to ban non-lead ammo, hunters could be left out in the woods with an empty weapon.</p>
<p>According to Sam&#160;Paredes with <a href="http://www.gunownersca.com" type="external">Gun Owners of California</a>, if the state and federal bans are actually passed, the only alternative ammunition available would be&#160;pure gold bullets. That might be advantageous for the assassin&#160; <a href="http://jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/Francisco_Scaramanga" type="external">Francisco Scaremonger</a>, in the “Man with the Golden Gun,” but it’s bad for Californians.</p>
<p>Hunting is being attacked as part of a campaign to ban the use of traditional ammunition, which is comprised of lead core components.</p>
<p>Anti-gun activists become anti-ammo activists</p>
<p>In addition to the many anti-gun bills proposed by California Democrats, they’ve discovered the way around these unpopular bills is by banning lead ammunition.&#160; <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB711&amp;search_keywords=" type="external">Assembly Bill 711</a>, &#160;by freshman Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Southgate,&#160;would effectively ban hunting under the guise of “protecting the environment.”</p>
<p><a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB711&amp;search_keywords=" type="external">AB 711</a>is just one of many bills in the Legislature this year which seek to weaken the <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-1992/pdf/GPO-CONAN-1992-10-3.pdf" type="external">Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution</a>.</p>
<p>Why can’t hunters just use non-lead ammo? &#160;The problem is that the federal government is on the brink of banning non-lead ammo, according to Assemblyman Brian Jones. In California this would mean there would be no ammunition available for hunting.</p>
<p>The bill has been held in suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committee, ostensibly because of the negative financial impact it would have on the Fish and Game Commission.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/econ-hunting.html" type="external">According</a> to the Department of Fish and Wildlife:</p>
<p>* “The annual spending by America’s 14 million hunters amounts to $61 billion.&#160;</p>
<p>* “Hunting supported 704,600 million jobs, or nearly 1 percent of America’s entire civilian labor force, in all sectors of the American economy.</p>
<p>* “Hunting created household income (salaries and wages) totaling $416.1 billion, which is roughly equivalent to 25 percent of America’s entire military payroll.</p>
<p>* “Hunting added $1.4 billion to state tax revenues, or nearly 1 percent of all annual state tax revenues combined.</p>
<p>* “Hunting contributed $1.7 billion in federal income taxes, which equates to almost half of the entire federal budget for commerce.”</p>
<p>Many expect the committee will pass AB 711, under pressure from the anti-gun lobby, environmentalists, the Audubon Society and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. If so, the economic impact to California would be significant.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The department, formerly named the Department of Fish and Game when it was more friendly to hunters, has tried for several years to ban lead ammunition in California, claiming the California Condor has been dying off because of lead bullets. Unable to mandate the ban, the agency turned to the Legislature. But charges of phony science plague the attempted ban.</p>
<p>Faulty science</p>
<p>“Without such a ban,&#160; <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/06/19/1203141109" type="external">extinction of the California condor is inevitable</a>, according to a 2012 study by the National Academy of Sciences,” Yale Environment 360 <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/will_lead_in_bullets_finally_kill_off_california_condor/2647/" type="external">claims</a>.</p>
<p>“Many of the scientific papers used by anti-lead ammunition proponents to support lead ammunition bans have consistently been critiqued for questionable scientific practices,” <a href="http://www.huntfortruth.org/site/" type="external">according</a> to Huntfortruth.org. “These researchers have used flawed scientific methodology and have selectively cherry picked data to support their preconceived conclusions, while routinely ignoring alternative sources of lead in the environment.”</p>
<p>According to Sam Paredes of <a href="http://www.gunownersca.com" type="external">Gun Owners of California</a>, this isn’t the first attempt to falsely claim California Condors are being poisoned by hunters. Paredes said in 2007 the proponents of one of the nation’s first lead ammunition bans, <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070910_enrolled.html" type="external">AB 821</a>, claimed that California condors were being poisoned by consuming hunters’ lead ammunition. They promised that, if hunters stopped using lead ammunition in the condor range, the lead poisoning would cease.</p>
<p>But Paredes said blood-lead levels in California condors have not declined because condors are exposed to alternative sources of <a href="http://www.epa.gov/superfund/lead/products/ch04.pdf" type="external">bioavailable lead</a>, including documented evidence of lead paint chip and lead-contaminated microtrash ingestion.&#160; The AB 821 lead ammunition ban <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070910_enrolled.html" type="external">(the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act</a>) has done nothing to prevent the alternative sources of lead in the condor zone.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>North Dakota study refutes enviros</p>
<p>In May 2008, the North Dakota Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study measuring the risk, if any, of eating wild game harvested with lead bullets.</p>
<p>The study was designed to determine whether people who eat wild game have higher blood lead levels than people who don’t.</p>
<p>The study found no elevated levels of lead in the families of hunters, who regularly eat wild&#160;game.</p>
<p>“The geometric mean of the CDC study of 1.17 micrograms per deciliter was&#160;lower&#160;than the geometric mean of lead in the overall U.S. population (1.60 micrograms per deciliter),” the NRA <a href="http://www.nrahuntersrights.org/LeadIssues.aspx" type="external">reported</a>. “More than 86 percent of the people in the CDC test reported eating more than one type of wild game.”</p>
<p>Yet the <a href="http://www.ndhealth.gov/lead/venison/" type="external">North Dakota Department of Health</a> reported their findings a little differently, clearly under pressure from special interest groups:</p>
<p>“Based on the results of the CDC blood lead level study and a Minnesota bullet study, the North Dakota Department of Health has developed the following recommendations to minimize the risk of harm to people who are most vulnerable to the effects of lead:</p>
<p>* “Pregnant women and children younger than 6 should not eat any venison harvested with lead bullets.</p>
<p>* “Older children and other adults should take steps to minimize their potential exposure to lead, and use their judgment about consuming game that was taken using lead-based ammunition.</p>
<p>* “The most certain way of avoiding lead bullet fragments in wild game is to hunt with non-lead bullets.</p>
<p>* “Hunters and processors should follow the processing recommendations developed by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.”</p>
<p>Their new “recommendations” were hardly evidence of serious lead poisoning problems.</p>
<p>Hunters have eaten venison taken with lead bullets for hundreds of years. Yet according to the NRA and Huntfortruth.org, there is not one documented case of lead poisoning from eating deer meat. Doctors are required to report all cases of lead poisoning to the Centers for Disease Control,&#160;yet according CDC Public Health adviser <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/training/LPPTC.htm" type="external">Kimball Credle</a>, no cases have ever been traced to wild game meat.</p>
<p>“Federal law allows the U.S. Attorney General through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to make a finding or determination that an alternative ammunition projectile or projectile core is intended to be used for a ‘sporting purpose,’ Jones explained.</p>
<p>“To date the ATF has received approximately 19 petitions filed by ammunition manufacturers seeking a ‘sporting purpose’ exemption for alternative ammunition for the hunting market nationwide, and at this point in time the ATF has failed to rule on any of the petitions. Some of these petitions are reported to have been pending since August of 2011.”</p> | CA and feds take aim at hunting ammo | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/07/26/ca-and-feds-take-aim-at-hunting-ammo/ | 2018-07-20 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>A New Tour Being Offered At The Valles Caldera National Preserve Offers A Chance To Seek Out Bigfoot, Maybe Looking Something Like This Famous Image From A 1967 Film, The Authenticity Of Which Is A Subject Of Debate. (The Associated Press)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A leading expert on the myth and science behind the questionably-real simian creature&#160;Bigfoot is coming to the University of New Mexico's Gallup campus.</p>
<p>Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, is a researcher with a specialty in the emergence of bipedal motion in humans and simians. He's also the author of Sasquatch: Legend meets Science, a book that looks at the Bigfoot myth with a scientific eye. Check out this NPR interview about the book, where Meldrum talks about a possible simian species that could have informed the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6469070" type="external">legends of Sasquatch.</a></p>
<p>Meldrum will give a lecture and sign books at the Gallup campus from 4 to 6 p.m., Feb. 11. Self-reported eye witnesses and Bigfoot experts will also host a conversation about the creature from 10 to noon, Feb. 12. Meldrum will also be joined by Rob Kryder, a naturalist who claims to have seen Bigfoot.</p>
<p>New Mexico has had its share of Bigfoot sightings. A cable TV show&#160;suggested the perhaps-fictional creature was spotted in the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico.&#160;</a></p>
<p>The event is free to attend, and registration isn't required.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Bigfoot expert coming to UNM Gallup campus | false | https://abqjournal.com/713866/bigfoot-expert-coming-to-unm-gallup-campus.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Today in BP-related news:</p>
<p>America’s Wetland Foundation might sound like your regular old conservation group, but it’s actually a front-group funded by BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Chevron, the American Petroleum Institute, and other polluters, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/wetlands-front-group-fund_b_662739.html" type="external">Brendan DeMelle reports</a>. The teamed with a Louisiana women’s group called Women of the Storm to propagate the idea that taxpayers should pay to restore the Gulf Coast after the oil disaster. Sandra Bullock managed to get caught up in the greenwash by agreeing to be in their ads, but has now <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/29/bullock-disowns-bp/" type="external">asked that they be taken down</a> after the industry funding was revealed.</p>
<p>My personal favorite line from <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/313807/000095012310068947/u09440e6vk.htm" type="external">BP’s SEC filing</a>: “The incident has damaged BP’s reputation and brand, with adverse public and political sentiment evident. This could persist into the longer term, which could impede our ability to deliver long-term growth.”</p>
<p>Turns out there have been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/23/AR2010072305603.html" type="external">a whole lot of spills</a> in the Gulf over the past five decades.</p>
<p>Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) <a href="http://lautenberg.senate.gov/assets/dispersants.pdf" type="external">introduced a bill</a> this week that would require better testing of oil dispersants and confirmation that the chemicals are not hazardous to humans and the environment.</p>
<p>And in other environmental news:</p>
<p>The Hill reports that coal-friendly Democrats and Republicans in the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/111629-house-members-press-epa-on-coal-ash-rule-" type="external">House</a> and <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/111613-conrad-brownback-press-epa-for-softer-rules-on-coal-byproduct-" type="external">Senate</a> want to protect the industry from the EPA’s plans to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste. They worry that doing so would be a “crippling blow” to industries that benefit from reuse of the byproduct, which happens to contain hazardous materials like arsenic and mercury.</p>
<p>One big beneficiary of the Citizens United ruling: Big Coal. Major coal companies are <a href="http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2010/07/27/coal-execs-hope-to-spend-big-under-new-rules-to-defeat-conway-and-chandler/" type="external">planning to pool their cash</a> in a to defeat “anti-coal” Democrats, the Kentucky Herald-Leader reports. Forming a 527 means companies like Massey Energy won’t have to disclose how much they’ve spent until next year’s tax filings.</p>
<p /> | Enviro Links: Wetlands Astroturf, Big Coal Loves Citizens United, and More | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/enviro-links-wetlands-astroturf-big-coal-loves-citizens-united-and-more/ | 2010-07-30 | 4 |
<p>From this weekend's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and current occupant of the 2016 GOP presidential clown car was asked about Donald Trump's inflammatory remarks about immigrants and was allowed to pretend that the Republicans are the party that actually has something to offer African-Americans and other minorities economically.</p>
<p>Somehow Bartiromo failed to ask Perry if that minority outreach program he was touting would include a visit to his <a href="" type="internal">family's "N*ggerhead" hunting ranch.</a></p>
<p>BARTIROMO: Are you seeing Donald Trump's comment as a taint on the Republican party? Is he taking down the entire party?</p>
<p>PERRY: Well, I see the Democrats making that as an issue and them trying to paint everybody with a very broad brush. You know, I think we won't paint all Democrats as being untrustworthy, if that's going to be the tactic here as Hillary Clinton is trying to paint all Republicans with Mr. Trump's response.</p>
<p>We need to bring this country together and this president for six and a half years has divided us by gender, by economics, by race, and these highly disrespectful terms that get used, we need to reel those back. We're better than that.</p>
<p>BARTIROMO: You know, you gave a speech last week at the National Press Club and I want to ask you about it, because you said that there are ways that the GOP can earn and deserve the support of black Americans. What did you mean by that?</p>
<p>PERRY; Well, I think admitting where we've been wrong in the past is a great first step, and I did that in that speech, but I also talked about the results of economic policies, tax policy, regulatory policy, eduction policy that really matter.</p>
<p>When you see that African-American in Texas have substantially better position in life, economically, educationally, because of the policies we put in place, then that's hard to argue against. I mean, the left is going to try to, you know, glance off of this and try to deflect and try to get you to look behind, or not look behind the curtain.</p>
<p>But the point is there are real results in the state of Texas. There's real results where you give economic freedom, where you give educational opportunities and African-Americans and Hispanics in particular should really look at the Republican party for the future of their best interests.</p>
<p>Perry wants us to believe that the Democrats are the ones trying to divide everyone along racial lines, not the party that invented the Southern Strategy. And of course he's still selling that trickle-down snake oil they've been touting since the days of St. Ronnie.</p> | Rick Perry On Trump: We Need To Reel Back These Highly Disrespectful Terms That Get Used | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/07/rick-perry-trump-we-need-reel-back-these | 2015-07-12 | 4 |
<p>MIAMI (AP) — Authorities say a man was taken into custody after jumping a perimeter fence at Miami International Airport and sprinting across a runway.</p>
<p>News outlets report that Miami-Dade police responded to the tarmac Monday afternoon and apprehended the man, who wasn’t immediately named.</p>
<p>Police say the man was apparently trying to take a shortcut. He told investigators that he had been dropped off at the airport to fill out an application and decided to jump the fence after realizing he was in wrong place.</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear if any flights were affected by the intruder.</p>
<p>No injuries were reported.</p>
<p>MIAMI (AP) — Authorities say a man was taken into custody after jumping a perimeter fence at Miami International Airport and sprinting across a runway.</p>
<p>News outlets report that Miami-Dade police responded to the tarmac Monday afternoon and apprehended the man, who wasn’t immediately named.</p>
<p>Police say the man was apparently trying to take a shortcut. He told investigators that he had been dropped off at the airport to fill out an application and decided to jump the fence after realizing he was in wrong place.</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear if any flights were affected by the intruder.</p>
<p>No injuries were reported.</p> | Officials: Man jumps fence at Miami airport | false | https://apnews.com/1748f9e7030c409cafc3d1809d933c4b | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That’s how Brian Baca describes the day in early November when he, of all people, fell for a scam.</p>
<p>Baca is the president of the regional Better Business Bureau, the organization dedicated to smoking out scamsters and protecting consumers. Its motto: “Start With Trust.”</p>
<p>He was willing to talk about what happened to him in hopes others can learn about the sophisticated, very creepy intrusion into his life and to perhaps prevent it from happening to others.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Everyone needs to be aware all the time,” Baca said during a recent interview. “You have to be diligent … looking out for this every day.”</p>
<p>The scam that took Baca is a bit complicated – “this blew me away,” one BBB expert said – but there are lots of lessons to be learned, so bear with me.</p>
<p>BACA: “It does seem the scammers are one step ahead.”</p>
<p>The backdrop is that Baca was in the midst of closing on a Farmington building the BBB was donating to Big Brothers Big Sisters. There were lots of emails back and forth between the two organizations, so Baca didn’t think twice about one from the Big Brothers email address that was titled “Kindly Review The Attached Document.”</p>
<p>When he clicked to open it, it was blank, but he was then prompted to provide his Google email username and password. He complied.</p>
<p>Big mistake.</p>
<p>The email was bogus. Because Baca had provided his Google log-on information, the hackers were able to get into his email account. Once there, they immediately started sending identical bogus emails to all of the BBB chief’s contacts – thousands of them because they included anyone Baca had ever emailed. Even his mother got one.</p>
<p>Those fraudulent emails that went out under his name had the same “Kindly Review” subject line and asked the recipient to do as Baca was told: click on the document and then provide Google email credentials.</p>
<p>The point of the scam was to get inside as many emails as possible – very quickly – and to steal personal information such as bank account numbers, Social Security identification, etc.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Now, here’s the devious part. The hack was designed with several elements to keep Baca in the dark about the emails emanating from his account. First, those emails were signed with Baca’s usual auto-signature – name, title and all contact info. However, the phone numbers had been altered. So anyone trying to call Baca about the email would get a wrong number.</p>
<p>Second, the hacker had set up filters so that all responding emails with the same “Kindly Review The Attached Document” subject line would go directly to Baca’s trash. Same for subject lines like “scam” or “hacked,” just in case one of his contacts suspected something amiss and sent an email asking him if he’d been hacked.</p>
<p>This set-up was to ensure the hacker had time to send out the fake mass emails and then perform a scan to find personal information. And that can take just minutes.</p>
<p>Fortunately for Baca, his assistant, Connie Quillen, caught on rather quickly and dashed to his trash file. There, she and Baca could see in real time the hacker sending out the phony emails.</p>
<p>The day was rough because he and Quillen spent the rest of it emailing all of his contacts to tell them to delete the bad email, to change their passwords and to run a virus scan. Because Baca doesn’t have a handy contact list on his computer, they had to go through distribution lists and try to recover the names of people who were targeted so they could be warned.</p>
<p>So, here are some of the lessons learned, courtesy of the Better Business Bureau:</p>
<p>At the end of the ordeal, Baca said he felt most sorry for all the others who were were targeted.</p>
<p>“I felt bad for all the people who got the emails,” he said. “It does seem the scammers are one step ahead.”</p>
<p>Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-800-678-1508.</p>
<p /> | BBB chief falls prey to intrusion | false | https://abqjournal.com/506835/bbb-chief-falls-prey-to-intrusion.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Small Business Spotlight: Cianna Medical, Inc., @CiannaMedical</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Who: Jill Anderson</p>
<p>What: A medical device company devoted to improving women’s heatlth</p>
<p>When: 2007</p>
<p>Where: Orange County, CA</p>
<p>How: Cianna Medical CEO and co-founder Jill Anderson says the company’s primary focus is on women diagnosed with breast cancer. “Our flagship technology is the SAVI, a breast brachytherapy device that delivers targeted radiation,’ says Anderson.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>She says the targeting process radiates less tissue, creating less toxicity for patients, and is used over five days. In comparison, traditional forms of radiation are administered over a six-week period.</p>
<p>Anderson says the company has raised $30 million in venture capital funding.</p>
<p>Biggest challenge: Anderson says the biggest challenge is raising patient awareness. “Our 5-day therapy is only offered to 15% or less of those who are appropriate candidates,” she says.</p>
<p>One moment in time: Anderson is proudest that the company is recognized as a market leader, pitted against two major competitors, Hologic and CR Bard.</p>
<p>Best business advice: Anderson says the best business advice is to never let a crisis go to waste, and to make the most out of adversity.</p> | Small Medical Device Company Focuses on Breast-Cancer Battle | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/01/small-medical-device-company-focuses-on-breast-cancer-battle.html | 2016-03-21 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>La Casa Sena went dark briefly in June for a touch of remodeling and to gear up for a new menu. As part of the change, the courtyard now has its own bar and cozy La Cantina, open now for lunch and dinner, has two TVs. The food update eliminated separate menus for the patio, the Cantina and the elegant indoor dining room. Now what arrives from Chef Patrick Gharrity’s kitchen depends not on where you’re eating but when. The dinner menu, available from 5 p.m. until closing, reflects the restaurant’s gourmet side with options such as an appetizer of foie gras served with an ounce of specially selected wine for $37. Or perhaps a main course of venison osso bucco with sweet pea puree.</p>
<p>The lunch menu my friends and I sampled is available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the early dinner menu is served from 3 p.m. Both include many of the same choices: a green chile cheeseburger, enchiladas, mussels, a wild mushroom tamale and the seafood sampler with lobster sausage, halibut ceviche and tuna sashimi. If you can’t find something to eat here, you’re probably not hungry.</p>
<p>First, acknowledgment of the best of what I tried. The grilled New Mexico hanger steak was super. The tender beef arrived perfectly cooked to order and beautifully plated with broad, thin strips of grilled zucchini and yellow squash as its base. I could eat this steak several times a week. The quinoa and mango side dish served with the salmon was exceptional: light, fresh, tasty and creative. Two of the three desserts we tried, the unique chocolate banana bonbon — ice cream in the center of a dark chocolate shell with blueberries around the edges — and the decadently delicious lemon crème brûlée, hold their own with desserts any day in any town. Save room for them, or make a special trip to Casa Sena for coffee and dessert on the beautiful patio or, perhaps, with the music offered nightly in La Cantina.</p>
<p>Most of the rest of our food was good. The soup of the day, melon-cucumber gazpacho ($8), was light and refreshing, a treat for a late summer afternoon. It was garnished with a tasty blue crab salsa. I liked them both, but better separately than together. The luncheon salmon ($17) served with the quinoa mentioned earlier, was still juicy and an ample but not excessive serving. The barbecued pork Po-Boy ($12) had plenty of meat and the sides of slaw and beans were satisfying. I liked the multi-grain bun, too. The salad of the day, sliced fresh peaches atop fresh spinach tossed with some soft cheese crumbles and a nice blood orange vinaigrette was both attractive and yummy ($10).</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A few dishes missed the mark. According to the menu, the chile relleno that came with the steak was stuffed with “cheesy garlic mashed potatoes,” but ours had bland, unseasoned potatoes that needed a makeover, especially considering the mildness of the chile itself. The hummus dotted with roasted piñons in the vegetarian sampler ($11) was great, but because of the way the dish was advertised, I was disappointed. In addition to the dip and a few triangles of pita bread, it had one four-inch cob of fresh corn and two tiny eggroll-like squash flautas filled with perhaps a teaspoon of fried vegetables. Before I ordered, I asked the waitress if the sampler would be appropriate to share among our table of six. She was enthusiastic about it as an appetizer. Wrong. So wrong, I wondered if she had ever seen this dish.</p>
<p>After I saw it, I ordered the guacamole ($9), a cup of fresh but otherwise average dip, which came with plenty of crisp, salty corn chips and was made for sharing. Why didn’t the waitress recommend this?</p>
<p>Apart from the sampler disaster, there were other service problems. It seemed as though no one was in charge of or responsible for our table. We had long waits for drinks and food. We could see idle servers standing under the portal, but we had to signal them so we could ask for refills of water, iced tea and coffee. Even at a less expensive restaurant, the inattentive service would have been an issue. But when you’re paying $18 for a soup and salad lunch, I believe customers have a justified expectation of better treatment. To make things worse, because we were a party of six, a 20 percent tip was automatically added to our bill for service that didn’t warrant 15 percent.</p>
<p>La Casa Sena sets high expectations with its history as a fine restaurant, first-rate desserts and many of the creative new food choices. Because the menu is new and the chef experienced, I predict that the food quality will quickly rise to consistent excellence. And even with the spotty service, La Casa Sena’s sensational Santa Fe ambiance warrants a visit.</p> | Mouth-Watering Makeover | false | https://abqjournal.com/142694/mouthwatering-makeover.html | 2012-10-31 | 2 |
<p>John Minchillo/AP</p>
<p />
<p>On the night of his big Super Tuesday victory, GOP front-runner Donald Trump gave a winner’s press conference and, as he often does, railed against the evils of outsourcing.</p>
<p>“You look at countries like Mexico, where they’re killing us on the border, absolutely destroying us on the border. They’re destroying us in terms of economic development. Companies like Carrier air conditioner just moving into Mexico, Ford moving into Mexico, Nabisco closing up shop in Chicago and moving into Mexico,” Trump <a href="https://youtu.be/fVHcZctuJGI?t=2h17m28s" type="external">said to supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort</a> in Palm Beach, Florida. “We have to stop it, folks. I know how to stop it: We’re going to create jobs, we’re going to create jobs like you’ve never seen.”</p>
<p>Contending that this economic problem is the result of politicians forgetting the American middle class, Trump continued: “Now they’re leaving from places that they used to move to into other parts of the world. We can’t let that happen. We’ve lost our manufacturing jobs. We’ve lost our manufacturing—millions and millions of jobs, thousands and thousands and thousand of plants, manufacturing plants, warehouses. I mean we are losing so much; we can’t let it happen.”</p>
<p>Yet a decade ago, before Trump was a politician, he had a much different view on outsourcing: It was often a good thing, he said. In 2005, Trump wrote <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060507011645/http://donaldtrump.trumpuniversity.com/default.asp?item=98255" type="external">a blog post</a> on outsourcing that appeared on the website of his now defunct Trump University ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/nyregion/new-york-attorney-generals-suit-against-trump-university-may-proceed-court-rules.html?_r=0" type="external">which is the subject of a civil suit alleging fraud</a>). The blog post was headlined, “Outsourcing Creates Jobs in the Long Run.” In it, Trump advised workers who lost their jobs to adopt a longer view and consider how outsourcing could be good for the overall economy. He wrote:</p>
<p>We hear terrible things about outsourcing jobs—how sending work outside of our companies is contributing to the demise of American businesses. But in this instance I have to take the unpopular stance that it is not always a terrible thing.</p>
<p>Sure, Trump acknowledged, outsourcing causes job loss, which is unfortunate, but it’s part of progress, he argued.</p>
<p>I understand that outsourcing means that employees lose jobs,” he noted. “Because work is often outsourced to other countries, it means Americans lose jobs. In other cases, nonunion employees get the work. Losing jobs is never a good thing, but we have to look at the bigger picture.</p>
<p>Last year, Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Lawrence R. Klein, the founder of Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, co-authored a study that showed how global outsourcing actually creates more jobs and increases wages, at least for IT workers. The study found that outsourcing helped companies be more competitive and more productive. That means they make more money, which means they funnel more into the economy, thereby, creating more jobs.</p>
<p>In his blog post, Trump embraced the conventional corporate line that outsourcing was often necessary for a firm to survive or thrive. He wrote:</p>
<p>I know that doesn’t make it any easier for people whose jobs have been outsourced overseas, but if a company’s only means of survival is by farming jobs outside its walls, then sometimes it’s a necessary step. The other option might be to close its doors for good.</p>
<p>In 2005, there was no fist-pounding about corporations that sent jobs overseas and the politicians who did nothing about it. By the way, at that time, Trump was selling ties and clothing under his Trump Collection line that were manufactured overseas.</p>
<p>These days, Trump routinely rails against companies that ship jobs to other countries. He says he will no longer buy Carrier equipment or eat Nabisco’s Oreos. And he has blasted Apple for manufacturing its products in China. When did he change his tune on outsourcing? The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Donald Trump’s Yooge Flip-Flop on Outsourcing | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/donald-trump-outsourcing-flip-flop/ | 2016-03-02 | 4 |
<p>In the middle of September, Harvard University&#160; <a href="" type="internal">announced</a>&#160;that it was inviting two controversial new fellows to the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School: former Trump administration spokesman Sean Spicer and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. At the august institution, they would be joining&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Corey Lewandowski</a>, one of Trump’s campaign managers, along with several Democratic Party operatives.</p>
