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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Clara Apodaca sees the beauty in everything.</p>
<p>Whether it’s the beauty of Doña Ana, her hometown, or the beauty in front of her, say, standing in front of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, the New Mexico native takes it all in.</p>
<p>Growing up in Doña Ana, a small unincorporated farming community outside Las Cruces, Apodaca was raised in humble surroundings.</p>
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<p>Yet because of her mother, she was exposed to theater, music and the arts.</p>
<p>That seed slowly grew.</p>
<p>Apodaca, 82, has spent her adult life cultivating her passion and becoming known as a stalwart advocate for the arts in New Mexico.</p>
<p>The Del Norte Rotary Foundation will honor her on Saturday, Feb. 18.</p>
<p>“I’m honored and humbled,” she says of the distinction. “I’ve never belonged to the Rotary, because as a young woman, the Rotary didn’t allow women. Their mission of ‘service above self’ is something I live by.”</p>
<p>Making a splash</p>
<p>“Las Tentaciones de San Antonio” by Luis Tapia is one of several artworks in the Governor’s Gallery in the Roundhouse. Clara Apodaca began the museum in 1975 to showcase New Mexico talent. (Eddie Moore/Journal)</p>
<p>Apodaca’s public service for the arts in New Mexico began when she became first lady in 1975.</p>
<p>She joined her then-husband, Gov. Jerry Apodaca, in Santa Fe.</p>
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<p>In 1975, she spearheaded the opening of The Governor’s Gallery, on the fourth floor of the State Capitol.</p>
<p>Not only was the gallery a new idea in showcasing New Mexicans’ artwork, Apodaca wanted to make a splash with its opening. It took her a few months to get the space ready, as it belonged to the Legislature and she needed the approval.</p>
<p>After she got the green light, Apodaca was able to secure one of the biggest names in art – Georgia O’Keeffe.</p>
<p>“Everybody was making bets that she wouldn’t show up (to the opening),” she says. “She actually stood in line for two hours on a Sunday and greeted everyone.”</p>
<p>Javier Jimenez-Ugarte and Clara Apodaca look over art portfolios in March 1986.</p>
<p>The exhibit stayed up for six weeks and was closely supervised by O’Keeffe.</p>
<p>“Georgia in those years was already in her 80s, and Juan Hamilton has just come into her life,” she says. “She was eccentric, like most people are. She liked to deal more with the men, and if I wanted to get ahold of her, I would have to get my husband to call her. And she loved New Mexico and enjoyed being in Abiquiú.”</p>
<p>That statement is quintessential Apodaca – witty, but ever the diplomat. Her tiny frame masks a strong drive to achieve high goals and expectations.</p>
<p>Furthering her work in the arts, Apodaca became the secretary of the Department of Cultural Affairs after the Apodaca administration. The division oversees state museums and parks.</p>
<p>During her tenure, she was tasked with starting the museums’ admissions program.</p>
<p>“The governor (Toney Anaya) wasn’t in favor of that,” she says. “But the Legislature mandated us to start charging.”</p>
<p>After leaving the Department of Cultural Affairs, Apodaca headed to Washington, D.C., where she lived for 18 years. From 1993 to 2001, she served in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the secretary of the Treasury.</p>
<p>Return to NM</p>
<p>Though she was away from New Mexico, she remained an advocate for the arts.</p>
<p>The wood scuplture “El Santo Niño del Girasol, by Charlie Carrillo, is on display at the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol in Santa Fe. (Eddie Moore/Journal)</p>
<p>She returned to the Land of Enchantment to serve as the president and CEO of the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation. She helped raise funds for the community gallery inside the center’s art museum. To this day, the gallery showcases N.M. talent.</p>
<p>She held that position for seven years.</p>
<p>She retired from that full-time job more than four years ago, but she still sits on five boards.</p>
<p>“I don’t accept a board commitment if I can’t give it all,” she says.</p>
<p>One of the boards she sits on is the Albuquerque Film and Music Experience Foundation.</p>
<p>And founder Ivan Wiener has been thrilled to have her.</p>
<p>“Clara is one of the most respected people in our city, state and throughout the country,” Wiener says. “Her passion and commitment for growth and sustainability are reflected on a daily basis through her involvement in the community, especially towards the betterment of the arts. Clara’s impact, both socially and politically, are second to none.”</p>
<p>When she’s not busy working advocating for the arts, the 14th-generation New Mexican spends time with her children and grandchildren.</p>
<p>Looking back at her career in public service, Apodaca says she has always had a common goal – get New Mexican artists recognized on a national level.</p>
<p>“I think because I saw so many artists in New Mexico that weren’t recognized nationally, I made it a mission to correct that,” she says. “Look at the weavers in northern New Mexico. Or the potters. We have very successful artists in the state.”</p>
<p>Her legacy will lives on with The Governor’s Gallery.</p>
<p>“We’ve had probably several million people in the 40 years come see the gallery,” she says. “That was the reason I wanted to do it.” A public servant A few of the foundations Clara Apodaca has served on: •Washington Performing Arts Society Board •Hitachi Foundation •New Mexico First •Mayor Berry’s Albuquerque Women’s Pay Equality Task Force •Spanish Colonial Arts Society •The International Women’s Forum/ New Mexico •Albuquerque Film &amp; Music Experience (AFME) •Chairwoman of the foundation set up by her son, “The Jeff Apodaca, Celebration of Life Foundation”</p>
<p>&#160;If you go</p>
<p>WHAT: Del Norte Rotary Foundation honors Clara Apodaca WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 WHERE: Isleta Resort &amp; Casino, 11000 Broadway SE HOW MUCH: $150 per person at <a href="http://dnrgala.ticketleap.com" type="external">dnrgala.ticketleap.com</a>&#160;or&#160; <a href="http://rotarydelnorte.org" type="external">rotarydelnorte.org</a></p>
<p /> | Aesthetic passion: Clara Apodaca serves the arts, NM | false | https://abqjournal.com/948383/aesthetic-passion.html | 2 |
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<p>The class action suit, which labeled the rates as “unreasonably high,” has been returned to New Mexico District Court at Carrizozo following a decision from the state Court of Appeals.</p>
<p>Tierra Realty Trust, which owns a 60-apartment complex in Ruidoso, filed the civil suit in August 2009 on behalf of itself and all other residential wastewater and sewer customers in the village. Tierra contended the village’s base rates for wastewater and sewer services far exceed comparable charges by publicly regulated private utilities in violation of state law.</p>
<p>The suit claimed Ruidoso’s base rate charges vary between $46.85 and $76.41, while the average charge for comparable services through private utilities in New Mexico is $20.13. In the case of the firm’s La Tierra Apartment complex, the suit said the April 2009 utility bill charged by the village was more than $7,000 for the 60 units.</p>
<p>District Judge Karen Parsons had certified the class action complaint to consider injunctive and declaratory relief, but denied class certification for monetary damages. The Court of Appeals in January said the exclusion of potential monetary damages was not supported “by substantial evidence” and full class status should be considered.</p>
<p>Action at the district court level had been halted in May 2011 when the appeal on the scope of the case was filed. With the Court of Appeals guidance, a request for a district court hearing has been filed.</p>
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<p>The increased sewer rates followed a settlement of a federal court case that alleged Ruidoso, the major owner of the regional wastewater treatment plant, violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act through the plant’s discharge to the Rio Ruidoso. The settlement required Ruidoso and plant co-owner Ruidoso Downs to construct a new treatment plant that cost more than $31 million.</p>
<p>Ruidoso councilors put in place higher wastewater rates in November 2007 to help pay for the mandated treatment plant.</p>
<p>Tierra Realty Trust protested the rate increase in April 2008.</p>
<p>An informal agreement allowed Tierra Realty Trust to deposit funds into an interest-bearing escrow account, in lieu of paying the utility fees, until a settlement or a court order was reached. — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Ruidoso utility rates suit is getting back on track | false | https://abqjournal.com/180693/ruidoso-utility-rates-suit-is-getting-back-on-track.html | 2013-03-21 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 27 Nov, 2017 15:15</p>
<p>The competition for next summer’s greatest prize is already underway. Not for the World Cup itself, but for the media outlet that can concoct the most bats**t crazy story about Russia, as it prepares to host the world’s biggest sporting event.</p>
<p>Off to a commanding and possibly insurmountable lead is The Sun. The Murdoch tabloid’s extensively researched story about an ‘ <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5001491/army-of-female-russian-nazis-lying-in-wait-for-england-fans-at-2018-world-cup/" type="external">Army</a>&#160;of female Russian Nazis lying in wait for England fans’ is a compelling one. Few people would fail to be baited into clicking that headline.</p>
<p>Few things come in armies. &#160;It’s mainly flesh-eating zombies and Russians. The lurid tale that lies within is certainly worth your time.</p>
<p>The ‘evidence’ is an admittedly brutal video of groups of girls fighting in the snow. Not so much ‘lying in wait’ as beating the hell out of each other… in wait. It appears to show ‘fans’ of Russian football teams Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow scrapping in the snow.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/410861-messi-suarez-mourinho-stan-collymore/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The ‘army’ described in the headline though dissolves before your eyes as you dip into the details. By the second paragraph, the ‘army’ has shrunk to ‘hundreds.’ Not so much an army as an unruly mob, or large queue. But of those hundreds of Russians “lying in wait,” The Sun can name only one: 19-year-old Diana Ivanova, who “was involved in trouble at a match last week.”</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see what kind of trouble someone can get into as they “lie in wait.” She does apparently call herself a Nazi, however, and she has a tattoo written in English. That’s enough for The Sun’s headline writers to put two and two together and get 39 – 1939.</p>
<p>But wait, two other Russian ‘thugs’ are also named: Olga Borisova, who is apparently a Russian from Uzbekistan; and Elena Maleyeva, who is a Russian from Ukraine. So, not Russians, strictly speaking, but their names sound funny and foreign, so that’s good enough for The Sun.</p>
<p>Just in case fans weren’t already shaking in their replica kits ahead of the summer tournament, the details become even more shocking. A “Russian security source” (or possibly Uzbek or Ukrainian, who cares?!) reportedly said: “Recently, the authorities have cracked down on all hooligans, including women. So far, this is holding pretty well.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/404806-liverpool-fans-welcome-russia/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Intimidating stuff. The police are forced to admit that they appear to have the situation under control.</p>
<p>The last line of the ‘story,’ however, is enough to strike fear into the heart of even the most battle-hardened soccer fan willing to put their life on the line by travelling to Russia for the World Cup. “Top clubs Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow arrange boxing bouts for rival women thugs to channel their aggression,” it reports.</p>
<p>The two young models in the picture, fully made-up with scarves viciously dangling from their necks, are clearly about to rip each other to pieces with their oversized pink boxing gloves.</p>
<p>Brace yourself. The media coverage of Russia over the next six or seven months is going to be something to behold.</p> | ‘Nazi female thugs’: Sun newspaper takes early lead in race for stupidest Russia World Cup story | false | https://newsline.com/nazi-female-thugs-sun-newspaper-takes-early-lead-in-race-for-stupidest-russia-world-cup-story/ | 2017-11-27 | 1 |
<p>Back in May of this year, like many of you, I read about the case of an artist in New York whose wife had suddenly died and he was subsequently suspected of being a bio-terrorist. I first caught the story on the AP wire, so as you can imagine it wasn’t immediately sympathetic so much as sensationalistic, but I picked up on the fact that an artist was being hassled by the state so I turned to CounterPunch to see if anyone had the real story. Sure enough, in the pages of CounterPunch, I found the kind of analysis I was looking for.</p>
<p>Steve Kurtz was an artist being hounded under the Patriot Act and feeling the full effects of the dangerous changes we’ve all seen in civil liberties during this bogus War on Terror. I read the story, was again angered by all that now passes for “normalcy” in this country, but ultimately the story slipped out of my mind as the daily news keeps piling up on one’s mind. I believed, perhaps foolishly, that most likely this would be cleared up- after all it was totally preposterous for the government to persecute an artist who was just doing art- “that doesn’t happen that often does it?” I consoled myself. But of course, any time is one time too many, and “an injury to one”</p>
<p>Every year a friend of mine who now lives in New York comes to Austin to put on the Parallax film festival–a wonderful political film festival that impresses me every year with it’s timely analysis and critical edge. So, I popped downtown to the warehouse they were screening and was immediately whisked away for dinner with old friends and new ones. As we were sitting there at the restaurant eating our hummus and catching up the man across the table began to tell bits and pieces of something that sounded familiar to me- this story of the artist who had been arrested as a presumed bio-terrorist. At first, I thought they were just making political “small-talk.” Then it dawned on me, because we hadn’t already been introduced, that this wasn’t someone randomly talking about the case this was the artist himself- Steve Kurtz.</p>
<p>Little by little it sunk in that this wasn’t a distant news story anymore. As frightening as the Patriot Act has been, and in Austin small incidents had occurred that made it seem serious, I hadn’t felt it face to face in this way before. A local grassroots people of color organization called PODER (People in Defense of the Earth and Her Resources) had been visited by Homeland Security for taking pictures outside of the Holly Street Power Plant– a notorious case they’ve fought for years to remove this polluting symbol of environmental racism in Austin’s historically segregated, and still practically so, Eastside. I know one of the organizers there, and she told us this story at an event at the leftist people of color bookstore I worked at where we felt we might have been visited less formally ourselves by the authorities around Memorial Day. Last spring the military was also on campus at UT-Austin harassing folks about an academic conference on Islam primarily organized by a woman of color. In all of these situations the Homeland Security folks had eventually walked away. I thought the same thing would have happened for Kurtz, that his legal situation could probably be resolved quickly because it was pretty obvious he was an environmental artist, but it hasn’t been.</p>
<p>When Kurtz was here in September he was in that holding pattern that you get stuck in once you get charged and released and the time ticks by while the state gathers up it’s case, however flimsy and distorted, in a cut-throat attempt to destroy you at all costs in order to save face and prove a point using your fragile life. Some at the table that night were impressed at how casually Kurtz could explain the facts of his terrible situation. I think they too believed, at first, that it would all be okay somehow. But I also tuned in to something deeper, relating to the personal pain that I could see in his face and in his hand motions that his “casualness” masked.</p>
<p>I felt terrible. I had forgotten about this person because he seemed remote, and given his distance it seemed like someone else would take care of it right? Someone else always take care of it right? I had local issues to focus on. I’m not even a part of his art networks, I told myself. I’m just a Chicana busy trying to finish a doctorate and get on with my own life (by which I mean survive). I realized though that our networks do overlap, that the degrees of separation between the leftist art world he occupies and the people of color activist-scholar networks I move in aren’t totally separated-or don’t have to be. I was deeply affected by meeting Steve Kurtz– by his humanity, by his keen intelligence and wit, by his dignity in the face of an unimaginably terrible situation of losing his wife of twenty-plus years, and now facing the potential loss of his freedom.</p>
<p>The next day Kurtz gave his talk at the film festival and along with his colleague Steve Barnes showed slides of Critical Art Ensemble’s work. They entertained the questions they could given the limitations on speech imposed by the pending legal situation. By that point it had sunk in for all us, all experienced activists, that this wasn’t going away quietly. I happened to be sitting there in the dark next to Steve Kurtz while his colleague was relating the details of all that had happened since May. I heard him getting choked up, and I imagined what it must be like to be hearing your life talked about in this way, how insane that must feel to know this was all happening to you, and I instinctually reached for his hand to hold on to it and comfort him if I could. He reached back and held my hand as well, and I felt like I was holding the hand of someone slipping down a well- you don’t want to let go. I desperately didn’t want to believe that this dear person might be going to prison, but it’s absolutely true– that just might happen.</p>
<p>The timeline of upcoming events is that Kurtz is awaiting the trial date being set, assuming in all likelihood that this will go to court instead of the world coming to its senses. He thought that news might come before the end of the year, but it looks as if it will be January before we know if and when he will go on trial. So, not much has changed since you last read about the case probably, the holding pattern is still in place and I have no further information to relate.</p>
<p>Kurtz told us when he was here that the costs of his defense are huge–somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 a month, which on a professor’s salary is easily beyond his means I suspect. I live with limited means myself, so I have to be careful about giving money away, but I chipped in what I could because I couldn’t look this person in the face not having done what I could to help. It had become personal for me. So, other than keeping him in mind and instead of hoping that someone else is taking care of it, I’m writing here to remind you about the case– sharing my own private brush with this story in the hope that you too will remember Steve Kurtz and do what you can to help pull him out of this dark well.</p>
<p>The CAE Defense Fund website can more fully inform you of what’s at stake here in terms of artistic freedom and freedom of inquiry, and how the state is trying to frame the scope of the case in order to limit his ability to defend himself. I just wanted to put a little flesh on the bones of the story and recall the humanity of a person I only met once, but who touched my heart profoundly.</p>
<p>Please see the appeal below from the CAE Defense Fund:</p>
<p>“Dear Friends and Supporters of CAE and freedom of knowledge and research: I am sending you this appeal for donations to the CAE Defense Fund because it is almost depleted and we are facing large bills in the coming months. The August bill for legal research and preparation of motions was over $10,000. The court has now set a hearing on defense motions for January 11, 2005. The outcome of this hearing will determine whether or not there is a trial, however, there is only a very small chance that there will not be a trial. There seems to be a strong determination on the part of the prosecution to pursue this case.</p>
<p>It is in all our interest that a strong defense is mounted and that we show solidarity at this moment. So I appeal to you to think of this as your Christmas contribution. I’m hoping we can each give at least $10.</p>
<p>Please make checks in any amount out to: CAE Defense Fund mail to:</p>
<p>CAE Defense Fund, c/o Hallwalls 341 Delaware Ave. Buffalo, NY, 14202.”</p>
<p>And please feel free to pass this appeal on to your friends and friendsters and your email lists.</p>
<p>In solidarity and hope of justice, faith wilding. <a href="http://www.caedefensefund.org/" type="external">www.caedefensefund.org</a></p>
<p>Toni Nelson Herrera works with Resistencia Books/Red Salmon Arts in Austin, Texas is a regular contributor on Radio Caracol on 91.7 kvrx also in Austin, and is looking at the history of Chicana feminism and activism in 1970’s, and working separately on the Death Penalty and mental illness in Texas in the 1920’s and 1970’s. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Meeting Kurtz | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/11/30/meeting-kurtz/ | 2004-11-30 | 4 |
<p>“Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy” A book by Emily Bazelon</p>
<p>In researching her book “Sticks and Stones,” Emily Bazelon was struck by how many of the adults she interviewed “could access, with riveting clarity, a memory of childhood bullying.” Whether they had been victims, bullies or bystanders didn’t seem to matter. “These early experiences of cruelty were transformative,” she writes, “no matter which role you played in the memory reel.”</p>
<p>Bullying isn’t new. But our attempts to respond to it are, as Bazelon explains in her richly detailed, thought-provoking book. Scholarship on bullying has its roots in the 1970s, when Swedish psychologist Dan Olweus developed what became the gold standard for prevention programs in schools. Yet it wasn’t until 1999, when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire on their Columbine classmates, that the United States began tackling the issue in a serious way.</p>
<p>Today, however, the challenge has been complicated by kids’ access to new technologies, which have given rise to virtual tormentors, cyberbullies and “Facebook thugs.” Whether or not the Internet has made bullying more frequent, it has made it more pernicious and pervasive. Malicious gossip that once was limited to the hallways or the bathroom walls now spreads like wildfire through “the constant connectivity of cellphones and laptops.” Harsh words hastily exchanged online can hit harder than when delivered face-to-face. Kids can’t get away from bullies who pop up on the screens in their bedrooms. Emotional violence in the virtual world can inflict real pain.</p>
<p />
<p>Young girls, who tend to be greater users of social media, are especially at risk. As Bazelon describes, when the Pew Research Center asked 12- and 13-year-old girls, “Have you had a bad experience online that made you nervous about going to school the next day?,” more than 25 percent said yes. The vicious online exchanges reprinted in “Sticks and Stones” could turn this 21st-century mom into a Luddite. Combine that with the headline-grabbing tragedies of young bullying victims who turn to suicide, and parents of adolescents can be forgiven for obsessing about the tech-toting teen barbarians at the gate.</p>
<p>Yet “Sticks and Stones” is not intended to fuel parental hysteria. Rather than bemoan the bullying epidemic, Bazelon reassures us that none exists — or at least that the statistics haven’t really changed since the 1970s. To deal effectively with bullying, she asserts, we should “choose the response that fits the facts, not our less rational fears.”</p>
<p>True bullying is characterized by repeated acts of physical or verbal aggression in which a physically stronger or more popular child wields that power over a weaker one. Conflict among equals and random acts of meanness don’t qualify. This doesn’t mean that what kids call “drama” is pleasant to live through. But the vast majority of young people never get involved in the oppressive brutality of bullying, and broadcasting that fact could in fact be helpful in combating the problem. As Bazelon points out, “When kids understand that concerted cruelty is the exception and not the rule, they respond: bullying drops, and students become more active about reporting it.”</p>
<p>A law school graduate and journalist, Bazelon makes her case through the lens of three teenagers’ experiences: A 13-year-old girl whose persecution began over a hairdo and escalated to the point that she changed schools; an eighth-grade boy who sued his school for failing to protect him against anti-gay harassment; and a female high school student who faced criminal charges in connection with the suicide of another teen who had been bullied before her death. Comprehensive in her reporting and balanced in her conclusions, Bazelon extracts from these stories useful lessons for young people, parents and principals alike.</p>
<p>To see long excerpts from “Sticks and Stones” at Google Books, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=5Z9QxYZ4J1kC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=STICKS+AND+STONES:+Defeating+the+Culture+of+Bullying+and+Rediscovering+the+Power+of+Character+and+Empathy&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=7eNIUdyXD-rWiwLTxIDADQ&amp;ved=0CDMQuwUwAA" type="external">click here</a>.</p>
<p>Most enlightening and disturbing, however, is her discussion of social networking sites like Formspring and Facebook. These platforms can be potent conduits for cruelty; a 2011 survey by the Pew Center found that 15 percent of teens “said they’d been harassed on a social networking site in the last twelve months.” Twenty million kids are Facebook users; and as Bazelon persuasively describes, Facebook could easily devote more resources to tackling online bullying, helping schools to do the same, and enforcing its own policies.</p>
<p>I was impressed, for example, by the influence Facebook holds over young users; 94 percent of objectionable Facebook users under 18 never caused a problem again after receiving just one official warning that “content they posted prompted an abuse report the site had investigated and confirmed.” Yet Bazelon reports that the Facebook employees who review harassment complaints spend only a few seconds per case, and with 2 million abuse reports of all kinds pouring in every week, many seem to slip through the cracks. There’s no hotline to get immediate relief from anti-social networking.</p>
<p>Bazelon concludes by urging parents to rethink the balance between how we let our kids spend their time and the way we supervise them: “If you wouldn’t let your kids out at night alone, why would you give them unfettered access to every corner of the Internet?” In-person contact and communication are the cornerstones of healthy relationships. In an age where our kids can have 5,000 “friends,” they need to learn what it really means to be one.</p>
<p>Vinca LaFleur is a partner at West Wing Writers.</p>
<p>©2013, Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group</p>
<p /> | Sticks and Stones | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sticks-and-stones/ | 2013-03-20 | 4 |
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - The outlook for overseas expansion by Chinese solar companies is not optimistic due to frequent trade disputes, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) warned in a statement on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“China’s solar industry has been growing at a fast pace in recent years, making itself a target of protectionism in some countries,” the MIIT said, adding the disputes have hindered Chinese solar companies from expanding overseas and would add to the costs in the global solar market.</p>
<p>The MIIT comment followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on Monday to slap 30 percent tariffs on solar cell and module imports to try to protect domestic manufacturers.</p>
<p>India this month said it would consider imposing 7.5 percent import tariffs on foreign solar panels as some Indian companies complained of cheap Chinese products flowing into the country.</p>
<p>Despite the disputes, the MIIT said it will continue to encourage Chinese solar companies to moderately expand businesses overseas.</p>
<p>China, the world’s biggest solar panel maker, produced a total of 68 gigawatts(GW) of solar photo-voltaic cells and 76 GW of solar modules in 2017, up 33.3 percent and 31.7 percent respectively compared to a year ago, data from the MIIT showed.</p>
<p>Expansion of production capacity helps Chinese solar enterprises to reduce production cost and to boost exports.</p>
<p>Over the first 11 month in 2017, the export value of Chinese solar products rose by 1.4 percent to $13.11 billion, driven by growing renewable market in emerging countries such as India, Brazil and Mexico.</p>
<p>China’s domestic solar market has been struggling with delayed subsidies and high curtailment rates as power generated from solar plants cannot be absorbed by the grids due to insufficient transmission capacity.</p>
<p>Reporting by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Keith Weir</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s Space Communications said on Monday it signed a $112 million deal with Space Systems/Loral (SSL) to build its Amos-8 advanced communications satellite.</p>
<p>The satellite, which is designed to provide service for at least 15 years, is slated to be launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the second half of 2020, Spacecom said.</p>
<p>Spacecom chose SSL, a unit of Maxar Technologies, over state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, the maker of previous Amos satellites.</p>
<p>A year ago, Spacecom began operating Amos-7 — obtained in a deal with Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings — after losing two satellites in the prior two years.</p>
<p>In September 2016, Amos-6 was destroyed days before its scheduled launch when a SpaceX launcher exploded. Spacecom also lost contact with another satellite in 2015.</p>
<p>Amos-8 will replace Amos-3, which was launched in 2008.</p>
<p>Spacecom is 64 percent owned by Eurocom Holdings.</p>
<p>Reporting by Steven Scheer; By Tova Cohen</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>March 26 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.</p>
<p>Headlines</p>
<p>Corbyn apologises in attempt to defuse Labour anti-Semitism row <a href="https://on.ft.com/2G8HwHt" type="external">on.ft.com/2G8HwHt</a></p>
<p>May scrambles to avoid UK being frozen out of EU satellite project <a href="https://on.ft.com/2pEi2uA" type="external">on.ft.com/2pEi2uA</a></p>
<p>UK National Railway Museum embarks on 50 mln stg redevelopment <a href="https://on.ft.com/2GaQGTS" type="external">on.ft.com/2GaQGTS</a></p>
<p>Shell faces shareholder push on climate change goals <a href="https://on.ft.com/2pFMvbD" type="external">on.ft.com/2pFMvbD</a></p>
<p>Overview</p>
<p>Labour leady Jeremy Corbyn moved to calm a growing row within the party over anti-Semitism on Sunday night by apologising to the Jewish community for any hurt caused by certain members of his party and vowed to stamp them out.</p>
<p>British PM Theresa May is leading efforts to stop an “outrageous” EU move to freeze Britain out of Europe’s 10 billion euro ($12.36 billion) Galileo satellite project, as space becomes a new issue in foregoing Brexit negotiations.</p>
<p>The National Railway Museum is about to embark on a 50 million pounds ($70.76 million) redevelopment in a move to highlight the country’s rich heritage and encourage upcoming engineers.</p>
<p>Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s activist shareholders are planning to push for more ambitious goals at its annual meeting in May to pursue a radical shift away from fossil fuels and tackling climate change.</p>
<p>$1 = 0.8089 euros $1 = 0.7066 pounds Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing and 33 other northern Chinese cities have issued smog alerts for the next few days as industrial output ramps up again after the end of winter restrictions, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Sunday.</p> FILE PHOTO: The City skyline is seen amid smog in Beijing, China February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee
<p>The Chinese capital late on Saturday declared its third orange pollution alert of 2018 and the second this month. An orange alert is the second-highest warning behind red in China’s four-tier system.</p>
<p>The alert, which requires industrial factories to limit output by 30 percent to 50 percent, will be in operation for March 26-28.</p>
<p>Other cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding region, including Zhengzhou and Shijiazhuang, have also put orange alerts in place until March 28 and will take prompt measures to reduce emissions, the ministry said on its official WeChat account.</p>
<p>The Chinese government ordered 28 northern cities to impose special restrictions on polluting industries, such as steel and aluminum, during the winter heating season that ran from mid-November to mid-March, but these have mostly been lifted.</p>
<p>Emissions from residential heating have dropped with the end of the heating season, but “industrial production and transportation of goods have increased significantly”, the ministry said.</p>
<p>Beijing achieved the biggest reduction in average pollution among the 28 cities from October to February, the ministry said last week.</p>
<p>The capital’s first orange alert this year ran from Jan. 13 to Jan. 15. The second was for March 12-14. It has issued no red alerts so far this year.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Daly and Lusha Zhang; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and David Goodman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LEIRIA, Portugal (Reuters) - Volunteers in central Portugal planted 67,500 trees on Sunday in the Leiria pine forest as the country recovers from the most devastating forest fires in its history.</p>
<p>More than 80 percent of the forest burnt in October. Leiria’s trees were used to build ships that sailed in the 15th and 16th century discoveries when Portugal was a leading maritime nation.</p>
<p>Fires struck Portugal in June and October last year and killed 114 people.</p>
<p>“We come from this region, we all used this forest, we had picnics here, this is a place where our families met,” said Alexandra Serodio, one of the organizers of the reforestation effort that attracted more than 3,000 volunteers.</p>
<p>“The fire changed things for us,” Serodio said, adding that Sunday was only a first step as 30 million new trees are needed to fully recover the area destroyed in October.</p>
<p>“This is a good because it (the fire) destroyed our forest and we have to look after it so that it can be reborn,” said Alice Martins, a volunteer.</p>
<p>The volunteers, who were helped by the army and firefighters, planted tree saplings across miles and miles of earth scorched by the fires.</p>
<p>The government has stepped up efforts to prevent a repeat of the fires, especially in the interior where forest fires have become common as land is abandoned. Last year’s fires struck during an unusually dry and hot summer, which caused extreme winds that fanned the flames.</p>
<p>Efforts to fight fires are likely to increase as summer approaches. A key step has been to push landowners to clear their lands of undergrowth which can cause fires.</p>
<p>Last year’s fires destroyed 520,000 hectares of forest in Portugal, nearly 52 times the size of Lisbon, or 60 percent of the total area burnt in the European Union in 2017.</p>
<p>Reporting Reporting by Miguel Perreira; Writing by Axel Bugge; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Outlook for China solar industry darkens after U.S. tariff decision: govt Israel's Spacecom to buy new communications satellite from SSL PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - March 26 North China cities issue smog alerts as industry curbs end Portugal volunteers replant trees burnt in devastating wildfire | false | https://reuters.com/article/china-trade-solar-tariffs/update-1-outlook-for-china-solar-industry-darkens-after-us-tariff-decision-govt-idUSL4N1PI3Y0 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ These Illinois lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>09-18-24-29-30-41, Extra Shot: 5</p>
<p>(nine, eighteen, twenty-four, twenty-nine, thirty, forty-one; Extra Shot: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $2 million</p>
<p>LuckyDay Lotto Midday</p>
<p>03-04-08-14-20</p>
<p>(three, four, eight, fourteen, twenty)</p>
<p>Pick Three-Midday</p>
<p>1-5-5, Fireball: 4</p>
<p>(one, five, five; Fireball: four)</p>
<p>Pick Three-Evening</p>
<p>2-3-5, Fireball: 7</p>
<p>(two, three, five; Fireball: seven)</p>
<p>Pick Four-Midday</p>
<p>5-4-7-1, Fireball: 7</p>
<p>(five, four, seven, one; Fireball: seven)</p>
<p>Pick Four-Evening</p>
<p>0-0-2-1, Fireball: 9</p>
<p>(zero, zero, two, one; Fireball: nine)</p>
<p>Lucky Day Lotto</p>
<p>25-33-37-39-40</p>
<p>(twenty-five, thirty-three, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $100,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $76 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $112 million</p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ These Illinois lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>09-18-24-29-30-41, Extra Shot: 5</p>
<p>(nine, eighteen, twenty-four, twenty-nine, thirty, forty-one; Extra Shot: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $2 million</p>
<p>LuckyDay Lotto Midday</p>
<p>03-04-08-14-20</p>
<p>(three, four, eight, fourteen, twenty)</p>
<p>Pick Three-Midday</p>
<p>1-5-5, Fireball: 4</p>
<p>(one, five, five; Fireball: four)</p>
<p>Pick Three-Evening</p>
<p>2-3-5, Fireball: 7</p>
<p>(two, three, five; Fireball: seven)</p>
<p>Pick Four-Midday</p>
<p>5-4-7-1, Fireball: 7</p>
<p>(five, four, seven, one; Fireball: seven)</p>
<p>Pick Four-Evening</p>
<p>0-0-2-1, Fireball: 9</p>
<p>(zero, zero, two, one; Fireball: nine)</p>
<p>Lucky Day Lotto</p>
<p>25-33-37-39-40</p>
<p>(twenty-five, thirty-three, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $100,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $76 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $112 million</p> | IL Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/d0ca480ff0e74d14bc5153893188b274 | 2018-01-26 | 2 |
<p>If the cinema is an art, it is much more a business. Any major film festival, such as the one just concluded in Berlin, boasts a prestigious jury charged with rewarding the latest artistic achievement. This year the Golden Bear statuette for best film went to Caesar Must Die, an Italian movie about the staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in a maximum security Roman prison.&#160; Although held to be a startling upset by the German press, the decision seems in retrospect to be hardly surprising. In its blurring of the border between the real and the represented, this film by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, shares an aesthetic attitude towards the movie medium harbored by the chairman of the jury, British filmmaker Mike Leigh, whose intense and often unrelenting depictions of working class life are known for their gritty realism.</p>
<p>A film festival such as Berlin is not only concerned with the latest products, but also with cinema history. These retrospective impulses also beat the advertising drum. 2012 marks the centenary of the founding of Germany’s major film studio in the town of Babelsberg beyond what were then the outskirts of Berlin. In honor of the anniversary year the festival screened a series of films stretching across the history of the studio, which remains to do this day Europe’s biggest.&#160; Friedrich Murnau, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Fritz Lang among many other luminaries worked here before heading to Hollywood, either voluntarily in pursuit of greater fame and fortune, or chased there by the Nazis. Under the watchful eye of Joseph Goebbels the studio dedicated itself to sinister Nazi visions, most notoriously in the anti-semitic propaganda film Jud Süß of 1940, not shown in the Berlin festival. After World War II the studio became a state enterprise of the German Democratic Republic, churning out more than seven hundred films in some forty-five years.</p>
<p>After German Reunification in 1990 the studio was privatized, and one of the current principle investors and chairman, Christoph Fisser was on hand for a festival presentation of a beautifully restored print of one of the most famous of Babelsberg films, Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) of 1930 with Marlene Dietrich as the libertine revue singer, Lola Lola. Dietrich had been appearing in pictures in Babelsberg since the early 1920s, but Der blaue Engel proved to be her international screen breakthrough.</p>
<p>That Babelsberg retrospective was concerned not only with the past, but also with the present was clear from Fisser’s pre-screening interview. Under his leadership, the studio has been able to lure American productions to Berlin, and Fisser gushed about working with Tom Cruise on Valkyrie and Quentin Tarantino on Inglorious Basterds. Fisser recounted Tarantino’s arrival at the huge Babelsberg sound stage now Named Marlene Detrich Hall, where, among other films, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was shot. Tarantino fell to the floorboards and kissed them, exclaiming rapturously, “Marlene stood here! Marelene stood here!”&#160; Tossed one softball question after the another, Fisser then defended the large public subsidies the studio enjoys (though, as he was quick to complain, they’re not as large as those of other countries) with an ode to the publicity avalanche and tourism dollars generated by Tom Cruise’s stint in Berlin working on Valkyrie. In one of the many Nazi films made during Visser’s tenure, Cruise starred in that film as Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to blow up Hitler in the summer of 1944. The production was initially denied permission to film in the Defense Ministry buildings where the conspirators hoped to take over the government after Hitler’s assignation, because of Cruise’s Scientology. But money soon dispelled these ugly scruples, and the filming duly proceeded.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Fisser gushed that some two-thousand newspaper articles had been written about the Cruise family during their several-month stay and Berlin, and that this chatter had more than paid off the public investment in the Valkyrie production. Unclear was whether Fisser’s argument was sadder for what it said about the press or for its fawning attitude towards Hollywood royalty. It is perhaps fitting that Babelsberg now prides itself on the lurid Nazi porn of Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds in which a squad of American Jewish commandos scalps Nazi beasts. The film’s orgiastic finale, in which Hitler and his lieutenants including his film honcho Joseph Goebbels, are gunned down and burned up in a Paris cinema, is as disgusting and bizarre as many of the Nazi’s own films made in the very same Babelsberg studio. Where would Fisser’s studio now be without the Nazis as film fodder?</p>
<p>After the dark-suited executive had scuttled off stage, the memory of his embarrassing appearance soon wafted away amidst in the smoked filled cabarets and louche boudoirs of Der blaue Engel. In 1930 the biggest star on the screen was not Dietrich but Emil Jennings, who received ten times her salary for the movie. Two years before, Jannings had won the first best actor Academy Award for his work in a pair of films, one of which was The Last Command directed by Josef von Sternberg, who would go one to direct Jannings in Der blaue Engel. As Professor Unrath—also the title of the Heinrich Mann on which the film is based—Jannings descent from fanatically strict high school teacher to melancholic, insanely jealous husband and pathetic cabaret clown is memorable for the intensity of gesture and emotion. Whereas Janning’s wild hair, grasping sausage-like fingers, and eyes alternatively furious and forlorn, jump off the screen, Dietrich’s sultry glances, brazen disrobings, and coquettish singing lure the viewer into it. Her performance is less shocking (that it certainly was for its day) than downright seductive. She was destined for greatness on the newly sounding silver screen in a way Jannings was not.&#160; He returned to Germany after his sojourn in Hollywood, befriended Goebbels, flourished under the Nazis, and was banned from the movies by the Allies after the war.</p>
<p>The internationalism lauded by Fisser, indeed required for him to turn the profit his shareholders demand, was vital to Babelsberg even in Golden Age. Der blaue Engel was shot simultaneously in German and English, but Dietrich’s coy German singing is, ultimately, untranslatable. Friedrich Hollaender provided the music for the film, which exploits the new medium of sound in diverse and often striking ways. Like many early sound movies, Der blaue Engel has almost no underscoring; what there is of out comes only at the beginning and the end of the film, in the form of an orchestral overture and a tragic coda.&#160; Born in London, to Jewish German parents—his father was an operetta composer and his mother a circus singer—Hollaender’s family moved back to Berlin in 1899 when he was three years old. Hollaender would go on to thrive in Berlin’s cabaret scene of the 1920s, and had to flee quickly after the Nazis took power in 1933 since he was high on their musical hate list, not least for his parody song, “An allem sind die Juden schuld” (The Jews are to Blame for Everything). Along with his father, Hollaender made it to Hollywood where her remained until 1955, writing the scores for, among many other films, A Foreign Affair and&#160; Sabrina by Billy Wilder, another refugee who got his start at Babelsberg.</p>
<p>Hollaender’s score for Der blaue Engel is a&#160; masterpiece. The movie offers him a perfect vessel for his cabaret genius while also allowing him to demonstrate his fluent command of the style of high-culture along with with a knack for deflating its pretensions. Both the Overture and the final death march incorporate the melody of “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from Mozart’s Magic Flute. In that folksy little song the simple bird-catcher Papageno wishes himself a pretty little wife.&#160; Hollaneder’s use of the tune in Der blaue Engel beats and blackens this harmless sentiment: having given up his job and destroyed his own prestige to follow the lascivious Lola, the Professor is then unceremoniously dumped by her. When Mozart’s melody returns in minor mode in Hollaneder’s concluding dirge it both laughs at and cries with Janning’s character as he trudges in his clown’s outfit to his death at the teacher’s desk from which he had once rebuked his hormonal students, who’s obsession with Lola had brought Unrath to her revue in the first place. With economical genius, Hollaender shows us how the frock-coated Unrath, laden down by the apparatus of Bildung and the burden of respectability, is just as simple- and single-minded in the art of love as the naïve birdcatcher. By conjuring the glories of Mozart in a netherworld of disrepute, Hollaender’s music makes us hear just how far the professor has fallen, just how unlucky he was to get the girl.</p>
<p>The sound design of Der blaue Engel is also masterful, though by present-day standards it would be deemed primitive; the school clock bells that summon the Janning’s Professor to his job each morning and in the end sound his doom, also play Mozart’s melody.</p>
<p>Within the body of the film—and by body I mean Dietrich’s—Hollaender’s cabaret songs flow freely. Her marquee number “Ich bin vom Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe gestellt”&#160; (From Head to Toe I’m Made for Love) is oft-reprised in the film, and is the ultimate anthem to the liberties, lusts, and humor of the Weimar Republic and its short-lived emancipation from Bismarckian decorum.</p>
<p>After his years in Hollywood, Hollaender returned to Munich in 1955 and started up another cabaret. Just a few weeks ago the Berlin square once named after the German historian Leopold von Ranke was renamed after Hollaender, suggesting perhaps that there might just be more truth and cultural importance in Hollaender’s scurrilous songs and feisty refashionings of the classics than in the Prussian intellectual’s weighty tomes. Hollaender’s work is certainly more entertaining.</p>
<p>A few days before the screening of Der blaue Engel the Babelsberg series in the Berlin Film Festival had begun with another of Janning’s famous films—Der letzte Mann (The Last Man) of 1924, directed by Friedrich Murnau. Here Jannings plays a porter at an upscale Berlin hotel who loves his job and the brocaded uniform that goes with it.&#160; The uniform is his mark of standing back in his tenement; he strides into the warren of flats after a long day carrying bags with the posture of a conquering general.&#160; When the hotel manager demotes him to lavatory boy on account of his old age, Jannings’ tries to hide his humiliation from his family and friends but is ultimately destroyed. In a practice run for the equally unlikely happy end of his Hollywood masterpiece Sunrise of a few years later, Murnau swerves wildly into fantasy in the final ten minutes of Der letzte Mann. Murnau imagines what would happen if the devastated porter inherited millions from an unseen American industrialist guest of the hotel, farcically named Mr. Money. Jannings rockets from the toilets to a table sagging with caviar&#160; and champagne. From prideful porter to the lowest laborer broken in body and spirit, Jannings makes all the failings of age and reputation of his Last Man larger than life. Never has acting looked more strenuous. The young movie guy with his accreditation pass sitting next to me at the screening was wrong to laugh at Jannings’ exertions: on the silent movie screen, tragedy required real effort, and through them Jannings convinced as an old, defeated man. One is surprised to see him five years in Der blaue Engel playing a main twenty years younger than The Last Man.</p>
<p>Accompanying the film at the piano was Eunice Martins, whose improvised playing was particularly good in its evocation of the lively popular song culture of 1920s Berlin. The black upright brought in for her was about as out of place in the Potsdamer Platz high-tech Cinemaxx theater, with its mega Dolby surround sound system silenced for once, as a clavichord among a battery of howitzers. But her use of speeding oom-pah boulevard bass lines, quizzically augmented chords, and pointillistic clusters disappearing into ominous silence punctuated the gaping cruelities and crushed hopes of the film, and painted a tuneful smirk on Murnau’s ironic lieto fine.</p>
<p>Just like the Last Man, Mr. Fisser must work hard for the American millions. He’s free to do that, just as long as he doesn’t let Tarantino shoot the piano player.</p> | Return to Babelsberg | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/02/24/return-to-babelsberg/ | 2012-02-24 | 4 |
<p>This summer, when marathon runner <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/africa/feyisa-lelisa-transformative-courage/" type="external">Feyisa Lelisa</a> crossed the Rio finish line with his hands crossed above his head, he expressed his solidarity with a protest movement in Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state.</p>
<p>The marathoner’s gesture comes from a nonviolent resistance movement that has organized demonstrations across Oromia — which includes the capital city, Addis Ababa — for the eight months leading up to the <a href="" type="internal">Rio Olympics</a>. It also mourns the more than eight hundred Oromo citizens murdered by government security forces.</p>
<p>With a simple gesture, Lelisa highlighted the reality of life under a brutal dictatorship, where a few oligarchs have done well at the expense of the majority, who suffer from famine, rampant unemployment, land confiscation, personal insecurity, and the loss of basic human rights.</p> | Lelisa’s Message | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2016/10/ethiopia-feyisa-lelisa-marathon-oromia/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>ABQ Uptown will soon be home to Sahara Express. (Journal file)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There’s some falafel in store for ABQ Uptown.</p>
<p>The family behind Albuquerque’s <a href="http://www.saharamiddleeasterneatery.com/index.html" type="external">Sahara Middle Eastern Eatery</a> is expanding with a new location at the open-air shopping center. The 900-square-foot “Sahara Express” is expected to open later this spring.</p>
<p>Owners Tom and Areeg Khalil will serve most of the same dishes they have offered for more than nine years at their original site across from University of New Mexico, including customer favorites like the gyros and falafel. Areeg Khalil, who comes from Jordan by way of New York, says most of Sahara’s menu has “a Lebanese flair.” Other choices include sandwiches, salads and kabobs.</p>
<p>Sahara’s new spot, last used by Firma Energy Wear, is small; Khalil says it can seat about 10 but will also feature some outdoor dining space. She said she sees the new place appealing to those on the go.</p>
<p>“We could use a fast option but in the Uptown (area),” she said.</p>
<p>ABQ Uptown’s current dining lineup includes a mix of full-service establishments like Marcello’s Chophouse and Bravo as well as more casual concepts like Sushi Freak and McAlister’s Deli.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Sahara Middle Eastern expanding to Uptown | false | https://abqjournal.com/966506/sahara-middle-eastern-expanding-to-uptown.html | 2 |
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<p>Restaurant Brands International Inc , the owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as comparable sales at its burger chain topped estimates and costs fell.</p>
<p>U.S.-listed shares of Restaurant Brands rose as much as 2.5 percent to a record $52.73. The Toronto-listed shares also rose as much as 2.8 percent to $69.10 to hit a record high.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Total comparable sales at Burger King rose 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, helped by new menu items and the re-introduction of Cheesy Tots for a short period of time.</p>
<p>Analysts were expecting a 2.5 percent rise, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.</p>
<p>Burger King's performance was in contrast to U.S. restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp , Dunkin Brands Inc and Yum Brands Inc , which posted lower-than-expected comparable restaurant sales during the quarter.</p>
<p>However, during the quarter Tim Hortons' total comparable sales rose 0.2 percent, missing estimates of a 1.1 percent rise.</p>
<p>"The pace of menu innovation at Tim Hortons has fallen back since last year, when the company introduced new lunchtime options and Nutella pockets," Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData Retail said in a note, calling Burger King the "star of the show".</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Total costs at Restaurant Brands fell about 16 percent to $619.8 million.</p>
<p>The company's net profit attributable to shareholders more than doubled to $118.4 million, or 50 cents per share, from a year ago, when it took a $37 million charge for the merger of Burger King and Tim Hortons.</p>
<p>On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands earned 44 cents per share, beating the average analysts' estimate of 42 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>The Oakville, Ontario-based company's total revenue rose about 5 percent to $1.11 billion and was nearly in line with estimates.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Komal Khettry in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)</p> | Burger King, Tim Hortons owner's profit beats as costs fall | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/13/burger-king-tim-hortons-owner-profit-beats-as-costs-fall.html | 2017-02-13 | 0 |
<p>Mike Wallace and his producer did their best to ridicule and incite jealousy towards Ricky Williams on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, but could not bring him down. My comments in (parentheses).</p>
<p>MW: We’re about to tell you a very strange story about a football superstar name of Ricky Williams. He won the Heisman trophy in 1998 as the best football player in the country. (Cut to footage of Williams running for a touchdown -misleading in that his job mainly involved slamming straight into the line.) Then five years of glory in the NFL. He carried the ball more often over the last two seasons than any other player in the league! (Said as if it was some honor the ingrate didn’t appreciate instead of a speed-up that any self-respecting worker would have resisted.) And he made millions doing it for the Miami Dolphins as the team’s star player.</p>
