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<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>Birthplace of blues legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin Wolf, the Mississippi Delta is better known for hardship and despair than a message of hope, but faith and community leaders in one small town are hoping to change the tune.</p>
<p>This year the <a href="http://www.cbfms.org/" type="external">Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Mississippi</a> “revisioned” its 2014 fall assembly, meeting Oct. 24-25 at a new ministry site in Shaw, Miss., instead of a church. Rather than the usual fare of breakout sessions for training, after a closing business session participants donned work gloves and spent most of Saturday in hands-on mission projects.</p>
<p>“This is CBF of Mississippi trying to say it’s really us on mission coming together rather than just talking about business,” said moderator Rusty Edwards, <a href="http://ubchm.org/staff/" type="external">pastor</a> of University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss.</p>
<p>A downtown building which once housed a <a href="http://www.pigglywiggly.com/" type="external">Piggly Wiggly</a> grocery story earlier in the week became official home and mission center of <a href="http://www.deltahandsforhope.org/" type="external">Delta Hands for Hope</a>.</p>
<p>The new ministry focusing on school-aged children is a spinoff of <a href="http://www.thefellowship.info/missions/ministries/togetherforhope/" type="external">Together for Hope</a>, a rural-poverty initiative launched by the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 2001 pledging a long-term commitment to work alongside people in 20 of the nation’s poorest counties to break cycles of poverty handed down from generation to generation.</p>
<p>Poverty is certainly no stranger to the Mississippi Delta, a region that runs from Memphis to Vicksburg connected by a 250-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 61. Also known as the Blues Highway, the route is immortalized in Bob Dylan’s 1965 studio album Highway 61 Revisited.</p>
<p>It also appears in one version of the legend about blues pioneer Robert Johnson meeting the devil at a crossroads on a moonless night to trade his soul in return for learning to play the guitar. Downtown Shaw features a <a href="http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/honeyboy-edwards" type="external">landmark</a> honoring David “Honeyboy” Edwards, born in 1915 and one of the last surviving great Mississippi Delta blues men of the era that helped shape early rock and roll.</p>
<p>Inheriting a legacy of slavery, much of the Delta was developed after the Civil War, when the opening of railroads turned acres of flat and fertile soil created by thousands of years of regular flooding into a land of opportunity for an elite few.</p>
<p>Immigrant laborers, including a large influx of <a href="http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/88/italians-in-mississippi" type="external">Italians</a>, migrated to the Delta to work as tenant farmers on cotton plantations. Back-breaking labor and low pay, however, only increased the gap between wealthy landowners and the working poor.</p>
<p>Most of the farm jobs disappeared between the 1940s and 1970s, when mechanization of agriculture reduced demand for cheap labor. More recently factories across the region have closed, many as a result of foreign competition. Most of the employable people now are gone, creating an uncertain future for those who are left behind.</p>
<p>“NAFTA devastated the Delta,” said Jason Coker, who grew up in Shaw and now is pastor of Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. Cokes serves the national CBF in the office of recorder.</p>
<p>In 2009 and 2010, volunteer mission groups from Wilton Baptist Church traveled to Shaw for downtown beautification projects such as picking up trash, painting and tearing down dilapidated buildings.</p>
<p>In 2011, when Coker was in Shaw to meet with community leaders about forming a partnership to benefit school-aged children, he ran into members of the <a href="https://www.sistersofthepresentation.org/" type="external">Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary</a>, also interested in helping Shaw because of the community’s long Catholic heritage.</p>
<p>In a community long divided by class and race, faith and community leaders met together to map assets, rather than starting out with a laundry list of needs, and determine where they wanted to focus together. Matching assets and need in the areas of education, recreation and health and spiritual development for children grades K-12 became the pillar of Delta Hands for Hope, which incorporated in Mississippi in 2013.</p>
<p>This year the ministry applied for non-profit status, hired its first program director and most recently bought a building.</p>
<p>The infusion of hope in Shaw appears contagious. Leaders of Mississippi CBF hope it will reinvigorate a network of only a few churches long hamstrung by lack of resources. During a business session, an ad hoc task force was approved to develop a funding strategy after several years of deficit-spending budgets.</p>
<p>“I believe what we are trying to do is good and right, and it’s following in the footsteps of Jesus,” said Christian Byrd, a Beeson Divinity School graduate and former youth minister at First Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., who become field coordinator of CBF Mississippi in August 2013. “I believe we are going to get there sooner rather than later.”</p>
<p>Lane Riley, a former member of First Baptist Church in Greenwood, S.C., with an interest in missions and working with children and youth, graduated from Lander University in her hometown in 2012 with degrees in sociology and Spanish.</p>
<p>She moved to Connecticut to work as a nanny and joined Wilton Baptist Church, serving as a youth Sunday school leader, co-chair of the children’s committee and chair of the worship committee.</p>
<p>After two years as a nanny, Riley felt called to do something more meaningful with her life. After much prayer, she felt called to work in Shaw, arriving as program director for Delta Hands for Hope in June 2014.</p>
<p>Her first program was&#160;a USDA&#160;grant for the&#160;Summer Food Service Program sponsored by CBF of Mississippi making it possible to feed kids ages 18 and younger twice a week over the summer. Other programs and projects included pizza and game night for teenagers, a baking day for youth and adults, a literacy program and an end-of-summer carnival.</p>
<p>Groups from Hattiesburg’s University Baptist Church, <a href="http://fbcwaco.org/missions/international-ministries/" type="external">First Baptist Church</a> in Waco, Texas, and Wilton Baptist all traveled this summer to Shaw, engaging in projects including painting classrooms and hallways and renovating two bathrooms at the local elementary school.</p>
<p>“I have noticed when people come to Shaw for the first time, they initially notice the poverty and all the typical stereotypes of what normally comes with poverty,” Riley said in a recent <a href="http://www.deltahandsforhope.org/blog/" type="external">blog</a>. “After a day or two, they talk about all&#160;the wonderful things about Shaw: the amazing kids, the leaders that are working tirelessly to benefit their community, and the great potential.”</p>
<p>“I loved seeing the transformation in their views about Shaw!” she said.</p> | Baptist churches aim to plant seeds of hope in the Delta | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/planting-seeds-of-hope-in-the-delta/ | 3 |
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<p>They were not throwing away their shot.</p>
<p>Presumably, everyone was excited to see the show – tickets, after all, soared to more than $600 for some seats.</p>
<p>Fifty-six-year-old John Palmer was presumably not in this number, though.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the song “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” the cast sings “Immigrants – We get the job done.” When the cast reached this line at the Chicago show, the crowd cheered, as has become commonplace.</p>
<p>Palmer, by contrast, stood and yelled profanities, audience member Brea Hayes told the Chicago Tribune. He continued ranting for two songs, according to Chicago Tribune reporter Jodi Cohen, who happened to be in attendance.</p>
<p>During the song, “Dear Theodosia,” Palmer allegedly yelled, “We won. You Lost. Get over it. F– you.” He was escorted from the theater with little incident, though he allegedly initially resisted.</p>
<p>“He started raising his voice and throwing up middle fingers at anyone who looked at him, including me and my best friend,” audience member Ken Keacher told pop culture website Pajiba.</p>
<p>Kate Hoyt, who was with Keacher, said, “He was saying things like, ‘We won. Trump is president. Get over it.’ At some point Ken [Keacher] leaned into the aisle to try and tell him to leave and the guy then put up both his fists and said ‘Let’s go Democrats. I’ll kill you all.'”</p>
<p>Venue staff told Broadway World that he was intoxicated. Palmer was charged with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to land after causing a disturbance at the performance and refusing to leave and has an initial court date set for Jan. 9, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.</p>
<p>Audience members claimed the cast didn’t skip a beat – literally – at the disruption.</p>
<p>One performer from the show, Karen Olivo who is portraying Angelica in the Chicago performances, tweeted about the cast’s generally lauded response to the heckler.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The timing of Palmer’s response suggested it could have been in response to the incident at Friday night’s performance of “Hamilton” on Broadway.</p>
<p>Vice President-elect Mike Pence was in attendance, and after the show, the cast spoke directly to him from the stage. Amid audience boos, Brandon Victor Dixon, who portrayed Aaron Burr, pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read him the following message:</p>
<p>“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at ‘Hamilton: An American Musical.’ We really do,” Dixon said to further applause. “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us. Again, we truly thank you truly for seeing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.</p>
<p>In response, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted the musical is “overrated” and its cast “rude.” He demanded that they apologize.</p>
<p>Pence, on the other hand, appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and told Chris Wallace that he wasn’t offended. If anything, he expressed appreciation.</p>
<p>“I nudged my kids and reminded them that’s what freedom sounds like,” Pence said. “I did hear what was said from the stage, and I can tell you, I wasn’t offended by what was said. I’ll leave to others whether that was the appropriate venue to say it.”</p>
<p>The hubbub around the speech has led to a variety of reactions. Some of them, such as what allegedly happened in Chicago, were criminal. Some were fueled by social media, where #BoycottHamilton was trending by Saturday. (The idea of boycotting a show that’s sold out for nearly a year mostly led to mockery.)</p>
<p>Finally, some of the fallout has been slightly humorous, such as what occurred in Canada. (That’s right – not even our neighbors to the north are safe from the collision of America’s two most hotly discussed topics of 2016 – “Hamilton” and Trump.)</p>
<p>In Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton Theatre Inc. staged a performance of “The Toxic Avenger” on Friday night. Riane Leonard, who was running the lights, checked her phone after the show to find a string of tweets directed at the small company.</p>
<p>Excited, she looked through them. Quickly, her stomach tied itself into knots.</p>
<p>“The first one was something like, ‘I’m never supporting Hamilton Theatre again!'” she told CBC. She said she thought, “”Oh sweet God, what did we do that was so wrong?”</p>
<p>Slowly, it dawned on her.</p>
<p>“Dozens of angry Americans tagged the Hamilton theatre company’s Twitter account instead of the official ‘Hamilton’ musical account,” Leonard told CBC.</p>
<p>While the tweets led to a moment of panic, Leonard said she supports the cast’s decision.</p>
<p>“They had an opportunity to have their voice heard by someone who is very high up in their government,” she said. “I think it would’ve been a missed opportunity if not.”</p>
<p>With that in mind, she doesn’t mind the mix-up.</p>
<p>“If we helped take any of the heat off our friends on Broadway, we’re here to help,” she said.</p>
<p>hamilton</p> | ‘Hamilton’-Trump feud turns ugly in Chicago, gets weird in Canada | false | https://abqjournal.com/893464/hamilton-trump-feud-turns-ugly-in-chicago-gets-weird-in-canada.html | 2 |
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<p>NEVIS, Minn. (AP) — An aviation student in northern Minnesota pulled off a sky-high marriage proposal by writing “Marry Me” in the snow, then flying his long-time girlfriend over his handiwork.</p>
<p>Gavin Becker enlisted his family’s help to pen the life-changing question using a snow blower on the frozen Eight Crow Wing Lake near Nevis.</p>
<p>Ed Becker, Gavin’s father, tells KARE-TV that it took about 4½ hours to create the 25-foot-tall (7.5-meter-tall) letters and a huge heart.</p>
<p>Gavin Becker, a University of North Dakota aviation student, then rented a plane and took his high-school sweetheart, Olivia Toft, for a trip over the lake Sunday.</p>
<p>Toft, realizing it was snow joke, told him “yes.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KARE-TV, <a href="http://www.kare11.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kare11.com" type="external">http://www.kare11.com</a></p>
<p>NEVIS, Minn. (AP) — An aviation student in northern Minnesota pulled off a sky-high marriage proposal by writing “Marry Me” in the snow, then flying his long-time girlfriend over his handiwork.</p>
<p>Gavin Becker enlisted his family’s help to pen the life-changing question using a snow blower on the frozen Eight Crow Wing Lake near Nevis.</p>
<p>Ed Becker, Gavin’s father, tells KARE-TV that it took about 4½ hours to create the 25-foot-tall (7.5-meter-tall) letters and a huge heart.</p>
<p>Gavin Becker, a University of North Dakota aviation student, then rented a plane and took his high-school sweetheart, Olivia Toft, for a trip over the lake Sunday.</p>
<p>Toft, realizing it was snow joke, told him “yes.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KARE-TV, <a href="http://www.kare11.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kare11.com" type="external">http://www.kare11.com</a></p> | A lofty proposal: ‘Marry Me’ etched in snow, seen from above | false | https://apnews.com/3d7ada5a56fb4740b626315a6115f91e | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fidelity Investments</a> should list the names of all millionaires who refuse to feel wealthy because they don't have more than $7 million.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I would like to know who these ingrates are so that I can slap them.</p>
<p>On the first business day following the earthquake-tsunami-looming-nuclear-meltdown in the world's third-largest economy, Fidelity put out a news release headlined "42% of Millionaires Say They Won't Feel Wealthy Until They Have More Than $7 Million."</p>
<p>Imagine how they might feel huddled on a hill above a sea-swept city, not knowing where to find their next rice ball.</p>
<p>"The feeling of wealth is relative," Michael Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, explained in the release.</p>
<p>The investment giant handed the survey results to select reporters on an embargoed basis last week, before the earthquake hit, and it felt forced to stick with the planned release date, despite the overwhelming news, Fidelity spokesman Stephen Austin told me.</p>
<p>"Internally, we talked about how we wouldn't have put it out today if we had a choice," Austin said on Monday.</p>
<p>No one can predict the future. And, in Fidelity's defense, when is there ever a good day to release the haughty banter of pouty millionaires?</p>
<p>For those who are still just hundredaires, the headlines are gloomy: Unemployment, foreclosure, rising food and energy prices, scandal after shameless scandal on <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a>, a skyrocketing national debt, and an engineered economic recovery favoring those with access to free loans from the <a href="" type="internal">Federal Reserve</a> Bank.</p>
<p>Japan is rife with lessons that--rich or poor--anything can be taken from anyone in seconds. Yet some Americans feel compelled to complain: "I don't feel rich because I don't have $7 million. Waa! Waaa! Waaaaaa!"</p>
<p>Fidelity surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. households with investable assets of at least $1 million, excluding workplace retirement accounts and real estate. You know, people who really should feel like a million bucks. They represent about 5% of households, but hold 56% of the wealth, Fidelity said.</p>
<p>Thankfully, not all of these folks are jaded: 58% said they began to feel wealthy when they hit $1.75 million in investable assets.</p>
<p>But what about that 42% who can't seem to appreciate a good fortune? They are the ones giving the rich a bad name. And if you happen to be their financial adviser--well, whatever you do for them is never good enough, is it?</p>
<p>Gail Graham, an executive vice president at Fidelity, told me it's not really about greed, but fear.</p>
<p>"It really is a reflection of the anxiety of the pre-retiree," she explained. " ...Many of them have an innate fear of old age and picturing what their lives will be like in retirement."</p>
<p>They're baby boomers, sandwiched between elderly parents and college-aged children. They may live in expensive urban areas. Plus, they've been cautious entrepreneurs and business executives all their lives, and they need more savings to feel safe about the future, Graham said.</p>
<p>Geez, if millionaires are worried about their futures, how much more should the rest of us should be worried?</p>
<p>According to Fidelity, millionaire households planned to give an average $38,000 to charitable causes last year. They stepped up for Haiti and they're stepping up for Japan, Graham said.</p>
<p>"While you see those Madoffs, those terrible stories, there are solid citizens out there who happen to be millionaires," she said.</p>
<p>Still sounds greedy to me, needing $7 million just to feel rich. The median annual household income in this country is still less than $50,000. But fear takes hold of the human heart at every step on the socio-economic ladder--especially as the inevitable approaches.</p>
<p>"The last few years have been hard on people in terms of facing up to retirement," Graham said.</p>
<p>(Al's Emporium, written by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. The column is published each Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. Contact Al at <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected] Opens a New Window.</a> or <a href="http://tellittoal.com" type="external">tellittoal.com Opens a New Window.</a>)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Al Lewis: Bad Timing for $7 Million Cry Babies | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/03/16/al-lewis-bad-timing-7-million-babies.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>This Veterans Day, GallopNYC and Home Depot team up to renovate stables to help veterans suffering from PTSD.</p>
<p>There are 18.8 million veterans living in the United States, according to a 2015 Community Census Survey.&#160; It’s estimated that anywhere between 11%-30% of those vets are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reports the Veteran Affairs. For Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom alone, an estimated11-20 out of every 100 Veterans has PTSD in a given year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PTSD is defined a “mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event” says the Mayo Clinic.&#160; Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety.</p>
<p>Often, veterans returning home struggle to adjust to civilian life and that’s where GallopNYC a therapeutic horsemanship program, comes riding in to help.</p>
<p>“We serve people with disabilities. And that ranges from children with autism to military veterans who have social and emotional issues sometimes when they come back home from deployment” says Suzy Marquard, Chairwoman of GallopNYC.</p>
<p>Since 2007, GallopNYC has helped hundreds of people (and even abandoned horses, like Mocha, pictured above). Tied down to rental stable space and limited resources, GallopNYC desperately wanted to grow.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“We serve between 350-400 riders a week in five locations throughout NYC … and we have a waiting list of 800-900 people we would like to serve. Our vision is to make therapeutic riding accessible” says Marquard.</p>
<p>Aiming to transform a rundown horse farm they acquired from the NYC Parks Dept., GallopNYC’s goal was to make Sunrise Stables in Queens its permanent home. To complete this daunting task, Team Depot, Home Depot’s (NYSE:HD) associate-led volunteer group, came galloping to the rescue.</p>
<p>The core value of Home Depot is giving back and we live it and breathe it every day” says Richard Perrelli, Team Depot Captain, The Home Depot.</p>
<p>As part of Home Depot’s annual Celebration of Service campaign, an effort to give back to veterans, a team of associates helped renovate GallopNYC.</p>
<p>“We got the phone call and we came out and repaired several stables we built a roof between the stables and built a ramp for the handicap veterans” adds Perrelli.</p>
<p>“Without the help from Home Depot, I am sure they would not anywhere be near where they are” says Miguel Davis-Dacio, Vietnam Veteran Life Member, National Blinded Veterans Association. &#160;Davis-Dacio, a blinded vet participated in GallopsNYC program.</p>
<p>“Sometimes you can fall down in your own treatment and recovery where you begin to feel a bit sorry for yourself… during the therapy it was giving me the strength and balance that I wasn’t aware of. That was a benefit working with horses.”</p>
<p>For now, GallopNYC is operating on a part- time basis until the new digs are fully up and running. But for the GallopNYC team, they could not be more pleased.</p>
<p>“I just can’t thank them enough” adds Marquard.</p>
<p>“In a word, it’s made my life better” says Davis-Dacio.</p>
<p>For more information on GallopNYC check out their website <a href="http://gallopnyc.org/" type="external">here. Opens a New Window.</a>&#160; And for more information on Team Depot click <a href="https://corporate.homedepot.com/community" type="external">here. Opens a New Window.</a> Be sure to watch our full video above.</p> | Home Depot Gallops to Help Vets with PTSD | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/11/11/home-depot-gallops-to-help-vets-with-ptsd.html | 2016-11-11 | 0 |
<p>Investing.com – Wall Street closed lower on Friday, weighed by a fall in technology as investors doubted the government’s ability to push through tax-reform before the end of the year despite bullish comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.</p>
<p>The closed lower at 23,362.63. The closed 0.26% lower while the closed at 6782.79, down 0.15%.</p>
<p>As markets edged closer to the final wave of corporate earnings for the third quarter, investor attention shifted to the prospect of tax reform being enacting before the end of year following upbeat comments from Steven Mnuchin.</p>
<p>“We’re very excited about the timeline,” Mnuchin said. “We’re going to have the Senate, as soon as they get back from Thanksgiving, vote on the bill.” Mnuchin said.</p>
<p>The Sentate, however, is not expected to vote on their version of bill – which significantly differs from the Republican’s version – until after Thanksgiving, dampening the prospect of tax-reform being passed before the year end as there is limited time left on the legislative calendar for this year.</p>
<p>On the economic data front, meanwhile, housing starts rose to their highest since Oct 2016, pointing to underlying strength in the US economy, that, however, failed to lift sentiment on the broader market.</p>
<p>surged 13.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.29 million units, the Commerce Department said on Friday.</p>
<p>On the corporate earnings front, footlocker surged after posting earnings that beat on both the top and bottom line that lifted sentiment on sport-apparel manufacturer Nike as its shares closed more than 3% higher.</p>
<p>‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street</p>
<p>The top Dow gainers for the session: Nike Inc (NYSE:) up 1.2%, Verizon Communications (NYSE:) up 1.4% and Home Depot (NYSE:) up 0.1%</p>
<p>Intel (NASDAQ:) down 2.2%, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:) down 2.2% and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:) down 1.5%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Dow Jones Sheds 100 points, Posts Second Straight Weekly Loss | false | https://newsline.com/dow-jones-sheds-100-points-posts-second-straight-weekly-loss/ | 2017-11-17 | 1 |
<p>Ann Coulter will be wishing she had the chance for a second take after a bizarre interview, during which she accidentally gave Americans the greatest ever reason not to elect Donald Trump: it will be the end of her career, and the Republican Party.</p>
<p>Coulter became near-hysterical during an interview with&#160;the&#160; <a href="http://www.frc.org/wwlivewithtonyperkins/scott-garrett" type="external">The Eric Metaxas Show</a>&#160;last week. According to her, Trump is basically the second coming of Christ. He is an emissary, sent by God, to save the United States of America (and humanity) from destruction. And no, this is not satire, or an embellishment.</p>
<p>First, she compared herself to Jesus. Asked about her reputation for being rather a ‘divisive’ figure on the right of US politics, Coulter replied:</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m ‘divisive’ because I say things I believe, generally. So does Jesus.”</p>
<p>But her delusions of grandure also extend to her favorite candidate, Donald Trump.</p>
<p>“We are talking about the future of not only of America but of the last genuinely Christian country on earth and thus the world.&#160;If we lose America, it is lights out for the entire world for a thousand years.</p>
<p>It is like the fall of Rome but, thank God, and I am not using the Lord’s name in vain, I mean that absolutely literally, thank God for raising up Donald Trump and giving us a chance to save the country.</p>
<p>Unless Donald Trump is elected, we’re never going to have another Republican president.”</p>
<p>So firstly, in the gospel according to Ann Coulter, it is prophesied that the failure of Donald Trump to win the GOP primaries&#160;would mean no Republican in the White House ever again. As good a reason as any for kicking the trust fund tycoon out of the race.&#160;But every cake needs a cherry on top, and this came in the form&#160;of Coulter’s reaction when asked what she would do if Trump loses.</p>
<p>She vows she would “stop wasting my time with politics.” That’s right America, political commentary would be Coulter-less, permanently.&#160;Ann sees no point continuing her quest without the bright star of Trump to follow.</p>
<p>“What is the point of talking about abortion or anything else unless you get Donald Trump in to build the wall, deport illegals, end this ‘anchor baby’ nonsense, stop importing 100,000 Muslims a year, in addition to two million Third Worlders per year,”</p>
<p>It’s probably time to spread the word far and wide. After all, opportunities to kill three birds with one stone don’t come along very often. America without Trump, Ann Coulter, or a Republican in the White House. Now, that really would be great.</p>
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<p>Featured Image via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/8570473179/in/photolist-e4kV5X-e4rwJC-e4rwCS-e4kVcz-e4kUc6-e4rwnd-e4rvD3-aqvq1Y-btsLYa-aqtyHP-btsMfR-btsM5z-aqsK56-btsMsV-btsLJX-btsLVr-btsMoD-btsMcp-aqsJ2H-btsM9c-kSQzNZ-aqvo75-e4rvkC-btsM2P-dVZCBZ-dVZF3B-e4kTkp-kSQFvv-kSQE4x-kSRqR6-kSQpPa-e4rwbS-e4rv5h-e4kTEP-e4kT3z-e4ruLm-e4kT9p-e4ruGW-e4rvKo-e4kU6p-h9TEg-7F6wMd-g27ugK-bYrnTS-bYrppS-bYrqTy-bYrnBo-bYrpS9-bYuT63-bYvcLC" type="external">Flickr Creative Commons</a>/ <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/80038275@N00/17029800149/in/photolist-rWSbgX-segiBP-sc2dsW-rWKnwC-qRmext-kNDchT-ajBiBA-a7KaY3-9hLxAs-rWJ8Bd-kNDYwa-apzrUw-kNFjPw-HQgwz-9hMKk7-85qqct-cPQ7to-eMKfEt-iGn3JA-9CZ6cv-duASTf-a7GhNk-oGkphh-pei9Ez-9EKCYM-pAx6TH-8GEQ4F-oT4oKQ-9oGPUa-6nFkmh-9DHdpK-rpJw2x-9F7XLu-9DHdTM-4CXhXo-jvHuX3-7TCvx5-e47k59-xQMNQ-kNEHHD-pL2WUC-9mGYyC-e47iAy-dhorcz-gMzs1B-dhorRN-9hNwso-bahqU8-9DDp8h-axnNpU" type="external">Flick Creative Commons</a></p> | Ann Coulter Slips Up During Interview And Gives Us The Greatest Reason Ever NOT To Vote Trump (AUDIO) | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2016/01/18/ann-coulter-slips-up-during-interview-and-gives-us-the-greatest-reason-ever-not-to-vote-trump-audio/ | 2016-01-18 | 4 |
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri Department of Corrections employee is charged with using a hidden camera to film teenage girls getting out of the shower.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/17/missouri-man-used-hidden-camera-film-teens-getting-out-shower-feds-say/1037738001/" type="external">The Springfield News-Leader</a> reports that 35 -year-old Nathaniel Mares, of Licking, was charged this month in federal court with producing child porn. His attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.</p>
<p>A criminal complaint says a family member found 31 of Mares’ flash drives while cleaning in December. The complaints say the family member put one of the flash drives into her computer and discovered videos of two teenage girls getting in and out of the shower. Prosecutors say another video focused on girls in swimsuits at a public pool.</p>
<p>Mares worked as a corrections officer at the South Central Missouri Correctional Facility in Licking.</p>
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<p>Information from: Springfield News-Leader, <a href="http://www.news-leader.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.news-leader.com" type="external">http://www.news-leader.com</a></p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri Department of Corrections employee is charged with using a hidden camera to film teenage girls getting out of the shower.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/17/missouri-man-used-hidden-camera-film-teens-getting-out-shower-feds-say/1037738001/" type="external">The Springfield News-Leader</a> reports that 35 -year-old Nathaniel Mares, of Licking, was charged this month in federal court with producing child porn. His attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.</p>
<p>A criminal complaint says a family member found 31 of Mares’ flash drives while cleaning in December. The complaints say the family member put one of the flash drives into her computer and discovered videos of two teenage girls getting in and out of the shower. Prosecutors say another video focused on girls in swimsuits at a public pool.</p>
<p>Mares worked as a corrections officer at the South Central Missouri Correctional Facility in Licking.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Springfield News-Leader, <a href="http://www.news-leader.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.news-leader.com" type="external">http://www.news-leader.com</a></p> | Man charged with filming teens with hidden camera | false | https://apnews.com/c71ff9baa4bb48cf9a501ddc4e36d016 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>Optimism may be holding steady at recession levels, according to recent reports, but that hasn't stopped small business lending.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For the second year in a row, Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) has approved more than $1 billion in SBA 7(a) loans.&#160;The bank's record $1.24 billion in deals were done via 3,176 loans throughout the 2012 fiscal year, from October 2011 through Sept. 30, 2012.</p>
<p>Dave Rader, head of Wells Fargo’s SBA Lending Division, said that customers seem optimistic and willing to take on risks after years of a slow moving economy.</p>
<p>“We are still seeing optimism out there, despite what you read in the headlines,” Rader said. “We are seeing individual entrepreneurs feeling confident about their businesses, and good opportunities ... They’re very savvy, buying partners, expanding their businesses. They maximize opportunities when they see them.”</p>
<p>Chris Ledesma, vice president of strategy for Wells Fargo SBA Lending, said due to continually low rates, business owners are feeling more comfortable taking out loans.</p>
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<p>“I think the optimism is well-founded,” Ledesma said. “We have been seeing a lot of requests for real estate loans, and expansion loans. Rates are still low and the land value is good.”</p>
<p>Real estate and rent replacement lending are the banks’ two most popular types of loans, Rader said. There is also pent-up demand for partner buyouts with the economy slowly rebounding.</p>
<p>Rader said the average loan size in 2011 was around $391,000, and a typical 7(a) loan has a 5% interest rate over 25 years. Due to the low interest rate environment, Rader said fixed-rate loans have become popular among small-business borrowers.</p>
<p>“Our customers have contracts and see their revenues going up,” Rader said. “They’re optimistic. They’ve adjusted their spending, reduced debt and they’re maximizing opportunities.”</p> | Wells Fargo Lends More than $1B to Small Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/23/wells-fargo-lends-out-more-than-1b-to-small-business.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48169267@N08/4967256177/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;Special Collections, Waterloo Library&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>Why don’t women hold more patents? The National Bureau of Economic Research examined the question in a <a href="http://papers.nber.org/papers/w17888?ntw" type="external">new working paper</a>, and&#160;on Thursday,&#160;NPR’s Marketplace&#160;featured a segment with&#160; <a href="http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/03/23/the-patent-gap-a-new-marketplace-podcast/" type="external">Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner</a>&#160;about the issue.</p>
<p>The radio segment was bothersome. Dubner&#160;started by blaming women for there being “room for improvement in the innovation field,” then proceeded to argue that the disparity might be because men are bigger “risk-takers,” and concluded by suggesting that segregating the work force is the best answer. The segment had an overarching tone of, “Geez, womens, would you get your act together? But do it somewhere else, the menfolk are busy.”</p>
<p>That’s not to say the data in the NBER&#160;paper isn’t interesting. The Bureau found that overall, women hold 7.5 percent of all patents, and only 5.5 percent of commercial patents. Men hold the rest. Many people assume that this is because women are less likely to hold degrees in things like engineering or hard sciences, but that only accounts for 7 percent of the massive gap. And simply increasing women’s representation in those fields “would have little effect absent other changes.”</p>
<p>More important, the authors found, is increasing the number of women working in electrical and mechanical engineering, the “most patent-intensive fields,” and increasing the number of women working in jobs that focus on development and design—a disparity that accounts for 40 percent of the gap in commercial patents. They also found that the fact that women working in the kind of jobs where they might develop ideas to patent&#160;tend to be younger than their male counterparts accounts for 29 percent of the gap.&#160;</p>
<p>But here’s what both Dubner&#160;and the NBER&#160;paper missed: women are actually closing the patent gap quite quickly already. The National Women’s Business Council <a href="http://nwbc.gov/research/intelletual-property-women-entrepreneurs" type="external">released a report</a> earlier this month that found that women have <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/women-inventors-double-their-share-of-patents" type="external">doubled their share</a> of patents in the last 22 years. Women hold 18 percent of the patents filed since 1990. And in 2010, the number of patents granted to women increased by 35 percent. So I’d say women are actually doing pretty well these days.</p>
<p /> | Gender and Patents: Are Women Slackers? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/gender-and-patents-are-women-slackers/ | 2012-03-26 | 4 |
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<p>The disorder was initially identified by Norman E. Rosenthal, a South African psychologist who came up with the term in the mid-1980s. His findings were that as daylight hours shorten each day, the reduced exposure to light causes a biochemical imbalance in some people’s brains. Symptoms often include sadness; apathy; a tendency to self-isolate; overeating, particularly of carbohydrates and sweets; as well as weight gain and excessive sleeping.</p>
<p>“They discover … as winter’s coming on and days are getting shorter, they have a harder time,” said Laura L. Smith, a clinical psychologist with the Cognitive Behavioral Institute of Albuquerque, where she has treated a few SAD sufferers. “It’s more than just grief … it seems to linger, a bigger kind of depression.”</p>
<p>SAD is more common in the northern regions and has been attributed to lack of daylight, according to a 2010 article in Harvard Men’s Health Watch. Reports show that in Finland, for example, a country that experiences long winters, 10 percent of the population is estimated to suffer from SAD. In the U.S., which doesn’t have as long a winter, the estimated percentage of SAD sufferers is 2 percent.</p>
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<p>• Reduce intake of sugar and simple carbohydrates to avoid mood swings and spikes in blood sugar.</p>
<p>• Get a lot of exercise to increase the release of mood-enhancing hormones, endorphins.</p>
<p>• Plan enjoyable social experiences to elevate mood.</p>
<p>• Seek cognitive counseling to learn how to change negative thoughts to ones that are more positive.</p>
<p>• Spend time in the sunlight during daytime hours by taking a walk or standing in front of a sunny window.</p>
<p>• If these tips don’t help, consider being evaluated for possible use of medications like Wellbutrin to cope during winter’s shorter days.</p>
<p>That correlates with the clinical experiences of Smith, who said a small proportion of her practice includes SAD patients. “I can count on my hands the number of patients I have seen that actually have SAD,” she said. When they do, they express feelings like: “‘It’s dark when I go to work, it’s dark when I go home, it’s never going to be spring again,'” she said. “Overwhelming negative thinking.”</p>
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<p>A study done in Turkey showed that the absence of light had a negative impact on lab rats. Researchers kept one group of the rodents in constant darkness for 10 days while a control group of rats were allowed some light. The rats kept in the dark ate more, gained more weight, and showed more signs of depression than those in the control group, according to the Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences.</p>
<p>Common treatments for SAD are antidepressants including Wellbutrin and Buspar, as well as light therapy.</p>
<p>One form of light therapy is a light box. Priced at about $200, treatment with a light box consists of patients sitting within 12 to 15 inches of a lamp or a box-shaped light source designed for SAD treatment, powered for at least 350 watts and filtered to remove as much ultraviolet light as possible, for 30 to 60 minutes a day.</p>
<p>Another form of treatment is the visor, which involves a light source similar to that used in light boxes and lamps, but implanted in a visor. It allows the person using it to have the option of moving around while being exposed to light, rather than remaining stationary.</p>
<p>While research indicates positive impacts can be had by light therapy, one study done in Israel found that relapse from the light therapy happened quickly. The subject of the research study, published in a 2006 Scandinavian paper, was a 46-year-old woman who suffered from SAD.</p>
<p>She reacted positively to three weeks of light therapy, as shown by testing done on her using standard anxiety and depression inventories. But during the placebo period, when she was asked to wear dark sunglasses, her levels of depression and anxiety plunged back down to just about where they’d been prior to the light therapy. That led the researchers to conclude that the effect of light therapy is short lived after its discontinuation.</p>
<p>According to Smith and Charles H. Elliott, also a clinical psychologist with the Cognitive Behavioral Institute, in addition to light therapy, there are a few other things to keep in mind to control SAD. They recommend eating fewer carbohydrates, exercising regularly, taking walks in the daytime, and standing in front of a window while the sun pours in.</p>
<p>“Basically going outside and taking a walk is a really good, easy strategy,” Smith said. “People tend to stay inside when it’s cold and dark – the opposite of what they should be doing.”</p>
<p>And, she and Elliott say, behavioral therapy can help. That’s because a hallmark of SAD is thoughts that are negative that can distort and diminish one’s mood. Cognitive therapy encourages a shift in how a person thinks.</p>
<p>“It has been useful for SAD,” said Elliott. “People learn to monitor and be aware of what they’re telling themselves, and learn what distortions may be in that thinking, and make it more realistic.”</p>
<p /> | Dark days don’t have to bring on SAD | false | https://abqjournal.com/312464/dark-days-dont-have-to-bring-on-sad.html | 2013-12-02 | 2 |
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police in Rhode Island have arrested two teenage girls who they say stabbed a 15-year-old girl in downtown Providence.</p>
<p>Police say the stabbing happened Thursday night at Kennedy Plaza. Authorities say the victim was stabbed in the leg. Officials say the victim is in stable condition at Hasbro Children's Hospital.</p>
<p>Police say they have charged a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl in the stabbing. The juveniles are being held at the Rhode Island Training School. Investigators say a third girl was taken into custody but later released.</p>
<p>Police tell say the stabbing "stems from an ongoing feud among the girls." An investigation continues.</p>
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police in Rhode Island have arrested two teenage girls who they say stabbed a 15-year-old girl in downtown Providence.</p>
<p>Police say the stabbing happened Thursday night at Kennedy Plaza. Authorities say the victim was stabbed in the leg. Officials say the victim is in stable condition at Hasbro Children's Hospital.</p>
<p>Police say they have charged a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl in the stabbing. The juveniles are being held at the Rhode Island Training School. Investigators say a third girl was taken into custody but later released.</p>
<p>Police tell say the stabbing "stems from an ongoing feud among the girls." An investigation continues.</p> | 2 teenage girls arrested in stabbing of 15-year-old | false | https://apnews.com/amp/cb05f4153d284730984815d651e088f9 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON – Tom Hanks has been a regular at the White House for more than a minute, so he’s seen plenty of behind-the-scenes action at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. – including … the president handling some dead wildlife on the grounds?</p>
<p>Hanks recently shared his favorite White House memory, a story he says his family has been “dining out on” for years (that, and those Oscars, maybe?). Here’s how it goes, per the actor’s account on a recent podcast: Hanks and wife Rita Wilson were at the executive mansion for the dedication of the World War II memorial, which would have been in 2004, he told the host of “Soo Many White Guys” on WNYC.</p>
<p>Wilson happened to run into President George W. Bush (who was wearing his gym clothes) and POTUS offered them an impromptu tour of the Rose Garden. On the way, they encountered an icky surprise. “I swear to God, there was a dead black bird laying in the grass,” Hanks recalled. “He picks up the bird with his bare hands, and says, ‘that’s a shame … we get these all the time in the ranch’ … and threw the black bird in the bushes.”</p>
<p>Now that’s a cocktail party talking point.</p>
<p>Hanks also remembered the origin story of his first gift of a coffee maker to the White House press gallery, which he pinned to sometime in the 90’s. “I went back and saw their coffee area, this sad little Mr. Coffee drip kind of thing,” he said. “I said ‘I’m going to send you a decent coffee machine.'” Hanks recently sent a fancy new model to the caffeine-addled fourth estate with an encouraging note. “I thought, ‘probably time to re-up.’ “</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | That time Tom Hanks watched George W. Bush toss a dead bird into the White House shrubbery | false | https://abqjournal.com/979234/that-time-tom-hanks-watched-george-w-bush-toss-a-dead-bird-into-the-white-house-shrubbery.html | 2 |
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<p>It seems simple enough: Take the salt out of water so it’s drinkable.</p>
<p>But it’s far more complex than it appears at first glance. It’s also increasingly crucial in a world where freshwater resources are progressively strained by population growth, development, droughts, climate change and more. That’s why researchers and companies from the United States to Australia are fine-tuning a centuries-old concept that might be the future of quenching the world’s thirst.</p>
<p>“When it comes to increasing water supplies, you have four options: Increase your amount of reuse, increase storage, conserve it or turn to a new source,” says Tom Pankratz, a desalination consultant and current editor of the weekly trade publication&#160;" <a href="http://www.desalination.com/wdr" type="external">Water Desalination Report</a>." “And for many places around the world, the only new source is desalination.”</p>
<p>Costly Process</p>
<p>Desalination technology has been around for centuries. In the Middle East, people have long evaporated brackish groundwater or seawater, then condensed the vapor to produce salt-free water for drinking or, in some cases, for agricultural irrigation.</p>
<p>Over time the process has become more sophisticated. Most modern desalination facilities use reverse osmosis, in which water is pumped at high pressure through semipermeable membranes that remove salt and other minerals.</p>
<p>Worldwide about 300 million people get some freshwater from more than 17,000 desalination plants in 150 countries. Middle East countries have dominated that market out of necessity and energy availability, but with threats of freshwater shortages spreading around the world, others are rapidly joining their ranks. Industry capacity is growing about 8 percent per year, according to Randy Truby, comptroller and past president of the <a href="http://idadesal.org" type="external">International Desalination Association</a>, an industry group, with “bursts of activity” in places such as Australia and Singapore.</p>
<p>In the United States, a $1 billion plant is being built in Carlsbad, California, to provide about seven&#160;percent of the drinking water needs for the San Diego region. When it goes online in late 2015 it will be the biggest in North America, with a 50-million-gallon-per-day capacity. And California currently has about 16 desalination plant proposals in the works.</p>
<p>But desalination is expensive. A thousand gallons of freshwater from a desalination plant costs the average US&#160;consumer $2.50 to $5, Pankratz says, compared to $2 for conventional freshwater.</p>
<p>It’s also an energy hog: Desalination plants around the world consume <a href="https://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA-ETSAP%20Tech%20Brief%20I12%20Water-Desalination.pdf" type="external">more than 200 million kilowatt-hours each day</a>, with energy costs an estimated 55 percent of plants’ total operation and maintenance costs. It takes most reverse osmosis plants about three&#160;to 10 kilowatt-hours of energy to produce one cubic meter of freshwater from seawater. Traditional drinking water treatment plants typically use well under 1&#160;kWh per cubic meter.</p>
<p>And it can cause environmental problems, from displacing ocean-dwelling creatures to adversely altering the salt concentrations around them.</p>
<p>Research into a suite of seawater desalination improvements is underway to make the process cheaper and more environmentally friendly — including reducing dependence on fossil fuel–derived energy, which perpetuates the vicious cycle by contributing to climate change that contributes to freshwater shortages in the first place.</p>
<p>Membrane Upgrade</p>
<p>Most experts say that reverse osmosis is as efficient as it’s going to get. But some researchers are trying to squeeze more by improving the membranes used to separate salt from water.</p>
<p>Membranes currently used for desalination are mainly thin polyamide films rolled into a hollow tube through which the water wicks. One way to save energy is to increase the diameter of the membranes, which is directly correlated with how much freshwater they can make. Companies are increasingly moving from eight-inch to 16-inch diameter membranes, which have four times the active area.</p>
<p>“You can produce more water while reducing the footprint for the equipment,” says Harold Fravel Jr., executive director of the <a href="http://www.amtaorg.com" type="external">American Membrane Technology Association</a>, an organization that advances the use of water purification systems.</p>
<p>A lot of membrane research is focused on nanomaterials — materials about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. MIT researchers reported in 2012 that a membrane made of a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms called graphene could work just as well and requires less pressure to pump water through than polyamide, which is about a thousand times thicker. Less pressure means less energy to operate the system, and, therefore, lower energy bills.</p>
<p>Graphene is not only durable and incredibly thin, but, unlike polyamide, it’s not sensitive to water treatment compounds such as chlorine. In 2013, Lockheed Martin patented the Perforene membrane, which is one atom thick with holes small enough to trap salt and other minerals but that allow water to pass.</p>
<p>Another popular nanomaterial solution is carbon nanotubes, says Philip Davies, an Aston University researcher who specializes in energy efficient systems for water treatment. Carbon nanotubes are attractive for the same reasons as graphene — strong, durable material packed in a tiny package — and can absorb more than 400 percent of their weight in salt.</p>
<p>Membranes have to be swapped out, so carbon nanotubes’ durability and high absorption rate could reduce replacement frequency, saving time and money.</p>
<p>Membrane technology all “sounds sexy, but it’s not easy,” Pankratz says. “There are engineering challenges when making something so thin that still maintains integrity.”</p>
<p>Graphene and carbon nanotubes are decades away from widespread use, says Wendell Ela, a University of Arizona chemical and environmental engineering professor. “I do see them having an impact, but it’s a ways out.”</p>
<p>Truby said barriers to commercialization include engineering such small materials and making new membranes compatible with current plants and infrastructure.</p>
<p>“It’ll be key to upgrade systems without tearing [them] down and building a whole new plant,” he says.</p>
<p>Forward Osmosis</p>
<p>Others are looking beyond reverse osmosis to another process known as forward osmosis. In forward osmosis, seawater is drawn into the system by a solution that has salts and gases, which creates a high osmotic pressure difference between the solutions. The solutions pass through a membrane together, leaving the salts behind.</p>
<p>Ela says forward osmosis will “probably be most efficient as a pretreatment and not as a stand-alone treatment at commercial seawater plants” because reverse osmosis performs better at large scale. As a pretreatment, forward osmosis can lengthen reverse osmosis membranes’ lifespan and promote overall system health by reducing the needed disinfectants and other pretreatment options.</p>
<p>The process should use less energy than reverse osmosis, Ela says, since it’s driven by thermodynamics. But last summer MIT scientists reported that forward osmosis for desalination might prove more energy intensive than reverse osmosis due to the high salt concentration in the solution resulting from the first step.</p>
<p>British company <a href="http://www.modernwater.com" type="external">Modern Water</a> operates the first commercial forward osmosis plant in Oman, in the Arabian Peninsula’s southeastern coast. At 26,000 gallons per day, the system has a much smaller capacity than most large-scale reverse osmosis systems. Company officials did not return requests for comments on the plant. However a company report noted that the plant had a 42 percent reduction in energy compared to reverse osmosis.</p>
<p>Heather Cooley, water program director with the <a href="http://pacinst.org" type="external">Pacific Institute</a>, a California-based sustainability research organization, says most forward osmosis technology is still in the research and development phase, and that commercial use is five to 10 years out.</p>
<p>Dilution Solution</p>
<p>Another approach to reducing the energy cost of desalination is RO-PRO, or reverse osmosis pressure retarded osmosis. RO-PRO works by passing an impaired freshwater source, such as wastewater, through a membrane into the highly saline solution leftover from reverse osmosis, which would normally be discharged to the ocean. The mixing of the two produces pressure and energy that is used to power a reverse osmosis pump.</p>
<p>Inspired by a system used by <a href="http://www.statkraft.com" type="external">Statkraft</a>, a Norway-based hydropower and renewable energy company, University of Southern California environmental engineering professor Amy Childress and colleagues are now piloting RO-PRO in California. Childress says “optimistic” estimates show RO-PRO can reduce the energy needed for reverse osmosis 30 percent. She notes that some unspecified companies have shown interest in their pilot.</p>
<p>Recapturing and Renewable Energy</p>
<p>Fravel says many plants are trying to recapture energy from within the process. Turbochargers, for example, take kinetic energy from the outgoing stream of concentrated saltwater and reapply it to the side of incoming seawater. “You might have 900 [pounds per square inch] on the feed side and the concentrate might be coming out at 700 psi. That’s a lot of energy in the concentrate stream,” he says.</p>
<p>Incorporating renewables into the energy input side of things is a particularly promising approach to enhancing desalination’s sustainability.Pretreating water before it goes to membranes can also save energy. “The better you can clean water before it goes into reverse osmosis, the better it runs,” Fravel says. Plants in Bahrain, Japan, Saudi Arabia and China are using pretreatment for a smoother reverse osmosis process.</p>
<p>Incorporating renewables into the energy input side of things is a particularly promising approach to enhancing desalination’s sustainability. Currently an estimated 1 percent of desalinated water comes from energy from renewable sources, mainly in small-scale facilities. But larger plants are starting to add renewables to their energy portfolio.</p>
<p>After years of struggling with drought, Australia brought six desalination plants online from 2006 to 2012, investing more than $10 billion. The plants all use some renewables for power, mostly through nearby wind farms that put energy into the grid, Pankratz says. And the Sydney Water desalination plant, which supplies about 15 percent of water to Australia’s most populous city, is powered by offsets from the 67-turbine Capital Wind Farm about 170 miles to the south.</p>
<p>Solar energy is attractive for many heavy desalination countries — particularly those in the Middle East and the Caribbean where sun is plentiful. In one of the more ambitious projects, the United Arab Emirates energy company Masdar announced in 2013 it’s working on the world’s largest solar powered desalination plant, capable of producing more than 22 million gallons per day, with a planned launch in 2020.</p>
<p>Environmental impacts</p>
<p>Plans to use seawater, of course, must consider the implications for sea life. A lot of desalination facilities use open ocean intakes; these are often screened, but the desalination process can still kill organisms during intake or inside the plant’s treatment phases, Cooley says. New subsurface intakes, which go beneath the sand to use it as a natural filter, could help alleviate this concern.</p>
<p>Also, there’s the problem of how to get rid of a lot of very briny water after desalination. Every two gallons a facility takes in means one gallon of drinkable water and one gallon of water that is about twice as salty as when it came in. Most plants discharge this back into the same body of water that serves as the intake source.</p>
<p>Ela says smaller plants, such as the forward osmosis plant in Oman, could be the future of desalination technology.The RO-PRO technology offers one way to reduce the salt concentration in the discharge, which can harm bottom-dwelling creatures. Another method gaining popularity is the use of diffusers, a series of nozzles that increase the volume of seawater mixing with the concentrate discharge preventing spots of high salt.</p>