<p>But it was not to be. Within a day of the announcement, Harvard rescinded Chelsea Manning’s invitation because of “controversy” attending the offer. Dean of the Kennedy School Douglas Elmendorf&#160; <a href="" type="internal">had this to say</a>: “I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations.”</p>
<p>Strangely, the invitation to the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">thoroughly dishonorable Lewandowski</a>&#160;did not seem affected by this rationale.</p>
<p>Harvard snubbed Manning in part because people like Mike Pompeo, current head of the CIA, cancelled an appearance at a Harvard forum, saying that “I believe it is shameful for Harvard to place its stamp of approval upon her treasonous actions.”</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of WikiLeaks —&#160; <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/wikileaks-full-body-scan_b_789931.html" type="external">even before</a>&#160;its conduct in the 2016 elections — but I’d still be interested in hearing Chelsea Manning interact with other folks at the Kennedy School on questions of public service and morality. So, I’m upset at Harvard’s retraction of the invitation.</p>
<p>But what really bugs me is Harvard’s pandering to the Trump crowd as if they were legitimate political actors. They’re not. They’re collaborationists. They may or may not have collaborated with a foreign power against the United States (let the various investigating committees determine that). But I’m expanding the term here to mean that they are collaborating with a political figure — Donald Trump — whose behavior is inimical to American democracy.</p>
<p>Even if they aren’t ultimately thrown into jail for a variety of improprieties, the Trump collaborationists should be frozen out of the mainstream. Obviously I’m thinking about the future, since places like Harvard are always kowtowing to those in power in the present. But I’m looking forward to a day after, say, 2020, when America goes through its own de-Baathification process, and the leading lights of the Trump administration are purged from public life.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe you don’t want to go that far. De-Baathfication, after all, had lousy consequences for Iraq. Then let’s just use Harvard’s language but apply it more appropriately. “Many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations,” Elmendorf said. Those who collaborated with the Trump administration — those who served in high positions and profited materially and professionally from those positions — should simply not be honored. Even if a departing Trump pardons all his cronies, they should feel the sting of public exclusion.</p>
<p>Call it an anti-Trump blacklist, a political boycott comparable to the economic boycott of Trump products. Perhaps, you’re wondering, why I’m focusing on Trump. Many of his policies resemble those of previous administrations like those of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. Why not expand the boycott to include all the neoconservatives responsible for the Iraq War, among other catastrophes? It’s equally galling to see a war criminal like&#160; <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/abrams_elliott" type="external">Elliott Abrams</a>&#160;still accepted in polite company (and the Council on Foreign Relations).</p>
<p>I certainly disagreed with those figures and their policies. But this administration is different. Donald Trump has crossed the line on so many fronts. To ensure that his “innovations” in the realms of racism, misogyny, militarism, deception, secrecy, and the “deconstruction of the administrative state” do not become institutionalized in U.S. society requires not only broad-based condemnation but, eventually, public exclusion as well.</p>
<p>Adults in the Room</p>
<p>Shortly after the 2016 election, I was on an&#160; <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/to-the-point/under-the-cloud-of-trump-germany-welcomes-obama" type="external">NPR program</a>&#160;making&#160; <a href="http://fpif.org/bartleby-the-american/" type="external">my case</a>&#160;for non-engagement with the Trump administration. The host was aghast: Didn’t I acknowledge the important of “adult supervision” in the White House? Wouldn’t it be better to have some sensible people near Trump to prevent him from flying off the nuclear handle?</p>
<p>And who would these adults be exactly, I retorted? Steve Bannon? Michael Flynn? I doubted that anyone who made it through the vetting process would necessarily qualify as an adult — at least in the sense that the NPR host meant — and even if such a grey eminence managed to get into the administration, he or she would likely be brought down to Trump’s level, not the other way around.</p>
<p>In a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">recent article</a>&#160;in&#160;The New York Review of Books, James Mann traces the origins of the phrase “adults in the room” and its associated phrase of “adult supervision.” “Before Trump, this Washington lingo was usually a cover for policy differences,” Mann writes.</p>
<p>The “adults” were usually those who didn’t stray too far from the political center, however that was defined at the moment. Bernie Sanders has never qualified as an “adult” in the Washington usage of the word, although he is old enough to collect Social Security; nor did Ralph Nader; nor did Rand Paul, though he is old enough to perform eye surgery. What made them deficient was not their character or their immaturity, but their views.</p>
<p>Now, however, the phrase refers less to ideology and more to behavior. “For the first time, America has a president who does not act like an adult,” Mann continues. “He is emotionally immature: he lies, taunts, insults, bullies, rages, seeks vengeance, exalts violence, boasts, refuses to accept criticism, all in ways that most parents would seek to prevent in their own children.”</p>
<p>And thus, America is supposed to breathe easier because&#160; <a href="http://fpif.org/losing-the-war-on-terror-winning-the-war-in-washington/" type="external">a trio of military men</a>&#160;(John Kelly, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster) and an oil company executive (Rex Tillerson) are in place to rein in Trump’s more infantile impulses.</p>
<p>Moreover, a rogue’s gallery of non-adults have already departed the administration as a result of scandal or sheer incompetence: the aforementioned Sean Spicer, his almost replacement Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Tom Price, Reince Priebus, Mike Flynn. Some, like Trump’s pick to head the Drug Enforcement Agency,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">withdrew from consideration</a>even before he had to face withering questions about his support for the pharmaceutical industry. Surely the process works if it ejects such ridiculous figures as if they were tainted food in the political digestive tract.</p>
<p>Poking fun at this list of not-so-dearly-departed administration officials is too easy. More important is to demonstrate that the so-called adults are doing as much if not more damage to this country than the people who didn’t spend enough time in their jobs to screw things up royally.</p>
<p>So, before assigning blame on specific issues, let’s take a look at exactly how “adult” U.S. foreign policy has been over the last ten months. The United States has come close to tearing up the most important arms control deal of the last 25 years and edging closer to war with Iran. It has escalated the conflict with North Korea, which has raised the risk of a nuclear exchange. It has extended the longest American war by sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan. It has continued a misguided “war on terrorism” by supporting the Saudi devastation of Yemen,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">expanding the CIA’s capacity</a>&#160;for conducting drone strikes, and helping to create the next generation of anti-Western jihadists in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>Beyond war and peace issues, it has pulled out of the Paris climate accord, withdrew from UNESCO, and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">reinstituted</a>&#160;the “global gag rule” on abortion that will affect nearly $9 billion in U.S. funding of health initiatives around the world. It has continued to push for the building of the infamous wall on the border with Mexico, implemented several travel bans that disproportionately target Muslims, and gone after the Dreamers. It has proposed slashing foreign aid and State Department funding more generally. It has driven a stake through the heart of multilateralism.</p>
<p>What exactly is “adult” about this rash and destructive foreign policy? Yes, the world hasn’t been destroyed (yet) by nuclear war. But that’s a pretty low bar for the administration’s accomplishments.</p>
<p>Nor is it possible to argue that Trump himself is solely responsible for this foreign policy. Trump has only a vague grasp of foreign policy to begin with. His impulse is to oppose whatever the Obama administration put together — the Iran deal, participation in the Paris accords, various trade deals — even where there might be bipartisan support. To get any of these concrete policies implemented, Trump needs foreign policy professionals who can, at the very least, spell words correctly and use the proper names of foreign leaders. Trump relies on these “adults” not to restrain him but to implement his craziest ideas.</p>
<p>So, the only conclusion is that Tillerson, Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly have at least some, if not sole, responsibility for Trump’s foreign policy. Tillerson has presided over the destruction of the State Department — its personnel cuts, its circumscribed influence. Mattis has facilitated the&#160; <a href="http://fpif.org/the-scale-of-pentagon-waste-boggles-the-mind-but-congress-keeps-giving-them-more/" type="external">significant budget increases</a>&#160;for the Pentagon. McMaster has called the president’s tweets on North Korea&#160; <a href="" type="internal">“completely appropriate”</a>&#160;and shares the president’s distaste for the Iran nuclear deal. John Kelly, in his former role as head of Homeland Security, was a big booster of the travel ban.</p>
<p>The evidence is in. Engagement at the very highest levels with the Trump administration has not tempered its worst qualities. If anything, these “adults” have been the chief enablers of this most reckless of presidents. They’ve given him the thinnest frosting of legitimacy. Moreover, even these so-called adults don’t rescue the Trump administration from being outside the norms of democratic discourse in this country.</p>
<p>The Politics of Lustration</p>
<p>In Eastern Europe, after the changes of 1989, the successor governments considered laws that would prevent those who collaborated with the Communist apparatus from serving in public office. These were controversial laws. It was often difficult to determine who had collaborated (as opposed to simply been accused of collaborating), and the process was quickly politicized by various political parties. Also, what constituted collaboration: membership in the Communist Party, working in the secret police, or just communicating with the secret police?</p>
<p>Still, lustration served as a way of distinguishing one era from another, of drawing what the Poles called a “thick line” between unacceptable collaboration and legitimate politics.</p>
<p>Lustration, like de-Baathification, was a deeply flawed process. But I’m attracted to the idea of eventually drawing a thick line between acceptable democratic practice and what the Trump administration has attempted to do in this country. I’m not talking about going after civil servants or low-level appointees. I’m certainly not talking about Trump voters. No, only the topmost officials in the administration, including his Cabinet of Horrors, should be subjected, post-2020, to an informal ban on further public service or the receipt of anything that might be construed an honor at a major institution.</p>
<p>Let me be clear. I’m not talking about Republicans. Many Republicans have already taken strong stands against Trump’s excesses, and many more will do so over the next three years. No, this campaign against collaborationists must be bipartisan. And the targets should certainly include registered Democrats like chief economic advisor Gary Cohn.</p>
<p>It won’t be a witch hunt. These people are extraordinarily rich and powerful. Their wealth and power will survive public shaming. But such a process will be absolutely important to discredit Trumpism not just as a belief system but as an ideology of power in which all methods of achieving wealth and position are legitimate.</p>
<p>We can’t put Trump and his claque into the stockade like in Puritan America. We can’t ostracize them — send them into foreign exile for 10 years, as the ancient Athenians did. But we can declare the collaborationists, including the “adults in the room,” an affront to human dignity and threaten to resign from, boycott, or malign any institution that dares to hire them, honor them, or work with them.</p>
<p>It’s something to look forward to during the long political winter ahead.</p> | Trump’s Shameful Enablers | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/10/24/trumps-shameful-enablers/ | 2017-10-24 | 4 |
<p>Niall Carson/AP</p>
<p>After many years in decline, traffic deaths have made a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html?mcubz=0" type="external">sharp comeback</a> in the United States, passing a grim milestone last year—40,000 people. The cause of the increase has not been proven definitively, but it’s obvious to anyone with a brain: smartphones.</p>
<p>By now, just about everyone knows that it’s super unsafe to play with your phone while piloting a two-ton death machine at high speed. Texting, fumbling to call your spouse, resetting your navigation, or checking out Donald Trump’s latest tweet—it’s all the same. We warn friends and children of the dangers, but then, sometimes, despite our best intentions, the phone pings with some message we just have to look at. Just for a second or two.</p>
<p>Smartphone apps and functions are Pavlovian by design. They’re addictive. They beckon us. That’s the whole game. The manufacturers want to get our attention, even as our attention needs to be elsewhere.</p>
<p>Distracted-driving accidents are our own fault, of course. But they are also partly the responsibility of the companies that play on our animal instincts and profit handsomely from them. Today, the folks at <a href="http://www.fairwarning.org" type="external">FairWarning</a>, a journalism nonprofit devoted largely to consumer investigations, <a href="https://www.fairwarning.org/2017/08/wireless-companies-duck-responsibilities-distracted-driving/" type="external">explore</a> how the communications industry has shirked that responsibility…</p>
<p>Christopher Kutz, a University of California Berkeley law professor, compared the situation to opioid drug makers “who distribute their product widely and then close their eyes to what seems to be a pretty inevitable risk of catastrophic misuse.” Companies in the mobile ecosystem ”should do much more to make it harder to consume while driving.”</p>
<p>In the piece, FairWarning founder Myron Levin—a former Los Angeles Times reporter whose past <a href="" type="internal">work</a> on the deadliness of smartphones on the roads has appeared on this website—reports on how the industry is trying to kill proposed nonbinding federal guidelines that urge industry players to develop disabling technologies that interfere with the phone functions of drivers but not their passengers.</p>
<p>Levin writes that the two major industry trade groups leading the charge against the guidelines have together spent more than $100 million on federal lobbying since 2010—while their 2,200 member companies have spent hundreds of millions more.</p>
<p>In a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Levin writes, one trade group, the Consumer Technology Association, characterized the proposed guidelines as a “dangerously expansive” assertion of federal authority that “could have a sweeping effect on the multibillion-dollar market for mobile devices and apps.”</p>
<p>The other group, the CTIA, has also gone to bat against legislation in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that seeks technological barriers to distracted driving. “This technology mandate cannot make a distinction between the person driving the vehicle and his or her passengers,” the group wrote in a 2015 letter to Massachusetts lawmakers obtained by FairWarning. “In fact, the mandate cannot distinguish between someone in a car versus a passenger traveling on a bus, by rail, in a taxi, or any other mode of transportation.”</p>
<p>But that’s not really true. Third-party text-blocking apps are available, and Apple, for one, holds the patent for a solution to the so-called passenger problem. “If you create the monster, you should have the duty to control it,” Gregory Love, a lawyer for families of people killed in distracted driving accidents, told Levin.</p>
<p>Levin also talked to developers of third-party blocking software who ran out of money while trying in vain to get smartphone makers interested in their products. One former Nokia development executive said he’d been “very enthusiastic” about getting Otter LLC’s software on the company’s phones, but his superiors demurred. “None of these companies are brave enough” to be the first, he said, “because they’re afraid of the consumer backlash.”</p>
<p>Read the <a href="https://www.fairwarning.org/2017/08/wireless-companies-duck-responsibilities-distracted-driving/" type="external">in-depth piece here.</a></p> | Smartphone Makers Have Brilliant Tech, So Why Won’t They Deal With the Distracted-Driving Problem? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/distracted-driving-is-a-deadly-epidemic-but-smartphone-makers-seem-to-think-its-not-their-problem-2/ | 2017-08-30 | 4 |
<p>LOS ANGELES — Facebook has discovered that it sold about $100,000 in political ads to Russian-linked sources over the past two years, and has shared that information with authorities investigating <a href="" type="internal">Russian influence on the 2016 presidential</a> <a href="" type="internal">election</a>.</p>
<p>The Washington Post first reported Wednesday that Facebook had informed congressional investigators that the ad sales were linked to a Russian “troll” farm known for spreading propaganda. The entity was called the Internet Research Agency.</p>
<p>Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, wrote in a blog post that “in reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.”</p>
<p>He said that a majority of the ads did not specify any candidate, but “the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”</p>
<p>“One question that has emerged is whether there’s a connection between the Russian efforts and ads purchased on Facebook,” he wrote. “These are serious claims and we’ve been reviewing a range of activity on our platform to help understand what happened.”</p>
<p>He outlined a series of steps the company has been taking to detect fake accounts and to detect inauthentic pages. That includes “reducing stories from sources that consistently post clickbait headlines that withhold and exaggerate information.”</p>
<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees are examining Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, and whether any Trump campaign officials coordinated with Russian sources.</p>
<p>Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to address the spread of so-called “fake news” on the platform during the election. In a May white paper, the company outlined steps that they’re taking to try to limit the promotion of such false information.</p>
<p>Facebook’s revelation could also trigger calls for greater public disclosure of the sources of political spending. Broadcasters are required to disclose records of their political ad sales.</p> | Russian sources bought political Facebook ads during 2016 election | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/russian-sources-bought-political-facebook-ads-during-2016-election/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES – A New Mexico man wanted in Arizona has been indicted on charges on suspicion of breaking the arm of a 2-year-old and beating the toddler’s mother.</p>
<p>The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that a Doña Ana County grand jury indicted 33-year-old Joshua Brown on charges of intentional child abuse, a first-degree felony, and misdemeanor battery.</p>
<p>According to court documents, Brown originally told the mother that the boy had fallen during a bath last month. But authorities said he refused to go to the doctor’s office with the mother because he had warrants. The mother later told police that Brown had beaten her.</p>
<p>Police said Brown had outstanding warrants from Catron County and Arizona on drug and battery charges.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Man accused of breaking child’s arm | false | https://abqjournal.com/331654/man-accused-of-breaking-childs-arm.html | 2 |
|
<p>United Technologies Corp. has made an approach to acquire Rockwell Collins Inc., but the two aerospace suppliers are still wrangling over the price of a takeover that would exceed $20 billion, said people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>United Technologies recently made an initial offer of less than $140 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter. The two sides are still in discussions and it is unclear whether the talks will result in an agreement, the people said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The timing of the discussions is unusual as they come just a few months after Rockwell Collins closed on its $6.4 billion purchase of B/E Aerospace. United Tech executives have said recently that they are looking for potential acquisitions, but suggested they would focus on smaller deals.</p>
<p>Rockwell Collins had a $19.4 billion market value as of Friday's close. The company's share price rose 6.8% to $127.07 on Monday, after earlier reports of the discussions. Shares of United Technologies fell 2.4% to $118.52.</p>
<p>A deal would increase United Technologies' role as a significant supplier to Boeing Co. and Airbus SE as the aerospace industry boosts production for a new generation of jets. The company already owns one of the world's biggest jet-engine makers, Pratt &amp; Whitney, and an aerospace division that makes parts such as wheels and landing gears.</p>
<p>Rockwell specializes in cockpit displays and communications systems for passenger jets and military programs. In April, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, company closed its acquisition of B/E Aerospace, a maker of plane seats and interiors. The deal added almost $3 billion in annual sales to a company with $5.3 billion in revenue.</p>
<p>In June, United Technologies Chief Executive Greg Hayes told analysts the company, which had about $7 billion in cash, was looking to spend roughly $1 billion on acquisitions this year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"As far as bigger M&amp;A, it's something we always look at, but I am reluctant to go out and pay some of the prices that we see today," Mr. Hayes said at the Paris Air Show.</p>
<p>The Farmington, Conn., company also manufactures Otis elevators and Carrier air conditioners, but more than half of its $15.28 billion in second-quarter revenue came from its jet-engine and aerospace divisions. United Technologies sold its Sikorsky helicopter business to Lockheed Martin Corp. in 2015.</p>
<p>Analysts at William Blair said a takeover of Rockwell Collins would make "tremendous strategic sense" as it would expand United Technologies' most profitable business with little overlap. But the firm thinks a deal is unlikely because United Technologies management has said it is interested in smaller transactions.</p>
<p>Several analysts said they wouldn't expect significant antitrust issues with a merger, but airplane makers might voice concerns about any consolidation among their suppliers. Both companies are also major Pentagon suppliers.</p>
<p>Nigel Coe, analyst with Morgan Stanley, said the combination has little overlap in the airplane parts the companies make. Rockwell's portfolio includes displays, seating and communications, while United Technology provides electrical systems, wheels and engine controls.</p>
<p>The deal comes as the aerospace sector is looking at increased competition from its own customers. Engine makers -- like United Technologies' Pratt &amp; Whitney division -- typically sell the huge machines with little or no profit but then make up the money by selling decades of servicing and parts. But Boeing and Airbus have been nudging their way into that aftermarket business to capture some of that profit -- a strategy that puts them on a collision course with suppliers.</p>
<p>"Further consolidation among aerospace suppliers would be a natural reaction to the airframers' efforts to shift industry profitability towards them," Credit Suisse analyst Julian Mitchell said.</p>
<p>Boeing recently created a new unit to develop and build aircraft avionics systems, focusing on equipment for future products but moving deeper into the territory of Rockwell Collins and Honeywell International Inc.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Honeywell is reviewing whether to break off its own aerospace division by autumn, after activist Third Point LLC made a public push for a spinoff. The division, Honeywell's largest, also supplies parts for Airbus and Boeing jets along with engines for aircraft made by Bombardier Inc. and Textron Inc.</p>
<p>Thomas Gryta</p>
<p>contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Dana Mattioli at [email protected] and Joann S. Lublin at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 07, 2017 18:57 ET (22:57 GMT)</p> | United Tech in Takeover Talks With Rockwell Collins -- 2nd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/07/united-tech-in-takeover-talks-with-rockwell-collins-2nd-update.html | 2017-08-07 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CARLSBAD, N.M. - Xcel Energy says two new substations and a pair of transmission lines are now in service in southeastern New Mexico.</p>
<p>The company announced Monday it has hit a milestone in its project to boost the high-voltage transmission and distribution system in the region by bringing the new infrastructure online.</p>
<p>Project manager Shannon Close says the substations and lines came in on time and on budget. They're capable of adding 25,000 horsepower to the region's industrial base.</p>
<p>Horsepower is a measurement of the power needed to run oil pump jacks and other equipment. One horsepower is equivalent to 746 watts of power.</p>
<p>In all, Xcel has plans to invest $3 billion in new and improved power lines, substations and generating equipment across its Texas-New Mexico service area between now and 2020.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | New electrical substations go online in southern New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/593151/new-electrical-substations-go-online-in-southern-new-mexico.html | 2 |
|
<p>Five-year-old Cooper Tidmarsh lost his foot in a lawnmower accident two weeks ago and has been in the hospital ever since - an ordeal that has been made less traumatic with a little TLC from an unlikely source.</p>
<p>A robot.</p>
<p>MEDi is two feet tall and weighs 11 pounds - and looks he belongs on a shelf at a high-end toy store. He's all fun and games, but for a very serious purpose.</p>
<p>To see MEDi in action, watch NBC Nightly News at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday.</p>
<p>At six hospitals in Canada and one in the United States, MEDi is helping to lower stress for children getting uncomfortable procedures, tests or shots.</p>
<p>"He asks if MEDi is coming every morning," Cooper's father, Tavis Tidmarsh, said as his son played with the robot at Alberta Children's Hospital.</p>
<p>"Yeah, he thinks it's so cool," added his mom, Kristy.</p>
<p>In fact, it's practically magical. Research in the journal Vaccine showed MEDi's use <a href="http://www.today.com/money/robot-friend-make-doctor-visits-less-painful-t14781" type="external">reduced children's pain</a> in medical procedures by 50 percent.</p>
<p>Dr. Tanya Beran, a professor of community health science at the University of Calgary, got the idea for MEDi after working in hospitals where kids scream at the thought of getting a needle.</p>
<p>"I thought that maybe they would respond to a child-friendly robot to help them face medical procedures," she said.</p>
<p>The robot itself was built and developed by <a href="https://www.aldebaran.com/en" type="external">Aldebaran</a>, which calls it NAO and sells it for $8,000 and up. Beran added software to make it work in a hospital setting with children.</p>
<p>MEDi is programmed to interact with kids for a wide range of procedures. It started with flu vaccines and blood draws and has since expanded to include IV and catheter removal and brain-activity tests. Beran is working on adding cast-cutting to the menu.</p>
<p>It can even be programmed with a child's favorite story.</p>
<p>Beran said the effects can be felt beyond a single office visit. MEDi seems to relax nurses, which could help reduce burnout, and studies show that children who have more pleasant hospital visits are more likely to seek out routine health care as adults.</p>
<p>But the real benefit can be seen with just one glance.</p>
<p>"There is nothing like watching a child's face light up, when they get to be with MEDi," she said. "They follow what MEDi says and does, they are transfixed. It's almost hypnotic. They follow instructions, they are smiling."</p>
<p>That was the case with 10-year-old Aidan Sousa, who gets regular injections to treat severe asthma at Alberta Children's.</p>
<p>"He comes and does something like tai chi to distract me," Aidan said.</p>
<p>Does it work?</p>
<p>"Yeah, it does," Aidan said with a laugh. "It was a lot more painful than it is now."</p> | Meet MEDi, the Robot Taking Pain Out of Kids? Hospital Visits | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/meet-medi-robot-taking-pain-out-kids-hospital-visits-n363191 | 2015-05-24 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cibola’s boys and girls, and Volcano Vista’s boys, got off to quick starts Tuesday night as District 1-5A basketball action began.</p>
<p>GIRLS: The Cougars had a big first half and beat visiting Cleveland 60-43. Jordyn Castellano led Cibola with 17 points, and Kassandra Harris added 15 for Cibola, which led by 18 points at halftime.</p>
<p>Cibola (16-3 overall) is home to Rio Rancho (10-11) on Friday night in an early battle for first place in 1-5A.</p>
<p>The Rams stunned Volcano Vista 46-45 on Tuesday in the Hawks’ gym. Deanna Lucero hit two free throws with no time remaining as Rio Rancho beat Volcano.</p>
<p>Bianca Perez led the Hawks (14-5) with 10 points. Volcano Vista is at Cleveland on Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>BOYS: Sam Haywood of Volcano Vista had a layup with about six seconds to go as the Hawks went on the road and nipped Rio Rancho 62-61. Nick Martin hit a crucial 3-pointer for Volcano Vista late to cut a 61-57 deficit to 61-60.</p>
<p>Haywood had 21 points, Eric Lee 15 and Kendall Johnson 13 for the Hawks (10-9), who play host to Cleveland (4-16) on Friday.</p>
<p>The Storm lost at home Tuesday to Cibola, 71-54. The Cougars (9-10) blew the game open in the second quarter, outscoring Cleveland 22-4.</p>
<p>Preston Bungei had one of his best outings of 2012-13, scoring 20 points to pace Cibola. Big men Ross Buchman and Josh Sanchez combined to add another 31. Cibola visits Rio Rancho (9-12) on Friday night.</p>
<p>DISTRICT 5-5A: The West Side Journal will have more extensive basketball roundups of this week’s boys and girls action in the Saturday edition.</p> | Cibola, Volcano Open 1-5A | false | https://abqjournal.com/166687/cibola-volcano-open-15a.html | 2013-02-07 | 2 |
<p>Democrat contributors on Fox News resist calls to quit the cable news giant from party loyalists.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/28999.html" type="external">Politico</a></p>