<p>But then, just before Dolphins training camp this past July, he turned his back on all of it -the stardom, the fame, the salary of five million dollars a year. His sudden decision to quit stunned his teammates, infuriated fans, and ruined the Dolphins’ entire season. He never really explained why he quit (actually Williams did explain to Dave Le Batard of the Miami Herald, but why not claim the scoop for CBS?) and he has stayed out of public view for the past six months (except for the interview he gave Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle). But wait till you see what he’s doing now…</p>
<p>(An Om-like chant is heard. Wide shot of Ricky and fellow students seated on mats.) He’s studying holistic medicine in the California hills outside Sacramento where, surprisingly, he agreed to answer any questions we asked about how, at the peak of his earning power, he could just walk away.</p>
<p>Ricky Williams: My whole thing in life is I just want freedom. I thought that money would give me that freedom. I was wrong.</p>
<p>MW: Why were you wrong?</p>
<p>RW: Because especially when you’re 21 and you’re given as much money as I was given…</p>
<p>MW: How much were you given?</p>
<p>RW: At 21 I received my first check, it was 3.6.</p>
<p>MW: Million.</p>
<p>RW (nodding): before taxes. After taxes it was 2.4.</p>
<p>MW: Oh, poor fellow.</p>
<p>RW: It bound me more than it freed me, because now I had more things to worry about, more people asking for money, I thought I had to buy a house and nice cars and different things that people with money are supposed to do.</p>
<p>MW: And you did not find that satisfying?</p>
<p>RW: No, it just created more problems.</p>
<p>MW: You would have made five million bucks this year. You said, “It’s blood money as far as I’m concerned. The money is what made me miserable. I want to be free of that stress.” Forgive me, but that’s bulls—.</p>
<p>RW: It is bullshit. I agree. When hearing you say that, I agree, it is…</p>
<p>MW (as narrator): The real reason he left, he told us, was to avoid the public humiliation over news that he had just failed a drug test -his third failed drug test.</p>
<p>RW: All right, here’s what happened, okay? The thing I had the most trouble with was, after you fail your third test, it becomes public knowledge that you failed the test. And that’s one thing I couldn’t deal with at the time -people knowing that I smoked marijuana.</p>
<p>MW: So the problem with failing your third NFL drug test was that it would be made public?</p>
<p>RW: That was my biggest fear of my whole entire life. I was scared to death of that.</p>
<p>MW (narrating): So rather than face the music and the media about his failed drug test, he quit football and ran away, far far away, to Australia, where he lived in a tent community that cost him just seven dollars a day.</p>
<p>RW (over shot of a tent): In my tent I had about 30 books. Every morning I’d wake about five in the morning and I’d take my flashlight and I’d read for a couple of hours.</p>
<p>MW: Books about what?</p>
<p>RW: Everything from nutrition to Buddhism to Jesus. I was trying to figure out, “What am I? What am I?” I just kept reading and reading and couldn’t figure out what I was but I learned a lot.</p>
<p>MW: It was there he learned about an ancient healing science from India called Ajurveda.</p>
<p>RW: It’s using nature to heal yourself, to put yourself in balance.</p>
<p>MW: Are you in balance now?</p>
<p>RW: I’m more in balance now than I was a couple of months ago, but it’s a journey that people spend their whole lives on.</p>
<p>MW: What’s balance?</p>
<p>RW: It’s easier to talk about what’s out of balance. Anytime you have any disease -meaning lack of ease, lack of flow- you’re out of balance, whether it’s jealousy, anger, greed, anxiety, fear.</p>
<p>MW: And you’ve had experience in all of the above.</p>
<p>RW: I’ve had a little bit of all of it -most people have.</p>
<p>MW: This fall he enrolled in an 18-month course at the California College of Ayurveda. Free from the structured life of the NFL, he’s immersed now in (Shots of Ricky and other students on mats) The search for his soul.</p>
<p>RW: Playing in the National Football League you’re told where to be, when to be there, what to wear, how to be there. Being able to step away from that I have an opportunity to look, deeper into myself and look for what’s real.</p>
<p>(Cut to Dr. Mark Halpern, who runs the Institute, a sent-from-central-casting California guru with a trim beard and a soothing voice. Even in slacks and a jacket he appears to be wearing draw-string pants.)</p>
<p>Halpern: I see burn-out in probably 60 to 70 percent of society at any given time.</p>
<p>MW: Halpern says Ricky is studying to become an holistic healer.</p>
<p>Halpern: He will help individuals to live in greater harmony with their environment through all five of their senses. When we’re living in harmony with our environment, our bodies naturally express themselves in the form of health.</p>
<p>(Cut to a tight shot of Ricky’s back being lathered and stroked by two beautiful white women. Long, sensual strokes guaranteed to incite jealousy in some and a desire, in others, to enroll in the Ayurvedic Institute.)</p>
<p>MW (voice over): Receiving this massage is part of his training to become an Ayurvedic masseur.</p>
<p>Halpern: The specific hand strokes in order to balance the various energies of the body And it’s very calming and soothing and nourishing for the mind. And he’s following the whisperings of his soul as opposed to the shouting of his own ego. It’s our ego that desires the fame and the fortune. It’s the whisperings of the soul that lead us towards the pursuit of harmony, the pursuit of health and well being. Including sometime facing the consequences of letting go of the fame and fortune.</p>
<p>WW: Fact is, Williams has gone from fortune to deep debt. And from fame to infamy. The Dolphins claim he owes them more than 8 million dollars -much more money than he has- for leaving in the middle of his contract. His sudden departure just days before training camp doomed the Dolphins to their worst season in franchise history and infuriated his former fans and especially his teammates. (Undoubtedly some of Williams’s teammates and fans understood and respected his decision, but Wallace got away with the overstatement.)</p>
<p>Dolphins tackle Larry Chester says, “Ricky owes lots of people an apology. Not just the fans, but a lot of guys in the locker room.” Do you want to apologize to them right now?</p>
<p>RW: If I can find a reason to apologize then I’d love to apologize. And if they want me to apologize just to apologize, then I’ll apologize. But it doesn’t mean anything unless I understand what I’m apologizing for.</p>
<p>MW (as if it’s all real simple): You’re apologizing for letting them down. The Dolphins thought with you, and mainly with you, that they had a chance at the Super Bowl.</p>
<p>RW: What if I disagree, do I still have to apologize?</p>
<p>MW (momentarily confused; he is accustomed to asking the questions, not being asked): If you disagree with?</p>
<p>RW: That I cost them their season.</p>
<p>MW (displeased, almost sneering): Oh, come on, Ricky.</p>
<p>RW: I played my butt off. I played as hard as I could when I put that uniform on, but I’m not doing that anymore, you know, I’ve moved on. So when is it okay for me to stop playing foot- when would it have been okay for me to stop playing football? When my knees went out? When my shoulders went out? When I had two concussions? When would it have been okay? I’m just curious? When is it okay to not play football?</p>
<p>MW: Maybe if you’d given them a clue ahead of time.</p>
<p>RW: I didn’t know ahead of time or I would have given them a clue. It happened in the course of two days, boom boom boom boom.</p>
<p>MW: Since you quit…</p>
<p>RW: (correcting him) Retired -I’m only kidding, I’m only kidding.</p>
<p>MW: Well, have you retired or did you quit?</p>
<p>RW: I retired from that lifestyle.</p>
<p>(Exterior shot of a cute country cottage.)</p>
<p>MW: He’s renting a one-bedroom house in Grass Valley, California, with no TV, no long-distance phone and no regrets. Do you like yourself?</p>
<p>RW: I love myself.</p>
<p>MW: You do? Why?</p>
<p>RW: Because I’m all that I have and if I don’t love myself, no one else will.</p>
<p>MW: You don’t dislike anything in yourself?</p>
<p>RW: Whenever I feel myself starting to dislike something I tell myself, “This is who I am,” so what’s the point in disliking it?</p>
<p>MW: You can’t pay that 8 million dollars that you’re supposed to pay. (Mocking Williams’ high tenor) “Hey, I’m Ricky! I can just go through life the way I want to go.”</p>
<p>RW: Let’s look at the alternative, all right? If every day I woke up and I said, “God, I’ve got all this money to pay back, got all these problems,” I wouldn’t be sitting here with you with a smile on my face right now.</p>
<p>MW: Why are you smiling?</p>
<p>RW: Because I’m happy.</p>
<p>MW: And the people who are angry at you because you deserted them? Betrayed them. That doesn’t bother you?</p>
<p>RW: No, because I did.</p>
<p>MW: Deserted and betrayed?</p>
<p>RW: To them I did, yeah.</p>
<p>MW: Do you care about what people think who are looking in?</p>
<p>RW: No.</p>
<p>MW: Right now.</p>
<p>RW: No</p>
<p>MW: This is from a Sporting News columnist: “Ricky has always been one of the most selfish, unpredictable, purposely bizarre and more than slightly off kilter athletes. He doesn’t care how his behavior might affect anyone around him. It has always been about Ricky.” Reaction?</p>
<p>RW: Half of it’s accurate. But how can I expect him, if I don’t know anything about him, to really know anything about me.</p>
<p>MW: Want to hear it again?</p>
<p>RW: Can I see it in print?</p>
<p>Wallace (hands over the page he was reading from): Sure. Read it aloud.</p>
<p>RW (after reading it aloud). He got the name right. I mean I am unpredictable but who -what- is supposed to be predictable?</p>
<p>MW (reading again): This is more from him: “You know the type. They fancy themselves as shining knights in a dull world, they try to be unique. Instead of looking brave, they look foolish.”</p>
<p>(C-Notes thinks Williams looks like the prince in War and Peace.)</p>
<p>RW: I look very foolish, that’s accurate. To a lot of people I look foolish in what I’m doing and I understand that.</p>
<p>MW: And it doesn’t bother you at all?</p>
<p>RW: No, the only thing that matters is how I feel and if I let how they feel affect me it’ll change how I feel.</p>
<p>MW: Another columnist: “To some Williams is a selfish quitter. To others he’s a hero who took his job and shoved it, leaving a brutal game before it brutalized him. To close friends, Williams is a deep-thinking free spirit, who despised the stereotype that came with football, fame and fortune.”</p>
<p>RW (relieved): That’s a little more accurate.</p>
<p>MW: Got a girl?</p>
<p>RW: I have a daughter but I don’t have a girlfriend.</p>
<p>MW: How come?</p>
<p>RW: Just haven’t found anyone that fits the bill.</p>
<p>MW: And the bill is?</p>
<p>RW: I’ll know when they fit it.</p>
<p>MW: Never married?</p>
<p>RW: Never married. But I have three children.</p>
<p>MW: What about the mothers of those three. They’re all different.</p>
<p>RW: They’re all different. They’re all special.</p>
<p>MW: Do you support the mothers of these children?</p>
<p>RW: Financially. Yes. (still smiling but understanding Mike’s drift) Of course I do! I’m a very generous person. At least I try to be.</p>
<p>MW: Who’s your hero, if any?</p>
<p>RW: I would say Bob Marley, probably.</p>
<p>(Cut to footage of Marley in performance.)</p>
<p>MW: Bob Marley, the legendary reggae star from Jamaica inspired Ricky to wear dreadlocks for years. But in Australia, while he was off taking pictures, Ricky cut them off.</p>
<p>RW: So I set up my tripod and started taking some self-portraits.</p>
<p>MW: And the dreadlocks got in the way.</p>
<p>RW: And the dreadlocks got in the way so I ran up to the top of the hill, I had scissors in my van, I cut my hair then and there.</p>
<p>MW: Beyond the dreadlocks, Williams named one of his daughters “Marley,” and he and his hero have something else in common… (to Ricky) He used hash.</p>
<p>RW: He smoked a lot of marijuana, yeah.</p>
<p>MW: And you’ve done the same.</p>
<p>RW: I have done the same.</p>
<p>MW: Could you pass an NFL drug test today?</p>
<p>RW: No.</p>
<p>MW: So you still smoke marijuana.</p>
<p>RW: Mmm-hmm.</p>
<p>MW: Anything worse than marijuana?</p>
<p>RW: Worse? What do you mean by worse?</p>
<p>MW: (annoyed by the question): More addictive. More dangerous, conceivably.</p>
<p>RW: Sometimes I have sweets. (Wallace doesn’t react) Sugar.</p>
<p>MW: (sarcastic) Oh, I see, yeah.</p>
<p>RW: Sometimes I’ll have a glass of wine, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>MW: Steroids?</p>
<p>RW: No. Thank God I never needed that.</p>
<p>MW: Why?</p>
<p>RW: I was gifted. I’m very blessed. I never needed anything to help me play football.</p>
<p>MW (slightly hushed tone, as if discussing the sacred) Do you think you’ll ever play football again?</p>
<p>RW: I have no idea.</p>
<p>MW: Oh, come on.</p>
<p>RW: I really have no idea. I can’t even tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow.</p>
<p>MW: I’ll make you a bet. You’ll play football again.</p>
<p>RW: Okay. What are we going to put -what’s the wager?</p>
<p>MW: (Surprised that Williams took him literally) You don’t care about money.</p>
<p>RW: We could bet dinner, lunch. Why do you think I’ll play football again?</p>
<p>MW: Because I think that you will want to have the freedom that you have now but you’re going to need more money to have the freedom that you now have. You’ve said that you might like to play for the Oakland Raiders.</p>
<p>RW I did say that.</p>
<p>MW: And Raider fans like weirdos like you.</p>
<p>RW: I have a much easier time fitting in in Oakland.</p>
<p>MW (narrating) He did admit that from time to time he still misses the game. (Cut back to the interview) You’re 27. When you’re 50, what do you want to be?</p>
<p>RW: Alive.</p>
<p>MW: You like what you’re doing here.</p>
<p>RW: I love what I’m doing here.</p>
<p>MW: Why do you love it?</p>
<p>RW: Just because I’m doing whatever I want to do. Like I said, I’ve followed freedom for a long time and I finally feel I’ve got more of it.</p>
<p>MW (wrapping it up) So for Ricky Williams, money couldn’t buy happiness. But he says that now he’s never been happier.</p>
<p>RW: People talk about the money that I’ve given up and the money that I’ve lost. But the knowledge and the wisdom that I’ve gotten from this experience is priceless. So, the way I look at it I’m still way, way, way up. Way, way up.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Although Williams was once a spokesman for Paxil, Wallace – an unabashed shill for pharmaceutical antidepressants- didn’t ask RW whether he still uses it and, if not, when and why he quit? How Paxil compares with marijuana? How much Pfizer paid him? When and why he severed his relationship? And other questions that would have been meaningful to millions of viewers and distasteful to CBS’s major sponsors.</p>
<p>Health Canada Okays Sativex</p>
<p>GW Pharmaceuticals, the British firm seeking to market a cannabis-plant extract called Sativex, has gotten a “qualifying notice” for approval from Health Canada. GW scientists are confident that the additional data they now must provide the regulatory authorities will be satisfactory. Sativex could be approved as a treatment for neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis (and other conditions, as doctors see fit) as early as May 2005.</p>
<p>GW grows plants in large glass houses under rigidly controlled conditions, then blends the buds and flowers into extracts with uniform contents formulated for spraying in the mouth. Bottles contain approximately 55 doses. For most conditions for which Sativex has been tested in clinical trials, patients used 8 to 10 doses a day to achieve beneficial effect.</p>
<p>Sativex contains almost equal amounts of THC and cannabidiol (CBD, a component almost entirely lacking in cannabis plants bred for psychoactive effect). A standard dose (one spray) contains 2.7 milligrams THC and 2.5 mg CBD.</p>
<p>GW also makes an extract in which CBD is predominant (“Nabidolex”) and a high-THC extract (“Tetranabinex”). All contain a full range of terpenoids and some flavonoids that may modulate the effects of the cannabinoids within the body.</p>
<p>Final approval will make Sativex the first cannabis-based medicine available by prescription in North America since Prohibition was imposed in 1937.</p>
<p>FRED GARDNER can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Ricky Does 60 Minutes | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/12/29/ricky-does-60-minutes/ | 2004-12-29 | 4 |
<p>Photo: AP/Wide World Photos</p>
<p />
<p>From the outside, the Pink Lady in Chiang Mai, Thailand, had all the markings of a brothel: the bodyguard stationed at the front door, the blackened windows, the motorcycles parked out front late at night. Inside, it looked like a cheap diner, with frayed vinyl booths and tables. Flashing Christmas lights hung from the bar. The stereo played Thai pop music.</p>
<p>Several times in 2001, investigators with an American organization called International Justice Mission (IJM) — a religious group staffed by Christian lawyers — paid undercover visits to the Pink Lady. The group — usually two to three men — would order rounds of Heinekens and talk with as many girls as possible, recording the conversations with a hidden camera. Eventually they compiled a 25-page report that included photographs, addresses, and excerpts from Thailand’s penal code — which outlaws brothels — and presented it to the country’s Department of Public Welfare. A week later, police descended on two brothels and two nearby houses and rounded up 43 women and girls.</p>
<p>To IJM, it was a successful “rescue” mission, one of dozens that it and other organizations have undertaken in Thailand, India, Cambodia, and other countries. On IJM’s website and in its fundraising brochures, these rescues are advertised as effective ways to help girls and women who have been trafficked across borders and forced into prostitution. But despite IJM’s lofty goal — to gather evidence that will lead to prosecutions of brothel owners and free their victims — the raids don’t often net the big players or lead to significant jail time for traffickers.</p>
<p>And then there’s the sticky problem of whether some of the women even want to be rescued at all. One organization in India, known as STOP (Stop Trafficking, Oppression, and Prostitution), has been criticized for “saving” women against their will. And an NGO worker complained last year in the Kathmandu Post that a group of Nepalese women had to bribe rescuers to let them stay in their brothels. “I’ve never seen an issue where there is less interest in hearing from those who are most affected by it,” notes Phil Marshall, manager of the United Nations’ Project on Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region.</p>
<p>In the days following the Pink Lady raid, the rescued women and girls were locked into two rooms of an orphanage by Public Welfare authorities, and many of them hardly seemed relieved. While some told of having been promised waitressing jobs and then being forced into the brothel, others had chosen to work there, and several complained that they had not yet been ready to leave. “We need to make money for our families,” one woman cried. “How can you do this to us?”</p>
<p>During the one hour each day when they were allowed outside the building, four girls soon slipped out the front gate and disappeared. A few nights later, 11 of them strung together sheets, shimmied down the second-floor window of the orphanage, and climbed over a concrete and wire fence. Nine more ran away weeks later. During one of the escape attempts, a woman fell from a second-story window and was hospitalized with back injuries.</p>
<p>Some of the women felt there was no longer a life for them outside prostitution — that brothel life had ruined them. Others saw the brothel as their only hope to earn money. Some of the escapees were clearly trying to return to Burma, a daunting and dangerous journey, and more than a few, social workers believe, were heading back to the brothels. Within one month following the raid, a total of 24 girls and women had run away from being saved.</p>
<p>You won’t find these complications featured in IJM’s literature, or in the group’s media appearances. Nor were they discussed in congressional testimony during debates over the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, passed in 2000 and widely considered the key element in the U.S. government’s new war on global sex trafficking. In addition to providing funding for anti-trafficking initiatives, the legislation gives Congress power to impose sanctions on countries that don’t aggressively tackle the problem. According to human-rights groups, as many as 250,000 women and children are caught up in Southeast Asian sex traffic every year. As countries such as Thailand, India, and Nepal try to convince the United States that they are addressing trafficking, brothel raids are likely to increase.</p>
<p>IJM won’t say how many women they’ve helped rescue or what happened to them afterward. Sharon Cohn, IJM’s director of anti-trafficking operations, says her organization targets only women who are smuggled across borders or coerced. IJM director Gary Haugen says he’s never met a prostitute who’s been upset about being rescued. “All the conversations I’ve had have been with victims who expressed how grateful they were to be released from a place of horrific abuse.”</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean others aren’t caught in the raids — or that all trafficked women necessarily want to be rescued. Burmese migrants, for example, rely on traffickers to flee to Thailand, and into the sex trade, because they have few opportunities to support their families at home, where they’d live in fear of gang rape and forced labor. One 19-year-old Burmese sex worker told me she could have found work in Thailand as a domestic, but she’d heard stories of girls who weren’t paid or were beaten by their employers. (In one recent case, a Burmese domestic worker in Thailand died after her employer set her on fire and left her without food, water, or medical care for three days.) “Some women, particularly those with families to support, see brothels as their best option,” says Marshall. “And given their other choices, I think this is understandable.”</p>
<p>During a recent anti-trafficking conference in Hawaii, experts and human-rights advocates called for a list of “best practices” for raids and rescues — including more attention to who does and doesn’t want to be taken from brothels. IJM officials say they have been working to coordinate their investigative work with other organizations and the Thai government, to make sure women receive “aftercare” following the raids. But clearly, the spectacular busts won’t stop anytime soon — and neither will the flow of women and girls into brothels. “If it were your 12-year-old daughter in the brothel, you’d want the raid,” says Marshall. “But you also have to acknowledge that it’s someone else’s daughter that might end up in the brothel because your daughter got out. Raids don’t necessarily address the roots of the problem and can actually make things worse if they are not done right.”</p>
<p>Several months ago, Cambodian officials working with IJM — and with Dateline NBC cameras rolling — raided a brothel in Svay Pak, a notorious shantytown outside Phnom Penh. Thirty-seven girls and young women were taken from the brothel and placed in a shelter. One was only five years old; several girls were under 10. But after the TV cameras were turned off and IJM had left the country, six women, thought to be about 18 or 19 years old, climbed over the fence at the shelter and ran away. Local aid workers believe that the girls, who were illegal migrants with few places to go, returned to a brothel. And a new group of children is expected to arrive in Svay Pak’s brothels before long.</p>
<p /> | Thailand’s Brothel Busters | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/11/thailands-brothel-busters/ | 2018-11-01 | 4 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wricontest/"&gt;WRI Staff&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons)</p>
<p />
<p>About a week before President Obama is scheduled to attend the climate conference in <a href="/blue-marble" type="external">Copenhagen</a>, he’s already making some discouraging statements about <a href="/environment/2009/11/copenhagen-too-hot-handle" type="external">climate change mitigation</a> strategies. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/10/obama-backs-norway-brazil-forest-plan" type="external">The Guardian reports</a> that after receiving his Nobel Peace Price this morning, Obama said that <a href="/environment/2009/11/gms-money-trees" type="external">avoided deforestation</a> projects, like the ones proposed in Brazil and Norway, are “probably the most cost-effective way for us to address the issue of climate change—having an effective set of mechanisms in place to avoid further deforestation and hopefully to plant new trees.”</p>
<p>He’s right that avoided deforestation is cost-effective. It allows developed countries to opt out of emissions restrictions and developing nations to collect subsidies while protecting their abundant natural resources. But Obama needs to read more <a href="/special-reports/2009/11/climate-countdown" type="external">Mother Jones</a>. In our current issue, Mark Schapiro reports from a 50,000-acre reserve in <a href="/environment/2009/11/gms-money-trees" type="external">Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest</a> that has been protected on behalf of three of America’s largest carbon emitters: General Motors, Chevron and American Electric Power. This preservation project comes with an unintended cost, displacing the indigenous population that has lived off the land for generations. In many cases, small farmers are being arrested for cutting down a tree for construction or firewood so that American companies can dodge emissions restrictions.&#160;</p>
<p>The Guardian says that the carbon sink plan, dubbed <a href="/environment/2009/11/better-redd-dead" type="external">Reduced Deforestation and Degradation</a> (REDD), is critical for Brazil because its deforestation is responsible for a large portion of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/10/obama-backs-norway-brazil-forest-plan" type="external">world’s forest emissions</a> and “it has the largest swath of trees in the world and therefore stands to make more money than anyone else by protecting them.” That’s true, Brazil and American corporations have a lot to gain from avoided deforestation; they can essentially say they will cut down the rainforests unless they’re paid not to. So let’s hope they don’t take the world hostage just to make a buck.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Obama Endorses Problematic Avoided Deforestation | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/obama-endorses-problematic-avoided-deforestation/ | 2009-12-10 | 4 |
<p>The White House is pushing back against travel restrictions included in Congress’ free-for-all omnibus budget deal. “U.S. officials confirmed over the weekend that Secretary of State John Kerry sent his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, <a href="http://www.niacouncil.org/text-sec-kerry-letter-to-zarif-regarding-visa-waiver-reform/" type="external">a letter</a> promising to use executive powers to waive the new restrictions on those who have visited Iran but are citizens of countries in the <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/visit/visa-waiver-program.html" type="external">Visa Waiver Program</a>,” <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-21/iran-nuclear-deal-restricts-u-s-more-than-congress-knew" type="external">reports</a> Bloomberg. “These officials also told us that they have told Iranian diplomats that, because they are not specific to Iran, the new visa waiver provisions do not violate the detailed sequence of steps Iran and other countries committed to taking as part of the agreement. Even so, the State Department is promising to sidestep the new rule.”</p>
<p>This is the opposite of what Jimmy Carter did after the Shah of Iran fell. As The Daily Wire’s Michael Qazvini reported, “Carter selectively targeted a specific ethnic group, Iranians, as a means of ‘protecting the country.’” In fact, “During the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter issued a number of orders to put pressure on Iran,” <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/261062/carter-banned-iranians-coming-us-during-hostage-daniel-greenfield" type="external">explains</a> Frontpage Mag. “Among these, Iranians <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1980/4/8/carter-cuts-ties-with-iran-ppresident/" type="external">were banned from entering</a> the United States unless they opposed the Shiite Islamist regime or had a medical emergency.”</p>
<p>Carter’s uncompromising position on Iranian travel restrictions dramatically diverges from anything Congress has even considered. Here was <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/261062/carter-banned-iranians-coming-us-during-hostage-daniel-greenfield" type="external">Carter in his own words</a>:</p>
<p>Fourth, the Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly.</p>
<p>Congress’ omnibus budget deal, passed haphazardly last week, is nothing like Carter’s full-blown anti-Iranian posturing. In fact, the deal attempted to offer concessions to a menagerie of special interests, including anti-Iran deal lobbyists. While travel restrictions on Sudan, Syria and Iraq are incidentally in the package, the Iran caveat appeared to generate the most controversy.</p>
<p>The travel restriction “sends a very bad signal to the Iranians that the U.S. is bent on hostile policy toward Iran, no matter what,” <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-21/iran-nuclear-deal-restricts-u-s-more-than-congress-knew" type="external">said</a> Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.</p>
<p>Congress’ insistence on restricting the ebb and flow of travel to and from Iran may impact the prospect of foreign investment in a post-sanctions Iranian economy. “There is concern the new visa waiver provisions...would hinder business people seeking to open up new ventures in Iran once sanctions are lifted,” <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-21/iran-nuclear-deal-restricts-u-s-more-than-congress-knew" type="external">notes</a> Bloomberg.</p>
<p>A U.S.-Iranian economic relationship is perhaps the least-talked about aspect of the deal. In spite of the security concerns, American investors may be keen on taking advantage of Iran’s untapped domestic capital. “The retail and consumer service sectors [in Iran] are expected to turn over $150bn in this fiscal year, and that figure will expand greatly in the post-sanctions economy,” <a href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2015/11/05/investing-in-iran-an-enticing-minefield/" type="external">cites</a> Financial Times.</p>
<p>"The travel restriction 'sends a very bad signal to the Iranians that the U.S. is bent on hostile policy toward Iran, no matter what.'"</p>
<p>Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.</p>
<p>However, the transition from a heavily-sanctioned, corrupt state to a globalized marketplace will be far from simple. “For foreign investors Iran also has the usual list of problems associated with developing, or frontier, economies. Corruption is widespread and the country’s low ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Survey, at 118th, illustrates the difficult administrative and legal backdrop. The country is hydrocarbon dependent and this, plus the accumulation of sanctions, has led to a loss of two thirds in the exchange rate of the rial against the US dollar since early 2012,” <a href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2015/11/05/investing-in-iran-an-enticing-minefield/" type="external">adds</a> Financial Times.</p> | White House To Grant Visa Waivers To Iranians | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2103/white-house-grant-visa-waivers-iranians-joshua-yasmeh | 2015-12-23 | 0 |
<p>As a leftist, I’m getting just a bit weary of hearing how much I “hate America.” Ever since the big you-know what in late 2001, that little zinger has been the comeback of choice for any objections to US foreign policy. Don’t like our new wars? Gee, you must really hate this country.</p>
<p>Friends on the right, you wound us. If we didn’t love America, why would we spend so much time and energy on bake sales and discussion groups and lecture series and petition drives and demonstrations to make it a better place? I mean, there may be some parts of Dallas we’re not too keen on, and personally, you couldn’t pay me enough to live in Phoenix, but on the whole, sure, love that America. Friendly people, nice beaches, great forests, er, what’s left of them.</p>
<p>Of course, the relationship is just a bit more complicated than that. We love America kind of like we might love a dear friend or relative who’s drinking too much and putting his health in danger, or messing up his home life. We’re kind of embarrassed and more than a little bit worried for good old America. But that doesn’t mean we don’t love her. Hey, we’re family!</p>
<p>You know, it occurs to me that when rightwingers can’t come up with a better argument than “you hate America,” they might actually be projecting. After all, who was it that said that the 9/11 attacks allowed, quote, “the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve”? It wasn’t any leftist, that’s for sure. It was that jolly old moral majoritarian, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.</p>
<p>The more you think about it, the more it makes sense. The right can’t stand American culture. Rock &amp; roll swept the planet, helped bring down the Berlin wall, inspired everyone with its free-spirited, rebellious American energy. Who fought it every step of the way? The right, that’s who. Same goes for hip-hop, another great American export, subject of Congressional inquisitions. And don’t even get me started on Hollywood. Billions of people love our movies, but the right acts like the whole movie industry is the last refuge of Stalinism.</p>
<p>The right hates our heroes, too. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making a holiday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King, who helped us try to fulfill the promises of Reconstruction. And some of them still grumble, as Ronald Reagan did, that he was some kind of “communist.” Still others, like John Ashcroft, express nostalgia for the Confederacy’s fight to maintain slavery as a noble cause.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, the right hates our constitution, too, except for the Second Amendment, and maybe the Eleventh, now that the Rehnquist Court has rewritten it to mean “Congress shall pass no law that we don’t like.” But the First, the Fourth, the Fifth, and um, the Sixth, and the Eighth, and pretty much the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are right out the window these days. Damn shame, too, if you ask me. Plus the right is still itching to overturn old decisions like Miranda and Bakke and Roe, if not Griswald. Some of them aren’t too crazy about Brown v. Board, either, if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>And it’s obvious by now that the right wing really, really hates democracy. If you even bring up the word, they go on about how the Founding Fathers made a republic, not a democracy. Well, sure, but they also wrote in the parts about blacks being three-fifths of a person, and only land-owning males being able to vote. Some of those cool old amendments moved us closer to actual democracy, at least for a while there. Now the rightwingers on the Supreme Court have made it clear that we have no actual right to vote, let alone have the votes counted if it’s inconvenient for their candidate.</p>
<p>And the election of 2000 isn’t the only one stolen by the right. In 1968, and again in 1980, the right-wing candidates, as private citizens, interfered with foreign-policy negotiations of the US government in order to (successfully) gain electoral advantage. Come to think of it, they did that again in 2000, advising the Israelis to drag their feet in the Camp David talks. But I guess they can get away with that, since they love America more than us pesky leftists.</p>
<p>But if the right loves America so much, why do they keep subsidizing the corporations that foul our air, despoil our coasts, and clear-cut our forests? Just how patriotic is the Bush administration’s new rule that allows mining companies to shear off the tops of our purple-mountain’d majesty and dump them into our streams? Don’t you think we could express our love of country a little better by tightening up those fuel economy standards, instead of squeezing the Middle East for more fuel for our Hummers?</p>
<p>Now that reminds me. Why does the right keep making so many enemies for our country? You know, like overthrowing elected governments in Iran and Chile and so on, or backing torture-happy juntas in Turkey and Pakistan, or paying for proxy terrorists in Nicaragua and Angola, or subsidizing the occupation of East Timor and the West Bank. Didn’t the left keep saying, “Um, excuse us, if we keep supporting violence and terrorism abroad, it might come back to haunt us”? And we’re the unpatriotic ones?</p>
<p>Oh, but that’s where we got started here. Any time we criticize US foreign policy, we’re making excuses for the terrorists. I guess it’s inconceivable that the left could love America enough to want us to stop making new enemies. Well, okay, America. If invading Iraq doesn’t work out as nicely as planned, you might give us a call. We still have a few ideas, and, gosh, we just love ya to pieces. Write sometime! After all, who gave you votes for women and blacks, and the weekend, and overtime, and retirement pay, and family leave? Your old pals on the left. God love ya.</p>
<p>MARK ZEPEZAUER is an author and cartoonist based in Tucson, Arizona. His most recent book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512224/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Boomerang! How Our Covert Wars Have Created Enemies Across The Middle East And Brought Terror To America</a>, from Common Courage Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Why the Right Hates America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/02/28/why-the-right-hates-america/ | 2003-02-28 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Dear To Her Credit,</p>
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<p>I am five months behind on a credit card. Would it be better to settle for a specified amount or try to pay monthly to pay off the $4,000 I owe? I am trying to determine which would be better for my credit score.&#160;</p>
<p>- Esther</p>
<p>Dear Esther,</p>
<p>If you're trying to decide whether to pay off a debt or settle, paying off the debt is apparently an option. In that case, pay the debt.</p>
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<p>There's no contest on which will be better for your credit score. A paid-off account, even if it shows some late payments along the way, reassures future potential lenders that you pay your bills.</p>
<p>A settled account, however, is a giant red flag. If you purchased goods and services using your credit card and then didn't pay for them in full, what assurance does the next potential lender have that you will pay them?</p>
<p>Another reason I recommend that you just pay the $4,000 if you can is that settling with the bank isn't nearly as easy as many people think. Contrary to radio and Facebook ads, you can't just tell your bank you're ready to pay pennies on the dollar on your bill and expect them to jump for it.</p>
<p>It's true that banks have <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-hardship-program-debt-problems-1273.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">hardship programs</a> for people who are unemployed or who temporarily cannot pay their bills for other reasons. In addition, banks often settle for less than the full balance when they believe that's the best they can do. But they are not in business so they can pay merchants for goods and services on behalf of cardholders and then not get paid in return.</p>
<p>A $4,000 balance is not insurmountable for most people who have a steady income or skills they could use to make money. Can you take a second job? Do you have a skill, such as landscaping or housecleaning, that you could do in your spare time? Some people make extra cash by having a garage sale or by buying and selling things on eBay or Craigslist.</p>
<p>There are times, however, when you should not pay off debts. Don't part with your money too quickly if any of the following are true:</p>
<p>Don't give up! Paying your credit card balance off is not only the best thing for your credit score, but it puts you back in control. You always have options -- look at them carefully, and take care of your credit!</p>
<p>See related: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/debt-settlement-choose-credit-score-1265.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">How debt settlement works, how it affects credit scores</a></p> | Pay off Debt vs. Settle it: Which is Better for Your Credit Score? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/05/10/pay-off-debt-vs-settle-it-which-is-better-for-your-credit-score.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>iBook charts for week ending March 18, 2018: (Rank, Book Title by Author Name, ISBN, Publisher :</p>
<p>iBooks US Bestseller List - Paid Books</p>
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<p>1. Russian Roulette by David Corn &amp; Michael Isikoff - 9781538728741 - (Grand Central Publishing)</p>
<p>2. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - 9781250165619 - (St. Martin's Press)</p>
<p>3. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks &amp; Sarah Pekkanen - 9781250130938 - (St. Martin's Press)</p>
<p>4, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - 9780735224308 - (Penguin Publishing Group)</p>
<p>5. The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer - 9781455559510 - (Grand Central Publishing)</p>
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<p>6. The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn - 9780062678447 - (William Morrow)</p>
<p>7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - 9781429915649 - (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR))</p>
<p>8. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews - 9781476706146 - (Scribner)</p>
<p>9. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - 9780553896923 - (Random House Publishing Group)</p>
<p>10.The Man from St. Petersburg by Ken Follett - 9781101043882 - (Penguin Publishing Group)</p>
<p>(copyright) 2018 Apple Inc.</p>
<p>(copyright) 2018 Apple Inc.</p>
<p>____</p> | The top 10 books on Apple's iBooks-US | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/17/top-10-books-on-apple-ibooks-us.html | 2018-03-21 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK — After two NYPD were assassinated on Saturday, a startling internal memo was widely distributed to police in New York from the Police Benevolent Association.</p>
<p>At first, the internal memo seems like instructions for basic safety.</p>
<p>First, it requires that officers begin traveling in packs of two:</p>
<p>“At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity…”</p>
<p>It then requires that officers hereafter refrain from arresting any Americans unless it is absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>This second step might be taken for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>One reason might be because citizens are able to make fake 911 calls in order to get the police to show up at a designated location, only to ambush the police once they arrive.</p>
<p>By restricting arrests only to those that are absolutely necessary, police might avoid such traps.</p>
<p>At the same time, it could mean that fewer Americans will be harassed, extorted, coerced, or thrown in a cage for victimless “crimes” (for example, for carrying marijuana). It could also mean that fewer Americans will be “stopped and frisked” and racially profiled.</p>
<p>This part of the memo — calling for no more unnecessary enforcement — is sure to be cheerfully welcomed by Americans. After all, it was Eric Garner who said: “Please, just leave me alone.”</p>
<p>That’s all most Americans are asking for: to live in peace without government employees initiating violence upon them.</p>
<p>But it’s the last portion of the memo that has people concerned.</p>
<p>The reason is that it declares that the NYPD is now a “Wartime” department, and that “we will act accordingly.”</p>
<p>The memo does not elaborate on exactly what actions the NYPD intends to perform in order to be a “Wartime” department on the streets of America.</p>
<p>During the Egyptian revolution a couple of years ago, Egyptian protesters burned down police stations after police killed an innocent street vendor for selling things without paying taxes.</p>
<p>In response, the police began going out secretly, in plainclothes, and staging fake terror attacks and random murders throughout the cities.</p>
<p>They did this partly as retaliation against the Egyptian citizens, but it was mainly a ploy, as if to say “See? What would you do without us? You need us!”</p>
<p>Some suspect that a false flag terror attack might be staged by the NYPD to stoke fear, maintain power, and to get naive citizens begging for their help. Rumors have also circulated that portions of the story about the two officers who were killed were made up or staged.</p>
<p>But we aren’t in a position to speculate on such matters.</p>
<p>The fact is, the memo never specifies which actions will be taken.</p>
<p>The memo was released after&#160;Ismaaiyl&#160;Brinsley shot two NYPD officers in a planned assassination. He did it, he said, to avenge the police slayings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.</p>
<p>Ismaaiyl reportedly ran into a subway and shot himself to death after killing the officers, according to reports.</p>
<p>The two officers who were killed have been identified as&#160;Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.</p>
<p>It is believed that they never even saw Ismaaiyl coming before he shot them while they were sitting in their patrol car.</p>
<p>Police have reacted by saying that the Mayor of New York “has blood on his hands” and that Americans are using peaceful protests as a cover for insurrection.</p>
<p>How the NYPD plans to “act accordingly” having now declared itself a “Wartime” department remains a mystery, which is why citizens will be aware of their surroundings and prepared for anything in the weeks ahead.</p>
<p>The internal memo is reproduced in its entirety below:</p>
<p>“FROM NYC PBA: Starting IMMEDIATELY- At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity, no matter what type of job is pending, or what the opinion of the patrol supervisor happens to be. IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest. These are precautions that were taken in the 1970’s when Police Officers were ambushed and executed on a regular basis. The mayor’s hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a “wartime” police department. We will act accordingly.”</p>
<p>Watch the raw footage taken moments after two officers were shot:</p> | Police Declare “Wartime” in Internal Memo — “We Will Act Accordingly” After Two Officers Are Shot | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/police-videos/police-declare-wartime-internal-memo-will-act-accordingly-two-officers-shot/ | 2017-12-04 | 3 |
<p>Technology now in limited use removes about 90 percent of carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants, but energy experts say cost remains the chief obstacle to bringing the "clean coal" touted by President Donald Trump into the mainstream.</p>
<p>They cite recent advances in applying the longstanding technology, despite some earlier setbacks, but say the U.S. power sector needs bigger tax credits or other incentives to close the cost gap for using them.</p>
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<p>"What we have now is a public policy challenge, or call it a political challenge if you will, in that next phase which is to deploy this technology more widely and bring the cost down, (which) requires a whole new set of policies that go beyond R&amp;D to actual deployment incentives," said Brad Crabtree, vice president for fossil fuels at the Great Plains Institute.</p>
<p>The U.S. has successfully cut other smokestack pollutants, including sulfur, nitrogen and mercury. But carbon dioxide is a bigger challenge because there is so much of it. Coal- and gas-fired electrical generators produce about 30 percent of CO2 from human activity. Other industries like cement, steel and fertilizer manufacturing add another 20 to 25 percent. Farming and vehicles are also major contributors.</p>
<p>John Thompson of the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force said there would be no way to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels without taming carbon emissions. The world has already warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the Industrial Revolution. Scientists say every fraction of a degree change in average temperatures can lead to noticeable swings in local weather patterns.</p>
<p>"If you don't tackle that you really can't constrain warming on the planet to one-and-a-half to two degrees on anybody's likely scenarios," he said.</p>
<p>In Congress, bills that now have 64 bipartisan sponsors would raise carbon-capture tax credits from $10 or $20 per metric ton depending on use to $35 or $50. Advocates want it added to the current tax overhaul proposal.</p>
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<p>Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican and co-sponsor, said carbon capture would help protect the coal industry and expand oil production as well as reduce emissions. As for chances of passage, she said Thursday that it's "too early in the process to know whether those priorities can advance together or separately."</p>
<p>The Natural Resources Defense Council, like other environmental groups, first advocates efficient energy use and switching to renewable sources, but regards carbon capture as "a potentially useful tool in the climate protection toolbox," said David Hawkins, director of climate programs.</p>
<p>At federal labs in Morgantown and Pittsburgh, researchers cite one recently successful 13-megawatt pilot project in Colorado and say they are on target for a handful of others by 2020 while reducing the cost of carbon capture from $100 per metric ton to $40. "We're definitely close," said Lynn Brickett, the labs' carbon capture technology manager.</p>
<p>The labs are also identifying methods to inject more liquefied carbon dioxide back into the Earth. That's where the carbon-based coal, oil and natural gas originally came from before they were burned and produced the CO2 in the atmosphere blamed for global warming.</p>
<p>New energy technologies normally take 15 years to move from the laboratory to the outside world, according to the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Its researchers are developing computer models to accelerate that timeline for carbon, engineer David Miller said.</p>
<p>The lab, a division of the U.S. Energy Department, acknowledges routine use would be at least another decade away and historically such advances have taken 20 to 30 years. Meanwhile, more U.S. coal-fired power plants are scheduled to close.</p>
<p>In June, Mississippi Power Co. suspended special carbon-capture efforts at its 582-megawatt Mississippi power plant that first turned coal into gas, which cost more than $7 billion to build, more than double the planned cost. Once regarded as a possible model for "clean coal," it now burns natural gas.</p>
<p>The Petra Nova project outside Houston used a $190 million federal grant toward installing a $1 billion system to capture CO2 from an existing 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant, piping it to a Texas oil field and pumping it underground to boost oil production. Operating since late December, the system is currently "breaking even," NRG Energy spokesman David Knox said.</p>
<p>"We're very interested in the technology, but until the economics work, we're not committed to a second one," Knox said.</p>
<p>With underground carbon storage, research began 20 years ago and builds on the practices of the petroleum industry, which uses carbon dioxide to drive more oil from the ground, said Traci Rodosta, the lab's carbon storage technology manager. NETL has regional partnerships across 43 states, small-scale projects that began in 2005 and larger-scale field projects in 2008.</p>
<p>There are ongoing efforts in 30 countries. A Norwegian reservoir under the North Sea has injected more than 16 million metric tons of CO2, Rodosta said. Lab scientists say there have been no major incidents with leaking or seismic activity.</p> | Scientists say cost of capturing CO2 declining | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/09/scientists-say-cost-capturing-co2-declining.html | 2017-10-09 | 0 |
<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. (ABP) — The head of the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board welcomed a recent progress report by a Great Commission Task Force as a "token" step toward redistributing more resources to the denomination's primary task of reaching the lost in a report to IMB trustees March 2.</p>
<p>Jerry Rankin, who retires in July after 17 years as president of the SBC entity devoted to appointing and supporting international missionaries, said that in his consultation with the task force he emphasized the need to invest more money into reaching an estimated 6 billion unreached people in thousands of ethnic groups around the world.</p>
<p>Rankin called one recommendation of the group appointed last summer to study effectiveness of the nation's second-largest faith group — increasing the International Mission Board's allocation of the Cooperative Program unified budget from 50 percent to 51 percent while reducing the SBC Executive Committee allocation by 1 percent — "a token commitment in that direction."</p>
<p>While the shift would add about $2 million a year at current funding levels to IMB coffers, Rankin said it is more significant that for the first time, the "50 percent barrier has been broken" in the proportion of total funds allocated to international missions.</p>
<p />
<p>"Whenever relative needs of state conventions or various SBC entities are discussed in budget forums or other contexts, IMB is dismissed from the discussion with the comment, 'They already get half of the CP funds, plus all those Lottie Moon Christmas Offering funds,'" Rankin told IMB trustees meeting in Memphis, Tenn.</p>
<p>The implication, Rankin said, is "that no more consideration needs to be given to the needs of international missions." While he said he recognizes a prevailing concern in Southern Baptist life for reaching America, evangelizing under-churched cities and reversing a decline in baptisms, the mission chief said such thinking ignores "the relative size of the assigned tasks" and the fact that 97 percent of dollars collected by the denomination's 45,000 churches remain in North America.</p>
<p>"It comes down to a decision of whether or not Southern Baptists want to settle for sending and supporting 5,000 missionaries or to provide the resources to do what it takes to be aligned with God's vision and mission in reaching the nations," Rankin said.</p>
<p>The last time the SBC restructured, in 1997, Rankin said, several entities were eliminated and their functions consolidated under the premise that a streamlined structure would result in more money for missions. What actually happened, he said, is that total allocations for missions were reduced, while budgets of the Ethics &amp; Religious Liberty Commission and Executive Committee grew.</p>
<p>Rankin said reducing the Executive Committee allocation by 1 percent would represent "a sizeable portion" of its budget, but he pointed out that in recent years the convention has allowed the committee's role to expand beyond providing administration and facilitating services.</p>
<p>The Executive Committee currently oversees self-adopted ministry assignments like <a href="http://www.empoweringkingdomgrowth.com/ekgcat.asp?cat=about" type="external">Empowering Kingdom Growth</a>, a spiritual renewal program for individuals and churches led by Ken Hemphill, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Another is <a href="http://www.sbc.net/globalrelations/default.asp" type="external">Global Evangelical Relations</a>, an office led by former SBC president Bobby Welch formed to maintain relations with like-minded Baptists around the world after the SBC pulled out of the Baptist World Alliance in 2004.</p>
<p>Gordon Fort, the IMB's vice president for global strategy, described the SBC's reason and vision for churches cooperating together as "one sacred cause, to reach a lost world with the gospel."</p>
<p>Yet Fort questioned the sincerity of that commitment in a system where out of more than $12 billion collected last year in Southern Baptist churches, a little over 2 percent made its way to fund missions.</p>