<p>In one of the more novel recent studies addressing ocean discharge, Davies of Aston University heated up briny discharge with solar energy to convert magnesium chloride into magnesium oxide, which he calls “a good agent to absorb carbon dioxide.” The research is still is the nascent stages, but could have the dual environmental benefit of reducing discharge and removing CO2 from the ocean using solar power to zap the concentrate.</p>
<p>Size Wise</p>
<p>Ela says smaller plants, such as the forward osmosis plant in Oman, could be the future of desalination technology. A lot of the newer innovations could make economic sense on a smaller scale, and companies wouldn’t have to invest so much in infrastructure, he says.</p>
<p>“Instead of large plants, we might get down to 10,000 gallons per day desalination plants,” Ela says. “I see decentralization and small desalination plants serving small communities.”</p>
<p>This also would provide environmental benefits such as allowing renewable energy to play a larger role, since it’s much easier to power small plants with solar and wind than large ones, he says.</p>
<p>Pankratz says desalination will always be more expensive than treating freshwater. Still, innovations will help desalination become an increasingly workable option as the demand for freshwater grows in an increasingly thirsty world.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://ensia.com/about/people/brianbienkowski/" type="external">story by Brian Bienkowski</a> was originally published by <a href="http://ensia.com/about/overview/" type="external">Ensia</a>, a magazine&#160;showcasing environmental solutions in action.</p>
<p /> | Desalination is an expensive energy hog, but improvements are on the way | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-05-15/desalination-expensive-energy-hog-improvements-are-way | 2015-05-15 | 3 |
<p>Aug. 25 (UPI) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it is taking its first steps to rewrite the Waters of the United States regulation under the Trump Administration.</p>
<p>The EPA <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-18214.pdf" type="external">announced today</a>, in a notice to be published Monday in the Federal Register, that 10 teleconference meetings will be held to gather information on its plans to change the rule, which is intended to reduce water pollution under the Clean Water Act.</p>
<p>The first of the 10 meetings is scheduled for September 19 at 1:00 p.m., with the next nine held each Tuesday after.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Obama administration issued a new rule reinterpreting the Clean Water Act to extend federal protections to smaller rivers and streams to protect against water pollution. Obama’s rule was blocked at the time by a federal appeals court.</p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.upi.com/Donald-Trump-signs-executive-orders-on-clean-water-rule-HBCUs/8791488366877/" type="external">signed an executive order</a> in March calling for a review of the Waters of the United States Rule.</p>
<p>“A few years ago, the EPA decided that ‘navigable waters’ can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer’s land, or anyplace else that they decide — right? It was a massive power grab,” Trump said during the signing ceremony for the executive order.</p>
<p>The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers then in July proposed a repeal of former President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/" type="external">Barack Obama</a>‘s version of the regulations meant to define the limits of the federal government’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.</p>
<p>The executive order issued by Trump calls for a review of the rule and instructs the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to determine if federal jurisdiction over navigable waters under the Clean Water Act should include bodies of water to which Obama sought to extend protection.</p>
<p>Additionally, Trump’s executive order requested the Department of Justice put its appeal of the court’s block on hold while the review is carried out.</p>
<p>Environmentalists who support the Obama Administration version of the rule have accused the Trump Administration of endangering water supplies.</p>
<p>“Both EPA and the Corps are aware that the scope of [Clean Water Act] jurisdiction is of intense interest to a broad array of stakeholders and therefore want to provide time for broad pre-proposal input,” the EPA wrote in the Federal Register notice.</p> | EPA plans ten hearings on water rule rewrite | false | https://newsline.com/epa-plans-ten-hearings-on-water-rule-rewrite/ | 2017-08-25 | 1 |
<p />
<p>I only became really interested in politics a few years back. For me it has been like coming into a theater in the middle of a movie. Most people who share my interest are too far along for me to ask them all of the embarrassing beginner questions I have. I try to watch the news and read some informative periodicals, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I see an article in a newspaper or a magazine that I feel I should know about, and I put it beside my sleeping area. Time passes and eventually there’s a pile of periodicals filled with things I know nothing about mocking me while I’m trying to sleep. Even if I take the time to read these old articles, new ones are always piling up in the on-deck circle.</p>
<p>I haven’t given up. I take pride in trying to educate myself as an adult, but I’m a busy (and sometimes lazy) person. Seven weeks ago I became a foster parent to a newborn, and it seems clear that I’ll never have time for anything else ever again. I recently took a moment to put the magazines and newspapers beside my sleeping area into the recycle pile.</p>
<p>I’ve had this sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only person who has felt the responsibility of citizenship but lacks some basic political data. Therefore, as a segment on my Saturday ABC show, I asked Senator Paul Simon of Illinois to answer some simple questions about government while enjoying the rides, food, and fun at Wild World Theme Park in Maryland. Here’s the weird part–he agreed.</p>
<p>Paul Simon is a really good guy. But I’m not such a good interviewer. When I get nervous I can’t shut up. So, although the senator may have had some valuable information to share, it was difficult for him to squeeze it in between my delightful recollections of “Mary Tyler Moore” episodes. I think he agreed to join me because he understands the problem I’ve spelled out and agrees on the importance of remedying it. I think that’s why, but it’s hard to tell. He started to say that, “Even for members of the Senate you can’t keep on top of everything. You have to rely on your colleagues who serve on other committees.” I cut him off to make a joke about my hair. I was really nervous. The guy’s a senator and I had him holding bright blue cotton candy in front of the Python roller coaster on a hot, sweaty day.</p>
<p>Senator Simon made it clear when he arrived that he wouldn’t go on any of the high roller-coaster rides. I was a little disappointed, but certainly grateful for his indulgence in being there at all. So I tried to put on a good face. However, when he turned me down on the bumper cars, there was sort of an awkward moment. I made a quick change to a more casual subject. “Who was the first person you ever voted for in a presidential election?” I asked. “Adlai Stevenson,” was his reply. “How about you?”</p>
<p>“Dukakis.”</p>
<p>I thought he looked a little hurt and then I remembered: that was one of the guys he ran against. “Oh, great,” I thought, “why not just say, ‘Not you.’ It’s no wonder he won’t go on the bumper cars with me.”</p>
<p>The fact is I first knew of Paul Simon from his presidential campaign and I liked him. I’m not surprised that he didn’t become president, though. He doesn’t seem like he could do what it takes to become president. He’s too much of a gentleman. At one point I found a penny on the ground and I offered it to him as a gesture of friendship. He recoiled. He wouldn’t even accept a lucky penny. I offered him five dollars to shove a kid off a ride. He didn’t even consider it. Does anybody run against him in Illinois?</p>
<p>I was constantly afraid that he would get his fill of my little project and go home. There was one moment–when a photographer snapped a picture of the senator just before he began explaining NAFTA from high atop a zebra on the merry-go-round–when he looked like his whole career was flashing before his eyes, perhaps followed by visions of Dukakis in the tank. He might have bolted, too, but a little while before that we were joking with Vinnie, “the weight and age guesser,” about using his ability with numbers to work out a plan for deficit reduction. Vinnie said, “What’s a deficit?” This graphic example of the problem of the uninformed voter probably made Senator Simon redouble his efforts.</p>
<p>I asked him how the average busy citizen is supposed to be involved. He replied: “That average citizen can take an interest in just one subject, try to hear both sides on that subject and then write to legislators, attend Democratic and Republican meetings–you know, really take an interest. These kids that are on this merry-go-round, their future is being determined by politics. It is not enough for parents to clothe and feed and have a nice home for children. We have to be talking about making sure that those children have freedom.” Then Senator Simon swung his legs back over his zebra, dropped to the ground, and headed for some funnelcake.</p>
<p />
<p>Johnn Tan, e-mail: I am on an e-mail list for vegetarians and vegans called VEGGIE. We want the straight truth: is Hillary Rodham Clinton a vegetarian? Someone on VEGGIE said he saw her eating chicken once, but it couldn’t be substantiated.</p>
<p>A: Johnn, your letter indicates that this is a burning question among the vegetarian community. It’s news to me that there even is a vegetarian community–diet seems like a strange characteristic to form a community around. I don’t hang out in the snack-food aisle of the grocery store looking for new friends. What kind of little chats could people in the vegetarian community possibly have?</p>
<p>“So, did you eat meat today?”</p>
<p>“Nope. D’ you?”</p>
<p>“Nope.”</p>
<p>“D’ you eat any yesterday?”</p>
<p>“No, sirree. And you?”</p>
<p>“No, no.”</p>
<p>“Stay away from that meat now.”</p>
<p>“You too.”</p>
<p>Please alert the community that I called David E. Dreyer, the deputy White House communications director, to ask. He has not eaten meat since 1978, but he does not believe that our first lady is a vegetarian. Apparently he hasn’t run into her at any of the community meetings.</p>
<p />
<p>Susan Lehman, e-mail: I don’t really have any weird questions for you to answer.</p>
<p>A: Susan, your comment embodies a common misconception about my role here at Mother Jones. I’m not singling you out, but I’d like to know where you got the idea that I answer “weird” questions. I think if you review my work, I’ve answered questions about art (“Why, with the proliferation of oldies radio stations, do I never hear any disco?”), physics and health (“If I were to fall off a two-hundred-foot cliff, would I die from shock before hitting the ground?”), psychology (“Why do guys always have to be in the front of the line?”), and politics (“What do you think of the big deal the mainstream media has made of Hillary Clinton?”).</p>
<p>Keep in mind you guys write the questions, not me. I think you should ask me stuff I’d have to go to the Smithsonian to answer, but don’t let me tell you what to do.</p>
<p /> | Poli-sci with Paul | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1993/11/poli-sci-paul/ | 2018-11-01 | 4 |
<p>A blogger and photographer who was fired from his job trading bonds back in 2010 has successfully raised $1 million — 10 times the goal — for a group of Brooklyn schoolchildren to visit Harvard University.</p>
<p>Brandon Stanton launched the “Humans of New York” blog and Facebook page shortly after his firing at the Chicago Board of Trade, in which hee takes photos of New Yorkers and then posts them on his blog with a piece of prose or a quote describing their lives, providing snippets of life that became popular. He began a campaign to raise $100,000 to send middle school students to Harvard, but the story went viral and he has surpassed $1 million in donations from 36,702 people, according to a <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/30/humans-of-new-york-mott-hall-bridges-harvard/22566817/" type="external">USA Today report</a>.</p>
<p>And it only took five days.</p>
<p>Stanton tweeted that the response was “amazing,” especially in such a short amount of time. It all began when Stanton published a photograph of Mott Hall Bridges eighth grader Vidal Chastanet, who described how his principal, Nadia Lopez, handles students who get in trouble, noting that she doesn’t suspend kids but rather talks to them about how society functions, and “she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built.”</p>
<p>He was moved to start a fundraiser a few days later to help the school — which is situated in a high-crime part of Brownsville — inspired by Lopez’s goal of taking her 6th-grade class on a tour of Harvard at the beginning of each school year as a way to encourage them to strive to do their best.</p>
<p>Stanton began the campaign on the crowdfunding sight Indiegogo.com, where the response was enormous. Lopez told her student that she had felt “broken” by recent events in the world and the strain in black and white relations, but the support had given “people a reason to feel a little less broken.”</p>
<p /> | Humans of N.Y. blogger raises more than $1 million for students after story goes viral | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/30/humans-of-n-y-blogger-raises-more-than-1-million-for-students-after-story-goes-viral/ | 2015-01-30 | 3 |
<p>At the 29th Annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/us/politics/donald-trump-and-bikers-share-affection-at-rolling-thunder-rally.html?_r=0" type="external">rally</a> in Washington over Memorial Day weekend, Donald Trump told the enthusiastic crowd that illegal immigrants are treated better than our veterans and that he was going to "knock the hell out" of Islamic terrorism by building the wall.</p>
<p>Trump gave his remarks at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, where the bikers arrived after a procession that started at the Pentagon. The annual event is intended to draw attention to military who have been taken as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action.</p>
<p>"Look at all these bikers," said Trump. "Do we love the bikers? Yes. We love the bikers."</p>
<p>In his speech, Trump made sure to emphasize the military, hitting the issue of the federal government's failure to properly care for veterans and tying it to the Obama administration's egregious mishandling of illegal immigration.</p>
<p>"There's history in the air here," he <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/29/trump-illegal-u-s-immigrants-treated-better-than-veterans/" type="external">said</a>. "We’re living in historic times in our country today with the election and the choosing of a new president. And I just wanted to give honor to those who have fallen and sacrificed their lives for our country."</p>
<p>Despite the sacrifices, said Trump, our veterans "have been treated so badly in this country." The federal government, he said, treats those who have entered the country illegally better than those who risked their lives to protect it.</p>
<p>Trump also made sure to repeat his promise to build a wall on Mexico's dime, connecting the idea to national security by saying he would "knock the hell out of" Islamic terrorists through his efforts. Asking the crowd "Who's going to pay for the wall?" the bikers yelled back, "Mexico!"</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/us/politics/donald-trump-and-bikers-share-affection-at-rolling-thunder-rally.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> notes, Trump has built a loyal following among bikers, complete with a Facebook page, " <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bikers-for-Trump-2016-1653554188262272/?version=meter+at+9&amp;module=meter-Links&amp;pgtype=article&amp;contentId=&amp;mediaId=&amp;referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drudgereport.com%2F&amp;priority=true&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=meter-links-click" type="external">Bikers for Trump</a>."</p> | Trump: Illegal Immigrants Treated Better Than Veterans | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6141/trump-illegal-immigrants-treated-better-veterans-james-barrett | 2016-05-30 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Cabela’s (NYSE:CAB) reported strong demand for guns and shooting accessories during the third quarter, reflecting an industry-wide surge during a presidential election year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The outdoor retailer, <a href="" type="internal">which recently agreed to a takeover by rival Bass Pro Shops</a>, said Wednesday sales at Cabela’s stores open at least a year fell 2.3% in the quarter. But Cabela’s saw positive sales trends for firearms and shooting-related categories, such as ammunition. Optics, like rifle scopes, also flew off the shelves.</p>
<p>Cabela’s added that shooting categories, along with fishing, camping and powersports, lifted Internet and catalog sales by 3.6%. After flattening in 2014, gun sales began to heat back up at the conclusion of 2015 and easily set new records this year, just as the race for the White House kicked into high gear.</p>
<p>Smith &amp; Wesson (NASDAQ:SWHC) said last month its quarterly net sales climbed 40% versus the same period a year ago, citing strong consumer demand. The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 1.99 million checks in September, a 10.9% year-over-year increase to mark a new record for the month. The FBI has recorded all-time highs in every month of 2016, and background checks are on pace to surpass the annual record of 23.1 million set in 2015.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Read: Ruger CEO Says Clinton a Threat to Gun Rights</a></p>
<p>The FBI’s background checks are not an exact tally of gun sales. Adjusted figures, which exclude non-purchasing activity like permit applications, are used by the firearms industry to measure sales.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>On an adjusted basis, NICS checks edged lower by an estimated 51,000 from August to September, <a href="http://www.guns.com/2016/10/04/biggest-september-on-record-for-federal-background-checks/" type="external">according to data cited by Guns.com Opens a New Window.</a>. However, the National Shooting Sports Foundation hasn’t released its usual monthly report because of irregularities tied to the FBI’s new computer system. Kentucky background checks weren’t included in full for the month of August, leading to a large underreporting of checks.</p>
<p>Even with some data missing, the FBI set a new record for August background checks at 1.85 million, up 6.1% year-over-year.</p>
<p>At Cabela’s, softer demand for apparel hampered overall third-quarter results. The Sidney, Neb.-based retailer booked earnings that fell 35.4% to $28.2 million, or 41 cents a share. Adjusted earnings slipped to 53 cents a share, compared to Wall Street’s estimate of 81 cents.</p>
<p>Revenue grew 7.6% to $996.5 million. Analysts expected a slightly higher number of $1.02 billion.</p> | Gun Sales Surging in Election Year | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/10/26/gun-sales-surging-in-election-year.html | 2016-10-26 | 0 |
<p>Seeing gurneys of babies trundled through the chiaroscuro of old black-and-white footage at the start of Scott Noble’s Human Resources, the gurneys in the tunnels of God only knows what kind of institution, the viewer does well to brace herself for the coming onslaught.</p>
<p>The piano accompaniment is not so much music as it is the hammering of wires in the industrial mode, a harbinger of doom.&#160; And as it turns out, there is nothing in the film to save us from its earliest suggestion of menace.&#160; Not the reassurance that the institution is a hospital rather than a death camp, not the good-natured and wacky antics of the scientist donning a fierce mask to impress Little Albert the plucky human baby in a famous set of experiments, not a single routine bell of work or school by which we recognize ourselves as modern subjects.&#160; Not one of these scenes can silence the tolling bell of modernity as it calls out to us across a century of darkness and names us as we sit, not quite cowering, before the flitframes of Human Resources, our faces backlit by our computer screens like so many ancients clustered around a faggot fire at the center of the night.</p>
<p>Perhaps we have seen some or most of these images before.&#160; They lurk in the sensorium as a subliminal archive of what it is we know collectively—but Noble’s synthesis cracks the code of their proper arrangement.&#160; This is the order in which they need to be seen, these are the appropriate experts interviewed and brought to the film with just the right finesse of juxtaposition.&#160; Appreciating Noble’s relentlessly inquisitorial talent as a film-maker is like the moment when you first realize that a piano is not a plucked-string instrument but an instrument of percussion.&#160; Listen and learn.&#160; Noble’s skill is at such an exalted level that the wise viewer might well hold something in reserve, a suspicion that anything this good, eliciting these sorts of responses from us, might possess its own dark behaviourist powers.&#160; Glad we might be to have such a mage as Noble on our side.</p>
<p>While I was a grad student at Princeton, I went to Duke University for a couple of years to hang out in classes with Fred Jameson, the theorist and critic of modernism.&#160; It took me a while to get up to speed.&#160; Human Resources is the film I wish I had been able to see before sitting in on Jameson’s lectures on Fordism, Taylorism, and the whole shtick of capital and Western civ in the 20th-century industrial mode, and what that portends for culture and for the 21st century.</p>
<p>Is Human Resources a masterpiece?&#160; To know this, you’d have to answer the old zen conundrums, like whether a truckload of dead babies is worse than the possibly-less unsettling notion of a live one eating its way up from the bottom.&#160; I advise viewing the first half of Human Resources in the educative mode, learning the ropes of that skein of modernity that has held us so resourcefully to our tasks as good worker bees and advocates of box-style public education.&#160; I advise viewing the second half of the film with the willingness to weep that is the corollary of modernist inquiry.&#160; Unless you weep, you may be damaged by this film.&#160; It answers the significant events of the last century the way a glass answers the implicit questions of a man who peers into its reflective surface—point for point.&#160; It corresponds, in short, to reality.&#160; Perhaps this is what we mean when we say that a work is a piece of the master.</p>
<p><a href="http://metanoia-films.org/humanresources.php" type="external">Human Resources</a>, by Scott Noble.&#160; Viewer discretion, and love, advised.</p>
<p>DAVID Ker THOMSON is a once-and-future prof at the University of Toronto.&#160; He teaches in the Language and Thinking Program at Bard College. &#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Asking For Whom the Bell Tolls | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/11/26/asking-for-whom-the-bell-tolls/ | 2010-11-26 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Teleportation.jpg" type="external" />Discovery could break through the theoretical limitations of current computers Humanity is one step nearer to quicker computers, but still very far away from Harry Potter-like apparating. Dutch physicists have successfully transported data from one electron to another three meters away, rendering previous doubts about quantum physics unfounded. The [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.infowars.com/teleportation-is-closer-to-moving-data-but-not-people/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.infowars.com</a></p>
<p /> | Teleportation Closer to Moving Data, But Not People | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/teleportation-is-closer-to-moving-data-but-not-people/ | 0 |
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<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Central Division has been the NHL’s tightest this season, with not much separation from top to bottom.</p>
<p>Minnesota’s win over division-leading Winnipeg on Saturday night only jammed it up some more.</p>
<p>Matt Dumba had two goals, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund also scored and the Wild beat the Jets 4-1.</p>
<p>Dumba got his goals in the third period, helping Minnesota win its second straight behind 32 saves from Devan Dubnyk.</p>
<p>Minnesota got its first win against Winnipeg in four tries this season. The Wild are 5-0-1 in their last six home games.</p>
<p>Minnesota gets a quick turnaround for a game Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks.</p>
<p>“I think we’re still hungry. This is a big one,” Dumba said. “We’re going to treat it like a huge game tomorrow going into our break.”</p>
<p>The loss is the second in two nights for the Jets after a 2-1 defeat to Chicago. Mathieu Perreault had Winnipeg’s goal Saturday, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 37 shots.</p>
<p>As it did against the Blackhawks, Winnipeg got off to a slow start versus Minnesota. The Jets were outshot 23-5 in the first period.</p>
<p>“In a game like that, we need to make simpler plays, sort of keep it as simple as possible and try to just get into that grinding game as soon as we can,” defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “I think it took us too long to do that today.”</p>
<p>Granlund opened the scoring with a redirect in front. The forward deflected a shot from defenseman Ryan Suter at the 8:47 mark of the first period. It was Granlund’s 13th goal of the season and his 10th point in his last eight games. The goal came on the power play after Morrissey was whistled for interference.</p>
<p>Zucker put his team up 2-0 early in the second. Not long after getting denied by Hellebuyck on a breakaway, Zucker buried a rebound from off the end boards. Zucker’s 16th goal was his first since Dec. 27 — a span of seven games. Granlund picked up an assist on Zucker’s goal.</p>
<p>The Jets took advantage of a power play to get on the board early in the third. Perreault tipped in a pass from Blake Wheeler on the doorstep just 47 seconds into the period. Winnipeg started the third with the man-advantage after a penalty late in the second period.</p>
<p>Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 17-9 in the second period.</p>
<p>Dumba’s slap shot from the faceoff circle sneaked between Hellebuyck and the post for a 3-1 lead in the third. Another shot from the point made it 4-1 later in the third for Dumba’s second two-goal game of the season.</p>
<p>The Wild continued their dominance at home. Minnesota is now 12-1-2 in its last 15 games and 15-4-3 overall at Xcel Energy Center.</p>
<p>After Sunday’s game, Minnesota will be off for five days before returning to action next Saturday against Tampa Bay.</p>
<p>“We knew it was going to be a big week for us,” Granlund said. “We’re going to be on a bye week next week, so we gotta gather as many points as we can.”</p>
<p>Winnipeg, meanwhile, has a week off. With several injuries, the break comes at a good time for the Jets.</p>
<p>“We’ve got some key pieces in terms of our structure and how we run our bench that we’ve missed,” coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve done actually a great job of surviving and getting wins without them but we’ll hopefully get a few of those guys back.”</p>
<p>NOTES: The Wild will open select gates early before Sunday’s game to allow fans to watch the Minnesota Vikings playoff game against the New Orleans Saints on TVs in the arena. Fans can enter at 3:30 p.m. CT, with the Vikings game beginning at 3:40 p.m.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Jets: At Calgary on Saturday.</p>
<p>Wild: Host Vancouver on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Central Division has been the NHL’s tightest this season, with not much separation from top to bottom.</p>
<p>Minnesota’s win over division-leading Winnipeg on Saturday night only jammed it up some more.</p>
<p>Matt Dumba had two goals, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund also scored and the Wild beat the Jets 4-1.</p>
<p>Dumba got his goals in the third period, helping Minnesota win its second straight behind 32 saves from Devan Dubnyk.</p>
<p>Minnesota got its first win against Winnipeg in four tries this season. The Wild are 5-0-1 in their last six home games.</p>
<p>Minnesota gets a quick turnaround for a game Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks.</p>
<p>“I think we’re still hungry. This is a big one,” Dumba said. “We’re going to treat it like a huge game tomorrow going into our break.”</p>
<p>The loss is the second in two nights for the Jets after a 2-1 defeat to Chicago. Mathieu Perreault had Winnipeg’s goal Saturday, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 37 shots.</p>
<p>As it did against the Blackhawks, Winnipeg got off to a slow start versus Minnesota. The Jets were outshot 23-5 in the first period.</p>
<p>“In a game like that, we need to make simpler plays, sort of keep it as simple as possible and try to just get into that grinding game as soon as we can,” defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “I think it took us too long to do that today.”</p>
<p>Granlund opened the scoring with a redirect in front. The forward deflected a shot from defenseman Ryan Suter at the 8:47 mark of the first period. It was Granlund’s 13th goal of the season and his 10th point in his last eight games. The goal came on the power play after Morrissey was whistled for interference.</p>
<p>Zucker put his team up 2-0 early in the second. Not long after getting denied by Hellebuyck on a breakaway, Zucker buried a rebound from off the end boards. Zucker’s 16th goal was his first since Dec. 27 — a span of seven games. Granlund picked up an assist on Zucker’s goal.</p>
<p>The Jets took advantage of a power play to get on the board early in the third. Perreault tipped in a pass from Blake Wheeler on the doorstep just 47 seconds into the period. Winnipeg started the third with the man-advantage after a penalty late in the second period.</p>
<p>Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 17-9 in the second period.</p>
<p>Dumba’s slap shot from the faceoff circle sneaked between Hellebuyck and the post for a 3-1 lead in the third. Another shot from the point made it 4-1 later in the third for Dumba’s second two-goal game of the season.</p>
<p>The Wild continued their dominance at home. Minnesota is now 12-1-2 in its last 15 games and 15-4-3 overall at Xcel Energy Center.</p>
<p>After Sunday’s game, Minnesota will be off for five days before returning to action next Saturday against Tampa Bay.</p>
<p>“We knew it was going to be a big week for us,” Granlund said. “We’re going to be on a bye week next week, so we gotta gather as many points as we can.”</p>
<p>Winnipeg, meanwhile, has a week off. With several injuries, the break comes at a good time for the Jets.</p>
<p>“We’ve got some key pieces in terms of our structure and how we run our bench that we’ve missed,” coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve done actually a great job of surviving and getting wins without them but we’ll hopefully get a few of those guys back.”</p>
<p>NOTES: The Wild will open select gates early before Sunday’s game to allow fans to watch the Minnesota Vikings playoff game against the New Orleans Saints on TVs in the arena. Fans can enter at 3:30 p.m. CT, with the Vikings game beginning at 3:40 p.m.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Jets: At Calgary on Saturday.</p>
<p>Wild: Host Vancouver on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p> | Dumba scores twice, Wild beat Jets 4-1 | false | https://apnews.com/1b2f3c76ffb8407a844cd6b5d7f48e8b | 2018-01-14 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Deena Crawley was a 16-year-old high school student when she decided to throw an unauthorized party while her mother was out of the house.</p>
<p>Her mother caught her. Her punishment was to get a job. She got one at Dion’s Pizza.</p>
<p>It is about 20 years later. Crawley worked other places over time, but today she is marketing director for Peter-Defries Corp., which owns Dion’s.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Mark Herman, the company’s CEO, also started as a kid at Dion’s. The company’s general managers all started by working in one of Dion’s 20 stores.</p>
<p>It’s tough to become one of Dion’s 1,400 employees, of whom 60 to 65 percent are under age 18. Only about one applicant in 10 is hired, Crawley said. The company looks for active teenagers, the kids who join the debate team or play sports or are in student government. DECA, a school-based club for teenagers interested in business, is another good source of recruits.</p>
<p>Those active, engaged students “really understand how to make the customer happy,” Crawley said. “They are inquisitive, kind, gracious employees.”</p>
<p>On the job, they learn discipline. They have to dress properly. Their name tags have to be in the right place. They have to show up on time, communicate, carry their load, cooperate and help their fellow employees.</p>
<p>“That accountability, that responsibility instills wonderful things in the employees,” Crawley said. “These are great kids.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, employment opportunities are shrinking for Albuquerque’s teenagers. A study by The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program has found that youth employment locally and nationally has “plummeted.”</p>
<p>Summer jobs and part-time work during the school year have been a normal part of growing up and learning to be an adult. Getting a job as a youngster “is a key step in a young person’s transition to adulthood and economic self-sufficiency,” according to Brookings. Employment “provides valuable opportunities for teens and young adults to apply academic skills and learn occupation-specific and broader employment skills such as teamwork, time management, and problem-solving.”</p>
<p>Acquiring that experience is getting more and more difficult.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Employment prospects for teens and young adults in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas plummeted between 2000 and 2011,” Brookings reported.</p>
<p>In the Albuquerque metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia counties, the employment rate (the percentage of people with jobs) for workers ages 16 through 19 years was 43.8 percent in 2000. That rate fell to 19.5 percent in 2012, ranking the Albuquerque area 94th out of the largest 100 MSAs in the nation.</p>
<p>Nationally, during the same period, youth employment rates fell from 45 percent to 26 percent.</p>
<p>Among workers ages 20 through 24, the employment rate in the Albuquerque MSA fell from 69.7 percent to 59 percent, ranking 78th among the 100 largest MSAs. Nationally, the rate fell from 72 percent to 61 percent.</p>
<p>Young people who are not working, not in school and have less than an associate’s degree are called disconnected. “Such individuals are at increased risk for subsequent poverty and unemployment,” according to Brookings.</p>
<p>In the Albuquerque area, 10.5 percent of people ages 16 through 19 fall into the disconnected category, ranking our area 92nd out of the 100 largest MSAs. Among workers ages 20 through 24, the disconnected rate was 18.2 percent, ranking the Albuquerque area at 73rd. Nationally, the rates are 8.3 percent for 16- through 19-year-olds and 16.8 percent for 20- through 24-year-olds.</p>
<p>Brookings blames the collapse of youth employment on the Great Recession. The economy underperformed, and less experienced workers didn’t have the same opportunities that more experienced workers had as the local economy began its agonizingly slow crawl out of the trough.</p>
<p>The state Workforce Solutions Department identifies a worse problem. The department reported last year, “Educational attainment is considered an area of concern when evaluating New Mexico’s workforce because low educational attainment and graduation rates place New Mexico at a competitive disadvantage to neighboring states and the nation as a whole.”</p>
<p>In 2009, according to the department, 64.8 percent of high school seniors graduated. “This rate is lower than that of all surrounding states and trails the graduation rate of the nation by almost 8 percentage points.” The 2014 graduation rate improved to 68.5 percent, but that performance still lags behind that of the nation as a whole.</p>
<p>Younger workers’ lack of skills and inability to gain experience will punish them for years to come with lower wages and worse job prospects, but Workforce Solutions warns that the state as a whole will pay a price, too.</p>
<p>“Businesses looking to establish themselves often value the size of the future workforce, as it indicates the potential for expansion,” the department reported. A labor pool that is without the benefit of experience will discourage expansion.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">www.abqjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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<p /> | NM’s young people missing out on work | false | https://abqjournal.com/546618/94.html | 2015-02-26 | 2 |
<p>Estee Lauder Companies Inc. shares are up 0.9% in Tuesday premarket trading after the beauty company announced fiscal third-quarter sales that beat expectations and job cuts related to a restructuring initiative. Estee Lauder said it had net income of $265.6 million, or 71 cents per share, down from $272.1 million, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share totaled 73 cents per share, exceeding the FactSet consensus of 61 cents per share. Sales for the quarter totaled $2.66 billion, up from $2.58 billion for the same period last year and meeting the FactSet consensus. The beauty company said it expects full-year sales to increase between 4% and 5%, with currency exchange expected to impact sales negatively by 5%. Earnings per share are expected to be between $3.00 and $3.07. Estee Lauder's restructuring initiative, called Leading Beauty Forward, will begin fiscal fourth-quarter 2016. It expects job cuts between 900 and 1,200 positions globally and restructuring and other pre-tax charges between $600 million and $700 million. Estee Lauder expects to yield annual pre-tax benefits between $200 million and $300 million. Estee Lauder shares are up 10.3% for the year-to-date while the S&amp;P 500 is up 1.8% for the same period.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Estee Lauder Sales Beat Expectations, Restructuring Announced | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/03/estee-lauder-sales-beat-expectations-restructuring-announced.html | 2016-05-03 | 0 |
<p>Every so often a sliver of truth trembles off the lips of one of our elected officials. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does occur it needs to underscored and highlighted.</p>
<p>Representative Nancy Pelosi gave the antiwar movement an honest reality check last week when she laid out quite plainly the Democrat’s position-er, non-position-on the Iraq war. As she told the Washington Post, “There is no one Democratic voice … and there is no one Democratic position.”</p>
<p>In other words, the Democrats will not take a stand on the war and they won’t draw up a unified exit strategy anytime soon. And perhaps worst of all, they won’t be making the war a major focal point in the upcoming 2006 congressional elections. They’ll just continue to argue amongst themselves while more civilians and soldiers perish in Iraq.</p>
<p>The Democrats capitulate, yet again.</p>
<p>At least Pelosi is shooting it to us straight, I suppose. She’s not candy-coating her party’s ineptitude. Instead, she has spelled out their gross inadequacies word for bloody word. Her party is fractured and unable to muster any sort of real opposition to the Bush administration-and she knows it. Not only do the Democrats disagree on how to take on the Republicans, they aren’t even sure they should.</p>
<p>For the most part what the Democrats seem to be upset about is Bush’s misguided rationale for invading Iraq (of course, the Dems spouted virtually the same set of lies that got us into this war), not how to get our troops the heck out of there.</p>
<p>Pelosi recently endorsed Rep. John Murtha’s call to redeploy US troops, but she assured us that this was not indicative of the Democrats as a whole. Pelosi also told reporters she thought the Republican-controlled Congress was “the most corrupt in history.” If that is indeed true, then what are the Democrats going to do? Keep on whining? The only reason the corrupt Republicans rule the roost in Washington is because the corrupt Democrats can’t muster any viable opposition. They’ve let Bush get away with murder.</p>
<p>Despite the laundry list of Democratic failures, Pelosi and others will be threatening us all to “vote Dem or die” in the upcoming elections. It will be a replay of the 2004 presidential charade where antiwar folks were told to vote for John Kerry or suffer the consequences of another four years of Bush. Kerry didn’t offer an alternative, but the antiwar movement backed him regardless and we lost.</p>
<p>The Democrats hope 2006 will be the same. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Hillary Clinton and others will be expecting the antiwar movement’s support even though their party has not taken a position on the war. They’ll expect us to vote for them without conceding any of our demands.</p>
<p>JOSHUA FRANK is the author of the brand new book, Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, which has just been published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at <a href="http://www.brickburner.org/" type="external">www.brickburner.org</a>. Joshua can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Nancy Pelosi’s Truth | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/12/21/nancy-pelosi-s-truth/ | 2005-12-21 | 4 |
<p>The trial of Luis Posada Carriles in El Paso stands now al filo del agua—on the eve of a major storm. I’m not talking about an Arctic storm like the one that hit this border town last week, causing power outages and even problems with our potable water, due to the record-breaking cold—minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The storm that will probably arrive tomorrow in El Paso is of another nature.</p>
<p>The great Mexican writer, Agustín Yáñez, said “al filo del agua is a campesino expression, meaning the immediate moments before the rains.” In a figurative sense, it means the coming of a major storm.</p>
<p>Tuesday</p>
<p>This Tuesday we get to the heart of the matter: the evidence and testimony related to the campaign of terror that set off bombs in a number of hotels and restaurants in Cuba in 1997. One of these killed an Italian businessman, Fabio Di Celmo, in Havana on September 4, 1997 at the Copacabana Hotel.</p>
<p>Up to now, the case has involved only the immigration infractions of Luis Posada Carriles’ illegal entry into the United States. The prosecution alleges that he arrived on the Santrina, a converted shrimp boat, and disembarked in Miami. Whereas the defendant says that a smuggler drove him into the country in a blue pickup truck that crossed the Mexican/U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas. No one doubts that he entered illegally, but the prosecution maintains that Posada lied to protect his coconspirators aboard the Santrina. It’s a very serious felony to smuggle a terrorist into the United States. Punishment could include up to 30 years in prison. We also heard testimony and looked at evidence of Posada Carriles’ use of false names, including one that appears next to his photograph in a Guatemalan passport.</p>
<p>The Cuban witnesses</p>
<p>As the case moves towards its dénouement, we turn to the next chapter. Already in El Paso and prepared to testify, are three Cuban experts who investigated these crimes in 1997:</p>
<p>1. Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Hernández Caballero, the only Cuban witness in the case of the Cuban Five in Miami in 2000/2001.</p>
<p>2. Major Misael Fonte, from the Central Crime Lab in Havana, with 18 years of experience as an expert there.</p>
<p>3. Dr. Ileana Vizcáino Dime, the medical forensic pathologist who examined the body of Fabio Di Celmo and found that the cause of death was a piece of shrapnel hurled from an explosive device that slashed his jugular vein.</p>
<p>But the United States is not accusing Posada Carriles of terrorism or murder. He stands indicted only for making false statements to U.S. Immigration authorities and committing perjury. However, much of Posada’s mendacity, under oath, is closely related to the bombs that were placed in Havana’s hotels in 1997 and to the murder of Fabio Di Celmo.</p>
<p>Three weeks ago, a jury in El Paso listened to a recording and clearly heard Posada Carriles tell an immigration judge in 2005 that he was not involved with the bombs that exploded in Havana in 1997, nor had he sent anyone with explosives from Central America to Cuba in that year.</p>
<p>Now the jury will hear that there was indeed a terrorist campaign that shook Havana 14 years ago.</p>
<p>Cuba delivered four files of information containing samples of the materials used for the explosives, videos with statements from eyewitnesses and from those arrested and transcripts of telephone conversations of those who perpetrated the terrorist acts. Cuban law enforcement officials taped some of these conversations.</p>
<p>Hernández: “The source is rotten”</p>
<p>What is Posada Carriles’ attorney’s strategy for confronting the testimony from the Cubans? In an interview that Posada Carriles’ attorney gave Channel 41 in Miami two months ago, Arturo Hernández outlined his opposition to the witnesses and to the Cuban evidence. “The problem is that the government’s proof comes from Cuba, and since the source is rotten, the evidence is rotten,” he said.</p>
<p>Judge Kathleen Cardone has prohibited the attorneys from giving interviews to the press while the case is being litigated. On August 25, 2009, Judge Cardone told the lawyers, including Hernández, that they must not make statements to the press that might influence the jury. This restriction was also placed upon Posada Carriles.</p>
<p>Hernández’s statements on Channel 41 caused a brief stir in court last week, when prosecution attorney Teresinski complained that Hernández had given an interview to that television station. Hernández told Judge Cardone that he’d only gone on the program to raise funds for the costs of litigating the case.</p>
<p>The video reveals that in an interview that lasted 11 minutes and 55 seconds, Hernández dedicated only a minute and a half to soliciting money. The rest of the interview is a frontal attack on the Cuban witnesses and evidence.</p>
<p>For example, in reference to the Cuban witnesses and without first listening to their testimony, Hernández already prejudged it. “There cannot be any truthful testimony while these individuals [the witnesses] are in the claws of the dictatorship of Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro…[In Cuba] there’s no truth. There, only the dictator’s truth exists. No statement that might come from Cuba is worth anything at all, in my opinion,” he said to the Channel 41 reporter.</p>
<p>It’s obvious that Hernández will brand the Cuban witnesses as nothing more than puppets of the Cuban government, as well as liars. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear him say that they are spies. Miami Cubans love to go down that road.</p>
<p>Thomas B. Wilner, an attorney with the law firm of Shearman &amp; Sterling in Washington, DC, told me that the statements Hernandez made on Miami television are a possible violation of the rules of conduct that Judge Cardone imposed on the attorneys. “What Hernández said in that interview was designed to undercut the testimony, the evidence and the verdict,” said Wilner. “The prosecutor ought to raise this with the judge and tell her the details of what he said on Miami television,” he concluded.</p>
<p>During the interview with Channel 41, Hernández said, “I admire [Posada Carriles] as a Cuban patriot.” He did not explain why he admires him. The U.S. filmmaker Saul Landau commented, “if Posada has done nothing, why is he so admired and why do they pay him so much homage in Miami?”</p>
<p>The battle over the passport: Act Two</p>
<p>As a prelude to the gathering storm, today’s session began with motions from the prosecutors and the defense attorneys. Posada Carriles’ attorney, Rhonda Anderson, asked Judge Cardone to reconsider her decision last Friday to admit the Guatemalan report as evidence. This report also includes a copy of the Guatemalan passport with the photo of Posada Carriles, but under the name of Manuel Enrique Castillo López.</p>
<p>The prosecutors also moved for reconsideration. They argued that the judge should accept the original Guatemalan passport into evidence, since she had already accepted the copy as evidence.</p>
<p>Judge Cardone rejected the motions from both sides in less than two minutes and convened the jury.</p>
<p>ICE official: “I never searched the Santrina”</p>
<p>Attorney Arturo Hernández cross-examined Steven Usscher, an investigator from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who also testified on Friday. He managed to get Usscher to tell the jury that he had never carried out an inspection of the Santrina to find evidence that Posada Carriles had been on the boat. He said that he has no photographs or other evidence of the presence of Posada Carriles aboard the boat. Usscher, however, was not assigned to the case until a year after the Santrina is alleged to have brought Posada to Miami.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Reardon</p>
<p>The prosecutor, Timothy J. Reardon, then called the next witness, James Patterson, of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office in El Paso. Despite heading up the government’s legal team, Reardon has until now allowed his colleagues Jerome Teresinski and Bridget Behling to conduct most of the direct examination.</p>
<p>Reardon exudes personal presence. He dresses with elegance in pinstriped suits, starched white shirts, colorful ties and a white handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket. As the famous tango says, las nieves del tiempo blanquearon su sien, “the snows of time whitened his temples.” He is eloquent yet knows how to get directly to the point.</p>
<p>When the members of the jury realized that he would be in charge of Patterson’s questioning, they took notice, sat up straighter, took out their notebooks and pencils and readied themselves to take notes.</p>
<p>But they had to wait a bit for the direct examination to begin. The defense attorney, Felipe Millán objected to Patterson’s testimony. “It’s cumulative testimony,” said Millán. “Patterson has nothing to do with the Posada case. “Officer Bolaños already testified on the same points. She was the person who interviewed Posada in 2006 in relation to his naturalization application,” he told the judge.</p>
<p>“No,” said Reardon. “Mr. Patterson will testify to complete the record.” Reardon argued “the defense´s cross-examination of Bolaños insinuated that the naturalization interview was an attempt to entrap Posada.” Patterson, he said, “destroys the myth that there was a government conspiracy against Posada.”</p>
<p>The judge overruled Millán’s objection and asked Reardon to begin his direct examination of Patterson.</p>
<p>Patterson did not testify about anything of substance. He said he has almost 13 years of experience and has performed some five or six thousand interviews in naturalization cases. Patterson said that “naturalization officers are obligated to interview each applicant personally in order to determine whether they are eligible,” thus debunking the defense theory that the interview had been a pretext for entrapment. Hearing what he wanted to hear, the prosecutor concluded his direct examination.</p>
<p>The expressions on the faces of the jury members showed their disappointment. They had wanted to hear something substantive: important evidence. They were frustrated that the witness was only called to establish the bureaucratic procedures at USCIS.</p>
<p>The jurors don’t realize it yet, but tomorrow they will hear substantive testimony. Although it has not been announced, I am sure that the person who will examine the Cuban witnesses will be Reardon. It’s a question of the importance of the testimony but also one of protocol. The witnesses are here at the special invitation of the government of the United States, and it is logical that lead counsel will conduct the direct examination.</p>
<p>Historic collaboration</p>
<p>When in 1998, Cuba gave the United States evidence regarding terrorist acts on the island, Washington used it to jail the Cuban Five. None of the terrorists was prosecuted or arrested. It would appear that a new paradigm of collaboration between the two nations is at work here.</p>
<p>Posada Carriles’ attorney commented to Channel 41 in December that “it’s scandalous that the government of the United States is collaborating in this unprecedented way with the Cuban government.” Among certain extremist sectors in Miami that collaboration may be seen as a scandal, but it is important and historic.</p>
<p>For the first time, the United States is showing a willingness to establish before a federal court that Posada Carriles directed a terror campaign against Cubans with the financing of certain terrorist groups in Miami and New Jersey. It’s true, until now he has only been indicted for lying, but beginning tomorrow, there is much, much more at stake in El Paso.</p>
<p>José Pertierra&#160;practices law in Washington, DC. He represents the government of Venezuela in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles.</p>
<p>Translated by Machetera and Manuel Talens. They are members of <a href="http://www.tlaxcala.es/entree.asp?lg=en" type="external">Tlaxcala</a>, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity.</p>
<p>Spanish language version: <a href="" type="internal">http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2011/02/05/el-diario-del-paso-la-batalla-del-pasaporte/</a></p>
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<p /> | The Gathering Storm | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/11/the-gathering-storm-2/ | 2011-02-11 | 4 |
<p>You'd never think a book about chopping and burning wood would turn into a runaway bestseller, but Lars Mytting's "Norwegian Wood" is a publishing sensation in Scandinavia. Lars gathers the collected wisdom on everything from how to build a smokeless fire to the art of choosing a husband based on his wood pile.</p> | How to Chop, Stack and Burn Wood | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-01-31/how-chop-stack-and-burn-wood | 2016-01-31 | 3 |
<p>Merck &amp; Co. Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier is the latest CEO to quit advising the Trump administration in protest. "Merck CEO Quits Trump Advisory Council After Charlottesville Violence," at 9:29 a.m. ET, incorrectly stated he was the second CEO to do so in the eighth paragraph. (Aug. 14, 2017)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>August 14, 2017 10:06 ET (14:06 GMT)</p> | Correction to Merck CEO Article | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/14/correction-to-merck-ceo-article.html | 2017-08-14 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/D.jpg" type="external" />Former soldiers from Britain and the US stood alongside other heroes as they recalled the harrowing day Many were seen saluting at gravestones of their friends while others wiped tears from their eyes during speeches Harold Baumgarten, 89, from Jacksonville, Florida, was wounded five times in his career, three [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650699/They-paid-price-They-heroes-D-Day-veterans-honour-men-saw-die-beaches-Normandy.html" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.dailymail.co.uk</a></p>
<p /> | D-Day Vets: 'I look at that beach and I can tell you where each was lying' | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/i-look-at-that-beach-and-i-can-tell-you-where-each-was-lying-i-can-still-see-their-facestears-of-d-day-veterans-as-they-return-to-normandy-to-honour-their-fallen-comrades/ | 0 |
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<p>Obama Says No to Bush Tax Cut Extension:</p>
<p>To anyone wondering whether President Obama will support extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy because of increased Democratic support for them, here’s your crystal clear answer: no. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that Obama will not extend the tax cuts. Said Carney: “He will not. Could I be more clear? He will not support an extension of the upper-income Bush tax cuts. He could not be more clear.” Got it? ( <a href="http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/06/obama-will-not-extend-tax-cuts-wh-says-125441.html" type="external">Read more</a>)</p>
<p>What Wisconsin Exit Polls Showed: Perhaps the most interesting data from the exit polls coming out of Tuesday’s election in the Badger State is that President Obama leads his Republican challenger Mitt Romney there by seven points. This despite the fact that Republican Gov. Scott Walker handily defeated Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. One caution about the findings: The exit polls do not reflect voters who cast their ballots by mail, and it is estimated that 10 to 12 percent of the votes were absentee. ( <a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/05/12073187-exit-poll-obama-bests-romney-in-wisconsin-by-7-points?lite" type="external">Read more</a>)</p>
<p>How California’s Open Primary Could Shake Up the House: While all eyes were on Wisconsin, Tuesday’s primary in California could actually end up having more repercussions on the national stage. Because of the open primary system, many of the runoffs in November will be between two candidates of the same party. As a result, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes California could deliver five of the 25 seats Democrats need to take back control of the House of Representatives next year. ( <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-map-new-rules-shake-up-california-primaries/2012/06/05/gJQAjJvEHV_story.html" type="external">Read more</a>)</p>