<p>Democratic pundit Bob Beckel has been under contract with <a href="http://topics.politico.com/index.cfm/topic/FoxNews" type="external">Fox News</a> for six years. And in the midst of the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28856.html" type="external">White House</a> war against the cable network, some of his liberal friends think that’s six years too many.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>They invited him to lunch the other day for an intervention: Why is Beckel — a true-blue Democrat who worked for Robert F. Kennedy and ran Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign — giving comfort to the enemy?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Beckel’s response: “I talk to more persuadable voters in a month than anybody on <a href="http://topics.politico.com/index.cfm/topic/MSNBC" type="external">MSNBC</a> and <a href="http://topics.politico.com/index.cfm/topic/Cnn" type="external">CNN</a> talks to in a year.”&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In the eyes of some of their party brethren, Beckel and other Democratic strategists and pundits who appear regularly on Fox News are traitors to the cause. Or at least gluttons for punishment.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>And some of them feel that way, too.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“It sucks,” says Democratic direct-mail consultant Liz Chadderdon, a regular on the network. “It is very, very tough to be a Democrat on Fox.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>During an October 2007 hit on “The Factor,” Chadderdon referred to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay as “victims.” It was a verbal faux pas, and she knew it. But no sooner did she get off the air than she received a death threat — the first of a handful she says she’s received after appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox show.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>More recently, Chadderdon has been invited to talk business with Fox’s Neil Cavuto — on the main network and on the two-year-old Fox Business Network — even though she readily admits that she has no background in economics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“Speaking about those issues is not my forte,” said Chadderdon. “And I’m getting the tar kicked out of me.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>So why does she keep doing it? For pretty much the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks. Fox is where the viewers are — No. 1 in the prime-time news ratings and drawing more than twice as many viewers on weeknights as either MSNBC or CNN.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“You know how I know nobody watches CNBC?” said Chadderdon. “I compared the pope to my 11th-grade algebra teacher, and nobody sent me a letter.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Lanny Davis, former White House counsel for Bill Clinton, says some of his fellow Democrats privately encourage him to keep appearing on Fox — even as they boycott the network themselves.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“I get very positive but whispered reinforcement,” he said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Davis made news during last year’s Democratic presidential primaries when he said that Fox was the fairest of the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28589.html" type="external">cable networks</a> in its treatment of Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>And now, he insists, the claims of bias directed at Fox are overstated, at least insofar as they come from devotees of one of its competitors.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“Is there a difference between Fox and MSNBC?” he asked. “You count the number of guests on Rachel [Maddow] and Keith [Olbermann] who are conservative Republicans. If you get to double digits, I’ll buy you dinner for each one.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Susan Estrich is perhaps the most identifiable Democratic pundit on the network. She’s been on the payroll for more than a decade, having first gotten to know Fox News President Roger Ailes when they were working on opposite sides of the 1988 presidential campaign.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Fox audience does dwarf the competition but it doesn’t hurt that the Democrats are being well paid for providing some balance and in some cases cannon fodder for Fox shows.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Post #2435</p> | Dems Like Fox News Audience | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/dems-like-fox-news-audience/ | 2009-11-02 | 0 |
<p>BOSTON — I suppose you could describe these two women as cybertrailblazers. But their cybertrails, alas, followed them from a checkered past, not to the glorious future. And the blaze they created was a bit more like a flameout.</p>
<p>Bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan came in from the heady environment of the blogosphere to the more staid climate of presidential politics, to work for John Edwards.</p>
<p>The political cyberspace where they were known as Pandagon and Shakespeare’s Sister is usually described with euphemisms such as raucous and freewheeling. On that terrain, no weasel wordsmiths need apply. You win attention with controversy and get hits with an over-the-top persona and a vivid vocabulary. A campaign, on the other hand, no matter how much it wants netroots, is, well, controversy-averse.</p>
<p>Marcotte’s blog style was described by Time magazine as “issues-based but not above snark and a healthy dose of profanity.” McEwan describes herself as a “firebrand” opponent of theocracy: “I am, however, vulgar. And I am trash-talking.”</p>
<p />
<p>I doubt these descriptions were in their job interviews with the Edwards campaign, but it didn’t take long for a conservative watchdog to glean through the 24/7 postings of the two bloggers and come up with the sort of sound bites that leave teeth marks on a campaign. There was McEwan’s description of Bush’s “wingnut Christofascist base.” There was Marcotte’s slam on the Catholic prohibition on birth control as a way to force women to “bear more tithing Catholics.” Within days, the two women resigned from the campaign and returned to the briar patch of their blogs.</p>
<p>This may be the first certifiable staff flameout of the 2008 campaign. But it’s also about a clash between two cultures and two languages.</p>
<p>We are living now in both the blogosphere and the mainstream. One is ironic and edgy, challenging and partisan. The other is cautious and modulated. Marcotte’s and McEwan’s fate raises the question about whether it’s possible to move from the world of AnkleBitingPundits to presidential politics without every word sticking to your shoe.</p>
<p>We already know that in the digital world, the past is never past. As Simon Rosenberg of NDN, a progressive advocacy group bridging these two worlds, says, “All of us are going to be living every moment of our past lives. People are living with things they did and said in their youths in a way they never did before.”</p>
<p>President Bush once famously said, “When I was young, I did a lot of foolish things.” Bill Clinton said he smoked marijuana but didn’t inhale. Barack Obama admitted doing “a little blow.” But we didn’t have postings of the partying George, the smoking Bill or the snorting Barack.</p>
<p>These days politicians are one “macaca” away from videotaped disaster. If you don’t believe it, see Rudy Giuliani as a drag queen flirting with Donald Trump on YouTube.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the cybertrail doesn’t just track bloggers. Five million college students use Facebook. When Bob Corker was running for the Senate, voters in Tennessee were treated to his daughter kissing a girl on Facebook. California Rep. Brian Bilbray’s underage daughter Briana posted a picture of herself on MySpace with a cooler of Miller High Life.</p>
<p>Postings come down but never really disappear. They sit, like land mines, in the digital archives.</p>
<p>Last year, a college administrator in Boston sent out a campuswide warning: “Digital Dirt May Hurt.” But how many students working on their grade point average think that an employer may also be checking their booty calls and keg parties? Will recruiters get the joke when they see Bill Frist’s son Jonathan in Facebook claiming membership in a group where there were “No Jews Allowed. Just Kidding. No seriously”?</p>
<p>“The culture is going to be confronting this,” says Rosenberg. “Can you have youthful indiscretions? Can you evolve, grow up? In recent years the culture has been more forgiving of youthful indiscretions. Will it continue?” Which culture will decide?</p>
<p>I have no fear for Shakespeare’s Sister or Pandagon, who are both up and writing with great energy. But as Marcotte has written, “even the more even-keeled bloggers are likely to have something in their archives that could be taken out of context and bandied about on the cable news networks.” It will be a loss if only the most buttoned-up bloggers can make the transition from uncompromising critic to campaign staff or even candidate.</p>
<p>As for young people who are increasingly on the Internet side of this cultural divide? Parents, it’s 11 p.m. Do you know where on the Internet your children are — and what they are doing to mess up their résumé? Follow the cybertrail.</p>
<p>Ellen Goodman’s e-mail address is [email protected].</p>
<p>© 2007, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | The Perils of Cyberbaggage | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-perils-of-cyberbaggage/ | 2007-02-22 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What: Crude oil rallied sharply this week on news that OPEC was reconsidering talks to freeze production. That news drove crude up about 6% to around $44 per barrel, which was a three-week high. While that rally provided lots of fuel for oil stocks, it was not the only catalyst driving this week's biggest movers. Those stocks, according to data from <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/home.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>, included Resolute Energy (NYSE: REN), Emerge Energy Services (NYSE: EMES), Sanchez Energy (NYSE: SN), Natural Resource Partners (NYSE: NRP), and Cobalt International Energy (NYSE: CIE):</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/REN/intraday_price" type="external">REN Price</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>So what: Shares of Permian Basin-focused driller Resolute Energy skyrocketed after it reported second-quarter results. Production in the Permian soared 90% from just last quarter after the company brought several big wells online. Because of those strong well results, the company boosted its full-year production outlook by 13%. Furthermore, after closing the sale of its Reeves County midstream assets, Resolute Energy was able to pay back all of the outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility.</p>
<p>Earnings fueled frack sand producer Emerge Energy Services' strong gains this week. While the company reported a net loss of $22.9 million, or $0.59 per unit, due to the challenging frack sand market, it did take several steps to shore up its balance sheet. Topping the list was the previously disclosed $178.5 million deal to sell its fuel business. However, Emerge Energy Services also completed a $20 million private placement equity offering to bolster its balance sheet and liquidity.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Gulf Coast-focused producer Sanchez Energy also reported pleasing second-quarter results. Total production was up 4% year over year, enabling the company to exceed the high end of its average daily production guidance by 7%. In addition, the company plans to boost its capital expenditures budget by $50 million, which positions it to deliver 5% to 8% production growth in 2017.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Natural Resource Partners and Cobalt International Energy were not part of this week's oil- and earnings-fueled rally. Instead, both slumped double digits due to the continued fallout from their concerning earnings reports the prior week. In Natural Resource Partners' case, investors remain gravely concerned by the fact that its cash provided by operating activity is down nearly 50% over the past year, which is putting pressure on its balance sheet. Meanwhile, Cobalt International Energy's investors are apprehensive since its $1.8 billion Angolan asset sale fell through, renewing fears about its ability to finance future offshore developments.</p>
<p>Now what: For some energy investors, this past week brought a sigh of relief. Not only did oil rebound, but several companies reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results, suggesting that better days lie ahead. That said, for investors in companies with steep balance-sheet challenges, the worries remain, because conditions need to improve substantially before these companies are back on solid ground.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2692&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: A Wild Week to Say the Least (REN, EMES, SN, NRP, CIE) | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/13/oil-gas-stock-roundup-wild-week-to-say-least-ren-emes-sn-nrp-cie.html | 2016-08-13 | 0 |
<p>A Danish teen has found hundreds of Viking-era items and coins in northern Denmark using a metal detector.</p>
<p>Sixteen-year-old <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/danish-teen-discovers-rare-viking-era-coins-article-1.1345983" type="external">Michael Stokbro Larsen found the rare Norse coins,</a> which come from as far as Germany and England, in an open field.</p>
<p>Officials at the <a href="http://natmus.dk/en/" type="external">Danish National Museum</a>, Denmark’s largest museum of cultural history, said the items were found at an archeological dig last year.</p>
<p>That dig produced hundreds of items, including 60 coins, emblazoned with a "rare cross motif attributed to Norse King Harald Bluetooth who is believed to have brought Christianity to Norway and Denmark," <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/danish-teen-discovers-rare-viking-era-coins-article-1.1345983" type="external">the Associated Press reported.</a></p>
<p>Much of northern England fell under Viking control starting in the late ninth century in an area called <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/cm/s/anlaf_guthfrithsson_penny.aspx" type="external">Danelaw</a>, according to the British Museum. During that time, Viking rulers issued different coins in each area.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/health-and-home/130514/small-euro-coins-may-be-dropped-eu" type="external">Small euro coins may be dropped: EU</a></p>
<p>This many Viking coins have not been found in over 70 years, according to the Danish Museum.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Danish teen finds Viking coins with metal detector | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-16/danish-teen-finds-viking-coins-metal-detector | 2013-05-16 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>New Mexico State Police are investigating recent incidents in Las Cruces involving women sexually assaulted by men pretending to be police officers, the <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/NEWS01/603090334/1001" type="external">Las Cruces Sun-News</a> reported today on its Web site.</p>
<p>Investigations have confirmed that the men in both incidents, so far believed to be unrelated, were not police officers, State Police Capt. Richard Williams told the Sun-News.</p>
<p>The first incident occurred around 1 a.m. Feb. 25 when a woman was driving near the Taco Bell on El Paseo Road was pulled over by a car with a flashing light on top, and the woman was then molested by two men during the so-called traffic stop, Williams told the paper.</p>
<p>Then, last Thursday around 11:30 p.m., a woman drove out of the parking lot of the Eagle Quik Mart on Stern Driver south of Las Cruces and was passed by a dark-colored pickup truck that later stopped and blocked her passage on a frontage road near Interstate 10, Williams told the Sun-News.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Two Hispanic males approached her car and ordered her in Spanish to get out of the car, Williams said.When she refused, one of the men pulled out a gun, and when she got out of the car she was raped, he told the paper.</p>
<p>Williams said he hoped some driver on I-10 may have witnessed the crime, which took place in an area clearly visible from the interstate, the Sun-News reported.</p>
<p>Williams told the paper the most recent incident was "a very brazen crime."</p> | 7:55am — `A Very Brazen Crime’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/22347/755am-a-very-brazen-crime.html | 2 |
|
<p>Did Thailand's new prime minister lapse into a bout of self-hatred on Twitter?</p>
<p>Not exactly. The Twitter account of Yingluck Shinawatra, the 44-year-old recently elected premier, was hacked.</p>
<p>Followers of @PouYingluck were treated to an <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jeeQDNm2PiTCo0JCihBzymIr7dHw?docId=0ef4529bd0c34d05ad630350d8e5d3f9" type="external">eight-Tweet rant against the premier's own government</a>, a strange departure from Yingluck's typical feel-good Tweets.&#160;(Even the "Pou" in her Twitter handle is a personal touch. That's her nickname, which means "crab.")</p>
<p>The messages, written in Thai, began with:</p>
<p>"This country is a business. We serve our own, not the Thai people. We do this for those who support us, not for those who see things differently."</p>
<p>This is a knock on the premier's so-called "family business" style of governance. Her brother Thaksin, a former prime minister, was ousted in 2006 by a military adamant that his personal greed was driving the country into the ground. A majority of voters, however, disagreed and elected the deposed premier's sister into office. Senior positions in the new government have gone to loyal allies of the family.</p>
<p>In the following Tweets, the hacker dropped his Tweeting-as-Yingluck schtick and started trashing the government in his own voice.</p>
<p>"Thailand needs change. The time has come for everyone in this country to wake up. The stupidity must end."</p>
<p>"Isn't it time for our country to change for the better? Not just projecting an image of benefitting our own companies, our relatives and parties of interest."</p>
<p>"If she can't protect her own Twitter account, how can she protect the country? I leave you with this thought, brothers and sisters."</p>
<p>A full account of the hacked Tweets can be found <a href="http://asiancorrespondent.com/66287/yinglucks-twitter-accound-hacked/" type="external">here</a> at an Asian Correspondent post written by Thai-German blogger Saksith Saiyasombut.</p>
<p>UPDATE: The government, according to the Bangkok Post, has traced the Tweets to an iPhone with a pay-as-you-go account. Authorities have vowed to <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/259366/thai-pm-twitter-account-hacked" type="external">track down and prosecute the hacker.</a></p>
<p /> | Thai Prime Minister's Twitter Account Hacked | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-02/thai-prime-ministers-twitter-account-hacked | 2011-10-02 | 3 |
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Netflix</a> cut its domestic subscriber guidance Thursday by one million users -- the fallout from the company raising prices on one of its most popular movie-rental plans that angered many members, but which the company continues to defend.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>News of the four percent cut in its subscriber outlook knocked 15 percent off Netflix's share price, sending the stock to its lowest levels in 2011. However, Netflix did not change its financial guidance for the quarter.</p>
<p>The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company ended its popular $9.99 per-month DVD rental and movie-streaming plan this summer, and required customers to pay $7.99 a month for each service, starting in September. The price increase caused a quick and harsh backlash among Netflix customers, something the company acknowledged again Thursday.</p>
<p>"We know our decision to split our services has upset many of our subscribers, which we don't take lightly, but we believe this split will help us make our services better for subscribers and shareholders for years to come," the distributor of movies and TV shows said.</p>
<p>Netflix said it now saw 24 million domestic subscribers through the third quarter, down from 25 million. The biggest decline was in its number of DVD-only subscribers, which fell to 2.2 million from three million. Streaming-only members dropped to 9.8 million from 10 million.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The number with both a DVD and streaming subscription remained at 12 million. Netflix did not change its international subscriber guidance.</p>
<p>After announcing the price change in July, the company said it expected total subscribers to continue growing, and that its fiscal quarter following the pricing changes could lead to the first time it notches at least $1 billion in sales.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/netflix-sees-1-mln-fewer-members-after-price-hike-2011-09-15" type="external">Read more&amp; Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Netflix Sees 1M Fewer Subscribers After Price Hike | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/09/15/netflix-sees-1m-fewer-subscribers-after-price-hike.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday said it plans to create more than 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. within the next 18 months, leveraging plans already in the works in part to patch up its contentious relationship with President-elect Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The additional jobs would swell Amazon's U.S. workforce to 280,000, compared with 30,000 in 2011. However, the online retail giant's rapid growth has kneecapped traditional retailers including Macy's Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which have been cutting jobs by the thousands.</p>
<p>Amazon said many of the new positions will be at already-announced warehouses under construction in Texas, California, Florida and New Jersey. Others will be in areas such as cloud technology, machine learning and advanced logistics -- some of which eliminate jobs, experts say.</p>
<p>"Innovation is one of our guiding principles at Amazon, and it's created hundreds of thousands of American jobs," said Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Mr. Trump seemed to credit the president-elect with Amazon's hiring bump because he had urged the tech industry to keep jobs and production inside the U.S., at a meeting with heads of tech companies last month. "The President-elect was pleased to have played a role in that decision by Amazon," the spokesman said.</p>
<p>Amazon's announcement highlights a new reality for companies as Mr. Trump prepares to take office: His public praising or shaming of corporations for their business decisions is pressuring them to stay in his good graces and to adjust their public-relations strategies.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump made job creation a central message and blasted companies, including technology giants, for purportedly sending jobs overseas. Since his election, companies across a range of industries have scurried to announce plans to retain or add U.S. jobs.</p>
<p>Some, such as Carrier Corp. and Ford Motor Co., reversed existing initiatives to shift manufacturing abroad. Others trumpeted efforts that had been under way before November. In December, SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son met with Mr. Trump to say he would invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs -- money that would come from a fund he announced in October.</p>
<p>A few companies have held firm in the face of Mr. Trump's scolding, such as General Motors Co., which plans to import some cars from Mexico to sell in the U.S.</p>
<p>Jack Ma, chief executive of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., a Chinese competitor to Amazon, met with Mr. Trump on Monday and made a bold, if vague, promise to create new U.S. jobs by encouraging American sellers to sell to Chinese consumers.</p>
<p>In an echo of Mr. Ma's proposal, Amazon said additional jobs could be created indirectly for small sellers who offer their goods on Amazon's marketplace.</p>
<p>Rosy talk about jobs from companies doesn't mean they are truly shifting when or whether they bring on new workers, said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.</p>
<p>"What [companies] are going to do first is spin," he said. That approach is "just a whole lot easier to do than to actually change your real numbers," he added.</p>
<p>Companies are hedging against Mr. Trump's threats to punish businesses that move American jobs elsewhere, Prof. Cappelli said, and corporate leaders are concerned about potential policy changes.</p>
<p>During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump's relationship with the tech industry was strained. Tech leaders overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton, and Mr. Trump lambasted companies including Apple Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.</p>
<p>The acrimony between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bezos was particularly charged. Mr. Trump accused Amazon's CEO of buying the Washington Post to influence politics. "If I become president, oh do they have problems," Mr. Trump said. He called Amazon a "no profit company" in a tweet in December 2015. (Amazon had a profit of $482 million in the last quarter of 2015.)</p>
<p>That same month, Mr. Bezos, who also runs closely held rocket-making company Blue Origin LLC, said he would reserve a seat on one of his rockets for Mr. Trump. "#sendDonaldtospace," a message from Mr. Bezos' Twitter account read. Weeks before the election, Mr. Bezos said that the candidate's behavior "erodes democracy around the edges."</p>
<p>Amazon's share price was one of the hardest hit among tech firms in the days after Mr. Trump's election, tumbling 9% to as low as about $719 before recovering.</p>
<p>Analysts were skeptical that Amazon's announcement Thursday reflected an acceleration of its hiring plans. "There may be some 'political capital' involved with the timing and details," said Colin Sebastian. an analyst at Robert W. Baird &amp; Co. He said he expects Amazon's international and domestic employment both to increase.</p>
<p>Amazon's biggest source of jobs is its warehouses, which process and ship orders. Amazon opened about two dozen new warehouses in the third quarter of 2016, prompting costs to soar in part due to those investments, the company said. That brought its total number of warehouses globally to about 150.</p>
<p>Before the announcement Thursday, Amazon had been planning to open some 16 new fulfillment centers over the next few months, which would have created more than 15,000 jobs, according to data from supply-chain consultancy MWPVL International Inc. Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL, estimates another 20 warehouses could be announced this year, employing anywhere from approximately 300 to 6,000 people each.</p>
<p>To reach the 100,000 mark, Amazon is likely to convert some part-time jobs to full-time, Mr. Wulfraat said. There are also seasonal workers to pick from: Amazon said it hired 120,000 holiday workers in the U.S. in 2016, and thousands of them will stay on as the company continues to expand. "If you look at the growth curve, I think it's going to continue to be as strong as last year," Mr. Wulfraat added.</p>
<p>The rapid growth of Amazon and e-commerce in general has cost traditional retailers thousands of brick-and-mortar jobs. Wal-Mart plans to cut nearly 1,000 corporate positions before the end of January, according to a person familiar with the situation, after cutting about 7,000 back office store jobs last year. Last week, Macy's said it would slash more than 10,000 jobs and close dozens of stores.</p>
<p>Oliver Chen, a Cowen &amp; Co. analyst, said online retail growth rates have been running as high as 25%, while in-store foot traffic can run down 6% or more. "The organizations are having to respond to the way in which consumers are changing their shopping habits," he said. "The penetration rate online is continuing to grow, and that means less need for physical stores."</p>
<p>Mr. Trump and Silicon Valley executives struck a conciliatory tone in part just by showing up at their meeting last month. During the 90-minute summit, Mr. Trump told the 13 executives, including Mr. Bezos, that he would work with them to foster innovation and to support fair-trade deals. The group also discussed job creation.</p>
<p>Mr. Bezos said in a statement at the time that Mr. Trump's promised focus on innovation "would create a huge number of jobs across the whole country, in all sectors, not just tech -- agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing -- everywhere."</p> | Amazon Touts Job-Creation Plans, Patching Up Rift With Trump | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/12/amazon-touts-job-creation-plans-patching-up-rift-with-trump.html | 2017-01-12 | 0 |
<p>"I advise everybody not to save: Spend your money. Most people save all their lives and leave it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed." -- Hedy Lamarr</p>
<p>Hedy Lamarr became famous as an actress, co-starring in hits with fellows such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, but she was&#160;also a respected inventor, having developed a radio guidance system for torpedoes, used in World War II. She doesn't appear to have the most money sense, though, if she didn't believe in saving. Most Americans will need to save throughout their working lives to enjoy their lives and especially their retirements.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you're getting close to retiring or are starting to think about it, here are some key things to know.</p>
<p>Although many of us count the months and years left until we retire, retirement won't be as much fun for some of us as we expected. A 2012 study&#160;from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that more than 10% of retirees were completely dissatisfied with retirement, with only 49% finding their retirement "very satisfying."</p>
<p>You may be tired of working, but the routine of having a place to go and things to do every day may have been serving you very well. Don't be surprised if you miss your workplace and find yourself restless in retirement. Retirees and seniors watch&#160;more television than anyone else, but that can be isolating and dangerous for their health. It's important to stay active for your physical health, as that can&#160;keep your bones and heart strong. Being social has been shown to pay big dividends, too, such as keeping you mentally and physically healthier and possibly keeping dementia at bay. Online resources can help a lot. At Meetup.com, for example, you can find and join groups of people with shared interests, such as gardening, theater, hiking, or playing board games. Online dating sites, meanwhile, can serve older singles as well as young ones.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Don't assume that your retirement will last about 20 to 25 years, perhaps from age 65 to 85 or 90. More and more Americans are living well beyond that, sometimes even to 100 and beyond. Be sure to consider the possibility that your retirement might last for 35 years or more -- especially if you retire early. That's a long time. You'll not only need to keep yourself healthy and active as much as possible during that time, but you'll also need your money to be able to last a long time.</p>
<p>One reason to plan conservatively is that you don't know how much healthcare will cost you in retirement. According to Fidelity Investments, a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will spend, on average, about $260,000 out of pocket on healthcare in retirement. And that's just the average! Many people will spend much more, though many will also spend less. You can increase your odds of spending less by getting and staying as healthy as possible, exercising, and eating nutritious foods.</p>
<p>One way to ensure that you don't run out of money before you run out of breath is to buy a deferred fixed annuity, sometimes called longevity insurance. As opposed to an immediate fixed annuity, it doesn't start paying immediately. Instead, the insurer agrees to start paying at a future point, such as when you turn a certain age. For example, a 70-year-old man might spend $50,000 for an annuity that will start paying him about $1,600 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 85.</p>
<p>You might also consider buying one or more <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/01/09/the-pros-and-cons-of-annuities.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">fixed immediate annuities Opens a New Window.</a>, to generate dependable income for the rest of your life. It's kind of like buying yourself a pension. (Variable or indexed annuities can be very problematic, but fixed annuities are simpler, typically with fewer restrictions and fees.) Check out the kind of fixed annuity income you might buy at recent interest rates:</p>
<p>If you don't seem to have enough saved to carry you through retirement, you can make your situation better by cutting back on your spending if you have to. A little Googling will turn up lots of suggestions, such as making extra money from part-time tutoring, relocating to a less expensive home or region, and seeking senior discounts -- which can not only give you a break going to the movies but might also reduce your property taxes. There are lots of ways to <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/06/25/12-ways-you-can-get-more-money-in-retirement.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">increase your income in retirement Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>It's true that as we approach and enter retirement, it's smart to think about shifting some assets from stocks to bonds or more stable securities. But that doesn't mean retirees can't keep a significant portion of their portfolio in the stock market, where it's likely to grow the fastest over many years. Remember that if you have 20 years of retirement ahead of you, a big chunk of your money that you won't need for at least 10 years might remain in stocks.</p>