<p>'If we as IMB promote the cause of global mission to the local church and we as IMB try to articulate the truth of what is happening with their Cooperative Program dollars, we are chastised if we encourage the local church to be involved in global mission with us," Fort said.</p>
<p>IMB Chairman Paul Chitwood, <a href="http://www.fbcmw.org/StaffDirectoryDetail.asp?id=1" type="external">pastor</a> of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington, Ky., told fellow trustees they "should be excited" about the Great Commission Task Force recommendation for increased funding of the IMB.</p>
<p>"But as the retiring president of the Executive Committee was quick to point out on two occasions, [neither] the GCR task force report nor the convention's vote on that task force report binds the Executive Committee to alter the CP budget they present to the convention," Chitwood said. "Yet the fact also remains and needs to be understood that the Executive Committee's budget proposals to the convention are not binding on the convention, either. Let us not forget the final say always falls to the messengers of the convention."</p>
<p>"I say all of that because I thought somebody needed to say it," Chitwood said.</p>
<p>Rankin said "one of the more surprising recommendations" of the task force was to reaffirm the Cooperative Program as the primary channel to support convention entities, while also establishing a new category of "Great Commission" giving to recognize churches that designate gifts to particular convention causes.</p>
<p>"Many strong, mission-minded churches are being alienated and treated with condescension because of their level of giving to the CP," Rankin said. "Some churches that are starting dozens and scores of new churches and pouring millions of dollars into international missions are not considered mission minded and worthy of leadership in our convention."</p>
<p>As the largest recipient of Cooperative Program funds, Rankin said, the IMB doesn't want to hurt or criticize the decades-old system that allows churches to fund all SBC causes at the state and national levels simultaneously.</p>
<p>"But it's been my contention that we need to recreate the Cooperative Program for the 21st century," Rankin said. "This is not 1925. We do not face the same challenges and context of 85 years ago."</p>
<p>Rankin said he would like to see the Cooperative Program redesigned "to give the churches an ownership and flexibility of supporting the convention."</p>
<p>"I believe we could actually see support for the convention through the Cooperative Program double by giving ownership to the churches, by removing the contradiction through denominational polity of connectionalism and</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bob Allen</a> is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.</p> | Rankin welcomes ‘token commitment’ to increased IMB funding by task force | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/rankinwelcomestokencommitmenttoincreasedimbfundingbytaskforce/ | 3 |
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<p>Senate Bill 240 will now go to the House for consideration.</p>
<p>“I would hope in the House that we would have the same cooperation, and that they would move as quickly as we have,” said Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, the bill’s sponsor and Senate president pro tem.</p>
<p>The bill is proposed as a tool to help recruit new commercial aerospace companies to relocate to New Mexico’s $209 million spaceport, where spaceflight operator Virgin Galactic is the primary tenant.</p>
<p>Spacecraft operators are already protected from some lawsuits filed by passengers who sign a liability waiver, but Virgin Galactic says that protection needs to be extended to manufacturers and suppliers before those companies will move to Spaceport America, southeast of Truth or Consequences.</p>
<p>The expanded spaceport liability waiver failed twice in past legislative sessions after the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association voiced concern that the legislation went too far in rolling back legal protections for passengers.</p>
<p>But the effort appears to have momentum this session after Virgin Galactic and the trial lawyers group announced last week that they had reached a compromise and SB 240 was introduced.</p>
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<p>“Virgin Galactic is thrilled with the fast track in the Senate and look forward to the bill being heard in the House,” company Vice President Bruce Jackson said in a statement.</p>
<p>The full Senate voted 34-0 Wednesday to approve the bill, with eight senators not voting. Earlier this week, the bill unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, a committee that killed the spaceport liability waiver bill in 2012.</p>
<p>“What it shows is once people start coming together and working out their differences, how supportive we can all be,” Papen said.</p>
<p>The compromise in the spaceport liability bill is centered on a requirement that all commercial aerospace companies carry a liability insurance policy of at least $1 million. The lawyers group has said the insurance policy will help ensure companies that qualify for legal protections are legitimate.</p>
<p>The liability waiver would prohibit spaceflight passengers from filing lawsuits against aerospace companies except in cases in which a company’s operations indicate “reckless disregard” for passenger safety. The legal protections would not affect the legal rights of residents on the ground affected by an accident. — This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Senate Passes Spaceport Waiver | false | https://abqjournal.com/164843/senate-passes-spaceport-waiver.html | 2013-01-31 | 2 |
<p />
<p>There's no two ways about it: As an investor, you'd struggle to find an industry with a more appetizing long-term growth rate than legal marijuana.</p>
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<p>According to cannabis research firm ArcView, North American legal sales increased by 34%, to $6.9 billion in 2016, albeit black-market sales still totaled $46.4 billion. As more U.S. states push to legalize, and with Canada potentially on the precipice of legalization by 2018, the expectation is more that this $46 billion-plus in illicit sales will shift to the legal and regulated markets in the years to come.</p>
<p>By 2026, investment firm Cowen &amp; Co. anticipates total legal sales could reach $50 billion. If that's the case, we're talking about more than 23% annual growth for a decade. It's these figures that are attracting businesses and investors to marijuana stocks in droves.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>However, marijuana stocks, by themselves, are more often than not dangerous investments. The vast majority of marijuana stocks are losing money and are burning through their cash on hand.</p>
<p>Also, most pot stocks are trading on the over-the-counter (OTC) exchanges as opposed to a more reputable and visible exchange, like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Even though the OTC exchanges have improved their reporting and listing standards in recent years, it can still be difficult to get accurate and up-to-date info on OTC-listed stocks.</p>
<p>Most marijuana stocks are penny stocks, too, which means they're highly volatile and usually avoidable.What's more, many are facing two key disadvantages.</p>
<p>For example, companies that sell federally illegal substances -- which includes cannabis, a schedule 1 drug at the federal level -- are disallowed from taking normal business deductions. This means that most weed companies are paying tax on their gross profits as opposed to net profits, leaving the few that are profitable with less capital left over to reinvest and hire more workers.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Cannabis businesses also get the short end of the stick when it comes to obtaining basic banking services. Financial institutions in the U.S. are often regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is a federal entity. If a bank supplies a line of credit, or even a checking account, to a marijuana company, it could be construed as money laundering, and set that financial institution up for fines and/or criminal charges.</p>
<p>Within the U.S., there's also the potential for a recreational marijuana crackdown, as signaled by White House press secretary Sean Spicer back in February. Though the Obama administration was relatively lax with regard to allowing states to regulate their medicinal and recreational laws, the Trump administration seems to have signaled that it'll be tougher on pot, albeit we're not certain to what extent. However, with ardent marijuana opponent Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, we can only assume that federal enforcement will be stepped up.</p>
<p>In short, buying individual marijuana stocks has appeared like a far-too-risky strategy.</p>
<p>However, this past week brought a first for the investment world -- a medical marijuana electronic-traded fund (ETF) made its debut. An ETF is a security that buys a basket of assets and gives investors the opportunity to effectively diversify their holdings without buying each and every stock, bond, or asset represented in a fund.</p>
<p>The ETF, the Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (TSE: HMMJ), <a href="http://www.horizonsetfs.com/etf/HMMJ" type="external">debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange Opens a New Window.</a> this past Wednesday. Its objective is to mirror the return of the North American Medical Marijuana Index, net of expenses, and it's currently doing this with 14 marijuana stocks in its basket.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Here are its current holdings, along with respective weighting:</p>
<p>There are quite a few interesting aspects worth noting about this ETF. For starters, despite being a North American marijuana stock ETF, it actually has 11 Canadian-based companies and just three U.S.-based pot stocks. That's not necessarily a bad thing, with Canada possibly on the verge of legalizing recreational cannabis, but the recreational and medical market potential in the U.S. is considered to be much larger -- so the weighting is a bit odd.</p>
<p>The ETF also isn't strictly comprised of medical marijuana stocks. Though there's clear cannabis product and oils representation with the likes of Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis, and Aphria, there are also biotechnology stocks in the mix, such as INSYS, Zynerba, and GW Pharmaceuticals, which focus on developing therapies based on cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant.</p>
<p>Along those same lines, some of the companies that comprise this ETF have little to do with medical marijuana. Scotts Miracle-Gro, for example, primarily earns its keep from professional lawn care, and is only in this ETF for its recent push into hydroponics. INSYS Therapeutics had the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve its oral cannabinoid-based chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting medicine Syndros in July, but it generates practically every cent in sales right now from Subsys, a sublingual pain med that has nothing to do with cannabinoids or cannabis.</p>
<p>In effect, it's a bit of an imperfect marijuana stock ETF.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Of course, the big question is whether or not you should be a buyer. From a practical standpoint, the threshold question is whether you can buy the ETF. Because the shares trade only on the Toronto Stock Exchange, you'd have to have a brokerage account that lets you trade Canadian-listed securities in order to buy.</p>
<p>If you can buy, the next question is whether it's a good decision. On one hand, Horizons has done a good job of adding the few marijuana stocks that are generating positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) -- Canopy Growth and Aphria -- and the one that has the best chance of earning significant profits -- GW Pharmaceuticals -- into the mix.</p>
<p>Canopy Growth and Aphria have both been working to expand their production capacity, with Canopy Growth doing so by acquisition and Aphria doing so organically. Canopy Growth recently completed its acquisition of Mettrum Health, which boosted its growing capacity, while Aphria began phase 3 of its expansion that's designed to add 200,000 square feet of space. These two positive EBITDA marijuana stocks could see even more benefits if Canada chooses to legalize recreational weed.</p>
<p>GW Pharmaceuticals, which is arguably the premier cannabinoid drug researcher in the world, is relying on experimental cannabidiol-based drug Epidiolex to deliver significant profits. Epidiolex met its primary endpoint in two separate phase 3 trials, each for patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, two rare childhood-onset forms of epilepsy). If approved by the FDA, Epidiolex has a shot, along with label expansion, at hitting $1 billion or more in annual peak sales, and pushing GW Pharmaceuticals safely into recurring profitability by the year 2020.</p>
<p>Additionally, non-traditional cannabis stocks INSYS and Scotts Miracle-Gro are healthfully profitable.</p>
<p>But the aforementioned tax, banking, and political disadvantages still remain, making an investment in a medical marijuana ETF pretty risky -- albeit seemingly less risky than buying any individual marijuana stock. If we were to see more of these companies turning healthy profits, or at least generating positive cash flow, there might be a case for consideration.</p>
<p>However, with both the U.S. and Canada still viewing pot as illegal, your best bet as an investor is to remain safely on the sidelines until one or both of these countries definitively changes its stance on weed.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than GW PharmaceuticalsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=3e045789-8ebc-4a45-be41-509bf9d8a588&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and GW Pharmaceuticals wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Very First Marijuana Stock ETF Just Debuted -- Should You Be Buying? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/07/very-first-marijuana-stock-etf-just-debuted-should-be-buying.html | 2017-04-07 | 0 |
<p>Editor's update: <a href="http://wikileaks.org/WikiLeaks-Statement-On-Edward,253.html?updated" type="external">WikiLeaks said</a> June 23 it's been helping US national security leaker Edward Snowden request asylum in Ecuador.</p>
<p>LIMA, Peru — Julian Assange has some advice for NSA über-leaker Edward Snowden: Go to Latin America.</p>
<p>The fugitive WikiLeaks founder, holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for almost a year, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/10/us/julian-assange-interview" type="external">told CNN’s Anderson Cooper:</a> "I would strongly advise him to go to Latin America.”&#160;</p>
<p>“Latin America has shown in the past 10 years that it is really pushing forward in human rights. There's a long tradition of asylum."</p>
<p>Assange ought to know. Wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in Sweden but fearful of heftier accusations in the United States, he won an asylum bid from Ecuador last June.</p>
<p>Snowden, on the lam presumably in Hong Kong, also faces a lengthy jail sentence after admitting to leaking sensational details of the extent of US government eavesdropping on citizens. The man surely could use all the help he can get.</p>
<p>But just how seriously should Snowden take Assange’s advice?</p>
<p>The first thing to note is that virtually every country in Latin America has an extradition treaty with the United States. As you can see from the map in <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130611/extradition-process-us" type="external">this GlobalPost story,</a> that is in stark contrast to Africa and Asia.</p>
<p>On that rather elementary basis at least, Assange appears to have flunked Life as an International Fugitive 101 — and Snowden needs to ignore his advice.&#160;</p>
<p>Now let’s take a closer look at Assange’s claim that Latin America is “pushing forward in human rights,” in particular freedom of expression — and therefore might be expected to offer Snowden asylum.</p>
<p>Although the governments of many nations in the region have excellent recent records on allowing the media to report whatever stories they wish, such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia or Brazil, they could each be expected to cooperate with Washington should Snowden show up in their jurisdictions.</p>
<p>However, there are other countries in the region with antagonistic relations with the United States — and which presumably were the ones Assange had in mind when offering the benefits of his experience of life on the run to Snowden.</p>
<p>But, to various degrees, the governments in these countries repress independent media. To be precise, these are the countries governed by populist left-wing administrations, most notably Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador.</p>
<p>Cuba, of course, has not had anything resembling a free or fair election in half a century and only allows state media, such as the newspaper Granma, which provide sycophantic coverage of the regime.</p>
<p>In Argentina, the elected government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has launched what critics describe as an <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/argentina/130521/argentine-president-judicial-reform-courts-south-america-politics" type="external">assault on the judiciary and media</a> in an attempt to squash dissenting voices critical of alleged corruption in her inner circle and the country’s increasing economic woes.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, democracy in Venezuela now appears even more in crisis under President Nicolas Maduro than it did under his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.</p>
<p>Maduro’s constant threatening tone toward the opposition may be the least of it. After years of Chavez closing down independent TV and radio stations, his political heir has now overseen <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130607/media-buyouts-point-new-tactics-venezuela" type="external">the co-opting of Globovision,</a> the last TV channel in Venezuela to provide news coverage that is critical of the government.</p>
<p>That’s right: If you want to see independent, objective TV reporting on the Venezuelan government’s alleged corruption, authoritarian abuses and economic mismanagement, you will have to switch to an international news channel, such as CNN en Español, to do so.</p>
<p>Yet the most egregious current assault on freedom of expression in the Western Hemisphere is widely viewed to be that carried out by Assange’s kind host, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.</p>
<p>More GlobalPost analysis: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/120820/ecuador-quiet-war-whistleblowers" type="external">In Ecuador, a quiet war on whistleblowers&#160;</a></p>
<p>Correa’s bullying of his country’s independent media has included everything from lawsuits resulting in jail terms and multimillion-dollar fines to televised tirades against named journalists, whom he routinely refers to with a string of insults including “ink murderers.”</p>
<p>Tax officials and other authorities in Ecuador are also in the habit of raiding the offices of independent media there in a way that the US Internal Revenue Service, even in its darkest hour, would never dream of.</p>
<p>As a result, Correa has earned withering criticism from everyone from Human Rights Watch to Reporters Without Borders and the <a href="http://cpj.org/blog/2013/01/repression-deepens-in-ecuador-as-correa-heads-to-n.php" type="external">Committee to Protect Journalists.</a></p>
<p>Separately, the president has also made a major effort to undermine the Inter-American Human Rights system, although, interestingly, he appears to have <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/08/3439479/andres-oppenheimer-us-wins-rare.html" type="external">overreached</a> recently.&#160;</p>
<p>Given Quito’s support for Assange, a similar granting of asylum for Snowden could be in the works were the latter able to navigate a way from Hong Kong to Ecuador — or at least to the South American country’s closest diplomatic compound.</p>
<p>Yet such a scenario appears highly unlikely.</p>
<p>Whether you agree with Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s PRISM surveillance program or not, the 29-year-old IT expert has come across in his TV interviews as thoughtful, earnest and highly idealistic in his decision to break the law and release some of the government’s most sensitive secrets.</p>
<p>One might therefore draw the conclusion that the last thing Snowden would do now would be to tarnish his legacy by seeking refuge from a government accused of routinely assaulting precisely the kind of freedoms that he claims to defend.&#160;</p> | Should Snowden take Assange’s advice to head for Latin America? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-06-24/should-snowden-take-assange-s-advice-head-latin-america | 2013-06-24 | 3 |
<p>More than 180 people have filed sexual assault lawsuits, police reports and state board complaints in relation to Massage Envy, according to <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/more-than-180-women-have-reported-sexual-assaults-at?utm_term=.pc7YOYY578#.pvxYKYYr5D" type="external">BuzzFeed</a>.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed on Sunday reported that the claims were against Massage Envy spas, their employees and the national company.</p>
<p>Many also said their allegations were ignored or mishandled by employees and owners of individual Massage Envy spas, and by the national company proper.</p>
<p>Over 100 woman reported that Massage Envy therapists groped their breasts or genitals or committed over explicit violations.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed reported that Massage Envy is America’s first and by far largest chain of massage franchises, boasting nearly 1,200 spas nationwide.</p>
<p>Massage Envy told BuzzFeed that it would not be “appropriate to respond point-by-point” to questions “because of pending litigation” and the confidential materials involved.</p>
<p>The general counsel of Massage Envy Franchising said that the company has tried creating the industry’s “most stringent, rigorous policies” for hiring, screening and training therapists.</p>
<p>“We hold franchise owners accountable to our policies and, when we say nothing is more important to us than treating clients with respect and giving them a safe, professional experience, we mean it,” Melanie Hansen said in an email.</p>
<p>Massage facilities have no legal obligation to report sexual assault accusations made on their premises in most states.</p>
<p>Massage Envy does not compel its franchisees to notify law enforcement or hire qualified investigators to help determine what happened save for where it is required by local law.</p>
<p>The company instead instructs franchisees to conduct their own “prompt, fair, and thorough investigation” of any such claims.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed reported that it provides little guidance on how to do so, however, regardless of the seriousness of the allegations, including rape.</p>
<p>Massage Envy corporate has said in court filings and public statements that it is not liable for sexual assaults that happen at its spas due to the nature of the franchise arrangement.</p>
<p>Attorneys for former Massage Envy clients have countered that though the spas are independently owned, the parent company trains their employees in its policies.</p>
<p>Such lawyers have also noted that Massage Envy sets operational standards like the need for internal probes and monitors the progress of those investigations.</p>
<p>Massage Envy corporate should subsequently be held responsible for the failures of those policies, according to the attorneys.</p> | More than 180 people have reported sexual assaults at Massage Envy | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/11/27/nation/massage-envy-more-than-180-people-have-report-sexual-assaults | 2017-11-27 | 1 |
<p>When weightlifter Amna Al Haddad, 27, first trained at the gym near her home in the United Arab Emirates, she says people stared at her. She was a wearing a hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf.</p>
<p>“Seeing a woman wearing a hijab was very unheard of when I first started sports,” she says. “It was very unusual, and I did get a lot of rejections at first, a lot of stares, a lot of naysayers. Personally, I did not care to hear their opinion, and I did what was right for me.”</p>
<p />
<p>Courtesy of Nike</p>
<p>That was in 2011. Since that time, Haddad says she found a piece of material that worked pretty well as a head cover while she trained and competed. Up until that point, she wore a traditional, longer hijab — and it got in her way.</p>
<p>“It used to fly over my face. It was dark, you know, I could not see anything.”</p>
<p>With Haddad’s help, Nike has become the first major global manufacturer to make a hijab for Muslim athletes. The debut line of the product will be available in 2018.</p>
<p>She says the Nike version is a lot more breathable than what she and other female athletes have used before.</p>
<p>“It basically feels like you’re not wearing anything, but at the same time, you’re actually still covered, and you’re able to respect your faith and still do sports the way you like,” she says.</p>
<p>But for Haddad, the fact that a global brand is making a sports hijab is about much more than just comfort while competing.</p>
<p>“It’s a game changer not just for the brand,” she says, “but it’s also for the people because it can spread awareness and more compassion and more understanding of what the Muslim community is all about.”</p>
<p>Haddad has recently retired from weightlifting and is pursuing ways to help more Muslim women and girls engage in sports.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot more work to be done to empower women in the Arab world,” she says.</p>
<p />
<p>Courtesy of Nike</p> | What the Nike Pro Hijab is really about | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-03-10/what-nike-pro-hijab-really-about | 2017-03-10 | 3 |
<p />
<p>The Nasdaq 100 Index posted a solid gain of about 6% in 2016, and even though that was less than what most other major market benchmarks returned last year, investors were still largely pleased. Moreover, many stocks posted truly outstanding returns, helping to pull the entire index higher. Below, we'll look at 2016's 10 top-performing stocks in the Nasdaq 100 Index to see what they say about the condition of the stock market right now.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Data source: <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>As you can see, the stocks above show how the Nasdaq 100 has a bias toward technology stocks. Indeed, the tech sector played an important role in the Nasdaq's gains during 2016, but other stocks also contributed to the index's growth.</p>
<p>Image source: Micron Technology.</p>
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<p>Half of the top performers in the Nasdaq 100 came from one particular subsector of the technology industry: semiconductors. In some cases, specific products that had particular promising applications provided the upward momentum for the stock price of the companies that made them. Yet more broadly, favorable industry conditions combined with natural rebounds from poorer performance in the past brought a large part of gains.</p>
<p>As an example, Micron Technology entered 2016 with a great deal of pessimism, as price wars on its key memory chip products had dragged down profits across the industry. Yet as the year progressed, pricing for its DRAM and NAND chips led to steady improvements in Micron's overall performance. By last month, Micron reported results that were much higher than investors had expected for its fiscal first quarter, and it projected that those favorable conditions would continue into 2017. Higher demand and limited supplies from competitors also played a role in Micron's resurgence, but even Micron itself understands that the chip business is cyclical and that it needs to make the most of favorable conditions as long as they last.</p>
<p>In addition to technology, other components of the Nasdaq 100 index contributed to its positive returns. Ulta Salon continued its impressive long-term run higher, as customers kept appreciating the value of its store concept. Ulta combines the cosmetics and beauty supplies that you can get at a number of retail outlets with the convenience of an in-store salon, giving customers the opportunity not just to buy products for in-home use but to get immediate feedback on what they look like when applied by professional experts. The company's success has spurred management to push up its plans to expand its store network, adding hundreds of additional stores across the nation to take full advantage of its market-beating performance. Despite the ever-present threat of online retail competition, Ulta sells the salon experience along with products, and that's something that e-commerce might never be able to match effectively.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, even industrial companies managed to add to the Nasdaq's gains last year. Railroad giant CSX had gone through hard times in past years, with its emphasis on coal shipments becoming less important over time because of the ongoing shift toward cheap natural gas for electricity generation. In response, the railroad has emphasized the important of efficiency. CSX has cut costs while seeking to improve on operational metrics like on-time originations and departures and train speeds. The rebound in the energy market has helped as well, and CSX believes that it should be able to adapt to changing market conditions while squeezing more profit from its business going forward.</p>
<p>Investors didn't get huge performance from the Nasdaq 100 in 2016, but these 10 stocks definitely pulled their weight in producing the index's gains. Looking forward, it's uncertain how much further the semiconductor cycle can carry chip stocks higher, but favorable business conditions for Ulta and CSX have the potential to last well into 2017 and beyond.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance 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>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia, Paccar, and Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance. The Motley Fool recommends CSX and T-Mobile US. 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> | 2016's 10 Best Nasdaq 100 Stocks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/11/2016-10-best-nasdaq-100-stocks.html | 2017-01-11 | 0 |
<p>BANGKOK, Thailand - In the Arab Spring's wake, pundits and politicians have toyed with predicting where a Tahrir Square-style street upheaval might catch on next. Candidates, however implausible, have included Russia, China, North Korea and, of course, Wall Street.</p>
<p>Malaysia, however, may prove more deserving of the comparison.</p>
<p>On April 28, droves of Malaysians agitating for reform will rally in Kuala Lumpur, the nation's skyscraper-studded capital.</p>
<p>Organizers of this "Bersih" movement (Malay for "clean") have predicted at least 50,000 demonstrators. They're crossing their fingers for 150,000 or more. Supporters clad in the movement's signature yellow shirts will kick off satellite rallies in cities across the Muslim-majority nation.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120302/china-new-auto-plant-bulgaria-great-wall-motors" type="external">Chinese cars, made in Bulgaria</a></p>
<p>As in pre-uprising Egypt, Malaysia has been dominated for decades by a party warning that pandemonium could erupt without authoritarian rule. As in Cairo, protesters have been ordered to stay out of a symbolic location - Dataran Merdeka or "Freedom Square" - where the British colonial flag was once lowered to make way for independence.</p>
<p>Bersih, now in its third incarnation called "Bersih 3.0," has become an escalating series of marches for political reform. All have been settled violently by police. The original rally, in 2007, brought out riot cops with water cannons. Last July, 20,000 protesters assembled for "Bersih 2.0" were scattered in a teargas-streaked crackdown.</p>
<p>"The reason [authorities] reacted that way is they're afraid of losing power and, in the back of their minds, they're aware of what's happened in the Middle East," said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert and associate professor at Singapore Management University.</p>
<p>"They also made it illegal to protest in Merdeka Square," Welsh said. "Why? Because it's just like Tahrir Square in Egypt."</p>
<p>Supporters of the ruling United Malays National Organization, headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, have even condemned Bersih for pushing the Arab Spring metaphor.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/series/tibetans-turmoil" type="external">Tibetans in turmoil</a></p>
<p>According to a speech by party youth wing leader Khairy Jamaluddin, reprinted by The Guardian, opposition groups quote "social movements in the Middle East to instigate people to take part in street revolutions and, in the process, manufacture a Malaysian version of the Arab Spring."</p>
<p>While Bersih doesn't explicitly endorse the comparison, Bersih leaders are prone to strong rhetoric. In a GlobalPost interview, prominent organizer Wong Chin-Huat accused Malaysia's ruling party of "internal colonization." Bersih, he said, is akin to an independence movement.</p>
<p>"To me, this is an extension of last year," said Chin Huat, a political scientist at the Kuala Lumpur campus of Australia's Monash University. "It's our second independence. The first was from the British."</p>
<p>"Come Saturday," he said, "you will see this culture based on a one-party state further disintegrating." The protests are timed to shape coming elections that, by law, must be called by 2013. Most expect voting to take place before June.</p>
<p>The movement's specific demands focus on voting irregularities that, in supporters' eyes, unfairly entrench one-party dominance. Bersih calls for the use of indelible ink on voters' fingers - a defense against double voting - as well as more freedom for poll monitors and more transparency in postal balloting, seen as rife with fraud. Scant access to the largely pro-government media is another recurring grievance.</p>
<p>But there are less definitive demands - "stop corruption" and "stop dirty politics" - aimed at redefining how power is achieved in Malaysia. The ultimate goal, Chin Huat, said is to give rise to a new nationalism that discards decades of race-based policies.</p>
<p>There is almost no way to address politics in Malaysia without addressing race. The former British colony's history has imbued the population with entrenched fears that racial discord will spiral into street violence.</p>
<p>One-fourth of Malaysia's population is ethnically Chinese. Many trace their roots to the colonial period when the English helped install a Chinese merchant class. The current ruling party's ascent can be traced back to 1969 riots that pit Malays against the comparatively wealthier Chinese, who lost thousands of shops and homes in an arson spree.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/series/next-kim" type="external">Kim Jong Un-certainty</a></p>
<p>Following the turmoil, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) won elections, in part, by vowing to tame seething class resentment with a "New Economic Policy" privileging ethnic Malays. Government job quotas, favored university placement and majority business ownership rights were promised to the Malay "bumiputera" or "sons of the soil."</p>
<p>Even today, Malaysia's politics and business remain enmeshed in race. Lesser parties under the UMNO coalition umbrella include factions drawn along ethnic lines: the "Malaysian Chinese Association" and the "Malaysian Indian Congress."</p>
<p>Though UMNO's affirmative action has enshrined favoritism towards majority Malays, these policies have hardly stopped ethnic Chinese or ethnic Indians (7 percent of the population) from prospering.</p>
<p>Eighty percent of the top 40-richest Malaysians are ethnically Chinese, according to a recent study in the newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau. Some of the community's more famous celebrity exports include shoe designer-to-the-stars Jimmy Choo and latter-day James Bond film heroine Michelle Yeoh.</p>
<p>The sense that authoritarianism must keep class resentment in check has been written into the national narrative, Welsh said. "Now we're seeing a new type of phenomenon in which the old narrative doesn't cut it anymore."</p>
<p>"People have seen authoritarian government as a lesser evil to ethnic riots," Chin Huat said. "They feel that, well, this is a multi-ethnic country and we can't afford real democracy and going out on the street. Even people who are very highly educated will say. The indoctrination is that strong."</p>
<p>Bersih is, in part, a challenge to the us-versus-them mentality, Chin Huat said. "Now," he said, "we are now burying that culture. People are talking about our commonality as Malaysians."</p>
<p>In a departure from the Middle East analogy, few see the potential for all-out revolt from Bersih, which is still driven by the urban, middle class. Nor does Malaysia have much in common with the Egypt's demographics. According to World Bank stats, Malaysia's citizens receive a gross income per-capita of $7,760, classified as "upper middle." That is roughly triple the figure in Egypt.</p>
<p>Still, there is high potential for low-grade chaos and repeat scenes from last year's protest.</p>
<p>Bersih's faithful are adamant in defying court orders to stay out of Merdeka Square. And though Bersih 2.0 proved embarrassing for police and officials on the international stage - Amnesty International called it a "brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters" - cops are already deployed en masse to control Bersih 3.0.</p>
<p>"It looks like a lot of people aren't afraid anymore," Welsh said. "When you tell someone who's not afraid that they can't protest, they're just going to get more and more friends to come with them."</p> | Malaysia's Arab Spring? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-27/malaysia-s-arab-spring | 2012-04-27 | 3 |
<p>The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK = “North Korea”) detonated a nuclear device (a.k.a. “bomb”) on 9 October 2006, at 10:36 a.m. local time, at Hwaderi, near Kilju City in North Harnkyung province.</p>
<p>What does this mean?</p>
<p>Weapon (noun) 1: an instrument of offensive or defensive combat : something to fight with, 2 : a means of contending against another, 3 : an accumulation of economic activity stored up as potential force for coercion. Definitions 1 and 2 are from Webster. The DPRK Test &amp; Nuclear Weapons Program</p>
<p>We know three facts about this test:</p>
<p>1. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded an Earth tremor at 10:36 a.m. local time at the North Korean test site, with a Richter magnitude of 4.2.</p>
<p>2. This explosion had a “yield” — the quantity of energy released — equivalent to an explosion of 800 tons of TNT [0.8 kilotons (kT) = 3.4*10^12 joules = 3400 giga-joules (GJ)].</p>
<p>3. There has been no measurable radioactivity released.</p>
<p>We know one rumor about this test: a North Korean official told the Chinese that the planned yield was 4 kT, so the test result was “low.”</p>
<p>It is known that North Korea has separated Pu239 (plutonium, isotope 239) from nuclear reactor fuel rods. The DPRK test was of a plutonium fission assembly. Nuclear Fuel</p>
<p>Nuclear fuel is enriched to have a higher percentage of unstable isotopes (fissile material) than occurs in natural ores (e.g., 0.7% U235 in nature). Uranium fuel rods for power reactors are a few percent U235, while being primarily the relatively stable U238. The processing of natural ores can be continued to produce highly enriched fuel — “weapons grade” — at 90% or more.</p>
<p>Plutonium does not occur naturally, it is produced in uranium reactors when a U238 nuclei captures a low energy neutron (a U235 nuclei would fission). Uranium reactors “breed” plutonium; this effect can be exploited to produce feedstock to a “waste processing” or a “reprocessing” technology that produces weapons grade material, plutonium 239. Nuclear Weapons Design</p>
<p>Basic facts about nuclear weapons design are in the public domain. The idea is to use chemical explosives to force a quantity of weapons grade fissile material into a minimal volume with maximal compression. The natural reactions of radioactive decay are vastly increased in number because a neutron released by the fissioning of one nucleus will almost certainly collide into a neighboring atom within the compressed mass, initiating the breakup of another unstable nucleus. This chaining of reactions creates a crescendo of energy release and an burst of high energy radiation (neutrons, gamma rays, x-rays, radioactive particles).</p>
<p>To achieve “nuclear yield,” a minimum mass of fissile material is needed to ensure the self-capture of neutrons emitted by fission reactions. This is the “critical mass.” If the mass is below critical, it will still see an increase in fissioning beyond the natural rate, heat up by absorbing the energy released, and blow the assembly apart as a thermal explosion before the runaway acceleration of chain reactions can occur. An even smaller assembly might simply melt.</p>
<p>The critical mass of a spherical shell of weapons grade material being imploded to a ball is listed for two materials and two cases (four separate examples):</p>
<p>* Bare spheres: 56 kg U235, 11 kg Pu239;</p>
<p>* Thick tamper: 15 kg U235, 5 kg Pu239.</p>
<p>A tamper is a dense container to hold in the energy of the implosion as well as reflect neutrons back in.</p>
<p>Plutonium assemblies can be smaller and lighter for the same explosive yield, a desirable attribute in the design of a ballistic missile warhead.</p>
<p>“Simple” designs are most likely to produce about 10 kT, within a factor of 2; the Pu239 bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kT.</p>
<p>Designing a “low yield” device (e.g., a 0.5 kT to 2 kT “bunker buster”) is a challenge, primarily because the warhead must fit within the small dimensions, and operate under the high acceleration forces of the intended gun and missile systems. Conventional Wisdom About the DPRK Test</p>
<p>Published commentaries on the DPRK test arrive at three speculations: “dud,” “spoof” and “hoax:”</p>
<p>Dud: yield was low because the Pu239 bomb was a dud; an imperfectly symmetrical implosion by high explosives; or</p>
<p>Spoof: the bomb was placed in a cavern to decouple the shock from solid ground, and thus send out a smaller seismic signal, disguising a larger magnitude of explosive force (it is noted that Russia claims the DPRK test yielded 5 kT to 15 kT); or</p>
<p>Hoax: the test was a hoax, hundreds of tons of chemical explosives were used to simulate a low yield nuclear blast, presumably for some political purpose. Observations on the Value of Testing</p>
<p>What I have observed from the U.S. Test Program is:</p>
<p>Tests always yield instructive data about one or more of:</p>
<p>* design performance,</p>
<p>* material quality,</p>
<p>* manufacture and testing procedures.</p>
<p>There is never a failure to learn, only failures to achieve expectations. Even when you cannot pinpoint “what” failed or “why,” you learn from the exercise of analyzing the data you do have. If all your sensors worked and recovered data as planned, and if calculations can be brought into accord with this data, then you validate your theoretical and calculation methods.</p>
<p>You can never be sure of what you’ve got (in terms of capability) and how it will work (in terms of design) unless you test. This is why the non-proliferation treaties are “test bans” rather than “design work” bans. My Speculations on the DPRK Test</p>
<p>1. I don’t think the “hoax” idea would be a benefit to the DPRK. Sure, maybe it would seem a way to bluff the U.S. into temporarily backing off for fear the DPRK really has a nuclear deterrent. But, as they wouldn’t, it would mean that once the fraud was detected, the U.S. could attack with impunity, as with Iraq.</p>
<p>2. An unintentionally low yield for a Pu239 device would mean the test was a success; the DPRK nuclear weapons program demonstrating it could:</p>
<p>* produce nuclear yield,</p>
<p>* contain the radioactivity from an underground test — so far,</p>
<p>* collect data on their whole range of weapons production and testing procedures,</p>
<p>* make improvements for the next test.</p>
<p>3. An intentionally low yield Pu239 device would mean:</p>
<p>* proof of a sophisticated warhead design capability, or</p>
<p>* proof of containment engineering sophistication (seismic spoofing).</p>
<p>You will notice that speculations 1 &amp; 3 involve conspiracy theories. So, without more data, I am inclined to believe speculation 2 — like a kid learning to ride a bike, the DPRK nuclear weapons program has had its first long wobbly run, and we can see them getting the hang of it soon. The Political Significance of the DPRK Test</p>
<p>What the DPRK leadership would probably want for a real nuclear deterrent would be warheads of 1 kT to 10 kT yield that would fit its missiles (a size and weight constraint) and survive the g-forces of flight (a strength and integrity of design constraint). A warhead only becomes a deterrent when you have demonstrated a credible delivery system. The DPRK’s missile program may actually be more of a threat than its bomb program; if DPRK develops missiles that can hit India, Japan, China, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet near these last three, then a nuclear armed DPRK would have “deterrence.”</p>
<p>The size of the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal will depend on the magnitude of plutonium production, and to a lesser extent the sophistication of their design and manufacturing. Better designs that produce higher yield with lower masses of plutonium would mean more warheads from a given stock of plutonium.</p>
<p>The DPRK test is a huge failure of US policy. In brushing aside the Non-Proliferation Treaty as an obstacle to unilateralism, and by the example of the Iraq War, the U.S. has signaled to all that the only protection they can be assured of is having nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>As in the U.S., the DPRK nuclear program may be an aspect of a wider elite subsidy program, where technocrats and econocrats channel national wealth into elite classes by an analogy to the “Pentagon system.” Public resources are monopolized by a “national security” industrial complex, subsidizing its elite management class.</p>
<p>Nuclear weapons enable the continuation of the simplified diplomacy practiced in the Bronze Age — pure threat by superior force. We certainly cannot see the Bush-Cheney policy, as exhibited with Iraq and Iran, as having any advancement over that of Agamemnon at Troy.</p>
<p>The restraint on aggression by industrial powers in post-colonial modern times has been their unwillingness to sustain continuing losses in colonial wars — recall France in Algeria, the U.S. in Vietnam. This psychological restraint, purchased by formerly colonized nations at such terrible cost during the 19th and 20th centuries, has been their major deterrent force: “occupy us and you will sink into a quagmire.” The industrialized nations use nuclear weapons to threaten each other with the destruction of their respective economic engines. This is relatively ineffective in the Third World since “there is nothing there to nuke.” The Neoconic “mad dog” policy of persisting in the Iraq War aims to destroy the quagmire psychological shield — the “Vietnam Syndrome” — that small, less developed and militarily weak nations have relied on as their protection. The message from Armed Globalization is “to us the cost of crushing you is minor enough to sustain indefinitely — submit.” As Thucydides wrote 2500 years ago “The strong do what they have the power to do, and the weak accept what they must.” Nations fearing that the Washington Empire is no longer restrained by the quagmire psychological shield have two options: submit or acquire nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Nuclear weapons have a deep psychological meaning to those who have them. They are a matter of “racial pride,” and a way for nationalities that feel they have been treated disrespectfully by former (and continuing) colonial powers to “get back,” to “show them” that they, too, can have power and be deserving of respect, and even awe and fear. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate race weapon, they would be the means to try to wipe out “another race” of people, where we make the Bronze Age assumption that each “population” or “race” occupies a unique territory. Their only use in war fits this model.</p>
<p>The DPRK test may elicit quiet approval from people in many parts of the world, who feel they are hopelessly dominated by the Security Council Nuclear Powers. Nations like the DPRK, Cuba, Iran and increasingly Venezuela are the forward, activist agents of a much broader Third World sentiment of resistance to the capitalist integration of world economies. Others of these countries will look at the DPRK, compare it to Iraq, remember their own history, and contemplate starting their own nuclear weapons program. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate penis enlargement pills.</p>
<p>The DPRK nuclear weapons program has got to be a very interesting card in the 2-hand poker game for power in East Asia, being played out between China and the U.S.</p>
<p>The DPRK nuclear test was a signal — a political flare — to the U.S., saying “pay attention to us — and, yes help — but beware, don’t try to harm us.” The message to the rest of Asia is “if you help the U.S. attack us, you will pay dearly.” The condemnation of the DPRK’s nuclear test, from Asian nations including China and Iran, is a reaction to the local message only; it is easy to see that most of them agree with the DPRK’s message to Washington. So yes, North Korea will be sanctioned and no, the sanctions will not be life-threatening.</p>
<p>As long as the Bush-Cheney policy of stonewalling to save face continues, the DPRK nuclear weapons program will advance. When the United States agrees to talk again with North Korea, and in good faith, then the Bush-Cheney policy will have fallen and the DPRK’s nuclear deterrence will have succeeded. This new equilibrium could be termed “nuclear armed quagmire,” a “syndrome” for the U.S. and a “deterrent” to be contemplated by those being “globalized.”</p>
<p>Real nonproliferation is to be had with real — and respectful — help to the less developed nations in expanding sustainable (non-nuclear) energy technology and in rapidly achieving the Millennium Development Goals (see the United Nations Development Programme, MDG).</p>
<p>What I find tragic is that if small countries did not have the fear that drives some, like the DPRK, to invest heavily in nuclear weapons development and weapons acquisition generally — to deter being colonized, or “globalized” — they would have many more resources to meet the needs of their people. It is this “waste investment” of nuclear weapons, wherever they are maintained, that I see as their most destructive effect. Every nuclear weapon is an actively exploding economic bomb, and only potentially a physical explosion.</p>
<p>MANUEL GARCIA, Jr. is a physicist and can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Nuclear Test, Political Flare | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/10/17/nuclear-test-political-flare/ | 2006-10-17 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON – Leaders of America’s nuclear weapons complex told Congress on Tuesday that B61 bombs maintained by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories are critical to the nation’s nuclear deterrent but threatened by ongoing budget battles in Washington.</p>
<p>Tuesday’s hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces convened officials from Sandia, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Defense who were unanimous in their support of the B61’s controversial Life Extension Program.</p>
<p>“Over the long term, it is the right course of action to cost-effectively extend the life of our weapons, modernize our infrastructure and preserve our deterrent capability,” said C. Robert Kehler, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Critics of the program, most notably Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who wields immense power to craft nuclear weapons budgets, contend the program is too expensive and possibly even unnecessary. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., said he was concerned about the cost and repeatedly asked why the B61 is so critical when cheaper alternatives, such as extending the life of the B83 bomb, exist.</p>
<p>“I’m concerned about the cost and complexity of the current plan and whether they (the B61 bombs) are needed long term,” Garamendi said</p>
<p>The versatile B61 bomb is carried aboard Air Force planes for a variety of missions. The bomb is most noteworthy for its presence in a European nuclear stockpile as part of NATO’s strategic counter to Russian nuclear and conventional forces. NNSA officials say the bombs, built in the 1960s and ’70s, need refurbishing to extend their useful life. The B61 life-extension work is one of the largest programs at Sandia and Los Alamos labs. The NNSA estimates the cost of the Life Extension Program at $8 billion over 12 years.</p>
<p>Paul Hommert, director of Sandia National Laboratories, told the Journal on Tuesday that uncertainty about fiscal 2014 funding levels, coupled with the ongoing budget cuts as a result of the still-in-place sequester, could delay the life-extension program by six months or more. However, he stressed that NNSA officials are still working to determine program funding levels.</p>
<p>“Based on what we know … our estimate is that with the CR (continuing resolution) and sequestration there could be a potentially significant scheduling impact,” Hommert said. “Without question, it is the largest concern we have.”</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Obama asked Congress to increase the budget for the B61 from $369 million in fiscal 2013 to $537 million in 2014, with a big chunk of that money headed to Sandia National Laboratories. But under the continuing resolution that will fund the government until mid-January, the NNSA cannot spend beyond 2013 levels.</p>
<p>The sequester resulted in a $30 million cut to the life-extension program in fiscal 2013, causing the schedule to slip. NNSA officials said Tuesday that, as a result, they have moved an additional $244 million in the B61’s management reserve budget to offset potential extra costs down the road.</p>
<p>Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, a government watchdog group, said Tuesday that the potential spending spike illustrates his contention that nuclear budgets – including that of the B61 – are out of control.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Only in government can you cut tens of millions and end up adding hundreds of millions,” Coghlan said.</p>
<p>Donald L. Cook, NNSA’s deputy administrator for defense programs, said the B61 Life Extension Program is the only option for meeting U.S. military strategic and tactical goals with respect to nuclear weapons. Those objectives can’t be met by extending the B83 or other cheaper alternatives, he said.</p>
<p>“There is not a minimum (cost) option that is going to fulfill all of the military’s requirements,” Cook said.</p>
<p>That statement is at odds with a report from the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee in June that voiced worry about the program’s cost compared with alternatives.</p>
<p>“The committee is concerned that NNSA’s proposed scope of work for extending the life of the B61 bomb is not the lowest cost, lowest risk option that meets military requirements and replaces aging components before they affect weapon performance,” the report said.</p>
<p>Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has fought for increased budgets for the Life Extension Program.</p>
<p>The U.S. House in July rejected an attempt to scale back spending on B61 bombs, setting up a possible spending showdown with the U.S. Senate. At the time, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., introduced an amendment that would have cut $23.7 million from the proposed $551 million B61 Life Extension Program in the House Energy and Water Appropriations budget.</p>
<p>The measure was defeated, with all three of New Mexico’s U.S. House members voting against the spending cut.</p>
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<p /> | Budget battles threaten U.S. nuclear modernization | false | https://abqjournal.com/291079/budget-battles-threaten-us-nuclear-modernization.html | 2013-10-30 | 2 |
<p>Chris Cornell, vocalist of Audioslave, Soundgarden, and Temple of the Dog, died on Wednesday night at the age of 52.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/soundgardens-chris-cornell-dead-at-52-w482882" type="external">Rolling Stone</a> reports that Detroit police are investigating the death as a possible suicide. An official cause of death via medical examiner has not yet been produced, and is expected to be released on Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Cornell's death was "sudden and unexpected," <a href="" type="external">according to a statement</a> released by his representative Brian Bumbery.</p>