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<p>Lawmakers Concerned About Reported LinkedIn Hack: On the heels of LinkedIn’s announcement Wednesday that it was investigating a significant data breach to its site, a pair of lawmakers used the incident to highlight the need to take action on data security legislation. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Mary Bono-Mack, R-Calif., who have separately sponsored legislation on the issue, urged Congress to act. Hackers reportedly obtained 6.5 million passwords from the professional networking site. ( <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/231265-lawmakers-worry-as-linkedin-investigates-data-breach" type="external">Read more</a>)</p>
<p>Romney Email Hacked?: It appears someone hacked into Mitt Romney’s personal Hotmail account, or at least that’s what the alleged hacker claimed to the website <a href="http://gawker.com/5915964/well-it-looks-like-someone-hacked-into-mitt-romneys-private-email" type="external">Gawker</a>. The tipster offered no evidence or screenshots to support his claim, but the incident is under investigation by the Secret Service nonetheless. ( <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/06/secret-service-investigating-romney-email-hacking/" type="external">Read more</a>)</p>
<p>Video of the Day: As if losing the Wisconsin recall election to Scott Walker was not bad enough, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was slapped in the face by an angry woman. The video below proves this actually happened (at the 0:02 second mark).</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Tracy Bloom</a></p>
<p /> | Wisconsin Exit Poll Surprise, Romney Email Hack and More | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/wisconsin-exit-poll-surprise-romney-email-hack-and-more/ | 2012-06-07 | 4 |
<p>PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A 25-year-old inmate at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail has died while being treated at a hospital.</p>
<p>Jail officials tell local media Tameka Simpson of Norfolk died Wednesday morning at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth.</p>
<p>Jail spokeswoman Zakkiyya Anderson tells the Virginian-Pilot Simpson was taken to the jail with pre-existing medical conditions last July. Anderson says the regional jail often receives transfer inmates from local jails who have a mental illness or acute medical issues.</p>
<p>Citing confidentiality laws, jail officials say they can’t release any details on the conditions.</p>
<p>The medical examiner will determine Simpson’s cause of death. Portsmouth police are investigating.</p>
<p>PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A 25-year-old inmate at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail has died while being treated at a hospital.</p>
<p>Jail officials tell local media Tameka Simpson of Norfolk died Wednesday morning at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth.</p>
<p>Jail spokeswoman Zakkiyya Anderson tells the Virginian-Pilot Simpson was taken to the jail with pre-existing medical conditions last July. Anderson says the regional jail often receives transfer inmates from local jails who have a mental illness or acute medical issues.</p>
<p>Citing confidentiality laws, jail officials say they can’t release any details on the conditions.</p>
<p>The medical examiner will determine Simpson’s cause of death. Portsmouth police are investigating.</p> | Portsmouth jail inmate, 25, dies at hospital | false | https://apnews.com/7ec42faffb3d4b53ba4a2b3ec95f2220 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un's regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from Pyongyang underlines the regime's anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions.</p>
<p>"Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union," DPRK Today, a state-run outlet reported Sunday.</p>
<p>"If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an inter-continental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes," the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il.</p>
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<p>North Korea's newly developed hydrogen bomb "surpasses our imagination," Cho said, because it is many times as powerful as anything the Soviet Union had.</p>
<p>"The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away," the report continued.</p>
<p>Kim in January ordered North Korea's fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those caused by the North's three previous tests.</p>
<p>In February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a rocket that put a satellite into orbit but that is widely considered part of a long-range ballistic missile program.</p>
<p>North Korea has made advances in its inter-continental ballistic missile program, and experts generally conclude that the United States? West Coast might be in reach but that there has been no suggestion that the North could hit the East Coast.</p>
<p>Many experts are also skeptical of the "miniaturized warhead" Kim showed off last week, saying it doesn't look right.</p>
<p>But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, warned against dismissing it too soon.</p>
<p>"It does not look like U.S. devices, to be sure, but it is hard to know if aspects of the model are truly implausible or simply that North Korean nuclear weapons look different than their Soviet and American cousins," Lewis wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. "The size, however, is consistent with my expectations for North Korea."</p>
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<p /> | N. Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan | false | https://abqjournal.com/739887/n-korea-claims-it-could-wipe-out-manhattan.html | 2 |
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<p>While the Republican Party’s religious conservatives continue to fight against same-sex marriage, its governors appear to be backing off their opposition – in their rhetoric, at least.</p>
<p>For some, the shift may be more a matter of tone than substance as the GOP tries to attract new voters ahead of the midterm elections. Nonetheless, it is dramatic turn for a party that has long been defined by social conservative values.</p>
<p>“I don’t think the Republican Party is fighting it,” Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker said of gay marriage. He spoke with The Associated Press during an interview this weekend at the National Governors Association in Nashville.</p>
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<p>“I’m not saying it’s not important,” continued Walker, who is considering a 2016 presidential bid should he survive his re-election test this fall. “But Republicans haven’t been talking about this. We’ve been talking about economic and fiscal issues. It’s those on the left that are pushing it.”</p>
<p>Walker, like other ambitious Republican governors, is trying to strike a delicate balance.</p>
<p>His comments come just days after he formally appealed a ruling striking down Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriages, a ban he supported.</p>
<p>But after his party’s disastrous 2012 election, the Republican National Committee commissioned a report calling for more “inclusive and welcoming” tones on divisive social issues – particularly those “involving the treatment and the rights of gays.”</p>
<p>Walker explained his appeal as simply his obligation as governor to defend the state’s constitution. Other Republican governors, including New Jersey’s Chris Christie, opted against appealing a similar ruling, clearing the way for gay marriage to become legal in their states.</p>
<p>A Gallup poll found in May that national support for same-sex marriage reached an all-time high of 55 percent. That includes 30 percent of Republicans and nearly 8 in 10 young adults from both parties.</p>
<p>Courts repeatedly have struck down gay marriage bans in recent months. The latest ruling came Wednesday in Colorado, but is on hold pending an appeal. At least 20 states now allow gay marriage, although the issue may be headed for the Supreme Court.</p>
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<p /> | GOP governors’ words shift on gay marriage | false | https://abqjournal.com/428596/gop-governors-words-shift-on-gay-marriage.html | 2 |
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<p>ISIS fighters have seized control of around one-third of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>NBC News was not able to independently confirm the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' reports of ISIS' advance.</p>
<p>Palmyra is home to <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/23" type="external">a UNESCO world heritage site</a> and is famous for its 2,000-year-old ruins, including a Roman aqueduct and necropolises. Syria's antiquities chief said on Saturday that the militants would destroy the ancient ruins if they took control of the city.</p>
<p>The monitoring group said that clashes between ISIS fighters and Syrian government forces were ongoing Wednesday. Airstrikes were launched on ISIS positions and casualties were reported on both sides, it said.</p>
<p>Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s director general of Antiquities and Museums, warned on Saturday that if ISIS took control of Palmyra it could lead to a "real disaster towards Syria's history and wipe out its glorious past."</p>
<p>He also drew attention to a U.N. resolution passed in February that condemned the "destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria" by ISIS fighters and other militants.</p>
<p>"We will win this battle targeting our existence, history and civilization," he said. "We will spare neither efforts, knowledge nor intentions to protect and safeguard our cultural heritage."</p>
<p /> | Palmyra UNESCO Site Threatened as ISIS Seizes Part Control of Syrian City | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/palmyra-unesco-site-threatened-isis-seizes-part-control-syrian-city-n361856 | 2015-05-20 | 3 |
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<p>Slightly more Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, but the overall levels still remain near historic lows in a positive sign for the job market.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>THE NUMBERS: Applications for jobless aid rose 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000, matching its four-week moving average, the Labor Department said Thursday. The number of people collecting unemployment checks has fallen 4.4 percent from a year ago to 2.16 million.</p>
<p>Weekly requests for jobless benefits have stayed below the threshold of 300,000 for 78 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1970. This indicates that employers are holding onto their workers in the belief that the broader U.S. economy will continue to grow.</p>
<p>THE TAKEAWAY: The job market appears to be on firm footing, because jobless claims are often viewed as a proxy of layoffs. The modest level indicates that many employers view their businesses as stable or expanding, an outlook that would lead to additional hiring as the economy continues its seventh year recovering the Great Recession.</p>
<p>With fewer workers seeking unemployment benefits, the government's employment report being released Friday is expected to show solid hiring levels in August. A survey of economists has estimated that employers added 180,000 jobs last month with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.8 percent, according to data provider FactSet.</p>
<p>KEY DRIVERS: Job growth has remained relatively healthy, despite weak economic growth in the first half of 2016.</p>
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<p>Employers added 255,000 jobs in July and 292,000 in June as the unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent.</p>
<p>The economy expanded at an annual pace of 1.1 percent from April through June after growing a mere 0.8 percent in the first quarter. Many economists say that growth should accelerate in the second half of the year.</p>
<p>Still, the divide between hiring and growth is potentially worrisome. It indicates that the economy is becoming less productive, as measured by the output for each hour worked. Over the past 12 months ended in June, labor productivity has fallen 0.4 percent, according to a separate government report released Thursday.</p>
<p>Falling productivity means that employers must hire more workers to sustain growth, but it also can stifle wage growth since workers are generating less value for each hour on the job.</p> | Weekly requests for US jobless aid rise but still near lows | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/01/weekly-requests-for-us-jobless-aid-rise-but-still-near-lows.html | 2016-09-01 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/cnn/" type="external">CNN</a> has fired senior producer <a href="http://variety.com/t/teddy-davis/" type="external">Teddy Davis</a> following complaints from co-workers about inappropriate behavior.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/cnn-van-jones-show-1202623553/" type="external">CNN</a> confirmed in a statement that Davis had been let go. “A comprehensive investigation was conducted as soon as this matter was brought to our attention,” CNN said in a statement. “The behavior attributed to Mr. Davis does not align with the standards and values of CNN and Mr. Davis is no longer with the company.”</p>
<p>Specifics surrounding Davis’ departure were unclear. A source said some co-workers said Davis made them uncomfortable at times but he was not accused of any physical acts of harassment. CNN declined to elaborate. Davis was not immediately available for comment.</p>
<p>Davis, who joined CNN in 2015, worked primarily on the Sunday morning public affairs program “State of the Union” hosted by Jake Tapper. He previously served as deputy director of political coverage for ABC News.</p>
<p>News of Davis’ departure came the same day the TV news world was rocked by the firing of Matt Lauer, longtime co-anchor of NBC’s “Today” following allegations of <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/matt-lauer-accused-sexual-harassment-multiple-women-1202625959/" type="external">sexual harassment and assault from multiple women.&#160;</a></p>
<p /> | CNN Fires ‘State of the Union’ Producer After Complaints From Co-Workers | false | https://newsline.com/cnn-fires-state-of-the-union-producer-after-complaints-from-co-workers/ | 2017-11-29 | 1 |
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<p>Gov. Susana Martinez visited Rio Rancho on Monday to formally announce funding for two water projects that were on the council-approved list of city capital outlay priorities.</p>
<p>They were also included in the governor's list for high priority water projects.</p>
<p>Martinez praised Rio Rancho councilors and legislators for prioritizing&#160; water projects to enhance the city's infrastructure in ways that can help bring new businesses to the city. "Water is one of those critical pieces of infrastructure," Martinez told those gathered to hear her at the Cabezon Water Reclamation Facility at 2300 Westside Blvd.</p>
<p>"We just finished our Legislative Session and water was one of the key initiatives," Martinez said adding that she asked the Legislature to put $111 million toward water projects identified throughout the state.</p>
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<p>Rio Rancho was awarded $1.4 million for replacing aging plastic water service lines with copper. Lines throughout the city are failing, causing nearly 900 leaks annually leading to the the loss of millions of gallons of water.</p>
<p>"The new lines will ensure not only that quality drinking water will be delivered to residents and businesses in this city but will also help conserve the precious water," the governor said.</p>
<p>Another $100,000 will go for preliminary engineering and hydro-geological investigations for a new well to replace a failing well on the west side of the city.</p> | Governor announces funding for RR water project | false | https://abqjournal.com/373702/governor-announces-funding-for-rr-water-project.html | 2 |
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<p>BRUSSELS (AP) — France is welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump's decision not to pull out of the agreement limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions despite his demands to change the key international pact.</p>
<p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that "we have observed with interest that President Trump has not broken the agreement, even if, on the other hand, he has made a certain number of demands that at times seem like ultimatums."</p>
<p>Le Drian underlined France's support for the agreement, saying it is an "essential element in the fight against proliferation" of nuclear weapons. The European Union has previously said it cannot be renegotiated.</p>
<p>The 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.</p>
<p>BRUSSELS (AP) — France is welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump's decision not to pull out of the agreement limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions despite his demands to change the key international pact.</p>
<p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that "we have observed with interest that President Trump has not broken the agreement, even if, on the other hand, he has made a certain number of demands that at times seem like ultimatums."</p>
<p>Le Drian underlined France's support for the agreement, saying it is an "essential element in the fight against proliferation" of nuclear weapons. The European Union has previously said it cannot be renegotiated.</p>
<p>The 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.</p> | France welcomes Trump decision to stay in Iran nuclear pact | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e8c15bb6b1f14e7f8172be1230345f74 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>John Bolton <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/world/05boltoncnd.html?hp&amp;ex=1165294800&amp;en=0e5a81b1f6309575&amp;ei=5094&amp;partner=homepage" type="external">will resign</a> as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.</p>
<p>Amongst John Bolton’s many crimes is his forced ouster of Jose Bustani, the former director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a U.N. organ with a role in hunting and regulating WMD in Iraq. Before the war, Bustani advocated solving the perceived Iraq WMD problem through means other than violence; in response, the U.S., led by John Bolton, forced a vote to oust Bustani on trumped-up charges, failed, then threatened to cut funding to the OPCW if it did not have its way, forced another vote, and prevailed. (You can read more about Bustani, and get a full sourcing for his story, by searching “Bustani” at the <a href="/bush_war_timeline/" type="external">Mother Jones Iraq War Timeline</a>. After losing his job, Bustani reflected on the saga with <a href="/news/feature/2002/06/bustani_profile.html?welcome=true" type="external">Mother Jones</a>.) The U.N. would later rule that Bustani was <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0722-07.htm" type="external">wrongfully dismissed</a> and award him damages.</p>
<p>Looking for something more recent? According to <a href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002070.php" type="external">TPM Muckraker</a>, Bolton’s last move as U.N. ambassador was to reject a proposal commemorating the 200th anniversary of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.</p>
<p>So, yeah, good riddance.</p>
<p>Recently, Foreign Policy put together a <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3639" type="external">list</a> of Bolton’s most likely replacements. Included are Jim Leach, Republican congressman from Iowa who just lost a reelection bid, Zalmay Khalilzad, ambassador to Iraq and second-tier architect of the Iraq War, and Lincoln Chafee, poor schmo.</p>
<p /> | John Bolton Will No Longer Hamper Worldwide Diplomacy | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/12/john-bolton-will-no-longer-hamper-worldwide-diplomacy/ | 2006-12-04 | 4 |
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<p>Subway says lab tests it commissioned show its chicken had only trace amounts of soy.</p>
<p>That comes after a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. show reported that tests showed only about half the DNA from Subway chicken samples was from chicken. The rest was mostly from soy.</p>
<p>After calling the report “false and misleading,” Subway followed up by saying it sent chicken to two labs and the results from both found soy protein to be less than 1 percent of the samples.</p>
<p>It said it performed different types of tests than the one done by the CBC. Subway says one test for the presence or absence of a species showed that the protein was chicken, and a second determined the amount of soy content.</p>
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<p>The CBC stood by its report, saying it tested multiple Subway chicken samples from various locations in southern Ontario. It said the tests were done by independent and credible experts, and that “Subway has yet to provide any explanation for the DNA test results obtained by CBC.”</p>
<p>The CBC said that DNA tests don’t reveal the exact amount of chicken in a product, but are a good indicator of its proportion of animal DNA. It also noted that it had reached out to Subway in early February, but that the company “chose not to provide answers beyond saying that the results were ‘false’.”</p>
<p>Subway says soy is an ingredient it uses in the marinade and seasoning for its chicken.</p> | Subway: Tests show only ‘trace’ soy in chicken | false | https://abqjournal.com/960639/subway-tests-show-only-trace-soy-in-chicken.html | 2017-03-02 | 2 |
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<p>Is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/03/joe-the-economist/" type="external">this</a> what we’ve come to? Republicans lawmakers listen to conservative experts and Democratic lawmakers listen to liberal experts, and because everyone listens to people who will tell them what they want to hear the idea of expertise is rendered meaningless, thus opening the door for <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18324.html" type="external">Joe the freaking Plumber to advise the Conservative Working Group in Congress</a> on how to proceed on the stimulus bill.</p>
<p>This isn’t a single, random, insanely silly moment. This is a sign that something is deeply wrong with the way we make policy in this country. It shouldn’t make you laugh. It should make you cry. (Okay, maybe laugh and cry.)</p>
<p /> | Joe the Plumber Creates a Crisis of Confidence | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/02/joe-plumber-creates-crisis-confidence/ | 2009-02-03 | 4 |
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Social media companies Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube have accelerated removals of online hate speech in the face of a potential European Union crackdown.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man reads tweets on his phone in front of a displayed Twitter logo in Bordeaux, southwestern France, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/Illustration/File Photo
<p>The EU has gone as far as to threaten social media companies with new legislation unless they increase efforts to fight the proliferation of extremist content and hate speech on their platforms.</p>
<p>Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube signed a code of conduct with the EU in May 2016 to review most complaints within a 24-hour timeframe. Instagram and Google+ will also sign up to the code, the European Commission said.</p>
<p>The companies managed to review complaints within a day in 81 percent of cases during monitoring of a six-week period towards the end of last year, EU figures released on Friday show, compared with 51 percent in May 2017 when the Commission last examined compliance with the code of conduct.</p>
<p>On average, the companies removed 70 percent of the content flagged to them, up from 59.2 percent in May last year.</p>
<p>EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova has said that she does not want to see a 100 percent removal rate because that could impinge on free speech.</p>
<p>She has also said she is not in favor of legislating as Germany has done. A law providing for fines of up to 50 million euros ($61.4 million) for social media companies that do not remove hate speech quickly enough went into force in Germany this year.</p>
<p>Jourova said the results unveiled on Friday made it less likely that she would push for legislation on the removal of illegal hate speech.</p> ‘NO FREE PASS’
<p>“The fact that our collaborative approach on illegal hate speech brings good results does not mean I want to give a free pass to the tech giants,” she told a news conference.</p>
<p>Facebook reviewed complaints in less than 24 hours in 89.3 percent of cases, YouTube in 62.7 percent of cases and Twitter in 80.2 percent of cases.</p>
<p>“These latest results and the success of the code of conduct are further evidence that the Commission’s current self-regulatory approach is effective and the correct path forward.” said Stephen Turner, Twitter’s head of public policy.</p>
<p>Of the hate speech flagged to the companies, almost half of it was found on Facebook, the figures show, while 24 percent was on YouTube and 26 percent on Twitter.</p>
<p>The most common ground for hatred identified by the Commission was ethnic origin, followed by anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees.</p>
<p>Pressure from several European governments has prompted social media companies to step up efforts to tackle extremist online content, including through the use of artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>YouTube said it was training machine learning models to flag hateful content at scale.</p>
<p>“Over the last two years we’ve consistently improved our review and action times for this type of content on YouTube, showing that our policies and processes are effective, and getting better over time,” said Nicklas Lundblad, Google’s vice president of public policy in EMEA.</p>
<p>“We’ve learned valuable lessons from the process, but there is still more we can do.”</p>
<p>The Commission is likely to issue a recommendation at the end of February on how companies should take down extremist content related to militant groups, an EU official said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Grant McCool and David Goodman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When China closed its local cryptocurrency exchanges late last year, an underground ecosystem of bitcoin “mules” and peer-to-peer platforms sprung up to allow bitcoin trading to thrive, away from regulators’ watchful eyes.</p> A woman using her mobile phone is reflected on an electric board showing exchange rates of various cryptocurrencies at Bithumb cryptocurrencies exchange in Seoul, South Korea, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
<p>Li, a Canada-based Chinese banker in his 20s, is one of these underground traders. He buys cryptocurrencies in other markets and sells them at a premium to investors in China, who cannot otherwise get them.</p>
<p>At the height of the frenzied demand for bitcoins in January, when prices of the digital currency were hovering close to $20,000 after a 20-fold jump during 2017, Li and other traders were able to sell bitcoins in China for 30 to 40 percent more than they cost elsewhere.</p>
<p>But in a matter of months, the premium for bitcoins in China has fallen to around 7 percent or less as a flood of bitcoin mules, who physically carry cash across borders for the trades, has swamped the arbitrage business. Cryptocurrency funds and individual computer-assisted traders have also piled into the market.</p>
<p>The boom has eaten away the spreads and shown how fast the galloping cryptocurrency markets can change course.</p>
<p>“The market’s kind of taken a downturn; there is less general appetite in this space,” said John DeCleene, an assistant fund manager running the fintech and cryptocurrency investments at Overseas Chinese Investment Management.</p>
<p>“It is too many players entering this market, but also less of the hype we saw in December-January, when people were paying a 30 percent premium because they expected 10 times gains overnight.”</p>
<p>DeCleene launched a $5 million Singapore-based global fund in November to invest in cryptocurrencies, blockchain-related equities and some exploratory arbitrage trading. He said it has generated a 58 percent return so far.</p> BITCOIN MULES
<p>Bitcoin arbitrage thrived last year as the cryptocurrency grew more volatile and some governments stepped in with rules to curtail trading.</p>
<p>The simplest geographical arbitrage involved buying bitcoin in unregulated markets such as Thailand, or ones that have legalised bitcoin trading such as Japan, and selling them in banned markets such as South Korea, China or India.</p>
<p>A second form occurred between exchanges, when nimble-footed traders bought cryptocurrencies cheaply on lesser-known exchanges and sold them for a profit on more liquid and widely used platforms.</p>
<p>There were huge price differences to exploit.</p>
<p>In early January, when the price of bitcoin was $17,600 on Bitstamp, the Luxembourg-based digital currency exchange, it was being quoted at 25 million won ($23,630) in South Korea, implying a 34 percent “kimchi premium”.</p>
<p>As China’s ban expanded from an initial prohibition on issuing new cryptocurrency to a shutdown of exchanges, premiums rose and traders quickly found new ways of doing business.</p>
<p>At first, it was limited to closed groups on the popular messaging platform WeChat and meetings at bars, where potential bitcoin buyers could meet sellers.</p>
<p>Then peer-to-peer platforms such as CoinCola, websites belonging to former Chinese exchanges Huobi and OKCoin, and even the retail platform Taobao became hubs for “over-the-counter” (OTC) cryptocurrency trading, conducted outside of formal exchanges and far more difficult for regulators to police.</p>
<p>“The big Chinese traders are all using CoinCola or going direct to each other through other OTC platforms,” like WeChat or AliPay, said Christian Grewell, a professor of business and interactive media arts at NYU in Shanghai who has lectured extensively on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.</p>
<p>AliPay is China’s leading online payment platform.</p>
<p>Another option, bank transfers between buyers and sellers, is “almost untraceable”, Grewell added, as it is difficult to prove that a transfer is related to a cryptocurrency transaction.</p>
<p>A trader in her 20s in Shanghai said she buys bitcoins in the United States to sell over the counter in China. On each trip to the U.S., she illegally carries $30,000 to $40,000 in cash, she added.</p>
<p>“Selling and buying bitcoins on those OTC websites is the same as shopping on Taobao,” said the trader.</p> BIG COMPETITION
<p>Hedge funds that can execute arbitrage trades quickly and at a fraction of the cost are squeezing individual traders, said Ramani Ramachandran, the chief executive of digital exchange Zenprivex.</p>
<p>Peter Kim of KIT Trading, part of Vulpes Investment Management, manages a $10 million cryptocurrency arbitrage operation.</p>
<p>“In the beginning, when there is 30 percent arbitrage, obviously you can travel to Thailand, buy bitcoins, send them to China, Japan, Korea and sell them. That’s easy,” said Kim, who was formerly an options arbitrage trader.</p>
<p>“But that opportunity is not going to last very long. And even though it is not as blatantly there, there are still many ways to profit from it, especially for someone like me who is used to making 3 basis points on a trade,” he added.</p>
<p>The arbitrage funds operate much like retail traders, buying and selling cryptocurrencies simultaneously on two different platforms, but on a much larger scale. That allows them to profit from smaller spreads.</p>
<p>Some retail traders, including Li, have turned to lesser-known cryptocurrencies such as Tether, which bills itself as being pegged to the U.S. dollar.</p>
<p>Tether is popular with Chinese seeking to move their cash discreetly overseas, as it is not volatile. That demand means it trades at a 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent premium in China, although the number was as high as 10 percent in January.</p>
<p>Li said his arbitrage activity nets him about $18,000 a month on a trading volume of about half a million dollars.</p>
<p>Although that is a tidy sum, it is far less than what frantic traders made late last year.</p>
<p>“The easy arbitrage is going to be much less prevalent now than it used to be,” Kim said.</p>
<p>Reporting and writing by Vidya Ranganathan; Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Gerry Doyle</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc rose as much as 4.2 percent on Thursday after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the social network had not seen any meaningful impact on usage or ad sales in the wake of a data privacy scandal.</p>
<p>The company’s shares have sunk 16 percent, wiping more than $80 billion from its market value since March 16, when the New York Times and London’s Observer newspaper broke news of the use of its data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>Some investors see the chaos as a chance to snap up shares in a service for which there is scarce alternative, despite rising public scrutiny and the prospect of a grilling from U.S. legislators when Zuckerberg testifies before Congress next week.</p>
<p>Canada’s province of British Columbia and Canada’s federal government combined investigations on Thursday, saying they had launched a joint probe into Facebook and Canadian data firm AggregateIQ, while Australian authorities said they were exploring whether the social media company had breached user privacy laws.</p>
<p>The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, with nearly $1 billion in Facebook stock as of last year, on Thursday also said it would question the company about privacy protections.</p>
<p>Despite the probes and celebrities including singer Cher, actor Will Ferrell and Tesla Chief Elon Musk deleting their accounts, Facebook’s social app downloads improved on a monthly basis both in the United States and globally, according to Evercore ISI.</p>
<p>Facebook expanded its share of social app downloads in March by 33.2 percent from 30.1 percent, Evercore data showed.</p>
<p>Several Wall Street analysts said the stock’s decline presented a good opportunity to buy into the social network’s previously high-flying shares, although they cautioned that much will depend on Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress.</p>
<p>“We suspect that looking back a year from now, if not sooner, this episode will have been a uniquely compelling buying opportunity in the mega-cap internet space,” Deutsche Bank analysts said.</p>
<p>Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told Bloomberg in an interview on Thursday that a few advertisers had paused spending in the wake of the incident, but that the company was having reassuring conversations about how it has built privacy into its system. ( <a href="https://bloom.bg/2q89KMt" type="external">bloom.bg/2q89KMt</a>)</p>
<p>Companies including U.S. auto parts retailer Pep Boys, internet company Mozilla and German bank Commerzbank AG have suspended advertisement on the platform.</p>
<p>Sandberg also said a tool that allowed a researcher to gain access to personal information of up to 87 million users, complied with a privacy agreement the company signed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2011.</p>
<p>Her comments followed reports that the FTC was investigating the company over a possible violation of that agreement, which demands it to get user consent before sharing their information.</p>
<p>“While it’s clear that investor sentiment has been materially impacted by (the) Cambridge Analytica revelations, we believe FB is acting proactively and aggressively to tighten its privacy controls and increase the level of transparency into its practices,” Wells Fargo analyst Ken Sena said.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg, who will testify about the scandal next week in front of committees in the U.S. House and Senate, may face calls from legislators for more oversight.</p>
<p>Sandberg, in a separate interview with PBS, said: “We’re not just open to regulations, we’re moving ahead of it,” and had built a tool which would be live before the next U.S. election and which would show details of who paid for election ads and demographics of the audience.</p> FILE PHOTO: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo
<p>Facebook shares closed up 2.7 percent at $159.35.</p>
<p>Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, Sonam Rai and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Mohammad Zargham in Washington; editing by Peter Henderson, Bernard Orr and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MEXICO CITY/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing has publicly launched in Mexico with a website advertising its service to drivers and passengers, setting the stage for a potentially expensive showdown with rival Uber.</p> FILE PHOTO: The logo of Didi Chuxing is seen at its headquarters in Beijing, China, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
<p>A spokesman for Didi Chuxing Technology Co told Reuters that the company will launch first in Toluca, an urban hub located around 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the country’s capital. Didi has an operations hub in the trendy Juarez neighborhood in Mexico City.</p>
<p>Didi settled on Toluca, the capital of the central state of Mexico, because it is a “robust regional commercial and cultural” center, said the spokesman, who declined to be named. Its priority will be to learn from local communities about their transportation needs, the spokesman said.</p>
<p>The app will go live later this month, according to a source familiar with the plans.</p>
<p>The Didi spokesman declined to comment on the timeline. Didi’s Mexico website says the company will begin operations “very soon,” without providing a date.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Didi is working to quickly recruit drivers with the promise of higher earnings than competitors are offering. The new Didi website says the company will take no cut of fares until June 17, and is offering bonuses to drivers who recruit other drivers and passengers, a common tactic for ride-hailing companies vying to gain market share.</p>
<p>After mid-June, Didi is planning to take a 20 percent cut of fares, below the 25 percent commission on rides in Mexico charged by its biggest rival, Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL].</p>
<p>Late last year, Didi started laying plans for Mexico, Reuters reported, in what will be the company’s first launch outside Asia. Mexico’s clogged streets, underdeveloped public transit system and growing base of smartphone users make the country ripe for app-based ride services.</p> UBER RIVALRY
<p>In Mexico, Didi will for the first time put its own service up against Uber, its chief international rival.</p> FILE PHOTO: An Uber driver checks the route on a mobile phone inside his car in Mexico City, Mexico February 6, 2018. Picture taken on February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo
<p>Uber is the ride-hailing leader in Mexico, where it has seven million users in more than three dozen cities. Uber held 87 percent of the market in Mexico in August, its highest share in Latin America, according to Dalia Research, a Berlin-based consumer research firm.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Uber declined to comment.</p>
<p>Didi says it aims to attract drivers and passengers by promoting a safe service. The company has created a security button on its app that will connect drivers and passengers with police and other emergency contacts if they find themselves in danger, its website said. The company is also staffing a safety task force to respond to issues around-the-clock.</p>
<p>Didi will start off with a car service, although two sources said the company was also considering other modes of transportation such as scooters, motorcycles and bike-sharing.</p>
<p>While Mexico City and certain Mexican states have taken a strict approach to ride-hailing rules, the state of Mexico offers a friendly regulatory landscape, said Carlos Martinez, head of the Center for Citizens and Consumers.</p>
<p>“One of the principal reasons (to launch in Toluca) is the regulation in the state of Mexico, which is more or less lax, and the other is that Toluca has lots of economic activity,” he said.</p>
<p>A new train between Toluca and Mexico City set to open soon will also provide opportunities for Didi to shuttle commuters from their homes to the station, Martinez said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Julia Love and Heather Somerville; editing by Jason Neely and Rosalba O'Brien</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) has confirmed that the data of 2.7 million EU citizens were among those improperly used by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, the EU executive said on Friday.</p>
<p>The European Commission said it received a letter from the social media giant late on Thursday and that it would press for more details, piling pressure on the firm that has lost more than $100 billion in market value in the last 10 days.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 157.2 FB.O Nasdaq -2.14 (-1.34%) FB.O Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-facebook-italy-probe/italy-antitrust-opens-probe-into-facebooks-collection-use-of-data-idUSKCN1HD1SA" type="external">Italy Antitrust opens probe into Facebook's collection, use of data</a>
<p>“Facebook confirmed to us that the data of overall up to 2.7 million Europeans or people in the EU to be more precise may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica,” a Commission spokesman said.</p>
<p>“The letter also explains the steps Facebook has taken in response since.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Social media companies accelerate removals of online hate speech: EU Asia's cryptocurrency arbitrage boom fizzles, but profits persist Facebook shares rise as Zuckerberg soothes investors Chinese Uber rival Didi launches in Mexico, recruits drivers EU says Facebook confirmed data of 2.7 million Europeans 'improperly shared' | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-eu-hatespeech/social-media-companies-accelerate-removals-of-online-hate-speech-eu-idUSKBN1F806X | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://cookpolitical.com/story/9583" type="external">According</a> to the Cook Political Report, which bases its assessments on “publicly available polling, data on demographic change and private discussions with a large number of pollsters in both parties,” Donald Trump’s nomination has moved 12 out of 13 states closer to voting for Hillary Clinton. Cook states that Trump’s problems with women, millennials, independents and Latinos have tilted the states toward Clinton, even though she is unpopular with voters.</p>
<p>Maine is the only state of the 13 states in which Democratic support has slipped, going from a rating of solidly Democratic to leaning Democratic.</p>
<p>And that’s the good news for the GOP.</p>
<p>Two states that were rated likely GOP victories have been moved downward to only leaning GOP, Arizona and Georgia. Indiana and Missouri, which had been rated solid GOP victories, have been moved to only likely GOP victories. Most astonishingly, Nebraska, rated a solid GOP state, is now a toss-up.</p>
<p>A whopping five states that were rated toss-ups are now leaning Democratic: Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. New Mexico, which had been rated likely Democratic, is now solidly Democratic; North Carolina, which had leaned GOP, is now a tossup.</p>
<p>Cook concludes:</p>
<p>With these changes, 190 Electoral Votes are in the Solid Democratic column, 27 are in Likely Democratic and another 87 are in Lean Democratic - enough for a majority. Yet another 44 Electoral Votes are in Toss Up. Although Iowa, New Hampshire and Ohio could shift to Lean Democratic and Nevada could shift to Likely Democratic, we are holding off on changes in these states until we see more evidence.</p>
<p>"With these changes, 190 Electoral Votes are in the Solid Democratic column, 27 are in Likely Democratic and another 87 are in Lean Democratic - enough for a majority."</p>
<p>Cook Political Report</p>
<p>Cook has a stellar record in its prognostications. According to the Report’s site:</p>
<p>In 11 of the 13 elections in which the Cook Political Report published new ratings between July 1 and then end of August (all except 1986 and 1990), 99.8 percent of the 3,387 races rated by the Cook Political Report as Solid Republican or Solid Democratic in July or August of an election year went by way of that party, 94.9 percent of the 641 races rated as Likely Democratic or Likely Republican fell the way the Cook Political Report predicted, and 85.7 percent of the 441 races rated Lean Democratic or Lean Republican broke in favor of the leaning party. Of the 130 Democratic-held seats rated as Toss Up, 49.2 percent went for Democrats, and 55.0 percent of the 160 Republican held seats rated as Toss Up were won by the GOP.</p> | 12 Of 13 States Move Toward Hillary Thanks To Trump Nomination | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5493/12-0f-13-states-move-toward-hillary-thanks-trump-hank-berrien | 2016-05-05 | 0 |
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<p>Sanchez, a Belen Democrat who has clashed with the Republican governor over the last four years, said he’d like to find out whether Martinez and Skandera could pass the PARCC test, which will be administered to New Mexico public school students in grades 3-11 starting Monday.</p>
<p>“Legislators have heard the parents, the teachers and the students who are impacted by this controversial high-stakes exam,” Sanchez said&#160;in a statement released by&#160;Senate Democrats. “It is no laughing matter when you have to take the exam yourself.”</p>
<p>The PARCC test, short for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is a state-mandated exam. Results will be factored into the state’s school grading and teacher evaluation systems, both of which have been implemented since Martinez took office in 2011.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, more than 100 students from Santa Fe high schools staged school walkouts and protested the PARCC exam outside the Public Education Building and state Capitol.</p>
<p>In response to the protests, PED said the time spent on standardized tests in New Mexico has actually decreased in recent years. The agency also said it was “disappointing” the students were not in class during the middle of a school day.</p>
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<p>Journal UpFront columnist D’Val Westphal took the PARCC practice exam and wrote about it in December 2014. You can read her column <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Late tonight, Martinez spokesman Enrique Knell blasted Sanchez’s challenge as a “ridiculous political stunt.” Here’s the complete statement he sent to the Journal:</p>
<p>“This is yet another ridiculous political stunt. An annual assessment has been required by federal and state law for decades.</p>
<p>As usual, it sounds as though Sen. Sanchez wants to just keep doing things the way they have always been done. That thinking has failed our students for too long.</p>
<p>Apparently he has no regard for the thousands of teachers who worked on designing an exam that better captures a student’s growth and understanding.”</p> | Updated: Senate Democratic floor leader challenges governor, Skandera to take PARCC exam | false | https://abqjournal.com/546887/senate-democratic-floor-leader-challenges-governor-skandera-to-take-parcc-exam.html | 2 |
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<p>Through Dec. 17, the city of 8.5 million people, once America’s murder capital, had recorded 278 killings. That puts it on pace to end this year with killings down 14 percent from last year, and well below the 333 in 2014, which was the year with the fewest homicides since the city began keeping accurate crime statistics in 1963.</p>
<p>Those numbers mean a person’s odds of getting killed by homicide in tightly packed, diverse New York City this year were about the same as they were last year in Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota.</p>
<p>Crime has been dropping for many years in New York, but 2017 saw substantial drops even in places like Brooklyn’s 75th Police Precinct, once among the nation’s most violent places.</p>
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<p>“You can feel the change. More people are out walking the streets at night, they’re out talking to their neighbors, they’re not rushing their kids home, you know, with their heads down,” said Rashaud Carmichael, 36, a construction worker and father of three who lives in the area. “I’ve lived here all my life. And man, I can tell you, it’s a different world now.”</p>
<p>There were 126 killings in the precinct in 1993. Last year, there were 23. This year, through Dec. 17, there have been 11.</p>
<p>The statistics stand in sharp contrast to the picture of New York City painted by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail a year ago, when he said murders were up because the city’s liberal mayor was coddling immigrants living here illegally and abandoning a police tactic that involved stopping and frisking huge numbers of predominantly innocent black and Hispanic men.</p>
<p>“Look what’s been done in this city,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said in an interview with The Associated Press. “These are real numbers. I don’t think that’s something that can be ignored.”</p>
<p>New York’s death toll was worsened this year by a Halloween attack by a man from Uzbekistan who drove a rented truck down a waterfront bicycle bath, killing eight people.</p>
<p>Months earlier, a driver, said by police to have smoked marijuana laced with PCP, mowed down pedestrians in Times Square, striking 21 people and killing one. No one died this month when a would-be suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the subway system.</p>
<p>Out in the 75th Precinct, residents are still more concerned about gangs and drug dealing than terrorism.</p>
<p>“Crime is still here for us. I still see it and I still feel it,” said Jessica Franco, 31, who started the Civic Association of Cypress Hills. “But I think neighbors have to also understand their power to help change this — and their responsibility to engage with police to help make it better.”</p>
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<p>Some criminologists say a move away from heavy-handed policing may have helped drive crime lower.</p>
<p>For years, the police department tackled crime hotspots by flooding them with extra officers and arresting large numbers of people for mostly petty crimes. Violent crime did fall, but it kept falling as police shifted toward an approach of building community relationships and focusing more on serious crimes. Arrests are down about 7 percent this year.</p>
<p>Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan said there were other tactical changes. The department ditched specialized units within precincts and made most officers general assignment. It ordered more cars so officers with foot posts far from stations weren’t spending half their tours walking to their assignments. Officers are assigned to smaller areas. And it created neighborhood coordination officers, who spend time addressing concerns like cars blocking driveways.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to arrest our way out of the problems here,” said Sgt. Timothy Cecchini on a recent patrol through the 75th Precinct. “But now, we are getting the space to think about how to do our jobs and really address issues for people and talk to them.”</p>
<p>Over the course of one recent afternoon, he shook hands with a bouncer at a bar beneath an elevated subway line and checked on a jittery ex-convict who needed help with his sick dogs but was mistrustful of the police.</p>
<p>Some people at a public housing development waved to Cecchini as he drove by. Others gave him the finger.</p>
<p>Brooklyn resident Barry Riggins, 49, said he hasn’t seen a gentler side of the department yet. He said he has been arrested five or six times — but only once when he deserved it.</p>
<p>“I can honestly tell you, I’m your normal black man,” he said. “I’m more afraid of the cops than people in my area.”</p>
<p>Other big American cities have been having a mixed experience with violence in 2017.</p>
<p>Baltimore might have its deadliest year on record, with 324 homicides through Dec. 9. Chicago has had 620 killings through Dec. 17, an improvement over 730 killings through the same period last year. Los Angeles, a city of 4 million, has had 271 killings through Dec. 16.</p>
<p>Researchers who study crime patterns give the NYPD some credit but also attribute its success to other factors, such as a flood of wealthier people into the city and a high employment rate.</p>
<p>“Policing plays a part, there’s no question about that. But without the enormous demand and capital for expansion, I think it would be a different story,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri St. Louis.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer David James Jeans contributed to this report.</p> | Once US murder capital, NYC close to record low in homicides | false | https://abqjournal.com/1109551/once-us-murder-capital-nyc-close-to-record-low-in-homicides.html | 2017-12-21 | 2 |
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<p>(Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The loss of housing wealth since the housing bubble burst has not only made most Americans and New Mexicans poorer, at least on paper, it’s also made us more thrifty, according to a recent federal study.</p>
<p>“We find a statistically significant and rather large effect of housing wealth upon household consumption,” says the study titled “Wealth Effects Revisited 1975-2012” from the National Bureau of Economic Research. “This effect is consistently larger than the effect of stock market wealth upon consumption.”</p>
<p>The connection between housing wealth, or basically what your house can sell for, and spending habits appears subtle or even subconscious, based on “the public’s widespread impression that increased home prices make them very much better off,” the study says.</p>
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<p>“Part of the reason may be psychological,” it says.</p>
<p>A federal study shows a strong correlation between the loss or gain of value or perceived value of one’s home and a drop or gain in consumer spending. This file photo shows a Northeast Heights neighborhood near Layton and Academy. (JOURNAL FILE)</p>
<p>Average home prices jetting upward, like they did in 2004-07 to the tune of 43 percent for repeat sales in the Albuquerque metro, is definitely more uplifting than the 16 percent drop in local home prices for repeat sales in 2008-12, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency data.</p>
<p>Analyzing 7,600 “observations” or data sets, Wealth Effects Revisited reaches a finding that, in a down market, the percentage of decline in housing wealth translates to a decline in consumer spending by a factor of about 10 percent.</p>
<p>“That figure implies that a decline of 35 percent in housing wealth would lower consumer spending by 3.5 percent,” it says.</p>
<p>For the Albuquerque metro, the implication is that the 16 percent decline in average home prices for the repeat sales of houses translates to a 1.6 percent drop in consumer spending at the local level.</p>
<p>The study’s use of repeat sales provides a cleaner picture of what home prices are doing compared to other databases, although they generally track in the same direction. The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors, for example, reports average prices rose 40 percent in 2004-07 and dropped 17 percent in 2008-12.</p>
<p>From 1975 to the beginning of the housing bubble, average home prices increased steadily and modestly both here and around the country due to a strong economy. There were rare glitches when prices fell slightly, most recently 1999-2000 in Albuquerque, but they were short-lived.</p>
<p>“House price increases, fed by inertia, easy money and optimism, accelerated during the recession of 2001 even as the stock market was in decline,” the study says.</p>
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<p>The 2001 recession followed closely on the heels of the DotCom stock market crash — the bursting of another bubble — that led to an unusual period where the stock market and housing were headed in opposite directions, the Wealth Effects Revisited study says.</p>
<p>Home prices for repeat sales soared across most of the county, tripling in Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington D.C. as lax lending standards prevailed, the study says. Homeowners were cashing out equity in their homes through home equity loans, cash-out refinances and second mortgages.</p>
<p>The housing crash didn’t occur all at once, although “by the summer of 2007 prices in every major metropolitan area of the U.S. were declining, some quite rapidly,” the report says.</p>
<p>Albuquerque didn’t feel the pain in a big way until the second half of 2008, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency data.</p>
<p>The effect of the housing crash on consumer spending in Albuquerque is hard to quantify since there are no direct measures of consumption spending by households recorded at the state level, let alone the metro level.</p>
<p>Wealth Effects Revisited uses data on retail sales and employment at the state level to make its calculations of how the decline in housing wealth has impacted consumer spending.</p>
<p>Job seekers await interviews for jobs at the Uptown Target in January. (JOURNAL FILE)</p>
<p>The study notes that retail sales differ from household consumption in that they include spending by tourists and other visitors. It also notes that retail sales only account for roughly half of total consumer expenditures.</p>