<p>Be sure to enroll in Medicare on time -- in the month of your 65th birthday or the three months before or after it -- or you may face higher premiums for the rest of your life. Look beyond the "original" Medicare package of Part A and Part B coverage, which many people augment with Part D prescription coverage and Medigap supplemental coverage, and consider <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/01/15/should-you-get-a-medicare-advantage-plan.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Medicare Advantage plans Opens a New Window.</a>. Offered by private insurance companies and regulated by the federal government, they're required to offer at least as much coverage as original Medicare and they often offer more, such as dental, vision, and/or prescription coverage. They may cost you less out of pocket, too. Look into them and run the numbers.</p>
<p>You may be used to just paying taxes on income from your paycheck, but in retirement it's common to receive income from a variety of sources that receive different tax treatments. If you have savings in a regular, taxable brokerage account, for example, you'll face capital gains tax rates on any assets you sell. That's currently 15% for most people for long-term gains (and qualified dividends) and your ordinary income tax rate for short-term gains. Retirement savings accounts get different treatments, too. Money withdrawn from a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) will be tax-free if you follow the rules. Money taken from a traditional IRA or 401(k) is treated as ordinary income. Even your Social Security income -- up to 85% of it -- can be taxed, if your income exceeds a specified level.</p>
<p>There are some special tax breaks for older folks. For example, those aged 65 or older can use a higher standard deduction than the rest of us. For 2017, the standard deduction is $6,350 for a single filer and $12,700 for those married and filing jointly. But someone who is 65 or older can add an extra&#160;$1,250 or $1,550, depending on whether you're married and/or blind. Your property taxes might be reduced, too, if you're past a certain age. Check with your local tax authorities.</p>
<p>Being deliberate and strategic about when you start collecting Social Security can really pay off. More people begin collecting benefits at 62, the earliest age at which they can do so, than at any other age, but the longer you can delay starting, the bigger your checks will be. It's not generally a huge mistake to start early, though, because while the checks will be smaller, there will be more of them. Starting to collect at 62 can help you be ready to retire sooner. Still, if you can delay and you think you may live an extra-long life, bigger checks can be handy.</p>
<p>If you're married, look into spousal strategies, as they can be extra powerful. For example, if you've earned a lot less over your working life than your spouse, your spouse's benefit checks are likely to be larger. The two of you might, if possible, start collecting your checks early while delaying collecting your spouse's checks, so that they can grow larger. Eventually, when one of you dies, the surviving spouse will get to collect the larger benefit checks.</p>
<p>Finally, understand that no matter how independent you've been for many decades, you'll probably eventually find yourself needing help in retirement. Brace yourself for that, because it can sometimes be hard. Know to expect it and perhaps practice asking for help now and then.</p>
<p>Don't leave your retirement to chance. A little thinking and planning now can make your future decades more successful. It can be smart to consult a financial advisor, too, for help strategizing about your overall retirement plans as well as your Social Security strategy.</p>
<p>The $16,122 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 $16,122 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.&#160; <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;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | About to Retire? Read This First | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/11/about-to-retire-read-this-first.html | 2017-07-01 | 0 |
<p>On Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey held a press conference where he walked through all of Hillary Clinton’s crimes and debunked lies regarding her mishandling of classified material, only to stunningly recommended that no charges be brought against the entrenched, privileged politician.</p>
<p>“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” <a href="" type="internal">stated</a> the FBI director during the presser.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, a strikingly <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/sacramento/press-releases/2015/folsom-naval-reservist-is-sentenced-after-pleading-guilty-to-unauthorized-removal-and-retention-of-classified-materials" type="external">similar case</a> to Clinton’s was brought against Naval reservist Bryan H. Nishimura, and, indeed, Nishimura was prosecuted and sentenced in July of 2015.</p>
<p>Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI" type="external">@FBI</a> it seems you made a mistake when charging Bryan Nishimura <a href="https://t.co/Ie9l2j6NSf" type="external">pic.twitter.com/Ie9l2j6NSf</a></p>
<p>Nishimura was found guilty of “unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials” and sentenced “to two years of probation, a $7,500 fine, and forfeiture of personal media containing classified materials."</p>
<p>Hillary, on the other hand, will likely become our next Commander-in-Chief.</p>
<p>So how similar are these two cases? Pretty damn similar.</p>
<p>The naval reservist stored classified materials on “his personal, unclassified electronic devices,” just as Mrs. Clinton did.</p>
<p>“In his role as a Regional Engineer for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Nishimura had access to classified briefings and digital records that could only be retained and viewed on authorized government computers. Nishimura, however, caused the materials to be downloaded and stored on his personal, unclassified electronic devices and storage media,” <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/sacramento/press-releases/2015/folsom-naval-reservist-is-sentenced-after-pleading-guilty-to-unauthorized-removal-and-retention-of-classified-materials" type="external">reported</a>the FBI.</p>
<p>Clinton engaged in the same sort of activity: In addition to Clinton’s private email server, she also “used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain,” <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> Comey. On such devices, “110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were ‘up-classified’ to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.”</p>
<p>Okay, but the Naval reservist deleted classified information stored on an unsecured device: “Nishimura later admitted that, following his statement to Naval personnel, he destroyed a large quantity of classified materials he had maintained in his home,” according to the FBI.</p>
<p>Yeah, Clinton did that too: “The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014,” said the FBI director.</p>
<p>“With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level,” he added.</p>
<p>Perhaps, if Nishimura had his spouse meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch a day before he was questioned by the FBI he would have been cleared too. Maybe if he was set to campaign with the President of the United States mere hours after the FBI announced their findings he would have got off scot-free. Maybe if Nishimura's last name was Clinton he would have earned a pass.</p>
<p>We’ll leave you the most apropos message courtesy of Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign:</p> | Naval Reservist SENTENCED For Mishandling Classified Docs. But His Last Name Isn't Clinton, So… | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7213/naval-reservist-sentenced-mishandling-classified-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-07-06 | 0 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/richevenhouse/5909070688/"&gt;Fellowship of the Rich&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>Have a freshwater fish tank at home? Stop petting Nemo and Wanda for a minute, and take a deep breath. Ornamental fish in the US, many of which come from Asia, are hosting antibiotic-resistant bacteria which could spread diseases to their human owners, <a href="http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2013/jan/ornamental-fish-industry-faces-problems-antibiotic-resistance" type="external">a new report</a>put out by researchers at Oregon State University reveals.</p>
<p>“The range of resistance is often quite disturbing,” the authors wrote in their report, which was published in the January edition of the Journal of Fish Diseases. “Imported ornamental fish are commonly colonized with bacterial species of potential human and animal harm.”</p>
<p>The researchers examined 32 freshwater fish, including common household species like neon tetras, cory catfish, and flame gouramis. They found that the fish, which came from Colombia, Florida and Singapore, had antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could potentially spread to humans, including Staphylococcus, which causes Staph infections of the skin; Aeromonas, which gives you stomach flu symptoms; and a type of Mycobacterium that causes skin lesions (not to be confused with the kind that breeds tuberculosis.)</p>
<p>The fish were most resistant to the antibiotics Tetracycline, which is used to treat infections like chlamydia in humans, and Bactrim, which is often used to treat women’s urinary tract infections and bronchitis. The authors point out in the report that “this is not surprising considering the widespread use of these classes [of antibiotics] in the ornamental fish industry.” However, the researchers also found that the fish were resistant to some antibiotics that aren’t commonly used.&#160;“We don’t know why that is, it could be industry testing that’s going on somewhere,” &#160;Tim Miller-Morgan, a veterinary aquatics specialist with Oregon State University who co-authored the report, told&#160;Mother Jones.&#160;The report notes that frequent and unregulated use of antibiotics is a growing problem in the ornamental fish industry, which is worth about $900 million.&#160;</p>
<p>But there is good news: Miller-Morgan says that “the overall risk to human from these infected fish is low,” although he suggests that individuals who have compromised immune systems consult their doctors, and people with open wounds refrain from cleaning their fish tanks. “You just need to be aware,” he says. “I wouldn’t stop keeping ornamental fish.”</p>
<p>But if, after reading this report, you’re hell-bent on getting rid of Goldy and Phish, you can always copy what the scientists did: Kill them “via decapitation followed by exsanguination” and then cut out their kidneys. <a href="" type="internal">*</a>&#160;“This is the quickest, most humane way to kill the fish,” given that “results can be compromised when an anesthetic is used,” Miller-Morgan says.&#160;</p>
<p>This is why I’m not a biologist.</p>
<p>*Please don’t actually do this to your pets.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Pet Fish Could Give You Freaky Antibiotic-Resistant Skin Diseases | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/your-pet-fish-could-give-you-staph-other-freaky-diseases/ | 2013-01-16 | 4 |
<p>“For three years Bradley Manning and Julian Assange were accused of murder,” writes Matt Sledge at The Huffington Post. “Members of Congress and the administration said their WikiLeaks document dump endangered U.S. interests — and lives.”</p>
<p>One of the most memorable, Orwellian and laughably hypocritical examples of that claim came from Adm. Mike Mullen in 2010, when Mullen was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.</p>
<p>“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family,” Mullen said.</p>
<p>That claim has always been greeted with skepticism by people who sympathize with the cause of Assange and Manning — exposing the lies, thefts and murders committed abroad and at home by the American government — especially as months and then years rolled by without the presentation of any evidence to support it.</p>
<p />
<p>Still, many people who have not closely followed the U.S. government’s persecution of Assange and Manning continue to believe the two men have “blood on their hands” for disclosing state secrets.</p>
<p>The latest confirmation that those claims hold no water come from The Huffington Post’s Matt Sledge. “Before a press corps hollowed out to a skeleton crew after Manning’s verdict,” Sledge writes, “that insinuation is falling apart. Top government officials testifying in open court for Manning’s sentencing in recent days have cited no credible evidence his leaks led directly to any deaths. They have instead spoken to diplomatic sources placed at risk and strayed foreign relations. In the words of one official, some allies got ‘chesty.’ ”</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>Matt Sledge at The Huffington Post:</p>
<p>The State Department’s current, official take on the cables’ release may come Monday, as Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy testifies in court for a full day on damage caused by the cables. Or Kennedy may once again be forced into closed session to talk about any specifics in yet another example of the secrecy that has shrouded the trial, even in its sentencing phase.</p>
<p>During the first phase of the trial, the judge overseeing Manning’s case prevented the defendant from presenting any evidence against claims that his releases caused any harm. So those revelations, endlessly fought over in the press since WikiLeaks’ releases, have all taken place during the sentencing phase of Manning’s court martial. They may shave years off his maximum 132.5-year punishment.</p>
<p>For Assange supporters, meanwhile, the trial testimony comes as long-awaited vindication for the much-vilified WikiLeaks founder.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/bradley-manning-sentence_n_3696501.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Sentencing Testimony Suggests Manning and WikiLeaks Not Responsible for Any Deaths | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sentencing-testimony-suggests-manning-and-wikileaks-not-responsible-for-any-deaths/ | 2013-08-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A Texas A&amp;M University institute that brings prominent scholars to the school to collaborate with faculty and students on research has been given a $20 million endowment.</p>
<p>The Texas A&amp;M Foundation announced Monday that longtime donor and alumnus Jon L. Hagler will endow the Texas A&amp;M University Institute for Advanced Study, which will be renamed the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M Foundation President Tyson Voelkel tells the Bryan-College Station Eagle ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2m50yIi" type="external">http://bit.ly/2m50yIi</a> ) that the gift establishes the institute “in permanency.”</p>
<p>Eighty-year-old Hagler, who lives in Dover, Massachusetts, said he looks at his contribution to the institute as a way to repay the university, which he believes helped him become the man he is today. Hagler graduated from the university in 1958. His career has included founding two investment firms.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Eagle, <a href="http://www.theeagle.com" type="external">http://www.theeagle.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Texas A&M institute gets $20 million endowment | false | https://abqjournal.com/954430/texas-am-institute-gets-20-million-endowment.html | 2 |
|
<p>Published time: 31 Jul, 2017 21:18</p>
<p>Nice airport has launched an investigation after video was published online that appears to show a staff member punching a passenger holding a young child following a row over a delayed flight.</p>
<p>Passengers of easyJet flight 2122 from Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport in southern France became embroiled in heated exchanges with airport and airline staff after their flight to London’s Luton Airport was delayed for more than 12 hours Saturday.</p>
<p>The lengthy wait was due to an accident as the plane was being refueled which resulted in fuel being spilled on the airport tarmac.</p>
<p>One passenger was recorded engaging in a heated argument with a member of staff.</p>
<p>In the footage, words are exchanged between the pair before the passenger, who is carrying a small child, appears to push the airport employee. The staff member then seems to throw a punch in return.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/viral/398114-hbo-hack-game-thrones/" type="external">READ MORE: ‘Game Of Thrones’ script leaked in major HBO cyberattack – report</a></p>
<p>Several passengers posted about the delay, and the alleged punching incident, on social media. Many initially thought the employee worked for the easyJet. It subsequently emerged that he was part of the airport’s staff. The Sun published a <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4132116/nice-airport-video-worker-punching-passenger-easyjet-passenger-police-investigation/" type="external">video</a> of the incident.</p>
<p />
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/easyJet" type="external">@easyjet</a> absolute chaos – member of staff just punched a passenger in the face at Nice airport. Waited for 12 hours for this.</p>
<p>— Anna McCrum (@CrumAnna) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrumAnna/status/891403504220295170" type="external">July 29, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>EasyJet apologized for the fracas and said the gate agent was not an airline employee.</p>
<p>“We are concerned to see this — it is not an easyJet staff member &amp; they do not work for our ground handling agents,” the airline said on Twitter.</p>
<p>The airport also released a statement confirming that the police are now involved.</p>
<p>“Nice Airport confirms the altercation last night between a passenger and an agent of a subcontracting company. The police was called immediately and took in charge both of them,” the statement read.</p>
<p>“Whatever the circumstances, the airport management firmly condemns this incident and has immediately asked that this staff member to be suspended.</p>
<p>“The images of the CCTV cameras were transmitted to the DDPAF which will determine after investigation the exact circumstances and the follow-up to this incident.”</p> | Airport staffer suspended after ‘punching passenger holding child’ (PHOTOS) | false | https://newsline.com/airport-staffer-suspended-after-punching-passenger-holding-child-photos/ | 2017-07-31 | 1 |
<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When it comes to earthquakes, Alaskans are major pros. But even they get rattled by the strong ones, as Tuesday’s early morning shaker proved.</p>
<p>In the popular cruise-ship town of Seward, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Anchorage, Fire Chief Eddie Athey said the quake lasted for up to 90 seconds.</p>
<p>“It went on long enough that you start thinking to yourself, ‘Boy, I hope this stops soon because it’s just getting worse,’” Athey said.</p>
<p>The magnitude 7.9 quake in the Gulf of Alaska triggered the jarring alert that roused people shortly after midnight Tuesday. Even for Alaskans accustomed to tsunami threats and tsunami drills, the phone message was alarming. It read: “Emergency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland. Listen to local news.”</p>
<p>After the alert, people grabbed blankets and suitcases and hustled to evacuation centers or schools in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>The monster waves never materialized, but people who fled endured hours of tense waiting before they were cleared to return home.</p>
<p>Tina Anderson, clerk of the Aleutians East Borough, was awakened by the quake at her home in Sand Point, an island fishing community about 570 miles (917 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. Anderson, who lives on high ground, called friends in vulnerable areas to make sure they moved to an evacuation center at the school or to friends with homes on higher ground.</p>
<p>The earthquake that struck beneath the Gulf of Alaska Tuesday generated a tsunami, but before gauges could show it was very small, warnings went out to a vast swath of the state, while a lower-level alert targeted the rest of the West Coast. (Jan. 23)</p>
<p>A short while later, a police officer drove through the lower-lying parts of the community with his siren blaring and a loudspeaker telling people to evacuate.</p>
<p>People monitored the event by social media.</p>
<p>“Everyone was on Facebook, seeing what was going on,” Anderson said. “I was monitoring, actually, the Kodiak Police Department Facebook page. They were posting things regularly. I knew we were after them if something were to hit.”</p>
<p>When Sand Point Police Chief Hal Henning learned the projected tsunami landfall was 2 a.m., he jumped into his patrol car to start alerting residents to move to high ground, starting with people sleeping on boats in the harbor or at the seafood processing plant.</p>
<p>Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) made it hard to hear community warning sirens. The patrol car siren and loudspeaker siren were easier to hear, he said. Some people walked to the emergency center at the school. Others drove, offering pedestrians rides in the back of pickups and flatbed trucks, Henning said. Eventually hundreds of people crowded into the school gymnasium.</p>
<p>“I would say it was a huge success,” Henning said of the evacuation.</p>
<p>There were no reports of damage, not even on Kodiak Island, the closest land to the epicenter. Tuesday’s quake was recorded at 12:32 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean about 170 miles (274 kilometers) southeast of Kodiak, home to one of the nation’s largest Coast Guard bases.</p>
<p>It prompted the warning across thousands of miles of Alaska’s southern coast, from Attu in the Aleutian Islands to Canada’s border with Washington state. Kodiak is about 200 miles (321 kilometers) south of Anchorage, the state’s largest city, which was not under a tsunami threat. Elsewhere in the United States, Washington state, Oregon, California and Hawaii were under tsunami watches, which eventually were lifted. Officials in Japan say there was no tsunami threat there.</p>
<p>In Alaska, people reported on social media that the quake was felt hundreds of miles away in Anchorage. Reports varied about how long the quake’s shaking lasted, depending on location.</p>
<p>The quake was a type that usually produces less vertical motion, which means less chance for waves to build for a tsunami, said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. That was somewhat unusual, because quakes in the area usually are a type that cause more vertical motion and increase the chance for a tsunami, he said.</p>
<p>The quake was the planet’s strongest since an 8.2 magnitude in Mexico in September.</p>
<p>Kodiak resident Ted Panamarioff survived Alaska’s 1964 earthquake, which was magnitude 9.2 and generated tsunamis that killed 129 people and wreaked widespread devastation — events that remain vivid in the memories of many Alaskans. Panamarioff’s father died in the ensuing tsunami, he said.</p>
<p>To Panamarioff, Tuesday’s quake felt far milder, although it did wake him up.</p>
<p>He was never worried about killer waves. His home, he said, is too far inland.</p>
<p>“If anything happened, if there was a tsunami, it’d have to be one hell of a big tsunami to get me where I’m at,” he said. “And then there wouldn’t be a city left.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen and Dan Joling in Anchorage, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Ken Moritsugu in Toyko and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When it comes to earthquakes, Alaskans are major pros. But even they get rattled by the strong ones, as Tuesday’s early morning shaker proved.</p>
<p>In the popular cruise-ship town of Seward, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Anchorage, Fire Chief Eddie Athey said the quake lasted for up to 90 seconds.</p>
<p>“It went on long enough that you start thinking to yourself, ‘Boy, I hope this stops soon because it’s just getting worse,’” Athey said.</p>
<p>The magnitude 7.9 quake in the Gulf of Alaska triggered the jarring alert that roused people shortly after midnight Tuesday. Even for Alaskans accustomed to tsunami threats and tsunami drills, the phone message was alarming. It read: “Emergency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland. Listen to local news.”</p>
<p>After the alert, people grabbed blankets and suitcases and hustled to evacuation centers or schools in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>The monster waves never materialized, but people who fled endured hours of tense waiting before they were cleared to return home.</p>
<p>Tina Anderson, clerk of the Aleutians East Borough, was awakened by the quake at her home in Sand Point, an island fishing community about 570 miles (917 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. Anderson, who lives on high ground, called friends in vulnerable areas to make sure they moved to an evacuation center at the school or to friends with homes on higher ground.</p>
<p>The earthquake that struck beneath the Gulf of Alaska Tuesday generated a tsunami, but before gauges could show it was very small, warnings went out to a vast swath of the state, while a lower-level alert targeted the rest of the West Coast. (Jan. 23)</p>
<p>A short while later, a police officer drove through the lower-lying parts of the community with his siren blaring and a loudspeaker telling people to evacuate.</p>
<p>People monitored the event by social media.</p>
<p>“Everyone was on Facebook, seeing what was going on,” Anderson said. “I was monitoring, actually, the Kodiak Police Department Facebook page. They were posting things regularly. I knew we were after them if something were to hit.”</p>
<p>When Sand Point Police Chief Hal Henning learned the projected tsunami landfall was 2 a.m., he jumped into his patrol car to start alerting residents to move to high ground, starting with people sleeping on boats in the harbor or at the seafood processing plant.</p>
<p>Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) made it hard to hear community warning sirens. The patrol car siren and loudspeaker siren were easier to hear, he said. Some people walked to the emergency center at the school. Others drove, offering pedestrians rides in the back of pickups and flatbed trucks, Henning said. Eventually hundreds of people crowded into the school gymnasium.</p>
<p>“I would say it was a huge success,” Henning said of the evacuation.</p>
<p>There were no reports of damage, not even on Kodiak Island, the closest land to the epicenter. Tuesday’s quake was recorded at 12:32 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean about 170 miles (274 kilometers) southeast of Kodiak, home to one of the nation’s largest Coast Guard bases.</p>
<p>It prompted the warning across thousands of miles of Alaska’s southern coast, from Attu in the Aleutian Islands to Canada’s border with Washington state. Kodiak is about 200 miles (321 kilometers) south of Anchorage, the state’s largest city, which was not under a tsunami threat. Elsewhere in the United States, Washington state, Oregon, California and Hawaii were under tsunami watches, which eventually were lifted. Officials in Japan say there was no tsunami threat there.</p>
<p>In Alaska, people reported on social media that the quake was felt hundreds of miles away in Anchorage. Reports varied about how long the quake’s shaking lasted, depending on location.</p>
<p>The quake was a type that usually produces less vertical motion, which means less chance for waves to build for a tsunami, said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. That was somewhat unusual, because quakes in the area usually are a type that cause more vertical motion and increase the chance for a tsunami, he said.</p>
<p>The quake was the planet’s strongest since an 8.2 magnitude in Mexico in September.</p>
<p>Kodiak resident Ted Panamarioff survived Alaska’s 1964 earthquake, which was magnitude 9.2 and generated tsunamis that killed 129 people and wreaked widespread devastation — events that remain vivid in the memories of many Alaskans. Panamarioff’s father died in the ensuing tsunami, he said.</p>
<p>To Panamarioff, Tuesday’s quake felt far milder, although it did wake him up.</p>
<p>He was never worried about killer waves. His home, he said, is too far inland.</p>
<p>“If anything happened, if there was a tsunami, it’d have to be one hell of a big tsunami to get me where I’m at,” he said. “And then there wouldn’t be a city left.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen and Dan Joling in Anchorage, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Ken Moritsugu in Toyko and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.</p> | Big quake and tsunami fears rattle temblor-prone Alaskans | false | https://apnews.com/a67728f93610488b9ee69562eab66328 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Social Security's trust funds are on track to run out of money in 2034, slashing benefits by about 21%.Between now and then, however, Social Security will become a net drain on the U.S. Treasury, siphoning a total of around $2.9 trillion from the general fund over about 14 years to cover its operations.That pain is expected to start in 2020, when Social Security's income from taxes and interest no longer covers its costs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>At that point, Social Security will begin drawing down its trust funds. Since those trust funds are invested entirely in U.S. Treasury bonds, when Social Security redeems those bonds, the Treasury will have to find another lender willing to take on that debt. Since U.S. Treasury bonds are very widely held debt instruments, chances are strong that another lender will be found. Still, with Social Security among the largest holders of that debt, the shift will likely put upward pressure on interest rates.</p>
<p>If the interest rates the federal government pays rise, your future costs of borrowing will also go up. This is because interest rates are priced based on the perceived risk of the borrower. As the U.S. government can collect taxes in dollars, borrow in dollars, and legally print those very same dollars, it's generally considered among the lowest-risk borrowers around. As its borrowing costs increase, that will trickle its way through to represent higher costs for anyone else looking to borrow dollars.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>In addition, if you own existing fixed-rate bonds that haven't yet matured, those <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2010/06/22/how-bonds-react-to-interest-rate-changes.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">bonds will decline in value as interest rates rise Opens a New Window.</a>. While you can still expect those bonds to be paid in full at maturity as long as the issuer remains solvent, that's a benefit only if you're willing or able to hold those bonds until maturity. That's cold comfort if you were planning to or otherwise have to sell sooner.</p>
<p>Also, the shift of Social Security from being a net lender to the Treasury to a net redeemer of Treasury bonds may accelerate the next wave of reforms to stabilize the program. While Congress doesn't technically have to address Social Security's challenges until the trust funds are closer to emptying, the sooner it gets started, the easier and cheaper it will be to fix them. The financial pressure created by the change in Social Security's standing might provide the cover for real repair work to begin.</p>
<p>If you owe money, the most important thing you can do is to get a plan in place to either pay off your debts or get them locked into as inexpensive terms as possible. As interest rates rise, you'll have to pay that much more to service any floating-rate debts or to roll any fixed-rate debts you can't pay off at maturity. By paying off your debts, you'll be freed from any future servicing costs of them, and by locking in fixed rates today on those you can't pay off, you'll be less exposed to rising rates in the future.</p>
<p>If you own bonds, now is a good time to duration-match your bonds' maturation dates to when you'll need the money to spend. By setting up your bonds to mature around the time you need the money, you'll improve the likelihood that the bonds will be convertible to the cash you need at the time you need it. To duration-match your bonds, simply estimate how much you'll need to spend and when, then make sure you own bonds that mature around that time frame.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>If you're saving for your retirement, you should start planning now for the impact form any patches that will come from the next round of fixes for Social Security. If the last round of fixes was any guide, the next round will likely include some combination of tax increases and benefit reductions. In either case, increasing your retirement savings now will help you when the fixes do come to fruition.</p>