<p>Hours before he died, Cornell played a concert in Detroit with Soundgarden.</p>
<p>Cornell was a father of three; a daughter born in 2000, another daughter born in 2004, and a son born in 2005.</p>
<p /> | Chris Cornell Dead At 52; Possible Suicide | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16598/chris-cornell-dead-52-possible-suicide-daily-wire | 2017-05-18 | 0 |
<p>By Ivo Mijnssen and Philipp Casula</p>
<p>When downtown Moscow’s pavement trembles under the weight of tanks, and fighter jets roar overhead, Muscovites know it is Victory Day. Since 2005, when then-President Vladimir Putin revived the Soviet tradition of military parades, the Russian government has used May 9 to project the image of a powerful, united nation. Most of the time, the parades were accompanied by great-power rhetoric. Only a year ago, President Dmitry Medvedev emphasized the strength of Russia’s army and its willingness to defend the country against all enemies. This year, however, the parade sounded and looked quite different: Medvedev highlighted the common victory of the World War II Allies. The bear hats of the British Welsh Guards wiggled in the Moscow air, next to American and Polish troop delegations. Western nations in a Russian May 9 military parade? This would have been almost unthinkable even a year ago.</p>
<p>This celebration of unity between East and West in general and particularly between Russia and Poland is very surprising. During recent years, relations between the two countries were worse than merely tense — which put a damper on Russian-European relations as well. Among the points of contention were the <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Dignitaries_Gather_For_Symbolic_Start_Of_Nord_Stream/2007492.html%20" type="external">Nord Stream pipeline project</a> connecting Russia and Germany — and bypassing Poland. Polish politicians went so far as to call this project a new <a href="http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/World/HitlerStalin.html%20" type="external">Hitler-Stalin pact</a>. The Russian ban on the import of Polish meat prompted the Polish government to block a successor pact to the 1997 European Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. During the 2008 war with Georgia, Russia even threatened Poland with a nuclear attack: Commenting on the plans for stationing parts of a U.S. missile defense shield in Poland, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, then a spokesperson for the Russian armed forces, crudely explained that, in case of a military conflict, Poland, by hosting antiballistic missile systems, exposed itself to a nuclear strike — “100 percent.” The intensity of the quarrels and the frequent use of war rhetoric show that more was at stake than oil, meat or defensive missiles.</p>
<p>The entire field of geopolitics in Eastern Europe is still overshadowed by a mutual distrust rooted in World War II, which brings us back to Victory Day. For official Russian historiography, the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany is the keystone in the liberation of Europe. There is a widespread complaint that Europeans, particularly former Eastern Bloc countries like the Baltic states or Poland, do not appreciate Russia’s contribution and its enormous death toll. For many countries in Eastern Europe, however, “liberation” meant Soviet occupiers replacing the Germans.</p>
<p />
<p>Poland’s experience as an occupied country was particularly painful. The Hitler-Stalin pact divided up the country between Germany and the USSR. In the eastern part of Poland, the Soviets committed a war crime of huge proportions in 1940: In the forests around Katyn near the Russian city of Smolensk, the Soviet secret service murdered over 21,000 members of the Polish elite. For fifty years, the Soviets blamed this crime on Nazi Germany, and when they finally admitted it they did not apologize to Poland.</p>
<p>Recently, however, the Russian government has made some surprising gestures: On April 7, Russian Prime Minister Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, paid tribute to the victims of the <a href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3486292.html%20" type="external">Katyn massacre</a>. Although Putin did not utter a formal apology, he bowed his head to the dead and stressed that Stalin’s terror made both Poles and Russians suffer; he condemned as cynical lies all past allegations of German responsibility. After Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash three days later, the Russian president and prime minister were among the only high-ranking international guests at the funeral, having made the trip despite a flight ban in Europe due to the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano eruption. The détente continued on the eve of May 9, when Medvedev handed over classified files on the Katyn massacre to acting Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.</p>
<p>Domestically, the Russian government has also shown an increased willingness to confront the darker sides of its past. In an interview with Moscow daily Izvestiya before Victory Day, President Medvedev stated more clearly than Putin ever had before that Stalin committed a “mass of crimes against his own people.” In the same interview, he condemned plans by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to put up posters depicting Stalin. Luzhkov had argued that, despite all the crimes he committed, Stalin had played a crucial role in winning the Second World War and hence should be commemorated. Luzhkov subsequently had to abandon his plans. Nonetheless, Medvedev emphasized that his condemnation of Stalin did not narrow the significance of Victory Day in the least: Without the effort of “our people,” he said, Europe today would be “a big concentration camp.”</p>
<p>This episode highlights the dilemma at the heart of the issue: On the one hand, the Russian government uses Victory as a centerpiece on which to base the country’s national identity and as a source of pride for the population. On the other hand, Victory is inextricably tied up with the figure of Stalin. Russian official historiography faces the complicated task of breaking with its totalitarian past while contemporarily incorporating its Soviet heritage. Unlike the Yeltsin administration, Putin and Medvedev see the 70 years of Soviet rule, which inculcated in the population core values, not as a mistake of history. Most schoolbooks and the official media now present a rather uncritical image of the era, aware that leaving out the Soviet past would mean alienating entire generations. Authorities wanted to make sure that Russians could be proud again of their past in its entirety.At the same time, today’s Russian government tries hard to depict the country as democratic. Open adoration for Stalin is thus out of the question. The solution offered by the Putin-Medvedev government could be dubbed — if the process continues — a conservative destalinization. By distinguishing between the crimes of the leader and the virtue of the people, Victory can continue to serve as a keystone of national identity.</p>
<p>With regards to the Katyn massacre, a similar strategy is applied. The Russian leaders admit a certain degree of responsibility, but no guilt, since the Russian people they represent were as much victims of the Stalinist regime as the Poles. This is certainly an important first step. Critics argue, however, that it is not enough. Arseny Roginsky, the head of the Russian human rights group Memorial, states in an interview with the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung that Russians need to confront “the evil” in their past and take responsibility for it. Roginsky demands that those who were guilty of crimes against humanity be named and tried. “We have to open all archives to the public without exception. We have to rehabilitate all victims.” This kind of action is still far off, as the Russian authorities have restricted access to the archives of the secret services in recent years.</p>
<p>The reluctance of the Russian authorities to promote open and self-critical debate on the USSR’s role in World War II and the cost at which the country won the war has an additional dimension. The idealized Victory is used to present the USSR as a member of the club of advanced nations that ostensibly got the world to where it is today. In the broadest terms, World War II was an instance where the country fought on the right side of history, together with Western powers, defeating fascism and helping negotiate a new, peaceful world order. The tensions of the Cold War are ignored in this narrative. The present-day Russian state hence uses Victory to bolster its demand to be treated as an equal partner in world affairs by other great powers — the United States foremost. This quest for recognition has been a leitmotif of Russian foreign policy since the late 1990s, under Yevgeny Primakov, who was both foreign minister and prime minister, and even more so during Putin’s tenure.</p>
<p>In this context, the “restart” in the Russian-American relationship offered by President Barack Obama during his summer 2009 Moscow visit was well received. His speech at the renowned New Economic School started with references to Russia’s “timeless heritage” and its contributions to world culture. Obama went on to recognize that Americans and Soviets had been “allies in the greatest struggle of the last century” and that “Soviet soldiers from places like Kazan and Kiev endured unimaginable hardships to repel an invasion, and turn the tide in the east.” His speech culminated in proposing a global partnership that “will be stronger if Russia occupies its rightful place as a great power.”</p>
<p>This aperture has eased tensions and led to some results in the form of a new arms reduction agreement and increased cooperation on solving international issues like Iran. Particularly with regards to Iran, however, Russia has wavered between supporting sanctions in principle and continuing to pursue its own economic interests in that country. Other Russian proposals, such as the establishment of a new European security architecture to replace NATO, have remained vague and appear to be at least partly motivated by the desire to weaken NATO, in which Russia does not have a say.</p>
<p>The Russian self-image in domestic and international politics is still today closely intertwined with a past that is far from pristine. In a positive sense, Russia’s past can be interpreted so as to position the country as a constructive partner in international relations. In a negative sense, World War II as a point of reference for issues between nations can lead to an exaggerated sense of threat and a recourse to nationalist rhetoric and reflexes. Ultimately, the continuation of Russia’s pragmatic foreign policy — for example toward Poland — will to a large extent depend on whether it achieves the desired results.</p>
<p>Exactly what Russia desires, however, is not so clear. Russia remains ambivalent about its place in the world: The century-long question of whether Russia is a Western or Eastern power and the flaws in the country’s democratic institutions continue to prevent it from pursuing a coherent domestic and foreign policy. One might add, however, that the frequent lack of a coherent Western policy toward Russia has not helped it find its place either.</p>
<p>Ivo Mijnssen holds an M.A. in Eastern European history and sociology from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He worked as a researcher in the Swiss National Science Foundation’s project “Democracy and the Nation in Russia” and wrote numerous scientific articles on memory and memory politics in contemporary Russia. He is currently working as a freelance journalist based in Europe.</p>
<p>Philipp Casula is a research fellow and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He studied sociology in Munich, Rome and Berlin and further specialized in Russian affairs and political theory. Among his latest publications are “Identities and Politics during the Putin Presidency” (co-edited with Jeronim Perovic, Ibidem, 2009) and “Political and National Identity in Russian Political Discourse” (with Olga Malinova, published in Lecours/Moreno: Nationalism and Democracy, Routledge 2010).</p>
<p /> | Russia Has Trouble Escaping the Past | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/russia-has-trouble-escaping-the-past/ | 2010-06-08 | 4 |
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — One year to the date of being sworn in as governor, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster told a joint assembly of lawmakers Wednesday that the state is at the “dawn of a new prosperity,” thanks to tax cut proposals at the state and federal levels.</p>
<p>“The recent tax reform bill signed by President Trump was a great victory for American taxpayers and our economy,” McMaster said in his first State of the State address. “Companies have already begun announcing reinvestment and raises for employees.”</p>
<p>But with the federal government cutting taxes, McMaster said, it becomes incumbent on states to “do our part.” The governor also touted his own executive budget proposal, which calls for cutting $2.2 billion cumulatively in taxes over the next five years.</p>
<p>State officials have said that the plan would ultimately reduce state revenue by more than $750 million a year.</p>
<p>McMaster’s first State of the State address came on the one-year anniversary of his swearing in to replace Nikki Haley. Trump has endorsed his bid for a first full term, and McMaster faces several Republican opponents.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the issues the governor addressed:</p>
<p>NUCLEAR FALLOUT</p>
<p>McMaster addressed the multibillion-dollar debacle related to the decision to abandon the construction of two new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, saying the state’s viability as an economic force “requires an abundant supply of clean and affordable energy.”</p>
<p>SCANA Corp. and state-owned utility Santee Cooper nixed the project last summer following the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse. State and federal authorities have been probing the failure, which resulted in thousands of job losses.</p>
<p>“We must carefully assess our situation,” said McMaster, who has long said the state needs to sell Santee Cooper. “We must construct the best possible solution. The customers must either get the reactors or get their money back.”</p>
<p>SCANA ratepayers have already shouldered $2 billion of the company’s loan debt on the project. Dominion Energy has proposed $1.3 billion in givebacks as part of its proposal to buy SCANA, and legislation moving through the state House would stop the company from continuing to charge customers further.</p>
<p>The House is debating several bills on reforming utilities and dealing with the abandoned plants.</p>
<p>CELLPHONES IN PRISON</p>
<p>McMaster also called on state lawmakers to help combat contraband cellphones in the hands of state inmates. State and federal prison authorities across the country have called the phones the No. 1 security threat behind bars.</p>
<p>Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has become a national leader on the issue, which McMaster said has “revolutionized criminal activity,” allowing inmates and their conspirators to “practice extortion, conduct blackmail, plan and execute ‘hits,’ operate drug rings and run any number of fraud schemes.”</p>
<p>Until federal officials allow prison officials to jam cell signals, an idea Stirling and McMaster support, the governor said, states “must we must take every action, try every idea and implement any law which will stop these criminals.”</p>
<p>OPIOID CRISIS</p>
<p>McMaster said his budget for the opioid epidemic includes more than $10 million for treatment and prevention, calling that a “crisis born of human pain and suffering.”</p>
<p>Over the past three years, McMaster said, South Carolina had more opioid-related deaths than homicides and drunken driving deaths combined.</p>
<p>“We must take a bold new approach to this unprecedented threat,” he said.</p>
<p>FREEDOM OF INFORMATION</p>
<p>McMaster also used his first joint legislative address to call on lawmakers to end a policy exempting themselves from state open records laws. In 2013, McMaster co-chaired an ethics panel that proposed doing away with a legislative FOIA exemption, but lawmakers have failed to adopt the suggestion.</p>
<p>“That destroys public confidence,” McMaster said. “This exemption must end.”</p>
<p>RESPONSE</p>
<p>In his party’s response, Rep. James Smith said Democrats are ready to work with Republicans on restoring the public’s trust in its leaders following a corruption probe that has ensnared half a dozen current and former lawmakers.</p>
<p>“I believe that the people of our state are tired of the partisan trench warfare,” said Smith, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge McMaster. “In the end, South Carolina cannot succeed if we are willing to leave some behind.”</p>
<p>In his address, McMaster said he opposed the Trump administration’s proposal to expand drilling off the coast of states including South Carolina, saying any mistake could damage the state’s “pristine” coastline and heart of its $20 billion tourism industry. McMaster has asked the Trump administration for a waiver from that proposal, following in the footsteps of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, to whom one has been granted.</p>
<p>“Dammit Henry it takes you calling your buddies Trump and Sanford and ask them to give u the same pass they gave Florida,” state Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson posted on Twitter, referencing drilling opponent and Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Kinnard is adding issues related to South Carolina’s Legislature and state government to her beat coverage this year. Reach her at <a href="http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP," type="external">http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP,</a> and read more of her work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/meg%20kinnard.</a></p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — One year to the date of being sworn in as governor, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster told a joint assembly of lawmakers Wednesday that the state is at the “dawn of a new prosperity,” thanks to tax cut proposals at the state and federal levels.</p>
<p>“The recent tax reform bill signed by President Trump was a great victory for American taxpayers and our economy,” McMaster said in his first State of the State address. “Companies have already begun announcing reinvestment and raises for employees.”</p>
<p>But with the federal government cutting taxes, McMaster said, it becomes incumbent on states to “do our part.” The governor also touted his own executive budget proposal, which calls for cutting $2.2 billion cumulatively in taxes over the next five years.</p>
<p>State officials have said that the plan would ultimately reduce state revenue by more than $750 million a year.</p>
<p>McMaster’s first State of the State address came on the one-year anniversary of his swearing in to replace Nikki Haley. Trump has endorsed his bid for a first full term, and McMaster faces several Republican opponents.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the issues the governor addressed:</p>
<p>NUCLEAR FALLOUT</p>
<p>McMaster addressed the multibillion-dollar debacle related to the decision to abandon the construction of two new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, saying the state’s viability as an economic force “requires an abundant supply of clean and affordable energy.”</p>
<p>SCANA Corp. and state-owned utility Santee Cooper nixed the project last summer following the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse. State and federal authorities have been probing the failure, which resulted in thousands of job losses.</p>
<p>“We must carefully assess our situation,” said McMaster, who has long said the state needs to sell Santee Cooper. “We must construct the best possible solution. The customers must either get the reactors or get their money back.”</p>
<p>SCANA ratepayers have already shouldered $2 billion of the company’s loan debt on the project. Dominion Energy has proposed $1.3 billion in givebacks as part of its proposal to buy SCANA, and legislation moving through the state House would stop the company from continuing to charge customers further.</p>
<p>The House is debating several bills on reforming utilities and dealing with the abandoned plants.</p>
<p>CELLPHONES IN PRISON</p>
<p>McMaster also called on state lawmakers to help combat contraband cellphones in the hands of state inmates. State and federal prison authorities across the country have called the phones the No. 1 security threat behind bars.</p>
<p>Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has become a national leader on the issue, which McMaster said has “revolutionized criminal activity,” allowing inmates and their conspirators to “practice extortion, conduct blackmail, plan and execute ‘hits,’ operate drug rings and run any number of fraud schemes.”</p>
<p>Until federal officials allow prison officials to jam cell signals, an idea Stirling and McMaster support, the governor said, states “must we must take every action, try every idea and implement any law which will stop these criminals.”</p>
<p>OPIOID CRISIS</p>
<p>McMaster said his budget for the opioid epidemic includes more than $10 million for treatment and prevention, calling that a “crisis born of human pain and suffering.”</p>
<p>Over the past three years, McMaster said, South Carolina had more opioid-related deaths than homicides and drunken driving deaths combined.</p>
<p>“We must take a bold new approach to this unprecedented threat,” he said.</p>
<p>FREEDOM OF INFORMATION</p>
<p>McMaster also used his first joint legislative address to call on lawmakers to end a policy exempting themselves from state open records laws. In 2013, McMaster co-chaired an ethics panel that proposed doing away with a legislative FOIA exemption, but lawmakers have failed to adopt the suggestion.</p>
<p>“That destroys public confidence,” McMaster said. “This exemption must end.”</p>
<p>RESPONSE</p>
<p>In his party’s response, Rep. James Smith said Democrats are ready to work with Republicans on restoring the public’s trust in its leaders following a corruption probe that has ensnared half a dozen current and former lawmakers.</p>
<p>“I believe that the people of our state are tired of the partisan trench warfare,” said Smith, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge McMaster. “In the end, South Carolina cannot succeed if we are willing to leave some behind.”</p>
<p>In his address, McMaster said he opposed the Trump administration’s proposal to expand drilling off the coast of states including South Carolina, saying any mistake could damage the state’s “pristine” coastline and heart of its $20 billion tourism industry. McMaster has asked the Trump administration for a waiver from that proposal, following in the footsteps of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, to whom one has been granted.</p>
<p>“Dammit Henry it takes you calling your buddies Trump and Sanford and ask them to give u the same pass they gave Florida,” state Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson posted on Twitter, referencing drilling opponent and Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Kinnard is adding issues related to South Carolina’s Legislature and state government to her beat coverage this year. Reach her at <a href="http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP," type="external">http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP,</a> and read more of her work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/meg%20kinnard.</a></p> | South Carolina gov: Tax cuts boosting state’s prosperity | false | https://apnews.com/2e328452903443e5865309df38a1c670 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The historic U.S. election jolted Wall Street trading desks, buoying investor confidence and sparking activity that pushed the five biggest U.S. investment banks to sharply higher fourth-quarter profits.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The performance marks what could be a turning point for banks after a fallow period that had some worried the trading business -- the lifeblood of Wall Street and its billion-dollar bonus pools -- was dying for good.</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. reported quarterly earnings Wednesday that beat analyst expectations and grew from a year ago, thanks to a resurgence in long-challenged trading businesses.</p>
<p>Citigroup's $3.7 billion trading haul was its best fourth-quarter showing since the financial crisis. J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co., which reported its results last week, had its best fourth-quarter for trading ever.</p>
<p>"There was increased optimism around the world," said Harvey Schwartz, chief financial officer at Goldman, where trading revenues jumped 25% over last year. Noting rising interest rates and confidence that President-Elect Donald Trump's policies will spur the economy, he said: "Those are the kinds of things that always drive our business."</p>
<p>Overall, the five largest Wall Street firms -- Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley -- had $18.1 billion in trading revenue during the quarter, up 26% from 2015. Those combined results are the highest in any fourth quarter since the financial crisis.</p>
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<p>Banks tend to do better when their clients, such as asset managers and corporations, are putting money to work, which often reflects confidence in the economy. In turn, higher bank profits can make them more confident about lending, spurring further economic growth.</p>
<p>The hum on bank trading desks also reflects a bout of volatility after years of calm. Investors shifted billions of dollars from technology stocks to financial stocks in the wake of the election, routing more trades through Wall Street's equities trading desks.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's election -- and his steady stream of comments on everything from outsourcing of U.S. jobs to the strength of the dollar -- has spurred frantic buying and selling in global debt, currencies and commodities.</p>
<p>The strong 2016 finish was a welcome respite for trading desks that started the year in a deep slump. The first quarter is typically the strongest for trading desks as clients set their priorities for the year and a fresh wave of corporate securities flood the market. But in 2016, first-quarter trading revenue fell about 20%.</p>
<p>Sluggish trading, though, had been a problem for banks for the better part of this decade. Since the financial crisis, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other firms have struggled with tougher rules, which made trading less profitable, and investor apathy, which proved hard to shake as interest rates ground lower and economies across the globe struggled to lift off.</p>
<p>In the following three quarters, however, an acceleration of the U.S. economy, combined with hopes that the surprise election of Mr. Trump could usher in lower taxes and other pro-growth policies in 2017, gave Wall Street a string of strong trading results.</p>
<p>The bounce was particularly strong in fixed-income products, which include corporate and government debt, currencies and commodities. The performance helped shake the belief that the business was in secular decline. J.P. Morgan CEO James Dimon last month estimated that half of the fixed-income trading fees lost since the crisis would eventually return.</p>
<p>More recently, UBS Group AG analysts estimated that the biggest banks could post an additional $15 billion in fixed-income trading revenue over the next two years, with the lion's share accruing to firms like Goldman, whose hedge-fund clients tend to be particularly active when markets turn choppier.</p>
<p>Bank stockholders have embraced the surge. The KBW Nasdaq index, a collection of large bank stocks, is up around 20% since the election on hopes of lower taxes, lighter regulation and enforcement, and more-stimulative economic policies.</p>
<p>"The bar has clearly moved higher," said Devin Ryan of JMP Securities. "The question is whether we will see the real policy changes" to justify the new valuations.</p>
<p>No firm has benefited more than Goldman, whose shares are up nearly 30% since the election and have flirted in recent weeks with highs not seen since 2007.</p>
<p>Goldman on Wednesday reported that earnings rose to $2.35 billion, driven by a 70% surge in bond-trading, which broke $2 billion in revenue for the first time since 2014. Goldman is more dependent on trading than many rivals and has clung more tightly to the business, even in the wake of punitive capital charges and enhanced regulatory oversight. Goldman's shares Wednesday fell 0.6%.</p>
<p>At Citigroup, fourth-quarter trading zoomed up 31%, far better than the 20% range that the bank guided to early last month. The gains were shared across both fixed-income, Citigroup's traditional stronghold, and the smaller stock-trading unit it has been trying to expand. The bank reported a quarterly profit of $3.57 billion. Citigroup's stock Wednesday dropped 1.7%.</p> | Wall Street's Back in Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/18/wall-streets-back-in-business.html | 2017-01-18 | 0 |
<p>A new ad from Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu takes liberties with the facts to make the claim that her opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, “voted to cut $86 million from Louisiana schools.”</p>
<p />
<p>An ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee continues the relentless effort to tie Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to President Barack Obama, who is not very popular in Louisiana. But the ad stretches the facts on several points.</p>
<p />
<p>The funniest, strangest and otherwise noteworthy ads of the campaign season.</p>
<p />
<p>With the midterm elections now just days away, many campaigns and outside groups are making their final appeals. And, as has been the case all election season, some of the claims miss the mark.</p>
<p />
<p>In Wisconsin’s pivotal race for governor, both sides are still spinning voters.</p>
<p />
<p>A TV ad in the Colorado Senate race says Republican Rep. Cory Gardner wants to “ban birth control,” so “you better stock up on condoms.”</p>
<p />
<p>No shortage of tall tales in the midterm elections, from both parties.</p>
<p />
<p>The National Rifle Association implies Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley lied when he said he “never met Michael Bloomberg,” but there’s no evidence of that.</p>
<p />
<p>A Republican TV ad says Senate candidate Rick Weiland is going across South Dakota saying “he’s one of us” when “Weiland supports higher payroll taxes.” Not for all, he doesn’t.</p>
<p />
<p>Every now and then we see a powerful attack ad that is factually accurate, but makes such a strong appeal to fear that we urge viewers to pause to consider all the facts. That’s the case in Nebraska.</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/elections-2014/ | 2 |
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<p>Sept. 17 (UPI) — Maria intensified as a hurricane Sunday afternoon and is forecast to reach Caribbean islands hit by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a>, the National Hurricane Center said.</p>
<p>Maria, which became the 12th named storm in the Atlantic on Saturday, was designated as a Category 1 storm in its <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT5+shtml/172053.shtml" type="external">5 p.m. Sunday advisory</a>. With sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, the storm was 1 mph over the cutoff.</p>
<p>Maria was 140 miles east-northeast of Barbados and 415 miles east-south of Domica. The storm was moving west-northwest at 15 mph and expected to reach the Leeward Islands on Monday night. Tropical storm winds extend up to 70 miles.</p>
<p>Several islands battered by Category 5 Irma earlier this month are under hurricane advisories. Warning are for Guadeloupe, Domica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. A hurricane watch is in effect for U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, and Anguilla. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.</p>
<p>NHC forecasters say Maria will likely intensify to a major Category 3 storm with sustained winds topping 125 mph on Thursday, bringing dangerous wind, storm surge and rainfall hazards.</p>
<p>It is forecast to weaken after it hits Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon and the Dominican Republic on Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Early models show Maria moving toward Florida and up the U.S. East Coast, but forecasts are far in advance.</p>
<p>The Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft made its first pass by Maria on Sunday afternoon.</p>
<p>“The aircraft data indicate that Maria has a compact circulation, which could make it a prime candidate for significant intensification in an environment of low shear and warm SSTs [sea surface temperatures],” NHS forecaster Robbie Brown said.</p>
<p>Rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches are forecast across the Leeward Islands, including Puerto Rico as well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands through Wednesday night.</p> | Maria intensifies to Category 1 hurricane | false | https://newsline.com/maria-intensifies-to-category-1-hurricane/ | 2017-09-17 | 1 |
<p>Some are fired. Some are simply muzzled. When considering whether those events are a distinction or a disgrace the question that must be asked is “Who did it?” If it’s George W. Bush it’s a distinction. And so James E. Hansen joins Glen Hubbard, Paul O’Neill, Lawrence Greenfield, Brian Steidle, Susan Wood and a host of others who have been muzzled or fired for failing to promulgate or for exposing Bush lies.</p>
<p>Glen Hubbard was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Before the Iraq war started George Bush and his lying cronies told the world the war would cost $50 billion. Mr. Hubbard said the war would cost $200 billion. They were both wrong. To date the war has cost more than $238 billion and the cost goes up by the minute. Mr. Hubbard was fired.</p>
<p>Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill opposed tax cuts for the rich and federal budget deficits. He was fired. Lawrence Greenfield was the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. A congressionally ordered study found that Hispanic and black motorists were three times more likely to be searched or have their vehicles searched than were whites. Mr. Greenfield included the findings in his agency’s press release announcing the study’s results. He was told to delete the reference and refused. He was demoted.</p>
<p>Brian Steidle was a Marine captain who worked in Darfur, Sudan as a military advisor. He showed people pictures of acts of genocide taking place there. The state department ordered him to quit showing the photos. He refused. Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times reports that Mr. Steidle has been told he is blacklisted from all U.S. government jobs.</p>
<p>There are other examples. These suffice to let Dr. Hansen know that he is in good company. The rest of us can take no such comfort.</p>
<p>Dr. Hansen is the longtime director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and has been with the agency since 1967. He is one of the world’s experts on global warming. He has been warning about the dangers of global warming for 18 years. Dr. Hansen says that 2005 was the warmest year on record. He says the burning of fossil fuels has caused a buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. He has not been popular with George Bush for some time.</p>
<p>According to the New York Times he acquired his disfavored status when he gave a speech before the last presidential election saying he was voting for John Kerry. Things got even worse for him in December, 2005. That was the month in which he gave a dangerous speech of the sort that frightens George Bush. He said there should be a prompt reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.</p>
<p>Mr. Bush disapproves of global warming. It’s not the warming itself of which he disapproves. It’s the concept. That’s why he backed the United States out of the Kyoto treaty. Not everyone opposes the concept. There are some people even smarter than George Bush who think global warming may threaten mankind’s very existence. Mr. Bush does not like to hear from them because they contradict what he believes. Just as Mr. Bush thinks he can do whatever he wants because he’s president even if it means breaking the law, he also thinks he can believe whatever he wants even if he’s wrong.</p>
<p>He can also silence anyone who works for him who, not sharing his ignorance, publicly says so.</p>
<p>After Dr. Hansen gave his speech he was told that thenceforth the Institute’s public affairs staff would be required to “review his lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard website and requests for interviews from journalists.”</p>
<p>This was not because all these people are smarter and better informed than Dr. Hansen. The reason everything must be reviewed is that the administration wants to control what Mr. Bush’s subjects hear. Dr. Hansen says he will ignore the restrictions. “They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public” he was quoted as saying.</p>
<p>Of course people at the Goddard Institute disagree.</p>
<p>Dean Acosta is the deputy assistant administrator for public affairs. He said that there was no effort to silence Dr. Hansen. “That’s not the way we operate here at NASA. We promote openness and we speak with the facts.”</p>
<p>In the hated December speech Dr. Hansen not only warned of the perils of global warming. He said that he and other climate scientists were being muzzled. As the litany of muzzled and fired officials described above demonstrates, Dr. Hansen is in good company. It’s the rest of us who suffer when the administration protects us from the truth. We’ll get used to it.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI is a lawyer in Boulder, Colorado. he can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/02/13/whistleblowers-and-witch-hunters/ | 2006-02-13 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/amazon/" type="external">Amazon</a> has signed an international licensing pact with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution to bring the Emmy Award-winning show “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/this-is-us/" type="external">This Is Us</a>” and Jeremy Slater’s horror series “The Exorcist” to Amazon Prime Video customers across more than 200 countries.</p>
<p>The deal gives Amazon Prime Video exclusive streaming rights to both series in select countries. The service will begin rolling out the first seasons of “This Is Us” and “The Exorcist,” which is the TV adaptation of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning movie, to new countries this month.</p>
<p>“This Is Us” scored 11 Emmy nominations and won two awards Sunday night: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Sterling K. Brown (pictured) and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Gerald McRaney.</p>
<p>“‘This Is Us’ is one of the best new TV series, beloved by viewers and acclaimed by critics,” said Brad Beale, VP of worldwide television acquisition for Amazon.&#160;</p>
<p>Prime Video members in the U.K. will be able to stream both series via the Amazon Prime Video app for TVs, mobile devices and online.</p>
<p>“’This Is Us’ has captivated audiences with its incredible storytelling and relatable characters that pull on our heartstrings, while ‘The Exorcist’, with its clever twists and big scares, has been something for horror fans to behold,” said Evan Scheffel, the executive VP of 20th Century Fox Television Distribution.</p> | Amazon Prime Video Brings ‘This Is Us,’ ‘The Exorcist’ to Customers Globally | false | https://newsline.com/amazon-prime-video-brings-this-is-us-the-exorcist-to-customers-globally/ | 2017-09-18 | 1 |
<p>Shares of Straight Path Communications Inc. rallied 3.8% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the telecommunications company said it received a buyout bid from a "multi-national telecommunications company" that it deemed a "superior proposal" to the AT&amp;T Inc. agreement entered into earlier this month. Straight Path said the new all-stock bid was for $104.64 a share, or 9.4% above AT&amp;T's all-stock bid of $95.63 a share. Straight Path said AT&amp;T has five business days to to negotiate an amendment to the companies' buyout agreement. Straight Path is still bound by the AT&amp;T merger agreement, which has a $38 million termination fee. AT&amp;T's stock slipped 0.3% in premarket trade. Year to date, Straight Path shares have more than tripled, while AT&amp;T's stock has lost 5.9% and the S&amp;P 500 has gained 6%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Straight Path Says AT&T Has 5 Days To Match a 'superior' Buyout Bid It Received | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/25/straight-path-says-att-has-5-days-to-match-superior-buyout-bid-it-received.html | 2017-04-25 | 0 |
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<p>Class 1A, 2A Track and Field By Glen RosalesFor the Journal</p>
<p>When it comes to Class A girls track and field, it all comes down to Fort Sumner.</p>
<p>The Vixens won for a state record seventh straight year, finishing with 95 points, with Ashley Landreth sharing high-point honors with Cara Barnard of Melrose with 27 points.</p>
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<p>“We have some committed, hard-working young ladies,” said coach Lisa McMath. “They have a lot of pressure on them, but they have a lot of pride, a lot of talent. They know they’re going to have to work hard in practice.”</p>
<p>In boys 2A, Texico won for the second time in four years with 53 points with a strong finish in the 4X400 relay, outlasting Laguna-Acoma with 48 points and New Mexico Military Institute with 45.</p>
<p>“We came up here knowing that we had a good chance to place high,” said coach Ryan Autrey. “We had to have some things go our way. We had some things we were counting on that didn’t come through but we had some other people pick up the slack.”</p>
<p>It all came down to the final event.</p>
<p>“Going into that mile relay, they knew we had to finish in the top five,” he said. “The kids just ran hard and got us into third. I was thinking, ‘get that stick around in one piece and get in the top five.’ ”</p>
<p>Most of the seven members of the Santa Rosa girls track and field team were not yet born when the Lions last won a championship.</p>
<p>But behind an outstanding performance from sprinter Ayla Weaver, who won high-point for Class 2A, and gutsy efforts from her teammates, the Lions finished with 45 points, just ahead of East Mountain with 41 and Clayton 40.</p>
<p>“It’s amazing,” said coach Mario Trujillo, who guided the Lions football team to a third straight championship in the fall. “We thought we would end up being in the top three with a lot of good work and I told the girls coming in, they each had to do something extra out of where they are ranked, as far as where the state ranking goes, in order to win this thing and I couldn’t be more proud.”</p>
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<p>In boys 1A, Cimarron won for the first time since 2002 with 71 points, ahead of Cliff with 55 and Mountainair with 49.</p>
<p>“They went out and put the work in, they put the time in and did everything I asked of them,” said coach Joe Giglia. “I rode the backs of these boys this weekend. And they just rose to the occasion and did everything I asked. It was so team oriented. I have guys that gave up their best event just to make sure they did something for the team.”</p>
<p>It was one of those meets where everything broke just right, he said, including getting high-point boy from Henry Sime with 23.</p>
<p>“You do the things that you know you’re going to do, but they just had the perfect storm,” Giglia said. “They just had things go up. We did things we weren’t supposed to.”</p>
<p>One of the top performers of the day turned out to be Lordsburg sprinter Wendell Hayes, who not only won the 100 and 200 dashes, but came out of nowhere to capture the long jump, as well to earn 2A high point.</p>
<p>“This means a lot to me and my family,” said Hayes, who will play football and run track at West Texas A&amp;M.</p>
<p>He took the long jump on his final leap, just after barely being surpassed by Santa Rosa’s Marcus Lopez.</p>
<p>“I pretty much knew it was all or nothing,” Hayes said. “I was short of the slab but I jumped it anyway. My coaches had faith in me that I could do it. They believed in me, so this was for my coaches and all my teammates.”</p>
<p>For Fort Sumner, Landreth participated in her fifth state championship.</p>
<p>“It always down to it,” she said. “We have a lot of pride.”</p> | Vixens outfox field again | false | https://abqjournal.com/239575/vixens-outfox-field-again.html | 2 |
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<p>The Princeton Review (NASDAQ:REVU) narrowed its second-quarter loss but saw sales drop sharply as it continued to divest non-core assets in its ongoing effort to turn around the company.</p>
<p>The Framingham, Mass.-based provider of educational information for the high school and post-secondary markets posted a net loss of $7.5 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $14.6 million, or 31 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.</p>
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<p>Revenue for the three months ended June 30 was $49.6 million, down 12% from $56.2 million a year ago. The decrease was due primarily to the companys exit from the Supplementary Educational Services business last year.</p>
<p>Excluding that impact, the company lost just 4% of sales to $49.6 million, which were negatively impacted by a 9% decrease in its Penn Foster segment.</p>
<p>As we move forward in 2011, we will continue to eliminate distractions and apply our efforts toward driving value and growth in Higher Ed Readiness and Penn Foster, The Princeton Reviews chief executive, John Connolly said in a statement.</p>
<p>Last quarter, the company divested its Community College Partnership business, claiming it was no longer in line with its overall strategic plan.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | The Princeton Review Narrows 2Q Loss, But Sales Dive | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/08/05/princeton-review-narrows-2q-loss-but-sales-dive.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>Katy Grimes: Who knew that a write-in candidate could influence the outcome of some tight political races in California?</p>
<p>Karen England, Executive Director of the &#160; <a href="http://www.capitolresource.org/programs.php" type="external">Capitol Resource Institute</a>, ran as a write-in candidate against Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. Using “Bag a RINO” as a campaign mantra, England said she decided to run because, “The choice between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and moderate Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado was no choice at all for Republican voters.”</p>
<p>Recently an associate involved in Sacramento County politics made a reference to “The Karen England Factor,” as possibly influencing the final outcomes of several political races which are still being counted.</p>
<p>The “factor” is that ballots with write-in candidates are always manually counted, and in many counties, pulled aside and saved for counting until the end, along with provisional ballots.</p>
<p>Alice Jarboe with the <a href="http://www.elections.saccounty.net/default.htm" type="external">Sacramento County Voter Registrar</a>explained that her office in the past has separated write-in ballots along with provisional ballots, and held them for counting until the very end of the election. But &#160;this year, Jarboe said all ballots were processed through the counting machine first, and then the write-in ballots were separated for manual counting, verification and qualification of the write-in candidates.</p>
<p>Republicans are saying that “The Karen England Factor” influence comes into play because voters who took the time to write-in England are mostly conservative, usually Republican, politically knowledgeable and researched, whose votes may impact certain races.</p>
<p>But, we will not know if this is the case, until all ballots are counted.</p>
<p>In Sacramento County, England voters may impact the race between Scott Jones and Jim Cooper for Sheriff. And England said, “Voters may actually help Steve Cooley in his bid for Attorney General.” And, there could be other tight races in the state which “The Karen England Factor” may have an impact.</p>
<p>England received major endorsements from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and former Assemblyman Tim Leslie.</p>
<p>CalWatchdog and <a href="http://www.capitolresource.org/programs.php" type="external">Capitol Resource Institute</a> share offices, so we’ve been watching her campaign closely. We were there the day England announced she would run (although it was initially a toss up between England and CalWatchdog’s editor Steve Greenhut), and are interested to see what “The Karen England Factor” will be.</p>
<p>NOV. 15, 2010</p> | The Karen England Factor | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/11/15/the-karen-england-factor/ | 2018-11-20 | 3 |
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<p>Nov 8 (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp on Wednesday forecast a smaller loss for the third quarter, and said it signed a deal to relieve itself from making some future pension contributions.</p>
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<p>As part of an agreement, Sears will pay $407 million to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC) and relieve itself from making pension contributions for the next two years.</p>
<p>Sears said it would raise the money by selling some stores and through financing secured by some properties.</p>
<p>The payment would also release 140 Sears properties from a ring-fence arrangement with PBGC. Ringfencing separates a company's assets or profits from its finances, and is done to protect assets from creditors or for regulatory or tax purposes.</p>
<p>Sears said it has contributed about $4.5 billion to pension plans since the 2005 merger of Sears and Kmart.</p>
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<p>The retailer, which has reported years of declining sales, said it expects a net loss of between $525 million and $595 million for the third quarter from store closures, compared with a $748 million loss in the same period a year ago.</p>
<p>Sears also said it would look at options to meaningfully reduce cash interest payments in 2018.</p>
<p>The company's shares were down 3 percent in premarket trading. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar, Bernard Orr)</p> | Sears expects smaller 3Q loss, pension contribution relief | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/08/sears-expects-smaller-3q-loss-pension-contribution-relief.html | 2017-11-08 | 0 |
<p>The walls of Maurice Bishop's prime ministerial office are still blackened from the flames that swept through Butler House during the U.S. invasion in 1983. Some Grenadians say the fire that engulfed the government compound high upon the bluff at the mouth of St. George's harbor was ignited by the strafing of Cobra helicopter gunships. Others believe it was set deliberately to keep the Marines from seizing official records. No one knows for sure, just as nobody knows what happened to the body of Bishop, murdered six days earlier by rivals in the New Jewel Movement (NJM) as the Grenadian Revolution devoured itself. Now, more than a decade and a half later, Butler House is slated for demolition. A giant hotel and marina complex will be constructed in its place, financed by an East European tycoon whose influence on this tiny island may in the end rival that of Fidel Castro and Ronald Reagan.</p>
<p /> | Remembering Grenada | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/remembering-grenada | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
<p>The maker of Barbie has announced it will sell a doll modeled after Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer who competed in last year's Olympics while wearing a hijab.</p>
<p>Mattel Inc. said the doll will be available online next fall. The doll is part of the Barbie "Shero" line that honors women who break boundaries. Past dolls have included gymnast Gabby Douglas and "Selma" director Ava DuVernay.</p>
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<p>"I had so many moments as an athlete, where I didn't feel included, where I was often in spaces where there was a lack of representation," Muhammad said Monday night at the Glamour Women of the Year gala in New York. "So to be in this moment, as a U.S. Olympian, to have Mattel, such a global brand, diversify their toy line to include a Barbie doll that wears a hijab is very moving to me."</p>
<p>Muhammad, the first American to compete at the Olympics while wearing a hijab, won a bronze medal in fencing at the 2016 Rio Games.</p>
<p>"There was so much about the doll that was important to me," she said. "I know as a kid I was bullied for having larger legs, and sport taught me to embrace my body and to love my body and the strength that it could produce. I think that having strong legs helped me win a medal at the Olympic Games, so I wanted my legs to be larger, more athletic legs, toned legs. And I am very into eyeliner, so I wanted a strong-winged cat eye. And Mattel listened to everything, everything even down to the fabric of the hijab.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writer John Carucci contributed to this report.</p> | Barbie makes doll of hijab-wearing Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/13/barbie-makes-doll-hijab-wearing-olympian-ibtihaj-muhammad.html | 2017-11-13 | 0 |
<p>Former two-term Gov. Brendan Byrne, who mobsters said was too ethical to be bribed and who authorized the law permitting gambling in Atlantic City, has died at age 93.</p>
<p>Byrne, a Democrat, died Thursday at a home in Livingston, his son Tom Byrne said. He suffered an infection that went into his lungs and "was too weak to fight," the son said.</p>
<p>Byrne built his reputation as a crusading prosecutor and held numerous governmental positions during more than 30 years of public service. He also signed New Jersey's first income tax into law and authorized the law permitting gambling in Atlantic City during his two terms as the state's chief executive.</p>
<p>He won his first term as governor in 1973, beating Republican state Rep. Charles W. Sandman Jr. by more than 700,000 votes. His campaign was helped by an FBI surveillance tape that showed mobsters discussing how Byrne, the Essex County prosecutor in the 1960s, was too ethical to be bribed.</p>
<p>In a New York Post headline, Byrne was proclaimed "The Man the Mob Couldn't Buy." That slogan ended up on bumper stickers that reminded voters in the Watergate era that not all politicians were unscrupulous.</p>
<p>Fellow politicians on Thursday remembered Byrne for his honesty and integrity.</p>
<p>Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said Byrne had "an extraordinary career of public service" and did his job "with integrity, honesty, intelligence, wit and flair." State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, said New Jersey had lost one of its "most politically courageous public leaders."</p>
<p>After taking office, Byrne began to tackle the contentious issue of how to finance the state's public education system after a 1973 state Supreme Court decision declaring that the state's method of funding public education through local property taxes, along with state and federal aid, violated a clause in the state Constitution guaranteeing a "thorough and efficient" education.</p>
<p>Byrne proposed the income tax to satisfy the court's order, but the idea was unpopular with residents and lawmakers and was not approved by the Legislature until July 1976, after the court ordered all public schools closed until a new funding source was in place.</p>
<p>Despite the controversy over the income tax, Byrne easily won re-election in 1977, beating GOP state Sen. Raymond H. Bateman by nearly 300,000 votes.</p>
<p>During his first term, Byrne signed legislation creating the state Department of the Public Advocate and the state Department of Energy.</p>
<p>In 1976, he authorized a referendum that led to the approval of legalized gambling in Atlantic City, a once-popular resort area that had fallen on hard times by the early 1970s. Money earned through the casinos has since been used to revitalize parts of the city and rebuild neighborhoods and for other projects across the state.</p>
<p>Long after Byrne left office, he continued to be an active voice and weighed in on several issues, including gubernatorial elections and matters involving Rutgers University.</p>
<p>Byrne was back in the news in February 2010, when a man on a London street punched him in the face. Byrne, then 85, suffered facial cuts and soreness but declined hospital treatment afterward.</p>