<p>The city of Albuquerque’s total gross receipts tax revenue dropped 20 percent from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal year 2010, but has since regained some lost ground. Total GRT revenue in fiscal year 2012, which ended June 30, was $327.7 million, roughly where it was in fiscal year 2005 despite inflation.</p>
<p>Although a gauge of the recession’s impact on the state and local economy, GRT revenue comes from so many different sources that it is arguably not a very useful means to track consumer spending. In addition, some of the ups and downs in revenue flow could stem from changes in the way the tax is levied.</p>
<p>The study acknowledges the historical relationship between retail sales and retail employment.</p>
<p>In the Albuquerque metro, retail employment trended higher for most of the early-to-mid 2000s, hitting a high of 46,200 workers in the fourth quarter of 2007 — the peak season for retail jobs — according to state labor data.</p>
<p>The recession caught up to Albuquerque, the housing market slumped and retail employment dropped 13 percent to a recent low of 40,000 workers in the first quarter of 2010. As a rule, the first quarter is the slowest time of the year for retail hiring.</p>
<p>As of the fourth quarter of 2012, retail employment in the metro was at 41,700, down almost 10 percent from the recent high of 46,200 workers in the fourth quarter of 2007. The 10 percent decrease in retail jobs is clearly indicative of reduced retail sales.</p>
<p>In the meantime, stock markets have fully recovered from their recession lows. Last month, the Dow Jones industrial average broke the 15,000-point threshold for the first time while the S&amp;P 500 index cleared the 1,600 threshold for the first time.</p>
<p>Stock market wealth, however, has only a “weak” influence on consumption, the Wealth Effects Revisited study says. Citing other consumer studies, it lists mundane reasons for the weak influence: household inattention, imperfect knowledge of their own investments and habit.</p>
<p>In essence, it appears out of sight is out of mind.</p>
<p>On the other hand, for two-thirds of American families, equity in the home they live in is by far the biggest source of their net worth.</p>
<p>When the housing bubble burst, the resulting contagion of falling home values and rising foreclosures made headlines for years, creating a top-of-the-mind awareness among homeowners that they’d been made poorer by market forces beyond their control.</p> | Housing values drive spending | false | https://abqjournal.com/203605/housing-values.html | 2013-05-27 | 2 |
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/SLAB" type="external">SLAB</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Shares of Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ: SLAB) rose 36.3% in 2016, according to <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">data Opens a New Window.</a> from S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence.</p>
<p>The maker of mixed-signal chips for <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/03/what-does-2017-hold-for-the-internet-of-things.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Internet of Things Opens a New Window.</a> devices put together a solid financial performance in 2016, beating Wall Street's earnings estimates in three out of four quarterly reports while consistently exceeding revenue targets.</p>
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<p>In October's third-quarter release, sales increased 14% year over year to $178 million and adjusted earnings jumped 51% higher to land at $0.77 per share. IoT products accounted for 46% of total sales, up from 42% in the year-ago period. These results were above management's own expectations in terms of revenue, expense controls, and profitable product mix.</p>
<p>The Si1144 heart rate monitor is found in many smartwatches and fitness bands. Image source: Silicon Labs.</p>
<p>At this point, Silicon Labs is exploring price levels not seen in 17 years. The stock is trading at 24 times forward earnings, supported by strong bottom-line growth and the promise of plenty more IoT-driven business strength. The management team's long-term targets are built around an annual sales increase of roughly 20% in the IoT segment. Silicon Labs is particularly invested in low-power wireless modules and video systems.</p>
<p>The company was also the subject of takeover speculation late last year. Silicon Labs boosted the payouts management would receive in the event of a change in control, sparking rumors that larger rival Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM) could be kicking the tires and planning a bid. No such buyout attempt has occurred, but changes to executive incentives always have their reasons and should be taken seriously.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFZahrim/info.aspx" type="external">Anders Bylund Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Silicon Laboratories. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Silicon Laboratories Gained 37% in 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/19/how-silicon-laboratories-gained-37-in-2016.html | 2017-01-19 | 0 |
<p>Five days ago&#160;Obama unveiled a “jobs plan” which included <a href="" type="internal">tax hikes of $467 billion</a>, $400 billion of which were on individuals making $200,000 (and couples making $250,000).</p>
<p>Tomorrow Obama will unveil a “deficit reduction plan” which will include <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obamas-new-debt-reduction-plan-to-draw-contrasts-with-republican-vision/2011/09/18/gIQAI9XddK_story.html" type="external">$1.5 trillion in new taxes</a>&#160;including an extra tax on people making $1 million or more.</p>
<p>In 6 days, Obama will have proposed over $2 trillion (that trillion with a&#160;“t”) in new taxes, above and beyond what we already pay.</p>
<p>The big spender is on a tax hike bender.</p>
<p>We need an intervention of historic proportions.</p>
<p>It’s no longer Republicans versus Democrats, or Progressives versus Tea Partiers.</p>
<p>It’s enablers versus interventionists.</p> | Time for an invervention, Obama’s on a tax hike bender | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/09/time-for-an-invervention-obamas-on-a-tax-hike-bender/ | 2011-09-18 | 0 |
<p>Violence in the Mexican border town of Reynosa has endangered both the lives of its citizens as well as the quality of its journalism. Fearing violent reprisal, many journalists have left, while others are admittedly censoring themselves after being threatened by the drug cartels.</p>
<p>Despite the media retreat, many Reynosa citizens have taken it upon themselves to document the violence, shooting videos and taking pictures with their cell phones. –JCL</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The big philosophical question in this gritty border town does not concern trees falling in the forest but bodies falling on the concrete: Does a shootout actually happen if the newspapers print nothing about it, the radio and television stations broadcast nothing, and the authorities never confirm that it occurred?</p>
<p />
<p>As two powerful groups of drug traffickers engaged in fierce urban combat in Reynosa in recent weeks, the reality that many residents were living and the one that the increasingly timid news media and the image-conscious politicians portrayed were difficult to reconcile.</p>
<p>“You begin to wonder what the truth is,” said one of Reynosa’s frustrated and fearful residents, Eunice Peña, a professor of communications. “Is it what you saw, or what the media and the officials say? You even wonder if you were imagining it.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/americas/14mexico.html?ref=world" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Mexican Reporters Run for Cover | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/mexican-reporters-run-for-cover/ | 2010-03-14 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Krystal Ball provides a poignant ‘expose’ on Greg Abbott, the likely Texas Republican Gubernatorial nominee.&#160; She makes the point that Greg Abbott who is vying for governor of Texas has misguided priorities.</p>
<p>Texas is the state with the highest <a href="" type="internal">percentage of uninsured</a> residents. It also has one of the <a href="http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/12_2_0.html" type="external">highest poverty rates</a> in the country. Education in Texas <a href="http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/9_5_3.html" type="external">compares poorly</a> with other states.</p>
<p>Ball highlights that instead of advocating for or solving real problems, Greg Abbott is addressing fake problems. Greg Abbott has been unable to find intentional voter fraud in Texas. Yet, he re-instituted the Voter ID law that was <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-30/politics/35491521_1_type-of-ballot-integrity-voter-id-law-republican-controlled-texas-legislature" type="external">blocked</a> by the US District Court in Washington. He used the Supreme Court’s ruling making Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional as his <a href="" type="internal">license to discriminate</a>. This law will discriminate against women, minorities, and the elderly.</p>
<p>Krystal Ball highlights other issues Greg Abbott has been wasting taxpayer dollars on. These include wasting time and taxpayer money investigating ‘ <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/68937/wingnut-digest-5-very-good-reasons-to-keep-greg-abbott-out-of-texas-office" type="external">curriculums indoctrinating children</a>’. Greg Abbott has irresponsibly sued the Obama administration 25+ times. Here is what Politifact <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/may/10/greg-abbott/greg-abbott-says-he-has-sued-obama-administration-/" type="external">says</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s a typical workday for Texas’ attorney general: "I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home," Greg Abbott was quoted as saying to a tea party group in an April 30, 2013, Associated Press <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TX_ABBOTT_RUNNING_RIGHT_TXOL-?SITE=TXCOR&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">news story</a>. …</p>
<p>In our count of five "wins," four lawsuits were against the Environmental Protection Agency and one against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The EPA has appealed one ruling to the Supreme Court, and FERC filed for a clarification of the judgment in its case.</p>
<p>In most of the 27 cases, Texas was the lead plaintiff or only plaintiff. These included lawsuits in which Abbott was acting at the request of a department or branch of Texas state government. Bean said, "We file them on behalf of state agencies. We’re the lawyer, they’re the client."</p>
<p>Ball points out that Greg Abbott is likely a big problem for many women. He will make ‘flea market abortions more common.</p>
<p />
<p>One should not forget that Greg Abbott is also a climate denier. He makes Texas the laughing stock of the southwest.</p>
<p>Texans should not despair. Texans are in fact waking up. One need only see the reception Texas Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is getting throughout the state. As she highlights the nut that is Greg Abbott, her path to Texas Governor is clearer.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> LIKE My <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/EgbertoWilliescom/181893712536" type="external">Facebook Page</a> – Visit My Blog: <a href="http://www.EgbertoWillies.com" type="external">EgbertoWillies.com</a></p> | Krystal Ball: Greg Abbott Antics Make Wendy Davis TX Governor? (VIDEO) | true | http://egbertowillies.com/2013/10/30/greg-abbott/ | 2013-10-30 | 4 |
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<p>Productivity increased at a 3.1 percent rate in the third quarter, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was a significant improvement from the previous three quarters when productivity had fallen. Unit labor costs edged up a modest 0.3 percent in the third quarter, compared to a 3.9 percent jump in the second quarter.</p>
<p>The productivity figure was the best showing since a 4.2 percent gain in the third quarter of 2014. But the rebound was expected to be temporary. Strong gains in productivity are needed to boost Americans’ living standards.</p>
<p>Economists forecast that productivity will quickly fall back to the tepid gains seen since the 2007-2009 recession.</p>
<p>“Following the burst of faster productivity growth during the late 1990s, which is usually attributed to the incorporation of desktop PCs into the workplace and the internet, productivity growth has slowed again in most developed countries,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “The longer this slowdown goes on for, the less confident we are of another technology-related acceleration.”</p>
<p>The latest productivity gains had been expected, given that overall economic growth rebounded in the third quarter after anemic gains in the first half of the year. The gross domestic product, the nation’s total output of goods and services, increased at a 2.9 percent rate in the third quarter, more than double the pace in the second quarter.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Productivity represents the amount of output per hour of work. Nonfarm businesses boosted output by 3.4 percent in the third quarter, while the hours worked rose a much more modest 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Productivity growth has been weak since the Great Recession. It has averaged annual gains of just 1.3 percent from 2007 through 2015, sharply lower than the 4.7 percent average annual productivity gains from 2000 to 2007.</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has pointed to the slowdown in productivity growth as a key challenge facing the country.</p>
<p>Economists believe that businesses need to start focusing more on raising the efficiency of their existing workforce rather than just hiring more workers to meet demand. They expect companies to put more emphasis on increasing productivity as the labor market hits full employment and the pool of available qualified workers diminishes.</p> | US productivity up at 3.1 percent rate in third quarter | false | https://abqjournal.com/881305/us-productivity-up-at-3-1-percent-rate-in-third-quarter.html | 2016-11-03 | 2 |
<p>Bradley Manning will send a personal plea to Barack Obama next week for a presidential pardon after he was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks.</p>
<p>The sentence was more severe than many observers expected, and is much longer than any punishment given to previous U.S. government officials who have leaked information to the media.</p>
<p>Manning showed no emotion, neither when the sentence was delivered, nor after being escorted into a side room, where his lawyers and members of his family were waiting, some of them in tears.</p>
<p>"Everyone in his defense team was emotional, including myself," his lawyer, David Coombs, told the Guardian. "The only person that wasn't emotional was Brad. He looked to us and said: 'It's O.K. I'm going to move forward and I'm going to be all right'."</p>
<p>Coombs told a press conference that next week he will formally submit the request for a pardon, "or at the very least commute his sentence to time served". That request will contain a personal appeal from Manning to Obama, which his lawyer read out.</p>
<p>"When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love to my country and a sense of duty to others," Manning will tell Obama. "If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society."</p>
<p>Coombs said the military's decision to seek a charge of aiding enemy – which ultimately failed – was placed amid a "government-wide crackdown" on journalists and whistleblowers that should alarm those who care about a free press.</p>
<p>"The case of the United States v Bradley Manning is a watershed movement in history for the freedom of the press," he said.</p>
<p>The 25-year-old soldier was convicted last month of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents and video. The disclosures amounted to the biggest leak in US military history.</p>
<p>He was found guilty of 20 counts, six of them under the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy".</p>
<p>A protracted legal process that started in May 2010, when Manning was arrested while stationed in Iraq, was over in less than two minutes on Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>The military judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Denise Lind, walked into the courtroom at Fort Meade military base at 10.15 a.m., dealt with some court admin, asked Manning to stand, then told him he was sentenced to 35 years.</p>
<p />
<p>He will now be transferred to military custody in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Amid some confusion over the military rules for parole, his legal team said that taking into account the time he has already served, he will be eligible for parole in around seven years. He has to serve a minimum of a third of his sentence, and at the very earliest, could be released under parole soon as 2021.</p>
<p>A total of 1,294 days – more than three years – are automatically deducted from Manning's sentence.</p>
<p>That includes the time already spent in military custody since May 2010, plus 112 days that is being taken off the sentence as part of a pretrial ruling in which Lind compensated Manning for the excessively harsh treatment he endured at the Quantico marine base in Virginia.</p>
<p>He can earn 120 days per year off his sentence for good behavior and job performance.</p>
<p>After the judge left the court, Manning was quickly ushered out by guards. A handful of supporters were heard to shout "We'll keep fighting for you Bradley" and "You're our hero."</p>
<p>Manning had faced a maximum possible sentence of 90 years, although few legal experts expected he would receive anything near that amount.</p>
<p>Prosecutors had asked the judge to jail Manning for at least 60 years. But observers who closely followed the Manning trial regarded a sentence of around 20 or 25 years as something of a benchmark.</p>
<p>If the prosecution had ended the trial in February, when Manning pleaded guilty to some of the counts against him, his maximum jail term would have been 20 years.</p>
<p>In mitigation, the soldier's defense team said he should receive no more than 25 years – the period of time after which many of the materials he released would have been automatically declassified.</p>
<p>The sentence was immediately criticized by press freedom groups and civil liberty campaigners.</p>
<p>Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy &amp; Technology Project, said: "When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system.</p>
<p>"A legal system that doesn't distinguish between leaks to the press in the public interest and treason against the nation will not only produce unjust results, but will deprive the public of critical information that is necessary for democratic accountability."</p>
<p>He added: "This is a sad day for Bradley Manning, but it's also a sad day for all Americans who depend on brave whistleblowers and a free press for a fully informed public debate."</p>
<p>Daniel Ellsberg, who faced charges under the Espionage Act for leaking the Pentagon Papers documenting the Vietnam war, said Manning "doesn't deserve to spend another day in jail".</p>
<p>"There are some that will not be deterred even by prospect of life in prison – I think that Manning was one of those," he said. "I think that Edward Snowden is another – he knows he faced the prospect of life in prison or even assassination … This is an effort to minimize truth-telling."</p>
<p>"This is unprecedented," said Liza Goitein, who co-directs the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. "It is dramatically longer than the longest sentence ever served for disclosing classified information to the media, which was two years."</p>
<p>WikiLeaks, however, hailed the sentence as a "significant strategic victory". In a statement posted on the organization's website, founder Julian Assange called the trial "an affront to basic concepts of western justice".</p>
<p>Assange said "the Obama administration is demonstrating that there is no place in its system for people of conscience and principle" and warned "there will be a thousand more Bradley Mannings."</p>
<p>Military lawyers specifically urged Lind to jail Manning for the "majority of his remaining life" to deter potential future leakers from passing journalists documents on such a scale.</p>
<p>Captain Joe Morrow, a lawyer for the government, told the judge on Monday that is was Lind's responsibility to ensure the military "never see" another leak on the scale of Manning's releases. "This court must send a message to any soldier contemplating stealing classified information," he told her.</p>
<p>Manning's sentence vastly outweighs any previous sentence given to a U.S. leaker who has passed information to a journalistic outlet, although the nature and scale of Manning's disclosures was unprecedented.</p>
<p>Government workers successfully convicted for unauthorized disclosures in recent years include Shamai Leibowitz, an FBI translator who was sentenced to 20 months after passing secret transcripts to a blogger, and John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who was sentenced to 30 months after pleaded guilty last year to disclosing information about the waterboarding of terror suspects.</p>
<p>In 2011, another government whistleblower, Thomas Drake, who shared information about National Security Agency technologies with a Baltimore Sun reporter, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service after a plea bargain.</p>
<p>The sentence marks the end of a long journey for the soldier, which began in late 2009, when he was stationed in the Iraq desert as an intelligence analyst. Disillusioned over the war, Manning, from Oklahoma, began downloading documents from classified computers onto CDs.</p>
<p>Manning passed 250,000 State Department cables and 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield logs to WikiLeaks, as well as files pertaining to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, and video of a 2007 attack by a US helicopter gunship in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists.</p>
<p>WikiLeaks published some material on its site and also shared documents with a consortium of news organisations, led by the Guardian.</p>
<p>Manning was arrested in May 2010, after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker who conversed with the soldier in online chats, shopped him to the FBI.</p>
<p>He pleaded guilty to some of the charges in February, and probably achieved some reduction of his sentence when he told the judge earlier this month that he regretted his actions and was sorry that his leaks "hurt the United States."</p>
<p>Unlike civilian courts, where there are federal tariffs or sentencing guidelines, the sentence in a military court is subject to the sole discretion of the judge.</p>
<p>The case will now be automatically referred to the army court of criminal Appeals, the first step in what could become a protracted legal battle that could potentially culminate at the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Manning Says She Is Female and Wants to Live as a Woman</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — Bradley Manning, sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified U.S. documents in U.S. history, said in a statement on Thursday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.</p>
<p>"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read on NBC News' "Today" show.</p>
<p>"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."</p>
<p>Manning's lawyer David Coombs said on the program that he expected Manning to get a pardon from President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Manning, a former junior intelligence analyst, was sentenced on Wednesday for turning over more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in the biggest breach of secret data in the nation's history.</p>
<p>Manning is expected to serve the sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Coombs has said the soldier could be pardoned in seven years.&#160;</p>
<p>-&#160;Reuters</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/bradley-manning-pardon-obama-35-year-sentence" type="external">Originally published by The Guardian</a></p>
<p /> | Bradley Manning to Request Pardon from Obama Over 35-Year Jail Sentence | true | http://occupy.com/article/bradley-manning-request-pardon-obama-over-35-year-jail-sentence | 4 |
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<p>So several polls give the general decision slightly to Obama, though this may be grading on a curve, based on his improvement from his total suckitude in the first debate. &#160;Piece by piece, however, it looks like Romney may have come out ahead, at least on the issues that matter most to voter decisions, as this screen shot of the CNN poll breakdown shows:</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/10/Debate-screen-shot-copy.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>And on energy, while Romney might have pounded Obama harder than he did, these two graphics reveal the weakness of Obama’s position (click to embiggen):</p>
<p>No wonder Obama wants to change the subject from gas prices.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Romney was absolutely correct on this point.</p> | The Debate in Pictures | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/10/the-debate-in-pictures-2.php | 2012-10-17 | 0 |
<p>From Egypt to Pakistan, February 2011 will be remembered as a month unusually full of the embarrassments of empire. Americans were enthralled by a spectacle of liberty in which we felt we should somehow be playing a part. Here were popular movements toward self-government, which might once have looked to the United States as an exemplar, springing up all across North Africa and the Middle East. Why did they not look up to us now?</p>
<p>The answer became clearer with every equivocal word of the Obama administration, and every false step it took in trying to manage the crisis. A person suffers embarrassment when something true about himself emerges in spite of reasonable efforts to conceal it. It is the same with nations. Sovereign nations are abstract entities, of course — they cannot have feelings as people do — but there are times when they would blush if they could.</p>
<p>Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was weakened and finally brought down by nonviolent popular actions that started in Cairo and spread to Alexandria, Suez, and many other cities. At first, Mubarak took a dictator’s prerogative and named his successor. Soon after, he changed his mind and declined to step down. At last, he gave in to the unrelenting demands of the people and pressure from the army.</p>
<p>Throughout the 18 days of upheaval, Washington spoke of the need for an “orderly transition.” President Obama and his advisers seemed to side with the Egyptian demonstrators vaguely and sentimentally, yet they never sought a connection with them, not even through a figure of international renown like Mohamed ElBaradei, the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency who earned a Nobel peace prize in 2005. The U.S. took extreme care not to offend Mubarak. There was a period of perhaps three days after Obama dispatched Frank Wisner (a former ambassador and personal friend of Mubarak) as special envoy to consult with the dictator when the world was given to understand that America was planning the longest of farewells.</p>
<p>Such was the American response to an expression of popular will that had no precedent. For in the end, the protest swept up millions of demonstrators: by some estimates nearly a quarter of Egypt’s population of 81 million, in a mass action whose exhilaration could be shared by all who watched. The crowd in Tahrir Square had none of the poisonous quality of a mob. Even the most respectable citizens — doctors, lawyers, teachers, shopkeepers, women as well as men — were drawn in little by little, visiting the demonstrations after work, throwing in their lot, and finally staying overnight in the square.</p>
<p>President Obama sanctified the process only after it was sealed by success. He said, in a telling phrase, that it had been a “privilege” for him to watch “history taking place.” To add, as Obama did, that the result belonged to the Egyptian people alone was fitting; yet the protestors could respond with perfect justice that they owed nothing to American help. Was this degree of detachment inevitable?</p>
<p>Look into the order of events a little more closely and you see a picture of the contradictions of American policy over the last half-century. On day one of the protest, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pronounced the Egyptian government “stable”; two days later, on a news program, Vice President Joe Biden refused to call Mubarak a dictator; the following day, President Obama said he had spoken to Mubarak and “urged him to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”</p>
<p>If that sounds vague, far vaguer was to come. Having dispatched Wisner to Cairo, the president committed himself to this sentiment: “An orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.” A wishful commandment that read like a polite editorial. It left unclear the meaning of “orderly,” the meaning of “now,” and the meaning of “meaningful.”</p>
<p>Day nine found the administration “concerned” about attacks on the protestors, but not concerned enough to do anything. Obama did, however, call Mubarak once more. In a private version of the “wishful commandment,” he told him that it was time to go. Mubarak did not go.</p>
<p>The chaos of day 12 offers a striking reflection of the stance of the White House as spectator. Returned from Cairo, Wisner asserted that Mubarak must be allowed to stay for several months longer, since his “continued leadership is critical.” In the same tenor, Hillary Clinton affirmed that any transition to democracy “takes some time. There are certain things that have to be done in order to prepare.” Yet the White House and the State Department went out of their way to dissociate themselves from the explicit conservatism of Wisner’s injunction.</p>
<p>Right to the end, Obama limited himself to comforting generalities whose practical significance was obscure. On day 13, for example, he allowed that Egypt was “not going to go back to what it was.” Meanwhile, the administration that went on the record in favor of “real, concrete” reforms never named one.</p>
<p>Stability First, Democracy Second</p>
<p>To say that our leaders covered themselves with shame would be melodramatic. To say that they were embarrassed by unforeseeable obstructions would be much too kind. They could not help speaking for democracy, because that is what the U.S. thinks it stands for; if our actions sometimes expose us to the charge of hypocrisy, our words have the single-mindedness of sincere belief. How then did American policy in February come so palpably untethered?</p>
<p>We have supported a succession of military strongmen in Egypt going as far back as 1952, when the CIA judged Gamal Abdel Nasser a plausible bulwark against Communism. The U.S. gives Egypt $1.3 billion annually in aid (mostly military). Of all our clients, only Israel gets more, at $3 billion annually. The view in Washington has long been that those two nations will oversee “the neighborhood” on our behalf. That is why a nonviolent insurgency on the West Bank, if it should occur, would meet as baffled a response from Washington as the February days in Egypt. The embarrassment is part of the situation.</p>
<p>A fair surmise is that Obama was no less confusing in private than in public; that when he spoke to Mubarak, his words were muffled and decorous: “You must begin leaving, but I will never desert you” — something like that. The difference between Mubarak’s shakiness in his first televised speech to the country and his evident composure in his second speech may well be explained by a signal that he took for an assurance.</p>
<p>I will never desert you, one recalls, is the message that Barack Obama conveyed to Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson (when Obama was still a candidate); to the banks and financial firms (in February 2009); to Dick Cheney and the torture lawyers (in his National Archives Speech of May 2009); to General David Petraeus (in the months preceding the 2009 administration review of the Afghan War); to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak (in the summer of 2009); and to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (in February 2011).</p>
<p>The need to give assurance seems to be an inseparable trait of Obama’s character. He deals with big decisions by first moving to cement a secure alliance with the powers-that-be, no matter how discredited they are, no matter how resounding his previous contempt for them may have been. Yet this is a reflex that often prematurely cedes control to the powerful over whom he might otherwise be in a position to exert leverage. That fight, however, is not for him.</p>
<p>To say it another way, Obama visibly hates crisis. He is so averse to the very idea of instability that he seems unable to use a crisis to his advantage. Seldom, to judge by the evidence thus far, is he the first, second, or third person in the room to recognize that a state of crisis exists. The hesitation that looked like apathy and the hyper-managerial tone of his response to the BP oil spill offered a vivid illustration of this trait. Egypt brought out the same pattern.</p>
<p>How did the statements and actions of the president and his advisers strike Egyptian demonstrators who were risking their lives for freedom? A February 6th story in the New York Times by Kareem Fahim, Mark Landler, and Anthony Shadid concluded that “the moves amounted to a rebuff to the protesters,” and added that this was the way things looked to those in Tahrir Square: “By emphasizing the need for a gradual transition, only days after emphasizing that change there must begin immediately, the Obama administration was viewed as shifting away from the protesters in the streets and toward stronger backing for Mr. Mubarak’s hand-picked elite.”</p>
<p>To capture the zig-zag path of American policy over the 18 days before Mubarak fell is not an easy task; but it is fair to say that the administration went from thinking the protests signified next to nothing, to pleading for an orderly transition, to emphasizing the necessary slowness of an orderly transition, to upbraiding Mubarak for so obviously standing in place, to rejoicing at the triumph of liberty. All this, in the course of just over two weeks.</p>
<p>Why could the U.S. not speak with a single voice? We say the word “democracy” and invoke its prestige with such careless fluency that we are surprised when we see its face. But here, the embarrassment was not only public and diplomatic, it was also personal and sentimental. A dictator through long acquaintance may become a familiar and comforting associate. In the second week of February, it emerged that Wisner’s law firm, Patton Boggs, had handled arbitration and litigation on behalf of Mubarak’s government, and that Secretary of State Clinton had said as recently as March 2009: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.”</p>
<p>Our Empire and Our Election Cycles</p>
<p>If American officials looking at Egypt felt themselves “cabined, cribbed, confined,” anyone who knew the history of our Middle East policy could see the immediate cause. There was also a mediate cause, so ubiquitous as to be easily forgotten. This was, of course, Israel and the constant presence of Israel in American politics. In the last three months alone, Sarah Palin made public plans for a trip to Israel, and the Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee said that the U.S. ought to “encourage the Israelis to build as much as they can and as rapidly as they can” on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Nor has Barack Obama been indifferent to such pressures. In earlier years, he expressed unmistakable sympathy for the cause of Palestinian independence; but the story changed in 2008, as he entered the last leg of the race for president. In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in June of that year, Obama made an astonishing pledge with religious overtones: the American commitment to Israeli security was, he said, “sacrosanct.” On his way to the White House, Obama purged his advisorate of figures like Robert Malley and Zbigniew Brzezinski who were deemed unsuitable by the Israel lobby.</p>
<p>Then, in June 2009, he made his celebrated Cairo speech, with its message of hope and sympathy for the progress of a liberal Muslim society. There at Cairo University, Obama called for a halt both to Palestinian terror and the Israeli occupation. Soon after, Hillary Clinton reiterated the demand that Israel enforce a complete stop to the building of settlements, with no exceptions for “outposts” or “natural growth.”</p>
<p>Benjamin Netanyahu simply defied these grave utterances; and he soon found he could do so with impunity. By the end of that summer, Obama had been persuaded to let pass in quiet disapproval anything Israel chose to do. The mid-term elections were now drawing close; and Obama apparently judged it expedient to have his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and family photographed on a visit to the Golan Heights.</p>
<p>Yet the ascent of the administration to that perfection of embarrassment was gradual and its stages deserve to be remembered. When, in March 2010, Vice President Joe Biden paid a visit to Israel (saying “It’s good to be home”), he was greeted by an announcement from the interior ministry that it had approved the construction of 1,600 new building units for Jews in East Jerusalem: a calculated insult to President Obama. This led Biden to issue a public rebuke of Netanyahu, and Hillary Clinton to restate the administration’s anti-settlement policy. A request by Netanyahu to visit the White House was subsequently refused.</p>
<p>Netanyahu, however, realized that such embarrassment would eventually work to his advantage. By the end of May, thoughts of the mid-term election were coming to the fore in Washington. Without Israeli policy having changed in any way, the Obama administration began to warm up. The election-sensitive nature of this thaw was borne out by the revelation, in January 2011, that the White House had been dealing with Ehud Barak in preference to Netanyahu; that it had been charmed by his competence, seduced by his promises, and was now “furious” at his non-performance in the peace process.</p>
<p>So the pattern has been: a step toward pressure on Israel, followed by a step back into the arms of the Israel lobby — the second step coinciding with an upcoming election cycle. The 2012 election and its financing are already much on Obama’s mind. Unhappily for him, Turkey, Brazil, and other countries sympathetic to the Palestinian cause chose this moment to put forward a U.N. resolution condemning the Israeli occupation of conquered lands and designating Israel’s settlements there “illegal.”</p>
<p>Again, there was an embarrassed phone call from Obama, this time to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Could the PA put off the vote? Or, if there had to be a U.N. statement, did it have to commit the U.S. to a legally binding resolution? But Abbas himself had lost confidence in Obama and his own reputation had recently been badly tarnished by WikiLeaks revelations of the PA’s capitulation to past American requests. The settlements were in any case in violation of international law, specifically article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Abbas accordingly rebuffed Obama’s entreaty for a milder resolution and the American president suffered the embarrassment of issuing his first veto in the U.N. in utter defiance of the hopes expressed so eloquently in his Cairo speech.</p>
<p>But the interlude was not over. For Obama could not bear to stand as the sole obstacle (alongside Israel) to a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution without making it clear that he did so with a bad conscience. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, offered the explanation in public in a speech that managed to concede almost every particular the resolution had specified: “Continued settlement activity violates Israel’s international commitments, devastates trust between the parties, and threatens the prospects for peace.”</p>
<p>If there is any precedent for such an “Explanation of Vote,” the precedents must be few. The only difference between Obama’s position and the U.N. resolution was that the resolution would have backed such words by enforceable action. “Set honor in one eye,” says Brutus in Julius Caesar, “and death i’ th’other, and I will look on both indifferently.” The embarrassment of the U.N. vote was that Obama set justice in one eye, and a presidential campaign in the other, and the world was in a position to see which way he turned.</p>
<p>Diplomacy and Counterterrorism</p>
<p>Raymond Davis is the American operative in Pakistan, officially described at first as a “technical adviser,” who on January 25th interrupted a drive in the city of Lahore to shoot and kill two Pakistanis. Davis took care to photograph the corpses and called in a back-up jeep for help, which, in its rush, knocked over and killed a third Pakistani. Before he could get back to the U.S. consulate, Davis was arrested by the local police.</p>
<p>On February 20th, the Guardian journalist Declan Walsh confirmed the suspicion which the strange incident had immediately spurred that Davis was a CIA agent. The Pakistani government was aware of his identity, Walsh reported, and that was why it had resisted an Obama administration demand that Davis be accorded diplomatic immunity. The following day, the New York Times revealed that it had known who Davis’s employer was for some time, but — at the request of the White House and the State Department — had refrained from publishing an accurate account of the shooting and its aftermath.</p>
<p>Obama’s cup of embarrassment in February was close to running over, but at least he now had a newspaper to share his embarrassment. Why did the Times suppress the truth about Raymond Davis? For reasons of empire. After all, the facts were known all over Pakistan and had been published in the Pakistani press.</p>
<p>In obeying a White House request to keep them out of the American press, the Times (along with the Washington Post and Associated Press) was protecting not Davis himself but a government definition of “tact,” while fostering the ignorance of American citizens about the actions of our own government. The protocol of the press under imperial rules — as the British discovered in the Boer War and Americans have come to know in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan — is simple and endlessly repeatable: power comes before truth except in cases where the truth is conspicuous.</p>
<p>Journalists are now learning what historians have known for many years — an agent like Davis is an instrument of a policy that was wrong from the start. For Pakistan has always existed in a state of deep and partly justified paranoia regarding India. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, Pakistani leaders came to consider it a requirement of “strategic depth” that Afghanistan be a reasonably stable neighbor with a compliant government. From the moment in late 2001 when, to spare an investment of ground forces, the Bush administration threw in its lot with the warlords of the Northern Alliance in its invasion of Afghanistan, that policy was sent awry. From then on, Pakistan’s leadership would regard the American presence as essentially unstable and counter it in every way consistent with simulated friendship.</p>
<p>Practical wisdom about these matters has never been hard to come by. It shows in the secret dispatches of the foreign service, which we can now read, thanks to another embarrassment: the release of secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. In a cable from Islamabad, dated September 23, 2009, for example, the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson sent the following piece of sound advice to the Obama administration:</p>
<p>“In response to queries posed by the National Security Council, Embassy Islamabad believes that it is not possible to counter al-Qaeda in Pakistan absent a comprehensive strategy that 1) addresses the interlinked Taliban threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2) brings about stable, civilian government in Afghanistan, and 3) reexamines the broader role of India in the region. As the queries presuppose, the ending of Pakistani establishment support to terrorist and extremist groups, some Afghan-focused and some India-focused, is a key element for success. There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India. The only way to achieve a cessation of such support is to change the Pakistan government’s own perception of its security requirements.”</p>
<p>Among the most remarkable features of Ambassador Patterson’s warning were her repeated mention of India and her allusion to the conflict over Kashmir: scarcely mentioned in official American descriptions of what the U.S. is doing in Pakistan. And here a further embarrassment appears in the background to lengthen the shadow of the Davis incident. The cables show that the Obama administration either is not using, or is not sharing with the American people, the most elementary knowledge of the complexity of a commitment it inherited from its predecessor and now has greatly broadened. These cables suggest that a rhetorical policy, not just of simplification but of conscious distortion, has guided Obama’s frequent iterations that “the enemy” in Pakistan is al-Qaeda. It would be as fair to say that the American enemy in Pakistan is Pakistan, and Pakistan’s relationship to India, and our own relationship to both.</p>
<p>Embarrassments Are Sacrosanct</p>
<p>Even in the depths of mortification, a lower depth still threatens Washington, thanks to our double image of ourselves. As the sole superpower, we want to be everywhere (and everywhere in charge); but as the best hope of democracy, we must be seen to be nowhere (and nowhere in charge). You might suppose that the greatest threat to such a double image lies in the possibility of the endless documentary on American foreign policy and America’s wars being offered by WikiLeaks. In fact, the government’s reactions to WikiLeaks have posed a far greater danger — not to America the superpower, but to the constitutional America in whose name it acts.</p>
<p>The deeper embarrassments of officialdom can easily assume the shape of patriotic outrage. Newt Gingrich, for example, has said that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, should be treated as an “enemy combatant”; Sarah Palin has claimed he should be pursued just as we pursue the leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban; Peter King has recommended that WikiLeaks be classified as a terrorist organization. These statements were predictable, considering from whom they came.</p>
<p>It was not to be expected that an American secretary of state would skirt the edge of the same vigilante sentiments. Yet Hillary Clinton did just that when, embarrassed at the exposure of the slack security of the foreign service and the peculiar frankness of its portraits, she said that WikiLeaks had launched “an attack on the international community.” The community of the people of the world, or the community of secret governments and secret armies? To be an enemy of the latter would make Assange an honest journalist. To be an enemy of the former would make him a terrorist.</p>
<p>Attorney General Eric Holder, confronted by the same ferocious descriptions of Assange, and himself embarrassed — since people were looking to his department to prosecute, even though it was not clear Assange had broken a law — resolved to discover a law that could be attached to a penalty whose appropriateness he appeared to have decided in advance. “There’s a real basis,” said Holder vaguely, “there’s a predicate for us to believe that crimes have been committed here.”</p>
<p>Was the vice president, too, embarrassed when he spoke of Assange as “a high-tech terrorist”? He should have been. If there is a weapon of high-tech terror that is feared in the world today, it is the drones that — as part of the CIA’s covert war in the Pakistani tribal borderlands — now regularly fire missiles into houses to kill presumed enemies of the U.S., along with anyone standing nearby. And if there is a world leader known for his advocacy of drone warfare, it is Vice President Biden.</p>
<p>We are in the second week of March, and the embarrassments show no sign of abating. On March 3rd, the president stated that the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi must go — or, in the preferred euphemism of the moment, that he “needs to step down” — and must do it “now.” What could that mean? How does Obama propose to make it stick?</p>
<p>Even for a president who, in the realms of war and peace, is apt to imagine his words weigh more than other people’s actions, there are some words that sound so much like actions you should take care not to speak them too emphatically. But never mind: officials in the State Department and at the White House, we are told, have come across a subtler way of expressing themselves than the Bush-Cheney administration which spoke so crudely of “regime change.” They now speak of “regime alteration.”</p>
<p>Lives and deaths may actually hang on words like these. We think of ourselves as the patron country of democracy in a world that wants to be patronized, but there are other ways of looking at the United States, and other ways of looking at patronage. Samuel Johnson completed his great Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 without financial backers from the aristocracy. When Lord Chesterfield arrived late on the scene to offer his help, Johnson replied in a letter that has become famous: “Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?”</p>
<p>Barack Obama, Frank Wisner, and Hillary Clinton were, in exactly that sense, patrons of the struggle for liberty by the people of Egypt. We embarrass other countries with our help, and it is only natural that we stumble. We are sleepwalking in someone else’s house.</p>
<p>DAVID BROMWICH is editor of a selection of Edmund Burke’s speeches, On Empire, Liberty, and Reform, and co-editor of the Yale University Press edition of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. He writes regularly for the New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a>.</p>
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<p /> | The Embarrassments of Empire | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/03/10/the-embarrassments-of-empire/ | 2011-03-10 | 4 |
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<p>Photo by thierry ehrmann | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>Nazareth.</p>
<p>Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed cohorts of Israel loyalists in the United States by video link last week at the annual conference of AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.</p>
<p>They should, he said, follow his government’s example and defend Israel on the “moral battlefield” against the growing threat of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. In Netanyahu’s simple-minded language, support for Palestinian rights, and opposition to the settlements, is equivalent to “delegitimisation” of Israel.</p>
<p>The current obsession with BDS reflects a changing political environment for Israel.</p>
<p>According to an investigation by the Haaretz newspaper last month, Israeli agents subverted the human rights community in the 1970s and 1980s. Their job was to launder Israel’s image abroad. Yoram Dinstein, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, led the local chapter of Amnesty International, the world’s most influential rights organisation of the time, running it effectively as a wing of Israel’s foreign ministry.</p>
<p>Dinstein’s interference allowed Israel to falsely characterise the occupation as benevolent while presenting the Palestinians’ liberation struggle as terrorism. The reality of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians rarely reached outsiders.</p>
<p>Israel’s task is harder five decades on. The human rights community is more independent, while social media and mobile phone cameras have allowed Palestinians and their supporters to bypass the gatekeepers.</p>
<p>In the past few days, videos have shown an Israeli policeman savagely beating a Palestinian lorry driver, and soldiers taking hostage a terrified eight-year-old after he crossed their path while searching for a toy.</p>
<p>If concealment at source is no longer so easy, the battle must be taken to those who disseminate this damning information. The urgency has grown as artists refuse to visit, universities sever ties, churches pull their investments and companies back out of deals.</p>
<p>Israel is already sealing itself off from outside scrutiny as best it can. Last month it passed a law denying entry into Israel or the occupied territories to those who support BDS or “delegitimise” Israel.</p>
<p>But domestic critics have proved trickier. The Israel government has chipped away at the human rights community’s financial base. Media regulation has intensified. And the culture ministry is cracking down on film productions that criticise the occupation or government policy.</p>
<p>But the local boycott movement is feeling the brunt of the assault. Activists already risk punitive damages if they call for a boycott of the settlements. Transport minister Yisrael Katz stepped up the threats last year, warning BDS leaders that they faced “civil targeted assassination”. What did he mean?</p>
<p>Omar Barghouti, the movement’s Palestinian figurehead, was arrested last month, accused of tax evasion. He is already under a travel ban, preventing him from receiving an international peace award this month. And Israeli officials want to strip him of his not-so “permanent” residency.</p>
<p>At the same time, a leading Israeli rights activist, Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was detained by police on suspicion of promoting BDS while leading activists on a tour of an illegal settlement.</p>
<p>These are the first signs of the repression to come. The police minister, Gilad Erdan, has announced plans for a database of Israelis who support BDS, to mirror existing spying operations on BDS activists overseas. The information will help a “dirty tricks” unit whose job is to tarnish their reputations.</p>
<p>Erdan also wants a blacklist of companies and organisations that support boycotts. A law passed in February already shames the few companies prepared to deny services to the settlements, forcing them publicly to “out” themselves.</p>
<p>Why is Israel so fearful? Officials say the immediate danger is Europe’s labelling of settlement products, the first step on a slippery slope they fear could lead to Israel being called an apartheid state. That would shift the debate from popular boycotts and divestment by civil society groups to pressure for action by governments – or sanctions.</p>
<p>The inexorable trend was illustrated last month when a United Nations commission found Israel guilty of breaching the international convention on the crime of apartheid. Washington forced the UN secretary-general to repudiate the report, but the comparison is not going away.</p>
<p>Israel supporters in the United States have taken Netanyahu’s message to heart. Last week they unveiled an online “boycotters map”, identifying academics who support BDS – both to prevent them entering Israel and presumably to damage their careers.</p>
<p>For the moment, the Israeli-engineered backlash is working. Western governments are characterising support for a boycott, even of the settlements, as anti-Semitic – driven by hatred of Jews rather than opposition to Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. Anti-BDS legislation has passed in France, Britain, Switzerland, Canada and the US.</p>
<p>This is precisely how Netanyahu wants to shape the “moral battlefield”. A reign of terror against free speech and political activism abroad and at home, leaving Israel free to crush the Palestinians.</p>
<p>On paper, it may sound workable. But Israel will soon have to accept that the apartheid genie is out of the bottle – and it cannot be put back.</p>
<p>A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.</p> | Israel Steps up Dirty Tricks Against Boycott Leaders | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/04/04/israel-steps-up-dirty-tricks-against-boycott-leaders/ | 2017-04-04 | 4 |
<p>Peter TerVeer, a former Library of Congress management analyst, claims his boss fired him because he’s gay. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>With no public notice, a gay man last December agreed to settle a potentially groundbreaking gay rights lawsuit he filed in 2012 accusing the Library of Congress of violating the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 by firing him because of his sexual orientation and gender.</p>
<p>A document filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Dec. 8, 2015, says former Library of Congress management analyst Peter TerVeer, 33, and representatives of the library agreed that TerVeer would ask the court to dismiss the case in exchange for a payment of $235,000.</p>
<p>“This payment is in full and final satisfaction of all of plaintiff’s claims in this case,” according to an 11-page Joint Stipulation of Settlement and Dismissal document, which is part of the court’s public records.</p>
<p>TerVeer and government attorneys representing the library jointly drafted the stipulation document. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly signed the document three days later when she dismissed the case on Dec. 11.</p>
<p>Although TerVeer’s attorneys called two news conferences to announce the filing of his lawsuit in August 2012, no public announcement and no known media coverage accompanied the decision to settle the case in December.</p>
<p>“[T]his stipulation is not intended and shall not be deemed an admission by either party of the merit or lack of merit of the opposing party’s claims and defenses,” the document states.</p>