<p>If taxes increase, it's much easier to cut back on your savings to cover the higher taxes than it is to face a forced cutback in your lifestyle driven by the higher taxes. If benefits get cut, it's much easier to deal with the cut with the larger nest egg you'd likely end up with by saving more between now and when you collect. And if the next round of patches involves some combination of both, then your improved savings between now and then still gives you more flexibility than you otherwise would have had.</p>
<p>2020 is shaping up to be something of a tipping point for Social Security as the program starts becoming a net redeemer of its bonds, which ought to prompt congressional action to repair the program. But even under the worst likely case, a do-nothing scenario, Social Security will still provide around 79% of currently expected benefits once its trust funds empty in 2034.</p>
<p>That timeline means that to the extent you're depending on the Social Security to help with your costs in retirement, starting today gives you almost two decades to prepare for the worst of things to come. Start today, and you'll be prepared for any fixes that come down the pike, whether they come in 2020, 2033, or somewhere in between.</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><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBigFrog/info.aspx" type="external">Chuck Saletta Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=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> | Social Security's Next Big Challenge Will Come in 2020 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/25/social-security-next-big-challenge-will-come-in-2020.html | 2016-12-25 | 0 |
<p>ELEANOR MARX, by Yvonne Kapp. New York: Pantheon. Vol. I, 319 pp. Cloth, $10.00, paper, $4.95. Vol. II, 775 pp. Cloth, $17.95, paper, $6.95.</p>
<p>Yvonne Kapp's two-volume biography of Eleanor Marx chronicles both the personal and public life of a woman who played a distinctive role in the socialist, working-class, and feminist movements of 19th-century Europe. Before the publication of this biography she had stood in the shadow of her father, Karl Marx, while the particulars of her life had been obscured by an aura of romantic tragedy. Yet Eleanor's contributions to these movements, as this book documents, demand recognition in their own right. She was born in London in 1855, the youngest of three daughters. Her sisters, Jenny and Laura, were ten and eleven years older than Eleanor. Her early childhood was shaped by repeated illness, poverty, and ceaseless debt. Despite the financial generosity of Engels, these tribulations were to plague the Marx family well into Eleanor's maturity.</p>
<p>Two things strike the reader about the Marxes' family life: their warmth and tenderness toward one another, and Eleanor's identification with her father. Because Kapp relies heavily on family correspondence,we learn little about the influence of her mother. Eleanor may have had several mother surrogates, given the age gap between her and her sisters, and her close relationship to the family servant, Helene Demuth, who later became her confidante</p>
<p /> | The Unknown Eleanor Marx | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-unknown-eleanor-marx | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. on Wednesday in Europe and the U.S., claiming Apple has infringed on a number of its patents. In a statement, Nokia said Apple agreed to license a few of Nokia Technologies' patents in 2011, but has declined offers by Nokia since then to license other patents whose inventions have been used in Apple mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad, and the Mac. The lawsuits, filed in a Munich, Germany, regional court and a district court in Texas, cover technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding. Nokia said it's in the process of filing further actions in other jurisdictions as well. "After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights," said Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia. Shares of Apple rose 0.1% to $117.07 in afternoon trade. They've risen 3.1% in the past three months and 9.1% in the past year. Nokia's shares fell 0.2% to $4.89, pushing htem down 12.5% in the past three months and 31% in the past year. By comparison, the S&amp;P 500 has risen 5% in three months and 12% in the past year.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Nokia Sues Apple, Claims Patent Infringement In IPhone And Other Devices | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/21/nokia-sues-apple-claims-patent-infringement-in-iphone-and-other-devices.html | 2016-12-21 | 0 |
<p>Amazon.com Inc. marked its takeover of Whole Foods Market Inc. by cutting grocery prices and advertising its Amazon Echo devices at a steep discount in many of the natural grocer's stores nationwide.</p>
<p>At a Whole Foods in Brooklyn, 2 pounds of Atlantic salmon fillets were about $2 cheaper at $19.98 and a 1-pound bag of brown rice was selling for 20 cents less at $2.49, according to labels Amazon and Whole Foods affixed to products on Monday to advertise the shift. At a store in Chicago, organic avocados and bananas were also marked down and a big sign advertised the voice-activated Amazon Echo device on sale for $44.99 rather than the list price of $99.99</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"This is a little much," Diana Bradford, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom, said of the Echo ad. Still, Ms. Bradford, an Amazon Prime member, said cheaper Whole Foods prices after the merger could "only could be a good thing."</p>
<p>"I do all my grocery shopping here," she said.</p>
<p>Amazon.com Inc. doesn't need to make money from Whole Foods yet. The grocer's $16 billion in annual revenue is roughly 12% of Amazon's $136 billion in yearly sales. And Amazon has a history of prioritizing gains in market share over profit as it enters a business, from bookselling to streaming video content.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, food sales are essential for grocer Kroger Co. and catchall retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. Amazon is hoping to compete with them by inching close to their prices on high-volume staples like bananas, eggs and ground beef in 470 Whole Foods stores. Deeper price cuts on Monday appeared focused on organic goods that attract a narrower band of shoppers.</p>
<p>Melissa Golden, an elementary school teacher shopping on Monday at the Brooklyn Whole Foods, was disappointed the cuts didn't extend to a wider variety of items.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"We waited until Monday to come shopping," said the 41-year-old, who shops at Whole Foods about once a week for most of her groceries. "I was expecting price cuts across the board."</p>
<p>Concerns over their readiness to withstand Amazon's advance have weighed on Kroger and Target shares since Amazon said it was buying Whole Foods in June. Wal-Mart shares have fared better, in part because of the discount giant's own e-commerce efforts. Kroger and Wal-Mart's shares were down slightly on Monday.</p>
<p>"We feel great about out position with our network of stores around the country and fast-growing e-commerce and online grocery business," a Wal-Mart spokesman said.</p>
<p>Shares in Whole Foods were no longer trading on Monday and the company's board was dissolved as Amazon's takeover took effect. In a regulatory filing, Whole Foods said 72% of its shareholders approved the deal, and that Amazon paid former investors about $13.55 billion, or $42 a share.</p>
<p>Write to Heather Haddon at [email protected] and Sarah Nassauer at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 28, 2017 12:08 ET (16:08 GMT)</p> | Amazon Cutting Grocery Prices at Whole Foods -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/28/amazon-cutting-grocery-prices-at-whole-foods-update.html | 2017-08-28 | 0 |
<p>Many assumed it was a disaster in the making when Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. -- a little-known Chinese car maker with virtually no international experience -- bought Sweden's Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. in 2010.</p>
<p>Seven years later, Geely and Volvo are both motoring, and inspiring other Chinese auto makers to take the same road.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Great Wall Motors Co.'s interest in buying the legendary Jeep brand from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is being seen as a bid to realize its global ambition -- an ambition that analysts are taking seriously in part because of the success of the Geely-Volvo marriage.</p>
<p>"Volvo is certainly much better off than it was under Ford," said Janet Lewis, Macquarie Capital Research's managing director of equity research.</p>
<p>Great Wall said Tuesday that it was still evaluating a move for Jeep or Fiat Chrysler itself. Amid speculation over its plans, the Hong Kong stock exchange suspended trading of its shares.</p>
<p>Acquiring a marquee name like Jeep would help Great Wall in its long-running rivalry with Geely, which as of late has taken the lead. A unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., the company recently took control of a second foreign auto maker, Malaysia's Proton.</p>
<p>Last week, Geely said first-half revenue more than doubled to $5.88 billion, with profit up 128% to $739 million. Auto sales were up 89% to 530,627 more than it sold in the whole of 2015.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Geely is significantly outperforming the Chinese passenger car market, which grew only 1.6% in the first six months of this year.</p>
<p>"Right now Geely is in a class by itself" among Chinese auto makers thanks largely to its technology connection with Volvo, said Michael Dunne, president of consultancy Dunne Automotive.</p>
<p>China has scores of domestic car makers, most of them state-run: They are broadly considered mediocre by industry analysts. Many operate joint ventures with foreign auto makers, but that structure has proved an ineffective means of absorbing advanced technologies.</p>
<p>In contrast, buying Volvo proved a transformative moment for Geely, Mr. Dunne said, plugging the privately owned car maker into the Swedish outfit's world-class resources, while handing the Hangzhou-based firm a ready-made global sales and manufacturing network.</p>
<p>"Volvo has been a strong teacher and brother to Geely Auto," said a Geely spokesman, partly attributing technology and supply-chain sharing to the recent strong performance of both brands.</p>
<p>The turnaround wasn't instantaneous. Volvo was languishing when Geely bought it from Ford, and it took several years for its integration with Geely to start paying dividends.</p>
<p>Volvo's sales increased by 25% between 2013 and 2016, and grew 8.2% in the first half of 2017.</p>
<p>So far, Geely still is the only Chinese automotive company to have pulled off the takeover of a major foreign car maker.</p>
<p>That could soon change, now that Great Wall, a with sport-utility vehicle specialist, is circling Jeep.</p>
<p>Great Wall has been open about its global ambitions for years, but it has made relatively little headway outside China: only 1% of its 1.07 million sales last year were made in foreign markets.</p>
<p>Great Wall's interest in acquiring Jeep is seen by many as a "very logical move" said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight, a Shanghai auto consultancy.</p>
<p>"If they can buy Jeep, they get the brand, the products, the R&amp;D, and the foreign distribution channels," he said.</p>
<p>In the tussle between China's two top privately owned auto companies, Great Wall fell behind Geely in terms of deliveries for the first time in the January to June period, selling 460,743 vehicles, up 2.3% year-over-year.</p>
<p>Geely's sales surged thanks in part to popular new SUV models that ate into Great Wall's once-dominant share of the popular segment. In response Great Wall heavily discounted some vehicles in the first half of the year, causing its profits to halve to $373 million.</p>
<p>A swoop for Jeep would certainly change the complexion of Great Wall's operation, said Ms. Lewis. "Overseas M&amp;A is the best route to survival," as Chinese car makers struggle to achieve sufficient scale and technical quality to match foreign rivals, she said.</p>
<p>The $1.8 billion that Geely paid for Volvo at a time when Ford was desperate to divest noncore assets is now widely seen as a bargain in the auto industry. Jeep is unlikely to come so cheap.</p>
<p>Even so, Great Wall has consistently been one of the most profitable auto makers in China, and should be able to finance the takeover should Fiat Chrysler agree to the sale, Mr. Zhang said.</p>
<p>A Chinese acquisition of Jeep could face regulatory and political hurdles. Fiat Chrysler said Monday it hasn't been formally approached. Great Wall confirmed its interest Monday but hasn't made any additional statements since then.</p>
<p>Write to Trefor Moss at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 22, 2017 10:57 ET (14:57 GMT)</p> | Chinese Rival's Success With Volvo Sets Path for Great Wall's Pursuit of Jeep | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/22/chinese-rivals-success-with-volvo-sets-path-for-great-walls-pursuit-jeep.html | 2017-08-22 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>FILE – This Jan. 4, 2010 file photo shows an entrance to a Wall Street subway station in New York. European and some Asian stock markets rallied Thursday June 19, 2014 after the Fed signaled that U.S. interest rates would remain at record lows. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)</p>
<p>A late push higher left stock indexes mostly higher and the Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 at another record high.</p>
<p>It was the fifth straight gain for S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>The market drifted between small gains and losses for much of the day before a slight recovery in the last half hour.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 rose two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,959.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,921. The Nasdaq composite lost three points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,359.</p>
<p>Kroger rose 5 percent after the supermarket operator raised its earnings forecast for the year. American Apparel jumped 7 percent after the company’s board said it would fire the CEO.</p>
<p>Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.63 percent.</p> | Late recovery gives S&P 500 another record close | false | https://abqjournal.com/417868/late-recovery-gives-sp-500-another-record-close.html | 2 |
|
<p>Almost all of the misinformation coming from politicians on the Sunday shows this week had to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts, which Congress is expected to vote on this week. Coming in second was the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy for gay servicemembers — we’ll post Tuesday on an exchange that took place on that topic on ABC’s "This Week."</p>
<p>Polling Problems</p>
<p>On CBS’ “ <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/FTN_120510.pdf?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea" type="external">Face the Nation</a>,” Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona gave a misleading description of public opinion on the Bush tax cuts. After host Bob Schieffer cited a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20024494-503544.html" type="external">CBS News poll</a> that found 53 percent of respondents wanted the tax cuts to be extended only for households earning less than $250,000 a year, Kyl said: “There’s a Gallup poll of — a week ago, that had 80 percent of Americans saying don’t increase taxes.”</p>
<p>Kyl gave the impression that the Gallup poll showed a large majority favoring the extension of all tax cuts, even for the wealthy, contradicting the CBS survey. But that’s not the case. Instead, the <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/144989/Vast-Majority-Wants-Aspect-Bush-Tax-Cuts-Extended.aspx" type="external">USA Today/Gallup poll</a>, conducted Nov. 19-21, found that 44 percent wanted to extend the tax cuts but set limits for wealthy Americans. Another 40 percent wanted to keep all the cuts for all income groups. That’s a total of 84 percent wanting to keep the tax cuts in some form – but not for everyone.</p>
<p>Other recent polls <a href="" type="internal">similarly have found</a> that Americans are divided on whether to extend the cuts for everyone or only for those earning under $250,000.</p>
<p>Blame the Bush Tax Cuts</p>
<p>Also on “Face the Nation,” Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois made the hyperbolic claim that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy “led us into this recession.”</p>
<p>Durbin: And the Bush economic policies of tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals have led us into this recession, cost us 15 million jobs, have utterly failed. You can’t point to those policies as successful.</p>
<p>Really? It was the tax cuts for the upper-income brackets that single-handedly caused the recession? Kyl rightly questioned that theory, saying:</p>
<p>Kyl: They did not create the problem that we have today. That was a problem created, as you know, by the crash of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the housing market, the so-called bubble. It had nothing to do with these tax rates.</p>
<p>We looked into the causes of the financial crisis in 2008 and found there was plenty of blame to go around. Those at fault included the Bush and Clinton administrations, homebuyers, Congress, mortgage brokers, Wall Street firms and the Federal Reserve. As <a href="" type="internal">we wrote</a>: “The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) the crisis is just political grandstanding.”</p>
<p>Kyl went on to offer some grandstanding of his own, saying that “without the taxes being where they are the situation would have been much worse.” That’s highly debatable.</p>
<p>When the Congressional Research Service looked into the impact on the economy of extending the Bush tax cuts, it <a href="http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R41443_20101005.pdf" type="external">found</a> that the economy performed worse according to several indicators after the tax cuts were enacted than it had before. That lends some credence to Durbin’s belief that the tax cuts hurt the economy — but certainly not that they caused the recession. CRS wrote that another interpretation is that the cuts didn’t have much of an impact at a time when other factors were negatively affecting the economy. So it’s not at all clear that the cuts helped the economy, as Kyl claimed.</p>
<p>CRS, Oct. 2010 report: By almost any economic indicator, the economy performed better in the period before the tax cuts than after the tax cuts were enacted, regardless of whether recession years are omitted from the comparison. GDP growth, median real household income growth, weekly hours worked, the employment-population ratio, personal saving, and business investment growth were all lower in the period after the tax cuts were enacted. … One interpretation is that the tax cuts contributed to the deterioration in economic performance, because income effects on work and saving dominated or because of the negative economic effects of the higher budget deficits. An alternative interpretation is that the tax cuts did not have significant enough effects to show up in the data at a time when other factors were causing the economy to perform relatively poorly. In this interpretation, the tax cuts could have small positive, small negative, or no effects on the economy.</p>
<p>That’s Not All They Said</p>
<p>In a conversation about Senate approval of the New START treaty — the nuclear weapons agreement with Russia — Kyl said that he hasn’t “held it up” and selectively cited a Washington Post editorial to back up his view that approving the treaty wasn’t an urgent matter.</p>
<p>Kyl: I haven’t held it up. Leader Reid can bring it to the floor any time he wants to. I have no ability to hold it up. I haven’t even said whether I’m for it or against it.</p>
<p>He went on to say that the “Washington Post editorialized saying no calamity will befall the United States, if this treaty isn’t done in a lame duck session.” It’s true that Sen. Harry Reid can bring the matter to the floor whenever he wants, and that a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906562.html" type="external">Post editorial</a> said that “no calamity will befall the United States if the Senate does not act this year.” But there’s more to it than that.</p>
<p>Kyl <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/senate-leader-deals-blow-to-president-on-arms-treaty/" type="external">surprised the White House in November</a> by saying that there wasn’t enough time in the lame duck session to consider the New START treaty. In theory, Reid could bring the pact to a vote, but in reality, without the support of Kyl, who is a Republican leader on this issue, approval is unlikely. And while the Post said that President Barack Obama was overstating matters “more than a little” by claiming passage was "a national security imperative," the Post also had critical words for Kyl, saying he had "blindsided the administration" in claiming there wasn’t enough time to approve the treaty this year.</p>
<p>Washington Post editorial, Nov. 19: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who has been representing the Republican side, acknowledged months ago that the treaty is "relatively benign"; his concern has been obtaining a parallel commitment from the administration to modernize the remaining U.S. weapons stockpile and its related industrial infrastructure. The White House has gone a long way to meet his concerns, promising to spend $7 billion this year and larger amounts in subsequent years as part of a 10-year, $85 billion plan.</p>
<p>The Post said both sides should stop playing politics and pass the treaty: “Both sides would do well to stop maneuvering for political advantage and return to the negotiations that appeared close to winning the necessary support for the treaty before the midterm elections.”&#160;</p>
<p>A $100 Billion Here, a $100 Billion There&#160;</p>
<p>On NBC’s " <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40493580/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts#" type="external">Meet the Press</a>," Democratic Sen. John Kerry slightly exaggerated the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts. In discussing the Senate’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/politics/05cong.html" type="external">rejection</a> Dec. 4 of the Democratic plan to extend the cuts on income below $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals, Kerry said extending the tax cuts for those upper-income levels would add $800 billion to the deficit.&#160;</p>
<p>Kerry: We’re — we want to extend the tax cuts for every single American, but up to a level that makes sense in terms of our economy. You talk about uncertainty of the economy, how much uncertainty is there to our economy when you add $800 billion to the deficit.</p>
<p>The cost would be $700 billion, not $800 billion, and it would be over 10 years — from 2011 to 2020, according to an <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/117xx/doc11705/08-18-Update.pdf#page=44" type="external">August 2010 report</a> by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO&#160;says the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for all income levels would be about $2.7 trillion over that 10-year period, including $700 billion for income above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families.</p>
<p>Small-Business Bunk</p>
<p>Also on "Meet the Press," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated a claim about the expiring tax cuts and small businesses that we’ve seen, and shot holes in, before.</p>
<p>McConnell: Over 700,000 small businesses pay taxes as individuals. They would be hit by raising the top rate above $250,000; 700,000 of our most productive and effective small businesses. That’s 50 percent of small business income and 25 percent of the work force in the middle of a recession.</p>
<p>An <a href="" type="external">analysis by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation</a> reported that 3 percent of all taxpayers with net positive business income would be affected by raising tax rates for households making more than $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals), or about 750,000 taxpayers in 2011. Fifty percent of the $1 trillion in net positive business income would be subject to the increased tax rate.</p>
<p>But the JCT also says that not all of these taxpayers are entities that would be considered "small" businesses. The committee doesn’t know how many fall under that rubric; neither does McConnell, and neither do we.</p>
<p>We’ll have more on this issue soon.</p>
<p>– Lori Robertson, Eugene Kiely and Viveca Novak</p> | Sunday Replay | false | https://factcheck.org/2010/12/sunday-replay-32/ | 2010-12-06 | 2 |
<p>Following the executive-level meeting held in New York on Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch’s media heavyweight News Corporation announced today it will split in two.</p>
<p>The new companies will house News Corp’s publishing business, with over 170 print newspapers, separate from entertainment media-focused holdings, which include broadcast and cable networks.</p>
<p>In a statement to employees today, Murdoch wrote:</p>
<p>I am extremely excited by this big change. It is a testimony to our entrepreneurial spirit and determination to educate, inspire and entertain millions of families across the globe.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/news-corporations-big-move-murdoch-informs-the-staff/?smid=tw-mediadecodernyt&amp;seid=auto" type="external">New York Times</a> has Murdoch’s full statement to employees and he is scheduled to appear on Fox Business News today at 10am EST.</p> | News Corp Confirms Split | false | https://ivn.us/2012/06/28/news-corp-confirms-split/ | 2012-06-28 | 2 |
<p>TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Brenton Scott nailed two of his five 3-pointers to start the game as Indiana State thrashed Illinois State 84-54 in Missouri Valley Conference action on Saturday afternoon.</p>
<p>The Sycamores lost in overtime, 84-81, in the earlier meeting between the two schools this season. Indiana State was 3-3 in its last six games, with no more than a four-point difference in any of them.</p>
<p>Indiana State dominated from the outset as Tyreke Key scored seven straight points, Qiydar Davis and Scott followed with treys as the Sycamores sprinted to a 23-8 lead en route to a 42-27 halftime advantage. They led by as much as 40 in the second half.</p>
<p>Scott finished with 23 points, Davis added 15, Jordan Barnes had 14 with five assists and four steals and Key chipped in 13 points for Indiana State (10-10, 5-3).</p>
<p>Phil Fayne had 13 points with nine rebounds to lead Illinois State (10-10, 4-4).</p>
<p>TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Brenton Scott nailed two of his five 3-pointers to start the game as Indiana State thrashed Illinois State 84-54 in Missouri Valley Conference action on Saturday afternoon.</p>
<p>The Sycamores lost in overtime, 84-81, in the earlier meeting between the two schools this season. Indiana State was 3-3 in its last six games, with no more than a four-point difference in any of them.</p>
<p>Indiana State dominated from the outset as Tyreke Key scored seven straight points, Qiydar Davis and Scott followed with treys as the Sycamores sprinted to a 23-8 lead en route to a 42-27 halftime advantage. They led by as much as 40 in the second half.</p>
<p>Scott finished with 23 points, Davis added 15, Jordan Barnes had 14 with five assists and four steals and Key chipped in 13 points for Indiana State (10-10, 5-3).</p>
<p>Phil Fayne had 13 points with nine rebounds to lead Illinois State (10-10, 4-4).</p> | Scott leads the way, Indiana St. thrashes Illinois St. 84-54 | false | https://apnews.com/fc9060c78fc649588e58610b64731c98 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Nintendo's U.S.-based servers were attacked several weeks ago but no consumer data was stolen, the company said on Sunday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Nintendo</a> is the latest company to be targeted by cyber criminals in a hacking attack. In April, hackers broke into <a href="" type="internal">Sony</a> Corp's servers and exposed the personal information of more than 100 million of its customers. No group has taken responsibility for that attack.</p>
<p>Nintendo's break-in did not affect consumers' information, the company said.</p>
<p>"The server contained no consumer information. The protection of our customer information is our utmost priority," Nintendo of America, the company's U.S. unit, said in an e-mailed statement.</p>
<p>"We constantly monitor our security," Nintendo said.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the hacker group Lulzsec said it had attacked Nintendo in a statement posted on its <a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a> feed. Lulzsec is the same group that broke into the servers that run Sony Pictures Entertainment websites last week, and claimed attacks on U.S. PBS television and Fox.com.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Lulzsec tweeted it had taken one file but "we didn't mean any harm. Nintendo had already fixed it anyway."</p>
<p>Nintendo is expected to unveil its new gaming console and successor to its hit product, the Wii, on Tuesday. It will be the first home console to enter the market in five years.</p> | Nintendo's U.S. Servers Hacked | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/06/06/nintendos-us-servers-hacked.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>There are a lot of significant elections in Europe this year — including Britain’s contest in May. It’s fitting, then, that today’s “ <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/10/french-unity-terrorism-paris-march-charlie-hebdo" type="external">Republican march</a>” of national unity in Paris morphed into a display of “European solidarity” — or, spelling it out more accurately, of solidarity between European political leaders facing angry electorates.</p>
<p>Where better, then, for conservative Greek Prime Minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonis_Samaras" type="external">Antonis Samaras</a> to roll up as part of his desperate election campaign to stave off victory by Syriza. His presence underlines the political chicanery with which the European elites have responded to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity.</p>
<p>The march began to run into the political rapids two days ago when Nicolas Sarkozy and the center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) called on Socialist Party president <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Hollande" type="external">François Hollande</a> to include Marine Le Pen and her far-right&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_%28France%29" type="external">National Front</a> in the parade.</p>
<p>“I represent a quarter of the French population,” said Le Pen, “how can there be national unity without me?” The question cuts right through the piles of left-wing verbiage claiming that rallying for the republic is the way to unite France against the Right.</p>
<p>Whether by accident or design, Hollande — the most unpopular French president on record — happened on an elegant solution. The march was to be Europeanized, unity of the nation replaced by another <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/meyoueu/selfies-of-and-with-european-leaders/" type="external">group</a>selfie of European Union leaders. Le Pen could be excluded by ensuring the presence of Cameron, Merkel .&#160;.&#160;. and, at his own insistence, it seems, Samaras.</p>
<p>So in order to construct a cordon around Le Pen, Hollande will march with Samaras — whose interventions following the Paris killings have been more extreme than those of the National Front leader — and give him a fillip two weeks before polling day.</p>
<p>Syriza and the Left are ahead in the polls. For seventy years anti-Communism — through state policy and force of arms — has kept the Left in Greece in opposition (sometimes in exiled opposition). That it could hold office following the January 25 elections is immense. But we should not lose sight of the Right. New Democracy is only just behind Syriza in the opinion polls. And on the eve of the great display of European hypocrisy in Paris, it’s worth shedding some light on the recesses of the Greek right.</p> | The Greek Right | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2015/01/greek-right-golden-dawn-samaras/ | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>"On behalf of our company, my colleagues in Germany and me personally, I would like to offer a sincere apology for Volkswagen's use of a software program that served to defeat the regular emissions testing regime,'' Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn told a House subcommittee.</p>