<p>In February 2015, Byrne and three other former New Jersey governors urged the state Senate to delay a vote on Christie's nominee for a panel overseeing a massive pine reserve. The bipartisan group of ex-governors claimed the nomination would "undermine the independence" of the commission, but the senate approved the nominee for the job.</p>
<p>Byrne, who was born in West Orange, attended Seton Hall University for a year before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1943. He served as a pilot for two years, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and other honors before returning to New Jersey and entering Princeton University, where he graduated in 1949.</p>
<p>Byrne then enrolled at Harvard Law School, earning his degree in 1951 and entering private practice. Gov. Robert B. Meyner, also a Democrat, named Byrne an assistant counsel in 1955, and a year later Byrne became Meyner's executive secretary.</p>
<p>In 1959, Byrne was appointed Essex County prosecutor, a post he held for nine years. After serving a two-year stint as president of the state's Board of Public Utilities, he was appointed state Superior Court judge in 1970 and became assignment judge for Morris, Sussex and Warren counties. He resigned that post in 1973 after announcing that he would run for governor.</p>
<p>After leaving office in 1982, he became a senior partner at a law firm in Roseland.</p>
<p>Former two-term Gov. Brendan Byrne, who mobsters said was too ethical to be bribed and who authorized the law permitting gambling in Atlantic City, has died at age 93.</p>
<p>Byrne, a Democrat, died Thursday at a home in Livingston, his son Tom Byrne said. He suffered an infection that went into his lungs and "was too weak to fight," the son said.</p>
<p>Byrne built his reputation as a crusading prosecutor and held numerous governmental positions during more than 30 years of public service. He also signed New Jersey's first income tax into law and authorized the law permitting gambling in Atlantic City during his two terms as the state's chief executive.</p>
<p>He won his first term as governor in 1973, beating Republican state Rep. Charles W. Sandman Jr. by more than 700,000 votes. His campaign was helped by an FBI surveillance tape that showed mobsters discussing how Byrne, the Essex County prosecutor in the 1960s, was too ethical to be bribed.</p>
<p>In a New York Post headline, Byrne was proclaimed "The Man the Mob Couldn't Buy." That slogan ended up on bumper stickers that reminded voters in the Watergate era that not all politicians were unscrupulous.</p>
<p>Fellow politicians on Thursday remembered Byrne for his honesty and integrity.</p>
<p>Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said Byrne had "an extraordinary career of public service" and did his job "with integrity, honesty, intelligence, wit and flair." State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, said New Jersey had lost one of its "most politically courageous public leaders."</p>
<p>After taking office, Byrne began to tackle the contentious issue of how to finance the state's public education system after a 1973 state Supreme Court decision declaring that the state's method of funding public education through local property taxes, along with state and federal aid, violated a clause in the state Constitution guaranteeing a "thorough and efficient" education.</p>
<p>Byrne proposed the income tax to satisfy the court's order, but the idea was unpopular with residents and lawmakers and was not approved by the Legislature until July 1976, after the court ordered all public schools closed until a new funding source was in place.</p>
<p>Despite the controversy over the income tax, Byrne easily won re-election in 1977, beating GOP state Sen. Raymond H. Bateman by nearly 300,000 votes.</p>
<p>During his first term, Byrne signed legislation creating the state Department of the Public Advocate and the state Department of Energy.</p>
<p>In 1976, he authorized a referendum that led to the approval of legalized gambling in Atlantic City, a once-popular resort area that had fallen on hard times by the early 1970s. Money earned through the casinos has since been used to revitalize parts of the city and rebuild neighborhoods and for other projects across the state.</p>
<p>Long after Byrne left office, he continued to be an active voice and weighed in on several issues, including gubernatorial elections and matters involving Rutgers University.</p>
<p>Byrne was back in the news in February 2010, when a man on a London street punched him in the face. Byrne, then 85, suffered facial cuts and soreness but declined hospital treatment afterward.</p>
<p>In February 2015, Byrne and three other former New Jersey governors urged the state Senate to delay a vote on Christie's nominee for a panel overseeing a massive pine reserve. The bipartisan group of ex-governors claimed the nomination would "undermine the independence" of the commission, but the senate approved the nominee for the job.</p>
<p>Byrne, who was born in West Orange, attended Seton Hall University for a year before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1943. He served as a pilot for two years, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and other honors before returning to New Jersey and entering Princeton University, where he graduated in 1949.</p>
<p>Byrne then enrolled at Harvard Law School, earning his degree in 1951 and entering private practice. Gov. Robert B. Meyner, also a Democrat, named Byrne an assistant counsel in 1955, and a year later Byrne became Meyner's executive secretary.</p>
<p>In 1959, Byrne was appointed Essex County prosecutor, a post he held for nine years. After serving a two-year stint as president of the state's Board of Public Utilities, he was appointed state Superior Court judge in 1970 and became assignment judge for Morris, Sussex and Warren counties. He resigned that post in 1973 after announcing that he would run for governor.</p>
<p>After leaving office in 1982, he became a senior partner at a law firm in Roseland.</p> | Ex-New Jersey Gov. Byrne, too ethical for mobsters, dies | false | https://apnews.com/amp/11698870d8ef467e96ef75bc1d9c57d1 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
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<p>The presidential race obviously came up during both segments – and Colbert asked about the topic in two very different ways.</p>
<p>Obama’s interview was really a sketch, as Colbert played an office manager named “Randy” who helped Obama sharpen his interview skills for his next gig after the White House. (Obama: “I’m leaving because it’s required by the 22nd amendment of the United States Constitution.” Colbert: “When you say staying at your job would be unconstitutional, what employers hear is that you stole office supplies.”)</p>
<p>Between Colbert’s shenanigans, Obama urged young people to vote on Election Day. Colbert eventually brought up the presidential race, without mentioning the names of the candidates.</p>
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<p>“Because we are on a network television show I cannot allow you to endorse a candidate right now, but I would like to ask you about your choice of snacks,” Colbert said, holding up both options. “Would you care for an extra-fiber nutrient bar which has traveled to more than 100 countries – or this shriveled tangerine covered in golden retriever hair filled with bile that I wouldn’t leave alone with the woman I love?”</p>
<p>“I think I’ll go with the fiber nutrient bar,” Obama told him.</p>
<p>O’Reilly’s interview was much more straightforward, as he stopped by to talk about his new book and the third presidential debate on Wednesday, which will be moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace. The election came up as soon as O’Reilly sat down.</p>
<p>“Bill, what the hell is going on? Do you understand what’s going on? … Is this election rigged?” Colbert asked. “Trump isn’t saying it might be rigged, he’s saying it is rigged. Is it rigged?”</p>
<p>“No,” O’Reilly assured him. “But it’s not a traditional election.” He continued: “Everybody’s angry in the country, everybody’s mad. So we’re living in a time in history which is a divided nation -“</p>
<p>“Not everybody’s angry,” Colbert broke in. “Some people are angry, some people are scared, some people are -“</p>
<p>“Disenchanted,” O’Reilly offered.</p>
<p>“Or disgusted,” Colbert said, as the studio audience laughed.</p>
<p>O’Reilly went on: “You have two polarized candidates. You have Secretary Clinton who has a long history of being controversial. And then you have the new guy comes in and he wipes out all the traditional politicians, Trump. Because people are angry at the traditional politicians. It wasn’t that he did anything so extraordinary, it was they hated everybody else and they just didn’t know him as a politician.”</p>
<p>Colbert asked if Trump was “whining” too much with his “rigged election” claims. “Nobody really cares about the ‘rigged’ stuff, and he wastes a lot of time doing that,” O’Reilly said.</p>
<p>The two went on to discuss other subjects, including whether GOP vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence is, as Colbert puts it, “the saddest man in the world”; O’Reilly’s earlier claims that there are three media organizations that have been “ordered to destroy Trump”; and what Fox News Channel is like post-Roger Ailes. For the record, O’Reilly said it’s a little more “decentralized.”</p>
<p>tv-colbert</p> | Stephen Colbert asks President Obama, Bill O’Reilly about the election – in very different ways | false | https://abqjournal.com/869550/stephen-colbert-asks-president-obama-bill-oreilly-about-the-election-in-very-different-ways.html | 2016-10-18 | 2 |
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<p>In a statement Monday, the church leaders say they are joining the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in calling on Catholics to pray for refugees.</p>
<p>"Our Lord, in a special way, holds the most vulnerable close to his heart and, in this time of tragic loss of innocent life, we too should hold the people of Syria and Iraq close to our hearts," Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, Las Cruces Bishop Oscar Cantu and Gallup Bishop James Wall said in the statement.</p>
<p>They also asked parishioners to call members of Congress to support needed development aid for refugee host countries.</p>
<p>The bishops say the vast majority of refugees are innocent, law-abiding people who are fleeing persecution and death.</p>
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<p>New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she's opposed to the Obama administration's plan to accept any more Syrian refugees until there's a plan to properly vet and place them.</p>
<p>Martinez made the comment last week as several U.S. governors threatened to impede efforts to allow Syrian refugees into their states in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris.</p>
<p>The Obama administration recently pledged to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees. Governors in many states are responding to heightened concerns that terrorists might use the refugees as cover to sneak across borders.</p>
<p>Government statistics show the U.S. has taken about 2,150 Syrians since October 2011 - most in the past year.</p> | New Mexico Catholic bishops seek support of Syrian refugees | false | https://abqjournal.com/681093/new-mexico-catholic-bishops-support-syrian-refugees.html | 2015-11-24 | 2 |
<p>The stock of retail propane distributor Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. (NYSE: FGP) is trading near <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/11/at-an-all-time-low-is-ferrellgas-partners-lp-a-buy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7dde44b6-8071-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">all-time lows</a>. That's impressive given that its shares have been publicly traded since 1994. How did we get to this point?</p>
<p>It all started when management cut the distribution payment by 80% to focus on cleaning up the balance sheet. The company has maintained a considerable amount of debt for many consecutive years, but things began getting a little out of hand in 2016 after Ferrellgas Partners tried to build out midstream operations. It hasn't gone well.</p>
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<p>In fact, summarizing the state of the balance sheet by simply saying "out of hand" may be generous. At the end of the most recent quarter, the company reported shareholders' equity of negative $703 million. That means Ferrellgas Partners has an unbelievable book value of negative $6.50 per share.</p>
<p>Can management dig out of this massive hole?</p>
<p>Just to refresh our memories:</p>
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<p>Poring through the last 10 years of SEC filings shows that relatively high debt balances have been the norm for Ferrellgas Partners. That means the company's book value has historically hovered around $100 million.</p>
<p>Relatively high debt levels are just the nature of the business: equipment, distribution, and refueling are all expensive pieces of a profitable puzzle. Pulling the trigger on over 235 acquisitions in the last 75 years also helps to keep a company leveraged. Yet, given the tax advantaged partnership structure and the profitability of the business, debt balances haven't usually been a big problem for investors nor the company.</p>
<p>But things are different today. Ferrellgas Partners ended its most recent quarter with nearly $2 billion in long-term debt -- roughly double the balance maintained for most of the last 10 years.</p>
<p>That matters because companies must maintain certain leverage ratios with creditors. The retail propane leader had to negotiate raising its leverage ratio, but now has to borrow at higher interest rates. So, the most reasonable way to climb out of the hole it dug was to slash distribution payments and divert that cash flow to debt payments. Unfortunately, volatile weather in recent periods has impacted operating cash flow at exactly the wrong time.</p>
<p>Weather impacts or not, the faster Ferrellgas Partners reduces debt the faster it can increase distribution payments. Can the company pull it off?</p>
<p>It depends. After blowing past the previous leverage ratio cap of 5.5x management negotiated a new ceiling of 7.75x through April 2018 (the end of the company's fiscal third-quarter 2018). The ultimate goal is to pay down the debt and lower the leverage ratio to 4.5x or lower. At the end of April management reported a leverage ratio of 6.45 times, which means it has both breathing room and quite a ways to go.</p>
<p>Diverting cash flow away from distribution payments and toward debt reduction will go a long way to meeting that goal. But cash flow is ultimately driven by operations, which have been a mixed bag lately. Warmer than expected weather has dragged down the propane business, although midstream operations may begin to improve with the rest of the sector in the quarters ahead. Ironically, the latter segment, which got the company into its current mess, may be the most important driving force to climb out of the current situation.</p>
<p>Overall, operating income is up about 12% through the first nine months of fiscal 2017 compared to the year-ago period. That's promising for the company's debt reduction efforts in the next 12 months. However, Wall Street has lost faith in Ferrellgas Partners stock and will want to see enormous progress before reassessing the company's valuation. Talking about the plan simply won't be enough.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Ferrellgas PartnersWhen 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=00eaeb8c-1053-4aaa-b6f8-d679118ebd80&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7dde44b6-8071-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Ferrellgas Partners wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7dde44b6-8071-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Maxx Chatsko</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=7dde44b6-8071-11e7-a9c8-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | You Wouldn't Believe Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. 's Book Value | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/14/wouldnt-believe-ferrellgas-partners-l-p-s-book-value.html | 2017-08-14 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE) is a behemoth in the energy infrastructure space. However, as the company has grown, it has become increasingly complex, which makes it tougher for some investors to understand what it owns and how it makes money. For visual learners, the following three charts should help to demystify the complexity.</p>
<p>The best way to understand Energy Transfer Equity's corporate structure is to see the big picture of how the company and its various entities relate to each other:</p>
<p>Source: Energy Transfer Equity Investor Presentation.</p>
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<p>As that chart shows, Energy Transfer Equity is in a sense the parent company to four subordinate entities: Energy Transfer LNG, Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN), Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP), and Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE: SXL). That said, it has a different ownership relationship which each entity. For example, it owns 100% of Energy Transfer LNG, which is a natural gas import facility and a future LNG export facility. As a result, it directly collects 100% of the profits earned by that entity. Meanwhile, it has varying ownership interests in the three publicly traded MLPs. Moreover, one of the MLPs (Energy Transfer Partners) has ownership interests in the other two. However, what is most important to understand is that each ownership interest entitles Energy Transfer Equity to an underlying cash flow stream.</p>
<p>This next chart shows what those various streams mean for Energy Transfer Equity's bottom line.</p>
<p>Source: Energy Transfer Equity investor presentation. Chart by author. Note: In millions of dollars.</p>
<p>That chart makes one thing abundantly clear: Energy Transfer Equity derives the bulk of its income from its ownership interest in Energy Transfer Partners, withincentive distribution rights (IDRs) providing the bulk of its earnings. In fact, through the first six months of this year, $543 million of its $846 million in revenue came from that one entity, which is 64% of the total.</p>
<p>At first glance, that might seem odd, given that Energy Transfer Equity has a larger ownership stake in Lake Charles LNG and owns a greater percentage of Sunoco LP's units. However, the reason Energy Transfer Partners supplies more cash flow to its parent is that it generates substantially more distributable cash flow than its fellow affiliates. Last quarter, for example, it produced $774 million in distributable cash flow, compared to $92 million at Sunoco LP and $44 million at Lake Charles. The reason its higher cash flow matters is due to the IDRs, which give the owner an increasing share of the underlying MLP's growing stream of distributable cash flow. So, because Energy Transfer Partners generates the most cash flow, it supplies its parent company with more IDRs.</p>
<p>The other thing that is important to understand about Energy Transfer Equity is that it collects a significant portion of the cash flow generated by its MLPs. For example, while Energy Transfer Partners produced $774 million in distributable cash flow last quarter, it distributed only $527 million to its public unitholders. It sent the rest (and then some) up to Energy Transfer Equity via four distinct revenue streams:</p>
<p>Source: Energy Transfer Equity investor presentation. Chart by author.</p>
<p>Overall, the partnership paid a net $323 million, or 38% of its total cash distributions, to the parent company. To put that into perspective, Energy Transfer Equity owns only 1% of Energy Transfer Partners' outstanding units, and yet it gets paid roughly 38% of its cash flow due primarily to those lucrative IDRs. Further, that share would have been 45% if the company did not relinquish a substantial portion of its IDRs to support Energy Transfer Partners' growth program.</p>
<p>Energy Transfer Equity is much more complicated than the average general partner MLP. That said, at its core, it is a holding company for ownership stakes in four other entities, with the bulk of its earnings coming from IDRs at its namesake MLP. Those IDRs are critical because they give it an outsize share of the cash flow generated by its MLPs.</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://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> | Understanding Energy Transfer Equity LP in Just 3 Charts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/21/understanding-energy-transfer-equity-lp-in-just-3-charts.html | 2016-09-21 | 0 |
<p>Cricket isn't&#160;known for its&#160;violence, but&#160;tragedy struck the genteel sport this week when a young Australian star died from injuries he sustained during a match.</p>
<p>Phillip Hughes, aged&#160;just&#160;25&#160;years&#160;old,&#160;was a powerful batsman and&#160;a rising star of Australia's international teams. He was batting during a match&#160;on Wednesday&#160;in Australia's domestic cricket league, called the Sheffield Shield competition, when he was struck&#160;in the back of the&#160;neck&#160;by a ball bowled to him at 93 miles per hour.</p>
<p>Hughes&#160;was rushed to the hospital but died on Thursday from internal bleeding.&#160;The ball struck Hughes’ vertebral artery and caused <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/27/sport/australia-cricket-phil-hughes-obit/" type="external">what Australia's team doctor called</a> a&#160;"massive bleed into his brain."&#160;Surgeons were unable to relieve the swelling around the brain, and Hughes never regained consciousness after he was hit.</p>
<p>Nick Marshall-McCormack, an Australian journalist&#160;with BBC Sports, says the incident shows how cricket, despite its image, is actually a&#160;tough and sometimes aggressive sport.</p>
<p>The kind of bowled ball that struck&#160;Hughes is called a "bouncer," in which the ball is thrown so it strikes the ground well short of the batter and&#160;bounces up suddenly. It's also a perfectly legal intimidation tactic,&#160;much like a brushback pitch in baseball.&#160;</p>
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<p>“It’s a part of the arsenal of any bowler,” Marshall-McCormack says, a tactic&#160;“to try to unsettle the batsman&#160;in a hurry, almost aiming at their heads or upper body. It’s been around as part of the game for over a century. But never before has it killed a batsman.”</p>
<p>That's why no one is pointing fingers at the man who bowled the ball at Hughes.&#160;“Nobody blames him for what he did,” Marshall-McCormack says. “He was just doing his job.”</p>
<p>Other players are in shock over Hughes' death,&#160;Marshall-McCormack says, but he's not&#160;the first cricketer to die on the field — even recently.&#160;Two minor league players were killed in 2013,&#160;one in South Africa and one in Pakistan. One was struck in the head, the other in the chest.</p>
<p>Marshall-McCormack says the game is “dangerous, yes, but obviously manageable.” Batsmen do&#160;wear helmets and other protective gear, including big leg pads not unlike those found on a hockey goalie.&#160;</p>
<p>Yet the&#160;Times of India, a powerful voice in the world's most cricket-mad nation, called on Thursday <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/cricket-isnt-worth-dying-for-ban-bouncers-thats-the-only-way-to-prevent-tragedies-like-phil-hughess-death/" type="external">for&#160;bouncers&#160;to be outlawed</a>. "Cricket isn't worth dying for," read the headline on the paper's editorial.</p>
<p>There has been an outpouring of grief and sympathy in cricketing nations across the world, but especially in Australia, where cricket is a hugely popular sport. Flags are at half-mast.&#160;Individuals and organizations are also showing their concern by tweeting images under the hashtags #PutOutYourBats and #PutYourBatsOut.</p>
<p>“This is all about taking a photo of your cricket bat outside your house, outside your workplace, outside your office, outside the headquarters of almost every company," Marshall-McCormack explains. "They’re all showing their respect to Phillip Hughes.”</p>
<p>“I’ve met Phil Hughes in my career,”&#160;Marshall-McCormack remembers. “I’ve interviewed him many a time and shared jokes. He was one of the cheekiest lads you’ll ever meet … It’s so tragic.”</p> | Cricket fans worldwide pay tribute to young star who died tragically from on-field injuries | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-11-28/cricket-fans-worldwide-pay-tribute-young-star-who-died-tragically-field | 2014-11-28 | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico State Police are investigating a fatal crash on Interstate 40 involving a tractor-trailer near Moriarty.</p>
<p>All lanes of I-40 westbound were closed at mile marker 194 in Moriarty due to the crash before being reopened Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>According to officials, the fatal crash occurred when a tractor-trailer came to a stop due to an earlier crash and a passenger car slammed into its rear end. The driver of the passenger car died.</p>
<p>The earlier collision is being handled by the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office.</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Fatal crash on I-40 investigated | false | https://abqjournal.com/270142/fatal-crash-on-i40-investigated.html | 2013-09-27 | 2 |
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<p>The trial of George Zimmerman has barely begun and one can see the outrageous steps that an overzealous prosecution and complicit judge will go to in order to get a conviction.</p>
<p>Before we get to that though, we must start at the beginning. &#160;I still contend that if George Zimmerman went by his mother’s maiden name and was Jorge Mesa that the nation never would have heard this story. &#160;But when you get someone with a white sounding name shooting a black guy, facts and objectivity be damned for the national media.</p>
<p>The railroading began almost immediately. &#160;Do you recall the pictures that the media was showing of the two? &#160;George’s picture was basically a poor looking mugshot, while his attacker was shown almost as a toddler. &#160;Something like this:</p>
<p><a href="http://bulletsfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/baby-trayvon-and-predator-zimmerman.jpg" type="external" /></p>
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<p>And I guess the media just overlooked for MONTHS the actual damage that Martin did to Zimmerman when he attacked him:</p>
<p><a href="http://bulletsfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/zimface.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://bulletsfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/zimhead.jpg" type="external" /></p>
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<p>The first photo shows Zimmerman got smacked around. &#160;If it was ONLY that, an argument can be made that you shouldn’t draw your gun in a fist fight and that he overreacted. &#160;But the second photo is the proof that Zimmerman was on his back getting his head smashed into the concrete.</p>
<p>Perhaps if the media wasn’t thirsty for racial sensationalism, Zimmerman would’ve gotten a fair shake. &#160;But a fair shake was the last thing on the &#160;minds of those at <a href="http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/nbc-deceptively-edits-george-zimmermans-words-on-911-tape/" type="external">NBC who altered the 911 call Zimmerman</a> made in order to make him sound racist.</p>
<p>With a national news outlet fraudulently trying to sway public opinion against Zimmerman and by the fact that by the time the pictures of his beating saw a national newscast the die was &#160;cast. &#160;Prosecutors had moved forward and the train was picking up steam. &#160;To step back would require political courage…which is apparently lacking in the prosecutors office.</p>
<p>Courage…and ethics as it turns out. &#160;The current <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57588085-504083/george-zimmerman-trial-judge-to-weigh-possible-prosecutor-sanctions-post-trial/" type="external">prosecutor faces post-trial sanctions due to the failure to turn over photographic and text message evidence</a> that all but obliterates Trayvon Martin’s goody good image.</p>
<p>So Zimmerman gets railroaded first by the media. &#160;Then he gets railroaded by an attention seeking recreant prosecutor with questionable ethics.</p>
<p>Next, we go to the Judge which may be the most damning of all. &#160;When Zimmerman’s defense team tried to enter into evidence <a href="http://news.iheart.com/articles/national-news-104668/trayvon-martins-drug-use-suspension-not-11327392/" type="external">Martin’s past drug use and habitual violence</a> the judge barred them, stating that it wasn’t relevant.</p>
<p>A history of violence and both spontaneous outbursts and coordinated attacks of said violence isn’t relevant? &#160;That is akin to saying that if a woman shot and killed her would be rapist, all the past rapes he committed aren’t relevant.</p>
<p>It’s ludicrous. And Judge Nelson is complicit in the railroading of Zimmerman because for a year and a half Zimmerman has been tried in the media and the majority of the press has been about what a good sweet kid Trayvon was.</p>
<p>Anyone on the jury who owns a TV might just be a little swayed by 16 months of canonizing Martin and demonizing Zimmerman. &#160;To add some context to the kind of person Martin was would at least be a semblance of fairness.</p>
<p>But apparently, we live in an age where fairness doesn’t trump agenda’s, egos and political aspirations.</p>
<p>This is a cautionary tale to all those who carry. &#160;When you shoot, be &#160;sure you need to, because even if you are getting your head beat into the ground there might be someone in power who thinks you should just lie there and take it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.exurbanleague.com/misfires/2013/01/03/lie-back-and-think-of-england/" type="external">The same kind of people who think its better to be raped than shoot your rapist.</a></p>
<p>But at the end of the day, I still find the old adage true…better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.</p>
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<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | Zimmerman on the tracks to be railroaded – A cautionary tale to gun owners | true | http://bulletsfirst.net/2013/06/11/zimmerman-on-the-tracks-to-be-railroaded-a-cautionary-tale-to-gun-owners/ | 0 |
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<p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) speaks with reporters about the James Comey firing on Wednesday.Jacquelyn Martin/AP</p>
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<p>Emerging from a closed-door strategy meeting following President Donald Trump’s unexpected firing of FBI Director James Comey, Democratic senators on Wednesday appeared to be working out their next steps to address what some of them described as a constitutional crisis.</p>
<p>Several senators said they were losing faith in the ability of political appointees at the Justice Department to oversee the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions <a href="" type="internal">recused</a> himself from the investigation in March after he had been caught lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his own contacts with Russian officials. That meant Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would oversee the Russia probe. But Democrats are now questioning&#160;Rosenstein’s independence after he drafted a three-page memo criticizing Comey’s&#160;handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails that Trump used as the rationale for dumping Comey.</p>
<p>Following the meeting, several&#160;Senate Democrats called for a special counsel to be appointed by a career Justice Department official—not&#160;Rosenstein, a political appointee—to take over the Russia inquiry. “I don’t have faith in the political appointees, so it should be appointed by the senior-most career lawyer at the Justice Department,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) agreed, saying, “The best way to do it is to have the deputy attorney general delegate to the top career person the decision to appoint a special counsel.” Asked if that means he had no confidence in Rosenstein, Casey responded, “I think there are a lot of questions about that now.” (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders have steadfastly opposed handing this probe to a special prosecutor or setting up an independent commission.)</p>
<p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that she recently voted to confirm Rosenstein but now had doubts. “This issue should be handled by the most senior career official at [the Justice Department],” she said. Feinstein criticized <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/09/us/politics/document-White-House-Fires-James-Comey.html" type="external">Rosenstein’s memo</a>&#160;on Comey, saying it was based more on quotes from others than on his own reading of the law. “If you read his paper, it’s not a legal paper,” she said. “It’s quotes assembled from other people…so as I read the recommendation, it was not legal, it was not done on any legal theory, any legal law. It was done on what this person and what another person said.”</p>
<p>Democrats are in the minority, and when asked what they can do to force the selection of a special counsel and more generally protect the investigation, they mostly demurred. But their message seems to be clear: They are describing the firing in the most dire terms as a looming constitutional crisis with American democracy at stake. And they expressed tentative hope that their GOP colleagues might join their call for independent oversight.</p>
<p>Some Democrats want to give Republicans time to think the situation over. “This is 12 hours old,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told the Washington Post after the meeting. “I think we have to give a little time for Republicans to have a conversation.” Though Republicans have generally been united, some have expressed concerns since Comey’s firing, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has repeatedly called for a special congressional committee to investigate Russian influence in the election and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/trump-comey-fbi-senators.html" type="external">renewed</a> those calls. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Comey’s firing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-comeys-ouster-democrats-press-for-independent-probe-of-russias-meddling-in-election/2017/05/10/88c45624-3529-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html?utm_term=.569317fb9a4f" type="external">could delay</a> his committee’s investigation. Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have also expressed concern about the firing.</p>
<p>“Some of them are at least placid on the outside,”&#160;Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said of his GOP colleagues, “but others have expressed a real concern as to what this means.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) added, “Certainly there is a lot of disquiet and doubt about this looming constitutional crisis that we face… I have spoken to Republicans and they are certainly thinking very seriously about the constitutional crisis that we face right now.”</p>
<p>Durbin agreed that the Comey firing points toward a constitutional crisis. “I think it’s constitutional”—rather than political—”because it raises a question about the separation of powers and also about whether a president can be held accountable under the law, a president and his team,” he said.</p>
<p /> | Democrats, Sensing a Constitutional Crisis, Plot Out Their Next Steps | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/democrats-plot-post-comey-strategy/ | 2017-05-10 | 4 |
<p>Cut services for poorer senior citizens and the disabled or tax the rich? That’s the question that will be debated in the New Jersey Legislature on Monday as the state maneuvers to balance a budget deficit of close to $11 billion.</p>
<p>The tax, which was overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans last year, would re-impose a 10.75 percent levy on income over $1 million and affect a grand total of 16,000 people — many of whom are financial professionals working on Wall Street. –JCL</p>
<p>Reuters:</p>
<p>New Jersey politicians are due to battle on Monday over whether to slap a tax on millionaires or cut services for low-income senior citizens and the disabled.</p>
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<p>The clash in the state legislature is part of a wider battle over how to erase a $10.7 billion budget deficit and is emblematic of the decisions facing states across America whose budget deficits have soared during the recession.</p>
<p>Democrats want to re-impose a one-year tax on millionaires that has been vetoed by Republican Governor Chris Christie. The 10.75 percent tax on income above $1 million would hit 16,000 people, some of them likely to work as financial professionals just across the Hudson River in New York.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65J1NQ20100620" type="external">Read more</a></p> | New Jersey: Ding the Poor or Tax the Rich? | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/nj_faces_easiest_budget_decision_ever_20100620/ | 2010-06-20 | 4 |
<p>On this, the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it’s important to understand the financial system that drives economic injustice – the reason why the scales always seem to be tilted towards the 1%.</p>
<p>Every time we participate in this system, by using our banking account and its front end, the payment system, we are reinforcing both the power structure and the values that keep the system in place. Thomas Jefferson named money the “circulating medium”; to participate in economic activity means that you will likely participate in the money system. Two centuries later, in our country, that system is a private franchise that is owned, operated and controlled by Wall Street banks.</p>
<p>But there is a way to break the system’s grip and free ourselves from participating in the existing money system: public banking.</p>
<p>Hardly a radical idea, since it is a part of every other developed country, public banking offers a transformative approach to democratizing money and establishing the post-Wall Street era. It holds a key that can unlock us from this fundamentally unjust system because it puts the reins of control into the hands of the citizens who are, after all, the owners of the banks. Public banking creates the opportunity to build a democratic consensus around core concepts such as how much new money is created and who gets to receive it - facts that are now the exclusive purview of Wall Street bankers.</p>
<p>Most significantly, public banking provides a chance for people to conduct economic activity and participate in a system entirely separate from the private banking system. It’s a way for us to take back our economy and put into place the funding needed for local, city, county or state solutions to local problems.</p>
<p>As more evidence of economic injustice is uncovered (LIBOR fraud, muni bond rigging, “mortgage relief” for homeowners as a cover for more bank bailouts) and as the collusion between Wall Street and the federal government continues, Occupy Wall Street can become even more of a moving force. It can do this by continuing to bear testimony that an oligarchy is systematically benefiting from the labor of the 99%, that the 1% are using the corporate-owned media to blame government and use divisive social issues as a distracting sideshow, and that Wall Street banks and their top shareholders control our money supply and our government at the federal and some state levels.</p>
<p>In this system, interest is used as a tax, generating an endless stream of payments as a kind of tithe to our masters. Some studies show that over 40% of the cost of ANY product is the cost of interest all the way up the supply chain. Guess who receives that benefit?</p>
<p>The silent candlelight vigil held by Occupy Wall Street participants one year ago on the evening of September 17 was the beginning of the end of our fealty to the money system and its private masters. Not only was the crime scene identified, but our masters were named. The Department of Justice is no longer investigating these crimes, but on some level, that no longer matters. After all, this latest injustice is just a continuation of what has been going on for decades. But beginning that night, the light was turned on for many of us. Now, a commitment is growing to build an alternative money system with economic justice and democratic participation at its core.</p>
<p>We don’t have to look too far for examples of alternatives in the banking arena. New Zealand has the very successful KiwiBank, a publicly-owned post office bank that provides a full complement of banking services, including loans, to its customers. Three of the four national letter carrier unions in the U.S., in their national conventions this past August, adopted a similar platform. North Dakota, the only state in the country with its own bank, has low cost loan programs for students, homeowners, commercial business owners and farmers.</p>
<p>Local currency systems are already multiplying around the country. Some, like Mountain Hours in Colorado, democratize money by issuing their new debt-free money in a fair and just process. These public, democratic and sometimes nascent efforts are important ways to re-create a money system that better reflects the values of the people.</p>
<p>Here is a platform for the post-Wall Street era that public banking advocates are working to create:</p>
<p>• Public banks are capitalized with funds from local investors and pension funds, which receive a reasonable and guaranteed rate of return.</p>
<p>• Public banks fund loans at very low interest rates for students attending public higher education institutions.</p>
<p>• Public banks fund home mortgages without undermining the integrity of the public registry (County Recorders Offices).</p>
<p>• Public banks have commercial loan programs that reflect the values of the people (renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, co-operatives, etc.).</p>
<p>• Public banks serve as a mutual credit exchange system, where commerce is done without the need to transfer money except as an ultimate clearing agent.</p>
<p>• Public banks have their own payment systems for use with multiple currencies (national and local).</p>
<p>The post-Wall Street era is about stepping out of the existing system and creating banking and investment opportunities at a local level. There is plenty of money to fund this – over $1 trillion of public monies are now deposited in Wall Street banks. These same deposits could be placed in public banks to serve the very same public that generated the money in the first place.</p>
<p>The post-Wall Street banking era begins with taking public money out of Wall Street banks and putting it into a banking system that better serves the needs of the people. That’s what we mean by public banking.</p> | Banking on a Post-Wall Street Era | true | http://occupy.com/article/banking-post-wall-street-era | 4 |
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<p>HONG KONG (Reuters) – Dalian Wanda Group sold one of China’s largest ski resorts to another conglomerate in June, online news website The Paper reported, although it did not give a deal value for the site billed by Wanda as a $3 billion investment project.</p>
<p>The report follows several large asset sales this year by the Wanda group, which is led by billionaire founder Wang Jianlin. Wanda and some other high-profile Chinese conglomerates have also had to scale back their ambitions in the wake of Beijing’s crackdown on large debt-fueled acquisitions overseas not seen as strategic.</p>
<p>Control of the Changbaishan International Resort in northern China was transferred to the Dalian Yifang Group on June 16, The Paper said in a Nov. 29 article citing the resort’s registry.</p>
<p>It added that Wanda retained the management and operational rights to the resort.</p>
<p>Wanda declined to comment. It has previously described the 21 square kilometer resort as a 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) investment project – its first tourism project and China’s largest ski resort.</p>
<p>A representative for Dalian Yifang’s investment department was not immediately available for comment.Wanda announced plans this year to sell most of its tourism projects and hotels in China to Sunac China Holdings Ltd (HK:) and Guangzhou R&amp;F Properties Co Ltd (HK:) for about $9 billion.</p>
<p>This week, the group’s founder Wang agreed to buy a majority stake in Wanda Hotel Development Co (HK:) for $470 million from Wanda Commercial Properties, a move that is expected to boost liquidity at the indebted property firm.</p>
<p>Dalian Yifang Group, chaired by Sun Xishuang, is a close business partner of Wanda in many onshore and offshore projects, according to The Paper.</p>
<p>($1 = 6.6153 )</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> | Dalian Wanda sold major China ski resort in June: report | false | https://newsline.com/dalian-wanda-sold-major-china-ski-resort-in-june-report/ | 2017-12-04 | 1 |
<p>Commenting on the results of Election Day 2006, Republican Party pollster Bill McInturff told the Wall Street Journal that Republicans faced “the most difficult environment since Watergate,” referring to the scandal that forced then-President Richard Nixon to resign from office in 1974.</p>
<p>This is encouraging news for everyone who has spent the last week celebrating the Republican Party’s “thumping'” by the angry electorate-to quote the visibly disoriented president, fumbling for words, in a White House press conference the day after.</p>
<p>Within 24 hours after the polls closed, we were treated to the sight of Donald Rumsfeld-no longer sneering, but instead choking back tears-during his brief Oval Office “resignation” ceremony, before Bush’s handlers permanently shuffled him out of sight.</p>
<p>The seemingly unstoppable Bush regime unraveled with stunning rapidity when faced with a massive voter rebellion last Tuesday. The widely accepted notion of the apathetic (and, presumably, politically contented) American majority also took a thumping last Tuesday. The angry electorate</p>
<p>According to the New York Times’ exit polls, six in ten voters said their vote was based on national, not local, issues. The same percentage disapproved of the war in Iraq and said the war had not increased the security of the United States. Six in ten voters also disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job. Six in ten voters who described themselves as “independents” voted Democrat, while two-thirds said they were dissatisfied or angry with Republican leaders.</p>
<p>There was also a class component to the Democrats’ victories. About half of all voters said they had just enough money to continue at their present standard of living (otherwise known as living a paycheck or two away from poverty), while one-fifth said they were falling behind financially.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported that exit polls showed that of the 31 percent of voters who said they are “getting ahead financially,” 63 percent voted Republican; among the 51 percent who reported they are “maintaining their living standard,” 39 percent voted Republican; and among the 17 percent who said they are “falling behind financially,” only 21 percent voted Republican.</p>
<p>Indeed, 66 percent of those who hadn’t completed high school voted Democrat.</p>
<p>Race also played a key role in voting patterns, although a higher percentage of whites also voted Democrat. The percentage of white voters going for Democrats was 48 percent in 2006, compared with 41 percent in 2004. African-Americans continued their long-standing loyalty to the Democrats, by an 88 percent margin (identical to 2004). Asian voters voted by a margin of 67 percent for Democrats in 2006, compared to 56 percent in 2004.</p>
<p>But Latino voters showed the greatest increase in Democratic voting: 73 percent in 2006, compared with 53 percent in 2004. Only 27 percent of Latinos supported Republicans, in contrast to the more than 40 percent of Latinos who voted for Bush in 2004.</p>
<p>The 2006 election also drew the highest percentage of young voters (under age 30) in a mid-term election in 20 years-up by more than 4 percent since 2002. According to exit polls, 61 percent voted Democratic in House elections, playing a key role in close races that pushed Democrats over the top. Enter stage left: the other corporate party</p>
<p>The Democrats must also appreciate that their victories in the November 7 elections were due in large part to a shift in corporate loyalties. The Republican Party has traditionally been the preferred party of America’s corporate class, openly parading the virtues of laissez faire capitalism. But the Democratic Party remains the corporate party-in-waiting, ready to cloak the same class loyalties with compromises aimed at curbing mass discontent when it threatens the class status quo.</p>
<p>The Bush administration served the corporate class well, providing tax cuts for the wealthiest percentile in the midst of a major war. But the electorate apparently caught on to this increasingly transparent hoax.</p>
<p>Corporate dollars began a significant shift to the Democratic side in the weeks before the 2006 election, signaling a ruling-class consensus on the need to shift from “Plan A” to “Plan B”. It cannot be a coincidence that Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual indiscretions became media fodder just six weeks before the election-since they were well known, apparently, years ago. While it is a pleasure to watch the mainstream media attacking Bush ruthlessly now, their corporate sponsors have approved and encouraged the media’s about-face.</p>
<p>Given the limits of the two-party system, the Republicans’ loss was the Democrats’ gain. But the message was unmistakable. As the Chicago Tribune noted on November 8,</p>
<p>“Americans finally got to vote on the war. They want change. They got to vote on one-party rule. They rejected it. They got a chance to vote local. They voted national. Indeed, the Democrats essentially beat something with nothing. They offered no clear agenda, no Contract with America, not even a memorable bumper sticker. This was an election driven by feelings of rejection far more than embrace.”</p>
<p>The Democrats are rejoicing in their successful “centrist” strategy in this election-deliberately running Democratic social conservatives opposed to abortion and gay marriage against Republican social conservatives also opposed to abortion and gay marriage in several key races. These included abortion opponent Bob Casey Jr., who beat Republican abortion opponent Rick Santorum for his Pennsylvania Senate seat; the also victorious Indiana sheriff Brad Ellsworth, who won a House seat while opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage; and Christian Heath Shuler, an evangelical who won a House seat in North Carolina last Tuesday. And they will seek to continue this “centrist” strategy into the 2008 presidential election.</p>
<p>But the election results were definitive on only one issue: discontent with the Republican Party. The red-state vs. blue state formula adopted after Kerry’s defeat in 2004 was extinguished by voting results, in which Republicans who just months ago were on top in opinion polls were voted out in many “red states.” Rising expectations: the Democrats’ dilemma</p>
<p>But the Democratic victories have led to a rise in mass expectations for an end to the Iraq war, a raise in the minimum wage, and an end to political corruption.</p>
<p>The Democrats, of course, have no plans to shake things up. This election was widely touted as a referendum on the war. But so far, Democrats have provided only a vaguely worded “phased withdrawal” of U.S. troops from Iraq at an unspecified future date.</p>
<p>In a post-election interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, likely 2008 presidential contender Barack Obama backpedaled on his earlier pledge to begin withdrawing troops by the end of this year:</p>
<p>“I think now it’s too late to try to start something before the end of the year. What I would do is sit down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military that’s actually on the ground and figure out, how do we fit together a military strategy that can start that phased redeployment, but ensure not total collapse in Iraq, and also make sure that we engage the Iraqi government [We need] to make sure that they [the Iraqis] know we’re serious about not being there permanently.”</p>
<p>Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, in line to become chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was more explicit. “We have to tell the Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and that we’re going to begin to have a phased withdrawal in four to six months,” he threatened-as if Iraqis invited the U.S. to invade and occupy their country in 2003 and are now taking advantage of Americans’ waning goodwill.</p>
<p>So far, Democrats have gone no further than deferring to the recommendations of the (Republican) James Baker-led Iraq Study Group-which is rumored to embrace a strategy for significantly lowering down U.S. troops at an unspecified date.</p>
<p>Overall, the watchword of the victorious Democrats remains “bipartisanship.” Despite the venom of their own campaign ads, they seek compromise with the Republican Party.</p>
<p>This is not surprising, since a U.S. defeat in Iraq would be on par with the humiliation U.S. imperialism suffered after its defeat in Vietnam. And both Democrats and Republicans are, after all, pro-war, imperialist parties.</p>
<p>The electorate has spoken. But it is worth noting that the Watergate scandal, while ending Nixon’s presidency, did not lead to a seismic shift leftward in the political climate. On the contrary, U.S. politics moved decisively rightward in the following years, as the mass social movements of the 1960s and early 1970s pinned their hopes on the Democratic Party to spearhead social change. As it turned out, the Democrats responded to corporate pressures to tack rightward, leading eventually to our present predicament.</p>
<p>We should not repeat the mistakes of that past generation of leftists. The Democrats, like the Republicans, must respond to mass voter discontent. But their shared goal is a return to politics-as-usual.</p>
<p>The Democrats will not deliver an end to the Iraq war without substantial pressure from below. And that requires large-scale, grass-roots struggle. This should be a wakeup call to everyone who wants an end to the Iraq war, a raise in the minimum wage, a step forward for immigrants’ rights-and an end to politics-as-usual in Washington. The door for social change is opening, but we must take action to achieve it.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Democrats, Born to Compromise | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/11/14/democrats-born-to-compromise/ | 2006-11-14 | 4 |
<p>Following the IDF difficulties in defeating Hezbollah’s and Hamas’s ballistic warfare, the Israeli Government is now searching for contractors with some advanced experience in large scale reinforced concrete constructions. The mission ahead is the building of a solid concrete roof over the entire Jewish State (known as ‘Greater Israel’). PM Olmert is determined that the only way to defend Israel’s populated area is to cover the Jewish State with a thick layer of iron and cement.</p>
<p>The Israeli Government’s decision to build a concrete roof followed a considerable debate within the cabinet. Defence Minister Amir Peretz insisted that a massive extension of the current Security Wall would be enough to provide the goods. Peretz maintained that a substantial increase of the wall to the height of 90,000 ft. would be more than sufficient to stop missiles from entering Israeli territory. Peretz sensibly argued that Israeli youngsters would benefit from seeing the blue sky when they raise their eyes above. Prime Minister Olmert and the Chief of Staff, Major General Dan Halutz, couldn’t agree less. Being fully aware of the nature of ballistic warfare, both Halutz and Olmert agreed that the only way to provide the Jewish State with the ultimate security is to cover it from above with a reinforced concrete shield. Shimon Peres, the legendary peace enthusiast, offered a compromise inspired by the idea of a trampoline. Peres suggested that a Security Wall’s 90,000 ft. extension made of an elastic net would do the job. The elder statesman argued that an elastic net will guarantee that every Arab missile aimed at Israel would bounce back to the Arab territory once it hits the net. Olmert and Halutz dismissed Peres’s suggestion. They argued that considering the excessive Israeli usage of artillery and missiles against its Arab enemies, the Jewish State would suffer far more from the erection of such a ‘bouncy net’. “Israel,” said Halutz, “would never survive the extent of its fierce artillery barrages bouncing back on itself.”</p>