<p>“Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, this stipulation does not constitute, and shall not be construed as, an admission that defendant, the agency, or any of the agency’s present or former employees or agents violated any of plaintiff’s rights or any laws or regulations, or as an admission of any contested fact alleged by plaintiff in connection with this case or otherwise,” it says.</p>
<p>TerVeer charged in his lawsuit that his supervisor, John Mech, subjected him to a hostile work environment after discovering he was gay by, among other things, repeatedly quoting biblical passages condemning homosexuality during work related office conversations.</p>
<p>The lawsuit says library officials denied TerVeer’s repeated requests to be transferred to another assignment in an office not under Mech’s supervision. It says Mech, meanwhile, gave him work assignments he knew TerVeer wasn’t trained for in a thinly veiled effort to set him up to fail and receive negative performance reviews.</p>
<p>The stress caused by the hostile work environment prompted TerVeer’s doctor to advise him to take an extended medical leave, the lawsuit says. It says that although library officials agreed to his request for disability leave he was fired after his leave time expired and he did not return to work.</p>
<p>The lawsuit called for the Library of Congress to reinstate TerVeer to his job, provide him with back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for is emotional distress, and an order prohibiting Mech from harassing and discriminating against him.</p>
<p>A Library of Congress spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations at the time it was filed, saying the library never discusses internal personnel matters or matters under litigation.</p>
<p>Gay rights attorneys considered the case important because a ruling affirming that anti-gay employment discrimination is a form of sex discrimination and is covered under the famed 1964 Civil Rights Act, as TerVeer maintained in his lawsuit, could potentially lead to full employment non-discrimination protection for lesbians and gay men nationwide.</p>
<p>The case received national attention in April 2014 when Kollar-Kotelly denied a motion to dismiss the case filed by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which represented the Library of Congress. The motion asserted that TerVeer failed to show he has legal standing to pursue his claim that he’s covered under the 1964 Civil Rights Act on grounds that he was subjected to illegal sex discrimination based on gender stereotyping as a gay man.</p>
<p>Jon Davidson, national legal director of the LGBT litigation group Lambda Legal, which filed a friend of the court brief in support of TerVeer’s lawsuit, said the settlement eliminates any chance of an appeals court setting a legal precedent in the case confirming that the 1964 Civil Rights Act covers gays and lesbians.</p>
<p>However, Davidson said at least five other pending cases with which Lambda Legal is involved could bring about the same result.</p>
<p>“All of these cases also present the issue of sexual orientation based employment discrimination as a form of sex discrimination barred by Title VII,” he said in referring to a clause in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.</p>
<p>“We understand that private parties may settle a case for many reasons, including not wanting to expend further resources on it or further delay a recovery,” Davidson told the Washington Blade on Sunday.</p>
<p>“We have no specific information about the settlement and no comment other than to thank Mr. TerVeer and his counsel for having filed the case, which resulted in a positive district court decision in 2014 finding that Mr. TerVeer sufficiently alleged cognizable sex discrimination under title VII to be entitled to proceed with his lawsuit,” said Davidson.</p>
<p>The settlement came 15 months after the two sides entered into court supervised mediation for a possible settlement in September 2014. The court docket shows that on Nov. 21, 2014, — three weeks after the mediation negotiations were scheduled to end — the lawsuit’s information gathering process known as discovery resumed, indicating that no settlement was reached and the case was moving forward to trial.</p>
<p>William Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the government’s decision to pay TerVeer $235,000 is not an acknowledgement that the Library of Congress acted improperly in firing TerVeer. He pointed to the stipulation agreement’s assertion that the settlement was “entered into to resolve the matter and avoid the risks and burdens of continued litigation.”</p>
<p>Miller said the U.S. Attorney’s Office follows a longstanding federal regulation on open judicial proceedings.</p>
<p>“Most settlements involving the federal government are publicly available, pursuant to this regulation, which we adhere to,” he said.</p>
<p>Christopher Brown of the D.C. law firm Ackerman-Brown, who was part of the legal team representing TerVeer, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the ultimate decision to settle the case and why the settlement terms were made public.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christopher Brown</a> <a href="" type="internal">Colleen Kollar-Kotelly</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C.</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">John Mech</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jon Davidson</a> <a href="" type="internal">Lambda Legal</a> <a href="" type="internal">Library of Congress</a> <a href="" type="internal">Peter TerVeer</a> <a href="" type="internal">William Miller</a></p> | Gay man settles Library of Congress discrimination lawsuit | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/04/18/gay-man-settles-library-of-congress-discrimination-lawsuit/ | 3 |
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<p>BRUSSELS — In an ultimatum to America’s allies, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told fellow NATO members Wednesday to increase military spending by year’s end or risk seeing the U.S. curtail its defense support — a stark threat given Europe’s deep unease already over U.S.-Russian relations.</p>
<p>Echoing President Donald Trump’s demands for NATO countries to assume greater self-defense responsibility, Mattis said Washington will “moderate its commitment” to the alliance if countries fail to fall in line. He didn’t offer details, but the pressure is sure to be felt, particularly by governments in Europe’s eastern reaches that feel threatened by Russian expansionism.</p>
<p>Trump’s Russia policy remains a mystery for many of America’s closest international partners. As a candidate, the Republican president steered clear of criticizing Moscow for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he wanted a new era of cooperation between the former Cold War foes.</p>
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<p>But that possibility grew murkier this week as Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, over the retired Army lieutenant general’s communications with Russia before Trump took office. The departure of Flynn, who also promoted the idea of working with Moscow, has added to speculation about how the U.S.-Russian relationship might evolve.</p>
<p>Amid the uncertainty from Washington, the Kremlin may be testing the West’s resolve. A U.S. defense official said this week that Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty. And violence has sporadically re-ignited in eastern Ukraine, where the U.S. and its partners say Moscow continues to back a separatist insurgency.</p>
<p>“No longer can the American taxpayer carry a disproportionate share of the defense of Western values,” Mattis told the alliance’s 27 other defense ministers, according to a text of his remarks. “Americans cannot care more for your children’s future security than you do.”</p>
<p>The entire alliance seemed to hang on Mattis’ every word Wednesday. Officials crowded around televisions at the NATO meeting in Brussels to watch the retired general’s initial appearance with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Defense ministers clustered around Mattis as he entered the meeting room.</p>
<p>Citing danger from Russia, Mattis told the closed meeting of ministers they must adopt a plan this year that sets dates for governments to meet a military funding goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product. He called the funding increase a “fair demand” based on the “political reality” in Washington, an apparent reference to Trump’s past criticism of NATO as “obsolete” and his much-touted “‘America First” mantra.</p>
<p>Noting the threat posed by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, Mattis said: “Some in this alliance have looked away in denial of what is happening.”</p>
<p>“We have failed to fill gaps in our NATO response force or to adapt,” he added.</p>
<p>Trump has challenged the alliance to take on a greater share of military costs, even rattling European nations by suggesting the U.S. might not defend allies unwilling to fulfill their financial obligations as NATO members.</p>
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<p>Mattis didn’t go that far, and Wednesday’s focus appeared to be on simply increasing military funding if not fully reaching the target. Many European governments face hostility to more military spending, especially as their slow economic recoveries force belt-tightening elsewhere.</p>
<p>The United States is by far NATO’s most powerful member, spending more on defense than all the others combined. It devoted 3.61 percent of American GDP last year to military spending, according to NATO estimates — a level that has somewhat tapered off in recent years.</p>
<p>Germany, by contrast, spent 1.19 percent of its overall budget on defense. Ten countries commit even less, and seven — including Canada, Italy and Spain — would have to virtually double military spending to reach the target. Luxembourg would require a fourfold increase to get close.</p>
<p>Along with the U.S., the other countries that do reach NATO’s benchmark for military spending are Britain, Estonia, Poland and debt-ridden Greece.</p>
<p>British’s defense chief, Michael Fallon, said Mattis appeared to welcome a British proposal to create a road map for increased spending. “An annual increase that we’re asking them to commit to would at least demonstrate good faith,” he said.</p>
<p>Asked about Mattis’ ultimatum, NATO chief Stoltenberg said allies need time to develop plans. Many are already talking about increasing commitments, he said.</p>
<p>“This is not the U.S. telling Europe to increase defense spending,” Stoltenberg said, noting that allies committed three years ago already to increase spending over the next decade. He said: “I welcome all pressure, all support, to make sure that happens.”</p>
<p>Despite the sharpness of his demand, Mattis appeared to recognize Europe’s worries and its leaders’ desire for clarity on America’s commitment to NATO.</p>
<p>In a brief public statement, made while standing alongside Stoltenberg, Mattis called the alliance “a fundamental bedrock for the United States and for all the trans-Atlantic community.”</p>
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<p>Associated Press writer Lorne Cook contributed to this report.</p> | Pentagon boss to NATO nations: Increase military spending | false | https://abqjournal.com/950573/pentagon-chief-says-nato-members-must-boost-defense-spending.html | 2017-02-15 | 2 |
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<p>Inspired by the leadership and vision of President Donald Trump, far right French leader Marine Le Pen vows to put France First as she gave a fiery speech in Lyon where she launched her presidential bid.</p>
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<p>Following Trump's strong commitment to an America First policy, Le Pen of the National Front emphasized that under her leadership, she would ensure that France's national interests would take precedence above all else.</p>
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<p>Le Pen told the cheering crowd that under her presidency, they would be all about the local, not the global. She also took the time to criticize globalization, not just that of the financial world but also "a globalization from below" through mass immigration.</p>
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<p>Le Pen also promised to be tough in fighting crime with zero tolerance as she underscored that she does not want the French people to live under the yoke or of the threat of Islamic terrorism. There is a growing sentiment for anti-immigrant in France following the country's painful experiences with terrorist attacks the past recent years starting with a massacre in Paris on November 13, 2015 that claimed 130 lives.</p>
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<p>The National Front leader also scored the European Union, threatening to hold a referendum similar to the one Britain did that paved the way for its exit from the union. She said that she will give the French people the chance to resign from the "nightmare of EU."</p>
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<p>Le Pen also unveiled her party program during her speech including measures for the reintroduction of border patrols, strict limits on immigration, a return to the country's pre-euro franc currency, and the prospect of leaving NATO. The party manifesto was also very particular about tough security measures in fighting terrorism including the possibility of stripping binational offenders linked to terrorist networks of their French citizenship.</p>
<p />
<p>Le Pen had previously expressed her support for Trump saying he was already implementing her vision of leadership and plans for her own country. She also shared her wishes to pull off a similar upset victory that Trump achieved and the shock win of the Brexit, saying that her own triumph in the French presidential elections would complete the political change and new order sweeping the world today.</p> | Marine Le Pen Influenced By Trump Vows To Put France First | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1284-Marine-Le-Pen-Influenced-By-Trump-Vows-To-Put-France-First | 2017-02-06 | 0 |
<p>Republican Vote Share Bigger in Landline-Only Surveys</p>
<p>by Scott Keeter, Leah Christian and Michael Dimock, Pew Research Center</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Download the complete report</a></p>
<p>The number of Americans who rely solely or mostly on a cell phone has been growing for several years, posing an increasing likelihood that public opinion polls conducted only by landline telephone will be biased. A new analysis of Pew Research Center pre-election surveys conducted this year finds that support for Republican candidates was significantly higher in samples based only on landlines than in dual frame samples that combined landline and cell phone interviews. The difference in the margin among likely voters this year is about twice as large as in 2008.</p>
<p>Across three Pew Research polls conducted in fall 2010 — conducted among 5,216 likely voters, including 1,712 interviewed on cell phones — the GOP held a lead that was on average 5.1 percentage points larger in the landline sample than in the combined landline and cell phone sample.</p>
<p>In six polls conducted in the fall of 2008, Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain was on average 2.4 percentage points smaller in the landline samples than in the combined samples.</p>
<p>In Pew Research’s <a href="../../pubs/1787/2010-pre-election-survey-gop-win-house-wide-turnout-advantage-engagement-gap" type="external">final pre-election poll</a> in 2010, the landline sample of likely voters found Republican candidates ahead 51%-39%, a 12-point lead. In the sample that combined landline and cell phone interviews, the Republican lead was 48%-42%, a six-point advantage. The national vote for House candidates is not yet final; currently, Republicans lead by approximately a seven-point margin. The key comparison in this analysis is between estimates based on the landline sample alone, weighted to a standard set of demographic characteristics, and the combined sample of landline and cell phone interviews, weighted to the same demographic characteristics plus telephone status and usage (see the <a href="#data" type="external">methodology statement</a> for more details).</p>
<p>A previous analysis in May found a growing potential bias in landline only surveys (See “ <a href="../../pubs/1601/assessing-cell-phone-challenge-in-public-opinion-surveys" type="external">Assessing the Cell Phone Challenge</a>,” May 20, 2010). Previous Pew Research studies on this subject had generally found only small and often non-significant differences between landline and dual frame samples ( <a href="http://people-press.org/report/276/the-cell-phone-challenge-to-survey-research" type="external">May 2006</a>, <a href="../../pubs/515/polling-cell-only-problem" type="external">June 2007</a>, <a href="http://people-press.org/report/391/" type="external">Jan. 2008</a>, <a href="../../pubs/1061/cell-phones-election-polling" type="external">Dec. 2008</a>).</p>
<p>The new analysis also finds consistent differences between the landline and combined samples when comparing registered voters. In five of six Pew Research polls conducted during 2010, there was a three to six percentage point difference on the margin among registered voters. Only one poll showed no difference.</p>
<p>The difference in estimates produced by landline and dual frame samples is a consequence not only of the inclusion of the cell phone-only voters who are missed by landline surveys, but also of those with both landline and cell phones — so called dual users — who are reached by cell phone. Dual users reached on their cell phone differ demographically and attitudinally from those reached on their landline phone. They are younger, more likely to be black or Hispanic, less likely to be college graduates, less conservative and more Democratic in their vote preference than dual users reached by landline.</p>
<p>Among dual users reached by landline, Republicans had a 12-point advantage among likely voters. But the GOP lead was only five points among dual users reached by cell phone. Among cell phone only voters, there was no Republican lead (a nominal 47%-44% Democratic edge). These patterns were, if anything, stronger among the broader sample of registered voters than among likely voters.</p>
<p>Duals reached by landline made up a smaller proportion of voters in the dual frame sample than the landline sample because of the addition of the cell only respondents and the duals reached by cell. The latter two groups comprised about a third of all voters in the dual frame sample.</p>
<p>While dual users reached by landline were the majority of voters in both the dual frame sample and the landline sample, they were a far smaller proportion of voters in the dual frame sample because of the addition of the cell only respondents and the duals reached by cell. The latter two groups comprised about a third of all voters in the dual frame sample. <a href="#en1" type="external">1</a></p>
<p>Those who only have a landline also were somewhat more Democratic in their vote preference than respondents reached on their landline who also have a cell phone. However, in both the landline sample and the combined sample, landline only respondents made up only about 10% of the sample. <a href="#en2" type="external">2</a></p>
<p>Further evidence of the impact of dual users reached by cell phone can be seen in a comparison of blended samples that include landline and cell phone interviews with those that include landline and just the cell-only respondents. Adding just the cell-only respondents to the landline samples reduced the GOP advantage, but not as much as including all of the interviews from the cell phone sample.</p>
<p>Republicans led the Democrats by average margin of 9.5 percentage points among likely voters when cell-only respondents were included with the landline survey. The Republican advantage was 7.6 percentage points in the combined sample that includes all of the interviews completed by cell.</p>
<p>Cell phones pose a particular challenge for getting accurate estimates of young people’s vote preferences and related political opinions and behavior. Young people are difficult to reach by landline phone, both because many have no landline and because of their lifestyles. In Pew Research Center surveys this year about twice as many interviews with people younger than age 30 are conducted by cell phone than by landline, despite the fact that Pew Research samples include twice as many landlines as cell phones.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201005.pdf" type="external">latest estimates</a> from the National Center for Health Statistics, in the second half of 2009, 38% of 18 to 24 year olds and 49% of 25 to 29 year olds lived in households that had no landline. And research has shown that people younger than age 30 who are cell phone only can have different behaviors and attitudes than those who are reachable by a landline phone. <a href="#en3" type="external">3</a></p>
<p>Estimates from the combined landline and cell sample based on the last three pre-election Pew Research surveys showed Democrats with a 53%-to-38% lead over Republicans among registered voters younger than age 30. But estimates based only on interviews from the landline sample showed Democratic and Republican candidates running about even among young voters — 49% said that if the elections were held today they would vote for the Democratic candidate, while 45% backed the Republican candidate in their district. The difference in the margin between the combined sample and the landline sample was 11 points.</p>
<p>These sample differences in voter preference were not limited just to voters younger than age 30. Estimates based on the landline and cell interviews produced slightly less support for Republican candidates and greater support for Democratic candidates in voters ages 30-39 and 40-49. Among registered voters in both of these age groups, there was a difference in the margin of five percentage points. Among registered voters ages 50 and older, there was little difference in the margin between the combined sample and the landline samples.</p>
<p>Comparing the vote preference of likely voters across age groups produces a similar result, although the estimates are not quite as robust because of the smaller sample sizes. Because young people are significantly less likely than older adults to be classified as likely voters, the sample size of young likely voters is reduced considerably.</p>
<p>Dual users reached by cell phone are much younger than those reached by landline — 22% of duals interviewed on their cell phone are younger than age 30, compared with only 8% of duals reached on their landline.</p>
<p>The cell phone only are younger than dual users and those with only a landline; 42% of people with only a cell phone are younger than age 30.</p>
<p>Half of those who have only a landline phone are ages 65 or older — far higher than in any other phone use category.</p>
<p>There also are differences by education. More of the duals reached by cell than by landline have only a high school education or less (33% vs. 29%) while more duals reached on their landline are college graduates (43% vs. 38%).</p>
<p>Seven-in-ten (70%) duals interviewed on their cell phone are non-Hispanic whites, compared with 79% of duals reached on their landline.</p>
<p>Hispanics and African-Americans comprise a larger proportion of duals reached on their cell phone than on their landline phone.</p>
<p>As the voter preferences would suggest, duals reached on their cell phone are somewhat more Democratic in their party affiliation than those interviewed on their landline phones.</p>
<p>By a 47%-to-43% margin duals reached on their cell phone identify with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic.</p>
<p>This balance is nearly reversed among duals reached on their landline — 46% are Republicans or lean Republican, while 43% are Democrats or lean Democratic.</p>
<p>Both the cell onlys and those with only a landline phone are more Democratic than Republican in their party identification.</p>
<p>Duals interviewed on their landline phone are somewhat more conservative in their political views than those reached by cell (43% vs. 40%).</p>
<p>Cell onlys, by contrast, are more liberal than duals reached by landline or cell phone.</p>
<p>Duals reached by cell also are less likely to be registered to vote than those interviewed on their landline phone (80% vs. 88%).</p>
<p>Voter registration is lowest among those with only a cell phone — just 60% are registered voters.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Most results in this report are from six Pew Research Center surveys conducted in 2010. All six surveys were based on telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide samples of adults, 18 years of age or older, living in the continental United States. The table below shows the field dates and sample sizes for registered and likely voters for each survey.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The late October survey was conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International with data collection by Princeton Data Source and Abt/SRBI Inc. The mid-October, September, August and March surveys were conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International with data collection by Princeton Data Source. The June survey was conducted by Abt SRBI, Inc. Interviews were conducted in English only for the mid-October and late October surveys. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish for the other four surveys. The landline and cell phone samples for all six surveys were provided by Survey Sampling International.</p>
<p>The combined landline and cell phone sample are weighted using an iterative technique that matches gender, age, education, race/ethnicity, region, and population density to parameters from the March 2009 Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. The sample also is weighted to match current patterns of telephone status and relative usage of landline and cell phones (for those with both), based on extrapolations from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey.</p>
<p>The weighting procedure also accounts for the fact that respondents with both landline and cell phones have a greater probability of being included in the sample and adjusts for household size within the landline sample. The landline sample is weighted using the same techniques as the combined sample, except that the telephone status and usage parameter is excluded, and there is no correction for respondents with both landline and cell phones, since they have only one chance of being included in the sample. The landline plus cell only sample is weighted using the same techniques as the combined sample, except that there is no correction for respondents with both landline and cell phones, since they have only one chance of being included in the sample.</p>
<p>The significance tests comparing the estimates based on the combined landline and cell sample with those from the landline sample account for the overlap in the two samples since the landline respondents are included in both samples. The tests were conducted using software that accommodates complex survey samples.</p>
<p>Sampling errors and statistical tests of significance take into account the effect of weighting. The following table shows the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for the combined landline and cell sample and the landline sample only for registered and likely voters:</p>
<p />
<p>In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.</p>
<p>Likely voter estimates are based on a seven-item turnout scale that includes the following questions: thought given to the election, have ever voted in your precinct or election district, how often you follow government and public affairs, frequency of voting, whether you plan to vote in the election, chance of voting in the election on an 10-point scale, and whether you voted in the 2008 election. Those in the mid-October and late October surveys who said they already voted were automatically counted as likely voters. More details about the Pew Research Center’s methodology for estimating likelihood to vote are available at: <a href="http://people-press.org/methodology/files/UnderstandingLikelyVoters.pdf" type="external">http://people-press.org/methodology/files/UnderstandingLikelyVoters.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />1. The ratio of dual users reached by landline vs. those reached by cell phone is dependent on the overall ratio of landline to cell interviews. In Pew Research Center surveys conducted this year, a third of the completed interviews were conducted by cell phone and two-thirds were completed by landline. <a type="external" href="" />2. The ratio of dual users reached by landline vs. those reached by cell phone is dependent on the overall ratio of landline to cell interviews. In Pew Research Center surveys conducted this year, a third of the completed interviews were conducted by cell phone and two-thirds were completed by landline. <a type="external" href="" />3. Stephen J. Blumberg and Julian V. Luke. Coverage Bias in Traditional Telephone Surveys of Low-Income and Young Adults. 2007 Public Opinion Quarterly 2007 71: 734-749. Avalable at <a href="http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/71/5/734" type="external">http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/71/5/734</a>.</p> | The Growing Gap between Landline and Dual Frame Election Polls | false | http://pewresearch.org/2010/11/22/the-growing-gap-between-landline-and-dual-frame-election-polls/ | 2010-11-22 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html?lnktrk=EMP&amp;g=7A494CEC5BBBEC67846C9953B5B546E70AC0315E&amp;lkid=netflixBlog" type="external">Netflix</a> co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings announced on Monday that the company will split its DVD-by-mail and video streaming services into two entities. Hastings also apologized for the way the company announced its recent price hike.</p>
<p>"It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes," Hastings wrote in a blog post and an email to customers. "That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology."</p>
<p>Hastings wrote that, over the last few years, Netflix has grown worried that it would fail to keep up with the shift toward streaming video. That concern prompted the recent price hike and separation of streaming and DVD services.</p>
<p>"When Netflix is evolving rapidly, however, I need to be extra-communicative. This is the key thing I got wrong," Hastings wrote. "In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success."</p>
<p>In an acknowledgement that "DVD by mail may not last forever," the company has decided to rename that service, with its distinctive red envelopes, Qwikster. The company will continue to offer streaming under the Netflix name.</p>
<p>"A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated," Hastings wrote, describing some of the practical changes involved in the move. "So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn't show up on Netflix, and vice-versa."</p>
<p>After <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hmYGoQDIgG8gN0OcihXn4IjW0LTg?docId=9afe1ebc1ed840a89f6640bc1d363b48" type="external">Hastings</a>' announcement, the Associated Press called the move "a risky bet."</p>
<p>The amount of streaming content the company offers is still far less than the number of DVDs in its catalog. And competition, from Hulu, Amazon, Coinstar's Redbox kiosks and other services, is growing. Netflix could even alienate customers further by asking them to now deal with two separate websites and accounts instead of just one.</p> | Netflix splits its DVD, streaming services | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-19/netflix-splits-its-dvd-streaming-services | 2011-09-19 | 3 |
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<p>RICHARDSON, Texas —&#160;Seventy-one Western New Mexico University student-athletes landed on the Lone Star Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll Tuesday. In order to be on the list, student-athletes had to have at least a 3.30 GPA at the end of the fall semester and be on a current team roster.</p>
<p>Twenty recorded a perfect 4.0 for the semester, with football putting the most on the list with 16. Below is a complete list of Mustangs that qualified for the award.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Western New Mexico lands 71 on Lone Star academic honor list | false | https://abqjournal.com/929597/western-new-mexico-lands-71-on-lone-star-academic-honor-list.html | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico regulators on Wednesday proposed a smaller rate hike for customers of the state's largest electric provider while backtracking on a finding that questioned coal-related investments by Public Service Co. of New Mexico.</p>
<p>A divided Public Regulation Commission voted 3-2 following a hearing in Santa Fe regarding a contentious and lengthy case. The panel's proposal would still need to be considered by consumer and industry groups and other parties that have been negotiating with the utility.</p>
<p>The commission could take up the matter again as soon as next week.</p>
<p>Commissioners during Wednesday's hearing expressed frustration with the process after already having approved a 9 percent rate increase in December and finding that the utility should not be allowed to recoup certain coal-related investments because the costs were found to be imprudent.</p>
<p>"This commission is tired of what has gone on here," chairman Sandy Jones declared before the panel voted on the latest proposal.</p>
<p>Jones and commissioners Patrick Lyons and Lynda Lovejoy voted in favor, while Valerie Espinoza and Cynthia Hall opposed it.</p>
<p>Under the measure, regulators would take up the question about whether the utility's investments in coal were prudent in a future proceeding.</p>
<p>A reduced rate hike of about 2 percent also is outlined in the proposal. The utility had initially asked for a 14 percent hike.</p>
<p>The change in the rate stems from the recent federal tax overhaul. Utility officials told the commission that customers would benefit because the utility wouldn't need to raise as much revenue thanks to lower corporate taxes that are part of the Republican tax plan that President Donald Trump signed into law last month.</p>
<p>The proposal also relies heavily on an agreement that had been reached by several parties last year. The utility reiterated to the commission Wednesday that the agreement represents a "good deal for customers."</p>
<p>"There is a path forward," said Rick Alvidrez, an attorney representing the utility.</p>
<p>Other supporters also spoke in favor of the previous agreement, noting that it had broad support from a wide contingent of consumer advocates, industry groups, environmentalists and the state attorney general's office.</p>
<p>One group, New Energy Economy, has opposed the part of the agreement that pertains to coal investments. It has argued that the utility's financial analysis of the costs and benefits of keeping the Four Corners Power Plant running was flawed and that ratepayers shouldn't be saddled with the bill.</p>
<p>"It is not OK for PNM to come in, cry wolf and say 'Gosh, it's going to hurt our business.' If they wanted to do things in a prudent fashion under your laws, we wouldn't be here," New Energy Economy executive director Mariel Nanasi told the commission.</p>
<p>Others argued that fighting over whether the commission declares the utility's decisions imprudent would not ultimately affect customers.</p>
<p>"No one in the case agreed that PNM's actions with respect to Four Corners were prudent. That's probably the easiest issue," said Steven Michel with Western Resource Advocates. "What's the remedy? That's the piece that is so critical, so difficult."</p>
<p>Utility officials declined to comment Wednesday, saying they were still reviewing the commission's proposal.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico regulators on Wednesday proposed a smaller rate hike for customers of the state's largest electric provider while backtracking on a finding that questioned coal-related investments by Public Service Co. of New Mexico.</p>
<p>A divided Public Regulation Commission voted 3-2 following a hearing in Santa Fe regarding a contentious and lengthy case. The panel's proposal would still need to be considered by consumer and industry groups and other parties that have been negotiating with the utility.</p>
<p>The commission could take up the matter again as soon as next week.</p>
<p>Commissioners during Wednesday's hearing expressed frustration with the process after already having approved a 9 percent rate increase in December and finding that the utility should not be allowed to recoup certain coal-related investments because the costs were found to be imprudent.</p>
<p>"This commission is tired of what has gone on here," chairman Sandy Jones declared before the panel voted on the latest proposal.</p>
<p>Jones and commissioners Patrick Lyons and Lynda Lovejoy voted in favor, while Valerie Espinoza and Cynthia Hall opposed it.</p>
<p>Under the measure, regulators would take up the question about whether the utility's investments in coal were prudent in a future proceeding.</p>
<p>A reduced rate hike of about 2 percent also is outlined in the proposal. The utility had initially asked for a 14 percent hike.</p>
<p>The change in the rate stems from the recent federal tax overhaul. Utility officials told the commission that customers would benefit because the utility wouldn't need to raise as much revenue thanks to lower corporate taxes that are part of the Republican tax plan that President Donald Trump signed into law last month.</p>
<p>The proposal also relies heavily on an agreement that had been reached by several parties last year. The utility reiterated to the commission Wednesday that the agreement represents a "good deal for customers."</p>
<p>"There is a path forward," said Rick Alvidrez, an attorney representing the utility.</p>
<p>Other supporters also spoke in favor of the previous agreement, noting that it had broad support from a wide contingent of consumer advocates, industry groups, environmentalists and the state attorney general's office.</p>
<p>One group, New Energy Economy, has opposed the part of the agreement that pertains to coal investments. It has argued that the utility's financial analysis of the costs and benefits of keeping the Four Corners Power Plant running was flawed and that ratepayers shouldn't be saddled with the bill.</p>
<p>"It is not OK for PNM to come in, cry wolf and say 'Gosh, it's going to hurt our business.' If they wanted to do things in a prudent fashion under your laws, we wouldn't be here," New Energy Economy executive director Mariel Nanasi told the commission.</p>
<p>Others argued that fighting over whether the commission declares the utility's decisions imprudent would not ultimately affect customers.</p>
<p>"No one in the case agreed that PNM's actions with respect to Four Corners were prudent. That's probably the easiest issue," said Steven Michel with Western Resource Advocates. "What's the remedy? That's the piece that is so critical, so difficult."</p>
<p>Utility officials declined to comment Wednesday, saying they were still reviewing the commission's proposal.</p> | New Mexico regulators propose smaller electric rate hike | false | https://apnews.com/amp/616349fda8454dbe875f0cf0c0813100 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Moynihan, from the start, contradicted his case for liberal social policies by identifying family structure as African Americans’ “master problem,” the root cause of their self-perpetuating “tangle of pathology."</p>
<p>Whenever conservatives argue that the main barriers to racial equality are cultural factors within the African-American community such as the high rate of female-headed families and out-of-wedlock births, they often cite Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s 1965 government report, <a href="http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/moynchapter4.htm" type="external">The Negro Family</a>. The Moynihan Report, as it’s more commonly known, is a Frankenstein’s monster that conservatives resurrect every time Americans are confronted with the consequences of racial and class inequality.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that the report is now half a century old, today’s conservatives have <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419743/most-americans-expect-long-hot-summer-racial-unrest-moynihan-would-not-be-surprised" type="external">used the report</a> much as their forerunners did when it was released shortly after the Watts Uprising. The Right argues that Moynihan presciently revealed that African-American inequality is rooted primarily in family structure; thus, only moral revitalization—not economic redistribution and a strong social safety net—can ensure black progress.</p>
<p>The conservative response to the gross racial injustices recently highlighted in Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere have proven no exception: Jason T. Riley of the Wall Street Journal, for instance, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/jason-l-riley-still-right-on-the-black-family-after-all-these-years-1423613625" type="external">observes</a> that Moynihan showed “ghetto outcomes” result from “ghetto culture,” not from historic and ongoing oppression. Conservative institutions such as the <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2015/03/the-moynihan-report-50-years-later-why-marriage-more-than-ever-promotes-opportunity-for-all" type="external">Heritage Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.hoover.org/events/single-parent-families-revisiting-moynihan-report-50-years-later" type="external">the Hoover Institution</a>, and <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/multimedia/events/050515MI/" type="external">the Manhattan Institute</a> now celebrate the report’s half-century anniversary.</p>
<p>For 50 years, conservatives have used the report to rationalize the persistence of inequality in the post-civil rights era. Citing Moynihan in 1965, William F. Buckley declared, “leaders of the Negro people must take on the responsibility of helping their own people and dispelling the illusion that what is left to do is primarily up to the white man.” At an American Enterprise Institute event commemorating the report’s thirtieth anniversary in 1995, William Bennett concluded, “The most serious problems afflicting our society today are manifestly moral, behavioral and spiritual, and therefore remarkably resistant to government cures.”</p>
<p>Like Dr. Frankenstein, who did not anticipate his creation’s destiny, conservative appropriation of the Moynihan Report is deeply ironic because Moynihan wrote it as a liberal official in President Lyndon Johnson’s administration. The civil rights movement had successfully pushed for the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would soon follow. But, as Moynihan understood, African Americans sought not only legal and political rights, but also a guaranteed basic standard of living. By highlighting black family “instability,” Moynihan hoped to draw attention to the deeper social and economic inequities faced by African Americans, especially the dearth of job opportunities for black men that prevented them from serving as family breadwinners. Conservatives shamelessly ignore these elements of the report when celebrating it.</p>
<p>There are those today—such as the authors of the Urban Institute’s <a href="http://www.urban.org/research/publication/moynihan-report-revisited" type="external">The Moynihan Report Revisited</a>, prominent sociologist <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/53222/" type="external">William Julius Wilson</a>, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/opinion/when-liberals-blew-it.html?_r=0" type="external">Nicholas Kristof</a> of the New York Times—who seek to revive the report as a liberal document. Moynihan, they say, actually argued for a strong welfare state that helps keep families intact; his good intentions have simply been misunderstood.</p>
<p>But liberals ignore how successfully conservatives have used this contradictory document to their own ends at their own peril. This is not a monster that liberals can control. Highlighting family structure is just as likely to rationalize inequality as it is to dramatize it.</p>
<p>Moreover, the report remains deeply ambiguous and flawed. The very fact that it appeals to both conservatives and liberals suggests its ideological promiscuity. Moynihan, from the start, contradicted his case for liberal social policies by identifying family structure as African Americans’ “master problem,” the root cause of their self-perpetuating “tangle of pathology.” By so doing, Moynihan implied either that African Americans must create and preserve nuclear families through their own efforts or that racial inequality was so entrenched that government could not effectively alleviate it. Paradoxically, a report meant to convince Johnson to take “national action” offered a powerful justification for government inaction.</p>
<p>Wresting the report back from conservatives furthermore limits today’s ambitions to the faulty aspirations of 1960s liberalism. We don’t have to mischaracterize Moynihan as a racist or as a proponent of draconian welfare reform to see the problems with his analysis.</p>
<p>As many of Moynihan’s critics at the time recognized, focusing on African Americans’ behavior overlooked systemic racism. It labeled families that deviated from the patriarchal nuclear family model “pathological.” Moynihan, worried about the pernicious effects of “matriarchy,” even advocated taking jobs away from black women to give them to black men. His most concrete policy suggestion for providing employment to black men was to recruit more into the armed forces, then fighting a war in Vietnam—one kind of jobs program, deadly and highly unjust, that this country has proved willing to provide for African Americans and poor people.</p>
<p>Endorsements of the Moynihan Report also risk ignoring the facts revealed by a half-century of social science research. As <a href="https://contemporaryfamilies.org/moynihan-then-and-now-brief-report/" type="external">a recent report by the Council on Contemporary Families</a> shows, while the number of single-parent families has risen among all Americans, many of Moynihan’s other conclusions have been disproven. For example, the increase in single-parent families has not led to a rise in juvenile crime rates as Moynihan predicted. We should study the adverse effects of unemployment and poverty on families, but Moynihan is clearly not a reliable guide to the subject.</p>
<p>Liberal supporters also join conservatives in repeating a common—but mistaken—understanding of the Moynihan Report controversy that blames intemperate leftists for misunderstanding Moynihan’s intentions. On <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/the-moynihan-report-50-years-later-438628419800" type="external">Meet the Press this May</a>, for example, Tom Brokaw blamed “black leaders” for having “vilified” Moynihan instead of “seizing the moment” in 1965. Actually, some civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., concurred with parts of Moynihan’s diagnosis. But the real issue is not whether or not one agreed with Moynihan, but our society’s failure—then and now—to devote the resources necessary to redress centuries of racial oppression and fairly distribute our wealth. Blaming the Left for failing to accept Moynihan’s conclusions perversely holds civil rights activists accountable for contemporary inequalities.</p>
<p>Racial and class inequality are again on the national agenda as they were when Moynihan wrote his report. Yet the document is hardly a good starting point for discussing these problems. The uncritical celebration of Moynihan’s analysis threatens once again to distract from the real causes of inequities and injustice in our society. As the Moynihan Report turns 50, we should let it enjoy a long-delayed natural death.</p>
<p>Daniel Geary is the Mark Pigott Assistant Professor of U.S. History at Trinity College Dublin and the author of <a type="external" href="">Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy</a> (University of Pennsylvania Press, June 2015).</p> | The Moynihan Report Is Turning 50. Its Ideas on Black Poverty Were Wrong Then and Are Wrong Now. | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/18132/moynihan-report-black-poverty | 2015-06-30 | 4 |
<p>Have you seen what’s been happening to <a href="" type="internal">Netflix</a> (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock? The stock fell about 40% this week, down to $77 a share.</p>
<p>In July, the stock was selling for $300 a share. Folks who bought the shares at $300 have lost a lot of money, so should we bail them out? Or how about just bailing out the folks who can't afford the loss?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>We could work out some kind of formula: If their Netflix stock equaled 1% of their income, the government could bail them out. Of course this is ridiculous talk. When folks agree to buy something, there's no guarantee it will pay off. You shouldn't buy any stock unless you can afford to lose it.</p>
<p>But it's the same kind of talk we're hearing about home mortgages and college loans. Our economy can't survive if folks who borrow money never intend to pay it back.</p>
<p>Eventually, the folks who lend money would stop lending. And in fact, that's exactly what's happening now. Banks aren't lending partly because too many folks are expecting a bailout. That mentality undermines our entire economy. This talk of bailouts has to stop.</p>
<p>It's tough to lose money on a stock like Netflix. It's tough to lose your house if you can't pay the mortgage. But it's tougher to live in a society where stock markets and banks close down because no one's willing to take risks and pay back what they owe.</p> | Next Bailout Target: Netflix Shareholders? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/10/26/next-bailout-target-netflix-shareholders.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Gov. Phil Bryant failed to acknowledge many of Mississippi's problems in the State of the State address, a lawmaker said in the Democrats' televised response.</p>
<p>Bryant gave the speech Tuesday at the Capitol, saying critics are portraying Mississippi in a negative light.</p>
<p>Rep. Jay Hughes of Oxford said Mississippi is last in public education, last in mental health care and first in poverty. He also said the state suffers from a "brain drain," with large numbers of college graduates leaving.</p>
<p>While the governor mentioned low unemployment and robust job creation, Hughes said too many communities are stuck with low-paying jobs that don't provide a way out of poverty.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, the policies that impact our quality of life have merely gone unchanged and underfunded," Hughes said. "Simply ignoring a problem is not a solution."</p>
<p>Other response to the State of the State:</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton:</p>
<p>Gunn said not to read too much into Bryant's failure to mention road and bridge funding, saying he and Bryant have had "ongoing conversations."</p>
<p>"The governor can't cover everything in a 20-minute speech."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat:</p>
<p>"The governor did a good job showing what's bright with our economy, but he doesn't talk about things that are going to cost money, like roads and bridges."</p>
<p>"The job of government is to fix problems, and you've got to talk about the problems to fix them. You've got to talk about money."</p>
<p>Hood said he thought it was a missed opportunity that lawmakers weren't doing more to try to aid the city of Jackson with its infrastructure problems. "You've got porta-potties outside the Capitol building."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Lydia Chassaniol of Winona:</p>
<p>Chassaniol said she thought the governor's emphasis on racial reconciliation recognized the honesty of the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. "It needs to be acknowledges that we pretty much laid ourselves bare."</p>
<p>"I was excited to hear his interest in improving not only the health care and the education, but the job opportunities for poor people."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Democratic Sen. Sollie Norwood of Jackson:</p>
<p>"The governor had some good expressions. I was listening for the how-to's on some of it."</p>
<p>Norwood said education funding is a problem that needs the governor's involvement if the state is going to guarantee a good teacher to every child: "We've got to have the resources to make that happen."</p>
<p>Norwood said he was pleased by the governor's call for the state to train another class of state troopers, as well his advocacy for the Department of Child Protective Services.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg:</p>
<p>"I thought the themes were very good, especially in light of the fact that we celebrated our bicentennial..... I think the acknowledgment of some of the difficulties of Mississippi were appropriate, but he gave a hopeful and optimistic vision of Mississippi."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Democratic Rep. Sonya Williams Barnes of Gulfport:</p>
<p>"He did say he wants all citizens of Mississippi to be equal. So, is he going to support equal pay for women? ... It is imperative to the economy in our state that all citizens, regardless of gender or race, get equal pay for the same work."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Rep. Robert Foster of Hernando:</p>
<p>"We are seeing positive returns for some of the decisions we have made." Foster cited as an example the "third grade gate" law enacted in recent years, requiring students to achieve certain reading standards before moving to the fourth grade. "We are seeing positive results through that. Long-term, it was good policy."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Rep. Abe Hudson, a Democrat from Shelby:</p>
<p>"Though I share the same passion as Gov. Bryant, I believe the way to achieve success in some areas is different, particularly in the area of public education. In order for our state to move forward from an educational perspective, we must continue to try to find a way so that every child gets an opportunity for success. I get concerned when we spend an equal amount of time discussing chargers and vouchers as we do public education."</p>
<p>JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Gov. Phil Bryant failed to acknowledge many of Mississippi's problems in the State of the State address, a lawmaker said in the Democrats' televised response.</p>
<p>Bryant gave the speech Tuesday at the Capitol, saying critics are portraying Mississippi in a negative light.</p>
<p>Rep. Jay Hughes of Oxford said Mississippi is last in public education, last in mental health care and first in poverty. He also said the state suffers from a "brain drain," with large numbers of college graduates leaving.</p>
<p>While the governor mentioned low unemployment and robust job creation, Hughes said too many communities are stuck with low-paying jobs that don't provide a way out of poverty.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, the policies that impact our quality of life have merely gone unchanged and underfunded," Hughes said. "Simply ignoring a problem is not a solution."</p>
<p>Other response to the State of the State:</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton:</p>
<p>Gunn said not to read too much into Bryant's failure to mention road and bridge funding, saying he and Bryant have had "ongoing conversations."</p>
<p>"The governor can't cover everything in a 20-minute speech."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat:</p>
<p>"The governor did a good job showing what's bright with our economy, but he doesn't talk about things that are going to cost money, like roads and bridges."</p>
<p>"The job of government is to fix problems, and you've got to talk about the problems to fix them. You've got to talk about money."</p>
<p>Hood said he thought it was a missed opportunity that lawmakers weren't doing more to try to aid the city of Jackson with its infrastructure problems. "You've got porta-potties outside the Capitol building."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Lydia Chassaniol of Winona:</p>
<p>Chassaniol said she thought the governor's emphasis on racial reconciliation recognized the honesty of the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. "It needs to be acknowledges that we pretty much laid ourselves bare."</p>
<p>"I was excited to hear his interest in improving not only the health care and the education, but the job opportunities for poor people."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Democratic Sen. Sollie Norwood of Jackson:</p>
<p>"The governor had some good expressions. I was listening for the how-to's on some of it."</p>
<p>Norwood said education funding is a problem that needs the governor's involvement if the state is going to guarantee a good teacher to every child: "We've got to have the resources to make that happen."</p>
<p>Norwood said he was pleased by the governor's call for the state to train another class of state troopers, as well his advocacy for the Department of Child Protective Services.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Sen. Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg:</p>
<p>"I thought the themes were very good, especially in light of the fact that we celebrated our bicentennial..... I think the acknowledgment of some of the difficulties of Mississippi were appropriate, but he gave a hopeful and optimistic vision of Mississippi."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Democratic Rep. Sonya Williams Barnes of Gulfport:</p>
<p>"He did say he wants all citizens of Mississippi to be equal. So, is he going to support equal pay for women? ... It is imperative to the economy in our state that all citizens, regardless of gender or race, get equal pay for the same work."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Republican Rep. Robert Foster of Hernando:</p>
<p>"We are seeing positive returns for some of the decisions we have made." Foster cited as an example the "third grade gate" law enacted in recent years, requiring students to achieve certain reading standards before moving to the fourth grade. "We are seeing positive results through that. Long-term, it was good policy."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Rep. Abe Hudson, a Democrat from Shelby:</p>