<p>Fred Emich says he too has been apologizing to his customers. He runs a Volkswagen dealership in Denver.</p>
<p>“Obviously we had no knowledge of this, but you know we're here to support our customers and stand behind Volkswagen in a partnership and we know in the long term they're just trying to figure out exactly what the fix is going to be. But they will take care of the customers and we know that’s their number one priority," he says.</p>
<p>But for American customers who bought VW diesel models that claimed to be fuel efficient, powerful and green, apologies and CEO resignations may not be enough. Emich agrees.</p>
<p>“Apologies certainly aren't enough," he says. "They’ve already started with some funds, both for the dealership and they're&#160;working on how they go about it with the customers. There's currently a $2000 owner loyalty program where if someone wants to trade out of one of these cars they can and they receive a $2000 rebate to do so. So they are starting to work with Germany on not only the fixes but how they can properly compensate people for buying these cars that were misrepresented.”</p>
<p>So would you be satisfied with a $2000 rebate to trade in your diesel VW with its deliberately installed software that’s been blamed for cheating emissions tests? &#160;</p>
<p>“At this point I don’t know if I can answer that question, because I’m not a customer who bought one of these,” says Emich. "But I would say that the general feedback is no.”</p>
<p>Some customers are filing class action lawsuits, others wish to be reimbursed for the original price they paid for the car, others may be satisfied with the trade-in value that was listed before news of the VW scandal broke. And some may be willing to go for the $2000 rebate program to trade the vehicle in for a newer VW model.</p>
<p>Horn told a House subcommittee that he had learned in early 2014 that VW’s supposedly environmentally friendly diesel cars failed tests. But he said he did not know until September that "defeat devices" had been installed deliberately in the vehicles to help them cheat US pollution tests. It’s now estimated that 11 million diesel VWs and Audis have hidden software that switches the engine to produce lower emissions during tests.</p>
<p>That software device then switches off pollution controls when the car is back on the road. Out of view of the inspectors, the car engines spew out harmful levels of toxic gases.</p>
<p>Emich says he had absolutely no idea that he was selling diesel VWs that had this trick software installed. “In model year 2009, really in 2008, when that vehicle came out, it was touted as clean diesel technology, that was drastically different," he adds. "The emissions had changed the 2006 model year, it had a very expensive particulate filter and advanced exhaust systems that we were told was cleaner than a gas car, and it was marketed as a clean diesel. It was ‘green car&#160;of the year,'&#160;so we thought it was everything that it was said to be.”</p>
<p>Emich, one of America’s leading VW dealers, the only one in Denver, says he first heard about the scandal on September 18&#160;in a letter from VW America CEO Michael Horn, just minutes before the rest of the world learned of the massive automotive scandal. And he&#160;remains optimistic that Volkswagen can survive all of this&#160;by doing the right thing.</p>
<p>“I do think they will recover. ...&#160;They have someone [Volkswagen's new chief Matthias Mueller]&#160;who they think will right the ship and correct this. So they have a lot of work to do and we'll see what happens.”&#160;</p> | The VW scandal as seen from an American dealer's point of view | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-10-09/vw-scandal-seen-american-dealers-point-view | 2015-10-09 | 3 |
<p>After President Obama once again pulled out his veto pen to shut down a bipartisan bill, this time in a crucial National Defense Authorization Act, the yet again thwarted Republicans have <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/22/republicans-slam-obama-defense-bill-veto-puts-domestic-politics-ahead-troops/" type="external">condemned</a> the "reckless" and "politically-motivated" move.</p>
<p>"President Obama’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act is not only unprecedented, but it is reckless, cynical, and downright dangerous," said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) in a joint statement. “Never before has an American president used the bill that provides pay and support to our troops and their families as political leverage for his domestic agenda."</p>
<p>The agenda McCain and Thornberry cited includes President Obama's obsession with shutting down Gitmo, his failure to do so having weighed on him politically since the early years of his presidential tenure.</p>
<p>Outgoing speaker of the House John Boehner blasted Obama's "indefensible" veto for threatening America's national security. "This indefensible veto blocks pay and vital tools for our troops while Iranian terrorists prepare to gain billions under the president’s nuclear deal," said Boehner, adding, "Congress should not allow this veto to stand.</p>
<p>Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus pointed out Obama's choice to use the veto as a "photo op," a move he condemned as "one of the lowest moments of his failed presidency."</p>
<p>"Funding our national security priorities should be above partisan politics and our men and women in uniform should never be used as a bargaining chip. With the Russians and ISIS terrorists on the march, President Obama’s decision to hold funding for the military hostage is not only petty, it is undeniably reckless," said Priebus.</p>
<p>The Republicans repeated failed attempts to pass meaningful legislation has resulted in turmoil and intraparty fighting. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to have it both ways, with some voting for measures that are politically useful to them, all the while knowing that Republicans will not be able to override Obama's veto without significant Democrat help, which will never happen.</p>
<p>While he claims to be doing everything in his power to strengthen national security, Obama blames his defense-killing bill on what he disingenuously calls the Republicans' "irresponsible" "slush fund" tactics. But as The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro <a href="" type="internal">pointed out</a>, "Obama forced that slush fund tactic in the first place by mandating that the Budget Control Act of 2011 – better known as sequestration – include massive cuts to the military budget. The “slush fund tactic” is an end-around to continue to prevent America’s military preparedness from falling off a cliff."</p> | GOP: Obama Defense Veto 'One of the Lowest Moments of His Failed Presidency' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/639/gop-obama-defense-veto-one-lowest-moments-his-james-barrett | 2015-10-23 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Sept. 20, 2012</p>
<p>By John Seiler</p>
<p>Cal State University illegally is pushing the Proposition 30 tax increase, <a href="" type="internal">as our site reported today</a>.</p>
<p>The CSU Board also <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-state-20120920,0,3021401.story" type="external">just approved 5 percent tuition increases</a> if Prop. 30 doesn’t pass. That’s a real threat against students: Work to increase taxes, or you’ll pay more.</p>
<p>Time for taxpayers to fight back. CSU’s bloated bureaucracy <a href="http://polipundit.com/?p=31990" type="external">has more administrators than teachers</a>.</p>
<p>What’s needed is an initiative that reads, “CSU’s number of administrators shall be limited to half the number of teachers in the system.”</p>
<p>Not only would passing such an initiative preclude the 5 percent tuition increase, tuition actually could be cut sharply.</p>
<p>Any rich folks out there with a couple of million dollars to get signatures for such an initiative? Call it the “Tuition Cut for Students Initiative of 2014.”</p> | Initiative idea: Cut CSU administrators in half | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2012/09/20/initiative-idea-cut-csu-administrators-in-half/ | 2018-09-20 | 3 |
<p>Pro-Russian separatists released 56 hostages held in a government building in eastern Ukraine early on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/en/publish/article;jsessionid=B6A27CF1F651B54FEB582EF8525CDD5B.app1?art_id=123865&amp;cat_id=35317" type="external">Ukraine's security service said</a> the separatists in the city of Luhansk had rigged the offices with explosives and detained around 60 people inside after seizing the building on Sunday. It was not clear if the 56 who left were among the 60, or how many were still being held inside.</p>
<p>The protesters denied that they had used explosives or taken hostages, although they did concede they had seized an armory full of automatic rifles.</p>
<p>"We do not need hostages to get what we want," a protester identifying himself only as "Anton" told Reuters.</p>
<p>Ukraine's security service office in Luhansk was just one of several public buildings in cities across eastern Ukraine that were taken over pro-Russian demonstrators over the weekend. The demonstrators are opposed to the new government in Kiev and demand a referendum to join Russia, such as the one held in <a href="" type="internal">Crimea</a>last month.</p>
<p>A protest in Kharkiv, a city to the northwest of Luhansk, came to an end after Ukrainian police launched an "anti-terrorist" operation Monday night during which some 70 people were arrested. Demonstrators still held some buildings in the city of Donetsk, to the south.</p>
<p>Eastern Ukraine has a significant proportion of people who speak Russian and identify themselves as ethnic Russians. Nevertheless, Secretary of <a href="" type="internal">State John Kerry said Wednesday</a> the tension in the east had been stirred up by "Russian provocateurs and agents" who had "been sent there determined to create chaos."</p>
<p>The Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told Reuters on Wednesday that the unrest in the eastern cities would be resolved within 48 hours.</p>
<p>Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p>
<p /> | Pro-Russians Release 56 ‘Hostages’ in Eastern Ukraine: Officials | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/pro-russians-release-56-hostages-eastern-ukraine-officials-n75471 | 2014-04-09 | 3 |
<p>On the back of a significant output reduction announcement by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday, the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLE), the largest equity-based energy, surged more than 5%. Reduced production from OPEC is an obvious catalyst and the energy sector is already the best-performing group in the S&amp;P 500… <a href="http://www.etftrends.com/2016/12/expect-earnings-recovery-for-energy-etfs/" type="external">Click to read more at ETFtrends.com. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Expect Earnings Recovery for Energy ETFs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/01/expect-earnings-recovery-for-energy-etfs.html | 2016-12-01 | 0 |
<p>The three NFL players who chose to wear cleats honoring America on Sunday expect to be fined by the NFL for doing so. Avery Williamson, Victor Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. all wore the cleats on Sunday.</p>
<p>Trace Gallagher: After wearing patriotic cleats "all three expect to be fined about $6K [by NFL] for the gesture." <a href="https://t.co/q0UuvLJdUo" type="external">pic.twitter.com/q0UuvLJdUo</a></p>
<p>Williamson, of the Tennessee Titans, wore star-spangled blue cleats with the words “Never Forget” and “9/11” on the back of the shoes, with the "11" representing the Twin Towers.</p>
<p>Another look at Avery Williamson's shoes. Wore them despite NFL threatening to fine him. <a href="https://t.co/R0sKVZhrdY" type="external">https://t.co/R0sKVZhrdY</a> <a href="https://t.co/gYYJxxRe62" type="external">pic.twitter.com/gYYJxxRe62</a></p>
<p>New York and New Jersey police associations had volunteered to pay a fine levied by the NFL against Williamson if he wore the cleats; Bobby Egbert, the public information officer for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2016/09/10/police-unions-vow-pay-nfl-fine-if-titans-avery-williamson-wears-911-cleats/90181122/?from=global&amp;sessionKey=&amp;autologin=" type="external">told The Tennessean</a>:</p>
<p>The PAPD is the police department that has always patrolled the World Trade Center complex. On September 11, 2001, the PAPD lost 37 police officers at the World Trade Center, the largest, single loss ever suffered by a police department in the history of American law enforcement.</p>
<p>We read, with understandable interest, your piece on Avery Williamson and the NFL's stance on Avery honoring the September 11th victims. We, along with the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association, are offering to pay any reasonable fine levied by the NFL if Avery chooses to wear his 9/11 cleats.</p>
<p>After the game, Williamson <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2016/09/11/titans-avery-williamson-wears-patriotic-shoes-despite-nfl-threatening-fine/90222846/" type="external">told The Tennessean</a>: "I just felt like I got so much support across the country, and especially when the New York and New Jersey police unions said that they would pay my fine, that really meant a lot, so I felt like if I didn’t wear them, I just wouldn’t have felt good about it. I felt like I had to do that, just for myself and to represent the people that were lost and the people that do their jobs every day to protect us. I feel like it was just a duty."</p>
<p>Williamson is <a href="https://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/meet-avery-williamson-at-titans-game-take-home-his-9-11-1149900" type="external">auctioning the cleats</a> to benefit Operation Warrior Wishes; the latest bid was over $6,000.</p>
<p>" If I didn’t wear them, I just wouldn’t have felt good about it."</p>
<p>Avery Williamson</p>
<p>Beckham and Cruz, both of the New York Giants <a href="http://www.giants.com/news-and-blogs/LifeStyleFitnessNews/article-1/Odell-Beckham-Jr-and-Victor-Cruz-honor-911-with-USA-cleats/f66a1ce1-4466-4806-a288-329068770c54" type="external">, wore shoes</a> adorned with American flags, fire trucks and other themed patriotic elements.</p>
<p>While the three players await their fines, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he <a href="" type="internal">champions</a> the rights of players across the league to kneel or act in some sort of protest during the playing of the national anthem.</p> | NFL Fines Players For Wearing Patriotic Cleats, Celebrates Anti-Flag Protests | true | https://dailywire.com/news/9096/nfl-fines-players-wearing-patriotic-cleats-hank-berrien | 2016-09-13 | 0 |
<p>ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche (S:) Chairman Christoph Franz remains confident the Swiss drugmaker can offset revenue declines from patent expired medicines with new drugs, according to an interview published on Sunday in the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag.</p>
<p>“When I look at the number of medicines we have launched over the past two years, then we’re on the right track,” Franz told the newspaper. “We’ve had six medicines approved by regulators over this time period.”</p>
<p>Among the drugs Franz includes in this group are multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus, cancer immunotherapy Tecentriq and hemophilia medicine Hemlibra, all of which are expected to have peak sales of well over $1 billion annually.</p>
<p>Roche is counting on these and other medicines to help replace revenue from its $20 billion-per-year trio of Avastin, Herceptin and Rituxan whose patents have expired or will shortly, exposing them to cheaper competition.</p>
<p>Franz also told the newspaper that the United States, where prices for drugs are among the world’s highest, is supporting the bulk of the research and development cost for new, innovative drugs.</p>
<p>Asked if U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge this year to tackle high drug prices will have an impact, Franz acknowledged that there could be a hit to the “innovation premium” that U.S. insurers and other funders pay for new drugs in America.</p>
<p>Radical changes to the model governing how medicines are reimbursed in the United States would likely lead to job cuts, he said.</p>
<p>“To put it bluntly, if the Americans were to adopt the Swiss price system, Roche would have to cut thousands of research jobs, also in Switzerland,” Franz said.</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> | Roche chairman confident new drugs will offset patent losses: report | false | https://newsline.com/roche-chairman-confident-new-drugs-will-offset-patent-losses-report/ | 2017-12-10 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s most brutal drug cartel leader built a business empire stretching from the Southwest United States to Central America, but Miguel Angel Trevino Morales’ final days of freedom were spent lying low in the hinterlands of Tamaulipas state, traveling only at night over back roads as Mexican marines closed in on his trail.</p>
<p>The last of the Zetas drug cartel’s old-guard leaders saw fate swoop in on him in the pre-dawn hours Monday when a military Black Hawk helicopter flew low over his pickup truck, then almost touching the ground, faced down the vehicle with its guns, Mexico Federal Security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said.</p>
<p>The vehicle stopped, and three men emerged. Two hit the ground while the third tried to run. All were captured by marine ground forces who had been watching the movements of 40-year-old Trevino Morales, Sanchez told The Associated Press Tuesday. Not a single shot was fired.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Time was clearly running out for the cartel leader better known — and feared — by his nickname, “Z-40,” a play on police radio code for a commander. Mexico’s navy, which has brought down a number of top drug lords, “found out that he had been traveling in the early morning hours on dirt roads. They had been corralling him in little by little,” Sanchez said.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales had $2 million in cash and eight rifles with him when marines caught him outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, long the Zetas’ base of operations. He was taken to Mexico City for questioning, but unlike the days of former President Felipe Calderon, there was no perp walk by a handcuffed suspect or piles of cash and guns put on display for the TV cameras.</p>
<p>Instead, the government released a single video of a rumpled-looking, un-handcuffed Trevino Morales walking through prosecutors’ headquarters, saying it wanted to avoid glamorizing drug traffickers or risk rights violations that could lead to a dismissal of charges. Authorities didn’t even refer to his nickname, Z-40.</p>
<p>The Zetas are Mexico’s most violent, if not richest, cartel, with the largest turf. A New York indictment against Trevino Morales estimates he received $10 million per month in income from cocaine sales alone, not to mention the money brought in by the cartel’s myriad other illicit activities, including kidnapping, extortion, migrant trafficking, weapons trafficking, even theft of oil from state pipelines.</p>
<p>His arrest was particularly pleasing for the United States. Trevino Morales allegedly orchestrated a series of killings on the U.S. side of the border, including several by a group of young U.S. citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets of Laredo. His gang was also believed to be responsible for the slayings of U.S. ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in 2011 and American citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama praised the Mexican government and vowed to continue supporting the country’s fight against drug traffickers.</p>
<p>“I think what it shows is that the new administration of President Pena Nieto is serious about continuing the efforts to break up these transnational drug operations,” Obama said in an interview with Univision Tuesday.</p>
<p>“We have to continue doing our part here in the United States to reduce demand, reduce the flow of guns and cash down south,” Obama added. “That’s the kind of cooperation that I think President Pena Nieto is looking for.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trevino Morales is “one of the most significant Mexican cartel leaders to be apprehended in several years,” the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said. “His ruthless leadership has now come to an end.”</p>
<p>The Zetas have kidnapped or held tens of thousands of migrants, often demanding ransoms of $3,000 each. Federal officials say the Zetas stole and smuggled at least $46 million worth of Mexican oil to U.S. refineries. Trevino Morales channeled about $16 million to his brother in the United States to buy, train and race horses.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales’ methods, like those of Zetas leaders before him, led to a “Zetanization” of how cartels do their fighting, said George Grayson, an expert on the group and a professor of government at the College of William &amp; Mary.</p>
<p>“Inflicting fear into the heart of your target is an extremely efficient way to get what you want,” Grayson said. “That genie is out of the box.”</p>
<p>Trevino Morales was being held for questioning along with a bodyguard and accountant captured in Monday’s raid. Sanchez said government forces “have been able to obtain information on the possible movements of his other accomplices,” and phones or computers carried by traffickers often provide such information, even if the suspects themselves don’t talk.</p>
<p>U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, who represents Laredo, Texas, and was briefed on the arrest by U.S. and Mexican officials, noted: “The U.S. was very involved in this.”</p>
<p>“The U.S. has been helping in trying to track him for a while. There have been some close calls,” Cuellar said. “Here you have U.S. intelligence combined with the (Mexican) marines implementing it.”</p>
<p>While Trevino Morales is wanted on several counts in the U.S., it was unclear whether Mexico would try him first at home or extradite him. He will probably be held at a top security prison near Mexico City, where no escapes have occurred.</p>
<p>It was a surprising end for a capo so violent he soaked rivals in diesel fuel and burned them alive in 55-gallon drums. Many had thought he would go down with guns blazing, but Sanchez said the precision raid apparently caught him by surprise.</p>
<p>For the group most terrorized by Trevino Morales, Central American migrants who were kidnapped, beaten and extorted by the tens of thousands, the arrest “will certainly be a relief,” said the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde. The Roman Catholic priest runs a migrant shelter in the state of Oaxaca and has spent much of the last decade living under death threats from the Zetas.</p>
<p>“This was a blow, but it’s only skin deep,” Solalinde said. “The Zetas operate in almost 20 states of Mexico. They have a lot of public servants on their payroll, a lot of police.”</p>
<p>Solalinde said that in southern Mexico, the Zetas have used their ties in Honduras and Guatemala, where they also ship cocaine and grow opium, to recruit street gang members to kidnap and kill Central American migrants in Mexico.</p>
<p>The Zetas forcibly recruit some migrants, kill those who won’t join and increasingly kidnap young girls, who are forced into prostitution at Zeta-run bars or are made to distribute Zeta drugs.</p>
<p>“We’re talking about human trafficking, organ trafficking, kidnappings, forced recruitment, everything,” Solalinde said.</p>
<p>The Zetas have run their enormous turf with almost unbelievable brutality since the founders, a corps of special forces defectors who went to work for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico.</p>
<p>The Zetas were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of Mexico’s drug war, including the slaughter of 72 Central and South American migrants in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, authorities said.</p>
<p>The following year, federal officials announced the discovery of 193 bodies buried in San Fernando, most of them migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas, some because they refused to work as drug mules. Sanchez said Trevino Morales is charged with ordering those crimes.</p>
<p>In 2011, a woman who angered the Zetas by blogging about crime and violence on a Nuevo Laredo website was found decapitated, her head placed atop a computer keyboard, with a message warning fellow bloggers about speaking out.</p>
<p>Experts say the arrest is unlikely to diminish the violence in the short term.</p>
<p>“The international experience … demonstrates that there is a danger of greater atomization, and extremely violent armed conflict, if the hundreds of legal businesses that the Zetas run are not frozen or seized,” said organized crime analyst Edgardo Buscaglia. He noted the many firms set up by the cartel “are where the Zetas real financial power is located.”</p>
<p>The Zetas operate in 16 different lines of business, both legal and illegal, he said, including pirated goods, importing contraband consumer goods and weapons trafficking. The Zetas reportedly use their turf in Cancun to smuggle Cuban migrants into Mexico, and their bases in northern Mexico to steal oil from government pipelines and sell it to refineries.</p>
<p>Sanchez said officials were on alert for possible flare-ups of violence following the arrest, and it was unclear who could be in line to replace him.</p>
<p>The Zetas remain active in Nuevo Laredo, the nearby border state of Coahuila, the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, as well as parts of north central Mexico and Central America, although Trevino Morales’ arrest means the gang has become “a franchise operation, not a vertical organization,” Grayson said.</p>
<p>One possible successor is Trevino Morales’ younger brother, Omar, a former low-ranking turf boss who’s seen as a far weaker figure. There are some reports that Omar is also suffering from a chronic illness that would weaken his chances of taking over.</p>
<p>In the past, the arrest or death of top Mexican capos have led some cartels, like the Beltran Leyva gang, to splinter into smaller, vicious warring gangs with small patches of turf. Others, like the Arellano Felix cartel, have largely been subsumed by the usual winner in these disputes, the Sinaloa cartel.</p>
<p>Any debilitation of the Zetas could strengthen the country’s most-wanted man, Sinaloa cartel head Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who has overseen a vicious turf war with the Zetas from suspected hideouts in rugged western Mexico.</p>
<p>One thing is certain: The Zetas’ success has spawned imitators.</p>
<p>“Today, there are probably people calling themselves Zetas who don’t necessarily have any real link to the organization,” Sanchez said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Alicia Caldwell in Washington and Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City contributed to this report.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>5:21am 7/16/13 — Zetas leader’s arrest unlikely to halt terror</p>
<p>By Michael Weissenstein and Olga R. Rodriguez/The Associated Press</p>
<p>Undated file photo shows Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias Z-40, the reputed leader of the Zetas drug cartel, who was captured by Mexican authorities on Monday. (AP Photo/Mexican Attorney General’s Office website)</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) — The capture of the notoriously brutal Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales is a serious blow to Mexico’s most feared drug cartel but experts cautioned that taking down the group’s command structure is unlikely to diminish violence in the border states where it dominates through terror.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales, 40, was captured before dawn Monday by Mexican Marines who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as the Zetas’ base of operations. The truck was halted by a Marine helicopter and Trevino Morales was taken into custody along with a bodyguard and an accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters.</p>
<p>It was the first major blow against an organized crime leader by a Mexican administration struggling to drive down persistently high levels of violence. Experts on the Zetas said that the arrest, at least the eighth capture or killing of a high-ranking Zeta since 2011, could leave behind a series of cells scattered across northern Mexico without a central command but with the same appetite for kidnapping, extortion and other crimes against innocent people.</p>
<p>“It’s another link in the destruction of the Zetas as a coherent, identifiable organization,” said Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico’s domestic intelligence service. “There will still be people who call themselves Zetas, bands of individuals who maintain the same modus operandi. There will be fights over illegal networks.”</p>
<p>The Zetas remain active in Nuevo Laredo, the nearby border state of Coahuila, the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, parts of north central Mexico and Central America, although Trevino Morales’ arrest means the gang has become “a franchise operation not a vertical organization,” said George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas and professor of government at the College of William &amp; Mary.</p>
<p>The Zetas leader and his alleged accomplices were flown to Mexico City, where they are expected to eventually be tried in a closed system that usually takes years to prosecute cases, particularly high-profile ones.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales, known as “Z-40,” is uniformly described as one of the two most powerful cartel heads in Mexico, the leader of a corps of special forces defectors who went to work for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico, expanding from drug dealing into extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking.</p>
<p>Along the way, the Zetas authored some of the worst atrocities of Mexico’s drug war, leaving hundreds of bodies beheaded on roadsides or hanging from bridges, earning a reputation as perhaps the most terrifying of the country’s numerous ruthless cartels.</p>
<p>On Trevino Morales’ watch, 72 Central and South American migrants were slaughtered by the Zetas in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, authorities said. By the following year, federal officials announced finding 193 bodies buried in San Fernando, most belonging to migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas for various reasons, including their refusal to work as drug mules.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales is charged with ordering the kidnapping and killing of the 265 migrants, along with numerous other charges of murder, torture and other crimes, Sanchez said.</p>
<p>President Enrique Pena Nieto came into office promising to drive down levels of homicide, extortion and kidnapping but has struggled to make a credible dent in crime figures. And his pledge to focus on citizen safety over other crimes has sparked worries among U.S. authorities that he would ease back on predecessor Felipe Calderon’s U.S.-backed strategy aimed above all at decapitating drug cartels.</p>
<p>The arrest of Trevino, a man widely blamed for both massive northbound drug trafficking and the deaths of untold scores of Mexicans and Central American migrants, will almost certainly earn praise from Pena Nieto’s U.S. and Mexican critics alike.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales’ capture adds to the long list of Zetas’ leaders who have been arrested or killed in recent years, including Zeta head Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, whose fatal shooting by authorities last year left Trevino Morales in charge.</p>
<p>The debilitation of the Zetas has been widely seen as strengthening the country’s most-wanted man, Sinaloa cartel head Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who has overseen a vicious turf war with the Zetas from hideouts believed to lie in rugged western Mexico.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales is expected to be succeeded by his brother, Omar, a former low-ranking turf boss seen as far weaker than his older brother.</p>
<p>Miguel Angel Trevino Morales began his career as a teenage gofer for the Los Tejas gang, which controlled most crime in his hometown across the border from Laredo, Texas. He soon graduated from washing cars and running errands to running drugs across the border, and was recruited into the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales’ brother, sister and mother lived in Dallas but he had many relatives around Nuevo Laredo and, while moving frequently to avoid authorities, he was believed to often return to his hometown, the U.S. official said.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales joined the Zetas, a group of Mexican special forces deserters who defected to work as hit men and bodyguards for the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.</p>