<p>In a press conference following the heated cabinet debate, the Government spokesman Mr Zion Zioni stressed that “following the total success of the Security Wall in stopping Palestinian suicidal terror, ‘Security Roof’ is obviously the natural way to proceed.” Mr Zioni maintained as well that the new Israeli project will turn the Jewish State into a “sealed Jewish Bunker”. “In fact,” Zioni emphasised, “‘Operation Security Roof’ brings the Zionist adventure into its final destination. We are now moving from the ‘Iron Wall’ phase into the ‘Concrete Roof’ future. With a reinforced concrete ceiling from above, a Security Wall in the East and the Mediterranean Sea in the West, the Jewish State will eventually become the safest haven for world Jewry. Herzl’s dream comes true. Long Live Israel!”</p>
<p>Yet, some technical difficulties lay ahead. Probably the most crucial problem has something to do with breathing. Like the rest of the humankind, the Israeli people consume oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Apparently, the Israeli cabinet Ministers were made aware of this very crucial fact by the Health Minister. Olmert, being a man of action, responded immediately. Already in the cabinet meeting he authorised the Defence Ministry to explore different solutions to the acute problem. We already learned from the Defence Ministry spokesman Lt. Galileo Galilee that ‘Filter on the Roof’, the Israeli-American High Tech chemical giant (traded on Wall Street, operated from Gush Katif) has been contracted to deal with the problem.</p>
<p>We have learned as well from Lt. Galilee that Filter on the Roof has already come up with more than a few solutions. Although some of the solutions are rather radical, it is crucial to mention that they are all extremely innovative, as you would expect from an Israeli-American High Tech venture. Probably the most conventional and practical solution proposed by the chemical giant was to bore as many as 6 million ventilation holes in the roof. Peres, Peretz and Sh-Meretz rejected the possibility without even thinking twice. “Considering our traumatic collective memory of the holocaust,” so they said, “turning the Jewish State into a big room with holes in the ceiling is simply unacceptable.”</p>
<p>Probably the most radical suggestion made by the Israeli-American company was to train the Jewish population in Israel to breath like fish. By the time the Israeli people are well trained, all that is left to do is just to fill the Jewish bunker with seawater. In other words, Filter on the Roof suggested to turn the Israeli State into a ‘giant Jewish tropical aquarium’. Though this option seems to be very radical and even inconceivable, most cabinet Ministers reacted enthusiastically. They all agreed that such a solution would fit nicely with the concept of modern Jewish life in general and Zionism in particular. Israelis love the sea. Israelis are not afraid of water. Once the entire Israeli society is covered with water, no one would ever consider throwing them to the sea.</p>
<p>We will be following this developing story and keeping you informed.</p>
<p>&#160; GILAD ATZMON was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of two novels: <a href="" type="internal">A&#160; Guide to the Perplexed</a> and the recently released My One and Only Love. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. His recent CD, <a href="" type="internal">Exile</a>, was named the year’s best jazz CD by the BBC. He now lives in London and can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Operation Security Roof: Developing Story? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/08/09/operation-security-roof-developing-story/ | 2006-08-09 | 4 |
<p>Don’t miss this <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-fugelsang/taking-the-drug-war-_b_19082.html" type="external">column at the Huffington Post</a> about our nation’s ineffectual and morally indefensible drug war.</p>
<p>Huffington Post:</p>
<p>I was watching Fox News the other night (because I’m a thinker) when I came across a commercial for the drug war. Perhaps you’ve seen it. It’s the one that says “If you buy drugs, even pot, your money may go to fund terrorists.”</p>
<p>Now this was really an eye opener for me. I grew up in America’s public schools, with all the traditional fear-mongering propaganda about Pot. You know what I’m talking about – all the horror stories they feed you about the evil things pot will do to your brain? I can’t recall any of it right now, but you get the idea.</p>
<p />
<p>They always told us “Pot makes you violent. And Lazy.” Which never scared any kids I knew. I always thought if the violent people were lazy, we’d have a lot less crime. Imagine the thug who threatens, “I’m gonna kill you, man. Right after this burrito.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-fugelsang/taking-the-drug-war-_b_19082.html" type="external">Link</a></p> | Talking Sense About the Drug War | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/talking-sense-about-the-drug-war/ | 2006-04-14 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON – A trip down the grocery store produce aisle could soon feel like a stroll down “Sesame Street.”</p>
<p>Michelle Obama announced Wednesday that the nonprofit organization behind the popular children’s educational TV program will let the produce industry use Elmo, Big Bird and Sesame Street’s other furry characters free of charge to market fruits and veggies to kids.</p>
<p>The goal is to get children who often turn up their noses at the sight of produce to eat more of it.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Under the arrangement, Sesame Workshop is waiving the licensing fee for its Muppet characters for two years.</p>
<p>As soon as next spring, shoppers and children accompanying them can expect to see their favorite Sesame Street characters on stand-alone signs and on stickers and labels on all types of produce regardless of whether it comes in a bag, a carton or just its skin.</p>
<p>An “unprecedented step,” Mrs. Obama said of the agreement. “And they’re doing this free of charge. Yes!” she said as she pumped her fists in the air before an audience seated in the State Dining Room of the White House.</p>
<p>The first lady cited a study published last fall in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in which Cornell University researchers gave more than 200 boys and girls ages 8 to 11 the choice of eating an apple, a cookie or both. Most kids went for the cookie. Asked to choose again after researchers put Elmo stickers on the apples, nearly double the number of kids chose the fruit, she said.</p>
<p>“Just imagine what will happen when we take our kids to the grocery store, and they see Elmo and Rosita and the other Sesame Street Muppets they love up and down the produce aisle,” Mrs. Obama said. “Imagine what it will be like to have our kids begging us to buy them fruits and vegetables instead of cookies, candy and chips.”</p>
<p>The agreement between Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association is the latest step by the private sector to support “Let’s Move,” the first lady’s nearly 4-year-old campaign to reduce childhood obesity rates in the U.S.</p>
<p>It is the first announcement since a summit on food marketing to children that Mrs. Obama convened last month, where she urged a broad range of companies to do more, faster, to promote foods with less salt, fat and sugar to youngsters.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Muppets to push produce | false | https://abqjournal.com/291547/muppets-to-push-produce.html | 2013-10-31 | 2 |
<p>Popeye is my philosopher of record. His two most profound observations were:</p>
<p>“I don’t know how youz duz it, but youz duz it.”</p>
<p>“That’s all I can stand, I can’t stands no more.”</p>
<p>These summarize our general condition. Some people who, for want of a better word, we call leaders, directly and indirectly control our lives without us fully understanding how or why.</p>
<p>Their actions eventually reach a point at which we don’t know or care how or why we just won’t tolerate it anymore.</p>
<p>When and why do we reach that point? My research interest in climatology was focussed on the impact of climate and climate change on humans and their history. It stems from the idea that we are products of our environment and, according to Darwin, adapt and adjust to changes in the environment. The great myth used today to exploit people’s lack of understanding and fears is that climate change is new, and we must learn to adapt.</p>
<p>But we have always adapted. Indeed, what anthropologists identify as our greatest achievements were adaptations to changing environments. For example, we adapted to the cooling of the Pleistocene Ice Age by controlling fire, making clothing, and building shelters.</p>
<p>The problem is academics do not consider these social or cultural adaptations as evolutionary advances. As far as they are concerned, we are past our peak and our now doing things wrong. Consider the following comment from David Suzuki:</p>
<p>“Economics is a very species – chauvinistic idea. No other species on earth – and there are may be 30 million of them – has had the nerve to put forth a concept called economics, in which one species, us, declares the right to put value on everything else on earth, in the living and non-living world.”</p>
<p>What nonsense! The number of species is closer to 100 million and all of them put a value on everything, such as: “Is it edible or not?”</p>
<p>No, humans are unique because they can create complex and abstract ideas, or any other intellectual endeavour.</p>
<p>A major difference between humans and animals concerns leaders and followers. With animals, the followers have no say in who leads. However, with humans and democracy (another species-chauvinistic idea) the followers are the majority who determine who will lead and how far they will follow.</p>
<p>The basic assumption about leaders was summarized 2000 years ago in graffiti in Pompeii; It says if we get rid of this bunch of scoundrels we just get another bunch of scoundrels. In other words, elections don’t change anything. But there are two conditions under which people generally choose to get rid of the scoundrels.</p>
<p>The first is a failure of the food supply. A classic example occurred in France in the 19th century. The animosity between French peasants, the monarchy and aristocracy was always present, but it took two consecutive years of catastrophic harvest failure to trigger the Revolution.</p>
<p>This situation resulted from a cooler world during the Little Ice Age (1450 – 2000) and, in particular, a volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783. Benjamin Franklin observed the eruption plume while transiting to his post as US Ambassador to France, and predicted the impact on agriculture in Europe. Sure enough, crop conditions deteriorated over a few years, culminating in that almost total failure in France in 1787 and ’88. No wonder they stormed the Bastille in 1789.</p>
<p>A 21st century example occurred in Egypt in 2011. People rioted against the government of Hosni Mubarak; President Obama claimed it was an “Arab Spring,” a popular democratic uprising. In fact, they were food riots. Obama wanted to get rid of Mubarak and replace him with the Muslim Brotherhood. The people wanted to get rid of Mubarak because the food supply failed.</p>
<p>The second reason people get rid of leaders is that they have forgotten who put them in power. Charles I of England believed implicitly in the Divine Right of Kings. He marched into the House of Commons and ordered them to approve financing for his campaigns. They cut Charles’ head off to show who was really in charge, and ever since, the monarch has been forbidden entry to the Commons.</p>
<p>More recently, the people metaphorically removed the heads of leaders in England by voting to leave the European Union during the so-called Brexit vote.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/brexit-won-the-battle-but-now-weve-lost-the-war/" type="external">James Delingpole</a>explained:</p>
<p>For a lot of us Brexiteers, leaving the EU was just the beginning of a people’s revolution against that remote, entrenched, largely unaccountable elite. Not a war on ‘capitalism’, as the left so wilfully misrepresents it, but definitely an assault on cronyism, on ‘too big to fail’, on central-bank manipulation, on the misuse of immigration to create growth at the expense of GDP per capita and quality of life, on the screwing over of the many by the few.</p>
<p>The Trump “movement” is the same thing, a people’s revolution. He doesn’t care about the elite politicians of the extreme left or right.</p>
<p>The people send their message by getting rid of the leaders and for a brief period the scoundrels are chastened. However, the people know that other scoundrels will seek power because there is always a percentage who think they know what is best for us.</p>
<p>Hopefully, social and cultural evolution will eliminate them, and leaders who never forget their place will eventually evolve and arise.</p> | Dr. Tim Ball: When and how people get rid of leaders | true | http://therebel.media/when_and_how_people_get_rid_of_leaders | 2016-09-26 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">Sony</a> is looking to its insurers to help cover the cost of cleaning up a data breach that exposed the names of more than 100 million customers, an amount that one expert estimates could exceed $2 billion.</p>
<p>"We have a variety of types of insurance that cover damages. Certain carriers have been put on notice," a Sony Corp spokesman said in response to an inquiry from Reuters.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, estimates that notifying Sony's customers and cleaning up the breach will cost about $20 per person, or more than $2 billion. Ponemon is a consulting firm that specializes in research on data breaches and security issues.</p>
<p>Ponemon said that was a conservative estimate because some 12.3 million credit card numbers may have been compromised in the hack. And replacing a credit card costs considerably more than $20.</p>
<p>"It's likely to be more expensive because credit data is involved," Ponemon said. "We call credit card numbers 'crown-jewel' data."</p>
<p>The Sony spokesman declined to name the insurers or say whether there was a cap on the size of the payout that they would make to Sony.</p>
<p>Insurance experts said that the liability on Sony's policy was likely spread among several insurers.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>It was not clear whether Sony was insured for the full cost of the cleanup, which involved hiring at least three firms to investigate the matter. Sony has yet to restore service on its <a href="" type="internal">PlayStation</a> and gaming networks.</p>
<p>"They are not going to be completely unscathed," said Etti Baranoff, professor of insurance at Virginia Commonwealth University. "No matter what, their insurance rates are going to go up."</p>
<p>She added that the insurers are likely involved in cleaning up Sony's network.</p> | Sony's Insurers to Help Foot Bill for Data Breach | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/05/05/sonys-insurers-help-foot-data-breach.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers in ‘Southside With You.’ (Photo by Matt Dinerstein; courtesy Miramax and Roadside Attractions)</p>
<p>“Southside with You” is, quite literally, the ultimate date movie, a charming romantic comedy about two people who are clearly fated to be together.</p>
<p>The action takes place on a summer day in Chicago in 1989. He’s a brash African-American summer associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm. She’s a second-year associate at the same firm. He keeps asking her out, but she keeps refusing. She’s been assigned to be his mentor, and as the only African-American woman at the firm, she feels that her behavior is under intense scrutiny from their colleagues.</p>
<p>He finally wears down her resistance; she agrees to go to a community meeting with him, but insists it is not a date. It turns out he has a full day planned: a visit to an art gallery, a picnic lunch, the community meeting (where he is the featured speaker) and a screening of Spike Lee’s newly released “Do the Right Thing.”</p>
<p>They spend the day getting to know each other. He learns that she likes chocolate ice cream; she learns that he lost his taste for ice cream after working at Baskin Robbins. She talks about growing up in Chicago; he talks about growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. He tries (unsuccessfully) to hide his smoking; she ignores the hole in the floorboards of his beat-up car. She worries about her father’s health; he is still angry at his late father for deserting the family. They’re both ambitious but deeply committed to social justice and worry if they can maintain their ideals while working for a large corporate law firm.</p>
<p>What gives this appealing romcom added weight are the names of the couple: Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson. Although the young couple has no idea what’s in store for them, or even if they will have a second date, the audience knows they’re headed for the White House.</p>
<p>Writer/director Richard Tanne handles the story with a deft touch. The dialogue is natural and believable. The banter between Michelle and Barack crackles with intelligence and electricity. The events of the movie are actually pieced together from several dates, but Tanne’s script has a strong organic flow. With a running time of less than 90 minutes, the story moves along briskly, although the pacing occasionally flags.</p>
<p>Tanne is given strong assistance from Patrick Scola’s cinematography, which lovingly captures the Southside of Chicago with colorful strokes, and from Stephen James Taylor’s bouncy score which weaves together Janet Jackson, Martha Reeves and a new song by John Legend, who also served as an executive producer of the movie.</p>
<p>Tika Sumpter (HBO’s “Bessie” and OWN TV’s “The Haves and the Have Nots”) and Parker Sawyer wisely do not try to impersonate the famous couple (although Parker does bear a resemblance to Barack Obama and is known for his sharp impersonations). Instead they fill in the broad physical outlines of their characters and focus on fleshing out the prickly passions that both draw the couple together and threaten to push them apart. Their performances are excellent.</p>
<p>Throughout the day, things are touch and go between the young couple, which gives the movie an unexpected layer of suspense. How will these ever get to a second date?</p>
<p>Luckily, after embarrassing Michelle outside the movie theater, Barack saves the date by buying her a chocolate ice cream cone. The rest, as they say, is history, and a reminder that a stop for ice cream is not a bad way to end a night out at the movies.</p>
<p>“Southside with You” is a delightful and passionate portrait of an idealistic young couple whose first date will lead to them becoming the First Family. It’s a lovely and heart-felt antidote to this season of poisonous political rhetoric.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Barack Obama</a> <a href="" type="internal">Baskin Robbins</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chicago</a> <a href="" type="internal">Do the Right Thing</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hawaii</a> <a href="" type="internal">Indonesia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Janet Jackson</a> <a href="" type="internal">John Legend</a> <a href="" type="internal">Martha Reeves</a> <a href="" type="internal">Michelle Obama</a> <a href="" type="internal">Parker Sawyer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Patrick Scola</a> <a href="" type="internal">Richard Tanne</a> <a href="" type="internal">Southside with You</a> <a href="" type="internal">Spike Lee</a> <a href="" type="internal">Stephen James Taylor</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tika Sumpter</a> <a href="" type="internal">White House</a></p> | ‘Southside’ explores budding romance | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/08/25/southside-explores-budding-romance/ | 3 |
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<p>When you think of drag, you probably imagine, big wigs, high heels, fake Lizas and Judys, and a kind of one-note campiness.</p>
<p>But a lot of performers are demonstrating that drag is much more than the narrow stereotype. One of the most inventive of those artists is <a href="http://www.taylormac.org/" type="external">Taylor Mac</a>. From his five-hour-long masterpiece, <a href="http://taylormac.net/TaylorMac.net/The_Lilys_Revenge.html" type="external">The Lily’s Revenge</a>, to his critically acclaimed turn in Bertolt Brecht’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/theater/reviews/brechts-good-person-of-szechwan-opens-at-public-theater.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">Good Person of Szechwan</a>&#160;at the Public Theater in New York, Mac has proven himself one of today's great theatrical artists, period.</p>
<p>For Mac, drag isn’t about hiding his identity — it’s about exposing what he looks like on the inside. “When I’m wearing my jeans and my t-shirt, that’s when I’m hiding because I’m trying to blend in with everybody else.”</p>
<p><a href="http://taylormac.net/TaylorMac.net/A_24-Hour_Concert_of_the_History_of_Popular_Music.html" type="external">A 24-Decade History of Popular Music</a> is a decade-by-decade revue of American pop music — from the 1770s to the present — in which each of the country’s 24 decades gets its own hour. Over the next year or so, he'll put all those decades together into one vast 24-hour musical extravaganza.</p>
<p>So how historically accurate will this 24-hour history be? “Oh, there’s liberties!” Mac laughs. “The 1770s is about how America was founded on booze, man-boy love, and dandy revenge.” Funny as that sounds, it’s not so far off. “ 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' was originally sung by the British to make fun of Americans, saying that they were dandies,” Mac explains. “The British lost a battle and the Americans forced them to dance to 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' over and over and over again. And that’s how it became an American song.”</p>
<p>Taylor Mac performs live in Studio 360 accompanied by Matt Ray on piano and backing vocals.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />Bonus Track: "I Want To Go Back To Michigan" live in Studio 360</p>
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<p /> | Taylor Mac's History of American Pop Music in 24 Hours | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-08-22/taylor-macs-history-american-pop-music-24-hours | 2014-08-22 | 3 |
<p>For those constantly fretting about the inability of Muslims to integrate or assimilate into western culture, fret no more!</p>
<p>American Muslims finally have their own&#160; <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/reality-tv" type="external">reality TV</a>&#160;show –&#160; <a href="http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/all-american-muslim" type="external">the Learning Channel’s “All-American Muslim”</a>&#160;– focusing on the lives of five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, who are predominantly Lebanese and Shiite. The show’s premiere gave TLC huge ratings and made the show No 2 in its time period. Mainstream critics have embraced the show citing it as&#160; <a href="" type="internal">“intimate and informative”</a>&#160;and a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">“deeply intriguing, uncharacteristically thoughtful reality series”</a>.</p>
<p>Reality TV is the current zeitgeist of popular culture. Unlike the euro, it is the predominant cultural currency, whose value is skyrocketing. America is on a first-name basis with their cultural ambassadors: Snookie, Kate Plus 8, Paris, Ozzie and Kim. Could Shadia, the show’s tattooed, country music-loving Lebanese American Muslim, with an Irish Catholic boyfriend, belong in the pantheon?</p>
<p>“[All American Muslim] is just a natural fit for us …We’re always all about telling compelling stories about real families,”&#160; <a href="" type="internal">says TLC’s Alan Orstein</a>, VP of production and development. But some have already taken deep offense to this “reality” show, which claims to portray the “real” lives of Muslims.</p>
<p>Within days of the show’s premiere, the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">fear-mongering Islamphobia network complained</a>&#160;the show is actually propaganda that promotes a <a href="" type="internal">“submission to Islam through the hijab”</a>&#160;and “tries to make a&#160; <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/religion" type="external">religion</a> which believes in world domination and the inferiority of women, seem normal”. The author of this article, posted on David Horowitz’s inflammatory&#160; <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/" type="external">Front Page Magazine</a>, also goes on to compare Muslims to Nazis: “Muslims are like us [Americans]; that’s the problem. The Nazis were like us too. So were the Communists.”</p>
<p>Apparently, TLC is a stealth-jihadist outfit with grand schemes to brainwash American women into burning their swimsuits and tank tops and replacing them with modest, traditional Islamic clothing as a gradual means towards converting them to&#160; <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/islam" type="external">Islam</a>. I’ll be waiting for their next reality TV show: “UV Radiation Fighters.”</p>
<p>Pamela Geller, founder of the shrill Atlas Shrugs blog and co-founder with blogger Robert Spencer of Stop Islamization of America, is convinced the show&#160; <a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&amp;pageId=368197" type="external">“is an attempt to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad”</a>. Who would have thought a reality TV show could have so much brainwashing potential? Instead of mounting violent campaigns, all our enemies needed to secure victory was to produce “The Real Housewives of al-Qaida.”</p>
<p>If Geller, Spencer and Horowitz were producing their version of American Muslim reality, the episodes would focus on the families’ radical stealth jihadist plots. Through eight episodes, they would attempt to turn McDonald’s golden arches into minarets, transform California to Caliph-ornia, place a burqa over the Statute of Liberty, creep sharia into the Denny’s breakfast menu, and spike the elementary school eggnog with sumac and lentils.</p>
<p>A “real Muslim” according to many is this anti-American, extremist, violent stereotype – an image often plastered over news headlines. This myth is unsurprising, perhaps, considering 60% of Americans say they don’t know a Muslim. Furthermore, the No 1 source of information about Muslims for American is the media, and often, the images are negative. Yet, according to all the studies and evidence, the&#160; <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/religion/man-behind-mosque/america-and-muslims-by-the-numbers/" type="external">reality of American Muslims</a>&#160;is that they are moderate, loyal to America, optimistic about America’s future, in tune with American values, well-educated, and are the nation’s most diverse religious community.</p>
<p>That being said, nearly half of American Muslims say they have faced discrimination. The&#160; <a href="" type="internal">FBI just announced anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen 50%</a>. And a Republican presidential candidate with an alleged proclivity towards sexual harassment and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">unintentionally hilarious campaign videos</a>&#160;has&#160; <a href="" type="internal">claimed a majority of Muslim Americans are extremists</a>.</p>
<p>The portrayal of Muslims living their daily lives is not only a welcome relief from the usual tawdry caricatures of Muslims as terrorists, extremists and taxi cab drivers, but it also helps defuse the deep-seated fears and bias that unfairly lumps 1.5 billion members of a faith in with the perverse criminal actions of a few.</p>
<p>However, even American Muslims have voiced their criticisms with the show. The Twitterverse exploded (figuratively) with comments reflecting the diversity of the American Muslim opinions. Some said the show misleads with the title “All-American Muslim”, since it solely focuses on one niche religious, ethnic community (Lebanese Shiite in Dearborn, Michigan) and leaves out the majority of American Muslim communities, such as African Americans, South Asians, Sunnis and those from the low-income middle class.</p>
<p>Others, apparently, want their TV Muslims to be avatars of religious and moral perfection and complained about some of the characters’ portrayal of Islam. (Shadia is a tattooed, partying rebel dating a white, Irish Catholic man who converts to Islam in order to marry her. Nina is a busty, dyed-blonde, opinionated business woman, with a penchant for tight dresses and ambitions to open her own club.)</p>
<p>Which only goes to show that representing Muslims and Islam in the mainstream is an utterly thankless job. The term “Muslim” is itself so politically and culturally loaded that it is impossible to escape controversy, no matter how trivial or manufactured. Since Muslims are a marginalized community with very few positive mainstream representations, audiences unfairly project onto these five families all their own insecurities, assumptions, fears, political ideologies, religious opinions, personal stories and other gratuitous baggage. So, if the characters do not 100% reflect the reality of certain audience members, then they cease to be authentic or valid.</p>
<p>The five families on “All-American Muslim” should not be asked to represent all Muslims, Arabs or Americans. Does Jersey Shore represent all Italians? If so, you can hear Frank Sinatra crooning in his grave. Similarly, Kim Kardashian does not represent all narcissistic, wannabe socialites with a fetish for athletes. (That may be an insult to fetishes.)</p>
<p>The best way to view “All-American Muslim” is simply a show about five families doing their best to be themselves. They’re just people, who happen to identify as Muslim, Arab and American. Their story isn’t the wild-eyed, paranoid fantasy that is colored by the hate-filled minds of the Islamophobia network. It isn’t the terrorist stereotype familiar to most American audiences thanks to mainstream Hollywood depictions and sensationalized news headlines. And it won’t be the story of this nation’s 3-4 million American Muslims ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States#Demographics" type="external">population estimates vary from 1.3 to 7 million</a>), who will hopefully find more avenues to tell their unique narratives through mainstream outlets.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we should exhale and simply let this reality TV show succeed or fail on the merits of its ability to entertain, instead of obsessing about how “realistic” its depiction of Islam and Muslims is. If the ratings decline, TLC can always create a new talent show featuring the cast members of “The Real Housewives” and “All-American Muslim”, judged by Kim Kardashian and Ozzy Osbourne, whose winner gets an opportunity to join all the previous winners from “Dancing with the Stars” in a new “Survivor” series about who lives beyond the 15th minute of fame.</p>
<p>That’s a reality show whose authenticity cannot be denied.</p>
<p>Wajahat Ali&#160;is a playwright, journalist and attorney, whose play,&#160; <a href="http://www.domesticcrusaders.com/" type="external">The Domestic Crusaders</a>, was published by McSweeney’s in December, 2010. He is a contributor to <a href="" type="internal">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, forthcoming from AK Press.&#160; He blogs at&#160; <a href="http://www.goatmilkblog.com/" type="external">Goatmilk</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Reality of “All-American Muslim” | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/11/18/the-reality-of-all-american-muslim/ | 2011-11-18 | 4 |
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">David Rutz</a> April 18, 2016 12:39 pm</p>
<p>Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., N.Y.) said the Republicans are the party of the Ku Klux Klan during an interview Monday on MSNBC.</p>
<p>Rangel, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, said the country was seeing the dissolution of the Republican Party with its current inner strife.</p>
<p>"We are seeing the end of the Republican Party as we know it, a party that has the Ku Klux Klan, has the Tea Party, the Freedom Party, and this used to be the Party of Lincoln, and we're seeing it fall apart," Rangel said.</p>
<p>The racist organization was founded in the Reconstruction era by southern whites, many of whom were Democrats, and it committed acts of murder, intimidation and other violence against blacks. While the organization still exists, its numbers are greatly depleted compared to its heyday.</p>
<p>The longtime New York congressman&#160;made the remarks to Andrea Mitchell after he touted Clinton's experience and Mitchell asked why Bernie Sanders' populist platform was resonating more with people.</p>
<p>"Are we moving forward fast enough? Heck no. Is anyone satisfied the way the economy is? I hope not," Rangel said.&#160;"Black folks have been looking for justice in this country. We got Obama, are we satisfied? Heck no. If there's someone out there screaming we should have another black president, I'm not saying don't scream. All I'm saying is that realistically, we have to realize things have to be done."</p>
<p>Clinton leads Sanders in the New York primary polls heading into Tuesday's vote.</p> | Rangel: Republicans Are the Party of the Ku Klux Klan | true | http://freebeacon.com/politics/rangel-republicans-are-the-party-of-the-ku-klux-klan/ | 2016-04-18 | 0 |
<p>In a report noting that Al-Jazeera television personality and Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has supported violence against Israelis and Americans, The New York Times quoted Professor Emad Shahin of the University of Notre Dame as saying, “You call it violence; I call it resistance.”</p>
<p>But the professor is now disputing the quote. “The placement of my quote in David Kirkpatrick’s report on Sheik Yusef al-Qaradawi is deeply disturbing, as it suggests that I condone violence of any kind,” he said in a statement. “As a scholar of Islamic law and political movements, I have studied the thinking of many clerics and political leaders in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. Kirkpatrick correctly states that Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy, but that he makes exceptions for violence against Israel or the American forces in Iraq. The subsequent quote from me, ‘You call it violence, I call it resistance,’ was one part of a longer interview in which I was explaining what Qaradawi thinks—not what I think. My own position is that violence is not only morally wrong but ultimately ineffective, and that peaceful resistance (as we just saw in Tunisia and Egypt) is far more powerful than violence ever will be.”</p>
<p>Shahin is the Luce Associate Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The institute is named for Joan Kroc, the third wife of McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc.</p>
<p>The professor’s <a href="http://newsinfo.nd.edu/for-the-media/nd-experts/faculty/emad-shahin/" type="external">webpage</a> lists a number of media appearances, including CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Voice of America, and Al-Jazeera Arabic and English.</p>
<p>Reporting from Cairo, David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/middleeast/19egypt.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" type="external">noted</a> that al-Qaradawi was banned from the United States and Britain for “supporting violence against Israel and American forces in Iraq” but delivered his first public sermon in Egypt in 50 years last Friday, “emerging as a powerful voice in the struggle to shape what kind of Egyptian state emerges from the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.”</p>
<p>Kirkpatrick called him the “popular television cleric whose program reaches an audience of tens of millions worldwide,” failing to note that the television channel that features al-Qarawadi is none other than Al-Jazeera, now demanding more access to U.S. media markets. This is the same network praised by such figures as Sam Donaldson of ABC news and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC for covering demonstrations in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Florida broadcaster <a href="http://www.kenneytv.com/Al-Jazeera-Story.html" type="external">Jerry Kenney</a>, who has been drawing attention to <a href="../../../../../aim-column/public-tv-hijacked-by-foreign-propagandists/" type="external">public TV stations in the U.S. airing the Al-Jazeera channel</a>, counters: “I remember years ago when a man in California was praised for reporting fires. Then they found out he was lighting them. Likewise, it is little wonder that Al-Jazeera, with its very close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has managed to be first with news in the war on terror and the uprisings in the Middle East.”</p>
<p>The Times’ Kirkpatrick called al-Qaradawi an “intellectual inspiration to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood” but claimed that “Scholars who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy.” Notre Dame’s Shahin was supposed to be one of those scholars.</p>
<p>However, Kirkpatrick quickly went on to say that al-Qaradawi “has made exceptions for violence against Israel or the American forces in Iraq” and then attributed the disputed quote to Shahin.</p>
<p>These “exceptions” included suicide bomb attacks. “It’s not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God…” <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3875119.stm" type="external">al-Qaradawi has said</a>. “Those killed fighting the American forces [in Iraq] are martyrs given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will,” &#160; <a href="http://www.islamfortoday.com/qaradawi04.htm" type="external">he has declared</a>.</p>
<p>While disputing the quote attributed to him by the Times, Shahin contributed a chapter, “ <a href="http://kroc.nd.edu/sites/default/files/Political_Islam_in_Egypt_0.pdf" type="external">Political Islam in Egypt</a>,” to a 2007 book, Political Islam and European foreign Policy, which was underwritten by the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros. Shahin argues that the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to sharia, a concept of Islamic law, and democracy but that its power in Egypt has been somewhat eclipsed by a new political movement, the Wasat Party, which “also seeks to implement the principles of sharia through democratic means”</p>
<p>The chapter also appears on <a href="http://www.ikhwanweb.com/uploads/lib/R3E6346T3H4DYM6.pdf" type="external">the website</a> of the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Mainly consisting of a breakaway faction of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wasat Party <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/19/egypt-politics-party-idUSLDE71I06320110219" type="external">has just been given an official license</a> to operate in Egypt.</p>
<p>The media are describing it as a “moderate Islamist party” which preaches “a more tolerant form of Islam.” That seems to be Shahin’s opinion as well.</p> | Notre Dame Professor Disputes Pro-Terror Quote in New York Times | true | http://aim.org/aim-column/20520/ | 2011-02-23 | 0 |
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<p>A large explosion was reported at 1:40 pm in North Alabama in Blount, Jefferson, Walker, Cullman, Talladega, Calhoun, Clay, Winston, Randolph, Tuscaloosa, and St. Clair Counties.</p>
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<p>NASA's Bill Cooke said the mysterious boom's origins are still unknown.That sound may have been caused by a huge supersonic airplane or ground explosion.</p>
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<p>Local ABC affiliate QRONOS 16 was all over it.</p>
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<p>We're all waiting for a reasonable explanation. In the meantime, enjoy Trey Cochran, who wrote some songs about the most recent #bamaboom.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/treycochranmusic/videos/1863480343679484/" type="external">facebook.com/treycochranmusic/videos/1863480343679484</a></p> | Still No Reasonable Explanation For Massive #BAMABOOM over North Alabama | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/11991-Still-No-Reasonable-Explanation-For-Massive-BAMABOOM-over-North-Alabama | 2017-11-15 | 0 |
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<p>With tuition prices consistently outpacing inflation and student loan debt levels hitting new records, the cost of getting a diploma has taken priority when choosing a school, but experts say price shouldn’t be the sole consideration.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In fact, the question of how to pay for college is actually the wrong place for students and families to start when evaluating schools, says Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.</p>
<p>“The cost of financing is really the tail wagging the dog when you think about the importance of the original decision,” Nassirian says. “Families and students could probably do a better job thinking harder about the original decision of where to go to school before you even get to the question of financing, and doing a more careful cost-benefit analysis on the front end.”</p>
<p>The Obama Administration gathered college and university earlier this month to talk about ways to make college more affordable as total student debt levels creep past $1 trillion and have many students wondering if the cost of a diploma is worth it as job prospects remain weak.</p>
<p>Betsy Mayotte, director of regulatory compliance for the nonprofit group American Student Assistance, advises students find alumni’s average student loan debt level, the graduation rate, job placement prospects and the net price versus sticker price to identify colleges that give the “best bang for the buck.”</p>
<p>Mayotte also recommends students aim to borrow no more than the average starting salary in their chosen professional field.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“Families should consider the average starting salary of the career they are pursuing and do a ‘mock’ budget based on that salary, so if they do have to take out student loans they know how much they can manage.”</p>
<p>But despite the heavy financial load, studies continue to show college graduates have a higher earnings potential, and experts say borrowers have plenty of affordable options available, if they know where to look.</p>
<p>Mayotte advises students should use a variety of approaches to fund college, which can include</p>
<p>529-plans, grants and scholarships, federal student loans, private student loans and payment plans through the school. And she suggests students ask potential schools about their financing options and research their loan options to make sure they are finding the best lending terms and rates.</p>
<p>Nassirian says federal loans make up the majority of the student lending market since they “carry important safeguards like deferment, discharge and income-based repayment” – benefits that he says tend to be impossible for private financiers to meet.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, private loans - which represent about 15% of total student debt outstanding, according to a Federal Reserve report– can also be right for some students, Persis Yu, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, warns students read the lending terms carefully and note any variable interest rates.</p>
<p>“Rates are low now, but if it is a long term loan, that amount will go up. Also, students should know that the repayment options are not the same as federal loans. &#160;They should find out if the lender has flexible repayment options and what those options look like.”</p>
<p>According to Finaid.org, applying for a private student loan with a cosigner, even if the borrower can qualify solo, could result in a lower rate. That’s because lenders may look at the cosigned loan and consider it not as risky – plus, the interest rates and fees usually will be based on whoever has the higher credit score.</p>
<p>“While I strongly encourage families to stick to the federal programs if they must borrow, there are occasions where private loans must be used to fill funding gaps,” Mayotte says. “Families should start by asking the school if there are lenders they can recommend as a jumping off point but then absolutely must do their own research into the terms of the loans.”</p> | Don’t Let Tuition Prices Scare You Too Much | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/01/24/dont-let-tuition-prices-scare-too-much.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These New Hampshire lotteries were drawn Sunday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>1-1-0</p>
<p>(one, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>3-0-4</p>
<p>(three, zero, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-6-9-0</p>
<p>(eight, six, nine, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-8-4-2</p>
<p>(three, eight, four, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These New Hampshire lotteries were drawn Sunday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>1-1-0</p>
<p>(one, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>3-0-4</p>
<p>(three, zero, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-6-9-0</p>
<p>(eight, six, nine, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-8-4-2</p>
<p>(three, eight, four, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p> | NH Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/21df12e458dd4025b012b17151cf0a06 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Cubans are wasting no time in welcoming a new era in US-Cuba relations, which followed an intense amount of back-channel negotiations, author Peter Kornbluh says from Havana.</p>
<p>"There's a palpable excitement here," Kornbluh says. "This is a new dawn in US-Cuban relations and I think everybody here has realized that almost immediately."</p>
<p>Kornbluh and US officials said the back-channel negotiations to today's announcement, and freeing of longtime American prisoner Alan Gross from a Cuban prison cell, have proceeded for more than a year and a half. Kornbluh added that other nations have been involved, too, such as Uruguay, which agreed earlier this month to take six prisoners from the US Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba. The Vatican also played a role.</p>
<p>Under measures announced in Washington, the two nations have agreed to a formal opening of their embassies, run for decades in each country through the auspices of Switzerland. Also, Cuba agreed to swap an unidentified US intelligence asset for three Cuban nationals convicted of spying in this country in 2001. And Kornbluh, co-author of the book on secretive US-Cuban negotiations, added that President Obama's drive to move Cuba off the terrorist list would remove a series of substantive economic sanctions.</p>
<p>President Raul Castro welcomed the news in an address punctuated by the sound of ringing church bells throughout the Cuban capital. On Tuesday, for the first time in more than five decades, the presidents of the two nations spoke by telephone to finalize the deal.</p>
<p>"After 55 years of resisting US pressure to overthrow the government, I think there's a sense of validation that our two countries can actually live in some kind of harmony even with the great differences that exist,'' Kornbluh said, "Just last night I was at a function here with the wife of one of the three Cuban spies who've been in prison in the United States for 16 years. She hasn't seen her husband in 16 years and now those families are waiting for those three guys to come back."</p>
<p>But Havana's ebullient mood was tempered by some in Miami, where many Cuban exiles and their children have lived for decades. "This president has proven today that his foreign policy is more than just naive, it is willfully ignorant of the way the world truly works,'' said US Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.</p>
<p>Miami-based lawyer Alfredo Duran, who was born in Havana and spent jail time in Cuba after his capture in the CIA's failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, has another view. Today's news, he said, is ushering in "a complete metamorphosis in what the Cubans here in Miami and the Cubans in the island are thinking about. I've always thought that Cuba and Miami are going to be like Hong Kong and China and I think we're starting to see that right now."</p>
<p>Duran says he's too old to move back, but he plans to visit — frequently.</p>
<p>"I can go there for dinner and be back for breakfast here in Miami,'' he said.</p> | In Havana, Cubans are already welcoming a new era with the US | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-12-17/havana-cubans-already-welcoming-new-era-us | 2014-12-17 | 3 |
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<p>Given the long-term nature of investing for retirement, positioning an IRA portfolio to utilize the time needed to ride the inevitable ups and downs of the market is paramount. That said, it's rarely a good idea for investors to put all their eggs in one basket; in this case, "basket" refers to pure growth stocks.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As with any portfolio, a balance of growth, relative stability, and value each have their place -- which is why social media pioneerFacebook (NASDAQ: FB), software design king Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), and evolving giantIBM (NYSE: IBM) are three top stocks for your IRA.</p>
<p>Facebook's 10-year plan. Image source: Facebook.</p>
<p>Considering Facebook's size -- a market capitalization of over $430 billion -- its rate of growth is mind-boggling. Last quarter's $8.03 billion in revenue not only obliterated analysts' expectations, it was a whopping 49% jump year over year. Advertising revenue climbed an astounding 51% to $7.86 billion, partly due to Instagram's <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/16/how-many-users-does-instagram-have.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">skyrocketing growth Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Another strength of Facebook is that it's not only increasing sales at a remarkable rate, but much of those gains are falling to the bottom line. Yes, Facebook's expenses climbed nearly 40% last quarter -- much of which were research and development (R&amp;D) costs -- but operating margins improved to 41% from last year's 37%, which helped boost earnings per share (EPS) 73%, to $1.04.</p>
<p>There are over 3.7 billion global internet users, and a remarkable 1.28 billion of them access Facebook daily. Last quarter Facebook reported a 17% gain in monthly average users (MAUs) to 1.94 billion, over half the world's connected population. Toss in internet-ready, low-cost smartphones in emerging markets, not to mention the 1.8 billion or so folks not yet counted as a MAU, and Facebook's astonishing growth should continue for years to come.</p>
<p>Adobe's Creative Cloud. Image source: Adobe Systems.</p>
<p>Unlike Facebook with its seemingly unstoppable growth, Adobe is a top stock for IRA investors for a different reason. Make no mistake: Adobe is <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/17/4-stocks-that-turned-1000-into-100000.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">continuing to grow Opens a New Window.</a>, but it's the way it is achieving its impressive results that warrantthe stock's inclusion in an IRA portfolio.</p>
<p>It's been about a year and a half since CEO Shantanu Narayen instituted Adobe's subscription-only business model. Initially, designers were not happy with Narayen's decision, but shareholders certainly are, and will continue to be in the months and years ahead. The objective behind the new approach was to build a reliable foundation of annual recurring revenue (ARR), and it's working.</p>
<p>Last quarter's record-breaking $1.68 billion in sales was a 22% improvement over a year ago, and EPS soared 60% to $0.80 a share. But Adobe's blow-out sales and bottom-line growth take a backseat -- at least for long-term IRA investors -- to its astonishing ARR results. Adobe ended the quarter with a $4.25 billion annual run rate of predictable, ongoing recurring revenue.</p>
<p>IBM cloud. Image source: IBM.</p>
<p>Much of the press coverage ofIBM's first-quarter earnings results was centered on the 3% decline in total revenue to $18.2 billion, which marked the 20thstraight quarter of year-over-year sales "misses." The negativity surrounding IBM as it transitions to the cloud, cognitive computing, analytics, and mobile -- otherwise known as its "strategic imperatives" -- has opened a door of opportunity for investors.</p>
<p>Last quarter IBM's fast-growing <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/01/3-tech-stocks-that-are-dominating-machine-learning.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">strategic Opens a New Window.</a>imperatives unit sales of $7.8 billion accounted for 43% of total revenue, well ahead of CEO Ginni Rometty's target of reaching 40% by 2018. Led by a 59% year-over-year bump in annual cloud service sales to $8.6 billion, IBM now boasts a trailing-12-month total cloud revenue run rate of $14.6 billion, positioning it near the top of the cloud-provider list.</p>
<p>For IRA investors in search of value and income, IBM fits both criteria nicely. At a mere 11 times future earnings, IBM is one of the least expensive stocks in its sector -- by a wide margin. Considering its nearly 4% dividend yield, which has increased for 21 straight years, along with its growth prospects in cutting-edge markets, IBM certainly belongs on a list of top IRA stocks.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IBMWhen 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=1b40c4cd-0af6-4d35-a27d-8aaed8c73d9e&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and IBM 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=1b40c4cd-0af6-4d35-a27d-8aaed8c73d9e&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 May 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/timbrugger/info.aspx" type="external">Tim Brugger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Adobe Systems. 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> | 3 Top Stocks for Your IRA | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/30/3-top-stocks-for-your-ira.html | 2017-05-22 | 0 |
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<p>ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia congressman is recovering from a car accident that occurred as he was returning to Washington after monitoring the impact of Hurricane Irma in his home state.</p>
<p>Rep. Barry Loudermilk's office says the Republican lawmaker and his wife, Desiree, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released from a Tennessee hospital after the two-car incident early Tuesday morning in Knoxville.</p>
<p>The statement says the Loudermilks' vehicle was rear-ended on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40, causing the vehicle to leave the roadway and overturn multiple times before coming to a stop. The congressman was driving.</p>
<p>The couple is returning to Georgia for additional medical care.</p>
<p>Loudermilk represents Georgia's 11th congressional district, which includes many Atlanta suburbs and exurbs northwest of the city.</p>
<p><a href="#9e5a9403-e6b2-4fb0-827b-c6d839801272" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Georgia congressman recovering from post-Irma car accident | false | https://abqjournal.com/1062386/georgia-congressman-recovering-from-post-irma-car-accident.html | 2017-09-12 | 2 |
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) — A fund created to assist victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting will get a financial boost from another account set up after the tragedy.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Review-Journal <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/vegas-strong-fund-says-it-wont-be-cutting-any-more-checks/" type="external">reports</a> that the fund set up by the Nevada resort industry, which has about $12 million in cash and commitments, will donate half of the money to the Las Vegas Victims' Fund.</p>
<p>The nonprofit overseeing the resort industry-established account cut 12 checks to victims totaling $14,800 the week before Christmas.</p>
<p>But chairwoman Jan Jones Blackhurst says the fund never intended to give financial assistance directly to victims, and the checks were written as an "emotional reaction over the Christmas holiday."</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Victims Fund has raised more than $22 million. It is accepting <a href="https://benefits.nationalcompassionfund.org/" type="external">applications</a> for assistance through Jan. 31.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, <a href="http://www.lvrj.com" type="external">http://www.lvrj.com</a></p>
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) — A fund created to assist victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting will get a financial boost from another account set up after the tragedy.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Review-Journal <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/vegas-strong-fund-says-it-wont-be-cutting-any-more-checks/" type="external">reports</a> that the fund set up by the Nevada resort industry, which has about $12 million in cash and commitments, will donate half of the money to the Las Vegas Victims' Fund.</p>