<p>"Though I share the same passion as Gov. Bryant, I believe the way to achieve success in some areas is different, particularly in the area of public education. In order for our state to move forward from an educational perspective, we must continue to try to find a way so that every child gets an opportunity for success. I get concerned when we spend an equal amount of time discussing chargers and vouchers as we do public education."</p> | Dem response: Bryant failed to note Mississippi problems | false | https://apnews.com/amp/47b443c76aee48bdb67dd027f36e6d33 | 2018-01-10 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Hostess Brands won permission Tuesday to sell the last of its major cake and bread brands, as the bankrupt baking company continues to liquidate assets.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>At a Tuesday hearing, a bankruptcy court judge approved two sales. McKee Foods, which makes Little Debbie snack cakes, agreed to purchase cake brand Drake’s for $27.5 million. A subsidiary of United States Bakery is buying some of Hostess’ bread brands, Sweetheart, Eddy's, Standish Farms and Grandma Emilie’s, in addition to four bakeries and 14 depots, in a $30.9 million deal.</p>
<p>McKee’s bid was unchallenged, while U.S. Bakery beat out Mexican bakery Grupo Bimbo and Hackman Capital Acquisition. U.S. Bakery opened the bidding at $28.9 million.</p>
<p>Jones Day lawyer Lisa Laukitis told Judge Robert Drain that the buyers waiting for approval Tuesday are eager to finalize the transactions, according to Dow Jones Newswires. She added U.S. Bakery would like to get its newly purchased goods back on store shelves in time for the summer bun season, when barbeques fuel demand for hot dog and hamburger buns.</p>
<p>“I wasn't aware there was a bun season,” Judge Drain said, adding that he approved of the sales.</p>
<p>Tuesday’s court approvals brought the total proceeds from the Hostess sales to about $860 million.</p>
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<p>Irving, Texas-based Hostess filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2012. It decided in November to shut down operations after a nationwide strike by one of its unions.</p>
<p>Last month, Hostess won approval to sell cake brands, including Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, to Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) and Metropoulos &amp; Co., for roughly $410 million.</p>
<p>Georgia-based Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO), the maker of Tastykakes and Nature’s Own bread, bought five Hostess bread brands, including Wonder and Nature’s Pride, for $360 million.</p>
<p>Grupo Bimbo agreed to buy Beefsteak, a rye bread brand, for $31.9 million.</p> | Hostess Gets OK for Drake’s, Bread Brands Sales | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/09/hostess-gets-ok-for-drakes-bread-brands-sales.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Twenty years ago this month a group known as “The Fordham 9” conducted a successful blockade of a CIA recruiter at the Career Planning and Placement Office at Fordham University’s Rosehill Campus in the Bronx. The act was carried out after months of negotiations with administrators that ended in a stalemate. The result of the blockade was (as far as could be ascertained) the cancellation of open CIA recruitment at Fordham for a period of at least a year.</p>
<p>I was one of the organizers of this action as a senior in the spring of 1986. The action was conducted by two student organizations, the Fordham Progressive Student Alliance and Fordham Pax Christi. It was a very carefully thought out and planned action that took very seriously the link between theory, strategy, and outcomes. Now twenty years later, plainly this protest takes on a special resonance as students in colleges and high schools organize to demand the removal of military recruiters from campuses around the country. As a professor in the Twin Cities, I’ve had the opportunity to observe two different patterns of anti-military recruitment, one more directly politicized and militantly antiwar that resembles the Fordham 9 model and one that eschews foregrounding the war question and offers another model that is more in keeping with a narrow and politically safer focus on issues of diversity.</p>
<p>The Fordham blockade was planned for easily 6 months, since it was recognized by organizers that the protest was probably going to be necessary after attempts to negotiate with the administration would meet with refusals to disallow CIA recruitment at Fordham’s campus. The action was seen as necessary by activists at the campus for a number of reasons. To begin with, in the early and mid-1980’s they were very busy disseminating leaflets, holding forums, showing documentaries, rallies, and the like that highlighted the role of the US in providing direct and indirect forms of aid to dictatorships aligned with landed elites in Latin America and the hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who had died as a result of such intervention.</p>
<p>In the process of studying America’s military, economic, and political ties with right-wing military regimes in the Americas, the role of the CIA in the Americas and the world was readily apparent. What was even more immediate was the role Fordham itself played in granting the CIA access and in supplying it with some of its most important lead players, not least of which was then CIA chief William Casey. Casey was a venerated alumnus of Fordham and had a lifelong relationship with and keen interest in Fordham University. Many universities had engaged in blockades or protests of the CIA during the 1980’s. From the vantage of the students who would come to take part in the Fordham 9 blockade, because of the Casey connection, the symbolic importance of their act took on a special importance. Not only would the act contribute to the widespread campus movements against the CIA at the time, but it would send a direct message that would be noticed by the CIA: even at William Casey’s conservative alma mater, the CIA’s role and US foreign policy around the world was being challenged.</p>
<p>For months, perhaps, more accurately, over a year, the Fordham PSA and Pax Christi laid the groundwork for developing a cadre of non-violent direct action participants and supporters. Special emphasis was put on interrogating the contradiction between the proclaimed Jesuit mission and the CIA’s values. The students and their faculty supporters spent several months in meetings at all levels with the Fordham administration. Not taking lightly the gravity of their case and intentions to act on their convictions, the Fordham 9 practically memorized the university regulations for procedures to be followed in the event of an act of on-campus civil disobedience. It would be not be an exaggeration to state that they knew those procedures and rules better than the administration that had drawn them up! This knowledge would prove especially helpful in the moment of the occupation for reasons that will soon be clear.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, the ‘compromise’ that was worked out between the Fordham 9 and the administration in March of 1986 was that a ‘debate’ would take place between the CIA recruiter and a representative of the Fordham 9 in Keating Hall. Presumably the CIA recruiter would then decide if he wished to recruit and, if so, then his freedom of speech could not be interfered with. At no time was there a quid pro quo for the ‘debate’ and the 9 prepared for the likelihood that the recruiter would proceed to Dealy Hall afterwards and conduct interviews in the Career Planning and Placement Office.</p>
<p>The agreement to this plan proved decisive in giving the 9 an edge because they had to not only deal with the administration, but as well an oppositional group of conservative and ROTC students led by Thomas Liddy, son of another famous Fordham alumnus . Not having any other information available, since the decision to go ahead with the blockade was a very tightly kept secret, Liddy’s group departed the debate between the late Jesuit Brother Peter Cicchino and the CIA recruiter and returned to their regular schedules. Unbeknownst to them at the time the ‘debate’ concluded, the Fordham 9 had already occupied Deal Hall’s second floor Career Planning and Placement Center for over an hour and a half. Almost no one knew this from the opposition and therefore they were unable to mount any opposition to the actual blockade as a result.</p>
<p>This left just three groups to contend with and how they were dealt with reflects on the time put into thinking and planning all the way up to 2 in the morning of the day the blockade was to occur. Upon entering the Career Planning and Placement office, there was an immediate and anticipated tension between the 9 and the clerical staff. This was expected given age and class strata differences; older, white Catholic working class secretaries and young white and Hispanic students whose parents tended to be professionals or managers. To minimize the level of threat to their office and positions that the clerical staff perceived, the 9 prepared two items, one a short letter for each of the staff apologizing for the inconvenience and expressing respect for their work. They clarifyied their position that the protest was not directed at the staff, and that the occupation would remain throughout both non-violent and performed in a manner that made it easy for the staff to do their work. The other item, perhaps as critical in bridging the cultural gaps between elite protesting students and working class staff was a bouquet of flowers presented to the secretaries as a physical expression of their regret for causing them inconvenience during the CIA recruitment blockade.</p>
<p>Even further contributing to the clerical staff’s lack of investment in actively taking on the role of our opponents was the Fordham 9’s immediately letting them know that, according to university regulations, the matter was not one that they had to deal with; it was instead for Campus Security and the Fordham College Dean to confront. And that brings us to the next area where planning played a critical role in the success of the protest, namely handling of security. In this instance issues of class and race entered into the picture as potential causes of unneeded conflict. Security at the overwhelmingly white Fordham was majority African American or Hispanic and sure enough the head of security who showed up, upon being notified of the blockade, was African American and none too thrilled at the sight of privileged white student radicals taking over a campus office. The tension that emerged from that was quickly dissipated when the chief of security was informed that the matter was one that he also did not have to deal with unless and only if the protest in any way turned violent. As long as the protest remained non-violent, the Dean of Students had to make any decisions about physically removing non-violent student protestors and that could only be done by NYPD. Again, as with the clerical staff, the head of security realized that he was not responsible for much aside from monitoring the situation and notifying the Dean of Students, whose phone number he was provided with by the Fordham 9.</p>
<p>By this point, it should be mentioned, about 50 student and faculty supporters had arrived to show support in the hallway, only further contributing to the sense of magnitude of the protest-even though only 9 were inside actually blockading the recruiter’s activities. While a few interviews actually proceeded, upon the arrival of the Dean, he and the recruiter both agreed that it was not desirable for the CIA or Fordham to attract further publicity with the arrest of students at Fordham being plastered all over the metropolitan and potentially national evening news. The recruiter left and the next morning the campus awoke to the surprising full page photo and headline in the Fordham Ram shouting “Fordham 9 Stops CIA”.</p>
<p>The spirit and tactics of the Fordham 9 are seen in today’s activism against military recruitment as a means to pressure the US to end its bloody war and occupation of Iraq. In the Twin Cities there have emerged two tactics; the first is seen in the citywide protests against high school and university campuses that culminated in a large rally of students against military recruitment on campus at the University of Minnesota. This protest took place as part of a nationwide protest against the ongoing US military occupation of Iraq and highlighted the role of recruiters in seeking out poor and/or minority youth to serve as canon fodder for that adventure. The intensity of such protests reflects the potential for directly and concretely confronting how this war and war generally shapes and reproduces inequalities of race and class under US capitalism.</p>
<p>The other tactic has shown itself in the form of a protest against military recruitment on Hamline University’s campus where students and faculty organized to disallow military recruiters from their campus. However, the motivations for this departed from the nationwide antiwar movement, with a focus instead on the military’s blatant disregard for university diversity provisions that prohibit organizations that utilize campus resources from discriminating on the basis of race, creed, gender, sexuality, etc. Diversity and the rights of minorities within the military are not unimportant issues, and certainly leftists should affirm such rights strongly. Nonetheless, it is odd that, at a time of massive death and injury in Iraq being brought to Iraqis by the illegal US invasion and occupation, this should be the primary issue and so much in the forefront at this point. If anything the major problem with the military right now might well be an in-your-face affirmative action policy of actively recruiting poor and minorities to serve in the Iraq quagmire. When the goal of forcing the military to recognize gays and lesbians as full citizen soldiers is met and protest movements then welcome the military back to campuses, what is the message conveyed aside from acceptance of military recruitment on campuses in a time of ever mounting war atrocities as long as diversity goals are met?</p>
<p>The spirit of the 1986 anti-CIA recruitment protest that guided the Fordham 9 and other nationwide protests in that period can only be replicated if the relationship between current protests against recruitment by the US military on American high school and college campuses is linked as ones against the military’s role in reinforcing the political-economy of capitalist inequality and empire building. These issues are perhaps even more urgent today than they were in 1986, with a situation that requires even sharper and more nuanced analyses of an empire building strategy that embraces the language of global diversity and rights as the US seeks to rationalize its mission as a newfangled kind of human rights imperialism. With any luck, the Fordham 9 action will seem like a Sunday picnic compared with future protests on college campuses against military recruitment and US wars in the Middle East and elsewhere today and to come.</p>
<p>STEPHEN PHILION is an assistant professor of sociology at St. Cloud State University in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, teaching social theory, sociology of race, and China and Globalization. His writings can be found at his <a href="http://stephenphilion.efoliomn2.com/" type="external">website</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Lessons from the Fordham 9 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/05/06/lessons-from-the-fordham-9/ | 2006-05-06 | 4 |
<p>Amid increasing international pressure for Spain to accept a national bailout to rescue its failing banks, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pleaded for direct eurozone rescue, to avoid the humiliation attached to requesting a national bailout, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/06/spain-euro-finished-fiscal-union" type="external">said the Guardian</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/07/business/spain-euro-crisis/" type="external">According to CNN</a>, the country is "suffering from soaring borrowing costs, a banking system leaking cash and unemployment rates at devastating levels," and the major fear is that if such a large economy fails, it will cause repercussions for Europe and the world.</p>
<p>Spain is calling for the eurozone to centralize its budget and tax policies and a strategy to pool responsibility for failing banks, said the Guardian. The Spanish government believes that its economy is too big to rescue and called for major European reform in order to save the euro. The Guardian suggested that that would entail the Brussels summit at the end of the month establishing a eurozone banking and fiscal union.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/spain/120606/spain-s-economic-pain-explained" type="external">Spain's economic pain, explained</a></p>
<p>Current rules in the eurozone say that a government has to request help and the money can only be moved via governments. Analysts believe that if Spain is forced to request a bailout from the EU/IMF, it will likely come around June 20, said the Guardian.</p>
<p>An IMF report to be released on Monday will likely show that Spanish banks need an injection of at least 40 billion euros ($50 billion), <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/07/spain-imf-idUSL5E8H769R20120607" type="external">according to Reuters</a>. A larger influx of 90 billion euros would be needed to clean up the entire Spanish banking sector, according to sources in the financial sector.</p>
<p>Government sources have not confirmed the figures and cautioned that the IMF may not have finalized its estimates, said Reuters.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120606/moodys-downgrades-banks-germany-austria" type="external">Moody's downgrades banks in Germany, Austria</a></p>
<p>Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-eurozone-spain-iifbre8560wy-20120607,0,7837814.story" type="external">told Reuters</a>, "What they need to do is to ensure that they have sufficient capital of their banks so that they do not pose a concern for all of Europe."</p>
<p>The Spanish banks were weakened by a property sector collapse in 2008, and Bankia, the largest Spanish bank, was recently nationalized, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gn6Qxy2yP2CG30ACwkk289lel3-A?docId=CNG.a7e454e629754cec0b725dd3ec54f6c0.331" type="external">according to Agence France Presse</a>. It is asking for a total of 23.47 billion euros from the state.</p>
<p>Spain wants to avoid an all-out bailout like those given to Ireland, Portugal and Greece, instead seeking aid directed only at its banks, said the AFP.</p>
<p>The Spanish treasury raised 2.07 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in an auction of two-, four- and ten-year bonds, but at a high cost, with the ten-year bonds fetching more than 6.0 percent, a rate viewed as unsustainable, said the AFP.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120601/when-the-brics-crumble" type="external">When the BRICs crumble</a></p> | Spain faces increasing pressure to accept a bailout | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-07/spain-faces-increasing-pressure-accept-bailout | 2012-06-07 | 3 |
<p>"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rom&amp;c=3" type="external">Romans 3:10</a> "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rom&amp;c=3" type="external">Romans 3:23</a></p>
<p>Our sins have seperated us from a righteous and holy God, but in His Mercy and love towards us He has made a way of escape for all those who seek it. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.</p>
<p>For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?t=KJV&amp;x=0&amp;y=0&amp;b=Rom&amp;c=5&amp;v=1" type="external">Romans 5: 8-10</a></p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/29296570" type="external">That's My King, Do YOU Know Him?</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user8399607" type="external">Now The End Begins</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com" type="external">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>The bible says that TODAY is the day of salvation, and the mere fact that you are right now reading this page is proof that God is talking to YOU, and drawing you closer to Him. NTEB asks you to take hold of His free gift to you, and receive an eternal forgiveness for your sins. There may not be a tomorrow, accept Him today. Jesus paid the ultimate price so you wouldn't have to. The Old and New Testaments bear witness to The One that was to come, who would be the Ma'schiac, the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every, single Old Testament prophecy of Who the Messiah would be. And He is the only One able to pay for your sins. Listen as the prophet Isaiah describes the agony of Jesus on the cross, having the full wrath of God the Father poured out on Him.</p> Eternal Life Through the Blood Of JESUS CHRIST Is A Free Gift There is a penalty for sin--Eternal Death. Jesus Christ is God's Provision for Your Sinful Condition. You Can Be Saved--Right Now. | true | http://nowtheendbegins.com/pages/freeGIFT.htm | 0 |
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<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The judges who struck down North Carolina's congressional map for excessive partisanship that favored Republicans refused Tuesday to delay their order telling GOP state lawmakers to draw new lines by next week.</p>
<p>The denial by the three-judge federal panel was expected, given that the judges wrote 200-plus pages last week explaining why the boundaries approved two years ago were marked by "invidious partisanship" and are illegal political gerrymanders, violating several parts of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Barring a delay by the U.S. Supreme Court — which Republican legislators also have sought and their request is pending — the legislature will be required to redraw its map for North Carolina's 13 congressional districts by Jan. 24.</p>
<p>Attorneys for the lawmakers cited partisan gerrymandering cases already before the Supreme Court from Wisconsin and Maryland for necessitating the order's delay, because the justices may rule differently on whether partisan gerrymandering can be adjudicated.</p>
<p>But the lower court's judges — U.S. Circuit Judge Jim Wynn and District Judges William Osteen and Earl Britt — said the cases in the other states are different enough legally that their decision could stand no matter how the justices rule. For example, the Wisconsin matter involves legislative districts.</p>
<p>"Any decision the Supreme Court renders in those cases is highly unlikely to undermine all of the factual and legal bases upon which this court found the 2016 plan violated the Constitution and enjoined further use of that plan," the judges wrote.</p>
<p>When a previous court found the state's 2011 congressional map relied too heavily on race in drawing two districts, North Carolina Republican lawmakers approved new lines based on redistricting criteria designed to retain the party's 10-3 majority in the state delegation.</p>
<p>Requiring yet another map to be drawn so close to the start of candidate filing next month would confuse voters and make it difficult for potential candidates, according to lawyers for the Republicans.</p>
<p>But the judges wrote the May primary and November general elections are still months away and they have the power to delay candidate filing if necessary to ensure a lawful map is in place. The judges plan to hire a special expert to draw an alternative map in case lawmakers refuse to draw one or approve unacceptable boundaries.</p>
<p>If their order was delayed until the Supreme Court ruled this summer in another partisan gerrymandering case that still led to North Carolina's map being struck down, the judges said, it could be too late to draw a new plan in time for the fall election.</p>
<p>"As a result, North Carolinians would cast votes in congressional elections conducted under unconstitutional maps in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 — virtually the entire decade," the judges wrote Tuesday.</p>
<p>The denial came while the North Carolina legislature awaits a decision by another federal judicial panel — comprised of Wynn and two other judges — whether to accept a special master's plan to redraw roughly two dozen state House and Senate districts. This judicial panel appointed the expert after it raised constitutional concerns about a legislative redistricting the General Assembly approved last summer.</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The judges who struck down North Carolina's congressional map for excessive partisanship that favored Republicans refused Tuesday to delay their order telling GOP state lawmakers to draw new lines by next week.</p>
<p>The denial by the three-judge federal panel was expected, given that the judges wrote 200-plus pages last week explaining why the boundaries approved two years ago were marked by "invidious partisanship" and are illegal political gerrymanders, violating several parts of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Barring a delay by the U.S. Supreme Court — which Republican legislators also have sought and their request is pending — the legislature will be required to redraw its map for North Carolina's 13 congressional districts by Jan. 24.</p>
<p>Attorneys for the lawmakers cited partisan gerrymandering cases already before the Supreme Court from Wisconsin and Maryland for necessitating the order's delay, because the justices may rule differently on whether partisan gerrymandering can be adjudicated.</p>
<p>But the lower court's judges — U.S. Circuit Judge Jim Wynn and District Judges William Osteen and Earl Britt — said the cases in the other states are different enough legally that their decision could stand no matter how the justices rule. For example, the Wisconsin matter involves legislative districts.</p>
<p>"Any decision the Supreme Court renders in those cases is highly unlikely to undermine all of the factual and legal bases upon which this court found the 2016 plan violated the Constitution and enjoined further use of that plan," the judges wrote.</p>
<p>When a previous court found the state's 2011 congressional map relied too heavily on race in drawing two districts, North Carolina Republican lawmakers approved new lines based on redistricting criteria designed to retain the party's 10-3 majority in the state delegation.</p>
<p>Requiring yet another map to be drawn so close to the start of candidate filing next month would confuse voters and make it difficult for potential candidates, according to lawyers for the Republicans.</p>
<p>But the judges wrote the May primary and November general elections are still months away and they have the power to delay candidate filing if necessary to ensure a lawful map is in place. The judges plan to hire a special expert to draw an alternative map in case lawmakers refuse to draw one or approve unacceptable boundaries.</p>
<p>If their order was delayed until the Supreme Court ruled this summer in another partisan gerrymandering case that still led to North Carolina's map being struck down, the judges said, it could be too late to draw a new plan in time for the fall election.</p>
<p>"As a result, North Carolinians would cast votes in congressional elections conducted under unconstitutional maps in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 — virtually the entire decade," the judges wrote Tuesday.</p>
<p>The denial came while the North Carolina legislature awaits a decision by another federal judicial panel — comprised of Wynn and two other judges — whether to accept a special master's plan to redraw roughly two dozen state House and Senate districts. This judicial panel appointed the expert after it raised constitutional concerns about a legislative redistricting the General Assembly approved last summer.</p> | Judges: No delay for new N. Carolina congressional map | false | https://apnews.com/amp/c833cb8f78e146e0b176dede4c7cb5e9 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
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<p>Dr. Boswell Tabler, a plaintiff in a suit accusing Miller of abuse, said, "It's a start. We've been saying for quite some time that these crimes have been going on and this gives credence to what's been said.</p>
<p>"We need to seek out and identify and hold accountable anyone who had any knowledge of this behavior. Why was Father Miller allowed to remain a priest for so long? Why was he allowed to abuse children over decades? Why wasn't he stopped."</p>
<p>The victims called for more reforms within the church on the ways abuse cases are handled, including consulting with alleged victims and other lay people on allegations against priests and educating children on how to avoid abuse.</p>
<p>The Rev. Louis E. Miller pleaded guilty this morning to 50 charges of sexually abusing children during the four decades he served at parishes in the Archdiocese of Louisville.</p>
<p>The plea covers 44 charges of indecent or immoral acts with another and six charges of first-degree sex abuse. The admissions involve sexual abuse with 21 children between 1957 and 1982. The priest also has been accused of abuse in more than 80 lawsuits against the archdiocese.</p>
<p>Miller, who is retired, entered an "open plea," meaning there is no agreement with prosecutors on the sentence, which Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann O'Malley Shake will set.</p>
<p>A hearing and sentencing is scheduled for May 27, during which victims and Miller supporters could testify.</p>
<p>Miller, 72, could face 20 years in prison, or possibly more because of the laws in place when the offenses occurred, prosecutor Carol Cobb said.</p>
<p>Miller also is scheduled for trial June 9 in Oldham Circuit Court on 14 similar charges involving eight children. He has pleaded innocent to those charges.</p>
<p>By pleading guilty to the Jefferson charges, Miller gives up his right to appeal.</p>
<p>He faces more criminal charges than any other priest, teacher or coach named in connection with the hundreds of child sex-abuse allegations against the archdiocesee.</p> | Retired priest pleads guilty to 50 sex-abuse charges | false | https://poynter.org/news/retired-priest-pleads-guilty-50-sex-abuse-charges | 2003-03-31 | 2 |
<p>When the Oscar nominations were announced two weeks ago, there was an <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/01/15/oscar-nominations-diversity-backlash/21817111/" type="external">instant uproar over the lack of diversity</a> among the nominations. All of the 20 acting nominee are white:&#160;the first time since 1998 that there were no people of color nominated. Conspiracy theorists attribute this to the fact that many Academy members are older, white men. <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html" type="external">According to the last U.S. census</a>, 62.6 per cent of respondents identified as Caucasian followed by 17.1 per cent as Hispanic, 16.2 per cent as African American and 5.3 per cent Asian. If the Academy had followed these percentages, 12&#160;of the acting nominees should have been white and eight nominees should have been people of color.</p>
<p>Celebrities jumped into the fray to express their displeasure. Spike Lee, no stranger to controversy himself, <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/spike-lee-on-selma-oscars-snub-lack-of-diversity-f--k-em-2015161" type="external">expressed his expletive-tinged disappointment</a>. Taking the higher road, when Jessica Chastain accepted her Critics’ Choice award, she used her <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/jessica-chastain-pleads-for-diversity-amid-all-white-oscars-backlash-2015161" type="external">acceptance speech</a> to bemoan the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominations and to encourage those in the audience to speak up. While pundits will keep debating Oscar’s lack of diversity, television is taking the lead once again.</p>
<p>With women of a certain age getting the short shrift in film, they are flocking to television to find roles that are more than just the token wife, mother, grandmother. American Horror Story has given plenty of interesting roles to women of all demographics in its four seasons. At the 2014 Emmys alone, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange were all <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844624/awards?ref_=tt_awd" type="external">at least nominated</a> for arguably more interesting roles they might have found on the big screen. Things are looking up for people of color on television as well.</p>
<p>Eva Longoria’s <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/1783173/eva-longorias-telenovela-brings-much-needed-hispanic-diversity-to-television/" type="external">Telenovela</a>&#160;will soon be representing the under-served Hispanic population on television. In February, ABC is launching a new sit-com with an Asian-American cast, Fresh Off The Boat. Fresh Off The Boat is the first predominantly Asian-American television show <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-tv-shows-feature-more-diverse-faces-will-they-survive-n126361" type="external">in almost 20 years</a>. The last was Margaret Cho’s short lived sit-com, also on ABC, All American Girl. While people of color are making strides, there still is much progress to be made. At the Television Critics Association press tour two weeks ago, the first question asked of the Fresh Off The Boat panel was,&#160; regrettably, about <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2015/01/14/fresh-off-the-boat-panel/" type="external">chopsticks</a>.</p>
<p>While it remains to be seen how well Telenovela and Fresh Off The Boat will do in the ratings, it appears that the audience is there for shows featuring people of color. Three weeks ago, Empire&#160;premiered on FOX as one of the biggest shows of the year along with the fall premiere of <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-tv-ratings-how-to-get-away-with-murder-20140926-story.html" type="external">How to Get Away with Murder</a>. Not only did Empire premiere huge, it has done something very rare. Two weeks ago, its ratings increased. Last week, <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2015/01/22/empire-ratings-up/" type="external">its ratings increased again</a>, a feat almost unheard of in television.</p>
<p>The ratings for How to Get Away with Murder and Empire should put network execs at ease. As long as the audience is there, then the networks will make advertising dollars and more shows featuring people will be green-lighted. To borrow a phrase from Field of Dreams, if you air it, they will watch.</p>
<p /> | While diversity may be lacking at the Oscars, it can be found on television | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/26/while-diversity-may-be-lacking-at-the-oscars-it-can-be-found-on-television/ | 2015-01-26 | 3 |
<p>Sara Mindel (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>Mother’s Day is this weekend and it’s a year for change for Sara Mindel. Now divorced, she and her ex will join their 7-year-old son Alexander for a “super-duper Mom’s dinner with both moms.”</p>
<p>“It should be fun,” the 38-year-old D.C. native says. “He loves being with all of us together. … Of course divorce is hard and complicated with a kiddo, but we always work it out and I have an amazing community. This kid has a lot of love.”</p>
<p>Mindel, a psychotherapist who’s also on the Rainbow Families board, says LGBT families should decide what’s important to them and create their own traditions that work.</p>
<p>“Truly I love celebrating most things but also I think it is so important to remember that Mother’s Day was created and maintained by capitalism and is truly a Hallmark holiday,” she says. “One does not dictate the value of a mother, a family or a child in any way. We do that for ourselves and our loved ones who deserve it.”</p>
<p>Mindel returned to Washington after stints in Philadelphia and Boston for school. She lives in Bloomingdale and enjoys yoga, hiking, camping and crosswords “when I get a chance.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?</p>
<p>Officially I have been out since my first major break up in college. Growing up in D.C., I never felt that I “needed to be out” but now looking back I think that was a bit of a cover. Although I can say I have never really been in. The hardest people to tell were surprisingly my parents. Despite the fact that I was surrounded with LGBT folks my whole life and they were pretty liberal, I think parents are always the toughest.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Who’s your LGBT hero?</p>
<p>Bayard Rustin, an amazing man who worked toward the greater good and never lost himself. Ellen for living boldly and letting us watch her story as it unfolded, always staying true to her authentic self. And Kaitlin Ryan for her fantastic research on LGBT youth and family acceptance allowing the focus to be on how we embrace and treat marginalized people.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?&#160;</p>
<p>Chaos or Liquid Ladies from back in the day! But now I’m a mom, so if I go out, I go out more with friends than to party.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Describe your dream wedding.</p>
<p>I would say that my own wedding was pretty great. It was a beautiful day out in the mountains with all of our family and friends.&#160;Regardless of where I am now, I wouldn’t take that back for the world!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?</p>
<p>Creating a more compassionate and empathetic society and children. As a therapist who specializes in trauma, it’s easy to see how corrosive judgment, shame and trauma are to the human condition and society. I believe in raising boys to be compassionate and kind and girls to be strong and bold, and vice-versa of course.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What historical outcome would you change?</p>
<p>I believe that everything happens for a reason and the most important thing is that we learn from history both personally and politically.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?</p>
<p>This question is just impossible for me for a thousand reasons. I may have to answer this one over a drink!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>On what do you insist?</p>
<p>Kindness and integrity</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?</p>
<p>A throwback video of my son and me twirling spaghetti with our fingers in our ears. Totally silly but I couldn’t resist!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>If your life were a book, what would the title be?</p>
<p>Most likely “Smoke and Mirrors: a Guide to Survival.” I joke a lot about how I try to at least make it look like I am keeping it all together!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?</p>
<p>Um, short answer, no. I don’t think science is the problem.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What do you believe in beyond the physical world?&#160;</p>
<p>A whole lot. I am a skeptic but pretty religiously get my tarot read and most of all I believe in connection. Connection to people, community, the earth, all that is around us. I believe connection is essential to our wholehearted selves.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?</p>
<p>I think it’s so important that we begin to seriously think and become active about inclusion and intersectionality. This is not just for gender but for race, class and age. I would love to believe we have come further than we have, but we are still leaving so much of our community behind and to fend for themselves.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What would you walk across hot coals for?</p>
<p>That’s easy — my son. Wholeheartedly.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?</p>
<p>That lesbians don’t have sex.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s your favorite LGBT movie?</p>
<p>Cliché, but it would have to be “D.E.B.S.” Enough said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What’s the most overrated social custom?</p>
<p>Texting. I miss the days of the art of conversation.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What trophy or prize do you most covet?</p>
<p>A Grammy. I’ve always wished I could sing.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What do you wish you’d known at 18?</p>
<p>That I was worth more than I thought I was and that I would have to learn to love myself versus get it from someone else.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Why Washington?</p>
<p>D.C. is my hometown and every time I leave something always called me back.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Rainbow Families</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sara Mindel</a></p> | QUEERY: Sara Mindel | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/05/04/queery-sara-mindel/ | 3 |
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<p>While the outcome may have been a foregone conclusion, the official results are finally in: South Sudan has voted, with 99.57 percent in favor, to secede from the north. –JCL</p>
<p>The BBC:</p>
<p>Some 99% of South Sudanese voted to secede from the north, according to the first complete results of the region’s independence referendum.</p>
<p>A total of 99.57 percent of those polled voted for independence, according to the referendum commission.</p>
<p />
<p>Early counting had put the outcome of the ballot beyond doubt, indicating Southern Sudan had secured a mandate to become the world’s newest nation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12317927" type="external">Read more</a></p> | South Sudan to Become World’s Newest Nation | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/south-sudan-to-become-worlds-newest-nation/ | 2011-01-31 | 4 |
<p>In the middle of the primary election in New Hampshire Tuesday, the Washington Post tweeted out <a href="http://theamericanmirror.com/photo-shows-american-flags-crumpled-up-on-hillary-hq-floor/" type="external">an image</a> from the Hillary Clinton campaign that has created quite a stir.</p>
<p>"With many hours to go, Clinton's staff has flags ready for their election night party," reads the post.</p>
<p>Below is a photo by Washington Post photographer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/melina-mara/2011/04/28/AGrzHTFH_page.html" type="external">Melina Mara</a> of American flags lying crumpled on the floor:</p>
<p>With many hours to go, Clinton's staff has flags ready for their election night party // photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/melinamara" type="external">@melinamara</a> <a href="https://t.co/a9ZvkJNiZp" type="external">pic.twitter.com/a9ZvkJNiZp</a></p>
<p>Here is an excerpt from the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/09/meanwhile-at-clinton-hq/" type="external">U.S. Flag Code</a> on the proper way to show respect for the flag, including "never" letting it touch the ground (h/t <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/09/meanwhile-at-clinton-hq/" type="external">John Nolte</a>, <a href="http://victorygirlsblog.com/40550-2/?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter" type="external">Victory Girls</a>):</p>
<p>§8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.</p>
<p>b. The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.</p>
<p>Some reaction online, including posts from disgusted veterans:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Mike_R_Hummel" type="external">@Mike_R_Hummel</a> utterly disgraceful</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/PruPaine" type="external">@PruPaine</a> In the USMC, we knew exactly what the Clinton's thought of us. Only time Slick Willy came to Camp Lejune we were all disarmed.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/postpolitics" type="external">@postpolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/melinamara" type="external">@melinamara</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton" type="external">@HillaryClinton</a> Its the flag,not a decoration you fools.I have family that died defending it!</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/postpolitics" type="external">@postpolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Guzi_Mane" type="external">@Guzi_Mane</a> I'm a marine and that flag is on the ground</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/postpolitics" type="external">@postpolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/melinamara" type="external">@melinamara</a> worth a thousand words about <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton" type="external">@HillaryClinton</a> and her campaign.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/postpolitics" type="external">@postpolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/melinamara" type="external">@melinamara</a> once everyone gets a load of this, <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton" type="external">@HillaryClinton</a>'s minions can drape it over her campaign's coffin.</p>
<p>As polling had predicted leading up to the primary, Clinton was hammered by Bernie Sanders in the election, losing by around 20 points. Here is Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro's summary of just <a href="" type="internal">how bad a day it was for Clinton in New Hampshire</a>:</p>
<p>On Tuesday night, the establishment took a massive uppercut to the chin in both parties. In the Democratic Party, the most establishment politician of all time, Hillary Clinton, got her clock cleaned by Bernie Sanders. He won 93 percent to 5 percent among those who valued honesty and trustworthiness. He won women by 11 points (Satan, obeying Madeline Albright’s advice, is already preparing their cubicles in hell). He won every non-elderly, non-wealthy group. Sanders beat Clinton by a massive margin – at 7:00 PM PST, he was up 59 percent to 38 percent.</p> | Here's What the Hillary Campaign Thinks of the American Flag | true | https://dailywire.com/news/3273/washpost-tweets-pic-showing-what-hillary-campaign-james-barrett | 2016-02-09 | 0 |
<p>Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… Just hours after opening a personal Twitter account, President Barack Obama had to unfollow Vice President Joe Biden because the Veep would not stop Direct Messaging him about “that really cool idea we talked about.”</p>
<p>Get The Lid straight to your inbox each afternoon -- <a href="" type="internal">click here to sign up.</a></p>
<p>’16 AT 30 THOUSAND</p>
<p>Here are two things we learned in Iowa this weekend: Jeb Bush says he’s going to “campaign hard” ahead of the caucuses and Scott Walker has some significant issues to address with evangelicals. The Bush news gave the political world a little bit of whiplash, given his decision not to participate in the Iowa straw poll and recent reports that his team was considering skipping the Hawkeye State all together. But as First Read noted this morning, it makes sense. With more than a dozen GOP candidates likely competing to win over caucus voters, the ultimate winner come caucus day could scrape by with about one-fifth of the vote. Also, don’t forget that one of Bush’s top advisers is longtime Iowa strategist Dave Kochel. We suspect Jeb Bush will keep popping up in the state throughout the months ahead, even if his version of “campaigning hard” looks pretty different than, say, Rick Santorum’s.</p>
<p>And for further proof of just how wide open the Iowa field is, look no further than NBC’s Perry Bacon’s report from Des Moines. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is frontrunner, sure, but he is viewed more skeptically by evangelical Christians than you might think.. The key voting bloc helped propel Santorum to victory in 2012, and will be heavily courted again in 2016. When evangelical voters are up for grabs, Iowa is anyone’s game.</p>
<p>POPPING ON NBC POLITICS</p>
<p>Scott Walker may be viewed as an Iowa favorite right now, but he has to face a lot of hurdles in the first caucus state, <a href="" type="internal">NBC’s Perry Bacon Jr. writes.</a></p>
<p>One name you’re just not hearing in the Democratic nomination conversation: Joe Biden. <a href="" type="internal">NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell set out</a> to figure out why.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">One of us(!) writes</a>that Chris Christie says that fears over NSA spying powers are “ridiculous.”</p>
<p>Sen. Lindsey <a href="" type="internal">Graham will announce</a> his 2016 presidential decision on June 1.</p>
<p>Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal formed a presidential exploratory committee, <a href="" type="internal">MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt reports.</a></p>
<p>CAMPAIGN QUICK READS</p>
<p>PAUL: Rand Paul highlighted the divide between the libertarian and more hawkish wings of his party today, <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/rand-paul-highlights-gop-gulf-civil-liberties-philadelphia" type="external">msnbc.com writes.</a></p>
<p>He <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/18/rand-paul-i-didnt-run-for-office-because-of-abortion/" type="external">was asked</a> about abortion and gave an unusual answer, saying “I didn’t run for office” because of the issue.</p>
<p>SANDERS: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/us/politics/bernie-sanders-wants-to-be-president-but-hes-already-facebook-royalty.html" type="external">The New York Times reports</a> that, against the odds, he’s become a social media king.</p>
<p>WALKER: “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a lawsuit seeking to block a secret probe into Gov. Scott Walker's 2012 recall campaign and its dealings with allied groups, effectively ending the appeal in federal court by targets of the investigation,” <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-lawsuit-seeking-to-block-john-doe-probe-b99502290z1-304112971.html" type="external">the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.</a></p>
<p>FOR THE RECORD…</p>
<p>“I know that people talk about their cats and ‘I’m walking to the grocery [store] and getting a can of chicken soup’ and ‘this is so exciting.’ By and large, we have not done that.”</p>
<p>TOMORROW’S SKED</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton holds a roundtable discussion with small business leaders in Cedar Falls, Iowa.</p>
<p>Mike Huckabee continues his “Hope to Higher Ground” tour through Iowa.</p>
<p>Rick Perry holds a meet and greet in DeWitt, Iowa, followed by a town hall in Dubuque.</p> | THE LID: The Hawkeye State Shuffle | false | http://nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/lid-hawkeye-state-shuffle-n360876 | 2015-05-18 | 3 |
<p>Ken Blackwell. Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5448981869/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;Gage Skidmore&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>Remember Ken Blackwell? He was Ohio’s secretary of state in 2004 who was accused of throwing the presidential vote in that crucial swing state in favor of George W. Bush and overseeing “massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies” that disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters. Now Blackwell’s back—and he’s eyeing a place in the US Senate.</p>
<p>Roll Call <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/Ken-Blackwell-Ohio-Senate-NRSC-205064-1.html" type="external">reports today</a> that Blackwell, who unsuccessfully ran for Ohio governor in 2006, has talked with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), a heavy-hitter among Senate GOPers, about challenging Democrat Sherrod Brown in the 2012 election. Blackwell said he won’t make a final decision about his political future until after his forthcoming book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Resurgent-Constitutional-Conservatism-Save-America/dp/1451629265/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1303397224&amp;sr=1-2" type="external">“Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America,”</a> comes out in late May.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons why Blackwell’s idea is a bad one. First, he’d be joining two other GOP contenders, among them Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. And Brown is fairly popular in Ohio. He handily defeated incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine in 2006 by 12 points, and in a recent survey by Public Policy Polling, Brown led all potential opponents by double digits. “Sherrod Brown appears to be in a much stronger position now than he was just three months ago,” said Dean Debnam, who heads Public Policy Polling.</p>
<p>Then, of course, there’s Blackwell’s 2004 debacle. An investigation by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Democratic committee staff concluded that Ohio’s voting disaster in 2004 was “caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.” Long lines, faulty voting machines, onerous barriers for voter registration, a rigged recount—anything that could go wrong in Ohio did on Election Day 2004.</p>
<p>Here’s how Rolling Stone <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0601-34.htm" type="external">put it in a 2006 story</a>:</p>
<p>Blackwell—now the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio—is well-known in the state as a fierce partisan eager to rise in the GOP. An outspoken leader of Ohio’s right-wing fundamentalists, he opposes abortion even in cases of rape and was the chief cheerleader for the anti-gay-marriage amendment that Republicans employed to spark turnout in rural counties. He has openly denounced Kerry as “an unapologetic liberal Democrat,” and during the 2004 election he used his official powers to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens in Democratic strongholds. In a ruling issued two weeks before the election, a federal judge rebuked Blackwell for seeking to ”accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000.”</p>
<p>“The secretary of state is supposed to administer elections—not throw them,” says Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland who has dealt with Blackwell for years. “The election in Ohio in 2004 stands out as an example of how, under color of law, a state election official can frustrate the exercise of the right to vote.”</p>
<p>The most extensive investigation of what happened in Ohio was conducted by Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Frustrated by his party’s failure to follow up on the widespread evidence of voter intimidation and fraud, Conyers and the committee’s minority staff held public hearings in Ohio, where they looked into more than 50,000 complaints from voters. In January 2005, Conyers issued a detailed report that outlined “massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio.” The problems, the report concludes, were “caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.”</p>
<p>“Blackwell made Katherine Harris look like a cupcake,” Conyers told me. “He saw his role as limiting the participation of Democratic voters. We had hearings in Columbus for two days. We could have stayed two weeks, the level of fury was so high. Thousands of people wanted to testify. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before.”</p>
<p>With a record like that, why even bother running? For the voters who were shut out by Blackwell and his cronies, I’ll bet the memory of 2004 still stings.</p>
<p /> | GOPer Behind Ohio’s Botched 2004 Election Eyes Senate Run | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/ken-blackwell-ohio-brown-senate/ | 2011-04-21 | 4 |
<p>Yesterday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/day-after-reported-strike-yaalon-warns-iran-from-arming-hezbollah/" type="external">warned Iran</a> not to arm Hezbollah.</p>
<p>“Iran continues to try and arm Hezbollah and it is striving to arm the Lebanese terror group with advanced weapons in every way it can, and by using every avenue,” Ya’alon said in a speech at Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “We will not allow the transfer of&#160;sophisticated weapons to terror groups, and in particular Hezbollah.”</p>
<p>“We know how to reach [Hezbollah] and those who direct it, at any time and any place,” Ya’alon continued. “We will not allow Hezbollah to establish a terror infrastructure on our borders with Syria, and we know how to lay our hands on anyone who threatens Israeli citizens, along our borders or even far from them.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear if Ya’alon was referring to airstrikes targeting weapons depots in Syria, <a href="http://www.thetower.org/1940-arab-media-reports-israel-attacked-hezbollah-weapon-depots-on-syrian-lebanese-border/" type="external">attributed to Israel</a>, that occurred Wednesday and Saturday last week, or if he was threatening future action.</p>
<p>Subsequent to Ya’alon’s talk it appeared that he may have intended both.</p>
<p />
<p>First a terror cell was discovered trying to plant a bomb at the Israel-Syria border and was killed by Israel Air Force. The Times of Israel <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-thwarts-attack-on-northern-border-kills-four-terrorists/" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
<p>The IDF said “a group of armed terrorists” were killed by an air force craft after they were spotted crossing into Israeli territory with an explosive device late Sunday.</p>
<p>IDF spokesman Col. Peter Lerner said the cell consisted of four people who were “identified while clearly laying a mine and were shot by an Israeli Air Force aircraft.”</p>
<p>Initial reports indicated the incident took place near the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, on the slopes of Mount Hermon.</p>
<p>Overnight, attacks&#160; <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reportedly-hits-hezbollah-assad-targets-in-syria/" type="external">were reported</a> north of Damascus, again targeting weapons systems that could have been intended for Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Hours after an Israeli airstrike on militants along the Syrian border, Arab news networks al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya reported a new Israeli attack in Syrian territory early Monday morning, targeting missile launchers held by Hezbollah and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.</p>
<p>It was the third alleged Israeli strike on the Syrian front in two days.</p>