<p>Stories about the brutality of “El Cuarenta,” or “40” as Trevino Morales became known, quickly became well-known among his men, his rivals and Nuevo Laredo citizens terrified of incurring his anger.</p>
<p>One technique favored by Trevino Morales was the “guiso,” or stew, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon (208-liter) drums and burned alive, said a U.S. law-enforcement official in Mexico City, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. Others who crossed the Zeta commander would be beaten with wooden planks, the official said.</p>
<p>Around 2005, Trevino Morales was promoted to boss of the Nuevo Laredo territory, or “plaza,” and given responsibility for fighting off the Sinaloa cartel’s attempt to seize control of its drug-smuggling routes, according to U.S. and Mexican officials. He orchestrated a series of killings on the U.S. side of the border, several by a group of young U.S. citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets of Laredo.</p>
<p>In 2006, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas defeated the Sinaloa cartel in Nuevo Laredo, a victory that emboldened them as they began spreading south to towns and cities that had never before seen extensive organized crime. They set up criminal networks to control transit routes for drugs, migrants, extortion, kidnapping, contraband of pirated DVDs and CDs, and countless other criminal activities, intimidating local residents and committing gruesome murders as an example to the uncooperative.</p>
<p>According to the U.S. official, Trevino Morales was in charge of Nuevo Leon, Piedras Negras and other areas until March 2007, when he was sent to the city of Veracruz following the death of a leading Zeta in a gunbattle there.</p>
<p>That same year, Trevino Morales and Lazcano began pushing for independence from the Gulf cartel after cartel head Osielo Cardenas Guillen’s extradition to the U.S.</p>
<p>The Zetas split from the Gulf cartel and by 2008 had operations in 28 major Mexican cities, according to an analysis by Grupo Savant, a Washington-based security think tank.</p>
<p>In February 2008, Lazcano sent Trevino Morales to Guatemala, where he was responsible for eliminating local competitors and establish the Zetas’ control of smuggling routes. Trevino Morales was then named by Lazcano as national commander of the Zetas across Mexico despite his lack of military background, earning him the resentment of some of the original ex-military members of the Zetas, the official said.</p>
<p>The promotion involved Trevino Morales in virtually every decision by the Zetas, the official said.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales rose to the top of the Zetas last year after leader Lazcano died in a shootout with Mexican marines in Coahuila state.</p>
<p>Trevino Morales was indicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in New York in 2009 and Washington in 2010, and the U.S. government issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.</p>
<p>According to the indictments, Trevino Morales coordinated the shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana each week from Mexico into the U.S., much of which had passed through Guatemala.</p>
<p>Alicia Caldwell contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. Rodriguez and E. Eduardo Castillo contributed from Mexico City.</p> | UPDATED: No shots fired in precision operation that caught Zetas leader | false | https://abqjournal.com/222303/updated-precision-operation-caught-zetas-leader.html | 2013-07-17 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEW YORK — Starbucks will stop selling beer and wine at more than 400 U.S. stores next week as it ends its “evenings” program.</p>
<p>The coffee chain says the “Starbucks Evenings” program in 439 company-owned stores in the U.S. will end Jan. 10. It said the program may continue in some of the nine licensed stores where it is offered, or overseas. The program was first tested in 2010 near Starbucks’ headquarters in Seattle, and was expanded as a way to drive sales beyond the morning rush. In addition to alcohol, the evening menu featured foods like bacon-wrapped dates.</p>
<p>Starbucks said in 2014 it planned to expand alcohol to “thousands” of stores. Now, it says it will integrate beer and wine into its higher-end retail format, such as Roastery stores.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Starbucks to stop selling alcohol at more than 400 US stores | false | https://abqjournal.com/922442/starbucks-to-stop-selling-alcohol-at-more-than-400-us-stores.html | 2017-01-06 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Amerco.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Amerco(NASDAQ: UHAL)reported its second-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings after the market closed on Wednesday. The parent company of do-it-yourself moving giant and self-storage player U-Haul, which also has two insurance company subsidiaries,posted a 3.7% increase in revenue from the year-ago period, while adjusted earnings per share declined about 12%.</p>
<p>Shares are down 2.3% in midday trading on Thursday.</p>
<p>Data source: Amerco.YOY = year over year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Changes in Internal Revenue Service regulations regarding the capitalization of low-value assets resulted in an additional $4 million of operating expenses. This trickled down to negatively affect operating income and net income.</p>
<p>Adjusted EPS excludes the after-tax benefit of $0.79 per share associated with Amerco's settlement of the PODS Enterprises litigation that resulted in a reduction in operating expenses of $24.6 million.</p>
<p>Here's a summary of this litigation and its effect on Amerco's financials:A jury found in late 2014 that Amerco infringed on storage company PEI's trademarks by repeatedly using the word "pods" in its marketing materials for its U-Box home storage program.In October, Amerco settled the litigation with PEI. As part of this settlement, it paid $41.4 million to PEI. In fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016, Amerco recorded $66 million as accrued contingencies and interest. During the just-reported second quarter of fiscal 2017, it recognized the difference between its contingency accrual and the actual settlement as a $24.6 million reduction of operating expenses.</p>
<p>While this was an unfortunate and costly issue, the good news is that it's now behind Amerco.</p>
<p>Here's what CEO Joe Shoen had to say in the press release:</p>
<p>Amerco doesn't provide forward guidance, and there's only one Wall Street analyst who provides estimates, which makes them of little value.</p>
<p>This was a tough quarter for Amerco on the self-moving side, with the average income per transaction down and the resale market for trucks remaining depressed. However, positively, the self-storage business -- which sports a higher operating margin than the moving business (though Amerco doesn't break them out) -- continues to grow, with the room occupancy rate ticking up sequentially for the second consecutive quarter.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Amerco When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=82456f57-2bed-433d-8e62-8b79337f9fba&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Amerco wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=82456f57-2bed-433d-8e62-8b79337f9fba&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMcKenna/info.aspx" type="external">Beth McKenna Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Amerco. 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> | Amerco's Revenue Inches Up, but Earnings Decline on Challenges in Self-Moving Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/10/amerco-revenue-inches-up-but-earnings-decline-on-challenges-in-self-moving.html | 2016-11-10 | 0 |
<p>HAVANA, Cuba — Taking full advantage of their new license to travel abroad, Cuba’s leading dissidents have been on a whirlwind campaign in recent weeks, denouncing President Raul Castro's government on three continents and promising new tactics to challenge its 53-year rule.</p>
<p>Now the question is: What happens when they return home?</p>
<p>Famed blogger <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/121106/cuba-dissident-blogger-yoani-sanchez-us-election-2012" type="external">Yoani Sanchez</a> says she plans to launch a new media company after completing her 80-day trip through Latin America, the United States and Europe. Activist Eliecer Avila wants to form a political party to “negotiate” with the government. Another opposition figure, Ladies in White leader Berta Soler, has vowed to continue going abroad to “seek solidarity” for her cause.</p>
<p>But even if the Castro government is allowing dissidents to travel, speak freely and raise money abroad, there’s little to indicate that a warm reception awaits them at home. Many observers will be watching to see if the activists face retaliatory measures from Cuban authorities, particularly if they attempt to launch new political organizations or protests.</p>
<p>The first activist to return will be Rosa Maria Paya, whose father Oswaldo Paya was killed in a car crash last July. She has spent the past several weeks lobbying for an international investigation into the crash, alleging that the government played a role in her father’s death and has orchestrated a sinister cover-up since then.</p>
<p>Angel Carromero, the Spanish politician who was the driver in the fatal crash, was convicted in Cuba last year of what amounts to involuntary manslaughter, then allowed to return to Spain and serve his four-year prison sentence at home. But after meeting with Paya in Spain, he changed his story, telling an interviewer that Cuban government agents were indeed to blame for the crash.</p>
<p>Carromero has not filed an appeal to his conviction, nor repeated his accusations elsewhere in public. But if the goal of Paya’s trip was to put pressure on the Cuban government and raise doubts about the circumstances of the crash, she was successful.</p>
<p>Paya’s daughter took her campaign to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, petitioning for an investigation, despite objections from Cuba and several of its allies. A bipartisan group of US senators have backed her, and Paya was also received by sympathetic audiences at the European Parliament in Brussels.</p>
<p>“My goal was to bring together all the support and solidarity and begin to channel it into something that can be more effective,” she told the Spanish news agency EFE, saying she would return to Havana in a matter of days. “In that sense, I’m more or less satisfied, even though I won’t be completely content until there is an international investigation and we obtain our rights in Cuba.”</p>
<p>Cuba may attempt to punish Paya and other critics when they return, but by allowing them to travel and meet face-to-face with foreign politicians, newspaper editors and activist groups, any retaliatory measures would probably raise an even greater international outcry.</p>
<p>There has been no indication that the government will try to block the dissidents from coming home. But when blogger Yoani Sanchez was asked what she would do if her return were barred, she said she would be “the first person to board a raft to get back into Cuba.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130307/hugo-chavez-legacy-el-comandante" type="external">In the shadow of El Comandante</a></p>
<p>During stops in Brazil, Mexico and New York, Sanchez faced groups of hostile protesters who tried to disrupt her events and prevent her from speaking. But the boorish behavior only seemed to garner more support for Sanchez, even among groups which might otherwise be sympathetic to Cuba’s government but were disturbed by the sight of hecklers trying to prevent her from speaking freely.</p>
<p>Less clear is how successful she may be with plans to start a media company back home. Although her blog is no longer censored by the government, Sanchez has faced rough treatment when she has tried to take her activism beyond her blog.</p>
<p>Sanchez’s trip has also given the authorities new ammunition for their caricature of her as a tool of foreign interests, as she has met in Washington and Miami with anti-Castro militants and Cuban-American politicians who oppose any easing of the US embargo.</p>
<p>But Sanchez has also used her megaphone to criticize the 50-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba, urging greater engagement with the island, not continued isolation.</p>
<p>Speaking at Miami’s Freedom Tower on Monday, Sanchez asked Cuban exiles to move past the political divisions that have long split families and served as a kind of tropical Berlin Wall “made not of concrete nor brick, but of lies, silence and ill will.”</p>
<p>“In the Cuba that many of us dream of it won’t be necessary to clarify what type of Cuban you are,” she said. “We’ll just be Cubans, period.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/130217/cuban-dissidents-castro-opposition-travel" type="external">Cuban dissidents go abroad</a></p> | For Cuba’s traveling dissidents, an anxious return | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-03/cuba-s-traveling-dissidents-anxious-return | 2013-04-03 | 3 |
<p>TYLER (TX)Star-TelegramAssociated Press</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>TYLER, Texas - An East Texas jury has sentenced a former priest who once evaded prosecution by fleeing to South America to life imprisonment for the repeated sexual assault of a teenage parishioner.</p>
<p>Following Gustavo DeJesus Cuello' sentencing on Thursday, the victim told the Colombian national that she hated him for destroying her life and thanked jurors for helping give it back to her.</p>
<p>Cuello had pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child. But he rejected a 50-year prison term assessed by state District Judge Cynthia Kent earlier this month and requested a jury trial on the punishment phase of his case.</p>
<p>Cuello, 40, was removed from the priesthood after his 1997 arrest for the systematic abuse of the victim, a 13-year-old altar girl, in his church office at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church.</p>
<p>The victim, now 21, thanked the jury "for the decision you made for me and my family. After seven years, I can finally live in peace because this monster is going away.</p>
<p /> | East Texas jury sentences former priest to life imprisonment | false | https://poynter.org/news/east-texas-jury-sentences-former-priest-life-imprisonment | 2003-10-24 | 2 |
<p>DARRINGTON, Wash. — Local churches offered prayers on Sunday for the victims of last week's devastating mudslide in Washington state and words of solace for grieving families and friends, many of whom are still waiting for news of missing loved ones.</p>
<p>The presumed body count stood at 28 from the March 22 catastrophe northeast of Seattle, with the official tally of those killed at 18, based on bodies extricated and identified by medical examiners.</p>
<p>The number of missing fell to 30 from 90 as officials were able to account for dozens of people as "safe and well."</p>
<p>Heavy rains and flooding made efforts difficult for searchers combing through debris, officials said, after a rain-soaked hillside above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River gave way without warning and sent a wall of mud cascading over dozens of homes near the rural Washington town of Oso.</p>
<p>No one has been pulled alive from the rubble since the day the landslide hit, when at least eight people were injured but survived. Rescuers have found no signs of life since then.</p>
<p>Many of those living close to the disaster area gathered for services at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God church in nearby Darrington, where Pastor Les Hagen urged them to stay strong.</p>
<p>"We're all hurting," he said. "We've had a terrible week. It still continues, but life must go on.</p>
<p>"Stay in your routine," he said. "Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Because eventually all of this will be in the rear view mirror of your life and it will be a memory. It will be a horrible memory, but it will be a memory."</p>
<p>Recovery workers have been searching through a debris field that covers a square mile with the help of local volunteers hunting for personal items such as photographs and other keepsakes.</p>
<p>Once found, such items will be cleaned and stored until they can be claimed by their owners or their survivors, said disaster response spokeswoman Kris Rietmann at a news conference.</p>
<p>"A lot of people lost their homes. They lost friends and family, and so to be reunited with some of their physical belongings, if that's found out on the site, is a really important thing," Rietmann said.</p>
<p>Among those praying at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God was Todd Wright, a 32-year-old carpenter.</p>
<p>"It's nice to get it out. Tears go, and it makes you feel damn better," Wright said after the service.</p>
<p>Daniel Botamanenko, a 21-year-old college student at the service, added: "This is a place where people can hopefully find some degree of comfort from others. It's a healing place, really."</p>
<p>At the Oso Community Chapel, where about 100 people filled the pews, a helicopter could be heard overheard as prayers were said for those who died.</p>
<p>One man read aloud a passage from the Bible's Book of Isaiah to start the service: "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed."</p>
<p>Pastor Gary Ray told the congregation: "We've been knocked down, but we won't be knocked out. I don't know how many days and minutes we have left, but I know we have this one here."</p>
<p>Ray asked people to share their personal thoughts, and many were tearful as they rose to speak.</p>
<p>"I genuinely love this place," one woman said. "I love these people."</p>
<p>Funeral preparations were being made as well for those lost in the tragedy.</p>
<p>At the Weller Funeral Home in Arlington, only a few miles from the site of the mudslide, staff members who typically plan two to three funerals weekly said they were preparing for 12 this week.</p> | Churchgoers Pray for Mudslide Victims as Death Toll Climbs | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/deadly-mudslide/churchgoers-pray-mudslide-victims-death-toll-climbs-n67341 | 2014-03-30 | 3 |
<p>Shares of Scientific Games Corp. (NASDAQ: SGMS) jumped as much as 14.9% in trading Tuesday after an analyst upgrade. This comes a day after the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/24/why-scientific-games-corp-stock-soared-on-monday.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7211c8ba-7171-11e7-928f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">stock jumped on a stronger-than-expected earnings report Opens a New Window.</a>. At 3:30 p.m. EDT, shares were still up 11.5% on the day.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The driver of today's jump was analyst Steven Wieczynski at Stifel Nicolaus, who raised his price target from $24 to $35. The price is below where shares are trading today, and Wieczynski didn't raise his rating on the stock, keeping it at a "hold."</p>
<p>In a note to analysts, Wieczynski said debt refinancing and improving fundamentals could lead to accelerated margin expansion. That would be welcome news for investors a quarter after reporting a $0.44 loss per share.</p>
<p>Long-term, improving earnings will be far more significant than any analyst price target. But keep in mind that analysts are still expecting a loss of $1.05 per share in 2018, so profitability is still a long way off. That's a big reason to stay away from betting on this lottery stock and will keep me away from shares today. &#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Scientific GamesWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=17c646fb-aab0-4d9b-a747-55cd5ac1d093&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7211c8ba-7171-11e7-928f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Scientific Games wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=17c646fb-aab0-4d9b-a747-55cd5ac1d093&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7211c8ba-7171-11e7-928f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7211c8ba-7171-11e7-928f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7211c8ba-7171-11e7-928f-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Shares of Scientific Games Corp. Popped 15% Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/26/why-shares-scientific-games-corp-popped-15-today.html | 2017-07-26 | 0 |
<p />
<p>On Monday, Israeli settlers were <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&amp;cid=1083561528592" type="external">already laying the cornerstone</a> for three acres of new homes in the Gaza Strip, having taken Ariel Sharon’s failure to get support from Likud members for his plan to remove Jewish settlements from Gaza and parts of the West Bank as a green light.</p>
<p>One Gaza community, known to Jewish residents as “Palm Beach East” sounds like a hard place to leave, the way Judy Lash Belint <a href="http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=ViewsPage&amp;enDisplay=view&amp;enDispWhat=object&amp;enDispWho=Article%5El3572&amp;enZone=Views&amp;enVersion=0&amp;" type="external">describes the subdivisions</a> built near the ruins of a seventh-century synagogue:</p>
<p />
<p>Driving between the villages through the sand dunes, with picture-perfect glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea and stately tall palm trees dotted all around it’s hard to believe that this is a place that experiences regular shelling or any kind of violence.</p>
<p>Sharon, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his single-mindedness, had for decades endorsed and even administered efforts by Jewish fundamentalists to found and populate such developments. That’s why his <a href="/news/dailymojo/2004/02/02_701.html" type="external">February announcement</a> that he would remove Jews from the entire Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank so shocked both supporters and critics.</p>
<p>Sharon was betting on a victory. He even won approval from Washington last month. In a policy shift criticized by Arab leaders and others as pandering to Israel, President George W. Bush backed the plan. American foreign policy at least ostensibly has followed the peace “road map” that would create a two-state solution built on a negotiated compromise between Palestinian and Israeli interests.</p>
<p>Yet many Palestinians viewed Sharon’s recent campaign as a veiled land grab. And, to their mind, Bush abandoned their interests by neither insisting that Israel respect pre-1967 borders nor demanding that Arabs be allowed to return to homes evacuated within Israel. Now, both Bush and Sharon must live with the consequences of their pact.</p>
<p>Pre-referendum polls in Israel predicted a win for Sharon, who hadn’t bargained for election-day violence. Palestinian gunmen slayed a pregnant Jewish settler and her four young daughters on their way to a polling place Sunday. The close-range killings may have boosted those 60 percent of 193,000 Likud members who rejected Sharon’s bid.</p>
<p>Sharon has presented the evacuation as a means of shielding Israeli settlers from Palestinian violence. Instead, the murders motivated those residents to stand their ground and reject what they viewed as Sharon’s betrayal of their birthright to Biblical territories.</p>
<p>The Economist explains <a href="http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2643945" type="external">Sharon’s fragile standing</a> at home:</p>
<p />
<p>Mr Sharon must now be wondering why he held the vote when there was no need to-he could have gone straight to the cabinet and the parliament for approval. Opponents of the Gaza pull-out were highly effective in marshalling support in the days before the vote. The isolation of Sharon supporters in the field contrasted starkly with the phalanx of settler and ultra-nationalist volunteers, from within and beyond Likud, who launched a massive and highly emotional campaign. Israel’s towns and villages were plastered with posters declaring settlement withdrawal to be no less than “treachery”. Harassment of Sharon supporters at many polling stations did not help the “yes” camp either.</p>
<p>What’s next? Rather than give up entirely, Sharon reportedly <a href="http://www.maarivenglish.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&amp;articleID=6840" type="external">wants to soften the plan</a> with piecemeal Jewish withdrawals from contested areas, pushing the altered blueprint through the parliament and cabinet (likely at great political cost). However, a limited withdrawal would stop short of Bush’s expectation for a total evacuation.</p>
<p>Glen Kessler of the Washington Post describes the outcome as an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61482-2004May2.html" type="external">embarrassment</a> for Bush:</p>
<p />
<p>The tilt toward Israel will not soon be forgotten by the Arab world, but it will be harder for the administration to claim that Bush’s support of Sharon has made a difference. Moreover, the Likud vote comes when the image of the United States is already greatly damaged by accounts of psychological and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by some U.S. soldiers.</p>
<p>The Economist predicts the results of Sharon’s shifting tactics within his Likud party:</p>
<p />
<p>The party is now officially at odds with Mr Sharon, who was instrumental in its creation in the 1970s. It is also at odds with the electorate as a whole, which is increasingly desperate to see an end to the violent stalemate with the Palestinians. Some analysts have suggested that the Likud members’ rejection of the disengagement plan could mark the beginning of the party’s marginalisation. It could also encourage Mr Sharon’s antagonists within Likud, particularly Binyamin Netanyahu, the finance minister and a former prime minister, to try to unseat their leader.</p>
<p>Certainly, Mr Sharon will have to be especially deft in maneuvering (sic) his way out of his tactical error in calling for the vote. And he will have to do this while wrestling with other problems, such as a corruption scandal that may yet lead to bribery charges being brought against him.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436539615.html" type="external">The Age</a> of Australia foresees Sharon possibly continuing as a “lame duck” leader with a split party. The Israeli economy could lose confidence and drag over the long-term if Sharon loses control of his own party.</p>
<p>The Arab News doesn’t view Sharon’s defeat as an <a href="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&amp;section=0&amp;article=44242&amp;d=3&amp;m=5&amp;y=2004&amp;pix=opinion.jpg&amp;category=Opinion" type="external">insurmountable obstacle</a> for the stubborn leader:</p>
<p />
<p>The withdrawal proposal does not, as some suggest, mark a drastic departure for Sharon, the foremost champion of settlement expansion. Indeed, losing Gaza is no sacrifice at all. Gaza is a wretched scrub of land, a security nightmare for Israel, which does not have the resources to cope with its 1.3 million Palestinian inhabitants. …</p>
<p>No matter how the Gaza plan fares, Sharon says he will not quit. That means the man who perpetuated the uprising – in fact helped start it – built the wall of separation, assassinated top Palestinian officials, extracted from a US president unprecedented concessions and now is in the midst of taking unilateral decisions on behalf of the Palestinians, is a reality the Palestinians, and with them the whole Middle East, will have to deal with for a long time to come.</p>
<p>Some analysts <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2BD390F8-E738-4D9B-8399-860C0BD256CF.htm" type="external">worry</a> that Sharon, a “wounded animal,” will lash out with more violent attacks in Palestinian regions and even a possible strike on Yasser Arafat to cap the recent string of <a href="/news/dailymojo/2004/03/03_652.html" type="external">Hamas assassinations</a>.</p>
<p>Amit Cohen of Israel’s Maariv newspaper <a href="http://www.maarivenglish.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&amp;articleID=6824" type="external">foresees</a> a continued impasse that will harden Palestinian rebels:</p>
<p />
<p>In the Mukata, Arafat can breathe a sigh of relief. Rejection of the disengagement plan will perpetuate the deadlock that is so important to him. If the plan were implemented, the Palestinian Authority would have to do something. Now it can avoid making decisions.</p>
<p>From the Palestinian perspective, unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would be a nightmare that prevents them from establishing an independent state. If Israel were to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and a few settlements in Judea and Samaria while continuing to build the anti-terrorism barrier, it would still maintain practical control over half of Judea and Samaria.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, the terrorist organizations can say, “We told you so” and claim that Jihad is the only way to get Israel out of the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post tracked the mood around Gaza’s Gush Katif block, where settlers who beat Sharon this weekend seemed bereft of victory:</p>
<p />
<p>The vacuum of jubilation matched the emptiness of this strip of seaside settlements Sunday. By mid-afternoon, just a few hours after the terrorist attack, it seemed that the settlement had already been evacuated.</p>
<p /> | No Go | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/05/no-go/ | 2004-05-04 | 4 |
<p>Good morning, and happy Wednesday. Here are six of the top stories we are following this morning at NBC News:</p>
<p>The objects were discovered in the southern Indian Ocean not far from where other objects have been spotted. Whether they could be part of the debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight remains to be seen. “Some of the objects appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials,” said acting transport minister Hishamuddin Hussein. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said debris it's search plane spotted from the air was not distinctive of Flight 370:</p>
<p>At least <a href="" type="internal">16 people have died in the mile-long mudslide</a> that buried homes in Washington state, officials said late Tuesday. The search effort continues today, and emergency crews are still looking for survivors, although no one has been found alive since the time of the slide. <a href="" type="internal">Stories of heartbreak and survival</a> have gripped the rural community. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>While the deadline is Monday for uninsured Americans to sign up for Obamacare exchanges, those who’ve been trying to get through but haven’t can get more time. “If you are in line when March 31 deadline passes, you will be helped,” White House spokeswoman Tara McGuinness said on Twitter. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in HEALTH</a>.</p>
<p>Winter isn’t over for folks in Massachusetts and eastern Maine. A major snowstorm is expected to drop as many as 10 inches of snow along Cape Cod and up to 16 inches in eastern Maine. Meanwhile, tropical storm-force winds are pounding the coast. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>After 10 years of marriage, the celebrity power couple shocked fans Tuesday by saying they’re separating. “We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and coparent, we will be able to continue in the same manner,” they said in a statement on Paltrow’s website. <a href="http://www.today.com/entertainment/gwyneth-paltrow-chris-martin-have-split-2D79437604" type="external">Read more in POP CULTURE</a>.</p>
<p>Their choice of phrasing, however, had some people scratching their heads:</p>
<p>A construction worker was plucked to safety — but not before nearly falling to his death — during a massive residential complex fire Tuesday afternoon in Houston. The daring rescue at the unfinished site was caught on video. <a href="http://www.today.com/news/man-dangles-balcony-daring-fire-rescue-caught-camera-2D79438275" type="external">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>The W Hotels is <a href="http://www.today.com/tech/ridiculous-3-000-buys-social-media-wedding-concierge-2D79435238" type="external">offering a new service to couples getting hitched</a> at one of its venues: a social media wedding concierge.</p>
<p>For $3,000, that person will live tweet, Instagram and Facebook your ceremony and reception, and then compile it all into a Shutterfly book. They’ll also create your very own #hashtag so guests can follow all the selfies and filtered photos online. But not everyone’s impressed:</p>
<p /> | KNOW IT ALL: Wednesday’s Top Stories at NBC News | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/know-it-all/know-it-all-wednesdays-top-stories-nbc-news-n62371 | 2014-03-26 | 3 |
<p>As Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/01/sen-cruz-nomination-gorsuch-for-supreme-court-home-run.html" type="external">indicated</a> on Tuesday, President Trump hit a home run in nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch, who has sat on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006, <a href="" type="external">is a textualist</a>, despises judicial activism, defends religious liberties, and believes in federalist principles like separation of powers and a limited federal government.</p>