<p>The nonprofit overseeing the resort industry-established account cut 12 checks to victims totaling $14,800 the week before Christmas.</p>
<p>But chairwoman Jan Jones Blackhurst says the fund never intended to give financial assistance directly to victims, and the checks were written as an "emotional reaction over the Christmas holiday."</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Victims Fund has raised more than $22 million. It is accepting <a href="https://benefits.nationalcompassionfund.org/" type="external">applications</a> for assistance through Jan. 31.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, <a href="http://www.lvrj.com" type="external">http://www.lvrj.com</a></p> | Fund for shooting victims to get boost from another account | false | https://apnews.com/amp/29faa142b86e46ec8b943158bb936adc | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>Sharp U.S. tax increases and government spending cuts will take effect in January unless Congress and President Barack Obama can agree on a package of deficit reduction measures.</p>
<p>With lawmakers rushing to avert events that could trigger another recession, here is a look at key dates ahead, with estimated impacts based on research by the Tax Policy Center and the Bipartisan Policy Center, both non-partisan think tanks.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>* Dec. 14. This was the targeted adjournment date for the U.S. House of Representatives, but it has been postponed. The U.S. Senate has not set an adjournment date.</p>
<p>* Dec. 17. Unofficial optimal date to have a "framework" for a deal in place, congressional aides say, in order to permit time for review and procedural delays in Congress. Congress can go beyond this time without much trouble, however.</p>
<p>* Dec. 21. Target date for a final deal that would permit lawmakers a full holiday break, aides say.</p>
<p>The House could be in session through at least Dec. 21 and will not adjourn "until a credible solution to the fiscal cliff has been found," according to Republican House leadership.</p>
<p>* Dec. 24. Some skeptical aides say Congress will work to Christmas Eve, possibly reaching a deal, or possibly not.</p>
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<p>* Dec. 25. Christmas holiday.</p>
<p>* Dec. 26-31. If no deal has been reached by this time to raise the government's debt ceiling of $16.4 trillion, the U.S. Treasury Department will have to take "extraordinary measures" to put off possible default, as it has done before.</p>
<p>If Congress does not have a "fiscal cliff" deal before Christmas, lawmakers may have to return to Washington this week.</p>
<p>* Jan. 1. Expiration of low tax rates enacted under President George W. Bush and extended in 2010 under Obama. This event would raise taxes an estimated $1,600 per U.S. household annually.</p>
<p>Expiration of Obama payroll tax cut of 2011 and 2012. This would raise taxes an estimated $700 per household.</p>
<p>Deadline for dealing with "tax extenders" such as the corporate research and development tax credit. These and other items must be extended by year-end to be claimed in 2013.</p>
<p>Deadline for fix to the alternative minimum tax. Without action, the AMT will increase the tax bills for an estimated 27 million more Americans. T h e Internal Revenue Service will need to reprogram systems and delay refunds for millions of taxpayers until late March if the fix is not passed.</p>
<p>* Jan. 1. New taxes take effect under Obama's healthcare overhaul. One is a 0.9-percent increase in wage income tax for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year. The other is a 3.8-percent Medicare tax on investment income above the same level. These take effect regardless of the cliff outcome.</p>
<p>* Jan. 2. Without congressional action to waive or postpone them, spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over 10 years begin. Known as "sequestration," these were put in place in 2011 after a congressional "super committee" failed to devise a fiscal plan.</p>
<p>* Jan. 3. The new Congress is scheduled to convene.</p>
<p>* Jan. 7-11. Congress scheduled to be out of session.</p>
<p>* Jan. 14. Congress scheduled to reconvene.</p>
<p>* Jan. 20. Presidential inauguration day. A public ceremony is planned for the following day.</p>
<p>* February. White House releases annual proposed budget. Treasury exhausts its "extraordinary measures" and U.S. faces possible rating downgrade again.</p>
<p>* March. Funding of federal government expires with the expiration of a continuing resolution.</p> | Key Dates Ahead of the Fiscal Cliff Deadline | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/12/11/key-dates-in-fiscal-cliff-deadline.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>Caterpillar Inc. said it would close its factory in Aurora, lll., laying off about 800 workers and shifting many of their positions to other U.S. factories by the end of 2018.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The machinery giant has been shedding workers and shrinking its manufacturing footprint in recent years amid a prolonged global slump in the mining and construction industries that drive its sales.</p>
<p>Denise Johnson, president of Caterpillar's resource industries group, said closing the Aurora plant "allows Caterpillar to efficiently leverage manufacturing space while still preserving capacity for an upturn."</p>
<p>About 500 of the jobs affected on Friday relate to the production of large-wheel loaders and compactors. They will be shifted to Decatur, Ill., while about 150 jobs related to making medium-size wheel loaders will move to a plant in North Little Rock, Ark., a Caterpillar spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>Approximately 1,200 of the non-production jobs in engineering and product support will remain in offices in Aurora, the spokeswoman said. Caterpillar is based in Peoria, Ill.</p>
<p>Caterpillar earlier this week said it would close a factory in Gosselies, Belgium, and shift production to other plants. The company said it had informed Belgian authorities it would lay off about 2,000 employees there.</p>
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<p>Production at that factory, which makes construction equipment, is expected to end by the middle of this year.</p> | Caterpillar to Close Aurora, Ill., Plant, Lay Off About 800 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/31/caterpillar-to-close-aurora-ill-plant-lay-off-about-800.html | 2017-03-31 | 0 |
<p>Puerto Rico government officials are looking to a 68 percent increase in an oil tax to help sell up to $2.9 billion in bonds and strengthen one of the island's largest public corporations amid bankruptcy concerns.</p>
<p>Officials said Thursday that the move also would help boost cash reserves at the Government Development Bank and allow for refinancing at least $1 billion in loans made to Puerto Rico's Highway and Transportation Authority.</p>
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<p>Legislators filed a bill calling for raising the excise tax on a barrel of crude oil from $9.25 to $15.50, to generate $178 million a year. The measure also would allow the loan to be transferred to Puerto Rico's Infrastructure Financing Authority.</p>
<p>Bank treasurer Richard Barrios said the government would access the market by March 31.</p> | Puerto Rico looks to boost excise tax on oil to help boost bond sales, ease fiscal situation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/30/puerto-rico-looks-to-boost-excise-tax-on-oil-to-help-boost-bond-sales-ease.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking California news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. MONTECITO DISASTER</p>
<p>Search goes on for the missing in neighborhoods buried by massive debris flows.</p>
<p>2. VICTIMS IDENTIFIED</p>
<p>Seventeen confirmed fatalities include four children 3 to 12 years old; oldest victim had just celebrated 89th birthday.</p>
<p>3. SPY SATELLITE</p>
<p>Launch of classified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base rescheduled after problem with ground equipment.</p>
<p>4. FACEBOOK</p>
<p>Facebook tweaking what people see to highlight posts users are most likely to engage with rather than passively consume.</p>
<p>5. CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</p>
<p>“Wonder Woman” named best action movie; honors also went to “Big Little Lies,” ″The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”</p>
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking California news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. MONTECITO DISASTER</p>
<p>Search goes on for the missing in neighborhoods buried by massive debris flows.</p>
<p>2. VICTIMS IDENTIFIED</p>
<p>Seventeen confirmed fatalities include four children 3 to 12 years old; oldest victim had just celebrated 89th birthday.</p>
<p>3. SPY SATELLITE</p>
<p>Launch of classified satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base rescheduled after problem with ground equipment.</p>
<p>4. FACEBOOK</p>
<p>Facebook tweaking what people see to highlight posts users are most likely to engage with rather than passively consume.</p>
<p>5. CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</p>
<p>“Wonder Woman” named best action movie; honors also went to “Big Little Lies,” ″The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”</p> | 5 California Things to Know for Today | false | https://apnews.com/e685f3ba22fc4d58acb28e0ab80bc9e9 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
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<p>Duncan was in New Mexico kicking off his annual Back-to-School Bus Tour in Santa Fe in the morning and then traveling on to Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Duncan said during his visit to the school that one of the most frustrating parts of his job is convincing people that all students can be high achievers. Duncan said states must close the “opportunity gap” before closing the achievement gap.</p>
<p>“We hear all the time that these are poor children, they can’t learn,” he said. “Or these are black and brown children, they can’t learn. We get that pushback from people who are skeptical. But it’s not true.”</p>
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<p>Duncan visited several classrooms and ended with a roundtable discussion in the cafeteria with a panel of local educators, administrators and community members.</p>
<p>At the end of the 2011-12 school year, Albuquerque Public Schools announced that Emerson in southeast Albuquerque would go through a “redesign” and that all teachers had to reapply for their jobs. A new principal was put in place and the school became a magnet, focusing on English language learners while adopting the Common Core academic standards. Teachers who wanted to work there had to be qualified to instruct students who were learning English.</p>
<p>The school’s most recent standardized test scores are an indication Emerson may be improving, but Superintendent Winston Brooks told the gathered crowd more data is needed to know for sure. The school saw math proficiency increase 10 percentage points and reading more than six points.</p>
<p>Emerson teacher Amanda Reyes said students at Emerson face not only the challenge of learning English, but are dealing with poverty.</p>
<p>“They don’t always have the support system at home other students in other parts of town may have,” she told Duncan. “We, as a staff, realized it’s not just about the students, it’s about including the whole community.”</p>
<p>Duncan praised Emerson for tackling reform.</p>
<p>“Turning a school around is one of the hardest but most important things we can do,” he said. “I’m sure you had pushback here internally, but you are saving lives.”</p>
<p>Also on the panel from another low-performing school with high poverty was Rio Grande Principal Yvonne Garcia. She also said one of the biggest challenges is overcoming low expectations.</p>
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<p>“I know these kids can succeed,” she said.</p>
<p>While in Santa Fe, Duncan talked about President Barack Obama’s Preschool for All early learning proposal. The early education proposal calls for an investment of $75 billion over the next 10 years to be paid for by a cigarette tax.</p>
<p>Duncan said the proposed investment would double the number of children with access to pre-K programs from 1.1 million to 2.2 million and significantly increase funding to pre-K programs.</p>
<p>New Mexico would receive about $24.5 million its first year under the program. Combined with a state match of $2.4 million, the program would benefit nearly 3,000 New Mexico children from low- and moderate-income families, according to a news release.</p>
<p>While more than 9,200 New Mexico children 3 years old and younger are currently served by child care and development block grants, more children would have access to high-quality early care and education.</p>
<p>“We need a lot more politicians who see education as an investment and not an expense,” Duncan said, adding that the investment can’t be put toward the status quo. “And we have to hold politicians accountable.”</p>
<p>But not all of Duncan’s visit was focused on serious policy matters.</p>
<p>When visiting the fifth-grade Emerson classroom of Ree Chacon, Duncan took questions from the students, many of whom earned laughs from the adults present: “Do you own the whole schools?”</p>
<p>“Are you married?”</p>
<p>“Do all these people with you live in the White House?”</p>
<p>Zaz Robinson, 10, wanted to know what time Duncan gets up every day.</p>
<p>“Not too early,” Duncan said. “Today I got up at 7 a.m.”</p>
<p>Robinson didn’t seem impressed.</p>
<p>“That’s it?” he said. “I thought you people were supposed to get up at 1 a.m. or something.”</p>
<p>Journal staff writer T.S. Last contributed to this report.</p>
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<p /> | Education boss praises N.M. school reforms | false | https://abqjournal.com/260286/education-boss-praises-nm-school-reforms.html | 2013-09-10 | 2 |
<p>NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana —&#160;Father Roy Bourgeois has spent the better part of his 76 years like a polemical Don Quixote, tilting against the powerful windmills of his time: the US military, Latin American dictatorships, the State Department, federal courts —&#160;and now the Vatican.</p>
<p>Bourgeois is the founder of <a href="http://www.soaw.org/" type="external">School of the Americas Watch</a> (SOAW), whose annual demonstration began Friday outside Fort Benning, in Columbus, Ga. and runs through the weekend.</p>
<p>It’s expected to draw <a href="http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/soa-watch-marks-25th-year-speaking-out-against-school-assassins" type="external">thousands of protesters who advocate closing the US military training facility</a> where tens of thousands of Latin American soldiers have learned “counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics” since the school opened in Panama in 1946 (it moved to Fort Benning in 1984).</p>
<p>Bourgeois, who lives just off the base in the town of Columbus, has spent several stretches in prison for his protests over the years. In a weird swing of life’s pendulum, the church that gave him harbor through decades of civil disobedience has now turned against him.</p>
<p>“I never liked bullies — in high school, Latin America or the Catholic Church,” says Bourgeois. “They cause suffering to others. If I left the church I’d be allowing these bullies to do what they do.”</p>
<p>The Vatican excommunicated Bourgeois two years ago for his public support of women priests, the issue that raced his blood on a recent sun-dappled morning at the rectory of a friend in New Orleans.</p>
<p>“This is heresy at its worst — that a woman cannot become a priest, that God cannot possibly choose one,” Bourgeois told me.</p>
<p>Bourgeois was in town to speak at Call to Action, a Catholic reform group which arranged his talk at Tulane University, to avoid any potential problem with the archdiocese, rather than meeting at a Catholic college or parish.</p>
<p>“Think about it: this all-powerful God, the creator who gave us the cosmos, this all powerful and loving God behind the sun and the stars and the bayous that I was weaned on, this God who rose from the dead” — he paused for a beat — “cannot empower women as priests.”</p>
<p>Bourgeois was excommunicated in 2012 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and dismissed by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers after 45 years, for participating in the 2008 ordination of Roman Catholic womanpriest Janice Sevre-Dusyznska because of her gender.</p>
<p>Sevre-Dusynska is an ally of Bourgeois’ SOAW, which is holding its 25th anniversary event this weekend outside Fort Benning. The Latin American military officers who have trained there have since been linked to death squads and crimes against humanity in El Salvador, Chile, Bolivia, Columbia and other countries.</p>
<p>The betrayal Bourgeois feels from is never far from his reflections.</p>
<p>Excommunication has cast him into a strange internal exile, a priest denied his priestly status, a public speaker on peace issues long welcomed at Catholic venues who now faces ostracism as a critic of the church.</p>
<p>'Heresy'</p>
<p>For a man with a sunny personality, a darker, mordant wit salts his comments, as he zeroes in on the Vatican prohibition of women priests.</p>
<p>“This stupidity is from little men with little brains, little heart and little faith,” he says in the sweetened cadences of his south Louisiana upbringing, contrasting with the rock hard message.</p>
<p>“They see women as less than they are,” says Bourgeois. “This is sexism. This is heresy, heresy.”</p>
<p>Bourgeois has a habit of repeating certain words at the end of a sentence, as if to reiterate that something is more awful than he first thought.</p>
<p>Public opinion is on his side. A 2013 New York Times/CBS News poll found that <a href="http://www.bustle.com/articles/25278-let-priests-marry-italian-mistresses-beg-pope-francis-in-a-letter-pleading-the-end-of-celibacy" type="external">70 percent of American Catholics support women in the clergy</a>.</p>
<p>“Nothing in scripture says we have to exclude women from being ordained,” Bourgeois says. “The church teachings defy logic. They defy reason. They defy faith.”</p>
<p>As many scholars have observed, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis_en.html" type="external">Pope John Paul II’s decree in 1994 forbidding ordination to women</a> had little scriptural support for his position.</p>
<p>“I think the reason John Paul said we can’t talk about it is because if we really discuss this issue, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” says Bourgeois.</p>
<p>“Scripture doesn’t prohibit it. He just said it can’t be done.” A pause. “Thanks for sharing.”</p>
<p>But papal fiat has long reach, as Francis indicated in his 2013 airplane press conference from Brazil to Rome, saying that the issue of women priests had been decided.</p>
<p>Bourgeois sees a link to Vatican teaching on homosexuality, a position he summarizes as saying “the inclination which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most homosexuals a trial.” His words mingle Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s 1986 letter to the world’s bishops on homosexuality with lines from the Catholic catechism on the “trial.”</p>
<p>“This is the core of heresy,” continues Bourgeois, speaking more freely than when he was officially a priest. “I understand why so many women, gays and young people leave the church. Gay priests know the rejection and shame.”</p>
<p>Heresy, in church parlance, is like a matador’s red flag. Referring again to the Vatican he says: “They are saying very clearly that God made a mistake. These people God created, gays, are disordered…That is the core of the heresy. And most people know better.”</p>
<p>Bourgeois makes recurrent references to his hometown, Lutcher, describing a near-idyllic childhood, yet admitting that he never challenged racial segregation in school and church. “It was the way people thought, and my head hadn’t turned around yet.”</p>
<p>The high school football player graduated in 1956 and went to University of Southwestern Louisiana in nearby Lafayette, studying geology with visions of making money in the oil industry. First, though, he joined the Navy in a burst of patriotism.</p>
<p>He served in Vietnam, earned a Purple Heart for valor and became a hometown hero.</p>
<p>In Vietnam, a Canadian priest running an orphanage for children showed him a different way of living and thinking about morality. Bourgeois could not get injustice out of his system.</p>
<p>Once home, he shocked his parents, three siblings and the girl he was engaged to marry by packing off to seminary; he became a Maryknoll missionary.</p>
<p>Bolivia in 1972 was his first posting as a priest. Immersed in the lives of the poor, he lasted five years before being arrested, beaten and deported by the regime of Hugo Banzer Suarez. Later, he would learn that Banzer graduated from the School of the Americas in 1958.</p>
<p>In his lecture travels, Father Roy, as people call him, often stays with families.</p>
<p>The adult children, he finds, “don’t go to church. For them, the big issues are that women are not equal, and the church’s treatment of gays in general. The image they have of God, the divine, is that God is love. They’re not into doctrine. People have not lost faith in God, but in the patriarchy, the hierarchy, the image of God they present.”</p>
<p>A moment passes, he glances at the pastoral yard outside.</p>
<p>“I have a better chance of winning the Louisiana state lottery than being reinstated in the priesthood.”</p>
<p>'Silence is the voice of complicity'</p>
<p>Bourgeois was catalyzed to spearhead School of the Americans Watch several months after the 1989 murders of six Jesuits, a housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. By the mid-90s, Congressional liberals and a UN committee were demanding documents from the Pentagon, putting pressure on the Clinton Administration to close SOA which had flourished in the Reagan-Bush years.</p>
<p>Catholic colleges and universities were as central to Bourgeois’ life in those years of organizing against SOA as the venues he found with CTA, reform groups, the network of friends in Maryknoll, other religious orders and parishes whose pastors supported his politics.</p>
<p>“I’m persona non grata at most Catholic universities now,” he says. “At some of the bolder ones – Santa Clara, Regis University in Denver – I’ve spent a couple of days. I’ve had luncheons with faculty who were very supportive.”</p>
<p>“Something alarming I see is this whole issue of fear. Fear, that is the core of the crisis in the church. The church is about love. Love has been replaced by fear. At Boston College we had to go off-campus for a meeting with faculty. They were afraid of being able to talk about women’s ordination. By participating in a discussion they thought they might be fired if they didn’t have tenure.”</p>
<p>Father Louis Arceneaux, a Vincentian priest who hosted Bourgeois in his New Orleans rectory, said that he admired him “for standing up to the convictions of his well-formed conscience. Roy has become a dear friend and I will continue to support him and help him in any way I can, whether we agree on specific actions he or I take. He is a fellow south Louisianan so we have a kinship on many levels. I was happy to be with him when he buried his dear father in Lutcher, La. I wish more people would be as courageous as he is. I wish I were more courageous.”</p>
<p>Even the most ambivalent observers of Bourgeois’s career would acknowledge his courage in going to prison for the SOAW protests, getting out and continuing in the cause. The Catholic Left is still with him, but the issues that drive him most forcefully now are also, in a sense, a form of baggage.</p>
<p>“I’m so disappointed with so many with so many priests who are afraid and can’t speak up on women’s ordination,” he says. “[Bishop] Tom Gumbleton said, ‘Roy, they’re going to come at you hard — they’ve got to set an example.’ “</p>
<p>After Bourgeois’ participation in the ordination liturgy for a woman, the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith prefect, Cardinal William Levada, wrote him on Oct. 21, 2008, to say he was “causing grave scandal” and ordered him to recant his position in 30 days or face automatic excommunication — that is, formal expulsion from the church.</p>
<p>On Nov. 7, 2008, Bourgeois wrote Levada, standing his ground, citing a 1976 Pontifical Biblical Commission study which “concluded that there is no justification in the Bible for excluding women from the priesthood.”</p>
<p>“Silence is the voice of complicity,” Bourgeois wrote.</p>
<p>Bourgeois’ letter to Levada continued:</p>
<p>Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because of his defense of the oppressed. He said, “Let those who have a voice, speak out for the voiceless.”</p>
<p>Our loving God has given us a voice. Let us speak clearly and boldly and walk in solidarity, as Jesus would, with the women in our Church who are being called by God to the priesthood.</p>
<p>After mailing the letter, Bourgeois drove seven hours from his apartment near Fort Benning down to Lutcher. His parents, two sisters, a brother and their families have given Bourgeois emotional support for decades. His mother died in 2005; his father Roy Sr. was 95 and lived in the house where the siblings grew up.</p>
<p>The family had evolved in their views, aligning themselves with Roy as he changed, no easy thing to do.</p>
<p>Bourgeois’ refusal to obey Levada drew a new line in the sand.</p>
<p>“I didn’t sleep that night,” he recalls of the visit home to Lutcher. “Daddy was still very alert. I gave them copies of the letter to read. I went out on the front porch and waited for them to read.”</p>
<p>When he went back in the house the old man was crying, but rose to hug him and said, “Roy is doing the right thing and I support him.”</p>
<p>It took four years for the answer to come from Rome.</p>
<p>Roy Sr. passed away shortly before the decision.</p>
<p>“Cardinal Levada was pressing [Maryknoll superiors] to dismiss me, but they didn’t have the votes in the community,” he says.</p>
<p>Then Bourgeois was briefly detained by Italian police in a 2011 protest vigil at St. Peter’s Square in support of the Women’s Ordination Movement.</p>
<p>Demonstrations are a commonplace at the Vatican on all kinds of issues, and are closely monitored by Italian police. It is unclear whether the protest had any impact on the doctrinal office, where Levada was in his final year as prefect.</p>
<p>Four months after the protest, however, the new CDF prefect, German Cardinal Ludwig Müller issued the excommunication and simultaneously laicized, or defrocked him.</p>
<p>A press release by Maryknoll a month later made pointed reference to “Mr. Bourgeois,” thanking him for his years of service, pledging to “assist Mr. Bourgeois in his transition.”</p>
<p>Prison</p>
<p>Ironically, just as the Maryknolls bowed to Vatican pressure, Bourgeois’s long struggle to hold the Pentagon accountable for the SOA was bearing some fruit. The governments of Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia have ceased sending troops for training sessions there.</p>
<p>As Bourgeois continues his travels and public speaking, a bittersweet realization shadows him.</p>
<p>By making Bourgeois a pariah, the Vatican has sent a signal to others, he believes.</p>
<p>“For priests, it means going home to talk with their family after being kicked out and having nowhere to go,” he says. “When you see an injustice, we want to speak out. Priests tell me they support me but not in public.”</p>
<p>Bourgeois thinks back to a period he spent in solitary confinement at a federal prison in Indiana in 1985, convicted for trespassing at Fort Benning in 1983, climbing a tree and playing a speech by the slain Archbishop Oscar Romero on a boom box near the dorm of Salvadoran troops.</p>
<p>Alone in his cell, doing push-ups and jogging in place, he fell into a routine, imagining “that this was something like the desert fathers, very self-regimented. The first couple of weeks I thought, wow, this is great.”</p>
<p>But then he started missing friends, and dealing with depression and sadness. As he was working through the depression, the system transferred him to a prison in Sandstone, Minnesota. He met many Latino prisoners. They considered him a political prisoner and rallied around him as a priest.</p>
<p>He spent a year and a half as an unofficial chaplain, “helping inmates who had left the church and wanted to talk to God,” he recalls.</p>
<p>The prison he now inhabits has no bars, and travels with him.</p>
<p>GroundTruth contributor Jason Berry is the author of Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Priest exiled for supporting female clergy accuses Vatican of heresy | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-11-21/priest-exiled-supporting-female-clergy-accuses-vatican-heresy | 2014-11-21 | 3 |
<p>Mendocino law enforcement officer Randy Johnson and farmer Tomas Balogh at a farm inspection.</p>
<p>Even though I’ve lived west of the Mississippi for half my life, the native New Yorker in me has always been dismissive of reports that my tax dollars are being used to fund black helicopters that are hassling Americans in defense of foreigners, or the UN, or something.</p>
<p>“We have a Constitution,” was my standard tavern line to tipsy ranchers in places like Deming, New Mexico. No Americans are getting invaded by men jumping out of helicopters, I argued. Then I spent a year on the front lines of the war on drugs.</p>
<p>While researching what a post-drug war economy might look like from the producer standpoint -- a project spurred in part by the 2011 arrest of the town mayor near my New Mexico ranch on charges that he was a member of a Mexican cartel -- I quickly learned to sleep through the roar of helicopter blades that essentially provides the summer soundtrack in American cannabis production country. These choppers are used to seize something like 1% of the domestic cannabis crop. Oh, and sometimes they’re black.</p>
<p>It’s loud and nearly constant, but 40 years of such expensive, constitutionally questionable, cartel-ignoring nonsense has hardly put a dent in supply or demand. How do we know this? Let’s quote the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2009 Domestic Cannabis Cultivation assessment: “The amount of marijuana available for distribution in the United States is unknown…Despite record-setting eradication efforts in the United States, the availability of marijuana remains relatively high, with limited disruption in supply or price.”</p>
<p>Regardless, your tax dollars and mine, by the billions, in a time of fiscal crisis, are going to arrest otherwise law-abiding Americans north of the border. As former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz and even Albert Einstein have pointed out (in 1921 during that early bout of nonsensical Prohibition) this further enriches the murderers south of the border by sustaining a prohibition economy. I don’t know how my neighboring cattle ranchers in the desert knew it, but they’re right: the war on drugs really is being fought for the benefit of foreigners.</p>
<p>Want an example? Just before he and his wife had their Mendocino County, California farm and medical cannabis cooperative destroyed by heavily armed and chainsaw-wielding Drug Enforcement Administration agents last October, a locally permitted, non-profit cannabis farmer and chamber of commerce member named Matt Cohen told me he was confident that he and his fellow American farmers (of America’s far and away number-one cash crop) were on the right side of history.</p>
<p>As we toured the field where his 99 man-sized plants wavered fragrantly in the breeze, the 33-year-old Cohen told me, “By the time alcohol Prohibition ended, on December 5, 1933, 23 states had already enacted laws regulating the alcohol industry.” Yep, he really knew the date. It was kind of his mantra.</p>
<p>In other words, before Congress was forced to wake up 80 years ago, enough states first decided that hysterical zealots telling people what they could or could not ingest was not the way to go, policy-wise. It was no way to run an economy (alcohol taxes at times had provided 70% of federal revenue prior to Prohibition). It was not even a good way to "think of the children," as the screed still goes.&#160; When gangsters control an industry, they don’t ask to see ID. One hundred million Americans have used cannabis, including the last three presidents. “They shouldn’t have to be federal criminals,” Cohen told me last August.</p>
<p>Cohen was not a local criminal. Every plant on his farm wore an expensive, bright-yellow, local permitting “zip-tie” bracelet around its stalk. These represented participation in a new county program started because, in the words of Nobel Laureate free-market economist Milton Friedman in 1991, “Illegality creates obscene profits that finance the murderous tactics of the drug lords.”</p>
<p>True in 1933, true in 1991, true in 2012. With Connecticut’s new medical cannabis law, the latest but not the last, we’re at 17 states now unilaterally declaring peace in the drug war, and that number is going to keep growing (Massachusetts and Arkansas voters go to the polls on the issue in a couple of weeks on the medical side, and Coloradans, Oregonians and Washingtonians will be voting to fully end the drug war by regulating cannabis for adult social use). In fact, despite two recent polls showing a majority of Americans favor full -- not just medicinal – marijuana legalization, it looks like the one-state-at-a-time model is going to be the one that ends the four-decade, ineffective, trillion-dollar war on cannabis.</p>
<p>That’s because the drug war issue is, in the words of former New Mexico Governor and current Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, the issue of “greatest disconnect” between Americans and their leaders on the federal level.</p>
<p>What he means is, there is as yet almost no support in Congress, especially in the Senate, to get cannabis out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. This absurd classification means that officially the plant has no beneficial uses at all. Even cocaine and methamphetamine are in Schedule II. As the tired and wrong rhetoric about brains frying on drugs fades from the society’s zeitgeist, the taxpayer is coming to ask why.</p>
<p>Here’s what I discovered: devoid of reason or results, inertia becomes the last refuge of the drug warrior. And it’s a powerful refuge. You think it’s hard to get funding for a program? That’s nothing compared to urging a legislator to turn off the tap once the bureaucratic flow is cascading to beneficiaries. And at a higher cost annually then Reagan’s entire 10-year Star Wars initiative, the drug war is one big flow. Sixty-billion dollars of our taxes are spent annually (state and federal) to lose this war.</p>
<p>Appropriations taps tended to get rusted in the on position because a lot of jobs and programs are at stake. That is sure true in the case of America’s longest and most expensive war. An American is arrested for cannabis every 37 seconds, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. This despite its proven medicinal properties and what any honest law enforcer will tell you is a much easier call to get than an alcohol one or one connected to America’s real epidemic: prescription pill abuse.</p>
<p>That cannabis is the main domestic drug war target has nothing to do with public safety. The reason for all the rural raids and urban stop-and-frisks is that a lot of people are paid to keep doing these things. The federal DEA alone has more than 9,000 employees and a budget of $2.5 billion. That’s an industry, people. Local law enforcers are directly and indirectly reimbursed based on their arrests and property seizures. Private prison executives guarantee incarceration rates in bids to municipalities. And the same banks you use launder Mexican drug money.</p>
<p>President Obama knows all this. Or did until his inauguration. In 2004, he said, “The war on drugs has been an utter failure. I think we need to…decriminalize our medical marijuana laws.” In 2011, hounded for three years by cannabis activists at every town hall meeting he held, he finally said, “Am I willing to pursue a decriminalization strategy as an approach? No.” Hard to turn of the money tap, ain’t it? That explains the federal disconnect, Governor Johnson. Too much of the drug war, in practice, is incarceration industry welfare.</p>
<p>Are there bad players in the American cannabis industry, which crop is worth more than corn and wheat combined, according to ABC? Of course. Criminals are just about all that prohibition’s free-for-all creates, other than a massive prison population. It’s why we’ve heard of Al Capone.</p>
<p>As one cannabis farmer I followed, Tomas Balogh, put it, “When there’s a gold rush, you’ve got Yosemite Sam right next to responsible hardworking people.”</p>
<p>Matt Cohen, the Mendocino farmer who was about to be raided, is not a gangster. He doesn’t own a weapon and even his dogs will lick you to death. He was, according to Mendocino County Board of Supervisors member John McCowen, “the first…to call for regulation of the cultivation and dispensing of medical marijuana to prevent black market diversion.” His raid, according to NORML’s Dale Gieringer, was “a victory for the cartels.”</p>
<p>The funny thing is, in the year I spent researching American cannabis farmers, most law enforcers I met were well-intended, regulations-following professionals just trying to do their job. Good cops, in other words. Not intentionally working for cartels. Though more than a few were aware that they are on the losing side of the war and part of a bad policy.</p>
<p>Last July, a man wearing fatigues whose salary I pay pointed an automatic weapon at me and ordered me off my own public lands during a national forest raid I was trying to cover. He did so what seemed to me apologetically, with the posture of someone punching in and punching out. Blaming that fellow for the drug war would be like blaming the corporal slogging it out in a Southeast Asian rice paddy in 1973 for the Vietnam War. I felt bad for him. I hope he can find other work, perhaps going after prescription pill mill operators, when the exorbitant travesty of cannabis prohibition ends.</p>
<p>Throwing their hands up at congressional and White House refusal to put cannabis to work for the American economy (Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron suggests that lost tax revenue was $6.2 billion in 2011) while crippling the cartels (70% of whose revenue derives from cannabis trafficking, according to some studies, though even 50% would mean cannabis legalization would cripple them), cannabis activists at national organizations like the Marijuana Policy Project are chipping away at outdated cannabis laws, one state at a time. In fact that organization’s slogan is, “27 medical marijuana states by 2014.”</p>
<p>Eventually, drug peace activists believe, we will reach a tipping point. The number of people who believe that America’s health and children are more threatened by legal cannabis than by illegal, cartel-controlled cannabis will continue to wither down to nothing as the truth, as it tends to do, eventually gets out.&#160;</p>
<p>Congress will have to act, they say. It will be forced to shut off the tap, or at least redirect the massive flow of Drug War, Inc. Hope they hurry. We’ve got an embarrassingly world-leading 2.3 million Americans locked up today, to which New York City makes its little stop-and-frisk racial profiling contribution. Federal funding trickles down to local police coffers based directly on arrest numbers.</p>
<p>On the producer/farmer end,&#160;sometimes law enforcement budgets are actually dependent on seizing Americans' property. California U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner unilaterally “awarded” Stanislaus County law enforcers $154,875 following one 2011 raid. Federal law doesn’t even mandate property return if charges are never filed. This is why former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper says, “the drug war’s most serious collateral damage has been to undermine the role of civilian law enforcement in our free society.”</p>
<p>Without question, the economic data show that cannabis should immediately be put to work for the American economy. That’s what, in the end, makes it a top-tier-important issue at a time of debt crisis, currency crisis and Middle East dictator crisis: not only are the enforcement billions better spent elsewhere, but revenues from the cannabis plant economy itself will impart billions into our economy every year.</p>
<p>It’s already happening with nutritive and industrial cannabis in Canada (still illegal to grow here). Smokable cannabis might one day be a niche industry, like cigars, one venture capitalist suggested to me. As North Dakota’s agriculture commissioner Roger Johnson (no liberal) put it in 2007, “What an opportunity we’re throwing away, not being a part of this [industrial cannabis] industry…We really ought to be in this business. It’s economics.”</p>
<p>What then? I just spent a year witnessing what one promising model for the Pax Cannabis era looks like. It was that experiment in local governance put forth by tiny Mendocino County on California’s North Coast – the one that had all of Matt Cohen’s plants wearing permitting bracelets. Here’s a paraphrase of the local Board of Supervisors’ thinking: “Look, cannabis isn’t going away. It’s like 80% of our economy. We can regulate it and tax it, or we can let the criminals reap all the profits, increasing crime locally and everywhere.”</p>
<p>Their crop’s local value, easily more than $3 billion annually, a bit outpaces number two grapes, at $74.9 million in 2010. Up until now, untaxed and unregulated. If you were a young 4H member in those emerald hills, which would you choose?</p>
<p>And thus Ordinance 9.31 was passed. Locals call it the “zip-tie program.” Ninety-five local farmers, some third-generation, bravely came aboveground in 2011 to declare, “I am an American small farmer. Please tax me, don’t arrest me.”</p>
<p>Only no one told the feds. A team of DEA agents, in his words “machine guns blazing,” came to chop down Matt Cohen’s plants at dawn on October 13, 2011. They also held him incommunicado from his wife and lawyer for eight hours. “It was pretty scary,” Cohen’s wife, Courtney, recalls of the raid. “As we ran downstairs to meet these guys I remember shouting, 'Please don't shoot our dogs! Please don't shoot our dogs!'"</p>
<p>Matt Cohen had paid about $8,500 in permitting fees to Mendocino County that spring. “Gladly,” the Farm Bureau member told me. “We aren’t fighting the Man. We are the Man.”</p>
<p>Local law enforcers had come to Cohen’s birthday party that summer. He was a poster child for cannabis farming done right. His 3,300 patients loved him for the reliable source of organically grown medicine his farm provided. One is AARP member Bill Harney, a liver cancer battler. When I visited with him in the “Valle Vista Senior Subdivision" home where he had for more than a year received deliveries from Cohen’s Northstone Organics Cooperative, he told me, “A year ago I weighed 118 pounds. Now I’m up to 155. My doctor recommended cannabis to me because he knew if I didn’t eat I would die.”</p>
<p>Cohen’s permit fees were part of the $605,000 raised by Ordinance 9.31 in 2011, which zip-tied thousands of samples from the county’s leading crop in those yellow bracelets, and directly saved seven deputy jobs that were slated for elimination in county budget cuts.</p>
<p>Cohen himself had made about $50,000 in salary in three years as a -- as far as Mendocino County was concerned -- perfectly legal farmer. As legal as if he had been growing corn or tomatoes.</p>
<p>A recent soundbite you’re sure to hear spouted by those who benefit from the “heck, let’s give it another 40 years and trillion dollars” view about the war on drugs claims that California’s not-for-profit medical cannabis system is being abused by profiteers. Or that medical cannabis activists really want full legalization. To these folks I say, “It’s called an economy. Tax it.”</p>
<p>The feds are, thus far, saying, “no thanks.” Under direct threat by Justice Department attorneys of not just more constituent raids but of personal prosecution themselves, Mendocino County supervisors canceled the 9.31 zip-tie program shortly after the raid on Cohen’s farm. For now. What a blow against the cartels, Uncle Sam! You just forced a retiree liver cancer patient to become another of their dissatisfied customers.</p>
<p>And yet Matt Cohen remains unflaggingly optimistic that good policy will win out. “December 5, 1933,” he told me again, when I visited his decimated and bankrupt farm after his raid. “One state at a time.”&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>His now-stumpy acreage, still flanked by a framed local cultivation permit, a huge American flag and a local Chamber of Commerce membership certificate, looked like something out of The Lorax. Close to a million dollars of medicinal American agricultural production had been carted away in a dump truck.</p>
<p>On the ground, 56% of Americans believe this policy must change. Since Cohen’s raid, Connecticut has bid adieuto the drug war, and 15 other states have already decriminalized the plant for all uses. The 17 medical programs are extremely varied, from California’s broad, voter-approved, “any…illness for which marijuana provides relief” plan, to Colorado’s tightly regulated for-profit model, to Montana’s federally meddled-with program, to my home state of New Mexico’s legislature-created, humming-right-along one. That program serves, among thousands of others, a 63-year-old Vietnam War veteran neighbor of mine named Carl Reid. “Got me off pain killers,” he told me of his new medicine. “Gave me my life back.”</p>
<p>And that state-by-state regulatory variety is how it should be: Provos’s alcohol laws are different from Reno’s, because Utah is different than Nevada. What the programs have in common is that they work. They generate revenue while serving patients and improving public safety. Consequently, more and more state governments are requesting that the feds get out of the way because a) Americans have shown that they want cannabis, one way or another; b) Americans, not foreign cartels, should produce it; and c) the drug war, after raging 10 times longer than World War II, doesn’t work anyway.</p>
<p>Sometimes our chief drug warriors defensively pretend that they understand this. Memo to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske: saying that you’re focusing drug war funding on education while devoting the highest amount ever to domestic enforcement -- $9.4 billion for fiscal 2013 -- isn’t fooling anyone. Nor is the ridiculous argument that children will have more access to cannabis when it’s regulated for adult use like alcohol. I gave a talk at a high school last week during which I asked the question, “How many of you in this auditorium believe it’s easier to get cannabis than alcohol?” Every hand went up. This confirms the obvious: regulated cannabis will lead to a decrease in cannabis use, as a recent Brown University study concluded.</p>
<p>In the course of my research, I came across some surprising (to me) states that have been at least debating the cannabis decriminalization issue or medical programs: Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama. Note to candidate advisers: ending the drug war is a politically safe issue in the heartland. Maybe they’ll wake up when they see the election returns in a few weeks.</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s because ordinary Americans sense that a drug peace would improve American health and public safety. De facto legal cannabis sure has been good for Mendocino County, California. “Got my first-ever homicide tip after 27 years,” a Mendocino sheriff’s sergeant named Randy Johnson told me during the zip-tie program’s mercurial rise. “The growers are open members of the community now.”&#160;</p>
<p>When the drug peace tipping point is reached, the Mendocino model, which was such a success that several surrounding counties were planning to emulate it, and which even included sustainability guidelines, as well as all kinds of zoning and property fencing requirements, is one that can and hopefully will be implemented nationwide on the production side.</p>
<p>It will put a cadre of American farmers back to work on medicinal, industrial and even fuel-producing cannabis fields (hemp has several times the per-acre biofuel yield of corn). America will benefit to the tune of billions every year when we end one of our worst domestic policies since, well, Prohibition. As twice-elected Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, no Cheech and Chong law enforcer (he willingly goes after cannabis growers he or his narcotics team believe are breaking local or state law), puts it: “We have real problems in our county. Meth. Domestic violence. Marijuana isn’t even in the top three. I just want to get it off the front pages. This is my biggest dream.”</p>
<p>Doug Fine is the author of&#160;Farewell, My Subaru, Too High to Fail, and most recently,&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hemp-Bound-Dispatches-Agricultural-Revolution/dp/1603585435/ref=la_B001JS4SI2_1_1/188-6951293-9988328?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1394148024&amp;sr=1-1" type="external">Hemp Bound</a>. Books and films:&#160; <a href="http://dougfine.com/" type="external">Dougfine.com</a>&#160;Twitter: @organiccowboy.</p> | Marijuana Prohibition Is Hanging on by Its Final Thread -- There's a Bright Future on the Horizon | true | http://alternet.org/drugs/marijuana-prohibition-hanging-its-final-thread-theres-bright-future-horizon | 2012-10-30 | 4 |
<p>A Conservative Jewish seminary in Israel has voted to allow gays and lesbians to become rabbis, <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/conservative-jews-to-allow-gay-rabbis-20120421-1xddo.html" type="external">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>The decision by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary --&#160;affiliated with Israel's Conservative Jewish movement --&#160;to accept gay and lesbian rabbinical students in Jerusalem from this fall ends a rift with the Conservative movement in the US.</p>
<p>Conservative Judaism -- a major denomination in the US but a marginal force in Israel -- responded to calls for greater openness toward gays and lesbians by accepting gay and lesbian rabbinical students in 2006. It ordained its first openly lesbian rabbi last year.</p>
<p>Conservatives interpret Jewish law -- and its prohibitions on homosexual conduct -- more strictly than the liberal Reform movement, but the ordination of female rabbis and other practices are rejected by more Orthodox Jews.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/news/religious-secular-in-israel/conservatives-to-ordain-gay-and-lesbian-rabbis-in-israel/2012/04/19/" type="external">According to the Jewish Press</a>, Schechter trains educational and spiritual, non-Orthodox leaders for positions in Israel.</p>
<p>Students are ordained by members of the seminary's Rabbinic Advisory Committee, all of whom are members of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Masorti/Conservative movement.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/120320/idf-cracks-down-weekly-magazine-after-" type="external">IDF cracks down on weekly magazine after article shows soldiers in drag</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=266840" type="external">The Jerusalem Post cited&#160;</a>the seminary as saying in a statement that the decision came following a "long process."</p>
<p>"The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halacha," or Jewish law, Hanan Alexander, chair of the seminary's Board of Trustees, reportedly said in the statement.</p>
<p>"This decision highlights the institution's commitment to uphold halacha in a pluralist and changing world."</p>
<p>The wording of the statement hinted at the fiery debate that preceded it, the AP wrote.</p>
<p>"In the Conservative world, there are rabbis who accept ordination of gay and lesbian students as well as those who do not," the statement said.</p>
<p>"The decision is the result of a long process that included broad consultation and a search to find a consensus among differing opinions that will allow continued cooperation."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/turkey/120411/meet-the-people-behind-turkeys-economic-miracle" type="external">Meet the people behind Turkey's 'miracle'</a>&#160;</p> | Israel: Jewish seminary to allow gays and lesbian rabbinical students | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-21/israel-jewish-seminary-allow-gays-and-lesbian-rabbinical-students | 2012-04-21 | 3 |
<p>Photo by Stephanie Mencimer</p>
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<p>The tea party movement has been keeping a pretty low profile lately, but that doesn’t mean it has disappeared. Tea partiers are still fighting political battles at the local level and gearing up for the presidential election. Here’s a brief roundup of recent tea party news you may have missed:</p>
<p>Rewriting US&#160;history to white-out slavery: Tennessee tea party activists have asked the state legislature to introduce a bill that would force the state to rewrite school textbooks to excise references to the Founding Fathers that might tarnish the image tea partiers would like to have of them. They don’t want school kids to know the founders’ uglier side, things like, for example, some of the founders owned slaves, had sex with them, and fathered children with them. In a press conference in mid-January, according to the <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jan/13/tea-parties-cite-legislative-demands/" type="external">Memphis Commercial Appeal</a>, the activists handed out materials that said:</p>
<p>Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”</p>
<p>Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.</p>
<p>“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds, whose website identifies him as a Vietnam War veteran of the Air Force and FedEx retiree who became a lawyer in 1995.</p>
<p>Keeping the birther movement alive: Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips may be bankrupt and <a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-resort-sues-tea-party-group-over-hotel-bill-125851363.html?ref=363" type="external">thousands of dollars in debt to conservative billionaire and Las Vegas hotel magnate Sheldon Adelson</a>, but that hasn’t stopped him from going to Florida this week on a Tea Party Express “get out the vote”&#160;tour before the GOP primary. Along with his speaking events on the campaign trail, Phillips is doing his part to defeat Obama by <a href="http://irehr.org/issue-areas/tea-party-nationalism/tea-party-news-and-analysis/item/390-tea-party-nation-pushes-birther-conspiracy-heads-to-florida" type="external">supporting a lawsuit filed in Georgia by birther queen Orly Taitz</a> challenging Obama’s qualifications to be on the ballot there. Conceding that similar suits in other states have been dismissed, Phillips remains hopeful that they are the key to defeating Obama in November. “These are must win states for Obama. If he were excluded from one or more of these states, it would become almost impossible for Obama to win reelection,” writes Phillips.&#160;</p>
<p>Still Raising Big Money: For all the talk of the tea party movement being “grassroots,” they are certainly taking on some of the trappings of the establishment, namely by <a href="http://irehr.org/issue-areas/tea-party-nationalism/tea-party-news-and-analysis/item/391-second-tea-party-super-pac-formed" type="external">starting super-PACs.</a>&#160;Two big tea party groups, Tea Party Express and FreedomWorks, have both started super PACs that can accept unlimited contributions to use in independent expenditure campaigns during this year’s election. FreedomWorks is hoping to raise $5 million to push its free-market agenda through <a href="http://www.politico.com/politicoinfluence/0112/politicoinfluence187.html" type="external">“street-level politicking.”</a></p>
<p>Of course, whether these two organizations really qualify as the tea party movement is an open question.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Tea Party Express was started by GOP political consultants in California</a> who were already been attacking Obama in 2008 with outside expenditures, and FreedomWorks is a <a href="" type="internal">spin-off of the oil-rich Koch brothers’ Citizens for a Sound Economy</a>, a corporate front group that helped the tobacco and other big industry fight regulation and taxes. They’re not purely grassroots organizations.</p>
<p /> | Tea Party Roundup: Birthers, Slaves and Super PACs | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/tea-party-roundup/ | 2012-01-31 | 4 |
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<p>With routes via the Balkans closed due to fences and walls put up in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary, the route to Italy made difficult by the Libyan coastguard who burns migrant boats, there is of course only one road left for immigrants from Africa who want to reach the economically more interesting UK and the whole of Western Europe: go through Spain.</p>
<p>So far, the Guardia Civil (Spanish police) has arrested 1,250 migrants who tried to sneak into the different ferries, which means it has, only in the first nine months of this year, tripled versus the whole of 2016, where 436 tried to sneak into Britain.</p>