<p>The reported strike in the Qalamoun mountains, northeast of Damascus — also the location of alleged Israeli sorties against Hezbollah and Assad targets on Saturday — was said to cause several casualties, though the number of dead and injured was not immediately provided.</p>
<p>Later reports have attributed the overnight attacks <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4650983,00.html" type="external">to Jihadist rebels</a> not Israel.</p>
<p>After the earlier airstrikes, the infiltration may well have been expected. An Israeli airstrike against a convoy in the Syrian Golan Heights near Israel, in January, that <a href="" type="internal">killed senior Hezbollah operatives and Iranian officers</a>, was followed later that month by a cross-border attack that <a href="http://www.thetower.org/1564oc-hezbollah-operatives-attack-idf-convoy-killing-two-israeli-soldiers/" type="external">killed two Israel soldiers</a>.</p>
<p>Israel also reportedly hit two military installations near Damascus last December.</p>
<p>The closer involvement of Iran with Hezbollah is likely a product&#160;of the Obama administration’s engagement with Iran. Emboldened by the rapprochement and suffering no consequences for its increased aggressiveness, Iran has&#160;been working to, in the words of <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/28/israel-is-the-new-front-in-the-syrian-war/" type="external">Hezbollah expert Philip Smyth</a>, “encircle” Israel.</p>
<p>When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees this and hears an Iranian general say that <a href="" type="internal">Israel’s destruction is “non-negotiable”</a> is it any wonder that he doesn’t trust the deal that’s being worked out?</p> | Israel Establishes Red Lines for Iran and Hezbollah | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/04/israel-establishes-red-lines-for-iran-and-hezbollah/ | 2015-04-27 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>J.T.: It’s very common for people who retire to go through this. It may take him months, or even a couple of years, to find his new routine. I’d have him speak to a career coach who specializes in second-act careers. Also, some online research will reveal plenty of resources on the subject. For instance, AARP has a great website full of information and tools that can help him. Most importantly, understand that this is a normal transition phase. As long as you keep encouraging him to find his purpose, he eventually will!</p>
<p>Dale: In the short run, speaking as someone who often works at home, I’d suggest that you start with rules: For example, if you close your office door, that’s a signal that you aren’t to be disturbed except in emergencies. And you must have a signal to announce that conversation time is up. Try saying, “My boss is telling me to get back to work.” That is, of course, your internal boss, the one any person who works at home absolutely needs and must heed.</p>
<p>J.T.: Also, encourage him to volunteer. It really can give an emotional boost to work with charities, which are always looking for help.</p>
<p>Dale: A good friend of mine, Dan Peitzmeyer, is retired and he’s the busiest guy I know. He’s involved with politics and the arts, and volunteers at the zoo and the airport, and who knows where else. Ask around and see if you can find someone like Dan to introduce your husband to. And don’t blame us when you have all those charity dinners to attend.</p>
<p>Dear J.T. &amp; Dale: We just got a new manager. He’s definitely a “boys’ club” kind of guy – always talking about his crazy weekends, etc. He recently hung in his office a collage of pictures, including one of him in a bathing suit surrounded by women in bikinis. Let’s just say he really shouldn’t be putting himself on display like that – he’s got “dad bod.” I think it’s really inappropriate. It makes all of us uncomfortable. I want to report this to HR. Good idea? – Maryanne</p>
<p>J.T.: I’d have a conversation with HR. His behavior will only increase over time. In HR, we always say, “Whatever behavior you see in the first 90 days on the job, multiply it by 10 and that’s what you’ll see in six months.” If they talk to him now, they can set expectations. And if he continues and crosses the line again, HR will have cause to let him go.</p>
<p>Dale: For me, you go to HR only if you can’t solve the problem yourself. This is, however, one of the situations where you can use HR as a handy excuse. You “confide” to your new manager that the HR folks are likely to have a problem with his photo and see how he reacts. He may decide to take it down. If he holds firm, well, that’s when you roll your eyes and get back to work. I know that’s not the PC solution, but I’m concerned about “uncomfortable” as the standard for behavior. I get it – a picture of a lumpy, shirtless guy makes you grimace. But here’s the problem: Do we accommodate everyone’s comfort thresholds? There are people made uneasy by fellow employees with unconventional lifestyles. Then you can find people offended by tattoos and piercings, not to mention those adamant about what women’s clothing shows or doesn’t show. How do we choose whose comfort levels matter? I would hope that we could stop asking our HR departments to be the thought police, and instead welcome more diversity of attitudes and lifestyles.</p>
<p>Jeanine “J.T.” Tanner O’Donnell is a professional development specialist and the founder of the consulting firm jtodonnell. Dale Dauten resolves employment and other business disputes as a mediator with <a href="http://AgreementHouse.com" type="external">AgreementHouse.com</a>. Please visit them at <a href="http://jtanddale.com" type="external">jtanddale.com</a>, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Newly retired hubby needs a fresh purpose | false | https://abqjournal.com/863700/newly-retired-hubby-needs-a-fresh-purpose.html | 2 |
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<p>JAYESS, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi sheriff believes a man wanted in a deadly shooting, assault and arson remains close to home.</p>
<p>Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler told the <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/26/still-very-few-leads-lawrence-county-homicide-arson-case/981886001/" type="external">Clarion Ledger</a> that Tony Wilson shot and killed neighbor Henry Peavey on Dec. 19, beat his wife Kathryn Peavey, and then set their house ablaze. Wilson then vanished, with officials believing he disappeared into woods he knows well in rural Lawrence County.</p>
<p>Officials have said Wilson disputed Henry Peavey’s ownership of a piece of land. Butler said he believes Wilson will stay close to that land.</p>
<p>“We don’t have any evidence to prove or disprove that theory, it’s just a feeling on the type of individual he is, and the upset and what it all stems about,” Butler said.</p>
<p>An autopsy shows Peavey was shot once in the knee and once in the back, with the second shot being fatal, Butler said.</p>
<p>Wilson’s girlfriend told police he used an accelerant to set Peavey and two buildings on fire. Kathryn Peavey was beaten. She remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday.</p>
<p>Wilson’s brother-in-law Robert Langille told The Associated Press on the day of the shooting that Wilson felt like Butler had taken the Peaveys’ side in the land dispute.</p>
<p>“I want him to know that we would be as fair as we can be if he’ll turn himself in,” Butler said. “The situation is out of our hands because a crime has been committed, and we’re not going to close the case until we have the suspect in custody.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com" type="external">http://www.clarionledger.com</a></p>
<p>JAYESS, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi sheriff believes a man wanted in a deadly shooting, assault and arson remains close to home.</p>
<p>Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler told the <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/12/26/still-very-few-leads-lawrence-county-homicide-arson-case/981886001/" type="external">Clarion Ledger</a> that Tony Wilson shot and killed neighbor Henry Peavey on Dec. 19, beat his wife Kathryn Peavey, and then set their house ablaze. Wilson then vanished, with officials believing he disappeared into woods he knows well in rural Lawrence County.</p>
<p>Officials have said Wilson disputed Henry Peavey’s ownership of a piece of land. Butler said he believes Wilson will stay close to that land.</p>
<p>“We don’t have any evidence to prove or disprove that theory, it’s just a feeling on the type of individual he is, and the upset and what it all stems about,” Butler said.</p>
<p>An autopsy shows Peavey was shot once in the knee and once in the back, with the second shot being fatal, Butler said.</p>
<p>Wilson’s girlfriend told police he used an accelerant to set Peavey and two buildings on fire. Kathryn Peavey was beaten. She remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday.</p>
<p>Wilson’s brother-in-law Robert Langille told The Associated Press on the day of the shooting that Wilson felt like Butler had taken the Peaveys’ side in the land dispute.</p>
<p>“I want him to know that we would be as fair as we can be if he’ll turn himself in,” Butler said. “The situation is out of our hands because a crime has been committed, and we’re not going to close the case until we have the suspect in custody.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.clarionledger.com" type="external">http://www.clarionledger.com</a></p> | Man wanted in shooting, arson believed to be close to home | false | https://apnews.com/e3521381536747c4afc8f7fcf6fe3140 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>Published time: 7 Aug, 2017 19:40</p>
<p>The amusement ride that broke apart at the Ohio State Fair last month, killing a teenager and injuring seven others, was due to “excessive corrosion,” the investigators have determined.</p>
<p>The accident happened on the Fireball thrill ride, when one row of seats detached from the supporting arm of the attraction while it was in motion. Tyler Jarrell, 18, was thrown into the air and died on impact 50 feet away. Of the seven others injured during the accident, four required a stay at the hospital.</p>
<p>“It was determined that excessive corrosion on the interior of the gondola support beam dangerously reduced the beam’s wall thickness over the years,” KMG, the Dutch company that carried out the investigation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/355142571240840/photos/a.515224458565983.1073741826.355142571240840/1459793940775692/?type=3&amp;theater" type="external">said in a Facebook post</a>. “This finally led to the catastrophic failure of the ride during operation.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/397646-ohio-state-fair-ride-malfunction-killed/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Investigators visited the accident site, reviewed video footage of the July 26 incident, and conducted a metallurgical inspection of the attraction, KMG said.</p>
<p>Working with industry safety experts, KMG has developed an inspection plan for maintaining and inspecting rides, product manager Albert Kroon said in a statement.Ohio state officials said the ride had been inspected multiple times before it malfunctioned.</p>
<p>“This fair is about the best things in life, and then tonight with this accident, it becomes a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Ohio Governor John Kasich told reporters, <a href="http://www.wcpo.com/newsy/deadly-ohio-state-fair-ride-accident-caused-by-excessive-corrosion" type="external">according to WCPO.</a></p>
<p>Kasich had ordered all rides at the State Fair to shut down until inspections could be completed. Several other state fairs have also shut down similar attractions for inspection, as a precautionary measure.</p>
<p>Jarrell’s family has hired a civil attorney to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit, according to the Associated Press.</p> | Probe blames ‘excessive corrosion’ for fatal accident at Ohio State Fair | false | https://newsline.com/probe-blames-excessive-corrosion-for-fatal-accident-at-ohio-state-fair/ | 2017-08-07 | 1 |
<p>Ari Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush’s press secretary, agreed with newly installed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci’s assessment that leaks from inside the Oval Office need to stop — but said it might not be as easy to stop them as Scaramucci thinks.</p>
<p>“These leaks are debilitating; they’re just terrible,” Fleischer said Monday on Fox News Channel’s <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/5519561204001/" type="external">“Your World with Neil Cavuto.”</a></p>
<p>“I can’t imagine a time when I ever turned on my colleagues and revealed publicly what they said to the president in the Oval Office,” he said, but added that it “happens regularly in this administration.”</p>
<p>Scaramucci’s problem is that the leaks likely aren’t coming from the communications staff, but from others in the administration, Fleischer said. That’s because the communications team actually has to deal with the fallout of the leaks, so they aren’t likely to create problems for themselves by leaking things they’ll then have to talk to the press about.</p>
<p>Scaramucci said Sunday he’s looking at <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/scaramucci-stop-white-house-leaks/2017/07/23/id/803271/" type="external">cutting loose staff members</a> who leak, but Fleischer said not so fast.</p>
<p>“Is he going to fire [son-in-law] Jared [Kushner]? Is he going to fire [daughter] Ivanka? Is he going to fire [Chief of Staff] Reince [Priebus]? Is he going to fire the national security adviser?” Fleischer asked, noting that he was using those people only as examples and was not implying any of them are the actual leakers.</p>
<p>But it could be Trump himself who is ultimately to blame for the chaos in his own White House, Fleischer said, noting that George W. Bush, and even Barack Obama, both wanted a “team” working under them, not rivals.</p>
<p>Trump, on the other hand, appears to enjoy “a little chaos under him,” he said.</p>
<p>“The signal is sent engage in chaos,” Fleischer said. “There’s no downside to doing it. No question the behavior starts at the top.”</p> | Ari Fleischer: 'These Leaks are Debilitating' | false | https://newsline.com/ari-fleischer-these-leaks-are-debilitating/ | 2017-07-24 | 1 |
<p>Investment strategies vary, of course, but a tactic that all good investors utilize is a process to constantly revisit the thesis underlying each investment position. At Twinleaf Management, we frequently ask ourselves these questions:</p>
<p>Why do we continue to like the stock of a portfolio company at the current valuation? Has anything recently occurred that may have shifted our view of the company or industry? Is management executing as we anticipated when we originally made the investment? Is the risk-reward outcome still skewed decidedly in our favor?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>We also try to look ahead 12 to 18 months and take a future snapshot of the company with as much clarity as possible. Anticipation is very important; investing in front of a catalyst is the key to investment outperformance.</p>
<p>This is obviously no simple task, given the thousands of market participants and inherent uncertainties. After all, no one’s crystal ball is clear all the time and anticipating correctly is especially difficult given Twinleaf’s focus on small caps.</p>
<p>Small cap investing can be treacherous — a single customer defection, a missed product launch date or a management misstep can produce a downside move in a stock. But the opposite effect is also true: the upside for anticipating a catalyst in a misunderstood or out-of-favor name can be significant.</p>
<p>At Twinleaf, our exclusive focus is not only finding compelling investment opportunities but getting there before others do, which means identifying companies that are deeply undervalued with an emerging catalyst that should it play out as we anticipate, is likely to rapidly narrow or erase the discount to fair value.</p>
<p>Our preferred, but not exclusive, investment catalyst is the prospect of a company being purchased by another firm or a private equity firm. &#160;With few exceptions, if a company is not at least a plausible takeover candidate within an 18-month horizon, we don’t invest. Our objective is for at least one portfolio company per year to be the target of an M&amp;A takeover bid; in 2013, we had two and we are optimistic for 2014.</p>
<p>It doesn’t always go as planned and outperforming is not easy, but we believe that having a narrow investment focus, performing diligent research and constantly revisiting the investment thesis is the key to long-term success.</p>
<p>In our next blog post, we’ll discuss the level of conviction in an investment idea and sizing positions accordingly.&#160; We enjoy hearing from investors, so please feel free to contact us if you would like more information.</p>
<p>DISCLAIMER: The reader should not assume that any investments identified were or will be profitable or that any investment recommendations or investment decisions we make in the future will be profitable. Investments in securities of small-cap and growth companies may be especially volatile. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://investing.covestor.com/2013/12/search-small-cap-takeover-plays-2014" type="external">In search of small-cap takeover plays in 2014 Opens a New Window.</a> appeared first on <a href="http://investing.covestor.com" type="external">Smarter Investing Opens a New Window.</a>Covestor Ltd. is a registered investment advisor. Covestor licenses investment strategies from its Model Managers to establish investment models. The commentary here is provided as general and impersonal information and should not be construed as recommendations or advice. Information from Model Managers and third-party sources deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Transaction histories for Covestor models available upon request. Additional important disclosures available at http://site.covestor.com/help/disclosures.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | In search of small-cap takeover plays in 2014 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/12/19/in-search-small-cap-takeover-plays-in-2014.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>President Trump will unveil Wednesday a proposal to&#160;slash the corporate tax rate from <a href="https://www.apnews.com/3f21e7fceb39414f96f69af5e9f5a206/A-budget-deficit-challenge-for-Trump's-tax-plan?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP_Politics" type="external">35 to 15 percent</a>—a change that would balloon&#160;the federal deficit by an estimated&#160; <a href="https://t.co/bq5YwFcLJD" type="external">$2 trillion</a>&#160;dollars over a&#160;decade. The plan will reportedly include additional cuts to the income tax rate paid by high earners and a tax credit for child care that would <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/28/news/economy/donald-trump-child-care/" type="external">mostly benefit the wealthy</a>, at further cost to the federal budget.</p>
<p>While some Republican lawmakers cheerfully echoed to TPM <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/21/the-white-house-reveals-what-next-weeks-big-announcement-on-taxes-will-look-like/?utm_term=.ef5eb5ca5b20" type="external">the White House line</a> that the tax cuts will “pay for themselves” by spurring massive economic growth, both official government analyses&#160;and conservative economists are much more skeptical.</p>
<p />
<p>“There’s no pure tax cut that pays for itself,” Alan Cole, an economist at the right-leaning Tax Foundation, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/3f21e7fceb39414f96f69af5e9f5a206/A-budget-deficit-challenge-for-Trump's-tax-plan?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP_Politics" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Len Burman, the co-founder of the Tax Policy Center think tank, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/71500344-2511-11e7-8691-d5f7e0cd0a16" type="external">characterized it</a> as “wishful thinking.” Bruce Bartlett, an economist who advised the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, has <a href="https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/dynamic-scoring-once-again/" type="external">likened these calculations</a> to “using smoke and mirrors to institutionalize Republican ideology into the budget process.” George Callas, who serves as senior tax counsel to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/04/25/donald_trump_s_corporate_tax_cuts_can_t_pass_congress.html" type="external">dismissed the framework</a> as&#160;a “magic unicorn” whose <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/142248/trumps-desperation-exposing-deep-ignorance" type="external">main impact</a> would be akin to “dropping cash out of helicopters on corporate headquarters.”</p>
<p>If Trump’s plan is ultimately found&#160;to explode the federal deficit over the long term, he will <a href="" type="internal">not be able to pass it</a> under the rules of&#160;reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate and prevents the possibility of a Democratic filibuster. This means Republicans may have to&#160;working with&#160;Democrats to get a tax reform&#160;to the president’s desk.</p>
<p>But Democrats, fresh off&#160;a round of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">town hall scolding</a> from their&#160;riled-up progressive base, are in no mood to lend Republicans and President Trump a hand, and in no mood to vote for a bill that would help the wealthy and corporations. This is especially true now that Trump has rolled out a budget gutting&#160; <a href="" type="internal">everything Democrats hold dear</a>, from diplomats to public media to housing to the EPA.</p>
<p>“I want a tax reform proposal that works for working families, not just for the people who can hire a lot of accountants and lawyers,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who sits on the Senate’s Taxation and Budget committees, told TPM.&#160;“Today, if you’re a cop or a nurse, your taxes are compulsory. They come out of your paycheck once or twice a month. No Cayman Islands thing for you. But if you’re someone who can afford lots of lawyers and accountants, you can pretty much decide what you’re going to pay, when you’re going to pay, and maybe if you’re going to pay any at all.”</p>
<p>Wyden added in a gaggle with reporters that President Trump’s business entanglements and <a href="" type="internal">lack of transparency</a> make him even less eager to support such a plan.&#160;“If he released a tax proposal with a big break for big business, and he hasn’t released his returns, Americans are going to say, ‘Who does this proposal benefit? Does it benefit us or does it benefit him?'” he said.</p>
<p>Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), though she didn’t rule out supporting some form of a&#160;corporate tax cut, said she was “very skeptical” of the president’s proposal of a 15 percent rate.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen no plan in the past that can get to that level without seriously adding to the deficit or undermining those things important to working people,” she said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Republicans, despite claiming before recess that they were hoping to act in a bipartisan manner on tax reform, are not eager to work with Democrats either.</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters Tuesday that it’s “pretty clear” the&#160;bill will&#160;have to be done through reconciliation because “today’s Democratic Party is different than the Democratic Party in the ’80s, which was actually interested in pro-growth tax reform.”</p>
<p>If they want to avoid the reaching across the aisle, Republicans can get around the reconciliation rules by making the tax cuts temporary—as George W. Bush did—giving a future president the unpleasant task of choosing between extending the cut or overseeing a massive take hike when it expires.</p>
<p>The other option, popular among some Hill Republicans, is to&#160;evaluate the bill’s revenue&#160;impact using dynamic scoring—a <a href="" type="internal">budgetary gimmick</a> that assumes that tax cuts will generate robust economic growth.</p>
<p>“The key is whether it’s what they call ‘scored dynamically,'” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told reporters Tuesday. “What are the estimates in terms of economic growth? What does it do in terms of making America competitive?”</p>
<p>The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office frowns on this practice, as do many <a href="https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/dynamic-scoring-once-again/" type="external">economists</a> and lawmakers, who <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/dynamic-scoring-cooks-the-books-113977" type="external">liken it to cooking the books</a> to produce a more favorable projection of a bill’s impact.</p>
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), though he for years <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-25/trump-s-15-corporate-tax-push-sets-stage-for-clash-with-ryan" type="external">questioned the wisdom</a> of deficit-growing tax cuts and pushed his own plan that would raise revenue by taxing imports, is an enthusiastic fan of dynamic scoring, and once <a href="" type="internal">attempted to force the CBO</a> to use the controversial method.</p>
<p>Ryan, it should be noted, though&#160;he positions himself as a deficit hawk, also voted for the Bush tax cuts in the early aughts. Those tax cuts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/02/the-legacy-of-the-bush-tax-cuts-in-four-charts/?utm_term=.11cc556c0cff" type="external">exploded the federal deficit</a> and, some argue, continue to <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/economic-downturn-and-legacy-of-bush-policies-continue-to-drive-large-deficits?fa=view&amp;id=3849" type="external">contribute to its expansion</a> nearly 20 years later.</p>
<p>But&#160;will the same lawmakers who <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/08/expect-permanent-revenue-neutral-tax-reform-by-summer-ohio-senator-says.html" type="external">insisted&#160;just a few months&#160;ago</a> that any tax reform plan be revenue neutral—and who have&#160; <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-sen-harris-pushes-trump-s-budget-1485300252-htmlstory.html" type="external">demanded</a> that even spending on hurricane relief aid&#160;be offset by budget cuts so as not to grow the deficit—now fall in line behind Trump?</p>
<p>The answer, for some, is yes.</p>
<p>“I do believe tax cuts generate additional revenue that will help us with all our problems,”&#160;Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) told reporters on Monday, echoing the Treasury secretary’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/04/22/trumps-tax-reform-plans-to-depend-upon-an-untruth-that-tax-cuts-pay-for-themselves/#45d6a65c48db" type="external">dubious claim</a> that the corporate cuts&#160;will “pay for themselves over time.”</p>
<p>“But it’s got to be reasonable,” Graham continued. “I’m not going to support a 10 percent corporate tax rate.” Asked by TPM if a 15 percent rate was acceptable, Graham&#160;said he would have to think about it and read the fine print in the President’s proposal.</p>
<p>White House officials say a detailed tax plan <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-24/trump-advisers-said-set-to-discuss-tax-plan-with-top-republicans" type="external">will not be released</a> until June.</p>
<p>Despite assurances of dynamic scoring and record growth, some Republicans are <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/25/playbook-trump-corporate-tax-hill-237559" type="external">balking</a> at the depth of the proposed tax cuts. Having railed for&#160;years against the ever-growing federal deficit,&#160;they are mindful of supporting a plan that would&#160;push the government far deeper into the red.</p>
<p>Democrats have been eager to point out this hypocrisy.</p>
<p>“Consistency seems to be in short supply on the other side,”&#160;Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) quipped to TPM.</p>
<p>Blumenthal predicted, as have former lawmakers, staffers, and tax experts, that Republicans will find it difficult—potentially impossible—to pass any tax reform this year as they have promised. “I have a feeling this proposal will meet the same fate as their Trumpcare plan: imploding in divisions among themselves.”</p> | Trump’s Trickle Down Tax Plan Is Already In Trouble In Congress | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trumps-trickle-down-tax-plan-is-already-in-trouble-in-congress | 4 |
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<p>The Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate steady on Thursday, saying there are fresh signs that uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the U.K.'s upcoming referendum on membership of the European Union is slowing the economy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Officials, led by Gov. Mark Carney, voted unanimously at their April policy meeting to keep the&#160;BOE's benchmark rate at 0.5%, according to minutes of officials' deliberations published Thursday. All nine rate-setters also voted to maintain the stock of assets purchased under the&#160;BOE's bond-buying stimulus program at GBP375 billion ($531 billion).</p>
<p>Bank officials said there are increasing signs that Britain's June 23 vote on EU membership is prompting companies to delay spending plans until after the result. Such delays "might lead to some softening in growth during the first half of 2016," the minutes record.</p>
<p>The&#160;BOE's latest warning comes after the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said that a British exit from the EU could cause "severe" damage to the European economy and the wider world, adding its voice to a gathering chorus of official unease over the potential fallout of June's referendum.</p>
<p>Mr. Carney has previously said the vote represents the most significant domestic risk to the stability of the U.K. financial system.</p>
<p>Proponents of quitting the EU have dismissed such concerns as scaremongering, saying the U.K. will ultimately be better off if it forges its own trade deals and sets its own business regulations outside the 28-member bloc.</p>
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<p>The&#160;BOE&#160;said on Thursday there are signs that uncertainty over the vote is hitting property transactions and delaying corporate decisions on investment and hiring, with a knock-on effect on the wider economy. It said the referendum also appears to be delaying planned stock sales and other corporate transactions.</p>
<p>Officials also sent a clear signal on Thursday that they are unlikely to make any significant policy shifts themselves until after the vote, saying that uncertainty about the outcome of the referendum will likely make incoming macroeconomic and financial data harder to interpret over the next few months.</p>
<p>"The committee is likely to react more cautiously to data news over this period than would normally be the case," the minutes record.</p>
<p>Officials nevertheless signaled they still expect their next move on interest rates to be a raise. Economists expect the&#160;BOE&#160;may begin slowing increasing borrowing costs next year, assuming the U.K. decides to remain in the EU.</p>
<p>Central banks around the world are similarly grappling with low inflation and heightened uncertainty in the global economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve, which began raising short-term interest rates in December, has signaled it will proceed cautiously on future rate increases.</p>
<p>Write to Jason Douglas at [email protected]</p> | Bank of England Leaves Key Interest Rate Unchanged | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/12/bank-england-leaves-key-interest-rate-unchanged.html | 2016-07-06 | 0 |
<p>Nov. 6 (UPI) — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Terrell_Owens/" type="external">Terrell Owens</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cheryl_Burke/" type="external">Cheryl Burke</a> were eliminated from Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars in Los Angeles Monday night.</p>
<p>“I had a great time. She was a great teacher. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” the NFL great said upon learning his fate.</p>
<p>Singer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nick_Lachey/" type="external">Nick Lachey</a> and his wife Vanessa, pro wrestler <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nikki-Bella/" type="external">Nikki Bella</a>, actress Sasha Pieterse, former NBA player <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Derek_Fisher/" type="external">Derek Fisher</a>, recording artist <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Debbie_Gibson/" type="external">Debbie Gibson</a> and reality TV personality Barbara Corcoran, along with their professional partners, were previously sent packing this season.</p>
<p>Still in the running for the coveted mirror-ball trophy are Drew Scott and Emma Slater; <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Frankie_Muniz/" type="external">Frankie Muniz</a> and Witney Carson; Jordan Fisher and Lindsay Arnold; Lindsey Stirling and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mark_Ballas/" type="external">Mark Ballas</a>; and Victoria Arlen and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Val_Chmerkovskiy/" type="external">Val Chmerkovskiy</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tom_Bergeron/" type="external">Tom Bergeron</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Erin_Andrews/" type="external">Erin Andrews</a> host the ABC competition series. The judges are Carrie Ann Inaba, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Len_Goodman/" type="external">Len Goodman</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bruno_Tonioli/" type="external">Bruno Tonioli</a>.</p> | Terrell Owens gets the boot on 'Dancing with the Stars' | false | https://newsline.com/terrell-owens-gets-the-boot-on-dancing-with-the-stars/ | 2017-11-06 | 1 |
<p>When teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd played a 3-minute clip from a television show regarding the use of gender pronouns, she likely didn’t expect she’d be the subject of an official inquiry — but that’s exactly what happened.</p>
<p>On November 1, Shepherd, who teaches a "language use and writing skills component" tutorial for a larger communications class at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, played a clip in which University of Toronto professor, Jordan Peterson, debates Nicholas Matte over gender pronouns on the Canadian TV show, "The Agenda."</p>
<p>In the clip, Peterson argues against what he calls "compelled speech" regarding transgender pronouns like "zir" and "xe."</p>
<p>According to Shepherd, she took a completely neutral stance, neither condemning nor applauding Peterson’s position. However, one or more of her approximately 48 students filed a complaint with the school. As a result, Shepherd was censured, and brought in for a meeting with course professor, Dr. Nathan Rambukkana, Dr. Herbert Pimlott, and Adria Joel, Acting Manager of Gendered Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention and Support at the Diversity and Equity Office.</p>
<p>The meeting, which took place on November 8, was secretly recorded. Provided below is the transcript of the recording as well as the audio:</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: [Do you see] why that might have been seen as problematic by some of the students? Maybe even threatening?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: I don't see how someone would rationally think that was threatening. I could see how it might challenge their existing ideas, but for me, that's the spirit of the university is challenging ideas that you already have, and I don't know who this came from. I would be interested to see the original complaint or complaints because, like, I don't have any context...</p>
<p>The thing is, can you shield people from those ideas? Am I supposed to comfort them and make sure that they're insulated away from this? Like is that what the point of this is? Because to me, that is so against what a university is about. So against it. I was not taking sides; I was presenting both arguments.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: So the thing about this is if you're presenting something like this, you have to think about the kind of teaching climate that you are creating, and this is actually – these arguments are counter to the Canadian Human Rights Code. Ever since, and I know that you've talked about C-16, ever since this passed, it is discriminatory to be targeting someone due to their gender identity or gender expression. So bringing something like that up in class not critically, and I understand that you're trying to like —</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: It was critical. I introduced it critically.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: How so? Like as in?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Like I said, it was in the spirit of debate.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Okay. "In the spirit of the debate" is slightly different than being like, okay, this is, like, a problematic idea that we maybe want to unpack.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: But that's taking sides.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Yes.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Like, it's taking sides for me to be like: "Oh, look at this guy. Everything that comes out of his mouth is BS, but we're gonna watch anyway."</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Okay, so, I understand the position that you're coming from, and your positionality, but the reality is that it has created a toxic climate for some of the students...</p>
<p>...one or multiple students who have come forward, saying that this is something that they were concerned about, and that it made them uncomfortable. You are perfectly welcome to your own opinions, but when you're bringing it into the context of the classroom, that can become problematic, and that can become something that is – that creates an unsafe learning environment for students.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: But when they leave the University, they're gonna be exposed to these ideas. So I don't see how I'm doing a disservice to the class by exposing them to ideas that are really out there. And I'm sorry I'm crying, I'm stressed out because this, to me, is so wrong.</p>
<p>JOEL: Can I mention the gendered violence, gender and sexual violence policy?</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Yeah, please.</p>
<p>JOEL: So, under that, gendered violence doesn't just include sexual violence, but it also includes targeting folks based on gender, so that includes transphobia, biphobia, homophobia. All those sorts of things are protected under the policy, and so those are things that Laurier has upheld as values as well as the Ontario Human Rights Code. And so those are things that we are responsible for, uh, not impacting our students in that way, and not spreading transphobia in that way.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Okay, so, what I have a problem with is I didn't target anybody. Who did I target?</p>
<p>JOEL: Trans folks.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: How? By telling them ideas that are really out there? By telling them that? By telling them? Really?</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: It's not just telling them. In legitimizing this as a valid perspective, as "this is another valid perspective on [the] issues." —</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: In a university, all perspectives are valid.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: That's not necessarily true, Lindsay.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Well, this is something that's being debated in current society, and I don't feel the need to shield people from what's going on in society. Like, to imagine that this is happening in a university – it's just bad.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Okay, just to give you a context. Also within all of this that is happening, Laurier is being blanketed with white supremacist posters currently. There is another debate in society, which is whether or not North America should be a set of white nationalist states, and that it should be ethnically cleansed of other people. That is also a current debate in society. Would you show something in your tutorial that had white supremacists and non-white supremacists debating whether or not other people should live in North America? Is that something that you would show?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: If that was related to the content of the week, and we were talking about right-wing speech bubbles, maybe. It depends on the content. If there's really ideas that are existing out there like that, then, I mean. Look, the thing is, I don't see what's transphobic about showing a video of Jordan Peterson. He's a real person. He's out there.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: He's a real person, but he is a real person who has engaged in targeted behavior that – targeting of trans students in a particular, like, basically doxxing them - if you know the term – like, giving out their personal information so that they will be attacked, harassed, so that death threats will find them. This is something that he has done to his own students, has done to other students. And this is also something that the students are aware of. So this is basically like playing – not to kind of do the thing where everything is kind of compared to Hitler – but this is like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler or Milo Yiannopoulos...</p>
<p>This is the kind of thing that departmentally, in terms of, like, critical communication studies, and in terms of the course, of what we're trying to do, is diametrically opposed to everything that we've been talking about in the lectures. Was this one of the reasons that you wanted to do this? Because it was like a reaction to the lecture content?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: No, we were talking about gendered language, and I was asking them to structure sentences using "they" or using "his" or "her." And then we talked about the societal context of that. So I don't get why I'm being seen as transphobic by virtue, by proxy of me just saying, just stating, just exposing people to an idea. I don't get how that label is now attached to me. I really don't.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: It's more about the effect rather than the intention. Obviously that wasn't your intention, but nevertheless, it disturbed and upset students enough.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: So everything's about those students who are disturbed? Everything is catered to them?</p>
<p>PIMLOTT: Can I just offer a different perspective? Was this tutorial based on looking at grammar? And it was focused on the use of pronouns and the use of grammar? Is grammar not something that's not really subject to debate?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: The "they," and the "his or her?" It's a huge debate right now. Can we use "they" in the singular?</p>
<p>PIMLOTT: But you do know that "they" has actually been used in the singular. It's grammatically —</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Yeah, that was in the video I showed the class, and that's a point I made. The thing is that what's kind of funny is I disagree with Jordan Peterson. I disagree, but you guys seem to think that I'm, like, pro Jordan Peterson or something.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Do you understand how what happened was contrary to...gendered and sexual violence policy? Do you understand how —</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Sorry, what did I violate in that policy?</p>
<p>JOEL: So, gender-based violence, transphobia in that policy. Causing harm to trans students by bringing their identity as invalid, or their pronouns as invalid – potentially invalid.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: So I caused harm and violence?</p>
<p>JOEL: Which is under the Ontario Human Rights Code a protected thing, and also something that Laurier holds as a value.</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: Okay, so, by proxy, me showing a YouTube video, I'm transphobic and I caused harm and violence? So be it. I can't do anything to control that.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: Okay, so that's not something that you have an issue with? The fact that that happened? Like, are you sorry that it happened?</p>
<p>SHEPHERD: I mean, I know in my heart and I know I expressed to the class that I'm not transphobic, and if any of them – I don't know, again, what they said, but...I don't think I gave away any political position of mine. I remained very neutral.</p>
<p>RAMBUKKANA: That's kind of the problem...</p>
<p>To recap, Rambukkana compared Shepherd remaining neutral toward Jordan Peterson to someone remaining neutral toward Adolf Hitler, the man who presided over a holocaust of more than ten million people. Adria Joel claimed that Shepherd was "causing harm" and implied that she was also inciting "violence" toward transgender students.</p>
<p>On November 16, Dr. Paul Jessop, Acting Vice-President: Academic, <a href="https://www.wlu.ca/news/news-releases/2017/nov/laurier-responds-to-recent-media-articles.html" type="external">said</a> the university was having a "third-party" investigator look into the matter:</p>
<p>The university is constrained from commenting on the personnel matters involved. As a responsible employer and educational institution, we are determined to gather all of the facts and then assess them in a deliberate and fair manner. To this end, we are engaging a neutral, third-party professional to speak with those involved and gather the facts of the situation.</p>
<p>Deborah MacLatchy, President and Vice-Chancellor, echoed Jessop in an <a href="https://www.wlu.ca/news/news-releases/2017/nov/laurier-responds-to-recent-media-articles.html" type="external">open letter</a>:</p>
<p>As a responsible employer, we are obligated to abide by government regulations, human rights legislation and our own university policies. To this end, we need to gather the facts of the situation and assess them in a deliberate, fair and respectful manner. To do this, we are in the process of engaging an impartial third-party professional. Given the personnel and privacy issues involved, this process will be confidential.</p>
<p>Despite there being roughly 550 full-time faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University, only about ten professors have reached out to Shepherd as of this publication. One of those professors is David M. Haskell, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Journalism, as well as Religion and Culture.</p>
<p>Haskell told The Daily Wire that "the censorship at Laurier is not unique." Earlier this year, attorney Danielle Robitaille was invited to give a keynote speech at the Criminology Students Association conference. However, because Robitaille had been part of a team that defended a man who was charged with sexual assault, the event was going to be "disrupted," and had to be <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/03/16/free-speech-at-university-under-attack-again.html" type="external">cancelled</a> out of concern for student safety.</p>
<p>Another censorship-like <a href="http://nationalpost.com/opinion/christine-schuknecht-at-wilfrid-laurier-university-do-as-the-campus-thought-police-dictate-or-else" type="external">incident</a> occurred in October 2016 when a pro-life campus group was harassed and intimidated.</p>
<p>As Shepherd mentioned in the video, she doesn’t even agree with Jordan Peterson, but she respects free speech and open dialogue:</p>
<p>Shepherd simply showed the video in order to "demonstrate that the structure of a language can affect the society in which it is spoken in ways people might not anticipate." Additionally, "she said she mentioned that long-standing views on gender had probably been shaped by the gender-specific pronouns that are part of English’s fundamental grammatical structure," reports <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/11/16/laurier-university-starts-independent-probe-after-teaching-assistant-plays-clip-of-gender-debate.html" type="external">The Star</a>.</p>
<p>According to Shepherd, the new limitations under which she can continue to teach are if "she [agrees] to file copies of her lesson plans in advance and allow faculty members to sit in on her sessions whenever they wish..."</p>
<p>The official <a href="http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-16/royal-assent" type="external">summary</a> of Bill C-16, which was referenced by Rambukkana in the recording states:</p>
<p>This enactment amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.</p>
<p>The enactment also amends the Criminal Code to extend the protection against hate propaganda set out in that Act to any section of the public that is distinguished by gender identity or expression and to clearly set out that evidence that an offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on gender identity or expression constitutes an aggravating circumstance that a court must take into consideration when it imposes a sentence.</p>
<p>There was tremendous debate regarding C-16 before it passed, with many calling it an unprecedented constraint on free speech.</p>
<p>Rambukkana told Shepherd that "ever since [C-16] passed, it is discriminatory to be targeting someone due to their gender identity or gender expression," seemingly claiming that by showing the Jordan Peterson clip in her class, she was in violation of C-16 by proxy.</p>
<p>This type of speech control is frightening enough, but perhaps more frightening is how deeply unaware we are as the Orwellian chains are being wrapped around our own hands.</p>
<p>Here’s a must-watch interview with Shepherd from Global News:</p> | University TA ‘Censured’ After Playing A Clip From A Debate About Transgender Pronouns | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23804/university-ta-censured-after-playing-clip-debate-frank-camp | 2017-11-20 | 0 |
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<p>But the clean-shaven man seemed to have a Syrian accent, not Iraqi. His conversation with whoever was on the other end of the line was strange at times as he gave details on the situation in the nearby districts. “We’re wearing enough and we have everything we need,” he assured the caller.</p>
<p>Iraqi troops nearby eyed him suspiciously as he spoke to The Associated Press on Nov. 12 just after he showed up with his wife and small daughter among dozens of people fleeing the fighting in Mosul. The troops then took him aside and detained him, believing he was an Islamic State group member.</p>
<p>The man gave his name as Omar Danoun, though it’s not known if that is his real name. His case illustrates the difficulty of knowing friend from foe in a chaotic war. Iraqi forces assaulting the city are on the lookout for IS fighters or members trying to slip out of the city with other residents, whether to escape or to sneak behind the lines to carry out attacks. A strange accent or odd behavior can draw suspicion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Government forces are already struggling to deal with thousands of civilians trying to escape the fighting and thousands more still in the middle of it, hunkered down in their homes. One Iraqi official told the AP that 25 militants had previously been caught hiding among refugees.</p>
<p>That same day, a contact inside IS-held parts of the city called the AP and said the group was having its fighters shave their signature beards — required of all men in Mosul under their own rules — and sending them out among civilians.</p>
<p>Before the thousands may leave the city, troops separate men from women and children. They then question the men, even young adolescents, trying to determine if any are fighters.</p>
<p>The Iraqi president, Fuad Massoum, said often other locals recognize IS members. “They inform us about them. … Those who are exposed (by civilians) are imprisoned,” Massoum said, speaking to the AP in Morocco, where he was attending a climate conference.</p>
<p>Danoun, who appeared to be in his 30s or early 40s, approached an AP team in Gogjali, one of several districts on Mosul’s eastern edge that Iraqi forces have retaken from IS.</p>
<p>The neighborhood had theoretically been seized by Iraqi forces two weeks earlier, but was still in chaos. The Islamic State group singled out Gogjali for “an exhausting war on the streets” against Iraqi troops as recently as last week.</p>
<p>In one compound that soldiers said had been cleared of IS fighters, the small yard was littered with melted explosives — a severed human spine in clear view. In the driveway sat a charred armor-plated car of the kind IS sends out by the dozens as suicide bombs.</p>
<p>Danoun pulled up in a truck along with about 60 others he said were his relatives. His 2-year-old daughter, wearing a full-length black dress, ambled alongside him. His wife, also in black, pulled down a full-face veil when the interview started.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Freshly shaven except for a small patch of facial hair on his chin, the man said he was a native of Mosul. He had no problem appearing on camera, but insisted on wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. His wife reluctantly agreed to sit alongside him.</p>
<p>The group of men, women and children he arrived with initially sat in the shade by a wall but then all rose at once and walked away, rolling suitcases behind them as they disappeared into the streets of Gogjali — without going through the processing Iraqi troops carry out before allowing people into the camps.</p>
<p>Listening later to an audio recording of the interview, two Iraqi AP journalists and a Syrian said his accent in Arabic was Syrian, not Iraqi. His wife’s accent seemed to be Iraqi, but not from Mosul, which has its distinct linguistic particularities.</p>
<p>The family told the AP they had fled that morning from their home in eastern Mosul’s Saddam neighborhood, the old name for Zahra, a district captured several days earlier by Iraqi forces.</p>
<p>Danoun said he had vowed that if he ever got out of Mosul he would tell the world what life there had been like under IS rule. He complained about not being able to move freely and said he and his family were detained by IS at one point for trying to escape to Turkey.</p>
<p>But while many who have fled Mosul are thin and make a point of talking about the city’s lack of food and communication, he said he managed to run businesses in Baghdad and Irbil and never wanted for food.</p>
<p>Then his phone rang and he asked to pause the camera while he took a call he said was from his mother.</p>
<p>Perhaps attracted by his accent, Iraqi soldiers silently encircled the family from a few meters away. Smoking and speaking on the phone, he seemed not to notice, although he and his wife both anxiously asked again if the camera had been turned off. One of the soldiers quietly told the AP team that he was a member of the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>Danoun, meanwhile, told his caller he was speaking to journalists but denied he was being filmed. He then advised them to stay away from the neighborhood he had fled, saying the Iraqi army was at his house.</p>
<p>“If any of you come near the Iraqi army they’ll kill him,” he told the caller, then paused to listen to the response. “Ehsan will come to give them a mobile credit. Do not speak with each other by phone. And now, when you hang up, remove the SIM card from the phone.”</p>
<p>He put the phone down and struggled to answer one last question: How is it he and those he spoke with freely used their mobile phones, something that under IS rule in Mosul meant death if they were caught?</p>
<p>His cell rang again. Gunshots crackled in a nearby street.</p>
<p>The interview was over. The soldiers moved in. Danoun pulled out an Iraqi passport and told them he was from Mosul. What appeared to be a second passport peeked from his pocket. He calmly explained his situation, his face betraying neither fear nor distress.</p>
<p>He was taken into custody.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Rohlat Khaleel in Mosul and AP correspondents Qassim Abdul Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Jeff Schaeffer in Marrakech, Morocco contributed.</p> | Friend or foe? Sometimes hard to tell in war for Mosul | false | https://abqjournal.com/893854/friend-or-foe-sometimes-hard-to-tell-in-war-for-mosul.html | 2016-11-21 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>It is undeniable; the final collapse triggers are upon us, triggers <a href="" type="internal">alternative economists have been warning about</a> since the initial implosion of 2008. In the years since the <a href="" type="internal">derivatives</a> disaster, there has been no end to the absurd and ludicrous propaganda coming out of mainstream financial outlets and as the situation in markets becomes worse, <a href="" type="internal">the propaganda will only increase</a>. This might seem counter-intuitive to many. You would think that the more obvious the economic collapse becomes, the more alternative analysts will be vindicated and the more awake and aware the average person will be. Not necessarily…</p>
<p>In fact, the mainstream spin machine is going into high speed the more negative data is exposed and absorbed into the markets. If you know your history, then you know that this is a common tactic by the establishment elite to string the public along with false hopes so that they do not prepare or take alternative measures while the system crumbles around their ears. At the onset of the Great Depression the same strategies were used. Consider if you’ve heard similar quotes to these in the mainstream news over the past couple months:</p>
<p>John Maynard Keynes in 1927: “We will not have any more crashes in our time.”</p>
<p>H.H. Simmons, president of the New York Stock Exchange, Jan. 12, 1928: “I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool’s paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future.”</p>