<p>In addition to his impeccable resume, he was also an unapologetic conservative in college and took on progressives during the Reagan presidency. In an article in Fusion, one of Univision's left-leaning news sites, Wilfred Chen <a href="https://fusion.net/story/384243/neil-gorsuch-college-yearbook/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=socialshare&amp;utm_content=sticky+nav_mobile" type="external">wrote</a> the following about Gorsuch's years at Columbia University.</p>
<p>Gorsuch was best-known on campus for founding a conservative campus publication, The Federalist Paper, which frequently ran attacks on campus activists. One of them was Jordan Kushner, a student two years above Gorsuch who is now a civil rights lawyer in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“He had something against every progressive cause,” Kushner told me. “He criticized divestment movements, he criticized the protest against gentrification…he was hostile toward issues involving racism, back when he wasn’t trying to lay the groundwork to try and become a federal judge.”</p>
<p>Before entering Harvard Law School and becoming a federal circuit judge, Gorsuch earned the reputation of a fighting conservative who refused to allow progressives to get away with their campaigns without criticism. He also had harsh words for protestors who would aimlessly protest whichever cause seemed relevant at the time.</p>
<p>When he wasn’t criticizing specific protesters, Gorsuch attacked protesters in general. “Fifteen students wandered about, aimlessly criticizing whatever struck their fancy…with a couple of illegible banners,” he wrote in one column, adding, “our protesters, it seems, have a monopoly on righteousness they are asking for special treatment, acting as a vigilante squad while avoiding the weight of their own actions.”</p>
<p>This sounds like the kind of individual conservatives need in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>While Fusion attempted to cast Gorsuch as a racist right-winger who challenged progressivism, it only gives him additional credibility as a principled conservative who understands that the radical left is an enemy to freedom and liberty. Gorsuch is a fighter, and if his record in the 10th Circuit is any indicator, he might just be able to fill the big shoes left by Justice Scalia a year ago.</p>
<p>Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Here's Just Another Indicator That Gorsuch Is AWESOME | true | https://dailywire.com/news/13081/heres-just-another-indicator-gorsuch-awesome-elliott-hamilton | 2017-02-02 | 0 |
<p>PARIS--French car maker Peugeot on Tuesday said it was in talks with General Motors over a potential acquisition of its European business Opel.</p>
<p>The company, officially known as Groupe PSA SA, said it was in talks regarding a number of possible options including a purchase of the unit.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A spokesman for GM said it was in talks about potentially deepening its ties with Peugeot but didn't give details.</p>
<p>"We confirm that we're examining numerous strategic initiatives with GM to improve our profitability and operational efficiency, including a potential acquisition of Opel," a Peugeot spokeswoman said. Shares in Peugeot rose nearly 5%.</p>
<p>She added that the companies already had a number of common projects and regularly examined strategic initiatives that could lead to other synergies. General Motors and Peugeot, which also makes Citro�n and DS cars, already share production of SUVs in France and Spain. A previous attempt at a broader alliance unwound in 2013 when GM sold its stake in the French car maker</p>
<p>Opel has failed to make money since before 2000, racking up $15 billion in losses over the past decade and a half. GM was close to selling the struggling German unit in 2009 to Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc., but backed away because of concerns it would be underrepresented in Europe.</p>
<p>GM has long relied on Opel to design passenger cars, which are more popular in Europe than in the U.S.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The auto maker hit a fresh roadblock in 2016, failing to make money in Europe even after Chief Executive Mary Barra repeatedly committed to breaking even in the region. The company said that $300 million in currency-related headwinds--stemming from Brexit--resulted in losses.</p>
<p>While the losses were narrowed last year from 2015, GM expects more red ink in 2017, even as the Chinese and North American units are solidly profitable. GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said last week not to expect a profit until 2018 with Opel.</p>
<p>Write to Nick Kostov at [email protected] and John Stoll at [email protected]</p> | Peugeot in Talks to Buy General Motors' European Operations -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/14/peugeot-in-talks-to-buy-general-motors-european-operations-update518773.html | 2017-02-14 | 0 |
<p>Nigerian authorities specified Friday that a total of 276 schoolgirls were taken last month by militants from a boarding school, but 53 of them escaped, leaving 223 still in the hands of their captors, police said. Those numbers are higher than previously reported. Authorities had been saying [?]</p>
<p>Those numbers are higher than previously reported. Authorities had been saying about 230 girls were abducted in the dead of night at a high school in the country's northeast region - a hotbed for the Islamist group Boko Haram - and roughly 200 of the girls were missing.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/02/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.cnn.com</a></p>
<p /> | 223 girls kidnapped by Nigerian militants still missing | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/nigerian-police-223-kidnapped-girls-still-missing/ | 0 |
|
<p>Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush campaigning for Rick Scott in 2010Bob Self/Florida Times-Union/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Rick Scott was a tea party darling when he squeaked out a victory in 2010 to become governor of Florida with the help of an army of&#160;grassroots conservative activists. Four years later, Scott, facing a tight reelection race, is having trouble rallying his former soldiers to his cause. That’s largely because energizing his old base would require him to take on the state’s most popular politician: former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.</p>
<p />
<p>Tea partiers have plenty of reasons for souring on their former star. Things started well for them. Upon taking office, Scott <a href="" type="internal">followed up on his campaign promises</a> to oppose Obamacare, cut taxes, and reduce spending. He slashed the budget for education and environmental protection to pay for tax cuts for corporations. He refused to support the expansion of Medicaid in the state under Obamacare, leaving more than 700,000 Floridians without health care. He supported a (failed) bill that would have brought <a href="http://www.politifact.com/florida/promises/scott-o-meter/promise/730/bring-arizonas-immigration-law-florida/" type="external">Arizona-style anti-immigration laws</a> to Florida and <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/democrats-pounce-in-attempt-to-exploit-scotts-dreamers-veto/2125003" type="external">vetoed a hugely popular GOP-supported bill that would have allowed “DREAMers”</a>—undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children—to obtain driver’s licenses.</p>
<p>But Scott soon discovered that governing like a tea partier made him one of the nation’s most unpopular governors. Early polls showed him losing reelection to a generic Democrat by wide margins. So he reversed course. Last year, he came out in favor of expanding Medicaid. (His current position on the matter <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/08/4279783/gov-rick-scott-affirms-support.html" type="external">is ambiguous</a>. He changed his stance only after the federal government approved his request to fully privatize Medicaid, and he’s never advocated for it in the Legislature, which has not approved the expansion.) This year, he’s proposed big increases in education spending and launched a “ <a href="http://rickscottforflorida.com/governor-scott-to-kick-off-lets-keep-florida-beautiful-tour/" type="external">Let’s Keep Florida Beautiful”</a> initiative, promising to restore some of his earlier environmental budget cuts.</p>
<p>While these course reversals have helped put Scott <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/governor/fl/florida_governor_scott_vs_crist-3545.html" type="external">within 1 point of his challenger</a>, former Republican and now-Democrat Charlie Crist, they’ve disenchanted much of his tea party base. And nothing has angered those folks more than Scott’s refusal to wage a full-throated war on the Common Core, the set of national educational standards that have become perhaps <a href="" type="internal">the single biggest rallying cry for conservative activists this election season.</a></p>
<p>Meredith Mears, cofounder of Florida Parents Against Common Core, supported Scott and the tea party in 2010 but has since become disillusioned with both. She says tea party activists have been very vocal in their unhappiness with Scott: “They have been saying, ‘We will not vote for him.’ Common Core has become a huge hot button with the voters.”</p>
<p>Tea partiers and many committed Republicans see the Common Core standards as the latest sign of federal overreach into local government, and one forced on unwitting children by an unholy trinity of President Obama, for-profit testing companies (“crony capitalism”), and Jeb Bush, who has been a steadfast champion of the standards and pushed for them through his Foundation for Excellence in Education.</p>
<p>Opposition from Common Core activists has spurred many Republicans who formerly supported the standards to reject them entirely. Case in point is Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who, after initially coming out in favor of the standards, has since <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/28/the-core-question-in-bobby-jindals-common-core-lawsuit/" type="external">sued the federal government</a> over them and tried to use executive power to prevent their implementation. But Scott hasn’t been able to make such dramatic moves, even to save his job.</p>
<p>That’s because Common Core is <a href="" type="internal">the signature issue of Jeb Bush</a>, who sold other Republican governors on the standards. He’s promoted them through his foundation and traveled the country defending Common Core from attacks by conspiracy-minded local activists.</p>
<p>Despite his association with Common Core, Bush remains a revered political figure in Florida. He has endorsed Scott, and that support brings with it a sizable donor list of moderate business types that Scott needs to win his campaign. “If I were Rick Scott I would not want to upset that apple cart,” says Damien Filer, the political director for the progressive group Progress Florida.</p>
<p>But by refusing to buck Bush on Common Core, Scott is alienating many of the activists who worked hardest to get him elected in 2010. It’s not at all clear that they will vote for him just because they don’t like Crist, who’s also a Common Core supporter.</p>
<p>Chris Quackenbush is a cofounder of Stop Common Core Florida and a former Scott supporter who has made 35 formal requests to meet with Scott about Common Core and been rebuffed every time. She’s had more luck making the case against the standards to Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Pence, who met with her for 30 minutes recently at an Americans for Prosperity meeting in Texas. Scott’s refusal to engage with people like Quackenbush is one reason that the issue has “lots of people sitting out” the election, she says. “This is the deciding factor for most people. If he doesn’t show us he cares about the children and the future, then what else matters?”</p>
<p>Scott can’t afford to have his former supporters stay home. He was elected in 2010 <a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/local-news/naples-tallahasse-rick-scott-governor" type="external">by only 61,000 votes</a>—1 percent—and polls show that the margins in his current race are razor thin. “We’re going into an election where it’s all about turnout and really honing in on the base,” says Christian Ulvert, political director for the Florida Democratic Party. “Democrats are united to see Rick Scott defeated because he’s inflicted a lot of pain, and everyday Floridians have felt it the most. They’re ready to go to the ballot box to vote. Rick Scott, his base is not as united.” He says that the unrest over Common Core puts Scott “in a very tough position to either piss off the base or piss off the moderate crew.”</p>
<p>Scott has clumsily attempted to thread the needle on the issue. In January, after a series of public hearings, state education officials tinkered with the standards adopted in 2010, making nearly 100 changes, including adding a cursive requirement specifically aimed at pacifying handwriting-obsessed anti-Common Core activists. Then they rebranded the whole package as the “Florida Standards.” The implementing legislation wiped out any reference to Common Core in Florida law. Scott later <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/common-core-is-out-gov-rick-scott-says/2181165" type="external">told a local news outlet</a>that “Common Core is out,” and that “the Florida state standard is now 100 percent a Florida educational standard.”</p>
<p>The rebranding didn’t fool anyone. The new Florida Standards were still recognizable as the old Common Core. Even Bush, on a campaign swing with Scott, conceded that the standards were still basically Common Core. “They’re not substantially different, but they’re Florida-based,” <a href="http://http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2014/08/15/jeb-bush-florida-standards-not-substantially-different-from-common-core/#more-22590" type="external">he told a local NPR reporter</a>.</p>
<p>The change did little to quell the unrest among opponents. “We think he’s trying to appease the voters and the parents who are speaking out,” Mears says.</p>
<p>In late August, Scott announced his intentions <a href="http://www.theledger.com/article/20140824/NEWS/140829627" type="external">to create an independent committee</a>to review the education standards—again. He also plans to have his education commissioner thoroughly investigate the state’s use of highly unpopular standardized tests, even though he’s responsible for much of their expansion. Back in 2010, Crist, then governor and a former education commissioner, vetoed a Bush-inspired and backed bill that would have expanded the use of standardized testing as part of teacher pay and retention evaluations. Crist’s veto cost him Bush’s endorsement in a heated Republican Senate primary race against Marco Rubio. A year later, Scott won Bush’s favor by backing <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/tag/senate-bill-736/" type="external">by signing the bill,</a> expanding the testing he now claims to want to investigate. Sweetening the pot, Scott has also proposed a $700 million increase in school spending for 2015.</p>
<p>Conservative voters were underwhelmed. “How many times have you ever heard politicians defer a tough question by saying, ‘We’re going to have a blue ribbon commission’?” asks Quackenbush. “It’s just a matter of deflection.”</p>
<p>Last month, the school board in Lee County, a GOP stronghold, <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-opt-out-testing-schools-20140829-story.html" type="external">voted to opt out</a>of administering any end-of-course exams, including those tied to Common Core—a national first. The board rescinded the vote a week later after realizing that the district could lose millions of state and federal dollars and that the move might even prevent students from graduating. But the vote was a warning sign that Scott won’t be able to dodge the issue until after the election.</p>
<p>Last week, two die-hard Republicans who supported Scott in 2010 <a href="http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/news/2014-09/gop-activist-couple-write-scathing-letter-governor-refusing-vote-him-unless-he-changes-common-core.htm" type="external">wrote him a letter</a>explicitly telling him that Common Core was a make or break issue. Tom and Carole Hayes, both GOP committeemembers in Osceola County, wrote:</p>
<p>We have been dedicated, grassroots, door knockers, telephone callers and all-out gung-ho Republican activists in Osceola County for over 25 years…Your Pro-life position is excellent. Your support of Israel is stellar. Florida appears to be rebounding economically under your lead even though we were one of the hardest hit states. It would be a pleasure to vote for you on the basis of these issues. However, as it stands, you will not be getting our vote or the vote of many that I think you and your poll predictors think are in the bag. The reason is our complete disgust at your stance on Common Core and your thinking we are too stupid to see through the charade of renaming the program. You know and we know it is still Common Core, regardless of what you call it.</p>
<p>We have held our nose for too many less than mediocre candidates simply because the alternative was so much worse. This is true in this year’s Governor’s race as well. However, we will not hold our nose this time. It is too important. Our children are too important…</p>
<p>If you don’t denounce Common Core and remove it from the State of Florida, we will not vote for you. If Charlie Crist wins because of this, it is not our fault, but yours.</p>
<p>Mears says Scott could still save himself and his election prospects by fully opposing Common Core: “As soon as he stands for our children, we can reverse course, but he has to make that choice very soon.”</p>
<p>The Florida Democratic Party’s Christian Ulvert says he’d love to see a public clash between Bush and Scott. “I would probably go buy some popcorn and some beverages and go watch it.” But he says it’s not likely to happen. Education is the one area where Scott can’t cross Bush and maintain his support. Bush’s education foundation, Ulvert says, “It’s all a political arm for Jeb Bush and he puts political capital into it.” If Scott rejects Common Core, he says, “It’s not just going to be Rick Scott comes out against Common Core. It’s going to be Rick Scott comes out against Jeb Bush, and that’s what’s going to be in the mind of voters.”</p>
<p /> | Why Rick Scott Is Facing a Tea Party Revolt in Florida | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/why-rick-scotts-facing-tea-party-revolt-florida/ | 2014-09-17 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Last year, cash-strapped California taxpayers voted for Proposition 47, which so far has let thousands of convicted criminals go free from prison and back onto the streets. Now the state may have to relearn what lawbreakers often do when let out of jail early.</p>
<p>The state may be entering the fifth year of a catastrophic drought, but California has not started building any of the new reservoirs that were planned but long ago canceled under the unfinished California Water Project. Water may remain scarce, but legislators - many of whom have their daily water needs met by the ancient reservoirs and canals that their grandparents built - don't seem overly bothered. They prefer to designate transgender restrooms, ban plastic bags at grocery stores, and prohibit pet dogs from chasing bears and bobcats.</p>
<p>Never has a region been so naturally rich but so poorly run by its latest generation of custodians.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>California endures some of the highest gasoline taxes, sales taxes and income taxes in the nation. Yet its roads and public schools rate near the very bottom of U.S. rankings.</p>
<p>Traffic accidents in California increased by 13 percent over a three-year period - the result of terrible roads and worse drivers. Almost half of all accidents in Los Angeles are hit-and-runs where the drivers leave the scene.</p>
<p>California has lots of petroleum and natural gas. It used to be a pacesetter in building nuclear and hydroelectric plants. Yet because of inept governance, the state's electricity and gasoline prices are among the highest in the nation.</p>
<p>Why is California choosing the path of Detroit - growing government that it cannot pay for, shorting the middle classes, hiking taxes but providing shoddy services and infrastructure in return, and obsessing over minor bumper-sticker issues while ignoring existential crises?</p>
<p>The cause is political. California is a one-party state, without any serious audit of authorities in power.</p>
<p>The California State Assembly currently includes 52 Democrats and 28 Republicans. The California State Senate has 26 Democrats and 14 Republicans.</p>
<p>All of the state's executive officers are Democrats. Both of its U.S. senators are Bay-area progressives. California's House delegation is overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic. The party in power can do as it pleases without being held accountable at the polls.</p>
<p>But what turned a once bipartisan and purple state bright blue?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A perfect storm of events.</p>
<p>Higher taxes and increased regulations have driven out lots of small-business owners. In the last few years, hundreds of thousands of disgruntled middle-of-the-road voters voted with their feet and left for no-tax Nevada, Texas or Florida.</p>
<p>The state devolved into a pyramid of the coastal wealthy and interior poor - the dual constituencies of the new progressive movement.</p>
<p>A third of America's welfare recipients reside in California. Nearly a quarter of Californians live below the poverty line.</p>
<p>Yet nowhere in America are there more billionaires. California's long, thin coastal corridor has become a tony La-La land unto itself. Some of the highest housing prices in the nation and richest communities are clustered along the Pacific coastline, from the wine country and Silicon Valley to Malibu and Hollywood, dotted by marquee coastal universities and zillionaire tech corporations.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, poorer people in the interior, in places such as Madera and Delano - far from Stanford, Google, Pacific Heights and Santa Monica - require ever more public services. The very rich don't mind paying the necessary higher taxes, while the strapped, shrinking middle class suffers or flees.</p>
<p>Demography also explains the new true-blue California. It is one of the youngest states, with a median age of 35. Voters tend to be more liberal before they reach 40 - and must take on increasing responsibilities, often for people other than just themselves.</p>
<p>California hosts more undocumented immigrants than any other state. Its percentages of minority and foreign-born residents are among the highest in the country. (One of four California residents was not born in the United States.) As with the young, immigrant groups are likewise traditional liberal constituencies, at least in the early generations.</p>
<p>Good money in California along the affluent coast, for the most part, is not made the old-fashioned way - in mining, timber, ranching, farming and construction. Instead, California specializes in high-tech, social media, the Internet, government employment, academia, lawyering and acting.</p>
<p>Profits usually involve programming, investing, financing, hedging, talking, dealing, suing, instructing and regulating. The money is better, the physical work less grubby, and utopia seems attainable in a way impossible when growing lettuce, mining granite, drilling gas wells, producing two-by-fours, building dams or shipping steel.</p>
<p>Could California change?</p>
<p>Only when voters of all persuasions decide to return to the old give-and-take politics that keeps politicians honest.</p>
<p>Or when water taps in the suburbs go dry.</p>
<p>Or perhaps when the state's growing poor populations connect their exorbitant gas, power and housing costs with an elite agenda of rich coastal liberals, who do not seem to care about the people working hard to glimpse what the elites take for granted.</p>
<p /> | California lacks checks, balances | false | https://abqjournal.com/663583/california-lacks-checks-balances.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ROCKPORT, Texas — Colts in the only wild, self-sustaining flock of endangered whooping cranes have lost much of their cinnamon color.</p>
<p>The Victoria Advocate ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2kaqS2Q" type="external">http://bit.ly/2kaqS2Q</a> ) reports the almost 5-foot-tall birds have taken on the white plumage of adulthood during their past few months in Texas. Every year the birds fly about 2,700 miles south from their nesting grounds in Canada to their wintering grounds on and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.</p>
<p>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surveys the birds while they winter in the state. While the service conducted several flights over the wintering grounds in December to count the birds, the survey results will not be available until later in the spring, said U.S. Whooping Crane Recovery Coordinator Wade Harrell.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Poor flying conditions meant observers were unable to count four of the nine days they had pilots and planes available. So observers plan to go out again in February to tally birds in the areas they missed.</p>
<p>Last year, the service estimated 329 birds used the primary wintering range; additional birds were seen outside the survey area. That’s up from less than 20 birds in the 1940s.</p>
<p>The flock’s remarkable recovery has made the birds some of the most famous winter Texans. Boat tours out of the Rockport-Fulton area take birders along the shoreline of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, where they’re able to view family groups and clusters of juvenile birds, which have not yet paired off.</p>
<p>Two British birders flew almost twice as far as the birds themselves to see the whooping cranes. Tom Howard and Wilfred Banfield boarded a boat with Aransas Bay Birding Charters to photograph the birds Saturday.</p>
<p>They were able to spot 25 whoopers in about six hours in addition to several species of shorebirds.</p>
<p>“It’s fantastic,” Banfield said. “It’s a bird that’s very rare and has been brought back from the verge of extinction.”</p>
<p>Last April, the men ventured to the Rio Grande area, where they were able to view a variety of warbler species. But the trip this time was primarily to witness the largest bird in North America, the endangered whooping crane.</p>
<p>It’s not unusual for people to come from all over the world to view the birds, said Aransas Bay Birding Charters co-owner Kevin Sims. January through March are the most popular months for the whooping crane tours. The birds migrate back to Canada in min-April.</p>
<p>Despite taking people out to view the birds throughout the winter season, Sims said he never tires of watching the whooping cranes.</p>
<p>“It’s always exciting,” he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Victoria Advocate, <a href="http://www.victoriaadvocate.com" type="external">http://www.victoriaadvocate.com</a></p>
<p>This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Victoria Advocate</p> | Visitors flock to Southeast Texas refuge for whooping cranes | false | https://abqjournal.com/932182/visitors-flock-to-southeast-texas-refuge-for-whooping-cranes.html | 2017-01-20 | 2 |
<p>The recent USA Today revelation that three major phone companies have (allegedly) been providing phone call records to the NSA shouldn’t come as a shock. Our government has been seeking to harness maximum data for many years-for all kinds of purposes, legitimate and illegitimate. As technology has advanced, so too have the means of harvesting and mining digital information. Just about everything about anybody or anything can be datamined by those with the motive, means, and opportunity. Just who are these people, and who’s giving them a license to delve into our record</p>
<p>Remember back in 2002 when the U.S. public became aware of the existence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its “Total Information Awareness” network? The latter was a project of Admiral John Poindexter, hired by President George W. Bush to be director of the Information Assurance Office (IAO) of the DoD’s DARPA. The revelation of the existence of this network caused a stir, but it too should have been no surprise.</p>
<p>Go back to 1996, when John Poindexter was vice-president of Syntek, a contractor for DARPA, and he was working on a project called Genoa-a database-mining software package.</p>
<p>Poindexter has first-rate professional credentials that signal a first-rate mind: he was at the top of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy and later earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at Cal Tech. Over the past 15 years, it appears that his criminal convictions (in 1990, for criminal conspiracy, obstruction of Congress, and false statements related to the Iran-Contra scandal) have not been a bar to his work in the most sensitive areas of intelligence-gathering and synthesis.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, suppose you’re a U.S. newspaper that files a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with a federal agency? Too bad! You might not get it–at least not in time for it to be useful for a breaking story, or even for a background piece. The situation is so ridiculous that some investigative reporters aren’t even bothering to file FOIA requests any more.</p>
<p>I have in front of me a letter from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), dated May 9, 2006, which we received on May 16. In it, a Public Affairs Specialist of the Office of Administrative Services, writes:</p>
<p>“This letter is in regard to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request numbered FOI-XXX/XX, dated July 24, 2002.</p>
<p>“In an effort to update our records, we are contacting you regarding your continued interest in the information you requested. We have encountered some delays due to our severe backlog and the inundation of requests from many sources. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.</p>
<p>“We are seeking notification of your continued interest in these documents. If you are no longer interested in these documents, no further action on your part is necessary and this request will be closed. If you are still interested, you are requested to complete the short form below and return a signed copy of this letter in the enclosed self-addressed envelope. It must be received within 10 working days from the date of this letter, [stamped in date] May 23, 2006 [end stamped-in date] otherwise, your case will be considered closed with no further action on our part.”</p>
<p>We had asked for information for a story we were researching during the summer of 2002. Nearly four years later, we’re being asked if we still want it.</p>
<p>Those who work with DARPA, IAO, or other alphabet-soup entities can get information about whoever or whatever they want, with or without a warrant. The U.S. press, however, may have to wait four years or more to get information to which they have a legal right–if it can be obtained at all.</p>
<p>So we have to ask: Total Information Awareness for whom? Not the press, evidently. Not the American people, who should be able to rely on the press to tell them what they need to know. But some people- even a convicted felon like John Poindexter-why sure! Give them all the access they want. They’re “protecting” us. They’re fighting “terrorism.”</p>
<p>Well, hello out there, DARPA, IAO, CIA, NSA, and all the rest of you: newspapers are here to protect the public too. And, with stories like this one, we are also fighting terrorism.</p>
<p>NOTE: Privacy International, which describes itself as “a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations,” recently granted a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to ChoicePoint-a private datamining company-citing it as “an abuser and broker of personal information for many years now,” and charging it with “collecting information on Americans and foreigners without having to adhere to strict privacy laws. Recently it has admitted that there have been a number of fraudulent uses and loss of this personal information. This resulted in mass apologies, apologies to Congress, and a CEO bonus of 1.8 million dollars.” ChoicePoint’s data has famously been used by some states to “purge” their voter rolls. Other winners of this organization’s (dubious) Lifetime Achievement Awards have been Osama bin Laden, the National Security Agency-and Admiral John Poindexter.</p>
<p>ALICE CHERBONNIER is editor of the <a href="http://baltimorechronicle.com/" type="external">Baltimore Chronicle</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Total Information Awareness … For Whom? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/05/23/total-information-awareness-for-whom/ | 2006-05-23 | 4 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.