<p>Popular is the ferry via Bilbao to Portsmouth. Brittany Ferries, which operates the line, has had to hire additional security to stop immigrants trying to crawl directly onto the boats just before it sets off for the high seas.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Brittany Ferries said that most of those arrested are young Albanian males.</p>
<p>Some are also trying to cross via the Basque north of Spain as it is easier not to get noticed via that route than the French ports which are now heavily secured.</p>
<p>There are two weekly crossings between Portsmouth and Bilbao as well as different freight services operating the line. Further to that, container ships also set sail for the UK port of Poole from Bilbao.</p>
<p>Just in the first two weeks of September, 99 individuals were arrested by Brittany Ferries in Bilbao.</p>
<p>Brittany Ferries: 'Bilbao remains an attractive target for criminal gangs. In neighboring Santander, those who repeatedly target port facilities are sent to a detention center near Madrid before being deported. In Bilbao, a port infraction is treated as a civil misdemeanor and offenders are simply released to try again.'</p>
<p>Spanish Daily El Pais explained that due to the dismantling of Calais (France's) migrant camp known as "the Jungle", many more migrants were now trying to sneak into Britain via Spain.</p>
<p>Source:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4916068/Number-migrants-trying-sneak-ferries-soars.html#ixzz4tgGYIHfN" type="external">dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4916068/Number-migrants-trying-sneak-ferries-soars.html#ixzz4tgGYIHfN</a></p> | Migrants Trying to Sneak Into Western Europe Via Spain Soaring | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/8649-Migrants-Trying-to-Sneak-Into-Western-Europe-Via-Spain-Soaring | 2017-09-25 | 0 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — U.S. employers cut back sharply on hiring in March, yet Friday’s jobs report still had much to be encouraged about, including a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.5 percent, the lowest in a decade.</p>
<p>Employers added just 98,000 jobs, the Labor Department said. It was barely half the previous month’s gain.</p>
<p>Yet unemployment dropped from 4.7 percent, reaching its lowest point since May 2007. While the rate has fallen in the past because of unemployed workers who had given up looking, it happened this time because of a healthy gain in the number of people with jobs.</p>
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<p>“Within the disappointing 98,000 net new jobs added, there seems to be a lot more going on beneath the surface, and what is going beneath the surface is mostly good,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo.</p>
<p>Here are the positive aspects of the report, followed by some parts that were not so hot:</p>
<p>— JOB GROWTH STILL OK</p>
<p>In the past three months, employers have added an average of 178,000 jobs a month. That’s much better than March’s increase and is closer to the underlying trend, economists said.</p>
<p>That’s also just below the average gains of 187,000 jobs a month last year. Hiring should rebound closer to that level in the coming months, economists say.</p>
<p>— HIT FROM WEATHER PROBABLY TEMPORARY</p>
<p>One reason last month’s weak gain was probably a blip is that harsh winter weather in New England and the Midwest most likely hurt hiring in construction, retail and other weather-sensitive industries. Also, construction companies reported huge job gains in January and February, when the weather was unseasonably warm, so they didn’t need to engage in their usual spring hiring.</p>
<p>— BETTER JOBS</p>
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<p>The job gains last month, while tepid, occurred in better-paying industries, such as manufacturing and a category that includes accounting, engineering and other professional services.</p>
<p>Lower-paying fields, such as retail, cut jobs, while a category that includes restaurants and hotels posted a small gain.</p>
<p>And all the new jobs added were full time, the government said. The number of Americans who are working part time but would prefer a full-time job fell.</p>
<p>An alternative unemployment measure, which includes involuntary part-time workers, fell to 8.9 percent, its lowest level since December 2007, when the Great Recession started.</p>
<p>That’s down from a peak in 2010 of 17.1 percent.</p>
<p>Yet there were some discouraging signs:</p>
<p>— MORE OPTIMISM, SAME ECONOMY</p>
<p>Consumer and business optimism has soared since the presidential election. Many companies eagerly await the tax cuts and deregulation promised by President Trump.</p>
<p>Yet so far, there is little evidence that better sentiment has translated into more hiring, spending or economic growth. Companies are adding workers at the same pace they did last year. And consumers trimmed their inflation-adjusted spending in January and February.</p>
<p>— STAGNANT WAGES</p>
<p>Average hourly earnings climbed 2.7 percent over the past year, not much of a win for workers. And after factoring in inflation in the past year, paychecks are essentially flat.</p>
<p>“Right now, real wages are basically stagnant,” said Megan Greene, chief economist at Manulife Asset Management. “That’s why things like retail sales growth and other indicators for consumer demand have been so anemic.”</p>
<p>The situation is even tougher for front-line workers, who account for the majority of all jobs. Their wages have risen just 2.3 percent, so after inflation they have fallen.</p>
<p>— HIRING NOT WIDELY SPREAD</p>
<p>The drop in the unemployment rate is good news, but it doesn’t mean everyone has benefited. Women made up nearly all those who gained jobs, with the unemployment rate for adult men unchanged, at a still-low 4.3 percent.</p>
<p>— DISAPPEARING RETAIL JOBS</p>
<p>Online shopping is taking its toll on traditional retailers who can no longer compete on price or convenience as they once did.</p>
<p>Department and general merchandise stores trimmed 34,700 workers from their payrolls last month. Clothiers let go of 5,800. Amid these job losses, wage growth for retail workers was a paltry 1.1 percent before inflation, far worse than the national average.</p> | Hiring slows, but US unemployment falls to 10-year low | false | https://abqjournal.com/984372/us-employers-add-just-98k-jobs-as-rate-falls-to-4-5-pct.html | 2017-04-07 | 2 |
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<p>This Friday, the House is voting on bill H.R. 969, including the Udall-Platts Amendment that will require more of our electricity to come from renewable power sources like wind. In addition to creating jobs, the amendment is designed to keep electricity bills low, reduce our dependence on sources of power that aren’t created in the U.S., and curb greenhouse gas emissions. <a href="http://www.powerofwind.com/" type="external">Check it out.</a></p>
<p>Big oil &amp; coal are fighting it. Fight them. <a href="/blue_marble_blog/archives/2007/07/4937_rural_communiti.html" type="external">Renewables are good for all stakeholders on planet Earth.</a> <a href="http://julia.whitty.googlepages.com/home" type="external">JULIA WHITTY</a></p>
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<p /> | The Power of Wind Energy | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/power-wind-energy/ | 2007-08-01 | 4 |
<p>Microsoft Corp. said late Tuesday it expanded its board to 12 members with the addition of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. "I've long admired Reid's ability to identify disruptive technologies and the passion we share for how digital platforms can create new opportunity for people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement. In December, Microsoft finalized its $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. Microsoft shares were unchanged at $64.41 after hours, following a 0.5% decline during the regular session.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Microsoft Expands Board To Include LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/14/microsoft-expands-board-to-include-linkedin-reid-hoffman.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Ellen DeGeneres shocked two gay dads with a generous gift on Monday’s episode of “The Ellen DeGenres Show.”</p>
<p>Rob and Reece Scheer from&#160;Darnestown, Md. shared their story of how they went from a family of two to welcoming four kids into their home.</p>
<p>The couple explained they&#160;had only wanted to adopt one child from the foster system but received a call for a brother and sister. Not wanting to separate the kids, they decided to adopt both.</p>
<p>Three months later, the Scheers received a call for a six-month-old and a two-year-old and the youngest kids became the new additions to the family.</p>
<p>The Scheers were honest that it wasn’t always easy raising kids from foster care.</p>
<p>“When the kids arrived, we knew that they came with baggage, from homes that just lacked love in general,” the couple told DeGeneres.&#160;“We had a child who was hoarding food in her bedroom because she was scared she wasn’t going to eat, a son who couldn’t talk or walk, another child that didn’t know what it was to hug.”</p>
<p>Despite the challenges, Rob says their children are their greatest joy.</p>
<p>“That’s what family’s about, you just make it work,” Rob says. “They don’t care that we’re white and we’re gay, they care that we love them. People say all the time that our kids won the lottery but we won the lottery.”</p>
<p>Rob says he was also a foster child and remembered having to put his belongings into a trash bag. Years later when his kids arrived at his home, Rob noticed they also carried trash bags filled with their belongings.</p>
<p>The Scheers decided to launch Comfort Cases, an initiative to provide luggage for foster kids. Inside, there would be a brand new pair of pajamas, a book, a blanket and a toothbrush. A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/comfortcases" type="external">GoFundMe</a> has been launched to raise funds.</p>
<p>DeGeneres gifted the couple $10,000 and $40,000 worth of&#160;Samsonite luggage to aid their venture.</p>
<p>Comfort Cases is available in D.C., Maryland and Virginia but the Scheers aspire to reach the entire United States.</p>
<p>Watch below.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Comfort Cases</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ellen DeGeneres</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reece Scheer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rob Scheer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Samsonite</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Ellen DeGeneres Show</a></p> | Ellen DeGeneres surprises local gay dads with generous gift | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/06/07/27111043/ | 3 |
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<p>Dividends come in all shapes and sizes. Some companies either don't pay their investors a penny or just pay a token dividend, choosing instead to reinvest all their cash flow to grow. Meanwhile, others don't have very many reinvestment options for their cash flow, so they return the bulk of it to investors. However, the sweet spot for income investors consists of those companies that still have plenty of money left over after funding growth, because it means they should provide them with a steadily growing income stream.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Three companies that fit that latter group are Procter &amp; Gamble (NYSE: PG),Cummins (NYSE: CMI), and Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX). Not only do they have a history of growing their dividend, but each also has solid growth prospects on the near horizon. That's why our contributors think these companies could boost their payout again this year.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx" type="external">Demitri Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a>(Procter &amp; Gamble):It won't come as a surprise to anyone on Wall Street when Procter &amp; Gamble raises its dividend in April. After all, the consumer-goods giant has boosted its payout for 60 straight years in one of the longest such streaks on the stock market.Investors might just be shocked by the size of the increase, though.</p>
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<p>P&amp;G's dividend growth pace has <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/21/1-reason-not-to-worry-about-procter-gamble-cos-div.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">collapsed recently Opens a New Window.</a>, as sales and profit gains turned into losses. After a 7% raise in 2014, the company gave investors a 3% boost in 2015, followed by a meager 1% uptick last year.</p>
<p>I'm expecting a much bigger increase in 2017.</p>
<p>For one thing, operating results are improving. P&amp;G just raised its sales growth outlook after robust organic volume growth surprised the management team. Second, the company is flush with cash from brand divestments and cost cuts. Most of those excess funds are heading back to shareholders in the form of stock repurchases, but there's room in the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/08/procter-gamble-co-is-on-track-to-give-shareholders.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">$22 billion capital return plan Opens a New Window.</a>this year for heftier dividend payments, too. And third, P&amp;G recently attracted an activist investor who is likely agitating for <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/18/procter-gamble-cos-new-billionaire-investor.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">more shareholder-friendly moves Opens a New Window.</a>, like an aggressive dividend increase.</p>
<p>P&amp;G's stock currently yields just below 3%, which puts it right on par with large industry rivals. A surprisingly strong dividend boost this year is affordable, though, and it would likely give income investors another good reason to look at a business that appears headed for faster growth and increased profitability following almost three years of disappointing results.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTwoCoins/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Miller Opens a New Window.</a> (Cummins Inc.): One company that's likely to announce a dividend raise over the next few months is Cummins, a global leader that designs, manufactures, distributes, and services diesel and natural gas engines and related technology. The company's dividend has consistently increased with its free cash flow over the past decade:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/CMI/dividend" type="external">CMI Dividend</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Despite consistent increases, the company's yield is a modest 2.6% and it pays out only about 50% of its free cash flow and slightly less than 50% of its earnings. Although its long-term outlook is still sound, the company does face some near-term headwinds,as its top line fell 5% during the recent fourth quarter, thanks to pressure from a decline in commercial truck production in North America.</p>
<p>On the flip side, the company's bottom line and free cash flow should remain strong, protecting the dividend, simply because so many competitors have dropped out of its markets in the past few years. One example is Caterpillar's exit from the North America heavy-duty engine market in 2010, as it chose to focus on heavy-duty trucks outside the region with its Navistar alliance.</p>
<p>Part of the driving force behind competitors' exits was the increasingly stringent EPA emissions standards, which increased the cost for research and development of the engines. Not everybody was willing to play ball, but Cummins was, and it took market share.</p>
<p>In broader terms, Cummins should have top- and bottom-line upside as the largest manufacturer of natural gas and hybrid bus engines as America turns to alternative-powered vehicles. With the company's history of consistent dividend increases, a competitive advantage with its scale and engine-developing knowledge, and a payout ratio of less than 50%, don't be surprised when Cummins raises its dividend yet again later in 2017.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> (Phillips 66): Refiner Phillips 66 is coming off a tough year. Earnings across all four of its business segments were down, including an 89% plunge in refining profits. However, the company still generated $3 billion in cash flow last year and completed $1.3 billion in asset dropdowns to its MLP. The company used that cash flow, plus cash on hand, to finance nearly $2.4 billion of capital projects and return $2.3 billion in cash to investors, which included increasing the dividend 12.5%.</p>
<p>While the refining market remains tough in 2017, the company's growth in spending in other areas should start paying dividends this year. That's because Phillips 66 is nearing the completion of several major projects, which should result in a decline in capital spending and an increase in cash flow as these assets enter service. CEO Greg Garland told investors on the company's fourth-quarter conference call that they can <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/14/5-things-phillips-66s-ceo-says-investors-can-expec.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">expectthe dividend to rise in 2017 Opens a New Window.</a> and the stock-buyback program to continue.</p>
<p>Given the company's history, that dividend increase could come this May, which would continue its streak of annual increases. In fact, since gaining its independence five years ago, the company has already raised the payout six times. Furthermore, with so many large growth projects starting up, and the fact that it has $2.7 billion of cash on the balance sheet, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the company give investors another double-digit raisethis year.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Procter and GambleWhen 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=577eebcc-a45f-4bd7-aa04-a644f8a286b7&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Procter and Gamble 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=577eebcc-a45f-4bd7-aa04-a644f8a286b7&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTwoCoins/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Miller</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo</a> owns shares of Phillips 66. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Cummins. 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> | These 3 Stocks Could Boost Their Dividends in 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/16/these-3-stocks-could-boost-their-dividends-in-2017.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
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<p>McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) disclosed on Monday a 4.5% slide in second-quarter earnings as the world's largest hamburger chain was hit by a sharply stronger U.S. dollar and weaker-than-expected sales.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of the blue-chip company slumped 3% in premarket action in response to the earnings report.</p>
<p>McDonald’s said it earned $1.35 billion, or $1.32 a share, last quarter, compared with a profit of $1.41 billion, or $1.35 a share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time items like the impact of currency fluctuations, it earned $1.39 a share, topping the Street’s view by a penny.</p>
<p>Revenue inched up 0.2% to $6.92 billion, narrowly trailing consensus calls for $6.94 billion.</p>
<p>“McDonald's global comparable sales remained solid for the quarter while overall results reflected the slowing global economy, persistent economic headwinds” and recent renovations at restaurants, new CEO Don Thompson said in a statement.</p>
<p>Despite the economic turbulence, McDonald’s logged a 3.7% rise in global same-store sales, including growth in each geographic segment.</p>
<p>McDonald’s said its same-store sales increased 3.8% in debt-ridden Europe, where the company posted a 3% decline in operating income due to the tumbling euro.</p>
<p>Same-store sales inched up 0.9% last quarter in the company’s Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa segment amid “weakness” in Japan. Domestic same-store sales rose by a more robust 3.6%.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, McDonald’s sees same-store sales growth in July, but at a slower pace than last quarter.</p>
<p>Shares of Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s dropped 3.05% to $88.79 ahead of Monday’s opening bell, doubling losses of about 1.5% on the S&amp;P 500 futures. The losses put the shares on pace to extend their 2012 slump of about 9%.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Hurt by Stronger Dollar, McDonald's 2Q Net Slips 4.5% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/07/23/mcdonald-2q-profit-falls.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>Kwame Harris said it was nearly impossible to admit he was gay while playing offensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.</p>
<p>After an assault charge in January outed the former NFL player, he <a href="http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/29/former-nfl-player-comes-out/?iref=allsearch" type="external">opened up to CNN</a> Friday in an exclusive interview, saying his homosexuality and pro sports were contradictory.</p>
<p>“I’m gay and I’m a former athlete and I think I’m a pretty normal guy,” he told CNN’s Coy Wire, who played at Stanford with Harris.</p>
<p>But playing in a male-dominated pro sports league like the NFL forced him to keep secrets from his teammates.</p>
<p>In fact, he said his mind went “to dark places,” although never admitted during the interview to suicide attempts.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/world-at-play/robbie-rogers-gay-soccer-player-comes-out-retires-25" type="external">Gay soccer player Robbie Rogers quits pro sports</a></p>
<p>“I want people, whether gay athletes, athletes still in the closet, or youths who are not sure what their sexuality is, to know those are common feelings,” Harris said. “Don’t feel alone in having them.”</p>
<p>Harris was San Fran’s first-round draft choice coming out of Stanford University in 2003, <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130128/kwame-harris-charged-49ers.ap/" type="external">Sports Illustrated</a> reported.</p>
<p>He played six seasons, five with San Francisco and one with Oakland, before <a href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/15/former-first-rounder-kwame-harris-apparently-retiring/" type="external">retiring from pro football</a> in 2010 after a brief stint with the UFL.</p>
<p>He was outed after a <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Kwame-Harris-charged-with-felony-abuse-4230112.php" type="external">confrontation with an ex-boyfriend</a> around the time of the Super Bowl this year.</p>
<p>The six-foot-seven, 240-pound Harris pinned his ex-boyfriend against a wall and hit him in the face and head.</p>
<p>The beating was severe enough that doctors inserted a metal plate into the victim’s face. He pleaded not guilty and will go to trial in April.</p>
<p>During the CNN interview, Harris said he wished things could’ve been different during his playing days.</p>
<p>“Now when I look back in hindsight, if I could’ve done it differently,” Harris said, “I would like to think that I would find the strength or find the fortitude or the grace to, kind of, make the hard decision.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Kwame Harris, gay NFL player, admits to 'dark' thoughts (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-03-30/kwame-harris-gay-nfl-player-admits-dark-thoughts-video | 2013-03-30 | 3 |
<p>If you thought Watters World was a documentary about Donald Trump’s adventures with hookers in a Moscow hotel, you’re mistaken, but understandably so. In fact, it’s a program on Fox News featuring Jesse Watters, who is also a co-host of the daily afternoon program The Five. Watters is best known for being a smug, smartass who did ambush interviews for Bill O’Reilly and allegedly humorous segments that were overtly racist.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2069926576355460" type="external" /></p>
<p>Now the New York Daily News is <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/fox-news-host-jesse-watters-divorce-affair-employee-article-1.3867486" type="external">reporting</a> that Watters’ wife has filed for divorce due to his ongoing adulterous affair with a twenty-five year old co-worker, Emma DiGiovine. Watters has admitted his infidelity which he only reported to Fox News human resources after the divorce papers were filed. He and his now-estranged wife have twin six year old daughters.</p>
<p>Most companies have strict prohibitions against employees engaging in romantic relationships with subordinates on their staff. Generally it mandates termination of the superior employee who is in a position to abuse their power. Presumably, Fox News has the same policy. However, the response by Fox upon discovery of the relationship was to transfer DiGiovine to another program and let Watters off the hook entirely. Now he can continue leading classy discussions wherein he describes single women as “Beyoncé voters” who “depend on government because they’re not depending on their husbands. They need things like contraception, health care and they love to talk about equal pay.”</p>
<p>This is just the latest sex scandal at Fox News. Previously their founder and CEO, the late Roger Ailes was fired after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. Then their star host, Bill O’Reilly, got the ax when it became publicly known that he had paid millions of dollars in settlements to silence his accusers. Gee, Doanld Trump only paid $130,000 (that we know of). Fox and Friends anchor Ed Henry was suspended for several weeks for having an adulterous affair. Fox business host Charles Payne was also the subject of harassment charges. And Watters got his seat on The Five by replacing Eric Bolling, who was fired for sending explicit photos to women colleagues at Fox.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
<p>This obviously isn’t a case of a few bad apples. Fox News is a breeding ground for perverts. It’s a haven for men who exploit their power to demean and control women. Or as former Fox News host and victim Andrea Tantaros <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/andrea-tantaros-sues-fox-news-retaliation-sexual-harassment" type="external">said in her lawsuit</a>, “it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.” And now Jesse Watters has become the latest face of the reprehensible pattern of misogynistic behavior that is nurtured by Fox and its management. But he certainly won’t be the last.</p> | Another Fox News Sleazeball Has Been Caught in a Sex Scandal with a 25 Year Old Co-Worker | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D16828 | 4 |
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<p>You have decided that it is time to sell your home. Regardless of the reason why, you want as smooth and as quick of a sale as possible. To keep your sale trouble-free, consider these potential stumbling blocks before you begin your home-selling journey.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>1. Overpricing – Set the price using appraisal values and market rates, not what you think the home is worth or what you expect the profit to be.</p>
<p>Pricing your home too high has a double negative effect. Your house will sit on the market for longer and likely force you eventually to reduce the price. Either situation will put doubt in the minds of potential buyers, making them wonder what else may be wrong with the home.</p>
<p>Do your homework on Zillow and similar sites to assess the market, and take your realtor’s advice on how to price your home – whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>2. Signs of Neglect – It does not take much to make a bad first impression. If you see an unkempt lawn, spider webs in an entryway, and a broken front doorknob, what would your first impression be? Buyers are no different.</p>
<p>Take care of all the simple detail repairs that you may have been putting off. Doorknobs, sticking cabinet drawers, leaking faucets, broken gutters… deal with it all or expect trouble with a sale. If you need to hire help to take care of it all, do so.</p>
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<p>Once you get things fixed up, keep them clean. Sweep, dust and vacuum regularly. Do not forget the windows, either.</p>
<p>3. Poor Marketing – To make sure your home is seen by the most people and in the best light, you need to plan your home marketing campaign. Find a realtor you trust well in advance of your sale, and coordinate your plans with him or her. Shoot videos or photos during different times of the year to highlight the best properties of your house, and use them in your postings.</p>
<p>Ask a friend for an opinion on whether your marketing package is appealing. You may be too close to it to see things objectively.</p>
<p>4. Excessive Emotional Attachment – It may be hard to let go of your home, but it is essential to look at your home through the eyes of a dispassionate buyer with a different set of preferences and plans. Do not sabotage your sale by stubbornly clinging to your favorite aspects of it that may make the home less sellable – for example, your favorite cherry-red wall color or your collection of vintage 1970’s shag carpeting.</p>
<p>Pack away family pictures and other personalized knickknacks that remind buyers that someone currently lives in the house, and accept any advice and criticism from your realtor regarding how your home shows and how to improve it. Do not take it personally. Remember, this is a business transaction.</p>
<p>5. Unwise Renovation – Partial renovations can more than pay themselves off in increased sale value – for example, replacing dated appliances with new stainless steel ones. However, do not embark on a renovation that is disproportionate to the rest of your home, or to other homes in the neighborhood. You will not receive the full benefit of your renovation.</p>
<p>It is also best not make any renovation specific or unusual. Keep it tasteful but generic to attract the most buyers.</p>
<p>6. Incomplete Disclosures – Aside from being morally questionable at best, incomplete disclosures of past fires, water leaks, foundation repairs, and other damage could jeopardize your deal. A home inspection may bring these issues to light and destroy the trust of your potential buyer – “If they didn’t tell us about the leak, what else are they hiding?”</p>
<p>7. Going It Alone – Few people have the real estate insight, sales experience, and knowledge of home sale finances to be able to sell their own homes. The chances are that you are not one of them. If you want to sell your own home just to avoid paying a realtor, good luck to you. You are probably going to need it.</p>
<p>Take care to avoid these potential deal-wreckers, and you will increase your chances of having a quick and successful home sale. Good luck, and if you are purchasing a new home, we hope that goes smoothly for you as well.</p>
<p>More From <a href="http://www.MoneyTips.com" type="external">MoneyTips.com Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.moneytips.com/top-10-secrets-to-selling-your-home" type="external">Top 10 Secrets to Selling Your Home Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/sell-your-home-during-the-holidays" type="external">7 Tips for Selling Your Home During the Holidays Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.moneytips.com/why-house-hunt-in-the-fall" type="external">Why House Hunt in the Fall? Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 7 Home-Selling Mistakes to Avoid | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/02/04/7-home-selling-mistakes-to-avoid.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Range Resources corporate presentation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Warren Buffett famously said, "You don't know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out." Well, the tide went out for the American oil and gas industry in 2014, and hasn't come back in. We are now fully aware of which companies took on too much debt or were trying to pass off mediocre assets as good ones.</p>
<p>Range Resources is one natural gas-focused producer that was found to be wearing a very smart-looking bathing suit. Range's balance sheet has held up, and its top tier Marcellus acreage has proven to be among the best in the industry.</p>
<p>Range also just acquired Memorial Resource Development Corp . Let's take a look at whether this was a good deal for Range shareholders.</p>
<p>What exactly did Range acquire?</p>
<p>Range will acquire all of Memorial in an all-stock deal that values Memorial at $4.4 billion and includes the assumption of $1.1 billion of debt. The acquisition puts Range into an entirely new operating region.</p>
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<p>Image source: MRD corporate presentation.</p>
<p>Memorial targets the Cotton Valley formation, which extends across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southern Arkansas. The Cotton Valley has been drilled for decades, with the first wells dating back to the 1930s.</p>
<p>The beauty of the play is that it contains multiple thick-producing formations.</p>
<p>More than 21,000 vertical wells have been drilled into the play, and these wells have exhibited long-lived, predictable production profiles.</p>
<p>Image source: MRD corporate presentation.</p>
<p>MRD entered the Cotton Valley play in April 2010 through an acquisition. Today the company has 219,000 net acres which includes an option to purchase 39,000 acres in and around the Terryville Complex.</p>
<p>To date MRD has drilled 95 gross horizontal wells targeted at four primary formations:</p>
<p>- 68 Upper Red wells</p>
<p>- 22 Lower Red wells</p>
<p>- 3 Lower Deep Pink wells</p>
<p>- 2 Upper Deep Pink wells</p>
<p>A location advantage, decreased costs, and some big wells</p>
<p>A major advantage that operating in Louisiana has over operating up in Pennsylvania or Ohio where the Marcellus/Utica is is proximity to the Gulf Coast. This allows for higher natural gas prices.</p>
<p>MRD believes that it will receive 95% to 100% of NYMEX Henry Hub pricing. Companies producing in the Marcellus will be receiving considerably less than that.</p>
<p>Image source: Memorial corporate presentation.</p>
<p>There are other benefits to operating in the Deep South. It puts the producing wells close to the demand growth that is coming from LNG exports, industrial demand expansion from the petrochemical sector, and exports to Mexico.</p>
<p>On the Q1 2016 conference call MRD revealed that the company had reduced cost per well from $11.8 million to $8.7 million. MRD expects to bring those costs down further to $8.4 million by year end. That has created a tremendous uplift for the economics of the wells.</p>
<p>Image source: Memorial corporate presentation.</p>
<p>Wells that were already very good have become a lot better. Since 2012 there have been 20,800 horizontal gas wells drilled in the United States. Of those, only 95 have had a peak monthly production of over 21 MMcfe/day.</p>
<p>MRD has drilled 36 of those 95 boomer horizontal wells. Further, MRD has drilled 68 wells that fall in the top 2% of the 20,800 wells drilled, and 51 in the top 1%. Of the 100 best wells drilled, MRD has 37.</p>
<p>Image source: Memorial corporate presentation.</p>
<p>This deal has made Range a better company</p>
<p>The only thing to not like about this deal is that it is very hard to understand why Memorial was willing to sell at this point in the natural gas cycle. The company had no balance sheet issues, an incredible hedge book, and, as we have seen, some excellent assets.</p>
<p>The only real drawback that Memorial seemed to have was that it was a "one-trick pony" with just the Cotton Valley play. Although when that one play is a really good play like this one, that is really a high-end concern.</p>
<p>It seems like a big win for Range shareholders. It brings together two high-quality unconventional producers with large de-risked, high-return projects into one portfolio. Range was a pretty solid-looking company before. It is an even better one now.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/31/range-resources-just-made-a-steal-of-a-deal.aspx" type="external">Range Resources Just Made a Steal of a Deal</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFWolfpack/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFWolfpack</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</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</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</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</a>.</p> | Range Resources Just Made a Steal of a Deal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/31/range-resources-just-made-steal-deal.html | 2016-05-31 | 0 |
<p>The Latest on a proposal to lower the minimum score for California's attorney exam (all times local):</p>
<p>4 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A proposal to lower the minimum score on the most recent licensing exam for California attorneys has cleared its first hurdle.</p>
<p>A California State Bar committee voted Monday to send the proposal out for public comment until Aug. 25. The California Supreme Court will have final say over the score.</p>
<p>The proposal would lower the minimum score only for the July 2017 exam from 144 to a little over 141. The seemingly minor reduction could significantly boost the pass rate, which has declined alarmingly in recent years.</p>
<p>California has among the lowest pass rates in the country, though state bar officials say it also has the second-highest passing score requirement.</p>
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<p>11 a.m.</p>
<p>The State Bar of California is proposing lowering the minimum score on the most recent licensing exam for attorneys amid an alarming decline in people passing the test considered one of the toughest in the U.S.</p>
<p>State Bar staff told The Associated Press that they planned to present the option to the agency's Committee of Bar Examiners on Monday.</p>
<p>The proposal would lower the score needed only for the July exam from 144 to a little over 141. The seemingly minor reduction could significantly boost the pass rate.</p>
<p>On the July exam, it fell from nearly 62 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2016, mirroring a national trend.</p>
<p>California has among the lowest pass rates in the country, though state bar officials say it also has the second-highest passing score requirement.</p> | The Latest: California attorney exam proposal clears hurdle | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/31/latest-california-attorney-exam-proposal-clears-hurdle.html | 2017-07-31 | 0 |
<p>Carsten Rehder/DPA via ZUMA Press</p>
<p />
<p>On Monday, as more than a dozen mostly Republican governors pledged to block Syrian refugees from being resettled in their states, the State Department was mum about the legal ramifications, <a href="" type="internal">offering</a> only a cautious statement that its lawyers were looking into it. By Tuesday, apparently, that review had been completed.</p>
<p>“This is a federal program carried out under the authority of federal law and refugees arriving in the United States are protected by the Constitution and federal law,” a senior State Department official told reporters on a conference call, when asked about the governors’ statements. Simply put, once a refugee has come to the United States, “he or she is also free to move anywhere in the country,” just like anyone else. And there’s nothing Bobby Jindal or Chris Christie can do about it.</p>
<p>But, the official was quick to point out, the government also wasn’t interested in resettling refugees unilaterally. Although state and local governments have only a consultative role in the process, “this is a program that is very much dependent on the support of local communities” to make the adjustment to a new life work—picking a new arrival up at the airport, furnishing a new house, finding gainful employment, and providing access to health care. And in that respect, the governors’ strongest bargaining chip might be their open hostility. “We don’t want to send refugees anywhere where they would not be welcomed.”</p>
<p /> | State Department Says Governors Can’t Stop Refugees From Entering Their States | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/state-department-reminds-republican-governors-stop-refugees/ | 2015-11-17 | 4 |
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) — The smartphones and other small machines that used to dominate the annual CES gadget show have been overshadowed in recent years by bigger mobile devices: namely, automobiles.</p>
<p>Auto companies typically save more practical announcements about new cars, trucks and SUVs for the upcoming Detroit auto show. But major automakers like Toyota, Kia, Hyundai and Ford have a noticeable presence at this week’s tech showcase in Las Vegas. CES is a chance for carmakers and suppliers of automotive parts and software to display their wilder and far-out ideas.</p>
<p>Among the highlights Monday:</p>
<p>— Toyota says it’s developing self-driving mini-buses that can serve as bite-sized stores. These vehicles will drive themselves to places where potential buyers can try on clothes or shoes or pick through flea market items. The project is still in the conceptual stage, with testing expected in the 2020s.</p>
<p>— Automotive supplier Bosch wants to help guide drivers to vacant parking spots in as many as 20 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Miami and Boston. The company says it will be working with automakers on the initiative but didn’t say which ones. As cars drive by, they will automatically recognize and measure gaps between parked cars and transmit that data to a digital map.</p>
<p>Robots, artificial intelligence and augmented reality are all in the spotlight at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show. However, experts say the real technology trend this year is the integration of different devices into daily life. (Jan. 8)</p>
<p>In other developments at CES:</p>
<p>— TV manufacturers are showcasing new models — all with <a href="" type="internal">acronyms to set their sets</a> apart. One feature called HDR10+ by Samsung and HDR 10 Pro by LG takes what’s known as high dynamic range and adjusts settings for each frame, instead of having levels set for the entire video at once. Meanwhile, quantum-dot technology promises more accurate colors. Samsung calls its version QLED, while Hisense has QDEF.</p>
<p>— As LG unveiled its lineup of smart appliances, executive David VanderWaal quickly lost rapport with his on-stage partner, the cute voice-activated assistant CLOi. After a greeting, CLOi stopped responding while continuing to blink its digital eyes. VanderWaal shrugged it off, saying, “even robots have bad days.”</p>
<p>— HTC is upgrading its headsets for exploring virtual worlds. HTC says the new Vive Pro has better resolution and audio and weighs less than its existing VR model. The Taiwanese company hasn’t yet revealed cost or shipping dates. There’s also a wireless option coming this summer. The Vive competes with Facebook’s Oculus among high-end systems, but these haven’t been as widely used as smartphone-based headsets such as Samsung’s Gear VR and Google’s Daydream.</p>
<p>And beyond CES:</p>
<p>— Toy maker VTech has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle charges it violated a law protecting children’s privacy. The Federal Trade Commission says VTech collected personal information from children without getting consent from a verified parent and didn’t do enough to protect the data it collected. Such toys have become popular, and companies are expected to unveil more toys and other internet-connected gadgets at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week.</p>
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) — The smartphones and other small machines that used to dominate the annual CES gadget show have been overshadowed in recent years by bigger mobile devices: namely, automobiles.</p>
<p>Auto companies typically save more practical announcements about new cars, trucks and SUVs for the upcoming Detroit auto show. But major automakers like Toyota, Kia, Hyundai and Ford have a noticeable presence at this week’s tech showcase in Las Vegas. CES is a chance for carmakers and suppliers of automotive parts and software to display their wilder and far-out ideas.</p>
<p>Among the highlights Monday:</p>
<p>— Toyota says it’s developing self-driving mini-buses that can serve as bite-sized stores. These vehicles will drive themselves to places where potential buyers can try on clothes or shoes or pick through flea market items. The project is still in the conceptual stage, with testing expected in the 2020s.</p>
<p>— Automotive supplier Bosch wants to help guide drivers to vacant parking spots in as many as 20 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Miami and Boston. The company says it will be working with automakers on the initiative but didn’t say which ones. As cars drive by, they will automatically recognize and measure gaps between parked cars and transmit that data to a digital map.</p>
<p>Robots, artificial intelligence and augmented reality are all in the spotlight at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show. However, experts say the real technology trend this year is the integration of different devices into daily life. (Jan. 8)</p>
<p>In other developments at CES:</p>
<p>— TV manufacturers are showcasing new models — all with <a href="" type="internal">acronyms to set their sets</a> apart. One feature called HDR10+ by Samsung and HDR 10 Pro by LG takes what’s known as high dynamic range and adjusts settings for each frame, instead of having levels set for the entire video at once. Meanwhile, quantum-dot technology promises more accurate colors. Samsung calls its version QLED, while Hisense has QDEF.</p>
<p>— As LG unveiled its lineup of smart appliances, executive David VanderWaal quickly lost rapport with his on-stage partner, the cute voice-activated assistant CLOi. After a greeting, CLOi stopped responding while continuing to blink its digital eyes. VanderWaal shrugged it off, saying, “even robots have bad days.”</p>
<p>— HTC is upgrading its headsets for exploring virtual worlds. HTC says the new Vive Pro has better resolution and audio and weighs less than its existing VR model. The Taiwanese company hasn’t yet revealed cost or shipping dates. There’s also a wireless option coming this summer. The Vive competes with Facebook’s Oculus among high-end systems, but these haven’t been as widely used as smartphone-based headsets such as Samsung’s Gear VR and Google’s Daydream.</p>
<p>And beyond CES:</p>
<p>— Toy maker VTech has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle charges it violated a law protecting children’s privacy. The Federal Trade Commission says VTech collected personal information from children without getting consent from a verified parent and didn’t do enough to protect the data it collected. Such toys have become popular, and companies are expected to unveil more toys and other internet-connected gadgets at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week.</p> | Autos overshadow the small gadgets at CES tech show in Vegas | false | https://apnews.com/e4992db29c5e4fd6ae200fcbbbb947b0 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>After 34 years, astronomer Carl Sagan's voice once again introduces a TV series of "Cosmos" proportions: "The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be ... Come with me." But this time, "Cosmos" has a new guide, a new audience, a new network and a changed scientific landscape to explore.</p>
<p>The torch has been passed from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPShKs9Kr0" type="external">"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,"</a> which made its debut on public television in 1980, to <a href="http://www.cosmosontv.com/" type="external">"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,"</a> which premieres Sunday on Fox. Sagan passed away in 1996 after a battle with bone marrow disease, but the hosting duties have been taken up by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.</p>
<p>One "Cosmos" echoes the other: In both series, a Ship of the Imagination carries the narrative from earthly shores to the far frontiers of the universe. In both series, more than 13 billion years of time are laid out as one year on a Cosmic Calendar, with all of recorded history taking up only the last 14 seconds of the last day.</p>
<p>But don't refer to the new "Cosmos" merely as a reboot of the old one. If you do, you'll draw a sharp comment from Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, who was a co-writer of the first series and the executive producer and co-writer of the new series.</p>
<p>"It's a completely new set of adventures," Druyan told NBC News. "We tell completely different stories, and we have capabilities that didn't exist technically when Carl and [astrophysicist/co-writer] Steve Soter and I created the original series."</p>
<p>New twists to the science</p>
<p>After the introduction of the series with Sagan's quote, this "Cosmos" quickly sets a 21st-century tone with cutting-edge special effects. During the season's 13 weekly episodes, the show will send Tyson through the haze of a nebula's dust, plunge viewers into Titan's hydrocarbon seas, delve into a bear's reproductive system and trace a fantastic voyage to the bottom of a dewdrop.</p>
<p>Even in the first episode, titled "Standing Up in the Milky Way," a sharp-eyed viewer can notice scientific twists Sagan could have only guessed at.</p>
<p>One live-action/animated scene shows Tyson standing on a primeval shore while Tiktaalik, a <a href="" type="internal">fish-animal whose fossil remains were discovered in 2006</a>, crawls out from the sea. The show's travelogue includes the plethora of other worlds <a href="" type="internal">alongside Pluto</a> and beyond our solar system — a planetary frontier that was just starting to open up when Sagan died.</p>
<p>Since that time, astronomers have identified <a href="" type="internal">more than 1,600 extrasolar planets</a> — serving to confirm what Dominican friar <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno" type="external">Giordano Bruno</a> suspected in the 16th century. Bruno insisted that other worlds had to circle the stars he saw in the sky — and was eventually burned at the stake for his views. His story is the first to be featured in a regular animated segment that spotlights history's "Heroes of Knowledge."</p>
<p>"These are examples of really revolutionary courage, but without the throwing of a single bomb or the taking of a life," Druyan said.</p>
<p>Tyson also touches on the idea that our entire universe may be just one of many bubbles in a "multiverse" that includes places where the laws of physics are radically different. That concept would have been dismissed as science fiction in Sagan's day, but today some physicists see it as <a href="" type="internal">a valid way to explain the gaps in our understanding of the workings of the universe</a>.</p>
<p>Looking beyond all the upgrades in research findings and special effects, the message of the new "Cosmos" is the same one Sagan delivered 34 years ago: that scientific realities are as wonderful and as spiritual as any fictional fantasy, and that the scientific perspective is eminently worth promoting and defending.</p>
<p>"We've lived through a period of real antagonism toward science and alienation from science. I think the thing that Carl would love most about this 'Cosmos' is how strongly it makes the case for the ethos of science, and the values of science which were so precious to him. That's really the heart and soul of this series," Druyan said.</p>
<p>"We always felt that science has a great story to tell, and yet ... I know how many dedicated and excellent science teachers there are, but reading the science textbooks in the last few years has made me very sad, because they don't at all capture the great story that science is telling," she said.</p>
<p>Completing a cosmic circle</p>
<p>Druyan spent years trying to bring that great story back to prime-time television — and eventually she found the right backer in fellow executive producer Seth MacFarlane, who created a string of animated TV series for Fox including "Family Guy" and "American Dad." To some, that may seem odd. But the key to success was that McFarlane and Fox were willing to give Druyan and her collaborators full control over the new "Cosmos."</p>
<p>"All I could say to you is what I said to the other networks: I know what 'Cosmos' is, and if you knew what 'Cosmos' was, you would have made a 'Cosmos' in the last 34 years," Druyan said.</p>
<p>She said "it's been a joy" to collaborate with Tyson, one of the scientific community's smoothest communicators. In a way, Tyson's involvement completes a cosmic circle. Toward the end of the debut episode, he recalls that Sagan invited him to visit his lab in upstate New York during a snowy weekend in 1975, when Tyson was just a science-crazy teenager from the Bronx.</p>
<p>"At the end of the day, he drove me to the bus station," Tyson says. "The snow was falling harder. He wrote his phone number, his home phone number, on a scrap of paper, and he said, 'If the bus can't get through, call me, spend the night at my home, with my family.' I already knew I wanted to become a scientist. But that afternoon, I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to become."</p>
<p>Just as the torch of science is passed from one generation to the next, the torch of "Cosmos" has now been passed from Sagan to Tyson.</p>
<p>"Come with me," Tyson tells the viewer at the episode's close. "Our journey is just beginning."</p>
<p>"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" makes its TV debut on Sunday on multiple <a href="http://www.cosmosontv.com/" type="external">Fox</a> and <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/" type="external">National Geographic</a> channels. The show will be broadcast on 220 channels in 181 countries with an overall footprint of more than half a billion homes. Going forward, episodes will air on Sundays on Fox, and on Mondays on the National Geographic Channel. For detailed schedules, check local TV listings.</p> | After Three Decades, New ‘Cosmos’ Series Brings TV Science Full Circle | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/science-news/after-three-decades-new-cosmos-series-brings-tv-science-full-n46326 | 2014-03-07 | 3 |
<p>Words mean a lot. Take for example the two words bread and fruit. Separately they&#160;don't conjure up controversy, but&#160;when put together — breadfruit —&#160;well then, a more complex meaning of the word&#160;takes over.</p>
<p>After all, breadfruit has an unsavory&#160;history.</p>
<p>It fed slaves in the 1700s as the British built their empire.</p>
<p>And it was the bounty Captain William Bligh and his crewmen were searching for when&#160;they sailed to Tahiti. (If you want to learn how the story ends, just watch one of the Hollywood versions of <a href="https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/the-mutiny-on-the-bounty/critical-essays/movies-based-on-the-mutiny-on-the-bounty" type="external">"Mutiny on the Bounty."</a>)&#160;</p>
<p>Breadfruit also conjures up a stark debate between those who love it and those who hate it.&#160;</p>
<p>"People have all sorts of feelings about breadfruit," says Chris Colin,&#160;a&#160;freelance journalist&#160;in San Francisco. "Some hate it. It's the sort&#160;of overcooked Brussels sprouts of their youth. But others are passionate about it, they&#160;love it ... no one is neutral that I could find."</p>
<p>Since traveling to Hawaii to taste and write about breadfruit in the <a href="http://www.saveur.com/can-breadfruit-save-world" type="external">summer issue of Saveur magazine</a>, Colin falls in the later category. He fell in love with the various ways it was prepared: breadfruit bagels, breadfruit&#160;in gnocci or hash, and breadfruit with a touch of syrup.&#160;</p>
<p>The magazine's website also has an article on the <a href="http://www.saveur.com/breadfruit-around-the-world" type="external">creative ways chefs around the globe</a> are preparing it.</p>
<p>Why now for a breadfruit comeback?&#160;"It's ridiculously healthy," Colin says. "It's high in fiber, antioxidents, calcium, iron, potassium. One fruit provides enough carbs for a family of five."&#160;</p>
<p>In his article,&#160;Colin&#160;writes about his visit to the <a href="http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/" type="external">Breadfruit Insitute</a> in Hawaii. Their aim is to not only preserve and collect the different varities of the fruit, but to send&#160;breadfruit plants around the world where they&#160;"can grow readily and where there&#160;are hunger problems."&#160;</p>
<p>It's too soon to say how successful this initiative will be, as the trees have to grow, "but once they do grow these are huge trees that produce a lot of fruit ... so there's a lot of potential here."</p>
<p />
<p>Jim Wiseman/Saveur</p>
<p>Editor's note: The headline on this story has been updated from an earlier version.</p> | Can the whole world get behind breadfruit as a superfood? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-07-18/will-breadfruit-be-next-superfood | 2016-07-18 | 3 |
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