<p>Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist, The New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929: “There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash.” And on 17, 1929:“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months.”</p>
<p>W. McNeel, market analyst, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 30, 1929: “This is the time to buy stocks. This is the time to recall the words of the late J. P. Morgan… that any man who is bearish on America will go broke. Within a few days there is likely to be a bear panic rather than a bull panic. Many of the low prices as a result of this hysterical selling are not likely to be reached again in many years.”</p>
<p>Harvard Economic Society, Nov. 10, 1929: “… a serious depression seems improbable; [we expect] recovery of business next spring, with further improvement in the fall.”</p>
<p>Here is the issue – as I have ALWAYS said, <a href="" type="internal">economic collapse</a> is not a singular event, it is a process. The global economy has been in the process of collapse since 2008 and it never left that path. Those who were ignorant took government statistics at face value and the manipulated bull market as legitimate and refused to acknowledge the fundamentals. Now, with markets recently suffering one of the greatest freefalls since the 2008/2009 crash, they are witnessing the folly of their assumptions, but that does not mean they will accept them or apologize for them outright. If there is one lesson I have learned well during my time in the Liberty Movement, it is to never underestimate the power of normalcy bias.</p>
<p>There were plenty of “up days” in the markets during the Great Depression, and this kept the false dream of a quick recovery alive for a large percentage of the American population for many years. Expect numerous “stunning stock reversals” as the collapse of our era progresses, but always remember that it is the overall TREND that matters far more than any one positive or negative trading day (unless you open down 1000 points as we did on Monday), and even more important than the trends are the economic fundamentals.</p>
<p>The establishment has made every effort to hide the fundamentals from the public through far reaching misrepresentations of economic stats. However, the days of effective disinformation in terms of the financial system are coming to an end. As investors and the general public begin to absorb the reality that the global economy is indeed witnessing a vast crisis scenario and acknowledges real numbers over fraudulent numbers, the only recourse of central bankers and the governments they control is to convince the public that the crisis they are witnessing is not really a crisis. That is to say, the establishment will attempt to marginalize the collapse signals they can no longer hide as if such signals are of “minimal” importance.</p>
<p>Just as occurred during the onset of the Great Depression, the lies will be legion the closer we come to zero hour. Here are some of the lies you will likely hear as the collapse accelerates…</p>
<p>The hypocrisy inherent in this lie is truly astounding, to say the least, considering it is now being uttered by the same mainstream dirtbags who only months ago were claiming that <a href="" type="internal">China’s financial turmoil and stock market</a> upset were inconsequential and would have “little to no effect” on Western markets.</p>
<p>I specifically recall <a href="http://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/strategic-currency-briefing/2015/07/27/" type="external">these hilarious quotes</a> from Barbara Rockefeller in July:</p>
<p>“Something else that doesn’t matter much is the Chinese equity meltdown—again. China may be big and powerful, but it lacks a retail base and fund managers experienced in price variations, never mind a true rout…”</p>
<p>“Doom-and-gloom types have been saying for a long time that we will get a stock market rout when the Fed finally does move to raise rates. But as we wrote last week, history doesn’t bear out the thesis, not that you can really count on history when the sample size is one or two data points…”</p>
<p>Yes, that is a bit embarrassing. One or two data points? There have been many central bank interventions in history. When has ANY central bank or any government ever used stimulus to manipulate markets through fiat infusion and zero interest fueled stock buybacks or given government the ability to monetize its own debt, and actually been successful in the endeavor? When has addicting markets to stimulus like a heroin dealer ever led to “recovery”? When has this kind of behavior ever NOT created massive fiscal bubbles, a steady degradation of the host society, or outright calamity?</p>
<p>Suddenly, according to the MSM, China’s economy does affect us. Not only that, but China is to blame for all the ills of the globally interdependent economic structure. And, the mere mention that the Fed might delay the end of near zero interest rates in September by a Federal Reserve stooge recently sent markets up 600 points after a week-long bloodbath; meaning, the potential for any interest rate increase no mater how small also has wider implications for markets.</p>
<p>The truth is, the crash in global stocks which will undoubtedly continue over the next several months despite any delays on ZIRP by the Fed is a product of universal decay in fiscal infrastructure. Nearly every single nation on this planet, every sovereign economy, has allowed central and international banks to poison every aspect of their respective systems with debt and manipulation. This is not a “contagion” problem, it is a systemic problem to every economy across the world.</p>
<p>China’s crash matters not because it is causing all other economies to crash. It matters because China is the largest importer/exporter in the world and it is a litmus test for the financial health of every other country. If China is failing, it means we are not consuming, and if we are not consuming, then we must be broke. China’s crash portends our own far worse economic conditions. THAT is why western markets have been crumbling along with China’s despite the assumptions of the mainstream.</p>
<p>No they won’t. China has cut rates five times since last November and this has done nothing to stem the tide of their <a href="" type="internal">market collapse</a>. I’m not sure why anyone would think that a new rate cut would accomplish anything besides perhaps a brief respite from the continuing avalanche.</p>
<p>This is the most ignorant non-explanation I think I have ever heard. There is no such thing as a “market cycle” when your markets are supported partially or fully by fiat manipulation. Our market is in no way a free market, thus, it cannot behave like a free market, and thus, it is a stunted market with no identifiable cycles.</p>
<p>Swings in markets of up to 5%-6% to the downside or upside (sometimes both in a single day) are not part of a normal cycle. They are a sign of cancerous volatility that comes from an economy on the brink of disaster.</p>
<p>The last few years have been seemingly endless market bliss in which any idiot day trader could not go wrong as long as he “bought the dip” while Fed monetary intervention stayed the course. This is also not normal, even in the so-called “new normal”. Yes, the current equities turmoil is an inevitable result of manipulated markets, false statistics, and misplaced hopes, but it is indeed a tangible crash in the making. It is in no way an example of a predictable and non-threatening “market cycle”, and the fact that mainstream talking heads and the people who parrot them had absolutely no clue it was coming is only further evidence of this.</p>
<p>Don’t count on it. Public statements by globalist entities like the IMF on China, for example, have argued that their current crisis is merely part of the “new normal”; a future in which stagnant growth and reduced living standards is the way things are supposed to be. I expect the Fed will use the same exact argument to support the end of zero interest rates in the U.S., claiming that the decline of American wealth and living standards is a natural part of the new economic world order we are entering.</p>
<p>That’s right, mark my words, one day soon the Fed, the IMF, the BIS and others will attempt to convince the American people that the erosion of the economy and the loss of world reserve status is actually a “good thing”. They will claim that a strong dollar is the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-26/from-manhattan-to-detroit-dollar-s-rally-spreads-economic-pain" type="external">cause of all our economic pain</a> and that a loss in value is necessary. In the meantime they will, of course, downplay the tragedies that will result as the shift toward dollar devaluation smashes down on the heads of the populace.</p>
<p>A rate hike may not occur in September. In fact, as I <a href="http://www.alt-market.com/articles/2674-economic-crisis-goes-mainstream-what-happens-next" type="external">predicted in my last article</a>, the Fed is already hinting at a delay in order to boost markets, or at least slow down the current carnage to a more manageable level. But, they WILL raise rates in the near term, likely before the end of this year after a few high tension meetings in which the financial world will sit anxiously waiting for the word on high. Why would they raise rates? Some people just don’t seem to grasp the fact that the job of the Federal Reserve is to destroy the American economic system, not protect it. Once you understand this dynamic then everything the central bank does makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>A rate increase will occur exactly because that is what is needed to further destabilize U.S. market psychology to make way for the “great economic reset” that the IMF and Christine Lagarde are so fond of promoting. Beyond this, many people seem to be forgetting that ZIRP is still operating, yet, volatility is trending negative anyway. Remember when everyone was ready to put on their ‘Dow 20,000’ hat, certain in the omnipotence of central bank stimulus and QE infinity? Yeah…clearly that was a pipe dream.</p>
<p>ZIRP has run it’s course. It is no longer feeding the markets as it once did and the fundamentals are too obvious to deny.</p>
<p>The globalists at the Bank for International Settlements in spring openly deemed the existence of low interest rate policies a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11479425/Low-rates-will-trigger-civil-unrest-as-central-banks-lose-control-BIS.html" type="external">potential trigger for crisis</a>. Their statements correlate with the BIS tendency to “predict” terrible market events they helped to create while at the same time misrepresenting the reasons behind them.</p>
<p>The point is, ZIRP has done the job it was meant to do. There is no longer any reason for the Fed to leave it in place.</p>
<p>Again, don’t count on it. Or at the very least, don’t expect renewed <a href="" type="internal">QE</a> to have any lasting effect on the market if it is initiated.</p>
<p>There is truly no point to the launch of a fourth <a href="" type="internal">QE program</a>, but do expect that the Fed will plant the possibility in the media every once in a while to mislead investors. First, the Fed knows that it would be an open admission that the last three QE’s were an utter failure, and while their job is to dismantle the U.S. economy, I don’t think they are looking to take immediate blame for the whole mess. QE4 would be as much a disaster as the ECB’s last stimulus program was in Europe, not to mention the past several stimulus actions by the PBOC in China. I’ll say it one more time – fiat stimulus has a shelf life, and that shelf life is over for the entire globe. The days of artificially supported markets are nearly done and they are never coming back again.</p>
<p>I see little advantage for the Fed to bring QE4 into the picture. If the goal is to derail the dollar, that action is already well underway as the IMF carefully sets the stage for the Yuan to enter the SDR global currency basket next year, threatening the dollar’s world reserve status. China also continues to dump hundreds of billions in U.S. treasuries inevitably leading to a rush to a dump of treasuries by other nations. The dollar is a dead currency walking, and the Fed won’t even have to print Weimar Germany-style in order to kill it.</p>
<p>Yes, it is exactly as bad as it seems if not worse. When the Dow can open 1000 points down on a Monday and China can lose all of its gains for 2015 in the span of a few weeks despite institutionalized stimulus measures lasting years, then something is very wrong. This is not a “hiccup”. This is not <a href="" type="internal">a correction</a> which has already hit bottom. This is only <a href="" type="internal">the beginning of the end</a>.</p>
<p>Stocks are not a predictive indicator. They do not follow positive or negative fundamentals. Stocks do not crash before or during the development of an ailing economy. Stocks crash after the economy has already gone comatose. Stocks crash when the system is no longer salvageable. Since 2008, nothing in the global financial structure has been salvaged and now the central banking edifice is either unable or unwilling (I believe both) to supply the tools to allow us even to pretend that it can be salvaged. We’re going to feel the hurt now, all while the establishment tells us the whole thing is in our heads.</p>
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<p /> | Lies You Will Hear As The Economic Collapse Progresses | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2015/08/28/lies-you-will-hear-as-the-economic-collapse-progresses/ | 2015-08-28 | 0 |
<p>Many have commented on the remarkable callousness fashioned by this Republican presidential field. Most prominently, Herman Cain maintained that the poor and unemployed are responsible for their own plight; Ron Paul claimed that people who refrain from buying health insurance but become debilitated should not be bailed out by government healthcare—they should just die instead, his audience helpfully suggested (or hollered, rather); and just about all the candidates have recommended ever harsher, ever more absurd measures to keep out poor immigrants on our border with Mexico: double fences, electric fences, even soldiers with ‘real guns and real bullets,’ as Herman Cain put it.</p>
<p>What’s driving this show of meanness? You might say it’s just what the electorate—or some loud part thereof—wants. It seems like there are some seriously angry voters out there these days, and I’m sure the recession is taking a toll on people’s patience and generosity. And yet, I suspect this is no fleeting trend, but something with deeper ideological roots. In short, I sense Ayn Rand.</p>
<p>Rand has always had a good following, but her popularity has surged in recent years as conservatives repeatedly invoked her to counter Obama’s “Socialist” agenda. She has an impressive roster of conservative devotees: Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Ron Paul. Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul quoted Ayn Rand at length during a congressional committee meeting this past year—to argue against government mandates for energy efficient light bulbs, of all things. Congressman Paul Ryan, the rising star from Wisconsin who drafted the Republican’s celebrated plan to slash the federal budget, reportedly urges all his staffers to read her works.</p>
<p>This is a powerful fan-base, and many have feared the consequences of Rand’s influence. I think we are seeing it now, for there are clear strains of her venom in the excesses of the Republican candidates—and beyond. Her trademark callousness is increasingly evident throughout our political discourse regarding the poor and vulnerable of society. The congressional super-committee charged with agreeing on a trillion dollars in federal deficit reduction is reportedly contemplating cuts to food stamps, while Republicans remain steadfast that taxes not rise on the rich. This, as the recession lingers and poverty rates soar, and we witness the greatest concentration of wealth among the rich since the 1920s. The Republican stance is mind-boggling in these circumstances—but Rand would certainly approve; indeed, she might favor far worse. Consider:</p>
<p>In her popular novels, Rand glorifies ambitious, fiercely independent individuals who soar and succeed by virtue of their own resources and willpower alone. It’s her ode to individualism that captivates her fans. Also the simplicity of her world view, I suspect: Rand’s is a Manichean universe populated by a few great souls on one side, and the inept masses on the other; the masses would perennially muddle in their own misery if not for the exceptional creativity and bravery of a few to do great things, and it’s up to the masses to keep out of their way. In Atlas Shrugged, Rand declares “The man at the top of the intellectual pyramid contributes the most to all those below him, but gets nothing except his material payment, receiving no intellectual bonus from others to add to the value of his time.” Upon little reflection, Rand’s reasoning is obviously specious. Who on earth rises to the top without the help of someone, anyone at all? Indeed, luck plays an important role in a person’s success, too—if you evaluate it honestly, that is. Rand’s thinking is a pleasant enough fiction for those at the top of the heap, but it’s wholly improbable, naïve—and rude.</p>
<p>Pry a little further, however, and Rand’s thinking quickly becomes quite cruel. In a 1967 article entitled “Requiem for Man,” Rand issues a scathing rebuttal to Pope Paul VI who dared suggest that capitalists must be mindful of global wealth disparity and the sufferings of the poor, and recognize a social obligation to help the unfortunate (the Vatican has notably issued similar remarks in a recent statement on the global financial crisis). Rand slams the Pope for urging us to show brotherly love to poor 3rd world “savages.” To the contrary, she declares, when civilized man “discovers entire populations rotting alive in such conditions” he should not feel pity, but “a burning stab of pride” for “the achievements of his nations and his culture…” Amazingly, Rand fails to acknowledge how much the civilized nations have prospered at the expense of the global poor thanks to imperialism. Would she have us applaud the imperialists for their opportunism and exploitation?</p>
<p>In Rand’s view, the poor are better subject to our derision than compassion. What they want, what the Pope calls us to be sensitive to, are perfectly despicable needs: “The inhabitants of the world [that the Pope’s encyclical] proposes to establish are robots tuned to respond to a single stimulus: need—the lowest, grossest, physical, physicalistic need of any other robots anywhere: the minimum necessities, the barely sufficient to keep all robots in working order, eating, sleeping, eliminating, and procreating, to produce more robots to work, eat, sleep, eliminate, and procreate.” Her message to the millions starving in the world: your needs are not worth our consideration; just die why don’t you.</p>
<p>I’ve long wondered why—or how—Rand’s disciples conveniently, miraculously, ignored her heinous conclusions. It’s time Rand was seen for what she is—no glossing over it. Clearly, it’s not acceptable for our political leaders to be associated with her thought. Conservatives—any of her disciples indeed—have a clear choice: marginalize her work accordingly, or explain how a vision of radical individualism such as Rand’s does not lead to hate. A lot could be gained by the latter. At the very least, it might reveal the appropriate boundaries of our individualism, and make us more thoughtful to the vulnerable among us.</p>
<p>Firmin DeBrabander teaches philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he is also chair of the Humanistic Studies department.</p> | The Wrath of Rand | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/11/11/the-wrath-of-rand/ | 2011-11-11 | 4 |
<p>Bah, humbug.</p>
<p>Last year, South Korea allowed a group of Christians to light a Christmas tree near the land border between South and North Korea.&#160;</p>
<p>With the addition of two more trees, the South Korean government plans on repeating the same ceremony this Christmas, much to the dismay of its northern counterpart.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/20111211191120907127.html" type="external">Al Jazeera</a>, a North Korean state-run website named Uriminzokkiri "called the plan 'a mean attempt for psychological warfare' and threatened that lighting the trees would trigger an 'unexpected consequence.'"</p>
<p>For last year's ceremony, the South was accused of spreading propaganda through Christmas.</p>
<p>The North Korean capital of Pyongyang said using the tree "spread the Christian message to people inside the secular state," reported <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16129633" type="external">BBC News</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/110729/north-korea-us-talks-nuclear-disarmament" type="external">US holds rare direct talks with North Korea on nuclear program</a></p>
<p>South Korea, on the other hand, sees it differently.</p>
<p>An anonymous Defense Ministry official told <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8949039/North-Korea-warns-South-Korea-over-lighting-of-Christmas-tree-shaped-towers.html" type="external">The Telegraph</a> that continuing the ceremony was just the country's way of guaranteeing freedom of expression and religion.</p>
<p>The tree will be lit on December 23 and will remain on display over the next 15 days.</p>
<p>The relationship between these two nations has been straining since a torpedo hit a South Korean warship on March 2010, according to Al Jazeera.</p>
<p>The South accused the North of killing the 46 people who died from the attack, but&#160;Pyongyang denied any involvement.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/111118/china-north-korea-strengthen-military-ties-li-jinai-kim-jong-il" type="external">China pledges stronger military ties with North Korea</a></p> | North Korea to South: Christmas lights are "psychological warfare" | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-11/north-korea-south-christmas-lights-are-psychological-warfare | 2011-12-11 | 3 |
<p>PHILADELPHIA, PA (NBC) Police in Philadelphia were on a different kind of beat Sunday in preparation for what they hoped was a victory party Sunday night.</p>
<p>Officers were greasing light poles in downtown Philly using Criso Shortening.</p>
<p>They wanted to keep people off the poles and on their feet on the streets as an extra measure to keep people safe.</p>
<p>The Philadelphia Eagles took on the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night at 5 p.m. in the NFC championship game. The winner goes to the Super Bowl.</p> | Cops in Philly greasing light poles as Eagles face-off with the Vikings | false | http://valleynewslive.com/content/news/Cops-in-Philly-greasing-light-poles-as-Eagles-face-off-with-the-Vikings-470420673.html | 2018-10-07 | 1 |
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<p>That’s not the case for this year’s honoree, Reynaldo “Ray” Arriola, who was tragically killed in a traffic mishap three months ago.</p>
<p>Arriola, 57, of Placitas, was alone in his pickup, according to New Mexico State Police, when he was killed in what can best be described as a freak accident on US 550 in Bernalillo on Sept. 26.</p>
<p>The incident happened at the western end of a construction zone associated with rebuilding the I-25/US 550 interchange, which includes reconfiguring the intersection where the crash occurred. A mobile home section headed westbound snagged a pole, which fell down and collapsed the cab of Arriola’s truck, which was headed east.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Born in Albuquerque on June 16, 1956, to Guillermo “Willie” and Mary (Valdez) Arriola, Ray is remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, son and brother who enjoyed spending time with his family. He was a softball coach for Bernalillo for 14 years; he also officiated sports for the New Mexico Activities Association.</p>
<p>Among his survivors are his wife of 33 years, Mary Lou (Madrid) Arriola of Placitas, two sons and a daughter.</p>
<p>Dana Pappas, commissioner of officials and a deputy director of the NMAA, said Arriola officiated high school basketball for 18 years, and was first registered in the 1993-94 season.</p>
<p>“He was an active official every year with the exception of 2009-10 and 2012-13, due to injury,” she noted. “He was a ‘certified’ basketball official, (which is) the highest level an official can achieve in basketball.”</p>
<p>Pappas said Arriola also was a certified official in volleyball from 2005-12.</p>
<p>“Ray was a really good man,” she said. “He was always pleasant and always had a smile on his face.&#160; He is missed by the officiating community.&#160; His death was shortly after one of his officiating brethren, Mike Thoma, and the New Mexico Officials Association family was saddened by the loss of both.”</p>
<p>More than Pappas and his family are missing him.</p>
<p>“My memories of him was he was always a great guy,” said official Rob Atencio, working a basketball game in the Rams Athletic Center last week. “He was very, very nice; very genuine. … He was always calm and relaxed and laid back. He always had a good rapport with teams and players and officials.”</p>
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<p>Also on the floor of the RAC that night, wearing stripes, was David Montoya.</p>
<p>“Ray was a great official. Last year, I think I had four or five games with him. (He was) always teaching, always humble; he loved the game. He loved refereeing and was one of my mentors,” Montoya said.</p>
<p>Montoya’s best memory?</p>
<p>“We went to Cuba last year, probably one of the funnest trips I’ve had since I’ve been reffing. His personality was awesome,” he said. “The road trip going up and coming back with Ray was amazing. When we got to the gym, we got basketball talk, but from here to Cuba and back, it was family talk, interested ‘How’s your dad doing?’, because my dad was an official and he’s known Ray forever.”</p>
<p>John Atencio, Montoya’s father sitting in the gym to watch the game and his son, said he officiated with Ray “back in the ’80s. Many years. He was an enjoyable person. He loved life. He loved the kids. He loved the game. He loved being out on the court with the kids.</p>
<p>“He was the type of person that was entirely non-assuming. By that, I mean he’d never assume anything about either team, the coaches, the fans. He came out, enjoyed the game and enjoyed the kids purely for what it was — a game,” Atencio said.</p>
<p>“We came into the association together many, many years ago and we remained good friends throughout,” he said.</p>
<p>Longtime basketball official Eddie Gutierrez, director of the Sandoval County Bureau of Elections, said he’d also joined the officials association about the time Arriola became a member.</p>
<p>“I’ve known Ray for a long, long time,” Gutierrez said. “Let me say this about him: Ray was just a great man. He was a great husband, father and friend, but Ray was very unselfish, kind, courteous, generous — he was all those things.</p>
<p>“He gave so much of his time to others, especially kids — he coached baseball and basketball for many years here in Bernalillo, refereed basketball and volleyball for the officials association as well,” Gutierrez added. “He was one of those guys who was very calm, very cool — we never saw him on the basketball court get angry or mad very easily.</p>
<p>“The guy was very professional … and we always had fun and enjoyed those times,” Gutierrez said. “He was a good friend and a good colleague and he’s going to be missed.”</p>
<p>“I remember Ray because when I was younger, Bernalillo had a men’s league and I went and, to make some extra money, I officiated,” RRHS boys basketball coach Wally Salata said. “I got to officiate with him a lot. … (He) was a great person, a humble man and it’s weird how in life the good people leave this Earth; he was a good person. I know the officials are going to miss him.”</p>
<p>Dan Barkley, one of last year’s Mel Otero honorees — Pappas was the other — said, “Ray’s loss was devastating to his family, his church, his friends and his basketball relationships.</p>
<p>“I’ve had many opportunities to work with him over the years and I will cherish those opportunities.&#160;Ray may not have been the quickest ref in our association — his calls were not always spot-on — but you knew when you walked onto the court with him, you had a partner who had your back. That’s incredibly important as, you know, there are three of us and a lot of ‘them.’&#160; I never worried about Ray when I worked with him.”</p>
<p>Partners like that might be rare, Barkley noted.</p>
<p>“Ray presented a calming, humorous influence on and off the court.&#160;He could help defuse a situation just with his wry smile and laugh; yet when it came time to buckle down, Ray took care of business. He never had a quick whistle for a ‘T’ but when he gave one, you had earned every decibel of it.&#160;He was a solid referee and a partner you could trust and rely upon,” Barkley said. “You knew that after a game with him, he’d take off to be with his family, dancing or staying home.&#160;He rarely went out after to eat and have a few cooling beverages.</p>
<p>“I deeply appreciate the Mel Otero Tournament for Ray’s recognition. As one who was honored last year, I am humbled to be included with a man such as Ray.”</p>
<p>The Rio Rancho Convention &amp; Visitors Bureau, along with Graphic Connection, which will provide tournament T-shirts to the players, are this year’s tournament’s sponsors.</p>
<p>Tony Otero said he plans to soon start seeking a title sponsor for next year’s tournament, something he thought he had this year before a company backed out.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Otero Invite pays tribute to late Reynaldo Arriola this week | false | https://abqjournal.com/318083/otero-invite-pays-tribute-to-late-reynaldo-arriola-this-week.html | 2 |
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<p>This picturesque town, which has provided a backdrop for early environmentalists, the Rockefellers and even the Budweiser Clydesdales, is fighting a battle over how to keep the charm that has become its trademark. At issue: window shutters.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Zoning regulations require that most buildings in the central district have shutters, relics that once helped protect buildings but have evolved into a symbol of the architectural beauty of rural New England.</p>
<p>"The Village of Woodstock has an international reputation as one of the finest examples of a traditional New England Village," say the village zoning regulations.</p>
<p>Many shutters adorning homes and buildings were installed decades ago, and they are deteriorating. Some property owners are questioning the community's requirement, arguing that the regulations are enforced irregularly, and that some buildings look better without shutters.</p>
<p>In 2014, the village lost a legal battle with someone who wanted to remove their shutters, so officials rewrote the rules. It won two more recent court cases supporting its shutter position.</p>
<p>One local property owner who lost a case, and is now being required to reinstall shutters on the building he owns at village's edge, said that many buildings don't have shutters and that he believes his looks better without them.</p>
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<p>"We consider ourselves good citizens and want to comply with the regulations. Our view is there's an inconsistency of application," said William Bawden, of Washington, D.C., who since 1999 has owned an antique business with his wife in a separate building behind the structure that was the subject of his case.</p>
<p>The bigger issue is about more than just shutters, said Town Planner Michael Brands. It's about anything that changes the look of a house in Woodstock's design review district — including picket fences, window air conditioners, kitchen vents and, more recently heat pumps. New technology has to be made to blend in to the architecture, and all is subject to review, he said.</p>
<p>"As time goes on, more and more communities across the country are losing their historic-ness and the look they had," he said. "Once you allow two or three buildings to be removed and replaced with something god-awful from the '70s, the entire historic ambience is gone and unlikely to return."</p>
<p>The village of Woodstock, with a population of about 1,000, was home to early environmentalists George Perkins Marsh, the author of the 1864 book "Man and Nature," and Frederick Billings. In the 1930s, Laurance Rockefeller, an heir to the Rockefeller oil fortune, married Billings' granddaughter Mary French in Woodstock.</p>
<p>In 1992, the Rockefellers helped create the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park not far away. Mansions of the rich and sometimes famous dot the hillsides outside the village.</p>
<p>Anheuser-Busch has used Woodstock and vicinity as a backdrop for its classic Christmastime commercials featuring draft horses pulling a wagon in the snow.</p>
<p>"It's the look of the community that's very important to us," Brands said.</p>
<p>Deteriorating shutters can cost $100 or more to replace, and it can be expensive even for some of Woodstock's well-to-do, Brands acknowledged.</p>
<p>"People are refusing to put them up now," he said.</p>
<p>Jennifer Henaghan, deputy research director at the Chicago-based American Planning Association, said such conflicts are common across the country.</p>
<p>"No one likes to be told what to do," she said. "It's up to the communities to ensure that their requirements are in line with what the community wants."</p> | Town in Budweiser Clydesdale ad fights to save its charm | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/30/town-in-budweiser-clydesdale-ad-fights-to-save-its-charm.html | 2016-12-30 | 0 |
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<p>Vetco customers paying for services with Bitcoin just use their smartphone or other Internet-connected device to scan a code on the clinic’s iPad. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — At Vetco, customers can’t pay with a personal check, but they can pay with virtual currency.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque veterinary-services clinic this month began accepting Bitcoin alongside more traditional options like cash, debit cards and credit cards.</p>
<p>Within hours of announcing the new policy, Vetco staff say they fielded a phone call from an excited potential customer.</p>
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<p>Vetco processed just one Bitcoin transaction in the first two weeks, but the locally owned clinic hopes the move will ultimately attract new customers and ensure the business is prepared if – or when – the Bitcoin movement takes off in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>What is Bitcoin?</p>
<p>Bitcoin is a consensus network that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money. It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen. From a user perspective, Bitcoin is pretty much like cash for the Internet.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://Bitcoin.org" type="external">Bitcoin.org</a></p>
<p>Web resources</p>
<p>“We figure Bitcoiners have pets, too,” said Lauren MacEwen, Vetco’s marketing director.</p>
<p>Bitcoin – a fledgling currency described at bitcoin.org as “the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network” – isn’t commonplace in Albuquerque yet. The volatile currency allows users to exchange funds without the involvement of a bank.</p>
<p>But even though many people are still unfamiliar with Bitcoin, a handful of local businesses are ready to accept it.</p>
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<p>A Bitcoin transaction at Vetco is a swift and simple process involving a customer’s smartphone, or other Internet-connected device, and Vetco’s iPad.</p>
<p>It’s also cost-effective, MacEwen said. Bitcoin pays a third-party payment processor to handle the transaction for a fee of about 1 percent, less than a typical credit card.</p>
<p>MacEwen sees a lot of upside, including the chance to woo new customers.</p>
<p>“We have a lot of techies, and we have a lot of progressive people here, so I think there’s going to be a pretty good-sized Bitcoin community,” she said.</p>
<p>Local interest</p>
<p>Jacob Hall said he sees growing interest around Albuquerque in Bitcoin. The 27-year-old University of New Mexico graduate student started his own money services business (abqbitcoins.com) earlier this year to buy and sell Bitcoins in New Mexico. He said he has sold about 125 Bitcoins for $40,000 since August.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque Bitcoin community is “bigger than I thought it was going into this,” said Hall, noting that his customer base defies characterization.</p>
<p>“I’ve met anywhere from kids straight out of high school to 65-70 (year-old) retired Navy veterans and all types of people in between. There’s really not one type of person that I can say is buying Bitcoins. People within the computer and IT community, they get it more. It’s easier to them, but I couldn’t put a type of person that buys Bitcoins,” Hall said.</p>
<p>“I’ve literally met almost every type of person underneath the sun: hippies, teenagers, college students, moms, dads, grandpas.”</p>
<p>Hall – who conducts business face-to-face, usually at either Frontier or Satellite Coffee – said he doesn’t make a habit of asking what his customers plan to do with their Bitcoin.</p>
<p>Bitcoin – likened to cash for the Internet – has made headlines for its use in drug dealing and other criminal enterprise, but Hall said customers who do make small talk with him often say they’re buying into Bitcoin for investment purposes.</p>
<p>Early advocate</p>
<p>The chance to make money with Bitcoin is one reason New Mexico Tea Co. owner David Edwards allows customers to pay with it.</p>
<p>His company accepted Bitcoin as far back as early 2011. Edwards has equipped his store near Old Town to accept the digital money, but he said most of those transactions happen online.</p>
<p>He currently averages about 10 Bitcoin orders per month, he said, and Bitcoin has allowed him to sell easily to customers as far away as Ukraine and New Zealand.</p>
<p>Edwards, who also uses a third-party processor, can convert those payments into U.S. dollars or keep them in Bitcoin. He opts to keep them in Bitcoin. He once sold off a chunk of Bitcoin for profit and hopes to one day do that again.</p>
<p>But it’s that investment-minded approach that also limits the amount of Bitcoin activity his business sees.</p>
<p>“The people who are buying Bitcoins right now or earning them aren’t really interested in spending them so much because the chance to double your money exists,” Edwards said.</p>
<p>Accepting – and holding onto – Bitcoin creates some accounting challenges, but Edwards said taking digital currency is worth it because of another benefit: marketing.</p>
<p>Edwards and other local business owners say they take Bitcoin in part because being early adopters gives them a certain cachet.</p>
<p>MacEwen said Vetco was recently tapped by a few national pet magazines to blog about its Bitcoin experience. The clinic has also received publicity as far away as Europe.</p>
<p>‘A tinkering hobby’</p>
<p>Sunlight Homes owner Evan Davis said the exposure that comes with being at the forefront of the Bitcoin movement is probably the only advantage of accepting it – at least right now.</p>
<p>Davis, in fact, has yet to accept a customer payment in Bitcoin, though he and his tech-minded friends have used the currency to buy and sell items among themselves.</p>
<p>“It’s very much kind of a tinkering hobby at this point, not a major part of my life,” he said. “I’m hoping it does catch on and does become a larger force, but that might be a while.”</p>
<p>While Edwards appreciates that Bitcoin simplifies e-commerce, he remains skeptical that it will become part of the average consumer’s day-to-day life since credit cards are just as simple to use when, say, buying lunch.</p>
<p>“I don’t see (how Bitcoin usage) would get them anything that paying with a credit card wouldn’t get them, unless they had a lot of Bitcoins and they wanted to be outside of the (organized) financial system,” he said.</p>
<p>“But I don’t think anyone is there, because the ecosystem as a whole doesn’t have enough depth that you could live your life just with Bitcoin.”</p>
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<p /> | Betting that Bitcoin will take off | false | https://abqjournal.com/324935/betting-that-bitcoin-will-take-off.html | 2 |
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<p>We really ought to let campaigns raise the money they need and just get rid of these super PACs.</p>
<p>GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/mitt-romney-super-pacs-restore-our-future_n_1160643.html" type="external">trying to distance himself</a> from a super PAC founded by his former aides to support his bid for the GOP nomination.</p>
<p>Romney has spoken at the same group’s fundraising events. Six months prior, his spokeswoman <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/news/la-pn-romney-fundraising-20110705" type="external">said of the group</a>: “We are pleased that independent groups will be active in fighting this entrenched power so the country can get back to work.”</p>
<p>(via <a href="http://officialssay.tumblr.com/" type="external">officialssay</a>)</p> | We really ought to let campaigns raise the money they need and just get rid of these super PACs. | false | https://ivn.us/2011/12/21/we-really-ought-to-let-campaigns-raise-the-money-they-need-and-just-get-rid-of-these-super-pacs/ | 2011-12-21 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Legislation to secure the border and enforce immigration laws will come first, Boehner said. As for whether the House could ever agree to provide legal status or a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants already in the country illegally, “Well, we’re going to find out,” Boehner said.</p>
<p>“Through all the conversations that have occurred, with my own members, with Democrat members, it’s clear that dealing with this in bite-sized chunks that members can digest and the American people can digest is the smartest way to go,” said Boehner, R-Ohio. “And so I’m much more concerned about doing it right than I am in meeting some deadline.”</p>
<p>The Ohio Republican spoke at a news conference Thursday, a day after House GOP members met to hash out their way forward on immigration.</p>
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<p>They emerged with a consensus on dealing with border security first and moving legislation in pieces, in contrast to the sweeping bill passed last month by the Senate on a bipartisan 68 to 32 vote. What to do about the millions already here illegally remained unanswered.</p>
<p>With Democrats insisting on a path to citizenship, that left it unclear whether Congress will be able to get any kind of immigration bill to President Barack Obama’s desk. The issue is one of the president’s top second-term priorities.</p>
<p>At the White House Thursday Obama met with two of the lead authors of the Senate bill, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican John McCain of Arizona.</p>
<p>Despite the uncertainty, Schumer and McCain both expressed optimism about where things stand in the House.</p>
<p>“The caucus sent out a message yesterday, which was the right message, which is, doing nothing is not an option,” Schumer said.</p>
<p>Obama took a largely behind-the-scenes role as the bill moved through the Senate and McCain suggested it could be a mistake for him to mount a more public campaign in support of immigration reform as the House takes it up.</p>
<p>“We want to be very careful that we have the president’s participation but these members, these Republican House members – many of them are in districts that they will be representing for a long time – do not feel that they have been unduly pressured by the president of the United States,” McCain said. “So I think the president is walking a careful line here, and I think it’s the appropriate one.”</p>
<p>It’s not clear whether the House will take any action this month before Congress breaks in early August for its annual month-long summer recess. That would push the issue to the fall, when fiscal and other deadlines loom that could compete with immigration on the legislative calendar. If the issue is delayed until next year, the politics could become even trickier because it’s a midterm election year when all House members will face voters.</p>
<p>Rep. Peter King of New York said that if any legislation came to the floor for a vote this month, it would deal only with border security.</p>
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<p /> | Boehner sees will to act on immigration in House | false | https://abqjournal.com/220247/gop-likely-to-take-methodical-approach-2.html | 2013-07-12 | 2 |
<p>You might expect a cabinet minister tabling legislation to have even <a href="" type="internal">the slightest clue</a> what that legislation is about but not if we are talking about labour minister MaryAnn Mihychuk.</p>
<p />
<p>On Thursday Mihychuk tabled legislation to repeal two bills passed under the Conservatives, <a href="" type="internal">Bill C-377</a> on financial transparency for unions and <a href="" type="internal">C-525</a> which required any attempt to certify or decertify a <a href="" type="internal">union</a> to be conducted by secret ballot.</p>
<p>Watch the back and forth as I quiz Mihychuk on whether she would agree to give up the secret ballot in elections she runs in. She doesn't understand, she actually shows at the 1:07 mark that she doesn't even realize C-525 is about giving the secret ballot and revoking it would take that away from union members. "There's no discussion of secret ballot or no secret ballot," she said.</p>
<p>How could the minister possibly have known that the bill she tabled took away the secret ballot other than she was bragging about repealing C-525 which the summary clearly says is about giving the secret ballot to workers in federally regulated industries?</p>
<p>Oh, I know, she could have read the summary which reads:</p>
<p>This enactment amends the Canada Labour Code, the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Public Service Labour Relations Act to provide that the certification and decertification of a bargaining agent under these Acts must be achieved by a secret ballot vote-based majority.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">JOIN TheRebel.media</a> for more fearless news and commentary you won't find anywhere else.</p>
<p>Trudeau wants to change Canada's voting system.Tell Justin we DEMAND a referendum on this issue! <a href="" type="internal">SIGN THE PETITION at LetUsVote.ca</a></p>
<p>"Don't blame me: I voted Conservative"The t-shirt that says it all -- <a href="https://tinyurl.com/votedconservative" type="external">ONLY from TheRebel.media store!</a></p> | WATCH: Brian Lilley shows Trudeau cabinet minister doesn't have a clue what's in the bill she's repealing | true | http://therebel.media/watch_brian_lilley_shows_trudeau_cabinet_minister | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>One of the criticisms you hear about organized labor is that unions are too adversarial in their dealings with management.&#160; They’re too belligerent.&#160; People tell you that instead of seeing themselves as management’s “enemy,” unions would be better served by seeing themselves as management’s partners, because, in effect, that’s what they are.&#160; Labor unions being regarded as partners?&#160; Working people being treated as equals?&#160; Wow, those are great ideas.&#160; In fact, they could be the basis of an excellent science fiction story.</p>
<p>Labor unions—organized collectives established to represent the interests of employees—haven’t always been the first choice of discriminating workers looking to better themselves economically.&#160; Historically, union membership was often pursued only after earlier and more ambitious efforts to get a larger slice of the pie had failed.</p>
<p>Once it became clear that the wage-based labor system had too many inherent defects to provide long-term security, American workers began seeking alternatives.&#160; One of <a href="" type="internal" />those alternatives was the “cooperative.”&#160; This was an arrangement where the workers independently owned and operated the business, and split all the profits among themselves.&#160; They didn’t need a union to fight management because they were management. U.S. cooperatives go all the way back to the 19th century.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous co-op in history was the Players League, established in 1890.&#160; The Players League was a group of professional baseball players who decided they didn’t need to be “owned” by someone in order to flourish.&#160; These weren’t marginal players or bench-warmers who recklessly set out on their own, believing they had little to lose.&#160; The Players League (composed of eight teams) featured some of the biggest stars of the day, including legendary Hall of Famer Mike “King” Kelly.</p>
<p>While this was a revolutionary concept to many, the players themselves saw it as basic arithmetic.&#160; In their view, all you needed to become a successful baseball team was a field to play on, teams to play against, and fans willing to pay to watch you play.&#160; What could be simpler?&#160; More to the point, what were the advantages of having a group of businessmen “own” you?&#160; Alas, the Players League lasted only one year, falling victim to major league baseball’s threats, pleas and considerable muscle.</p>
<p>Manufacturing workers took a similar tack.&#160; Because it was their sweat and toil that yielded the profits, workers decided to eliminate the middle-man, and run the operation themselves.&#160; While it was a noble and ambitious endeavor, what killed the co-ops was, among other things, a terminal case of undercapitalization.&#160; They simply didn’t have the cash to keep these enterprises going.&#160; And unlike “conventional” businesses that always had the banks to turn to, worker co-ops found it difficult to get loans or attract investors.</p>
<p>Another creative alternative to the traditional wage-based format is what is loosely called “profit-sharing.”&#160; Although profit-sharing schemes have been notoriously unreliable (e.g., profits are concealed, payments are deferred, benchmarks are manipulated, etc.), the premise itself is tantalizing.&#160; You work for a base wage, but you also share in the profits.&#160; In short, instead of simply being hired help, you are now part of the company.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the reason many of these profit-sharing arrangements “failed” was because they were too successful.&#160; It’s true.&#160; Some of these profit-sharing ventures turned out to be wildly lucrative.&#160; And once management saw how much money their employees (both salaried and hourly) were raking in under these profit-sharing plans, they immediately dismantled them.</p>
<p>Their thinking ran along these lines:&#160; Why on earth are we giving people 6-and 7-percent annual raises when we know for a fact (by reviewing their earnings history) that they’re more than willing to accept 3-percent raises?&#160; Why would we do that?&#160; To management, the answer was simple.&#160; You don’t do it.&#160; Instead, you go back to the standard, wage-based format where workers are treated as “overhead,” and you take your chances at the bargaining table.</p>
<p>This is why the labor-management dynamic is adversarial.&#160; The acquisitive impulse is biological.&#160; Labor has to fight for every scrap because management is biologically hard-wired to resist any form of sharing.&#160; No matter how profitable a business is, management cannot bring itself to part with one more nickel than is absolutely necessary, and therein lies the crux of the relationship.</p>
<p>Labor unions aren’t the solution to everything.&#160; But given the unfortunate track record of worker co-ops and profit-sharing schemes—coupled with management’s detestation of sharing the wealth—unions (with roughly 14.8 million members) are clearly the only thing keeping the American working class afloat.</p>
<p>DAVID MACARAY, an LA playwright and author (“It’s Never Been Easy:&#160; Essays on Modern Labor”), was a former union rep. &#160; He is a contributor to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a <a href="" type="internal">Kindle edition</a>. He can be reached at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | They Never Intended to Share It | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/05/09/they-never-intended-to-share-it/ | 2012-05-09 | 4 |
<p>With a unanimous vote, workers at the Republic Windows &amp; Doors plant in Chicago ended their six-day factory occupation late on December 10 after Bank of America and other lenders agreed to fund about $2 million in severance and vacation pay as well as health insurance.</p>
<p>“Everybody feels great,” said a tired but beaming Armando Robles, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110.</p>
<p>Melvin Maclin, the local’s vice president, agreed. “I feel wonderful,” he said. “I feel validated as a human being. Everybody is so overjoyed. This is significant because it shows workers everywhere that we do have a voice in this economy. Because we’re the backbone of this country. It’s not the CEOs. It’s the working people.”</p>
<p>Pointing, he continued, “See that sign up there? Without us, it would just say ‘Republic,’ because we make the windows and doors. This shows that you can fight–and that you have to fight.”</p>
<p>The settlement was a resounding victory for union members who were told a little more than a week earlier that the factory would be closed in less than three day’s time–and that, contrary to federal law, they would get no severance pay.</p>
<p>So to pressure the company to make good on what it owed them, the workers voted to stay put after the plant ceased production on December 5.</p>
<p>By deciding to occupy their factory–a tactic used by labor in the 1930s, but virtually unknown in this country since–the Republic workers sparked a solidarity movement that forced one of the biggest banks in the U.S. to pay two months of wages and health care, even though the bank had no legal obligation to do so.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>WHAT BEGAN as a resolute act of some 250 workers quickly became a national symbol of working-class resistance in a crisis-bound economy. Hundreds upon hundreds of union members and officials–not only from Chicago, but around the Midwest–came to the Republic factory to express their solidarity and bring donations of food and badly needed funds.</p>
<p>But support for the Republic struggle went beyond the ranks of organized labor. The fightback crystallized mass anger about the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Even though Bank of America–Republic’s main creditor–is in line receive $25 billion in taxpayer money, the bank refused to finance the 60 days’ pay due to workers under the WARN Act if a plant closes without the two-month notice required under the law.</p>
<p>Democratic politicians, from President-elect Barack Obama down to Chicago aldermen, felt the pressure to declare their support for the struggle.</p>
<p>Press coverage was affected as well. For once, the media not only highlighted the issues in a labor struggle, but also used its resources to investigate the employer. The Chicago Tribune reported that Republic’s main owner, Rich Gillman, was involved in the purchase of a nonunion window factory in Iowa to move to. Journalists also uncovered evidence that Bank of America refused repeated requests to extend more credit to Republic, despite its infusion of bailout money.</p>
<p>Thus, when UE decided to make Bank of America the target of a December 10 rally, there was a ready response–about 1,000 people turned out on short notice.</p>
<p>“Since we’re down here in the financial district, let’s do a little mathematics,” said Rev. Gregory Livingston of Rainbow/PUSH. “Bank of America got $25 billion. Citibank got $25 billion. Republic workers got how much? Zero.</p>
<p>“That’s why we’re here in the financial district. It’s where the money is. The people work, and guess whose money is in these banks? Guess whose money is in the market? Guess whose money is in their pockets? It’s our money.”</p>
<p>But what was noteworthy about the picket wasn’t the anger against the banks, but a palpable sense of workers’ power. Members of a dozen different unions were on hand, as were student groups, socialists and community groups, all inspired by the Republic workers’ bold stand.</p>
<p>Larry Spivack, regional director of AFSCME Council 31, summed up the mood in his speech. “Look around you,” he told the crowd, naming the main financial institutions nearby. “Who created all their wealth?” he asked–and was answered by the chant, “We did!” “Who has the power?” “We do!”</p>
<p>Spivack continued: “This is a beginning, like when the Haymarket struggle took place in 1886,” a reference to the Chicago martyrs in the struggle for the eight-hour workday. He concluded with a shout, “Power to the workers!”</p>
<p>A few hours later, back at the Republic plant, after workers heard the terms of the agreement and voted, Bob Kingsley, the national director of organization for UE, made a similar point in assessing the victory:</p>
<p>The significance of this struggle for the labor movement is that at a time when millions of American workers are facing greater and greater economic turmoil, and with it more and more instances of unfairness, there needed to be a clear symbol of resistance.</p>
<p>What the workers at Republic are is the face of that resistance. They personify the challenge that the working class faces in today’s economy, but they also symbolize the hope that if we, as workers, stick together, if we fight together, and if we’re willing to push the limits, we can achieve incredible things. And their victory comes at a time when the labor movement needs it.</p>
<p>LEE SUSTAR writes for the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org" type="external">Socialist Worker.</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Victory at Republic! | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/12/11/victory-at-republic/ | 2008-12-11 | 4 |
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